HISTORIEBLOGGEN: Historiebloggen: Sun Cross

A sun cross (also solar cross, wheel cross) is the term for a symbol consisting of an equilateral cross inside a circle when considered as a solar symbol.

The design is frequently found in the symbolism of prehistoric cultures, particularly during the Neolithic to Bronze Age periods of European prehistory. The symbol's ubiquity and apparent importance in prehistoric religion have given rise to its interpretation as a solar symbol, whence the modern English term "sun cross" (a calque of German Sonnenkreuz).

The symbol can be depicted in Unicode as U+2295 (⊕ globe with equator and a meridian). The same symbol is in use as a modern astronomical symbol representing the Earth rather than the Sun.

Interpretation as solar symbol

The interpretation of the simple equilateral cross as a solar symbol in Bronze Age religion was widespread in 19th-century scholarship. The cross-in-a-circle was interpreted as a solar symbol derived from the interpretation of the disc of the Sun as the wheel of the chariot of the Sun god. Wieseler (1881) postulated an (unattested) Gothic rune hvel ("wheel") representing the solar deity by the "wheel" symbol of a cross-in-a-circle, reflected by the Gothic letter hwair.

The English term "Sun-Cross", on the other hand, is comparatively recent, apparently loaned from German Sonnenkreuz and used in the 1955 translation of Rudolf Koch's Book of Signs ("The Sun-Cross or Cross of Wotan", p. 94).

The German term Sonnenkreuz was used in 19th-century scholarly literature of any cross symbol interpreted as a solar symbol, an equilateral cross either with or without a circle, or an oblique cross (Saint Andrew's cross). Sonnenkreuz was used of the flag design of the Paneuropean Union in the 1920s. In the 1930s, a version of the symbol with broken arms (resembling a swastika) was popular as a link between Christianity and Germanic paganism in the völkisch German Faith Movement.

Archaeological record

Bronze Age

In the prehistoric religion of Bronze Age Europe, crosses in circles appear frequently on artifacts identified as cult items, for example the "miniature standard" with an amber inlay that shows a cross shape when held against the light, dating to the Nordic Bronze Age, held at the National Museum of Denmark, Copenhagen. The Bronze Age symbol has also been connected with the spoked chariot wheel, which at the time was four-spoked (compare the Linear B ideogram 243 "wheel" 𐃏). In the context of a culture that celebrated the Sun chariot, it may thus have had a "solar" connotation (c.f. the Trundholm sun chariot).

Iron Age

The wheel appears as a solar motif in Celtic mythology, presumably associated with Taranis, e.g. on the Gundestrup cauldron, and at an altar to the sun god at Lypiatt, Gloucestershire. The symbol appears also on the Snoldelev stone.

Relaterad symbols:

Celtic Cross
Taranis (wheel-god)

SunCross/WheelCross in other languages:

Sólarkross (Íslenska)
Solkors (Svenska)
Solkorset (Norsk bokmål)
Solkross (Norsk nynorsk)
Saulės kryžius (Lietuvių)
Sluneční kříž (Čeština)
Słoneczny krzyż (Polski)
Sonjachnyj krest (Ukrajinska)
Creu solar (Català)
Cruz solar (Español)
Croce solare (Italiano)
Hjulkors (Dansk)
Radkreuz (Deutsch)
Rõngasrist (Eesti)
Güneş haçı (Türkçe)
Aurinkopyörä (Suomi)
太陽十字 (日本語)
태양 십자 (한국어)

Reference litterature:

