The seven-centimetre-high figure, who wears a conical headdress, clasps his pointed beard and has an erect penis, has often been assumed to be the god Freyr.
It has also been suggested that the figure is a gaming piece, a flute player, and the god Thor blowing his beard to create wind.
According to the original report, it was found by Edvard Holmgren in the farm's garden under "a vast morass of stones, earth and several large trees and bushes".
[5][b] According to the historian of religions Olof Sundqvist, the statuette could be connected to Freyr's association with royalty and his function as a model for kings.
[9] The archaeologist Kristján Eldjárn wrote that the Rällinge statuette might not be an image of a mythological figure but a gaming piece.
Because of similarities in age and design, Eldjárn wrote that it "seems doubtless" that it belongs to the same artistic tradition as the Eyrarland statue from Iceland.
[10] The latter is often assumed to be a representation of the god Thor, but also resembles a smaller Icelandic whalebone figure, found in a grave in Baldursheimur together with black and white gaming pieces and a die.
[12] The Norse studies scholar Richard Perkins writes that the statuette could be a depiction of Thor who blows in his beard to create wind.
[14] The archaeologist Neil Price writes that if the identification is based solely on the phallus, a symbol for a sexually active man, there is no lack of candidates from Norse myth, legend and history: in addition to Freyr, it is not possible to rule out other gods such as Odin, other beings like dwarfs, jötunns and elves, and human kings and earls such as Hakon Jarl.