1.
St Mary's Church, Gosforth
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St Marys Church in the village of Gosforth, Cumbria, England, is an active Anglican parish church in the deanery of Calder, the archdeaconry of West Cumberland, and the diocese of Carlisle. Its benefice is united with those of St Olaf, Wasdale Head, the church is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade I listed building. It is associated with a unique Viking-age assemblage of carved stones and this has been a Christian site since the 8th century. The oldest fabric in the present church dates from the 12th century, the church was reconstructed in 1789, but most of the fabric currently present is the result of a virtual rebuilding by C. J. Ferguson between 1896 and 1899. St Marys is constructed in stone with a slate roof and its plan consists of a nave, a north aisle, a south porch, a chancel and north vestries. The 19th-century rebuilding is in Decorated style, at the west end is a corbelled-out bellcote. The gabled porch leads to the door, to the right of which is a blocked Norman doorway. There is a monument dated 1834 on the exterior of the wall of the chancel. Inside the church is a north arcade, consisting of pointed arches carried on columns with octagonal capitals. The 14th-century chancel arch is set on richly carved Norman capitals, in a niche at the east end of the aisle are two carved Viking hogback stones. These are very rare pre-Norman tomb markers that were found under the foundations of a 12th-century wall of the church during restoration in 1896-97, the early 11th century is the latest possible date. The hogbacks are each in the shape of a house, the larger tomb has on its sides humans astride smaller serpents battling with larger serpents. The smaller stone has two armies thought to be concluding a truce, in and around the niche, and in the porch are other fragments of medieval stones. The small octagonal font dates from the 19th century, also in the church is a Chinese bell dating from 1839, which was captured from the Anunghoy Fort in the Battle of the Bogue on the Canton River. It was donated to the church in 1844, one of the stone slabs is the so-called Gosforth fishing stone and is presumably the same artist who carved the cross, outside. It represents Thor and the giant Hymir, fishing for Jörmungandr and it is possibly a remnant of another cross. The stained glass dates mainly from the late 19th century, most of which is by Ward, the two-manual pipe organ was made by Conacher and Company of Huddersfield, and rebuilt and expanded in 1984 by Sixsmith. The most important feature in the churchyard is a Viking stone cross dating from the part of the 10th century
2.
Anglo-Saxon art
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By the time of the Conquest the move to the Romanesque style is nearly complete. Anglo-Saxon art survives mostly in illuminated manuscripts, Anglo-Saxon architecture, a number of very fine ivory carvings, Anglo-Saxon taste favoured brightness and colour, and an effort of the imagination is often needed to see the excavated and worn remains that survive as they once were. Perhaps the best known piece of Anglo-Saxon art is the Bayeux Tapestry which was commissioned by a Norman patron from English artists working in the traditional Anglo-Saxon style and these two styles mixed and developed together and by the following century the resulting Anglo-Saxon style had reached maturity. The final phase of Anglo-Saxon art is known as the Winchester School or style, though it was produced in many centres in the south of England, elements of this begin to be seen from around 900, but the first major manuscripts only appear around the 930s. The following lines revert to a style more typical of Frankish manuscripts of the period. It is, in the chronology, the last English manuscript in which developed trumpet spiral patterns are found. The Anglo-Saxon metalwork produced in the Salzburg area of modern Austria has a counterpart in the Cutbercht Gospels in Vienna. By the 10th century Insular elements were relegated to decorative embellishments in England, the first plant ornament, with leaves and grapes, was already seen in an initial in the Leningrad Bede, which can probably be dated to 746. The other large initial in the manuscript is the first historiated initial in the whole of Europe, for some long time scrolls, especially in metal, bone or ivory, are prone to have an animal head at one end and a plant element at the other. Several ambitious projects of illumination are unfinished, such as the Old English Hexateuch, the illustrations give Old Testament scenes an entirely contemporary setting and are valuable images of Anglo-Saxon life. Æthelstan promoted Dunstan, an illuminator, eventually to Archbishop of Canterbury, and also Æthelwold. Illumination in a new style appears in a manuscript of the biographies by Bede of St Cuthbert given by Æthelstan to the monastery in Chester-le-Street about 937. There is a portrait of the king presenting his book to the saint. This is the first real portrait of an English king, and heavily influenced by Carolingian style, however the initials in the text combine Carolingian elements with animal forms in inventive fashion. Anglo-Saxon culture was coming into increasing contact with, and exchanging influences with, decoration included cloisonné, in gold and garnet for high-status pieces. It was probably his work which brought into contact with the royal family. Even the imprecise details given, mostly by Goscelin, are valuable evidence of what Anglo-Saxon metalwork was like. One 11th century lay goldsmith was even a thegn, like Spearhafoc, Mannigs biography, with some precise details, is given in the chronicle maintained by his abbey
3.
