The Fabled Viking Sunstone*

(also known as Viking Compass)

Essay Published 2008



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Note: after a run of nearly 10 years, most of the original Fabled Viking Sunstone website has been taken down for house-cleaning and to finally update its old HTML 4 handcoded pages to modern device-friendly webpages. Have patience and it will all be back!



Meanwhile, parts have this story have been published in hardcopy and are available as PDFs online through the publisher's websites (see links below); several more sections of the story are going to print soon, so stay tuned! The story of the sunstones and their use by the Vikings is also covered in my presentation "The Fabled Viking Sunstone" which is given throughout the year (for more information, see the author's Current Presentation Offerings)







AGA Conference, Tucson, Arizona

[12/26/15: For a update to the following 2008 essay "The Fabled Viking Sunstone," as well as an in-depth look at the optical properties of calcite which makes it suitable as the Viking Sunstone, see Skalwold, E.A. and W.A. Bassett. (2015) Double Trouble: Navigating Birefringence. Chantilly, VA: Mineralogical Society of America. 20 pages. ISBN 978-0-939950-02-7 (now available from the MSA as premium quality hardcopy booklets here or as PDFs here).



See also an in-depth look at the optical properties of iolite and pleochroism which make it suitable as the Viking Sunstone as well: Skalwold, E.A. and W.A. Bassett. (2016) Blue minerals: exploring cause & effect. Rocks & Minerals, Vol.91, No.1, pages 61-75 (abstract).]