The Franks Casket
Anglo-Saxon, first half of the 8th century
AD
Northumbria, England
Scenes from Roman, Jewish, Christian and
Germanic tradition
When it came to light in the nineteenth
century, this magnificent rectangular casket was being used as a
family workbox at Auzon, France. Some time during its mysterious
history it was dismantled and one end panel was separated from the
rest of the box. This piece was bequeathed to the Museo Nazionale
del Bargello in Florence, and is represented here by a cast. The
remaining panels were presented to the British Museum by one of its
greatest benefactors, Sir Augustus Franks, after whom the casket is
named. It is also known as the Auzon
casket.
The box is made of
whale's bone, richly carved on the sides and lid in high
relief with a range of scenes with accompanying text in both the
runic and Roman alphabets and in both Old English and Latin. Silver
fittings attached to the casket, a handle, locks and hinges, were
removed at some time in its history leaving scars which mark their
original positions. The non-decorated part of the lid almost
certainly replaces a carved piece, and part of the plain base is
also missing.
The front is
divided into two scenes: the left is derived from the Germanic
legend of Weland the Smith, while the right depicts the Adoration
of the Magi, when the three wise men visited the newborn Christ,
labelled 'mægi' in
runes.
The left-hand end
shows the founders of Rome identified in the accompanying text as
Romulus and Remus, from the legend of twin brothers brought up by a
wolf. The back shows the capture of Jerusalem in AD 70 by the Roman
Emperor Titus. This scene has an inscription in mixed languages and
scripts.
The right-hand
end, here a cast, is difficult to interpret, but recalls a lost
Germanic legend with a text partly in encoded runes. This appears
to describe a person called Hos sitting upon the
'sorrow-mound'. The decorated panel in the lid
shows another Germanic story about a hero named Ægili who is shown
defending a fortification from armed
raiders.
Surprisingly, the
main runic inscription on the front does not refer to the scene it
surrounds. It is a riddle in Old English relating to the origin of
the casket. It can be translated as 'The fish beat up the
seas on to the mountainous cliff; the King of terror became sad
when he swam onto the shingle.' This is then answered with
the solution 'Whale's bone.' It tells us
that the casket was made from the bone of a beached
whale.
The style of the
carving, and dialect of the inscriptions, show that the casket was
made in northern England, probably in a monastery, and possibly for
a learned patron. Made at a time when Christianity had not long
been established in England, it reflects a strong interest in how
the pagan Germanic past might relate to Christ's message,
and to the histories of Rome and Jerusalem. How and when the casket
arrived in France is unknown, although by the thirteenth century it
seems to have been at the important shrine of St Julian at Brioude
in the Auvergne.
D.M. Wilson, Anglo-Saxon art (London, Thames and Hudson, 1984)
R.I. Page, An introduction to English run, 2nd ed. (Woodbridge, Boydell, 1999)
L. Webster, 'Le Coffret d'Auzon; son histoire et signification', St Julien et les Origines de B (2006)
L. Webster and J. Backhouse, The making of England: Anglo-S, exh. cat. (London, The British Museum Press, 1991)
L. Webster, 'The iconographic programme of the Frank's Casket' in Northumbrias golden age (Stroud, Sutton, 1999), pp. 227-46