Professor Höfig commenced with asking the hard question: “How could it be that symbols derived from the Viking Age and the Middle Ages are nowadays almost automatically understood as references to racist ideologies in the United States?” She then displayed visuals of what white nationalists wear in their demonstrations. For example, the odal rune — which was used as a badge of honor by the SS during World War II and has become an identifying emblem for National Socialists in the U.S. — was recognized by some in the shape of a stage used at the 2021 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). The CPAC organizers were extremely slow in responding to allegations that they used the symbol despite knowing the racist connotations associated with it, and no sign of remorse or an expression of apology were annunciated.
Furthermore, it was quite fascinating seeing Professor Höfig's analysis of the notorious QAnon man, Jake Angeli, who illegally entered the Capitol building on the 6th day of 2021. Höfig, who has expertise in the material culture of the Viking Age, focused on the Scandinavian symbols tattooed on Angeli's body. These included a Valknutr symbol, known from early medieval art to signify the willingness of a warrior to be sacrificed in battle, the World-Tree, Yggdrasill, and Thor’s hammer, which per se is not a symbol carrying any political meaning, but in combination with Angeli's other tattoos, such as one depicting Trump’s border wall, can be understood as a symbol of white power. However, as Höfig pointed out, the symbols themselves do not originally carry such connotations; rather, they have been usurped by white nationalists. So, we must interrogate why these particular symbols have been co-opted.
There is a modicum of iconic symbolism associated with political nostalgia. To many, Viking symbols signify strong men who contested and championed forms of expansions and exerted influence over various territories. The essentialist image of a Viking person is a white, (hyper)masculine colonist. Within such imagery, there lies an amalgamation of the ethos of nostalgia: pure, white, strong, influencing territories, and exclusive to that particular group and culture; does not recognize diversity nor celebrates it. This sentiment is transnational, where on one continent we saw “Make America Great Again” and “Jews will not replace us” (in Charlottesville 2017) and on the other, we observed the exponential rise and legitimization of right-wing exclusionary politics across Europe, because of the fear of the ‘other’. The implication of such sentiment is the formation and opening of various branches across the U.S. of new religious movements, such as the Asatru Folk Assembly, or political networks such as the so-called Wotan Network, where the latter co-funded a mission by the identitarian group Defend Europe to intercept migrants leaving from Libya’s shores to prevent them from reaching Europe. So, the usage of Medieval Scandinavian and Viking Age symbols insinuates a form of political nostalgia. People want to return a particular past where social relations were considered as "pure" and "basic", in the heterosexual and monoracial sense. This extends to forms of radical environmentalism that is not necessarily predicated on environmental justice, but on a longing for a past away from materialism and the diversity often associated with urbanity – it is a return to a lifestyle of isolation from variegation.
When right wing entities, such as the National Policy Institute chaired by Richard Spencer and their like, are being designated hate groups, some abominable factions resorted to creating "off the radar" autonomous zones like the ones seen on a plot of land in Virginia, run by Wolves of Vinland. These communal buildings house members where “manliness and honor matter again.” Höfig showed us some of the pictures that one of their (former) members had uploaded on Instagram. Men's Rights activist and former "Wolves" member Jack Donovan and Wolves of Vinland co-founder Paul Waggener provide webinars and ebooks explaining Medieval symbols and how to use ancient gear to survive in their “pure” and “basic” lifestyle for “likes” and “shares,” which they then capitalize on for funding white nationalist causes. Despite the perfunctory social exclusion and legal designation of these factions as being hate groups, they still have outlets on social media and earn money from viewers. In other words, these groups have found alternatives to centerstage politics of racist demonstrations and white nationalist rallies. They manage to peripherally exist and virtually disseminate their message by means of techno-politics that embraces the infamous "influencer" culture to speak about their identity and lived experience.
In short, time and time again, nostalgia has proven to be a successful political tool to persuade the demos of the feasible return to the past if they elected and followed particular political leadership — be it in the election of Biden for those who were nostalgic about Obama, of Trump for those who were nostalgic about the so-called greatness America had, or of racist political figures across Europe (Macron, Orbán, Le Pen, Erdogan) for those who were nostalgic about the "better" old days. It is then understandable why white nationalists employ Vikings Age and Medieval Norse symbols.
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