Smith, D. J.: The Pagan Cross, ISBN 978-1-4141-0426-3
Hislop, Alexander: The Two Babylons, kapitola V, část VI.
Martin Persson Nilsson, The Minoan-Mycenaean Religion and Its Survival in Greek Religion, Biblo & Tannen Publishers, 1950, p. 421. "there is a wide-spread opinion that the equal-limbed cross is another symbol of the sun. It was, for example, a favourite theory of the late Professor Montelius, and has been embraced by many other archaeologists; its wide acceptance being due to an interest in finding a pre-Christian origin of the symbol of Christianity. The disc of the sun was regarded as a wheel; hence the myth that the sun-god drives in a chariot across the heavens"
Karl Georg Wieseler (1813–1883), Untersuchungen Zur Geschichte Und Religion Der Alten Germanen in Asien Und Europa, 1881, p. 157. The suggestion of a specifically Gothic variant of the runic alphabet partially preserved in the Gothic alphabet is due to Jacob Grimm's Deutsche Mythologie (1835).
Richard Nicolaus Graf von Coudenhove-Kalergi, Kampf um Paneuropa aus dem 1. Jahrgang von Paneuropa, Paneuropa Verlag, 1925, p. 36.
e.g. Karl Hans Strobl, Die Runen und das Marterholz, Zwinger-Verlag, 1936, p. 138; Waldemar Müller-Eberhart, Kopf und herz des Weltkrieges: General Ludendorffs Wertung als Deutscher, Georg Kummer, 1935 p. 244.
entry at the Nebra sky disk exhibition site (landesmuseum-fuer-vorgeschichte-halle.de)
Snoldevel stone's photograph depicted in arild-hauge.com.
Flemming Kaul: Der Mythos von der Reise der Sonne. Darstellungen auf Bronzegegenständen der späten Bronzezeit. In: Gold und Kult der Bronzezeit. (Ausstellungskatalog). Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nürnberg 2003. ISBN 3-926982-95-0
Peter Vilhelm Glob: Helleristninger i Danmark (= Jysk Arkæologisk Selskabs skrifter. Bd. 7). Jysk Arkæologisk Selskab, Højbjerg 1969. ISSN 70107-2854
Kostveit, Østmoe Åsta: Kors i kake, skurd i tre. Tegn og symboler i folkekulturen. Landbruksforlaget 1997. ISBN 82-529-2231-7
Hans Cappelen og Knut Johannessen (red.): Norske kommunevåpen, Oslo 1987, side 204
Hans Cappelen: «Bumerker i Norge – en oversikt» i Anders Bjønnes m.fl. (red.): Segltegninger fra hyllingene i Norge 1591 og 1610, Norsk Slektshistorisk Forening, Oslo 2010, side 60
Liungman, C. G. (1974): Symboler, Sverige. Side 197
Østmoe, Åsta Kostveit (1997): Kors i kake, skurd i tre. Tegn og symboler i folkekulturen. Oslo. 3. oppl. 2003. Side 53
Walker, Barbara G. (1988): The Woman’s Dictionary of Symbols and Sacred Objects. New York. Side 7.
Dahlby, Frithiof: De heliga technens hemlighet. Stockholm 1963. Side 52
Østmoe, Åsta Kostveit: Kors i kake, skurd i tre. Side 54
Terje Emberland (2003). 'Religion og rase'. Oslo: Humanist Forlag AS. ISBN 82-90425-53-8.
Oddvar K. Høidal (1988). 'Quisling: En studie i landssvik' (Revidert utgave 2002 utg.). Oslo: Orion. s. 61. ISBN 82-458-0528-9. [[Hans S. Jacobsen] mente kristendommen hadde brakt noe «uekte og unaturlig inn i vårt folks liv». Av den grunn kritiserte han valget av Olavskorset som partiemblem og hevdet at partisymbolet var unordisk.]
Oddvar K. Høidal (1988). 'Quisling: En studie i landssvik' (Revidert utgave 2002 utg.). Oslo: Orion. s. 153. ISBN 82-458-0528-9. [[Quisling] følte han hadde en oppgave i livet når han identifiserte seg med fordums helter, først og fremst Olav den hellige. Nasjonal Samling benyttet derfor mer historisk symbolikk enn noe annet parti. Emblemet var Olavskorset, Hirden hadde fått navn etter vikinghøvdingenes livgarde, og partiets hilsen var det gammelnordiske «heil og sæl»]
NorgesLexi, oppslagsord «Solkors»
Symbol på yr.no

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