The Three Legs of Mann A frequently asked question concerns the origins of the Three Legs of Mann design and how it came to be adopted as the national symbol of the Isle of Man. The answer is that nobody really knows. The device has a long history stretching back into pagan times and represents the sun and its daily passage across the heavens. It was derived from a design which showed the spokes of a wheel and which, in turn, represented the rays of the sun. Because of this it has been described as a solar wheel and was a symbol of pagan sun worship.
Related symbols are the cross and the fylfot, or four-legged swastika.
These sun symbols were used by early races of Aryan stock from Scandinavia to Persia and India. They were intended to represent the sun and as such were associated with the worship of Aryan sun gods. Other examples have been identified in China, Japan and Tibet. The swastika was a very early decorative device used in India and was also found in ancient Greece and on many altars in Rome. In Scandinavia the swastika was used to represent the hammer of the Norse god Thor and in this capacity it was depicted on carved stone crosses.