Maeshowe Dragon best Vintage Silver Brooch, the Orkney dragon, brooch, sterling silver, runes, vikings, carvings, brooch, pin, workign clasp

Vintage Silver Brooch

The Maeshowe Dragon

This is a beautiful brooch from the Orkney Isles

4 cm x 3.5 cm

Marked Sterling Silver
Working clasp


Maeshowe is a 5,000 year old chambered tomb on the mainland of the Orkney Islands, off the north coast of Scotland.

The motif now known as the Maeshowe Dragon, carved into the wall of the tomb, is one of the most instantly recognisable symbols of Orkney around best today.

Thought to have been carved in the 12th century, by one of the Norsemen who broke into Maeshowe - or Orkahaugr, as it was known to them - the dragon was cut into the stone wall at the same time as the mound-breakers inscribed the runes that cover the interior of the prehistoric cairn.

The carving was made by Norse crusaders, suggesting that it is a Christian motif in which the dragon represents paganism being slain by the sword of Christian belief.

This is certainly what it appears to represent, though some have claimed that the "sword" is actually an extension of the creature's tail.