Skybridge Hand Made Silver Tone Bifrost Pendant with a Rope Twist Border & Heavy Curb Chain | Norse Necklace Gift | RK-1664

The Skybridge is a hand made bifrost pendant, a round disc in a bright silver tone finish with a raised design of the burning bridge arching up out of the lower left and running into a small gated tower at the top right. The bridge is built from parallel raised bands so it reads as a road with a surface rather than as a flat arc, and the field behind it is stippled matt so the polished bands stand away from it. A rope twist border runs around the rim. It hangs from a fixed bale on a heavy curb chain with a lobster clasp.

The bridge in the myth is a specific piece of engineering, not a vague rainbow. Snorri Sturluson describes it in Gylfaginning as the finest structure ever built, made of three colours, and he has Gangleri object that a bridge of that kind can hardly be strong. The answer he gets is that the red band in it is burning fire, and that the fire is there precisely so that the frost giants and mountain giants cannot walk up it into Asgard. Heimdall keeps watch at the far end from his hall Himinbjorg, which means heaven cliffs. And Snorri is blunt about how it ends. When the sons of Muspell ride out at Ragnarok the bridge breaks under them. This pendant is made and finished in the Czech Republic. Look for it with the Norse pendants, and take in the Viking rings and bracelets on the way past.

Specifications

Why the bridge is built as bands

The detail most people miss on this piece is that the bridge is not one raised arc. It is four separate raised bands that run in parallel and converge slightly as they climb, and the lowest end is cut square across so you can see the layers stacked like the courses of a road. That is a deliberate choice about perspective. A single arc would read as a rainbow, which is the modern shorthand. Bands read as a built causeway, which is what the Norse sources actually describe, a bridge that is walked and ridden across and that can carry weight until the day it cannot.

The little structure at the top is the gate, and it sits above the end of the bridge rather than at the same level, which is another quiet piece of storytelling. You are looking at the approach from below, from the human side, at the point where the road runs out and the gate begins. The tower is the smallest element on the disc and it is the one that gives the whole design its direction.

The metal and the finish

We will describe this honestly. It is a solid metal pendant with a bright silver tone finish, hand polished on the raised work and stippled in the recessed field so the design reads at arm length. It is not solid sterling silver, it carries no hallmark, and we do not sell it as a precious metal piece. What that buys you is a pendant that survives being worn under a shirt every day without going soft, without needing polishing every fortnight, and at a fraction of the price of the same design in silver.

The chain is a heavy curb link with a soldered ring at the bale end and a lobster clasp at the other. Curb links are flattened and twisted so they lie flat against the chest instead of rolling, which is why this style is used for a pendant with any real weight to it. The clasp is a lobster rather than a spring ring because a spring ring on a chain this weight will eventually fail open with the pendant pulling on it.

Engraving, runes and your own design

Use the rune converter on this page to turn a name, a date or a short phrase into Elder Futhark and we will cut it into the steel, the leather or the wood. If you would rather have a Viking pattern than a rune line, choose your own design in the engraving option above the add to cart button and tell us where it goes. Where a piece already carries an engraved design, your chosen engraving replaces it rather than sitting alongside it. On the Skybridge the front carries the Bifrost design, so the natural place for your runes is the flat back of the disc, where about twenty characters fit in two lines. See the engraving page.

Fit and sizing

The chain is 22 inches, which is the length that suits a pendant of this diameter on most adults. At 22 inches the disc sits just below the collarbones and clears the top of a crew neck shirt, which is where a piece this size looks right. Shorter chains push a 35 mm disc up against the throat where it looks crowded and catches on collars.

If you want it to sit under a shirt against the skin, that is what the curb link is good at, because flat links do not dig in or twist. If you prefer it worn shorter, a 20 inch chain will bring it up about an inch, and you can tell us at checkout. Anyone with a neck measurement over 18 inches should go up to 24 rather than down. The pendant is 1.9 ounces with the chain, which is noticeable but is not the sort of weight that pulls on the neck over a day.

Care

Take it off before swimming, especially in chlorinated pools and salt water, and before a hot tub, since pool chemicals attack a plated or toned finish faster than anything else in ordinary life. Take it off before you sleep, because the biggest cause of broken chains is a link caught in bedding overnight. Clean it in warm water with a drop of washing up liquid and a soft toothbrush, working the bristles into the stippled field where skin oil collects and dulls the contrast, then rinse and dry it fully. Do not use silver dip or an abrasive polishing compound, since both cut the matt stipple and leave the design flat. Store it hanging or laid flat rather than knotted in a drawer.

Made in the Czech Republic

This piece is made by hand in the Czech Republic, in a workshop that still works the old way. The steel is forged, ground, heat treated and finished by smiths who learned the trade from the people before them, and the wood, horn and leather are cut and fitted by hand rather than pressed out on a line. That is also why no two pieces come out exactly the same.

Ransack Viking is a United States company. We import these pieces ourselves, check every one when it lands and ship from our warehouse in Memphis, Tennessee. Engraving is done here in the United States after the piece arrives, so your runes or your own design go on before it leaves for you.

A note on handmade variation

This pendant is hand made, not machine made or bulk produced, so what arrives will not be a pixel for pixel copy of the photograph. The stippling in the field is worked by hand, so its texture and density change slightly from disc to disc and the contrast against the polished bridge will read a little differently. The rope twist border will start and close at a different point on the rim. The diameter, the design, the chain and the fittings are the same every time. The character is not. You can carry on with the Norse gods, or look at what runestones were actually for while you are there.

Frequently asked questions

Is the chain included

Yes. The 22 inch heavy curb chain and the lobster clasp come with the pendant at this price.

Is this sterling silver

No. It is a solid metal pendant with a bright silver tone finish and it is not hallmarked. We do not describe it as sterling.

Will it tarnish

It does not blacken the way sterling does. It dulls with skin oil and soap, and warm water with a soft brush restores it.

What is the building at the top of the bridge

The gate at the Asgard end, where Heimdall keeps watch from his hall Himinbjorg. The bridge climbs towards it from the human side.

Can I have something engraved on the back

Yes. The back is flat and takes about twenty characters over two lines, in runes or in plain lettering.

How long does it take to arrive

One to two weeks of hand finishing, then free shipping inside the United States.

What is in the box

• Skybridge bifrost pendant with a raised bridge and gate on a stippled field
• Rope twist border around the rim
• Heavy 22 inch curb chain with a lobster clasp
• Care card for a silver tone finish
• Lifetime warranty against defects, no receipt needed
• Made and finished in the Czech Republic

Explore the range

See the other Norse pendants, the Mjolnir pendants, the wedding and groomsmen gifts, and the guides for what each Norse symbol means.