
The Franks Casket (or the Auzon Casket) is a small
Anglo-Saxon
The Anglo-Saxons, in some contexts simply called Saxons or the English, were a Cultural identity, cultural group who spoke Old English and inhabited much of what is now England and south-eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. They traced t ...
whale's bone (not "whalebone" in the sense of
baleen
Baleen is a filter feeder, filter-feeding system inside the mouths of baleen whales. To use baleen, the whale first opens its mouth underwater to take in water. The whale then pushes the water out, and animals such as krill are filtered by th ...
)
chest
The thorax (: thoraces or thoraxes) or chest is a part of the anatomy of mammals and other tetrapod animals located between the neck and the abdomen.
In insects, crustaceans, and the extinct trilobites, the thorax is one of the three main di ...
from the early 8th century, now in the
British Museum
The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...
. The casket is densely decorated with knife-cut narrative scenes in flat two-dimensional low-
relief
Relief is a sculpture, sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces remain attached to a solid background of the same material. The term ''wikt:relief, relief'' is from the Latin verb , to raise (). To create a sculpture in relief is to give ...
and with inscriptions mostly in
Anglo-Saxon runes
Anglo-Saxon runes or Anglo-Frisian runes are runes that were used by the Anglo-Saxons and Medieval Frisians (collectively called Anglo-Frisians) as an alphabet in their native writing system, recording both Old English and Old Frisian (, ᚱ� ...
. Generally thought to be of
Northumbria
Northumbria () was an early medieval Heptarchy, kingdom in what is now Northern England and Scottish Lowlands, South Scotland.
The name derives from the Old English meaning "the people or province north of the Humber", as opposed to the Sout ...
n origin, it is of unique importance for the insight it gives into early
Anglo-Saxon art
Anglo-Saxon art covers art produced within the Anglo-Saxons, Anglo-Saxon period of English history, beginning with the Migration period art, Migration period style that the Anglo-Saxons brought with them from the continent in the 5th century, ...
and culture. Both identifying the images and interpreting the runic inscriptions has generated a considerable amount of scholarship.

The imagery is very diverse in its subject matter and derivations, and includes a single Christian image, the
Adoration of the Magi
The Adoration of the Magi or Adoration of the Kings or Visitation of the Wise Men is the name traditionally given to the subject in the Nativity of Jesus in art in which the three Magi, represented as kings, especially in the West, having fo ...
, along with images derived from
Roman history
The history of Rome includes the history of the Rome, city of Rome as well as the Ancient Rome, civilisation of ancient Rome. Roman history has been influential on the modern world, especially in the history of the Catholic Church, and Roman la ...
(
Emperor Titus) and
Roman mythology
Roman mythology is the body of myths of ancient Rome as represented in the literature and visual arts of the Romans, and is a form of Roman folklore. "Roman mythology" may also refer to the modern study of these representations, and to th ...
(
Romulus and Remus
In Roman mythology, Romulus and (, ) are twins in mythology, twin brothers whose story tells of the events that led to the Founding of Rome, founding of the History of Rome, city of Rome and the Roman Kingdom by Romulus, following his frat ...
), as well as a depiction of at least one legend indigenous to the
Germanic peoples
The Germanic peoples were tribal groups who lived in Northern Europe in Classical antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. In modern scholarship, they typically include not only the Roman-era ''Germani'' who lived in both ''Germania'' and parts of ...
: that of
Weyland the Smith. It has also been suggested that there may be an episode from the
Sigurd
Sigurd ( ) or Siegfried (Middle High German: ''Sîvrit'') is a legendary hero of Germanic heroic legend, who killed a dragon — known in Nordic tradition as Fafnir () — and who was later murdered. In the Nordic countries, he is referred t ...
legend, an otherwise lost episode from the life of Weyland's brother
Egil, a Homeric legend involving
Achilles
In Greek mythology, Achilles ( ) or Achilleus () was a hero of the Trojan War who was known as being the greatest of all the Greek warriors. The central character in Homer's ''Iliad'', he was the son of the Nereids, Nereid Thetis and Peleus, ...
, and perhaps even an allusion to the legendary founding of England by
Hengist and Horsa
Hengist (, ) and Horsa are legendary Germanic peoples, Germanic brothers who according to later English legends and ethnogenesis theories led the Angles (tribe), Angles, Saxons and Jutes, the progenitor groups of modern English people, in thei ...
.
The inscriptions "display a deliberate linguistic and alphabetic virtuosity; though they are mostly written in
Old English
Old English ( or , or ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. It developed from the languages brought to Great Britain by Anglo-S ...
and in runes, they shift into Latin and the Roman alphabet; then back into runes while still writing Latin". Some are written upside down or back to front. It is named after a former owner, Sir
Augustus Wollaston Franks, who gave it to the British Museum.
History

A monastic origin is generally accepted for the casket, which was perhaps made for presentation to an important secular figure, and
Wilfrid
Wilfrid ( – 709 or 710) was an English bishop and saint. Born a Northumbrian noble, he entered religious life as a teenager and studied at Lindisfarne, at Canterbury, in Francia, and at Rome; he returned to Northumbria in about 660, and beca ...
's foundation at
Ripon
Ripon () is a cathedral city and civil parish in North Yorkshire, England. The city is located at the confluence of two tributaries of the River Ure, the Laver and Skell. Within the boundaries of the historic West Riding of Yorkshire, the ...
has been specifically suggested. The post-medieval history of the casket before the mid-19th century was unknown until relatively recently, when investigations by
W. H. J. Weale revealed that the casket had belonged to the church of Saint-Julien,
Brioude in
Haute Loire (upper Loire region), France; it is possible that it was looted during the
French Revolution. It was then in the possession of a family in
Auzon
Auzon (; ) is a commune in the Haute-Loire department in south-central France.
Population
See also
*Communes of the Haute-Loire department
*Franks Casket
The Franks Casket (or the Auzon Casket) is a small Anglo-Saxon whale's bone (not "w ...
, a village in Haute Loire. It served as a sewing box until the silver hinges and fittings joining the panels were traded for a silver ring. Without the support of these the casket fell apart. The parts were shown to a Professor Mathieu from nearby
Clermont-Ferrand
Clermont-Ferrand (, , ; or simply ; ) is a city and Communes of France, commune of France, in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes regions of France, region, with a population of 147,284 (2020). Its metropolitan area () had 504,157 inhabitants at the 2018 ...
, who sold them to an antique shop in
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
, where they were bought in 1857 by Sir
Augustus Wollaston Franks, who subsequently donated the panels in 1867 to the British Museum, where he was Keeper of the British and Medieval collections. The missing right end panel was later found in a drawer by the family in Auzon and sold to the
Bargello Museum,
Florence
Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025.