Gosforth, Cumbria
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Gosforth is a village, civil parish and electoral ward in the Lake District, in the Borough of Copeland in Cumbria, England. Historically in Cumberland, it is situated on the A595 road between Whitehaven and Barrow-in-Furness and it has a population of 1,230, increasing to 1,396 at the 2011 Census. Adjacent settlements include Whitehaven, Egremont, Ravenglass and Wasdale and it is close to Wastwater, the deepest lake in England, and just a 15-minute drive from Seascale village and beach. The Cumbrian Coast railway can be accessed at Seascale, Gosforth contains a unique collection of Norse artefacts in and around St. Marys Church. This includes the Gosforth cross, which is the tallest and oldest Viking cross in England, another high cross was cut down in 1789 to make a sundial base, though the fishing stone panel from this survives in the church. There are also two large tombs in the church. Work began on Gosforth Hall, now a hotel and restaurant near St. Marys Church, in 1658, the date of completion is not clear, although the date on the coat of arms situated in the bar is 1673. Copley had previously refused to pay the royal herald for his own coat of arms and instead, in his history of The Gosforth District, Dr. C. A. Parker states that Robert Copley in 1658 built a handsome house with orchards and gardens suitable. With the hall being within the precinct of the church, it was likely that evidence of earlier occupation might be discovered, in 2005, the present owners of Gosforth Hall commissioned a small archaeological excavation within the grounds. This turned up some interesting finds indicating previous occupation on the site and this preliminary work was to be followed up in 2007 with a further excavation. Gosforth is the base for two major events each year, a ten-mile run and associated fun run in June. On the morning of 2 June 2010, professional league player and farmer Garry Purdham was shot dead at a farm in the Gosforth area. Within hours, police had identified the killer as 52-year-old local taxi driver Derrick Bird, listed buildings in Gosforth, Cumbria Gosforth official website
4.
England
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England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west, the Irish Sea lies northwest of England and the Celtic Sea lies to the southwest. England is separated from continental Europe by the North Sea to the east, the country covers five-eighths of the island of Great Britain in its centre and south, and includes over 100 smaller islands such as the Isles of Scilly, and the Isle of Wight. England became a state in the 10th century, and since the Age of Discovery. The Industrial Revolution began in 18th-century England, transforming its society into the worlds first industrialised nation, Englands terrain mostly comprises low hills and plains, especially in central and southern England. However, there are uplands in the north and in the southwest, the capital is London, which is the largest metropolitan area in both the United Kingdom and the European Union. In 1801, Great Britain was united with the Kingdom of Ireland through another Act of Union to become the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. In 1922 the Irish Free State seceded from the United Kingdom, leading to the latter being renamed the United Kingdom of Great Britain, the name England is derived from the Old English name Englaland, which means land of the Angles. The Angles were one of the Germanic tribes that settled in Great Britain during the Early Middle Ages, the Angles came from the Angeln peninsula in the Bay of Kiel area of the Baltic Sea. The earliest recorded use of the term, as Engla londe, is in the ninth century translation into Old English of Bedes Ecclesiastical History of the English People. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, its spelling was first used in 1538. The earliest attested reference to the Angles occurs in the 1st-century work by Tacitus, Germania, the etymology of the tribal name itself is disputed by scholars, it has been suggested that it derives from the shape of the Angeln peninsula, an angular shape. An alternative name for England is Albion, the name Albion originally referred to the entire island of Great Britain. The nominally earliest record of the name appears in the Aristotelian Corpus, specifically the 4th century BC De Mundo, in it are two very large islands called Britannia, these are Albion and Ierne. But modern scholarly consensus ascribes De Mundo not to Aristotle but to Pseudo-Aristotle, the word Albion or insula Albionum has two possible origins. Albion is now applied to England in a poetic capacity. Another romantic name for England is Loegria, related to the Welsh word for England, Lloegr, the earliest known evidence of human presence in the area now known as England was that of Homo antecessor, dating to approximately 780,000 years ago. The oldest proto-human bones discovered in England date from 500,000 years ago, Modern humans are known to have inhabited the area during the Upper Paleolithic period, though permanent settlements were only established within the last 6,000 years
5.
