{"id":344,"date":"2026-09-24T16:20:33","date_gmt":"2026-09-24T09:20:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/luxemorestore.com\/?p=344"},"modified":"2026-10-02T12:54:06","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T05:54:06","slug":"lucky-horseshoe-meaning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/luxemorestore.com\/en\/lucky-horseshoe-meaning\/","title":{"rendered":"The lucky horseshoe: why iron, ends up or down, and a saintly legend younger than you think"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-group lm-article-summary has-global-padding is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\">\n<p class=\"lm-article-summary__title wp-block-paragraph\">In short<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The oldest reason is the iron: Europeans believed it kept witches and fairies away. A record from 1696 describes horseshoes nailed on thresholds to hinder the power of witches.<\/li>\n\n<li>Ends up or ends down has no single answer; different parts of England still disagree.<\/li>\n\n<li>The oldest dated telling of St Dunstan shoeing the Devil is a poem from 1852; the genuinely medieval story has him seizing the Devil by the nose with tongs.<\/li>\n\n<li>St Dunstan is the patron saint of goldsmiths and jewellers.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The horseshoe looks like the simplest of charms: a familiar shape with an obvious meaning, good luck. Go back to the old records, though, and there are more layers to it, and some of the stories everyone tells are much newer than you would think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Why iron?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In his Miscellanies of 1696, the English antiquary John Aubrey wrote that horseshoes were nailed on thresholds \u201cto hinder the power of witches\u201d, and noted that many houses in London\u2019s West End had one. It should be, he added, \u201ca horse-shoe that one finds\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The iron matters because of the European folk belief that fairies and spirits fear it. Robert Means Lawrence\u2019s The Magic of the Horse-Shoe (1898) gathers this belief together with other theories, such as the crescent-moon shape and the seven nail holes, seven being a mystic number.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/luxemorestore.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/horseshoe-workbench-9ee28d8e-1024x683.webp\" alt=\"Iron horseshoes, a hammer and square-headed horseshoe nails on an old wooden workbench in a forge\" class=\"wp-image-343\" srcset=\"https:\/\/luxemorestore.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/horseshoe-workbench-9ee28d8e-1024x683.webp 1024w, https:\/\/luxemorestore.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/horseshoe-workbench-9ee28d8e-300x200.webp 300w, https:\/\/luxemorestore.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/horseshoe-workbench-9ee28d8e-768x512.webp 768w, https:\/\/luxemorestore.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/horseshoe-workbench-9ee28d8e-18x12.webp 18w, https:\/\/luxemorestore.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/horseshoe-workbench-9ee28d8e-1000x667.webp 1000w, https:\/\/luxemorestore.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/horseshoe-workbench-9ee28d8e.webp 1254w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Iron horseshoes, a hammer and horseshoe nails (illustration)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Take the seven holes with a pinch of salt, though. A guide from England\u2019s Portable Antiquities Scheme notes that most medieval horseshoes had three holes a side, six in all, and later ones three or four a side.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The St Dunstan legend: how old is it really?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Dunstan was a real person. He lived from about 910 to 988, was Archbishop of Canterbury from 959 to 988, and was a skilled metalworker, which is why he is still the patron saint of goldsmiths and jewellers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The popular story is that Dunstan shod the Devil, who then had to promise to keep away from horseshoes. We found no medieval source for it. The oldest dated version is Edward G. Flight\u2019s 1852 poem, The Horse Shoe: The True Legend of St. Dunstan and the Devil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The genuinely medieval story is different: Osbern\u2019s Life of Dunstan, written in the late eleventh century, has him seizing the Devil by the nose with a pair of tongs. For a jewellery shop, we find this rather lovely: the patron saint of jewellers became the hero of one of the most popular charms, even if the horseshoe part was only added in Victorian times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Ends up or ends down?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There is no single answer; different parts of England disagree. In Derbyshire the ends point up to keep the luck from running out, and the Museum of English Rural Life describes the U-shape as catching luck. In Oxfordshire the ends point down, and in Rutland they say it hangs that way so the Devil cannot nest in it and the luck falls on whoever walks underneath.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Our horseshoe charm sits ends up, the way most people know it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Horseshoes in real history<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">At Oakham Castle in Rutland, peers visiting the town must give up a horseshoe. Around 230 hang there today; the oldest was given by King Edward IV in 1470.