Dan Dennett has an example somewhere where he imagines that someone discovers the score of a hitherto lost Bach cantata. But by an unfortunate co-incidence, the first few notes are identical to “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” thus preventing us from ever having the experience eighteenth-century Leipzigers had of the music. Pauline and I have an interest in Art Nouveau, and, surfing ebay to see what there was for sale, she stumbled on “an exquisite brooch”:http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2696908359&category=58553 designed by Charles Horner of Chester in 1895 or 6. From the description:
bq. The brooch is decorated with a flyfot symbol. In Western traditions, the flyfots arms each represent one of the four elements, and the extention symbolizes that element in motion; thus representing life and movement. It was also used by the Maya, Navajo, Jains and Buddhists. In Scandinavia mythology it represents Thor’s hammer.
Did you know what a flyfot is? No, neither did I.
{ 35 comments }
Rod 03.21.04 at 6:33 pm
The real name of this symbol (apart from the one we all know) is fylfot.
harry 03.21.04 at 6:44 pm
Reference to the Navajo gives it away.
Vance Maverick 03.21.04 at 6:49 pm
I thought it was ‘fylfot’. I grew up going to an Episcopalian (i.e., more or less Anglican) church in Los Angeles, built around 1910. There was a whole miscellany of symbols in the floor-tiles, including some of these. Their ancient origins and unfortunate modern resonance were discussed, but evidently nobody found them bad enough to change — not even in 1944!
Alan 03.21.04 at 7:50 pm
To describe the fylfot as representing “the four elements, and the extention symbolizes that element in motion; thus representing life and movement” is pure marketing hype, probably invented by the advertiser of the brooch. The word probably derives from “fill foot”, denoting something used to fill in gaps in a pattern, but may originally have been a nonceword.
I always feel a strange jolt when I see maps of Korea and Japan that indicate the location of a Buddhist temple with a swastika until I remember that “swastika” derives from a Sanskrit word meaning “well-being”.
Keith M Ellis 03.21.04 at 8:15 pm
A bit of folk wisdom is that the Nazi swastika is oriented clockwise an/or compass-style, while benign versions are not. This actually isn’t the case, however. The pre-Nazi version comes in all flavors.
asg 03.21.04 at 8:15 pm
My understanding is that the symbol on the brooch is a mandala pattern (I’d never heard of fylfots either but who knows), whereas the mirror image of that symbol is a swastika. The points on a swastika circle counterclockwise.
Keith M Ellis 03.21.04 at 8:21 pm
And, by the way, I’d argue that the appropriateness of the use of the symbol is defined by its cultural context. So, in most western, contemporary contexts, the fact that the symbol is ancient, predates the Nazis, and is benign is insufficient as an argument for its appropriateness.
Although now that I’ve written that, I fear that I’ve just asserted something so obvious as to be stupendously banal.
Vance Maverick 03.21.04 at 9:03 pm
Keith — your assertion isn’t quite obvious enough that I understand how you want to apply it here. I doubt the desperate eclecticism of the eBay description will reassure Pauline enough to wear the brooch to the opera….but do you think that in 1941, the few inconspicuous tiles should have been pried up from the floor of St. James’ Wilshire?
bryan 03.21.04 at 9:16 pm
You know sometimes the it rotates clockwise and sometimes counterclockwise, it can be so difficult to know which way we’re actually going, thank god that George Bush knows the way
scroll down the page, notice anyting out of place?
Keith M Ellis 03.21.04 at 9:26 pm
Bryan — Yes, and yesterday there was a Reuters headline that read something like, “Bush: Iraq War Reduced Conflict in Region”.
Keith M Ellis 03.21.04 at 9:31 pm
Vance — definitly not in 1941. Now, maybe. But in that example, the tiles aren’t that likely to be noticed and, if necessary, the context can be explained. The more prominent the symbol and the greater the likliehood it will be misinterpreted, the more inappropriate it is.
Natalie Solent 03.21.04 at 9:50 pm
I was rather grimly amused to see a swastika or whateveryoucallit symbol on the carven robes of the effigy of a bishop in Coventry Cathedral. If I’ve remembered right the effigy lies within sight of the famous cross made from two charred beams left after the Luftwaffe raid of November 1940, in a part of the old cathedral that has deliberately not been rebuilt. The stonecarvers weren’t to know that the Nazis would one day appropriate the symbol, of course, but I was also surprised to see it on a Christian prelate’s robes given that I had long thought of it as a Hindu symbol. Perhaps as Alan says above it was mere pattern.