Florence ...
, where it was identified as part of the casket in 1890. The British Museum display includes a cast of it.
Description and interpretations

The casket is 22.9 cm long, 19 cm wide and 10.9 cm high – 9 × by inches, and can be dated from the language of its inscriptions and other features to the first half of the 8th century AD. There are other inscriptions, "
tituli" identifying some figures that are not detailed below and appear within the image field. The mounts in precious metal that were undoubtedly originally present are missing, and it is "likely" that it was originally painted in colour.
The chest is clearly modelled on
Late Antique
Late antiquity marks the period that comes after the end of classical antiquity and stretches into the onset of the Early Middle Ages. Late antiquity as a period was popularized by Peter Brown in 1971, and this periodization has since been wide ...
ivory caskets such as the
Brescia Casket
The Brescia Casket, also called the lipsanotheca of Brescia (in Italian ''lipsanoteca'') or reliquary of Brescia, is an ivory box, perhaps a reliquary, from the late 4th century, which is now in the Museo di Santa Giulia at San Salvatore, Brescia ...
; the
Veroli Casket in the
V&A Museum
The Victoria and Albert Museum (abbreviated V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.8 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and named after Queen ...
is a Byzantine interpretation of the style, in revived classical style, from about 1000.
Leslie Webster regards the casket as probably originating in a monastic context, where the maker "clearly possessed great learning and ingenuity, to construct an object which is so visually and intellectually complex. ... it is generally accepted that the scenes, drawn from contrasting traditions, were carefully chosen to counterpoint one another in the creation of an overarching set of Christian messages. What used to be seen as an eccentric, almost random, assemblage of pagan Germanic and Christian stories is now understood as a sophisticated programme perfectly in accord with the Church's concept of universal history". It may have been intended to hold a book, perhaps a
psalter
A psalter is a volume containing the Book of Psalms, often with other devotional material bound in as well, such as a liturgical calendar and litany of the Saints. Until the emergence of the book of hours in the Late Middle Ages, psalters were ...
, and intended to be presented to a "secular, probably royal, recipient"
Front panel

The front panel, which originally had a lock fitted, depicts elements from the Germanic legend of
Wayland the Smith in the left-hand scene, and the Adoration of the Magi on the right. Wayland (also spelled Weyland, Welund or Vølund) stands at the extreme left in the forge where he is held as a slave by King
Niðhad, who has had Wayland's
hamstring
A hamstring () is any one of the three posterior thigh muscles in human anatomy between the hip and the knee: from medial to lateral, the semimembranosus, semitendinosus and biceps femoris.
Etymology
The word " ham" is derived from the Old ...
s cut to hobble him. Below the forge is the headless body of Niðhad's son, whom Wayland has killed, making a goblet from his skull; his head is probably the object held in the tongs in Wayland's hand. With his other hand Wayland offers the goblet, containing drugged beer, to
Beaduhild, Niðhad's daughter, whom he then rapes when she is unconscious. Another female figure is shown in the centre; perhaps Wayland's helper, or Beaduhild again. To the right of the scene Wayland (or his brother) catches birds; he then makes wings from their feathers, with which he is able to escape.
In a sharp contrast, the right-hand scene shows one of the most common Christian subjects depicted in the art of the period; however here "the birth of a hero also makes good sin and suffering". The
Three Magi, identified by an inscription (ᛗᚫᚷᛁ, "magi"), led by the large star, approach the enthroned
Madonna and Child
In Christian art, a Madonna () is a religious depiction of the Blessed Virgin Mary in a singular form or sometimes accompanied by the Child Jesus. These images are central icons for both the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches. The word ...
bearing the traditional gifts. A goose-like bird by the feet of the leading magus may represent the
Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit, otherwise known as the Holy Ghost, is a concept within the Abrahamic religions. In Judaism, the Holy Spirit is understood as the divine quality or force of God manifesting in the world, particularly in acts of prophecy, creati ...
, usually shown as a dove, or an angel. The human figures, at least, form a composition very comparable to those in other depictions of the period.
Richard Fletcher Richard Fletcher may refer to:
Politicians
* Richard Fletcher (American politician) (1788–1869), US Representative from Massachusetts
*Richard Fletcher (died 1560), MP for Rye
*Richard Fletcher (died c.1607), MP for Derby (UK Parliament constitue ...
considered this contrast of scenes, from left to right, as intended to indicate the positive and benign effects of conversion to Christianity.
Around the panel runs the following alliterating inscription, which does not relate to the scenes but is a riddle on the material of the casket itself as whale bone, and specifically from a
stranded whale:
Left panel

The left panel depicts the mythological twin founders of Rome,
Romulus and Remus
In Roman mythology, Romulus and (, ) are twins in mythology, twin brothers whose story tells of the events that led to the Founding of Rome, founding of the History of Rome, city of Rome and the Roman Kingdom by Romulus, following his frat ...
, being suckled by a
she-wolf lying on her back at the bottom of the scene. The same wolf, or another, stands above, and there are two men with spears approaching from each side. The inscription reads:
Carol Neuman de Vegvar (1999) observes that other depictions of Romulus and Remus are found in
East Anglia
East Anglia is an area of the East of England, often defined as including the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire, with parts of Essex sometimes also included.
The name derives from the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the East Angles, ...
n art and coinage (for example the very early
Undley bracteate). She suggests that because of the similarity of the story of Romulus and Remus to that of
Hengist and Horsa
Hengist (, ) and Horsa are legendary Germanic peoples, Germanic brothers who according to later English legends and ethnogenesis theories led the Angles (tribe), Angles, Saxons and Jutes, the progenitor groups of modern English people, in thei ...
, the brothers who were said to have founded England, "the legend of a pair of outcast or traveller brothers who led a people and contributed to the formation of a kingdom was probably not unfamiliar in the 8th-century Anglo-Saxon milieu of the Franks Casket and could stand as a reference to destined rulership."
Rear panel

The rear panel depicts the
Taking of Jerusalem by
Titus
Titus Caesar Vespasianus ( ; 30 December 39 – 13 September AD 81) was Roman emperor from 79 to 81. A member of the Flavian dynasty, Titus succeeded his father Vespasian upon his death, becoming the first Roman emperor ever to succeed h ...
in the
First Jewish-Roman War
First most commonly refers to:
* First, the ordinal form of the number 1
First or 1st may also refer to:
Acronyms
* Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-Centimeters, an astronomical survey carried out by the Very Large Array
* Far Infrared a ...
