Franks Casket facts for kids

The Franks Casket, as displayed in the British Museum; the front and lid

The Franks Casket (or the Auzon Casket) is a small Anglo-Saxon whale's bone (not "whalebone" in the sense of baleen) chest from the early 8th century, now in the British Museum. The casket is densely decorated with knife-cut narrative scenes in flat two-dimensional low-relief and with inscriptions mostly in Anglo-Saxon runes. Generally thought to be of Northumbrian origin, it is of unique importance for the insight it gives into early Anglo-Saxon art and culture. Both identifying the images and interpreting the runic inscriptions has generated a considerable amount of scholarship.

Left side and top

The imagery is very diverse in its subject matter and derivations, and includes a single Christian image, the Adoration of the Magi, along with images derived from Roman history (Emperor Titus) and Roman mythology (Romulus and Remus), as well as a depiction of at least one legend indigenous to the Germanic peoples: that of Weyland the Smith. It has also been suggested that there may be an episode from the Sigurd legend, an otherwise lost episode from the life of Weyland's brother Egil, a Homeric legend involving Achilles, and perhaps even an allusion to the legendary founding of England by Hengist and Horsa.

The inscriptions "display a deliberate linguistic and alphabetic virtuosity; though they are mostly written in Old English 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

Original of right panel, on display in Bargello Museum, Florence

A monastic origin is generally accepted for the casket, which was perhaps made for presentation to an important secular figure, and Wilfrid's foundation at Ripon 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, 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, who sold them to an antique shop in Paris, 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, where it was identified as part of the casket in 1890. The British Museum display includes a cast of it.

Runological and numerological considerations

The inscription ᚠᛁᛋᚳ᛫ᚠᛚᚩᛞᚢ᛫ "Fisc Flodu …" on the front of the Franks Casket alliterates on the F-rune ᚠ feoh, which connotes wealth or treasure

Each Anglo-Saxon runic letter had an acrophonic 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 early continental runic alphabet preserved within the extended Anglo-Saxon futhorc. "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 [Becker] sees 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 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.

See also

• Anglo-Saxon runes
• Old English rune poem
• Ruthwell Cross

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.