Cumbria
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Cumbria is a non-metropolitan county in North West England. The county and Cumbria County Council, its government, came into existence in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. Cumbrias county town is Carlisle, in the north of the county, the county of Cumbria consists of six districts, and in 2008 had a population of just under half a million. Cumbria is one of the most sparsely populated counties in the United Kingdom, a large area of the south east of the county is within the Yorkshire Dales National Park while the east of the county fringes the North Pennines AONB. Much of Cumbria is mountainous, and it contains every peak in England over 3,000 feet above sea level, with Scafell Pike at 3,209 feet being the highest point of England. An upland, coastal, and rural area, Cumbrias history is characterised by invasions, migration, notable historic sites in Cumbria include Carlisle Castle, Furness Abbey, Hardknott Roman Fort, Brough Castle and Hadrians Wall, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. D. Based on inscriptional evidence from the area, the Roman civitas of the Carvetii seems to have covered portions of Cumbria, the names Cumbria, Cymru, Cambria, and Cumberland are derived from the name these people gave themselves, *kombroges in Common Brittonic, which originally meant compatriots. In the Early Middle Ages, Cumberland formed the core of the Brittonic kingdom of Rheged, for the rest of the first millennium, Cumbria was contested by several entities who warred over the area, including the Brythonic Kingdom of Strathclyde and the Anglian kingdom of Northumbria. Most of modern-day Cumbria was a principality in the Kingdom of Scotland at the time of the Norman conquest of England in 1066, in 1092 Cumberland was invaded by William II and incorporated into England. There were at least three sieges of Carlisle fought between England and Scotland, and two sieges during the Jacobite risings. In particular, the west-coast towns of Workington, Millom and Barrow-in-Furness saw large iron and steel mills develop, Kendal, Keswick and Carlisle all became mill towns, with textiles, pencils and biscuits among the products manufactured in the region. Later, the childrens writer Beatrix Potter also wrote in the region and became a major landowner and its strategic authority is Cumbria County Council. Local papers The Westmorland Gazette and Cumberland and Westmorland Herald continue to use the name of their historic county, other publications, such as local government promotional material, describe the area as Cumbria, as do the Lake District National Park Authority and most visitors. Cumbria is the most northwesterly county of England, the northernmost and southernmost points in Cumbria are just west of Deadwater, Northumberland and South Walney respectively. Kirkby Stephen and St Bees Head are the most easterly and westerly points of the county, at 978 metres Scafell Pike is the highest point in Cumbria and in England. Windermere is the largest natural lake in England, the Lancaster Canal runs from Preston into South Cumbria and is partly in use. The Ulverston Canal which once reached to Morecambe Bay is maintained although it was closed in 1945, the Solway Coast and Arnside and Silverdale AONBs lie in the lowland areas of the county, to the north and south respectively. Cumbria is bordered by the English counties of Northumberland, County Durham, North Yorkshire, Lancashire, the boundaries are along the Irish Sea to Morecambe Bay in the west, and along the Pennines to the east
6.