. The inscription is partly in Old English and partly in Latin, and part of the Latin portion is written in Latin letters (indicated below in upper case letters), with the remainder transcribed phonetically into runic letters. Two isolated words stand in the lower corners.
At the centre of the panel is a depiction of a building, probably representing the
Temple of Jerusalem.
In the upper left quadrant, the Romans, led by Titus in a helm with a sword, attack the central building. The associated text reads 'ᚻᛖᚱᚠᛖᚷᛏᚪᚦ , ᛭ᛏᛁᛏᚢᛋᛖᚾᛞᚷᛁᚢᚦᛖᚪᛋᚢ' (in Latin transliteration herfegtaþ , +titusendgiuþeasu, and if normalised to Late West Saxon 'Hēr feohtaþ Tītus and Iūdēas'): 'Here Titus and the Jews fight'.
In the upper right quadrant, the Jewish population flee, casting glances backwards. The associated text, which is in Latin and partly uses Latin letters and partly runes, reads 'HICFUGIANTHIERUSALIM , ᚪᚠᛁᛏᚪᛏᚩᚱᛖᛋ' (in normalised Classical Latin: 'hic fugiant Hierusalim habitatores'): 'Here the inhabitants flee from Jerusalem'.
In the lower left quadrant, a seated judge announces the judgement of the defeated Jews, which as recounted in
Josephus
Flavius Josephus (; , ; ), born Yosef ben Mattityahu (), was a Roman–Jewish historian and military leader. Best known for writing '' The Jewish War'', he was born in Jerusalem—then part of the Roman province of Judea—to a father of pr ...
was to be sold into
slavery
Slavery is the ownership of a person as property, especially in regards to their labour. Slavery typically involves compulsory work, with the slave's location of work and residence dictated by the party that holds them in bondage. Enslavemen ...
. The associated text, in the bottom left corner of the panel, reads 'ᛞᚩᛗ' (if normalised to Late West Saxon: 'dōm'): 'judgement'.
In the lower right quadrant, the slaves/hostages are led away, with the text, in the bottom right corner of the panel, reading 'ᚷᛁᛋᛚ' (if normalised to Late West Saxon: 'gīsl'): 'hostages'.
Lid

The lid as it now survives is incomplete. Leslie Webster has suggested that there may have been
relief
Relief is a sculpture, sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces remain attached to a solid background of the same material. The term ''wikt:relief, relief'' is from the Latin verb , to raise (). To create a sculpture in relief is to give ...
panels in silver making up the missing areas. The empty round area in the centre probably housed the metal boss for a handle.
The lid shows a scene of an archer, labelled ᚫᚷᛁᛚᛁ or ''Ægili'', single-handedly defending a fortress against a troop of attackers, who from their larger size may be giants.
In 1866,
Sophus Bugge "followed up his explanation of the Weland picture on the front of the casket with the suggestion that the bowman on the top piece is
Egil, Weland's brother, and thinks that the 'carving tells a story about him of which we know nothing. We see that he defends himself with arrows. Behind him appears to sit a woman in a house; possibly this may be Egil's spouse
Ölrún.'" In
Norse mythology
Norse, Nordic, or Scandinavian mythology, is the body of myths belonging to the North Germanic peoples, stemming from Old Norse religion and continuing after the Christianization of Scandinavia as the Nordic folklore of the modern period. The ...
, Egil is named as a brother of Weyland (Weland), who is shown on the front panel of the casket. The ''
Þiðrekssaga'' depicts Egil as a master archer and the ''
Völundarkviða'' tells that he was the husband of the swan maiden
Olrun. The
Pforzen buckle inscription, dating to about the same period as the casket, also makes reference to the couple Egil and Olrun (''Áigil andi Áilrun''). The British Museum webpage and Leslie Webster concur, the former stating that "The lid appears to depict an episode relating to the Germanic hero Egil and has the single label ægili = 'Egil'."
Josef Strzygowski (quoted by Viëtor 1904) proposed instead that the lid represents a scene pertaining to the fall of
Troy
Troy (/; ; ) or Ilion (; ) was an ancient city located in present-day Hisarlik, Turkey. It is best known as the setting for the Greek mythology, Greek myth of the Trojan War. The archaeological site is open to the public as a tourist destina ...
, but did not elaborate. Karl Schneider (1959) identifies the word ''Ægili'' on the lid as an Anglo-Saxon form of the name of the Greek hero
Achilles
In Greek mythology, Achilles ( ) or Achilleus () was a hero of the Trojan War who was known as being the greatest of all the Greek warriors. The central character in Homer's ''Iliad'', he was the son of the Nereids, Nereid Thetis and Peleus, ...
. As nominative singular, it would indicate that the archer is Achilles, while as dative singular it could mean either that the citadel belongs to Achilles, or that the arrow that is about to be shot is meant for Achilles. Schneider himself interprets the scene on the lid as representing the massacre of
Andromache
In Greek mythology, Andromache (; , ) was the wife of Hector, daughter of Eetion, and sister to Podes. She was born and raised in the city of Cilician Thebe, over which her father ruled. The name means "man battler", "fighter of men" or "m ...
's brothers by Achilles at Thebes in a story from the
Iliad
The ''Iliad'' (; , ; ) is one of two major Ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest extant works of literature still widely read by modern audiences. As with the ''Odyssey'', the poem is divided into 24 books and ...
, with Achilles as the archer and Andromache's mother held captive in the room behind him. Amy Vandersall (1975) confirms Schneider's reading of ''Ægili'' as relating to Achilles, but would instead have the lid depict the Trojan attack on the Greek camp, with the Greek bowman
Teucer
In Greek mythology, Teucer (; , also Teucrus, Teucros or Teucris), was the son of King Telamon of Salamis Island and his second wife Hesione, daughter of King Laomedon of Troy. He fought alongside his half-brother, Ajax the Great, Ajax, in the ...
as the archer and the person behind the archer (interpreted as a woman by most other authors) as Achilles in his tent.
Other authors see a Biblical or Christian message in the lid: Marijane Osborn finds that several details in
Psalm
The Book of Psalms ( , ; ; ; ; , in Islam also called Zabur, ), also known as the Psalter, is the first book of the third section of the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible) called ('Writings'), and a book of the Old Testament.
The book is an anthology of H ...
90, "especially as it appears in its Old English translation, ... may be aligned with details in the picture on the lid of the casket: the soul shielded in verse 5 and safely sheltered in the ... sanctuary in verse 9, the spiritual battle for the soul throughout, the flying missiles in verse 6 and an angelic defender in verse 11." Leopold Peeters (1996:44) proposes that the lid depicts the defeat of
Agila, the
Arian
Arianism (, ) is a Christological doctrine which rejects the traditional notion of the Trinity and considers Jesus to be a creation of God, and therefore distinct from God. It is named after its major proponent, Arius (). It is considered he ...