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Another is in the Royal Collection: a section of the foremast of HMS Victory, Nelson\u2019s flagship at Trafalgar in 1805, with a shot-hole from the battle and an iron horseshoe on the port side. The story that Nelson had it nailed there is unproven, but sailors nailing horseshoes to masts is a recorded superstition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Horseshoes team up with the evil eye, too. In Anatolia, horse and donkey shoes are hung with blue beads on houses and in cars; in northern Greece, horseshoes decorated with blue and red beads hang by the door. In parts of Anatolia the horseshoe\u2019s shape is even likened to an eye with its eyebrow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">A horseshoe on your wrist<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-medium lm-charm-thumb\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" src=\"https:\/\/luxemorestore.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/charm-horseshoe-navy-44eb42e8-300x300.webp\" alt=\"White horseshoe charm with gold tips on a silver slide\" class=\"wp-image-99\" srcset=\"https:\/\/luxemorestore.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/charm-horseshoe-navy-44eb42e8-300x300.webp 300w, https:\/\/luxemorestore.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/charm-horseshoe-navy-44eb42e8-150x150.webp 150w, https:\/\/luxemorestore.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/charm-horseshoe-navy-44eb42e8-768x768.webp 768w, https:\/\/luxemorestore.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/charm-horseshoe-navy-44eb42e8-12x12.webp 12w, https:\/\/luxemorestore.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/charm-horseshoe-navy-44eb42e8-600x600.webp 600w, https:\/\/luxemorestore.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/charm-horseshoe-navy-44eb42e8-180x180.webp 180w, https:\/\/luxemorestore.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/charm-horseshoe-navy-44eb42e8-400x400.webp 400w, https:\/\/luxemorestore.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/charm-horseshoe-navy-44eb42e8.webp 800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Our horseshoe charm is white enamel on stainless steel, with gold dots and gold tips. To tell the same story as the Anatolian horseshoes, wear it with an evil eye; for a Thai twist, choose a band in your Det or Sri colour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-buttons is-layout-flex wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-button\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link wp-element-button\" href=\"https:\/\/luxemorestore.com\/en\/product-category\/charms\/\">See all charms<\/a><\/div>\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-button is-style-ghost\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link wp-element-button\" href=\"https:\/\/luxemorestore.com\/en\/evil-eye-nazar-meaning\/\">Read about the evil eye<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Sources<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list lm-article__sources\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/archive.org\/details\/miscellanies00aubr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">John Aubrey, Miscellanies (1696), Internet Archive<\/a><\/li>\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gutenberg.org\/ebooks\/57411\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Robert Means Lawrence, The Magic of the Horse-Shoe (1898), Project Gutenberg<\/a><\/li>\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gutenberg.org\/ebooks\/13978\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Edward G. Flight, The Horse Shoe: The True Legend of St. Dunstan and the Devil, Project Gutenberg<\/a><\/li>\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bl.uk\/stories\/blogs\/posts\/st-dunstan\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">British Library: St Dunstan<\/a><\/li>\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.canterbury-archaeology.org.uk\/st-dunstan-biog\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Canterbury Archaeological Trust: St Dunstan biography<\/a><\/li>\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/merl.reading.ac.uk\/news-and-views\/superstitious-countryside\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Museum of English Rural Life: the superstitious countryside<\/a><\/li>\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/discover-rutland.co.uk\/blog\/rutlands-horseshoe-history\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Discover Rutland: Rutland\u2019s horseshoe history<\/a><\/li>\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rct.uk\/collection\/73744\/foremast-section-of-hms-victory\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Royal Collection Trust: foremast section of HMS Victory<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For centuries the English nailed horseshoes by their doors. But why, which way up, and how old is the story of St Dunstan shoeing the Devil? We went back to old records and museum collections to find out.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":342,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-344","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-charm-meanings"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/luxemorestore.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/luxemorestore.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/luxemorestore.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/luxemorestore.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/luxemorestore.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=344"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/luxemorestore.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":720,"href":"https:\/\/luxemorestore.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344\/revisions\/720"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/luxemorestore.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/luxemorestore.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/luxemorestore.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/luxemorestore.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}