Kingdom of Northumbria
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The Kingdom of Northumbria was a medieval Anglian kingdom in what is now northern England and south-east Scotland, which subsequently became an earldom in a unified English kingdom. The name reflects the southern limit to the kingdoms territory. Northumbria was formed by Æthelfrith in central Great Britain in Anglo-Saxon times, at the beginning of the 7th century, the two kingdoms of Bernicia and Deira were unified. At its height, the kingdom extended at least from just south of the Humber to the River Mersey, the later earldom came about when the southern part of Northumbria was lost to the Danelaw. The earldom was bounded by the River Tees in the south, much of this land was debated between England and Scotland, but the Earldom of Northumbria was eventually recognised as part of England by the Anglo-Scottish Treaty of York in 1237. On the northern border, Berwick-upon-Tweed, which is north of the Tweed but had changed many times, was defined as subject to the laws of England by the Wales. The local Environment Agency office, located in Newcastle Business Park, otherwise, the term is not the official name for the UK and EU region of North East England. See also, List of monarchs of Northumbria and Timeline of Northumbria Northumbria was originally formed from the union of two independent kingdoms, Bernicia and Deira, Bernicia covered lands north of the Tees, while Deira corresponded roughly to modern-day Yorkshire. Bernicia and Deira were first united by Aethelfrith, a king of Bernicia who conquered Deira around the year 604. He was defeated and killed around the year 616 in battle at the River Idle by Raedwald of East Anglia, who installed Edwin, the son of Ælla, a former king of Deira, as king. Edwin, who accepted Christianity in 627, soon grew to become the most powerful king in England, he was recognised as Bretwalda and conquered the Isle of Man and Gwynedd in northern Wales. He was, however, himself defeated by an alliance of the king of Gwynedd, Cadwallon ap Cadfan. After Edwins death, Northumbria was split between Bernicia, where Eanfrith, a son of Aethelfrith, took power, and Deira, cumbria tended to remain a country frontier with the Britons. Both of these rulers were killed during the year that followed, after the murder of Eanfrith, his brother, Oswald, backed by warriors sent by Domnall Brecc of Dál Riata, defeated and killed Cadwallon at the Battle of Heavenfield in 634. He incorporated Gododdin lands northwards up to the Firth of Forth and also extended his reach westward, encroaching on the remaining Cumbric speaking kingdoms of Rheged. Thus, Northumbria became not only part of modern Englands far north, King Oswald re-introduced Christianity to the Kingdom by appointing St. Aidan, an Irish monk from the Scottish island of Iona to convert his people. This led to the introduction of the practices of Celtic Christianity, a monastery was established on Lindisfarne. In 642, Oswald was killed by the Mercians under Penda at the Battle of Maserfield and this battle marked a major turning point in Northumbrian fortunes, Penda died in the battle, and Oswiu gained supremacy over Mercia, making himself the most powerful king in England
7.
Norsemen
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Norsemen are the group of people who spoke what is now called the Old Norse language between the 8th and 11th centuries. The language belongs to the North Germanic branch of the Indo-European languages, Norseman means man from the North and applied primarily to Old Norse-speaking tribes living in southern and central Scandinavia. In history, Norse or Norseman could be any person from Scandinavia, even though Norway, Denmark, in some other historical references, the term may also refer to the East Norse, meaning mainly Danes and Swedes, for instance, Cnuts Empire and Swedes adventures East. In the early Medieval period, as today, Vikings was a term for attacking Norsemen, especially in connection with raids and monastic plundering by Norsemen in the British Isles. The Norse were also known as Ascomanni, ashmen, by the Germans, Lochlanach by the Gaels, the Gaelic terms Finn-Gall, Dubh-Gall and Gall Goidel were used for the people of Norse descent in Ireland and Scotland, who assimilated into the Gaelic culture. Dubliners called them Ostmen, or East-people, and the name Oxmanstown comes from one of their settlements, they were known as Lochlannaigh. However, British conceptions of the Vikings origins were not quite correct and those who plundered Britain lived in what is today Denmark, Scania, the western coast of Sweden and Norway and along the Swedish Baltic coast up to around the 60th latitude and Lake Mälaren. They also settled on the island of Gotland, the border between the Norsemen and more southerly Germanic tribes, the Danevirke, today is located about 50 kilometres south of the Danish-German border. The southernmost living Vikings lived no further north than Newcastle upon Tyne, archaeologists and historians of today believe that these Scandinavian settlements in the Slavic lands formed the names of the countries of Russia and Belarus. The Slavs and the Byzantines also called them Varangians, and the Scandinavian bodyguards of the Byzantine emperors were known as the Varangian Guard. In the Old Norse language, the term norrœnir menn, was used correspondingly to the modern English name Norsemen, referring to Swedes, Danes, Norwegians, Faroe Islanders, Icelanders, etc. The modern people of Norway, Sweden and Denmark never identify themselves as skandinaver, as they are Norwegians, Swedes, the Vikings were simply people partaking in the raid. On occasions Finland is also mentioned as a Scandinavian country, Iceland, Greenland, and the Faroe Islands are also geographically separate from the Scandinavian peninsula. The term Nordic countries is used to encompass the Scandinavian countries, Iceland, Greenland
8.