Visigothic
The Visigoths (; ) were a Germanic people united under the rule of a king and living within the Roman Empire during late antiquity. The Visigoths first appeared in the Balkans, as a Roman-allied barbarian military group united under the comman ...
ruler of
Hispania
Hispania was the Ancient Rome, Roman name for the Iberian Peninsula. Under the Roman Republic, Hispania was divided into two Roman province, provinces: Hispania Citerior and Hispania Ulterior. During the Principate, Hispania Ulterior was divide ...
and
Septimania
Septimania is a historical region in modern-day southern France. It referred to the western part of the Roman province of '' Gallia Narbonensis'' that passed to the control of the Visigoths in 462, when Septimania was ceded to their king, Theod ...
, by Roman Catholic forces in 554 A.D. According to Gabriele Cocco (2009), the lid most likely portrays the story of
Elisha
Elisha was, according to the Hebrew Bible, a Jewish prophet and a wonder-worker. His name is commonly transliterated into English as Elisha via Hebrew, Eliseus via Greek and Latin, Ełishe (Yeghishe/Elisha) via Armenian or Alyasa via Arabic, a ...
and
Joas from ''2 Kings'' 13:17, in which the prophet Elisha directs King Joas to shoot an arrow out an open window to symbolise his struggle against the Syrians: "Hence, the ''Ægili''-bowman is King Joas and the figure under the arch is Elisha. The prophet would then be wearing a hood, typical of Semitic populations, and holding a staff." Webster (2012b:46-8) notes that the two-headed beast both above and below the figure in the room behind the archer also appears beneath the feet of Christ as King David in an illustration from an 8th-century Northumbrian manuscript of
Cassiodorus
Magnus Aurelius Cassiodorus Senator (c. 485 – c. 585), commonly known as Cassiodorus (), was a Christian Roman statesman, a renowned scholar and writer who served in the administration of Theodoric the Great, king of the Ostrogoths. ''Senato ...
, ''Commentary on the Psalms.''
Right panel

This, the Bargello panel, has produced the most divergent readings of both text and images, and no reading of either has achieved general acceptance. At left an animal figure sits on a small rounded mound, confronted by an armed and helmeted warrior. In the centre a standing animal, usually seen as a horse, faces a figure, holding a stick or sword, who stands over something defined by a curved line. On the right are three figures.
Raymond Page reads the inscription as
However, a definitive translation of the lines has met with difficulty, partly because the runes are run together without separators between words, and partly because two letters are broken or missing. As an extra challenge for the reader, on the right panel only, the vowels are encrypted with a simple substitution cipher. Three of the vowels are represented consistently by three invented symbols. However, two additional symbols represent both ''a'' and ''æ'', and according to Page, "it is not clear which is which or even if the carver distinguished competently between the two." Reading one rune, transcribed by Page and others as ''r'' but which is different from the usual ''r''-rune, as a rune for ''u'', Thomas A. Bredehoft has suggested the alternative reading
: ''Her Hos sitæþ on hæum bergæ''
: ''agl
drigiþ, swæ hiri Eutae gisgraf''
: ''sæuden sorgæ and sefa tornæ.''
: Here sits Hos on
r inthe high hill
r barrow
: she endures agl
as the Jute appointed to her,
: a ''sæuden'' of sorrow and troubles of mind.
Page writes, "What the scenes represent I do not know. Excited and imaginative scholars have put forward numbers of suggestions but none convinces." Several of these theories are outlined below.
Sigurd and Grani?
Elis Wadstein (1900) proposed that the right panel depicts the Germanic legend of
Sigurd
Sigurd ( ) or Siegfried (Middle High German: ''Sîvrit'') is a legendary hero of Germanic heroic legend, who killed a dragon — known in Nordic tradition as Fafnir () — and who was later murdered. In the Nordic countries, he is referred t ...
, known also as
Siegfried
Siegfried is a German-language male given name, composed from the Germanic elements ''sig'' "victory" and ''frithu'' "protection, peace".
The German name has the Old Norse cognate ''Sigfriðr, Sigfrøðr'', which gives rise to Swedish ''Sigfrid' ...
, being mourned by his horse Grani and wife Guthrun. Eleanor Clark (1930) added, "Indeed, no one seeing the figure of the horse bending over the tomb of a man could fail to recall the words of the ''Guthrunarkvitha'' (II,5):
: The head of Grani was bowed to the grass,
: The steed knew well his master was slain."
While Clark admits that this is an "extremely obscure legend," she assumes that the scene must be based on a Germanic legend, and can find no other instance in the entire Norse mythology of a horse weeping over a dead body. She concludes that the small, legless person inside the central mound must be Sigurd himself, with his legs gnawed off by the wolves mentioned in Guthrun's story. She interprets the three figures to the right as Guthrun being led away from his tomb by his slayers Gunnar and Hogne, and the female figure before Grani as the Norn-goddess
Urd, who passes judgement on the dead. The warrior to the left would then be Sigurd again, now restored to his former prime for the afterlife, and "sent rejoicing on his way to
Odainsaker, the realms of bliss for deserving mortals. The gateway to these glittering fields is guarded by a winged dragon who feeds on the imperishable flora that characterised the place, and the bodyless cock crows lustily as a kind of eerie ''genius loci'' identifying the spot as Hel's wall."
Although the Sigurd-Grani thesis remains the most widely accepted interpretation of the right panel, Arthur Napier remarked already in 1901, "I remain entirely unconvinced by the reasons
adsteinputs forward, and believe that the true explanation of the picture has still to be found."
Hengist and Horsa?

A.C. Bouman (1965) and Simonne d'Ardenne (1966) instead interpret the mournful stallion (Old English ''hengist'') at the centre of the right panel as representing Hengist, who, with his brother Horsa, first led the Old Saxons, Angles, and Jutes into Britain, and eventually became the first Anglo-Saxon king in England, according to both
Bede
Bede (; ; 672/326 May 735), also known as Saint Bede, Bede of Jarrow, the Venerable Bede, and Bede the Venerable (), was an English monk, author and scholar. He was one of the most known writers during the Early Middle Ages, and his most f ...
's
''Ecclesiastical History of the English People'' and the ''
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
The ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'' is a collection of annals in Old English, chronicling the history of the Anglo-Saxons.
The original manuscript of the ''Chronicle'' was created late in the ninth century, probably in Wessex, during the reign of ...
