The Franks Casket

This magnificent whalebone casket was presented to the British Museum by Sir Augustus Franks, after whom it is named. It is richly carved with a range of scenes and inscriptions in the runic and Roman alphabet, and in Old English and Latin. Scars from a lost metal handle, locks and hinges can be seen, while the plain panel on the lid probably replaces a lost carving.

The front depicts two scenes: on the left, part of the Germanic legend of Weland the Smith; and on the right, the Christian tale of the Adoration of the Magi. Runes spell out ‘maegi’ in the inscription.

The left end depicts Romulus and Remus, legendary founders of Rome who were raised by a she-wolf, while the lid shows the capture of Jerusalem in AD 70 by the Roman Emperor Titus.

The right end is a replica, the original having been bequeathed to the Museo Nazionale del Bargello inFlorence after the casket was dismantled during its mysterious history. This panel is the hardest to interpret. It recalls a lost Germanic legend with a runic text describing a being called Hos sitting upon a ‘sorrow-mound’.

The lid shows another Germanic story about a hero named Ægili, who defends a fortification from armed raiders.

An Old English riddle in runes on the front of the casket describes the beaching of a whale and tells us that the casket was made from its bones.

The carvings’ style and the dialect of the inscriptions suggest the casket was made in northern England, probably in a monastery for a learned patron. Created when Christianity was not long established in England, it reflects an interest in how the pagan Germanic past related to Christ’s message, and to the histories of Rome and Jerusalem.