COPENHAGEN, DENMARK—The Viking Herald reports that two rare English “Lamb of God” coins were recently unearthed in Jutland. During the eleventh century, English monarchs undertook various initiatives to try to ward off seemingly unending Viking attacks. Around 1009, King Æthelred the Unready even minted unusual coins in the hope of obtaining divine protection. The objects feature a lamb and a cross on one side—a Christian motif alluding to Christ’s sacrifice—and a dove on the other, a symbol of the Holy Spirit. Not only did these coins fail in their objective, they became somewhat coveted by Viking raiders, who collected them and occasionally took them back to Scandinavia. Around two dozen have been found across the region. Most were pierced with holes, suggesting that the Vikings actually wore them around their necks as pendants. “It gave me goose bumps, because these coins are extremely rare, and they convey a special and also paradoxical part of history,” said Gitte Tarnow Ingvardson, curator at the National Museum of Denmark. “They were made to obtain protection against the Vikings but ended up instead as jewelry or amulets worn by Vikings. That is almost tragicomical.” To read about artifacts found in medieval burials in central Norway, go to "Viking Mollusk Mask."
