Trefoil Knot - Trefoils in Religion and Culture

Trefoils in Religion and Culture

As the simplest nontrivial knot, the trefoil is a common motif in iconography and the visual arts. For example, the common form of the triquetra symbol is a trefoil, as are some versions of the Germanic Valknut.

Trefoil knots
A simple triquetra symbol
A tightly-knotted triquetra
The Germanic Valknut
A metallic Valknut in the shape of a trefoil

In modern art, the woodcut “Knots” by M. C. Escher depicts three trefoil knots whose solid forms are twisted in different ways.

Read more about this topic:  Trefoil Knot

Famous quotes containing the words religion and/or culture:

    In full view of his television audience, he preached a new religion—or a new form of Christianity—based on faith in financial miracles and in a Heaven here on earth with a water slide and luxury hotels. It was a religion of celebrity and showmanship and fun, which made a mockery of all puritanical standards and all canons of good taste. Its standard was excess, and its doctrines were tolerance and freedom from accountability.
    New Yorker (April 23, 1990)

    The time will come when the evil forms we have known can no more be organized. Man’s culture can spare nothing, wants all material. He is to convert all impediments into instruments, all enemies into power.
    Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)