We also own an old edition of Kipling’s poems that is decorated with a swastika on the spine. Here the Sanskrit/Hindu link seems more natural. My husband, a teacher, took the book to school to show his pupils and used it as a starting point for a discussion of how symbols can change with time.
bryan 03.21.04 at 9:58 pm
Well I have an anecdote that is somewhat applicable: some years ago I worked at a data entry position keying in government data, one time a form came through for a child with a name that just made the guy reading it express his disgust with the parents and the desire to hunt down and kill them. Yes these degenerate scum had named their child Swastika!
So I asked “Is that the nazi swastika, or is it the hindu svastika?”
“Oh it’s the nazi alright”
everyone was really horrified, and damn if it wasn’t a lucky thing that we didn’t just go drive out to the address on the form and dispense some justice.
Well after a bit the form came to me when it was my turn to rekey it(forms were keyed by two people as an error checking policy), and guess what, yes the kid’s name was Svastika Prandeep or some other Hindu type name. And yes, she/he lived at a little Hare Krishna community in the area. When I explained this matter though, no one was the least bit mollified, because after all people living in a culture should take into account what is appropriate etc.
Well my theory is that when a proud Hindu parent cannot name their child Svastika then the Nazis will have already won.
John Isbell 03.21.04 at 10:05 pm
Mandala may have other meanings, but in Buddhism it is a sand-drawn square representation of the universe, with nor relation to swastikas pointed in either direction. There’s one in Kundun.
The Manx flag resembles a 3-pointed swastika.
bob mcmanus 03.21.04 at 10:23 pm
I am surprised it was sold so cheaply. I am always surprised that antique jewelry seems to have so little collector’s added-value.
Bean 03.21.04 at 10:29 pm
Okay, I’ve just hauled down the ?20 lb.? “F” tome of the OED and it has a long entry for fylfot. The word appears first in the Lansdowne MS (1500) and is accepted as meaning “fill-foot.” Extensively used symbol identified with the swastika of India; sometimes used as a mystical symbol.
Don’t forget the swastika can be seen in B.C. Greek pottery, etc. A handsome symbol, damn near ruined by the Nazis.
mjones 03.22.04 at 12:15 am
I am surprised it was sold so cheaply. I am always surprised that antique jewelry seems to have so little collector’s added-value.
I doubt it would have sold so cheaply had it been a floral design, say, despite the missing pin.
Natalie Solent 03.22.04 at 12:19 am
It’s like naming your kid “Adolf.” Saying that you admire the charitable works of St Adolphus of Osnabruck just won’t do any more.
anthony 03.22.04 at 12:55 am
there is an artist called manwoman who is working v. hard at reorienting this symbol, and has written a book on it, as well as making and collecting art…i dont see why we cannot have this anceint, holy, and almost universal symbol of order again…fuck the nazis.
http://www.manwoman.net/swastika/
bad Jim 03.22.04 at 1:24 am
The Basques continue to use a related curvilinear symbol called the lauburu.
Maynard Handley 03.22.04 at 1:32 am
“The Manx flag resembles a 3-pointed swastika.”
Which was of course the symbol of the Ossewa Brandwagt, one of the white power groups in South Africa in the 1980’s who insisted that apartheid would end over their dead bodies. When asked about why they chose a symbol that so obviously resembled a swastika, they were full of denials — apparently it represents three ‘7’s, each 7 meaning 7 virtues or whatever.
jimbo 03.22.04 at 4:19 am
A handsome symbol, damn near ruined by the Nazis.
“Damn near”?!
liz 03.22.04 at 4:32 am
You know what makes me curious (aside from the fact that the swirling cross–swastika–appears in many cultures (well, it is a design relatively easy to incorporate into linear media such as baskets, weaving, and tiles) how is it that it can’t be reclaimed)– the Nazi regime was vile; the destruction of European Jewry was a tragedy–how about the hammer and sickle? Weren’t more people killed? Howe about whatever symbol Pol Pot used? How about little radios, the source of the genocide in Africa?
rachelrachel 03.22.04 at 6:53 am
When asked about why they chose a symbol that so obviously resembled a swastika, they were full of denials —- apparently it represents three ‘7’s, each 7 meaning 7 virtues or whatever.
And their flag very strongly resembled the Nazi flag — red with a white circle in the middle with the black fylfot-like symbol on the circk=le.
