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The Franks Casket has appeared on Yuri’s body-parts thread, makes an appearance in 21st Century Grail, and is the subject of articles that Yuri has written for The Temple. I had a day to myself in London around Beltane and among other things spent a good hour looking at the casket in the British Museum. The pictures I had previously seen do not do justice to it, it is a beautiful object. But it is also rather a curious object, if not downright mysterious, and deserves a thread of its own.
There a some good pictures of the panels on the web, along with basic information. The British Museum’s on-line catalogue shows them here:
[url:1md31q05]http://www.thebritishmuseum.ac.uk/compass/ixbin/goto?id=OBJ548[/url]Yuri has a good page here (if it is available), which has the virtue of providing translations of the various runic inscriptions – handy if you don’t know Anglo-Saxon:
[url:1md31q05]http://uk.geocities.com/yuri.leitch@btinternet.com/frankscasket_main.html[/url]In brief, the box is dated to the early 8th century C.E., carved in Northumbria from whalebone. The panels are:
Front: On the right, the adoration of the Magi. On the left, Weyland the smith holds a goblet made from the skull of one of King Nithad’s sons. More detail about the story of Weyland here: [url:1md31q05]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wayland_the_Smith[/url]
Left Panel: Romulus and Remus, legendary founders of Rome, being suckled by a she-wolf (though two wolves are depicted here), while hunters or soldiers approach. More detail about the story of Romulus and Remus here: [url:1md31q05]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romulus_and_Remus[/url]
Rear Panel: The destruction of Jerusalem by Titus in 70 C.E.
Right Panel: No one knows what this panel is actually showing, or what the inscription actually says. The British Museum says it is an unknown scene from Germanic mythology (though if it is an unknown scene, how do they know?).
Top Panel: Shows Aegil the archer (also brother of Weyland) defending a house against some soldiers. About half the panel is missing.
So many questions. What does the juxtaposition of the adoration with Weyland mean, if anything? Is the riddle relevent? What is the bird at the Magi’s feet? Is the front Magi holding a cup, and is it related to the cup in Wayland’s hand? Is that the star of Bethlehem above the ‘cup’, or something else? Is the focus of the picture the virgin and child, or the Magi themselves? Who are the two figures with Weyland? Are there elhaz runes surrounding the rightmost of two figures, and if so what do they indicate? Why are two wolves shown with Romulus and Remus? What is important about the fall of Jerusalem? Who is the seated figure – Titus, Jesus, Joseph of Aramathea? Who is the small figure under the seat, and why are they holding a cup in a depiction that matches Weyland on the front panel? What is the right-panel all about, who are its figures? What might have been on the rest of the top panel? How do the panels relate to each other, if they do at all? And what might have been in the box – treasure, a relic, a document? Do the scenes merely depict the idealised life of a warrior as suggested by [url:1md31q05]http://www.franks-casket.de/english/index.html[/url], or is there much more to it than that?
Any suggestions or psychic impressions, post them here!
Lol!
Well there’s a can of worms opened! Over 15 questions in just Michael’s last paragraph!
I”m just passing by (but a great call, this topic for a thread) I’ll post on it soon.
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