Bird-shaped buckle from around 650-725 CE found in Ringerike, Norway. Most likely made in Denmark or Scania. There are almost no bird buckles alike, so they must have been made by jewelers as exclusive individual items (unlike the oval buckles, which were “mass produced”).
Professor Lotte Hedeager puts the bird motif in context with the development of a shamanistic element in the Norse religion. The shaman can take the form of the bird, and in that way let his soul travel outside his body. Odin has two ravens, Huginn and Muninn, and in south-Scandinavian burial sites, the bird buckles are often found in pairs of two. The birds on the buckles can also be identified as ravens, from the shape of the beak. The eagle, the other bird that is found in motifs from the same time period, has a curved beak.
What distinguishes this buckle from the others is the Valknut in the middle, and the braided pattern on the tail. The Valknut can be associated with both death and Odin. Therefore it is particularly interesting when it shows up on a bird buckle.