Franks Casket
A small whalebone chest carved with scenes from Germanic legend, Roman history and the Gospels, captioned in Old English runes and in Latin. The single richest futhorc object there is.
At a glance
- Alphabet
- Anglo-Saxon Futhorc
- Date
- Early 8th century
- Found at
- Northumbria, England
- Now
- British Museum, except the right-hand panel, which is in the Bargello, Florence
- Signature
- None given here. English, Frisian and Continental material is catalogued outside the Rundata tradition altogether; elsewhere a signature is left off only where we could not verify one. Either way the object is cited by name and findspot.
The text
Why none is reproduced here.
Not reproduced. This inscription is either too long to quote in full or its reading is contested enough that printing one transliteration would suggest a settled text where there is not one. Look it up under its name in the standard catalogues, where the readings are given with their apparatus.
Discovery
Its recorded history begins in a family's possession at Auzon in the Haute-Loire; it had belonged to the church of Saint-Julien at Brioude and may have been looted during the French Revolution. Sir Augustus Wollaston Franks gave it to the British Museum in 1867. The right-hand end had become separated by then and is now in the Bargello in Florence, so the object is split between two countries.
Why it matters
No other object shows the futhorc doing so much at once. Its captions are in Old English alliterative verse and in Latin, cut in runes and in Roman letters, around scenes that put Weland the smith beside the Adoration of the Magi and the sack of Jerusalem. The right-hand panel goes further and encodes most of its vowels as cryptic rune forms, which makes it one of the few objects where cryptic runes can be seen doing literary rather than merely playful work.
Common misconceptions
Claims about this object that circulate widely and do not hold up.
Runes attested here (7)
Every dictionary entry that cites this object, with the reason it gives.
- FeohFuthorc
A whalebone box carved with scenes from Germanic legend, Roman history and the Gospels, captioned in Old English runes and in Latin. The single richest futhorc object.
- RadFuthorc
Runic captions in Old English alliterative verse run around the panels.
- GyfuFuthorc
Appears throughout the casket’s runic captions.
- NydFuthorc
Appears in the runic captions.
- BeorcFuthorc
Appears throughout the casket’s captions.
- MannFuthorc
Appears in the captions.
- ÆscFuthorc
The English vowel runes are used throughout the casket’s Old English captions.
Sources
Full references on the sources page.