Happy US Flag Day!
This was probably the first flag flown in North America.
It’s the hrafnsmerki, the raven flag of Leif Ericsson, who landed in Newfoundland around 1000 C.E. He didn’t take any selfies of it when he landed here, in the New World, but it was in general use back in Viking-land, so it’s generally thought to be his flag.
Thus, we kick off Flag Day. I’m not going to talk about “fake news” Betsy Ross much. I pledge allegiance to my blog specifically to NOT SHOW the one that we’ve all grown up thinking was the first flag. I know it makes our nostalgic hearts go pitter patter because flags have a way of doing that, but it was probably first flown outside her tourist attraction home in 1870. Meanwhile, let’s discuss some actual American flag history.
We get all worked up about these symbolic bits of cloth. Perhaps because we have separated church and state (in theory) in the U.S., we had to substitute other sacred objects as stand-ins. You know how this works. As irritated as we get at our governmental leaders and their faux patriotism, our hearts beat faster when we see Old Glory, that familiar 50-state Stars and Stripes, carried into an Olympic stadium or even plastered on a souvenir hat in Mazatlan. That’s my flag! My identity!
What were the precise set of circumstances that created that flag out of the first flags? And why June 14?
O Say Can You See Our Totem?
The raven flag, used by the Vikings on their ships, in their battles, and stamped on their coins, was meant to symbolize Odin. Odin had two ravens: Thought and Memory. They represented intelligence and wisdom, and because they were seen after battles, they were considered good omens associated with victory in war. To fly the raven was to invoke the gods and to accept that your group was divinely inspired.
Continue reading “The Supernatural Power of Bits of Cloth”
