Franks Casket

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

Franks Casket; the back and lid

The Franks Casket (or the Auzon Casket) is a small Anglo-Saxon whale's bone (not baleen) chest from the early eighth 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 reckoned 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.

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.

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; 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 (upper Loire region) France. 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.

Description

The Brescia Casket, one of the best survivals of the sort of Late Antique models the Franks Casket emulates. Late 4th century

The casket is 22.9 cm long, 19 cm wide and 10.9 cm high - 9 x 7½ by 5⅛ inches, and dateable from the language of its inscriptions and other features to the first half of the eighth 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 ivory caskets such as one at Brescia; the Veroli Casket in the V&A Museum is a Byzantine interpretation of the style, in revived classical style, from about 1000.

Interpretations

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 university history". It may have been intended to hold a book, perhaps a psalter, and intended to be presented to a "secular, probably royal, recipient"

Alfred Becker (1973, 2002) interprets the casket as a whole, finding a programme documenting a warrior-king's life and after life, with each of the scenes emblematic of a certain period in life, and having a dominant alliterating runic letter or letters with connotations derived from the rune names in the Old English rune poem. The front (f and g) panel stands for "birth" and assistance by the Fylgja, the picture and inscription on the left panel (r) meant to protect the hero on his way to war, the back panel (t) documenting the peak of a warrior-king's life is glory won by victory over his enemies, the right panel (s) alluding to a heroic death in battle. According to Becker, each scene corresponds with a certain rune in a definite position (f, g, r, t, s, æ, producing a value of 3 x 24). Becker also presents a numerological analysis of the inscriptions, counting a total of 288 or 12 x 24 signs (runes, Latin letters and punctuation). The number of runes refers to a ten-year solar calendar while their value produces a lunar calendar.

Marijane Osborn in an article titled "The Seventy-Two Gentile Nations and the Theme of the Franks Casket" says that "several scholars have observed that the number of runes plus dots in the inscriptions on the front and the two sides of the casket in each case adds up to seventy-two, the number of the futhoric or rune-list multiplied by three. Whereas Alfred Becker sees this as indicating pagan magic, I see it as another example of the Franks Casket artist turning his pagan materials to a Christian evangelical purpose. As he is manipulating his runes very carefully, on the left side and front supplementing their numbers with dots and on the right side reducing their number with a Roman letter and a bindrune, so that each of the three inscriptions contains precisely seventy-two items, there can be no question here of us introducing a symbolism that was not intended. But it may be misinterpreted."

Front panel

Detail of front panel, depicting the Germanic legend of Wayland the Smith and the Christian adoration of the Magi

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) stands at the extreme left in the forge where he is held as a slave by King Niðhad, who has had his hamstrings cut to hobble him. Below the forge is the headless body of Niðhad's son, who 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 Bodvild, Niðhad's daughter, who he then rapes when she is unconscious. Another female figure is shown in the centre; perhaps Wayland's helper, or Bodvild 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 commonest 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 ("magi"), led by the large star, approach the enthroned Madonna and Child bearing the traditional gifts. A goose-like bird by the feet of the leading magus may represent the Holy Spirit, 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.

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:

fisc flodu ahof   on fergenberig

warþ gasric grorn   þær he on greut giswom

hronæs ban

This has been interpreted as:

The fish beat up the sea(s) on to the mountainous cliff

The king of ?terror became sad when he swam onto the grit.

Whale's bone.

According to Becker (2002), as the two alliterating runes 'f' (feoh) and 'g' (gift) on the front panel can be understood as Old English feogift (bounty, largesse) and as the pictures of the Magi (bringers of gift) and of the mythical goldsmith (maker of feoh i.e. trinkets etc.) express the same, the box may have served a king as his hoard box from which he handed out his gifts to his followers in the hall.

Left panel

The left panel, depicting Romulus and Remus.

The left panel depicts the mythological twin founders of Rome, Romulus and Remus, being suckled by a 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:

Romwalus and Reumwalus, twœgen gibroþær,

afœddæ hiæ wylif in Romæcæstri,

oþlæ unneg,

which may be interpreted as:

Romulus and Remus, two brothers,

a she-wolf nourished them in Rome,

far from their native land.

Another Anglo-Saxon bone plaque, existing only in a fragment at the Castle Museum, Norwich, which was found at Larling, Norfolk, also shows Romulus and Remus being suckled, with other animal ornament.