''. The miniature person inside the burial mound he grieves over would then be Horsa, who died at the battle of ''Ægelesthrep'' in 455 A.D. and was buried in a flint tumulus at
Horsted near
Aylesford
Aylesford is a village and civil parish on the River Medway in Kent, England, northwest of Maidstone.
Originally a small riverside settlement, the old village comprises around 60 houses, many of which were formerly shops. Two pubs, a villa ...
. Bouman suggests that the female mourner could then be Hengist's famous daughter
Renwein.
Bouman and d'Ardenne identify the strange creature on the left with the head of a horse, the clothing and posture of a man, and the wings of a spirit, as Horsa again, this time as a spirit seated on his own burial mound. Horsa (whose name means ''horse'' in Old English) would then be the "Hos" referred to in the panel's inscription as sitting on a "sorrow-mound." They note that there is a miniature horse in each corner of the panel, in keeping with its theme of two famous "horses."
The Deity of the Grove?

Usually herhos sitæþ is read, "here sits the horse". However, Wilhelm Krause (1959) instead separates herh (temple) and os (divinity). Alfred Becker (1973, 2002), following Krause, interprets herh as a sacred grove, the site where in pagan days the
Æsir
Æsir (Old Norse; singular: ) or ēse (Old English; singular: ) are deities, gods in Germanic paganism. In Old Nordic religion and Nordic mythology, mythology, the precise meaning of the term "" is debated, as it can refer either to the gods i ...
were worshipped, and os as a goddess or valkyrie. On the left, a warrior "has met his fate in guise of a frightening monster... As the outcome, the warrior rests in his grave shown in the middle section. There (left of the mound) we have a horse marked with two trefoils, the divine symbols.... Above the mound we see a chalice and right of the mound a woman with a staff in hand. It is his Valkyrie, who has left her seat and come to him in the shape of a bird. Now she is his beautiful sigwif, the hero's benevolent, even loving companion, who revives him with a draught from that chalice and takes him to Valhalla. The horse may be ''
Sleipnir
In Norse mythology, Sleipnir (Old Norse: "slippy"Orchard (1997:151). or "the slipper"Kermode (1904:6).) is an eight-legged horse ridden by Odin. Sleipnir is attested in the ''Poetic Edda'', compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional ...
'', Woden's famous stallion."
Krause and Becker call attention to the significance of the two trefoil marks or
valknutr between the stallion's legs, which denote the realm of death and can be found in similar position on picture stones from Gotland, Sweden like the
Tängelgårda stone and the
Stora Hammars stones. Two other pictures of the Franks Casket show this symbol. On the front it marks the third of the
Magi
Magi (), or magus (), is the term for priests in Zoroastrianism and earlier Iranian religions. The earliest known use of the word ''magi'' is in the trilingual inscription written by Darius the Great, known as the Behistun Inscription. Old Per ...
, who brings
myrrh
Myrrh (; from an unidentified ancient Semitic language, see '' § Etymology'') is a gum-resin extracted from a few small, thorny tree species of the '' Commiphora'' genus, belonging to the Burseraceae family. Myrrh resin has been used ...
. It also appears on the lid, where according to Becker,
Valhalla
In Norse mythology, Valhalla ( , ; , )Orchard (1997:171–172) is described as a majestic hall located in Asgard and presided over by the god Odin. There were five possible realms the soul could travel to after death. The first was Fólkvang ...
is depicted.
The Madness of Nebuchadnezzar?
Leopold Peeters (1996) proposes that the right panel provides a pictorial illustration of the biblical ''
Book of Daniel
The Book of Daniel is a 2nd-century BC biblical apocalypse with a 6th-century BC setting. It is ostensibly a narrative detailing the experiences and Prophecy, prophetic visions of Daniel, a Jewish Babylonian captivity, exile in Babylon ...
'', ch. 4 and 5: The wild creature at the left represents
Nebuchadnezzar
Nebuchadnezzar II, also Nebuchadrezzar II, meaning "Nabu, watch over my heir", was the second king of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, ruling from the death of his father Nabopolassar in 605 BC to his own death in 562 BC. Often titled Nebuchadnezzar ...
after he “was driven away from people and given the mind of an animal; he lived with the wild asses and ate grass like cattle.” The figure facing him is then the “watchful one” who decreed Nebuchadnezzar's fate in a dream (4.13-31), and the quadruped in the centre represents one of the wild asses with whom he lived. Some of the details Peeters cites are specific to the
Old English poem based on ''Daniel''.
According to Peeters, the three figures at the right may then represent
Belshazzar
Belshazzar ( Babylonian cuneiform: ''Bēl-šar-uṣur'', meaning " Bel, protect the king"; ''Bēlšaʾṣṣar'') was the son and crown prince of Nabonidus (), the last king of the Neo-Babylonian Empire. Through his mother, he might have been ...
’s wife and concubines, "conducting blasphemous rites of irreverence (''Dan.'' 5:1-4, 22)." The corpse in the central burial mound would represent Belshazzar himself, who was murdered that night, and the woman mourning him may be the queen mother. The cryptic runes on this panel may be intended to invoke the mysterious writing that appeared on the palace wall during these events.
The Death of Balder?
David Howlett (1997) identifies the illustrations on the right panel with the story of the death of
Balder, as told by the late 12th-century Danish historian
Saxo Grammaticus
Saxo Grammaticus (), also known as Saxo cognomine Longus, was a Danish historian, theologian and author. He is thought to have been a clerk or secretary to Absalon, Archbishop of Lund, the main advisor to Valdemar I of Denmark. He is the author ...
in his ''
Gesta Danorum
("Deeds of the Danes") is a patriotic work of Danish history, by the 12th-century author Saxo Grammaticus ("Saxo the Literate", literally "the Grammarian"). It is the most ambitious literary undertaking of medieval Denmark and is an essentia ...
''. According to Saxo, Balder's rival
Hother meets three women in a dank wood late at night, who provide him with a belt and girdle that will enable him to defeat Balder. Hother wounds Balder, who dies three days later and is buried in a mound.
Howlett identifies the three figures at the right with the three wood maidens (who may be the three
Norns
The Norns ( , plural: ) are a group of deities in Norse mythology responsible for shaping the course of human destinies.''Nordisk familjebok'' (1907)
The Norns are often represented as three goddesses known as Urd ( Urðr), Verðandi, and S ...
), and the shrouded man within the central mound with Balder. “The woman to the right of the mound is
Hel, Saxo’s
Proserpina
Proserpina ( ; ) or Proserpine ( ) is an ancient Roman goddess whose iconography, functions and myths are virtually identical to those of Greek Persephone. Proserpina replaced or was combined with the ancient Roman fertility goddess Libera, whos ...
