The Sun Horse from Balken – A Journey Above the Sky

The Sun Horse from Balken is an iconic petroglyph from the Tanum area in Sweden, dating from the Nordic Bronze Age. The petroglyph shows a horse with a sun disk attached to its mane, symbolizing the sun's journey across the sky. Similar motifs are found elsewhere in Scandinavia, such as the Trundholm Sun Chariot, and reflect the sun's central importance to both life and death in Bronze Age cosmology.

In my illustration of the Sun Horse from Balken, I have chosen to mirror the motif – one horse pulls the sun from left to right, as in the original petroglyph, while another horse pulls the sun in the opposite direction. This choice is both aesthetic and symbolic and reflects how our modern world often disrupts the pure notions of the natural order of the past.

If you would like to know more about this and other beautiful works of art from the past, please feel free to read along on my blog here:
https://www.hulefar.dk/solhesten-fra-balken/