Carol Neuman de Vegvar (1999) observes that depictions of Romulus and Remus are frequent in East Anglian art and coinage. She suggests that because of the similarity of the story of Romulus and Remus to that of Hengist and Horsa, 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, depicting a scene from the First Jewish-Roman War.

The rear panel depicts the Taking of Jerusalem by Titus in the First Jewish-Roman War. The inscription is partly in Old English and partly in Latin, and part of the Latin portion is written in Roman letters (indicated below in upper case letters), with the remainder transcribed phonetically into runic letters. Two isolated words stand in the lower corners. It reads:

her fegtaþ titus end giuþeasu

HIC FUGIANT HIERUSALIM afitatores

dom / gisl

This may be interpreted as:

Here Titus and a Jew fight:

Here its inhabitants flee from Jerusalem.

Judgement / Hostage

At left in the upper register the Romans, led by Titus in a helm with a sword, attack a domed building, probably the Temple of Jerusalem, in the centre. At upper right ("HIC FUGIANT HIERUSALIM afitatores") the Jewish population flee, casting glances backwards. In the lower register at left, a throned figure, probably Titus, announces the "doom" or fate of the defeated Jews, which as recounted in Josephus was to be sold into slavery. In the lower right hand scene, the "gisl" or slaves/hostages are led away.

Lid

The lid of the casket is said by some to depict an otherwise lost legend of Egil; Egil fends off an army with bow and arrow while the female behind him may be his wife Olrun. Others interpret it as a scene from the Trojan War involving Achilles.

The lid as it now survives is incomplete. Leslie Webster has suggested that there may have been relief 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 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, 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 'aegili' = 'Egil'."

Josef Strzygowski (quoted by Viëtor 1904) proposed instead that the lid represents a scene pertaining to the fall of Troy, but did not elaborate. Karl Schneider (1959) identifies the word Ægili on the lid as either the nominative singular or dative singular Anglo-Saxon form of the name of the Greek hero Achilles. 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's brothers by Achilles at Thebes in a story from the Iliad, 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 as the archer and the person behind the archer (interpreted as a woman by most other authors) as Achilles in his tent.

Webster (2012b:46-8) notes that the unusual two-headed beast both above and below the figure in the room behind the archer also appears beneath the feet of Christ in an illustration from an 8th-century Northumbrian manuscript of Cassiodorus, Commentary on the Psalms.

Right panel

The replica right panel in London

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. At right are three figures; the two outer ones perhaps hold fast the one in the middle. Interpretations of the central scene range from The Burial of Sigurd (Söderberg) to the Nativity of Jesus (Simmons), and of the right-hand scene from the three Norns (Elliott, Bouman, Becker) to the Arrest of Jesus (Simmons).

A definite 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 R.I. Page, "it is not clear which is which or even if the carver distinguished competently between the two."

Page reads the inscription as

Her Hos sitiþ   on harmberga

agl[.] drigiþ   swa hiræ Ertae gisgraf

sarden sorga   and sefa torna,

and translates this as

Here Hos sits on the sorrow-mound;

She suffers distress as Ertae had imposed it upon her,

a wretched den (?wood) of sorrows and of torments of mind.

Sigurd and Grani?

Sigurd saga runestone from eastern Sweden depicts Sigurd's horse Grani

In 1899, Sigurd Söderberg proposed that the right panel depicts "a representation of a scene from the Sigurd myth explained by Runic inscriptions." Although Arthur Napier remained "entirely unconvinced" and believed "that the true explanation of the picture has still to be found," Eleanor Clark wrote, "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 Sigurd's 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 chracterized the place, and the bodyless cock crows lustily as a kind of eerie genius loci identifying the spot as Hel's wall."

Hengist and Horsa?

The White horse of Kent is said to be based on the banner of Horsa

A.C. Bouman (1965) and Simonne d'Ardenne (1966) instead interpret the mournful stallion (Anglo-Saxon hengist) at the center 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's Ecclesiastical History of the English People and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. 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. Bouman suggests that the female mourner could then be Hengist's famous daughter Renwein.

Bouman and d'Ardenne go on to 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 Anglo-Saxon) would then be the "Hos" referred to in the panel's inscription as sitting on a "sorrow-mound." They both note that there is a miniature horse in each corner of the panel, in keeping with its theme of two very famous "horses."

Bouman comments with regard to the interpretations that had previously been offered for the panel, "The artist, according to the explanations given so far of the carvings on the lid, the front and the right side – the back and the left side leaving no doubt about their meaning – shows his interest in Biblical and Roman history as well as in Germanic legend. But he does not seem to be interested in anything from the history or legend of his own country."