, prophesying Balder’s death and condemning
Woden
Odin (; from ) is a widely revered god in Norse mythology and Germanic paganism. Most surviving information on Odin comes from Norse mythology, but he figures prominently in the recorded history of Northern Europe. This includes the Roman Emp ...
to sorrow and humiliation. The stallion to the left of the mound is Balder’s father Woden.” In Saxo's story, Woden then begets a second son, Boe (
Bous or Váli), to avenge Balder's death. Howlett interprets the warrior at left as Boe, and “one infers that the mound is depicted twice and that the stallion mourning in the centre of the panel is identical with the figure seated at the left end, where he retains his horse’s head and hooves.”
The Penance of Rhiannon?

Ute Schwab (2008), following Heiner Eichner (1991), interprets the left and central scenes on the right panel as relating to the Welsh legend of
Rhiannon
Rhiannon () is a protagonist (main character) of the Four Branches of the Mabinogi, Mabinogi, in its First and Third Branches. She originates only in these prose tales, with just a couple of references in 14thC mediaeval Welsh poetry, and none ...
. According to the ''
Mabinogion
The ''Mabinogion'' () is a collection of the earliest Welsh prose stories, compiled in Middle Welsh in the 12th–13th centuries from earlier oral traditions. There are two main source manuscripts, created –1410, as well as a few earlier frag ...
'', a medieval collection of ancient Welsh stories, Rhiannon was falsely accused of murdering and eating her infant son
Pryderi, who, according to Schwab, is represented by the swaddled infant in the central scene. As a penance, she was required, as depicted in the scene on the left,
"to sit beside the
horse-block outside the gates of the court for seven years, offering to carry visitors up to the palace on her back, like a beast of burden.... Rhiannon's horse-imagery and her bounty have led scholars to equate her with the Celtic horse-goddess
Epona."
Satan and the Nativity?
Austin Simmons (2010) parses the frame inscription into the following segments:
:''herh os-sitæþ on hærm-bergæ''
:''agl drigiþ swæ hiri er tae-gi-sgraf''
:''sær-den sorgæ and sefa-tornæ''
This he translates, "The idol sits far off on the dire hill, suffers abasement in sorrow and heart-rage as the den of pain had ordained for it." Linguistically, the segment ''os-'' represents the verbal prefix ''oþ-'' assimilated to the following sibilant, while in the b-verse of the second line ''er'' "before" is an independent word before a three-member verbal compound, ''tae-gi-sgraf''. The first member ''tae-'' is a rare form of the particle-prefix ''to-''.
The inscription refers specifically to the scene on the left end of the casket's right side. According to Simmons, the 'idol' (''herh'') is
Satan
Satan, also known as the Devil, is a devilish entity in Abrahamic religions who seduces humans into sin (or falsehood). In Judaism, Satan is seen as an agent subservient to God, typically regarded as a metaphor for the '' yetzer hara'', or ' ...
in the form of an ass, being tortured by a personified Hell in helmet. The scene is a reference to the apocryphon ''
Decensus ad Inferos'', a popular medieval text translated into Anglo-Saxon. In one version of the story of the
Harrowing of Hell
In Christian theology, the Harrowing of Hell (; Greek language, Greek: – "the descent of Christ into Christian views on Hell, Hell" or Christian views on Hades, Hades) is the period of time between the Crucifixion of Jesus and his Resurre ...
, a personified Hell blames Satan for having brought about the
Crucifixion
Crucifixion is a method of capital punishment in which the condemned is tied or nailed to a large wooden cross, beam or stake and left to hang until eventual death. It was used as a punishment by the Achaemenid Empire, Persians, Ancient Carthag ...
, which has allowed Christ to descend to Hell's kingdom and free the imprisoned souls. Therefore, Hell tortures Satan in retribution. Simmons separates the other scenes on the right side and interprets them as depictions of the
Nativity and the
Passion.
Runological and numerological considerations
Each Anglo-Saxon runic letter had an
acrophonic
Acrophony (; + 'sound') is the naming of grapheme, letters of an alphabetic writing system so that a letter's name begins with the letter itself. For example, Greek letter names are acrophonic: the names of the letters α, β, γ, δ, are spell ...
Old English name, which gave the rune itself the connotations of the name, as described in the
Old English rune poem. The inscriptions on the Franks Casket are alliterative verse, and so give particular emphasis to one or more runes on each side. According to Becker (1973, 2002), these tell a story corresponding to the illustrations, with each of the scenes emblematic of a certain period of the life and afterlife of a warrior-king: The front inscription alliterates on both the F-rune ᚠ ''feoh'' (wealth) and the G-rune ᚷ ''gyfu'' (gift), corresponding to the jewellery produced by the goldsmith Welund and the gifts of the three Magi. “In this box our warrior hoarded his treasure, golden rings and bands and bracelets, jewellery he had received from his lord, … which he passed to his own retainers… This is ''feohgift'', a gift not only for the keep of this or that follower, but also to honour him in front of his comrade-in-arms in the hall.” The Romulus and Remus inscription alliterates on the R-rune ᚱ ''rad'' (journey or ride), evoking both how far from home the twins had journeyed and the owner's call to arms. The Titus side stresses the T-rune ᛏ ''
Tiw'' (the Anglo-Saxon god of victory), documenting that the peak of a warrior-king's life is glory won by victory over his enemies. The right side alliterates first on the H-rune ᚻ ''hagal'' (hail storm or misfortune) and then on the S-rune ᛋ ''sigel'' (sun, light, life), and illustrates the hero's death and ultimate salvation, according to Becker.
Becker also presents a numerological analysis of the inscriptions, finding 72 = 3 x 24 signs on the front and left panels, and a total of 288 or 12 x 24 signs on the entire casket. All these numbers are multiples of 24 = 3 x 8, the magical number of runes in the
elder futhark
The Elder Futhark (or Fuþark, ), also known as the Older Futhark, Old Futhark, or Germanic Futhark, is the oldest form of the runic alphabets. It was a writing system used by Germanic peoples for Northwest Germanic dialects in the Migration Per ...
, the early continental runic alphabet preserved within the extended
Anglo-Saxon futhorc
Anglo-Saxon runes or Anglo-Frisian runes are runes that were used by the Anglo-Saxons and Medieval Frisians (collectively called Anglo-Frisians) as an alphabet in their native writing system, recording both Old English and Old Frisian (, ᚱ� ...
. "In order to reach certain values the carver had to choose quite unusual word forms and ways of spelling which have kept generations of scholars busy."
