Snake-Witch stone of Gotland
The Snake-Witch stone of Gotland, Sweden
One of the most enigmatic of the many 1st-millennium rune-stones scattered across Scandinavia is the so-called Snake-Witch stone of Gotland; a large island off the eastern coast of Sweden. It is one of the westernmost depictions of a snake goddess; or a priestess involved in a ritual involving snakes.
It has drawn obvious comparisons with the Snake Goddesses of Crete – easily explained by Varangian mercenaries and traders bringing hints of Greek mythology back with them on their return travels northwards - but which in turn evokes hints of the snake charmers of India.
The Snake Goddess of Crete, dated to about 1600BC
It also very obviously evokes and reinforces the image of the Cerunnos figure depicted on the Gundestrup cauldron; which as has been previously documented here, is almost a carbon copy of a figure known from the ancient Indus Valley civilization.
