The Peace Sign
 

This is the anti-nuclear emblem or the peace sign. It can be seen as composed of a Tyr rune lengthened upward, or by the rune turned upside down. In Germany and Austria it is often called the Todesrune, the rune of death, or an inverted life rune.

According to some sources it was conceived by placing the signs N and D (for Nuclear Disarmament) from the international marine flag signaling system on top of each other, and circumscribing the combination with a circle.

Some state that the peace sign was invented by Lord Bertrand Russell. S. T. Achen, however, claims that the symbol was designed by J. Holtom at the request of Russell. In any case it was initially used as a rallying sign at the 1958 demonstration against Aldermaston (a British research center for the development of nuclear weapons). The power of this symbol is emphasized by the fact that the South African government, during the 1970s, seriously considered forbidding it. They found it "anti-Christian" and "pro-Communist." Achen, the late Danish semiotician, wrote that ironically, it was forbidden at times in some of the communist countries.


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Dona nobis pacem;   grant us peace.