Osborn (1991a, 1991b) concurs that the rune counts of 72 are intentional. However, "whereas
eckersees this as indicating pagan magic, I see it as complementing such magic, as another example of the Franks Casket artist adapting his pagan materials to a Christian evangelical purpose in the mode of ''interpretatio romana''. The artist manipulates his runes very carefully, on the front of the casket supplementing their number with dots and on the right side reducing their number with
bindrunes, so that each of the three inscriptions contains precisely seventy-two items.... The most obvious Christian association of the number seventy-two, for an Anglo-Saxon if not for us, is with the missionary disciples appointed by Christ in addition to the twelve apostles.... The number of these disciples is mentioned in scripture only in Luke 10, and there are two versions of this text; whereas the Protestant Bible says that Christ appointed a further seventy disciples, the Vulgate version known to the Anglo-Saxons specifies seventy-two. In commenting on that number,
Bede
Bede (; ; 672/326 May 735), also known as Saint Bede, Bede of Jarrow, the Venerable Bede, and Bede the Venerable (), was an English monk, author and scholar. He was one of the most known writers during the Early Middle Ages, and his most f ...
associates it with the mission to the Gentiles (that is, "all nations"), because seventy-two is the number of nations among the Gentiles, a multiple of the twelve tribes of Israel represented by the twelve apostles."
Glossary
This is a glossary of the Old English words on the casket, excluding personal names. Definitions are selected from those in
Clark Hall's dictionary.
[ John R. Clark Hall, ''A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary'', 4th rev. edn by Herbet D. Meritt (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1960); 1916 second edn available at http://www.gutenberg.org/files/31543/31543-0.txt.]
See also
*
Anglo-Saxon runes
Anglo-Saxon runes or Anglo-Frisian runes are runes that were used by the Anglo-Saxons and Medieval Frisians (collectively called Anglo-Frisians) as an alphabet in their native writing system, recording both Old English and Old Frisian (, ᚱ� ...
*
Old English rune poem
*
Ruthwell Cross
The Ruthwell Cross is a stone Anglo-Saxon cross probably dating from the 8th century, when the village of Ruthwell, now in Scotland, was part of the Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of Northumbria.
It is the most famous and elaborate Anglo-Saxon monumental ...
Notes
References
* d'Ardenne, Simonne R.T.O., "Does the right side of the Franks Casket represent the burial of Sigurd?" ''Études Germaniques'', 21 (1966), pp. 235–242.
* Becker, Alfred, ''Franks Casket: Zu den Bildern und Inschriften des Runenkästchens von Auzon''. Regensburg, 1973.
* Becker, Alfred
Franks Casketwebsite dated 2002, with English and German versions.
* Becker, Alfred, ''Franks Casket; Das Runenkästchen von Auzon. Magie in Bildern, Runen und Zahlen''. Berlin 2021, .
* Becker, Alfred, ''The King's Gift Box: The Runic Casket of Auzon'' Witan Publishing, Troy, Al. 2023
* Bouman, A.C., "The Franks Casket," ''Neophilologus'' 3 (1965): 241–9.
* Clark, Eleanor Grace, "The Right Side of the Franks Casket," ''Publications of the Modern Language Association'' 45 (1930): 339–353.
* Cocco, Gabriele
"The Bowman Who Takes the Lid off the Franks Casket." ''Studi anglo-norreni in onore di John S. McKinnell'', ed. M. E. Ruggerini. CUED Editrice, 2009.
* Eichner, Heiner, ''Zu Franks Casket/Rune Auzon'', in Alfred Bammesberger, ed., ''Old English Runes and their Continental Background'' (= ''Altenglische Forschngen'' 217). Heidelberg, 1991, pp. 603–628.
*
Elliott, Ralph W.V., ''Runes: An Introduction''. Manchester University Press, 1959.
* Green, Miranda Jane, ''Celtic Myths''. British Museum Press, 1993.
* Henderson, George, ''Early Medieval Art'', 1972, rev. 1977, Penguin, pp. 156–158.
* Hough, Carole and John Corbett, ''Beginning Old English''. Palgrave, 2013.
* Howlett, David R., ''British Books in Biblical Style''. Dublin, Four Courts Press, 1997.
*
Krause, Wolfgang, "Erta, ein anglischer Gott", ''Die Sprache'' 5; Festschrift Havers (1959), 46–54.
*
Napier, Arthur S., in ''An English Miscellany,'' in honor of Dr. F.J. Furnivall, Oxford, 1901.
* Neuman de Vegvar, Carol L. "The Travelling Twins: Romulus and Remus in Anglo-Saxon England." Ch. 21 in Jane Hawkes and Susan Mills, eds., ''Northumbria's Golden Age'', Sutton Publishing, Phoenix Mill Thrupp, Strand, Gloucestershire, 1999, pp. 256–267.
* Osborn, Marijane. "The Seventy-Two Gentiles and the Theme of the Franks Casket." ''Neuphilologische Mitteilungen: Bulletin de la Société Néophilologique/ Bulletin of the Modern Language Society'' 92 (1991a): 281–288.
*Osborn, Marijane. "The Lid as Conclusion of the Syncretic Theme of the Franks Casket," in A. Bammesberger (ed.), ''Old English Runes and their Continental Background'', Heidelberg 1991b, pp. 249–268.
*
Page, R.I. ''An Introduction to English Runes'', Woodbridge, 1999.
* Parsons, D. ''Recasting the Runes: the Reform of the Anglo-Saxon Futhorc'' (''Runron'' 14), Uppsala 1999.
* Peeters, Leopold, "The Franks Casket: A Judeo-Christian Interpretation.", 1996, ''Amsterdamer Beiträge zur älteren Germanistik'' 46: 17–52.
* Schneider, Karl, "Zu den Inschriften und Bildern des Franks Casket und einer ae. Version des Mythos von Balders Tod." In ''Festschrift für Walther Fischer'' Heidelberg, Universitätsverlag, 1959.
* Schwab, Ute, ''Franks Casket: fünf Studien zum Runenkästchen von Auzon'', ed. by Hasso C. Heiland. Vol. 15 of ''Studia medievalia septentrionalia'', Vienna: Fassbaender, 2008.
* Simmons, Austi
''The Cipherment of the Franks Casket''on
Project Woruldhord, dated Jan. 2010.
* Söderberg, Sigurd, in ''London Academy'', Aug. 2, 1899, p. 90. (As cited by Clark 1930)
* Stephens, George, ''The Old-Norse Runic Monuments of Scandinavia and England'' (4 volumes), London: J.R. Smith, 1866–1901.
* Vandersall, Amy L., "The Date and Provenance of the Franks Casket," ''Gesta'' 11, 2 (1972), pp. 9–26.