Michael 03.22.04 at 7:47 am
Dennett’s hypo about Bach and “Rudolph” reminds me of this eerily prescient 14th century fresco:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/2481749.stm
bad Jim 03.22.04 at 7:50 am
H.G. Wells, in his History of the World, commented on the ubiquity of the swastika in Bronze Age decoration. He described it as a sun disk. The illustrations looked more like spirals than crosses, IIRC.
I don’t think anyone’s going to see anything sinister in the Isle of Man’s triskelion.
However, the black-white-red color scheme that Rachelrachel mentions does sound uncomfortably like the Prussian “blood-and-iron” flag of WWI as well as the Nazi Flag. It’s easy to read too much into color choices, but one can at least surmise that no attempt was made to avoid that association.
bad Jim 03.22.04 at 8:15 am
Asymmetrical symbols, like text, the fylfot or the triskelion, are problematic on flags, since preserving their sense requires fabricating both sides separately, which is seldom practical. I was reminded of this when I took the Gadsden flag to an antiwar demonstration last Saturday. Because of the prevailing wind it presented its reverse to the highway.
DONT TREAD ON ME was an ambiguous message anyway, so it probably didn’t much matter that it was presented backwards.
bad Jim 03.22.04 at 9:53 am
And as for Bach’s Rudolf cantata, am I the only person who hears “Oh, Susanna” in Schumann’s third symphony?
bryan 03.22.04 at 10:13 am
‘how is it that it can’t be reclaimed)— the Nazi regime was vile; the destruction of European Jewry was a tragedy—how about the hammer and sickle? Weren’t more people killed’
Well the problem may well be that people WANT to reclaim the swastika, it has an ancient and noble history, it is found in all sorts of decoration all over the world, and therefore there are strong psychological imperatives to reclaim it. To do this reclamation is to triumph over naziism in a way.
I’m sure, as a symbol that has been around for so long, it has no doubt had to be reclaimed many times in the past, the only difference being that with past reclamations this could happen by people who knew of it as a bad thing would die out or forget, not having a great deal of media to remind them (Nothing comes to mind that would work as an example of this, I’m just making a statement of belief as to how the world works.)
I don’t think anyone outside of a communist or just someone that likes trouble would want to reclaim the hammer and sickle, there is no historical or cultural significanse to that sign that I’m aware of other than it’s Soviet one. That said I used to wear a jacket with a hammer and sickle on it back in my early twenties when I lived in Utah cause it was great for starting fights, but I had no intention of reclaiming the symbol – I just fancied myself something of a mean bastard.
mjones 03.22.04 at 3:47 pm
The Maltese symbol is similar to the Sicilian “three-legged emblem charged with the head of a gorgon.” Go here for a look.
Chris Martin 03.22.04 at 4:43 pm
The Nazi swastika is angled at forty five degrees whereas the Hindu swastika isn’t. Among Indian Hindus both inside and outside India, the swastika is still commonly used in festive decorations, usually in conjunction with “om.” See this item on sale for $2.95 for example. It can be a problem when Hindus in America put swastikas on their cars.
P.J. O’Rourke, in his essay on India that was in a recent Best American Writing, notes that he kept seeing decorations that seemed to say “Sieg Heil. Om Shanti. Sieg Heil.”
C.J.Colucci 03.22.04 at 5:38 pm
I know a serious academic named Ronald McDonald. He is old enough that he was named before the clown/hamburger salesman, but that was still a bad idea.
W. Kiernan 03.22.04 at 8:08 pm
In Hillsborough County, Florida, there’s a platted subdivision named “Swastika Subdivision.” Right there top and center on the record plat is a big fat fylfot symbol. As I remember the plat predates those God damn Nazis. I once surveyed a lot in that sub. The chief of parties handed me the rolled-up plat and the subdivision file folder and said, “You’re not going to believe the name of this plat!”
Patrick Moleman 03.23.04 at 9:19 pm
Oddly enough, there’s a really strange display at one of the Smithsonian Museums with an inadvertant swastika. An old photo of Amelia Earhart has her wearing a flightsuit with a swastika on it. This was, due to some horrible coincidence, only a few rooms away from some World War II exhibits. Extremely odd when your brain suddenly screams “Amelia Earhart flew for the Luftwaffe? Huh?”
More evidence for the fact that I occasionally fall in and out of alternate universes.
Duckling 03.24.04 at 12:47 pm
It’s pretty and a pity.
Comments on this entry are closed.