Norse & Germanic
Mjölnir
Mjölnir
Smashes anything, and returns to its owner's hand when thrown.
WeaponFirst recorded 1220
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Photograph: A French close helmet made around 1850 in mid-sixteenth-century style. The steel covering the whole face is densely embossed with scrollwork.
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2,143 × 3,000 PX2143×3000
ArchiveNorse & Germanic · Armor
Tarnhelm
Tarnhelm
Its wearer can vanish, change into anything or travel far in an instant.
- Owner
- The dwarf Alberich, later Siegfried
- Maker
- The dwarf Mime
- First record
- Wagner, Das Rheingold1869
- Gallery
- Norse & Germanic
Notes on the photograph 3
Story
In Wagner's Das Rheingold, the dwarf Alberich makes a ring from the gold of the Rhine and forces his brother Mime to forge a magic helmet, the Tarnhelm. Whoever wears it can vanish or turn into any shape.
Wotan, king of the gods, and Loge trick Alberich. When he boastfully changes into a great serpent and then a toad, they seize the toad and take the helmet, ring and gold.
Wagner drew this helmet from the invisibility cloak, or Tarnkappe, worn by Siegfried in the medieval German epic the Nibelungenlied. Siegfried later wins the helmet by killing the dragon Fafner.
The object in the photo
The photograph shows Close Helmet(French, ca. 1850 in the style of the mid-16th century), a real museum object that evokes the legendary artifact.
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