* Vandersall, Amy L., "Homeric Myth in Early Medieval England: The Lid of the Franks Casket". ''Studies in Iconography'' 1 (1975): 2-37.
*
Viëtor, W., "Allgemeinwissenschaftliches; Gelehrten-, Schrift-, Buch- und Bibliothekswesen." ''Deutsche Literaturzeitung''. Vol. 25, 13 Feb. 1904.
* Wadstein, Elis (1900), "The Clermont Runic Casket," ''Skrifter utgifna af K. Humanistiska Vetenskaps-Samfundet i Upsala'' 6 (7). Uppsala, Almqvist & Wicksells Boktryckeri A. B. Available as undated
University of Michigan
The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...
Libraries reprint.
*
Webster, Leslie (1991), "The Franks Casket," in
L. Webster -
J. Backhouse (eds), ''The Making of England: Anglo-Saxon Art and Culture, AD 600-900'', London 1991, pp. 101–103 (text o
British Museum collection database.
*
Webster, Leslie (2000), ''The Franks Casket'', pp. 194–195, ''The Blackwell encyclopaedia of Anglo-Saxon England'' (Editors: Michael Lapidge, John Blair, Simon Keynes), Wiley-Blackwell, 2000, , .
*
Webster, Leslie (2012a), ''Anglo-Saxon Art'', British Museum Press, .
*
Webster, Leslie (2012b), ''The Franks Casket: Objects in Focus'', British Museum Press, 2012b, .
*
Wilson, David M.; ''Anglo-Saxon Art: From The Seventh Century To The Norman Conquest'', Thames and Hudson (US edn. Overlook Press), 1984.
* Wood, Ian N., "Ripon, Francia and the Franks Casket in the Early Middle Ages", ''Northern History'', 26 (1990), pp. 1–19.
Literature
* Richard Abels, “What Has Weland to Do with Christ? The Franks Casket and the Acculturation of Christianity in Early Anglo-Saxon England.” ''Speculum'' 84, no. 3 (July 2009), 549–581.
*Alfred Becker, "Franks Casket Revisited," ''Asterisk, A Quarterly Journal of Historical English Studies'', 12/2 (2003), 83-128.
*Alfred Becker, "The Virgin and the Vamp," ''Asterisk, A Quarterly Journal of Historical English Studies'', 12/4 (2003), 201-209.
*Alfred Becker, "A Magic Spell "powered by" a Lunisolar Calendar," ''Asterisk, A Quarterly Journal of Historical English Studies'', 15 (2006), 55 -73.
*
M. Clunies Ross, ''A suggested Interpretation of the Scene depicted on the Right-Hand Side of the Franks Casket'', Medieval Archaeology 14 (1970), pp. 148–152.
* Jane Hawkes and Susan Mills (editors), ''Northumbria's Golden Age'' (1999); with articles by
L. Webster, James Lang, C. Neuman de Vegvar on various aspects of the casket.
*W. Krogmann, "Die Verse vom Wal auf dem Runenkästchen von Auzon," ''Germanisch-Romanische Monatsschrift'', N.F. 9 (1959), pp. 88–94.
*J. Lang, "The Imagery of the Franks Casket: Another Approach," in J. Hawkes & S. Mills (ed.) ''Northumbria’s Golden Age'' (1999) pp. 247 – 255
*
K. Malone, "The Franks Casket and the Date of Widsith," in A.H. Orrick (ed.), ''Nordica et Anglica, Studies in Honor of Stefán Einarsson'', The Hague 1968, pp. 10–18.
*Th. Müller-Braband,'' Studien zum Runenkästchen von Auzon und zum Schiffsgrab von Sutton Hoo''; Göppinger Arbeiten zur Germanistik 728 (2005)
*M. Osborn, "The Grammar of the Inscription on the Franks Casket, right Side," ''Neuphilologische Mitteilungen'' 73 (1972), pp. 663–671.
*M. Osborn, ''The Picture-Poem on the Front of the Franks Casket'', Neuphilologische Mitteilungen 75 (1974), pp. 50–65.
* P. W. Souers, "The Top of the Franks Casket," ''Harvard Studies and Notes in Philology and Literature'', 17 (1935), pp. 163–179.
*P. W. Souers, "The Franks Casket: Left Side," ''Harvard Studies and Notes in Philology and Literature'', 18 (1936), pp. 199–209.
*P. W. Souers, "The Magi on the Franks Casket," ''Harvard Studies and Notes in Philology and Literature'', 19 (1937), pp. 249–254.
*P. W. Souers, "The Wayland Scene on the Franks Casket," ''Speculum'' 18 (1943), pp. 104–111.
* K. Spiess, "Das angelsächsische Runenkästchen (die Seite mit der Hos-Inschrift)," in ''Josef Strzygowski-Festschrift'', Klagenfurt 1932, pp. 160–168.
*
L. Webster, "The Iconographic Programme of the Franks Casket," in J. Hawkes & S. Mills (ed.) ''Northumbria’s Golden Age'' (1999), pp. 227 – 246
*
L. Webster, "Stylistic Aspects of the Franks Casket," in R. Farrell (ed.), ''The Vikings'', London 1982, pp. 20–31.
*A. Wolf, "Franks Casket in literarhistorischer Sicht," ''Frühmittelalterliche Studien'' 3 (1969), pp. 227–243.
External links
* Archaeosoup Productions
In Focus: Franks Casket. Posted 25 Aug. 2012.
* Boulton, Meg
Considering the institutional narratives and object narratives of the Franks Casket public lecture at the University of York, Feb. 3, 2015.
* British Library
The Franks Casket.
* British Museum
The Franks Casket / The Auzon Casket* British Library, UK Web Archiv
''Franks Casket'' preserving Alfred Becker's website.
* Drout, Michael D. C.,
The Franks Casket, ''Anglo-Saxon Aloud'' (15 February 2008) (readings of the poems on the front and right-hand panels).
* Foys, Martin
The Franks Casket: a Digital Edition, Edition of the runic inscriptions, with high-resolution images of each side of the object.
*
Ramirez, JaninaTreasures of the Anglo Saxons BBC Four production first broadcast 10 Aug. 2010.
Part 3 of 4discusses the Franks Casket and the Welund legend.
*
Ramirez, Janina"The Franks Casket - with Tony Robinson" Podcast i
acastArt Detective
series. Published Feb. 22, 2017.
* West, Andrew
Anglo-Saxon Runic fonts
* West, Andrew
* Wright, Andrew eor Readerbr>Horsing Around? — Thorny Problem of the Franks Casket Reveals Another Riddle
Dec. 23, 2017. Proposes an alternative reading of the right side.
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