ABSTRACT

Since classical times, the sun has been seen as particularly closely associated with the North and northerners, as evidenced, for example, by Greek myths concerning Hyperborea. In the ancient world, the supposed special relationship between the sun and northerners was imaginary and did not refer to any specific geographical region. At the same time, however, amber – which since the Bronze Age had reached the Mediterranean from the shores of the Baltic Sea – was associated with the North and the sun in some classical accounts, even viewed as ‘coagulated’ light of the setting sun. The same notion of northerners having a special relationship with the sun has surfaced also later, in the early modern and modern period. The importance of the sun is expressed in the festivities of the midnight sun during the summer solstice, and in Sámi mythology, the sun (Beaivi) is indeed a central divinity and some myths maintain that the Sámi are descendants of the sun-god. Archaeologically, solar imagery is particularly prominently present in Bronze Age Scandinavian iconography, such as the decoration of bronze razors and rock art.

Like the sun, fire is crucial to survival in the North, which explains the symbolic and ritual dimensions of the hearth in both prehistoric and historical times. The hearth connects the different dimensions of reality, as expressed by the association of the hearth with the world-tree or pillar that supports the cosmos. The earthly fire is thus a cousin to the heavenly fire of the sun. The emergence of solar imagery in the latter part of the Bronze Age may thus be linked to the increased significance of pyrotechnology and fire-induced transformations, related to the rise of metallurgy and the introduction of cremation burials in Scandinavia. Transformation is indeed a key theme related to the sun and fire: it readily resonates with northern ideas of transformation, that is, shamanic cosmologies and the associated transformations.