In this paper, the implications of the dust veil in 536-37 AD at the site Helgö in Lake Mälaren are investigated. One dramatic change at Helgö was the apparent abandonment around 530 of the Migration Period casting of bronze artefacts in Building group 3. A vast accumulation of casting moulds and crucibles was found here. The magnitude makes this context unique in northern Europe. Usually, the very fine-grained quarts sand used for the mould and crucibles was reused, and thus it would not accumulate. Another incident is that the open-air offering place, known to be in use already from the Later Roman Iron Age is abandoned. From this point, the cultic events are performed indoors in a large hall. Further, from this period onwards, the cemeteries on the site are commenced, indicating that the site now becomes permanently inhabited. Finally, although previously not known as a grave gift, bread is regularly found in graves.

This article discusses the jewellery worn by the goddess Freyja, the Brisingamen. The author has previously claimed that brising (“glowing”) is a heiti for “garnet”, in Latin called carbunculus and in Greek ἄνθραξ. The word men has been compared by other authors to the Old German word menni meaning a collar for a dog. However, its origin may have been the Menet (alternatively Menat or Menit) – originally the necklace of the cow god Hathor which in the Greco-Roman time was taken over by the fertility goddess Isis. The Menet necklace was mostly used in ceremonies together with the musical instrument sistrum, when the rattling of the Menet was an important element. The late Roma like bracteates or coin imitations and garnet jewellery were important elements, too. Owing to its many metal pendants the Brisingamen could have produced a sound, though in this case not rattling but rather a sound more like jingle bells. This paper presents several precious items of jewellery representing Freyja’s Brisingamen from the Viking period, the most exquisite examples being the necklaces from Hoen in Norway and Eketorp in Sweden