The God of the Wood?

Usually her hos sitæþ is read, "here sits the horse". However, Becker (2002), following Wolfgang Krause (1959), reads herh os, "the god of the wood". He reads the three alliterating lines of the inscription as:

herh os sitæþ on hærmberge

agl(ac) drigiþ swa hir i erta e gisgraf

særden sorgæ and sefa tornæ,

and offers the translation:

"the wood-god sits on harm's mountain"

"causing ill fortune, as Erta demanded"

"they cause sorrow and heartache".

Becker translates the three isolated words that surround the central horse, risci / wudu / bita , as "twig / wood / biter". Risci means rush or elk sedge in the runic poem, the type of plant that marks the valkyrie and stands for the white swan (OED), one form of valkyrian appearance. - Wudu can be understood as a poetic name for spear. The Valkyrie flings a twig at her victim, a twig which turns into a spear. As a fatal weapon it turns into a bita (sting or wound), just like the staff of the lady at the grave blends into a spear, the spearhead formed by the rune for t. A similar event is reflected in the Gautreksaga: "Then Starkathr thrust at the king with the wand and said: 'Now I give thee to Othinn.' Then Starkathr let go the fir bough. The wand became a spear and pierced through the king."

The Tängelgårde Stone from Gotland, Sweden depicts two valknuts between the horse's legs, as on the right panel of the Franks Casket.

W. Krause (1959) separates herh (grove) and os (divinity) and interprets this as "Waldgottheit", meaning a goddess of the woods, the site where in pagan days the Æsir were worshipped. Here the hero meets his valkyrie in her petrifying appearance. She is the one who kills him, not his enemy. Becker follows this view, identifying her in her human shape at the grave of the warrior where she revives him with a draught from a chalice. The horse, probably Woden’s Sleipnir, will take the hero to Valhalla. Significant marks are the two valknutr between the stallion's legs, which denote the realm of death and can be found in similar constellation on Gotland’s picture stones 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, who brings myrrh. It also appears on the lid, where according to Becker Valhalla is depicted.

L. Peeters comments (translated): "The figure to the left of the crowded panel looks like a kind of monster. Scholars have voiced the opinion that its head is that of a horse. They are prepared to emendate the first word of the runic text, hos, into horse to fit the picture. Hos remains for them a mystery in an equally mysterious context of the panel's interpretation. Every step of this procedure is prone to be part of a vicious cycle. Others are convinced, that even without reference to the text, the monster's head belongs to a horse".

The Penance of Rhiannon?

Rhiannon riding in Arbeth, from The Maginogion, translated by Charlotte Guest, 1877.

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. According to the Mabinogion, 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 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, a personified Hell blames Satan for having brought about the Crucifixion, 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.

See also

• Anglo-Saxon runes
• Old English rune poem

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 Casket website dated 2002, with English and German versions.
• 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.
• Eichner, Heiner, Zu Franks Casket/Rune Auzon, in Alfred Bammesbergen, 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
• 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 Societe Neophilologique/ Bulletin of the Modern Language Society 92 (1991): 281-288.
• 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, L., "The Franks Casket: A Judeo-Christian Interpretation.", 1996, Amsterdamer Beiträge zur älteren Germanistik 46
• 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, Austin 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.
• Webster, Leslie, "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 on British Museum collection database.
• Webster, Leslie, The Franks Casket, pp. 194–195, The Blackwell encyclopaedia of Anglo-Saxon England (Editors: Michael Lapidge, John Blair, Simon Keynes), Wiley-Blackwell, 2000, ISBN 0-631-22492-0, ISBN 978-0-631-22492-1.
• Webster, Leslie, Anglo-Saxon Art, 2012a, British Museum Press, ISBN 9780714128092.
• L. Webster, The Franks Casket: Objects in Focus, British Museum Press, 2012b, ISBN 0-7141-2818-X, 9780714128184.
• 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

• 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.
• J. Huston McCulloch, The Franks Casket: A Tribute to the Founding and Destiny of England website, 2012
• 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.
• M. Osborn, "The Lid as Conclusion of the Syncretic Theme of the Franks Casket," in A. Bammesberger (ed.), Old English Runes and their Continental Background, Heidelberg 1991, pp. 249–268.
• 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

• British Museum, The Franks Casket, elementary Explore/Highlights page, with 4 low-resolution photos
• British Museum, The Franks Casket / The Auzon Casket, more technical Research/Collection Database page, with more detailed discussion and 35 higher-resolution photos