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,[1] 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.[2]
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".[3] Some are written upside down or back to front.[4] It is named after a former owner, Sir Augustus Wollaston Franks, who gave it to the British Museum.
^The first considerable publication, by George Stephens, Old-Northern Runic Monuments of Scandinavia and England (1866–1901) I-II:470-76, 921-23, III:200-04, IV:40-44, placed it in Northumbria and dated it to the 8th century. Although A. S. Napier (1901) concurs with an early 8th-century Northumbrian origin, Mercia, and a 7th-century date, have also been proposed .[citation needed] The British Museum website (see external links) says Northumbria and "first half of the 8th century AD", as does Webster (2012a:92), "early part of the eighth century".
^Vandersall summarises the previous scholarship as at 1972 in setting the casket into an art-historical, rather than linguistic context. Mrs Leslie Webster, former Keeper at the British Museum and the leading expert, has published a new short book on the casket (Webster 2012b).
^Webster (2000).
^Parsons (1999, 98-100) has an important discussion on the runes used in the Franks Casket.
The FranksCasket (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,...
Romulus and Remus (Romwalus and Reumwalus) and two wolves on the FranksCasket: FranksCasket, Helpers on the way to war Romulous and Remus on the Ara Pacis...
toil ... they created for me. Three women carved on the right panel of FranksCasket, an Anglo-Saxon whalebone chest from the eighth century, have been identified...
similar stories, most prominently the Old English poem Deor and the FranksCasket. Wayland is also mentioned in passing in a wide range of texts, such...
Simmons, The Cipherment of the FranksCasket. (https://web.archive.org/web/20120303013402/http://homeros.godsong.org/FRANKS_CASKET.pdf) Norbert Wagner, Zu den...
of the FranksCasket (PDF). Hellmouth (or the whale as constituting Hell) is inferred in the inscription on the front side of the FranksCasket. Media...
Venus figurines. The Anglo-Saxon FranksCasket is a whale bone casket imitating earlier ivory ones. Medieval bone caskets were made by the Embriachi workshop...
as "receiving the myrrh". The picture of the Magi on the 7th-century FranksCasket shows the third visitor – he who brings myrrh – with a valknut over...
luda:gibœtæsigilæ "Luda repaired the brooch" the left panel of the FranksCasket, twice: tƿœgen gibroþær afœddæ hiæ ƿylif "two brothers (scil. Romulus...
(Austin Simmons, The Cipherment of the FranksCasket) Titus is twice depicted on the back side of the FranksCasket. Media related to Titus (category) at...
such synthesis can be seen in previous examples, such as the FranksCasket. The FranksCasket, believed to have been produced in Northumbria, includes depictions...
Vespasian The Cipherment of the FranksCasket; A. Simmons; Vespasian is depicted on the back side of the FranksCasket Wikimedia Commons has media related...
appears in Deor, Waldere, and Beowulf; the legend is depicted on the FranksCasket. Arthurian tales: see King Arthur. The Tales of Robin Hood and his Merry...
Sir Augustus Wollaston Franks KCB FRS FSA (20 March 1826 – 21 May 1897) was a British antiquarian and museum administrator. Franks was described by Marjorie...
sefa is written with a ligatured ᚠ and ᚪ (fa) on the right side of the FranksCasket Double ligatured runes ᛖᚱ (er), ᚻᚪ (ha) and ᛞᚫ (dæ) occur in the cryptic...
a medieval belief in the magical significance of runes, such as the FranksCasket (AD 700) panel. Charm words, such as auja, laþu, laukaʀ, and most commonly...
earliest attestations of the heroic tradition is on the Anglo-Saxon FranksCasket (c. 700), which depicts a scene from the legend of Wayland the smith:...
script, features on the FranksCasket. One possible solution for the riddle is 'whale', evoking the whale-bone from which the casket made. The Vercelli Book...
reliquary Pyxis of Čierne Kľačany, perhaps 4th-century, Byzantine, ivory FranksCasket, early 8th century, Northumbria (now Northern England and south-east...