Iceland Spar and Its History Aboard Viking Longships
The rhombohedral crystal’s birefringence is just part of its wonder.
Wooden floor boards creak and a brisk salty wind howls against the large sail. Rows of Viking warriors strain their oars in unison as the longship cruises up and down the Atlantic’s rolling waves. Gray clouds cover the sky. A navigator holds a clear crystal towards the sky, scanning the dense expanse for verification that their course is correct.
Navigation aboard a longship, such as this, on a cloudy day relied on a rhombus-shaped crystal called Iceland spar (also known as “clear calcite”). Alluded to in Norse mythology and Icelandic texts as the “Viking sunstone,” Iceland spar was used in navigation technology around the 10th century at the height of the Viking Age.
“Light passing through calcite is split along two paths, forming a double image on the far side. The brightness of the two images relative to each other depends on the polarization of the light. By passing light from the sky through calcite and changing the crystal’s orientation until the projections of the split beams are equally bright, it is theoretically possible to detect the concentric rings of polarization and thus the location of the sun,” explains John Bohannon in a 2011 report on sciencemag.org.
In 2011, researchers verified the accuracy of Iceland spar-technology with the narrow beam experiment, wherein a piece of the calcite is held up to the naked eye, a yellow entropic pattern on the fovea of the eye occurs in the visual field. Navigators may have also used a cylindrical wooden device with a North-pointing arrow fixed to the top, a window cut into the side where the crystal was placed. Even on cloudy days the concentric rings of light polarization is visible giving the position of the sun within a few degrees.
Iceland spar has been discovered on wrecks that occurred in the late 16th century, suggesting that even after the magnetic compass was available, the crystal method was still relied on as a highly accurate, commonly used navigation technology. Today, it is used in optical instruments and LCD screens, it was also used for bombsights during World War II.
Physical Properties
Iceland spar was originally located in the Helgustadir Mine in Eskifjord, Iceland, and it has since been found in areas of the United States and around the globe. Made up of crystallized calcium carbonate (CaCO3), it is part of the Calcite family. Its clear state is imbued with a unique birefringence and a double-refractive nature.
Metaphysical Properties
The clear rhombus holds visible layers of phosphorescent rainbows that flash when the crystal is rotated. Similar to clear quartz, Iceland spar can be used to tap into intention manifestation. The sharp edges and cool surfaces heighten a clarity-of-mind-effect that can be used to achieve multilevel awareness and understanding.
Iceland spar offers a balancing effect that enhances meditation and vision-building. It embodies fire and wind elements, and restores energy to all chakras.
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