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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Nap, post: 2718485, member: 73099&quot;]Orfew and John, thanks for the commentary about the symbols.</p><p><br /></p><p>While the idea of the Yggdrasil is appealing just because it&#039;s a cool story, it&#039;s probably not true.&nbsp; Megan Gooch took up this theory actually, her thesis is a long read but the relevant parts can be found:</p><p><br /></p><p><a href="http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/3495/1/MGooch_Money_%26_Power_in_Viking_Kingdom_of_York_2012.pdf?DDD17+" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/3495/1/MGooch_Money_%26_Power_in_Viking_Kingdom_of_York_2012.pdf?DDD17+" rel="nofollow">http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/3495/1/MGooch_Money_&amp;_Power_in_Viking_Kingdom_of_York_2012.pdf?DDD17+</a></p><p>(Page 66)</p><p><br /></p><p>I agree that it seems unlikely that a specific symbol of past religious worship be so prominent on an overtly Christian coin.&nbsp; Rather it is probably a cultural symbol.</p><p><br /></p><p>However, the latter appearance of the hammer (of Thor?) flies in the face of this consideration.&nbsp; Keep in mind that the hammer did not appear on this first round of St. Peter coins, which otherwise have no non-Christian symbols</p><p><br /></p><p>Gooch talks about the sword as well (page 82), where she weighs it being the sword of St. Peter vs the sword of Carlus.&nbsp; She favors Carlus, but St. Peter&#039;s sword makes sense too, considering it does say &quot;St. Peter&quot; and not &quot;Carlus&quot; on the coin.</p><p><br /></p><p>However, two things to consider-</p><p>1) The sword-type St. Peter coins were later than the swordless ones.&nbsp; The symbols are different.&nbsp; The key is gone, and a hammer appears which is probably the hammer of Thor.&nbsp; So if anything, the symbols appear more Viking than Christian as time passed.</p><p>2) Swords appear on Viking coins of Sihtric Caoch, St. Martin of Lincoln (who has his own &#039;sword&#039; story), an anonymous coinage probably during Sihtric&#039;s time, and later of Eric Bloodaxe.&nbsp; The sword has to have more than just a religious meaning.&nbsp; It could just be a symbol of might or military prowess, or it could represent the Hiberno-Norse dynasty.&nbsp; If the latter, then the connection to the sword of Carlus seems more plausible, since it seems to be part of the Hiberno-Norse kings&#039; symbols.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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