The Eyrarland Statue is a bronze statue of a seated figure (6.7 cm[1][2]) from about AD 1000 that was recovered at the Eyrarland farm in the area of Akureyri, Iceland. The object is a featured item at the National Museum of Iceland. The statue may depict the Norse god Thor and/or may be a gaming-piece.
The statue was unearthed in 1815 or 1816 on one of two farms called Eyrarland in the vicinity of Akureyri.[2][3][4]
If the object is correctly identified as Thor, Thor is here holding his hammer Mjöllnir, sculpted in the typically Icelandic cross-like shape. It has been suggested that the statue is related to a scene from the Poetic Edda poem Þrymskviða where Thor recovers his hammer while seated by grasping it with both hands during the wedding ceremony.[5] Another suggestion comes from the archeologist Kristján Eldjárn, who has written that it could be the central piece from a set of hnefatafl, based on its similarities to a smaller whalebone figure discovered in Baldursheimur together with black and white gaming pieces and a die.[2]