Norse mythology
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The cosmos in Norse mythology consists of Nine Worlds that flank a central cosmological tree, Yggdrasil. Units of time and elements of the cosmology are personified as deities or beings, various forms of a creation myth are recounted, where the world is created from the flesh of the primordial being Ymir, and the first two humans are Ask and Embla. These worlds are foretold to be reborn after the events of Ragnarök, there the surviving gods will meet, and the land will be fertile and green, and two humans will repopulate the world. Norse mythology has been the subject of scholarly discourse since the 17th century, by way of comparative mythology and historical linguistics, scholars have identified elements of Germanic mythology reaching as far back as Proto-Indo-European mythology. In the modern period, the Romanticist Viking revival re-awoke an interest in the subject matter, the myths have further been revived in a religious context among adherents of Germanic Neopaganism. The majority of these Old Norse texts were created in Iceland and this occurred primarily in the 13th century. The Prose Edda was composed as a manual for producing skaldic poetry—traditional Old Norse poetry composed by skalds. Originally composed and transmitted orally, skaldic poetry utilizes alliterative verse, kennings, the Prose Edda presents numerous examples of works by various skalds from before and after the Christianization process and also frequently refers back to the poems found in the Poetic Edda. The Poetic Edda consists almost entirely of poems, with some prose narrative added, in comparison to skaldic poetry, Eddic poetry is relatively unadorned. Numerous further texts, such as the sagas, provide further information, the saga corpus consists of thousands of tales recorded in Old Norse ranging from Icelandic family histories to Migration period tales mentioning historic figures such as Attila the Hun. By way of historical linguistics and comparative mythology, comparisons to other attested branches of Germanic mythology may also lend insight, wider comparisons to the mythology of other Indo-European peoples by scholars has resulted in the potential reconstruction of far earlier myths. Of the mythical tales and poems that are presumed to have existed during the Middle Ages, Viking Age, Migration Period, numerous gods are mentioned in the source texts. In the mythology, Thor lays waste to numerous jötnar who are foes to the gods or humanity, the god Odin is also frequently mentioned in surviving texts. One-eyed, wolf and raven-flanked, and spear in hand, Odin pursues knowledge throughout the worlds, Odin has a strong association with death, Odin is portrayed as the ruler of Valhalla, where valkyries carry half of those slain in battle. Odins wife is the powerful goddess Frigg who can see the future but tells no one, and together they have a beloved son, Baldr. After a series of dreams had by Baldr of his death, his death is engineered by Loki, and Baldr thereafter resides in Hel. Odin must share half of his share of the dead with a powerful goddess and she is beautiful, sensual, wears a feathered cloak, and practices seiðr. She rides to battle to choose among the slain, and brings her chosen to her afterlife field Fólkvangr, Freyja weeps for her missing husband Óðr, and seeks after him in far away lands
9.
Poetic Edda
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Poetic Edda is the modern attribution for an unnamed collection of Old Norse anonymous poems, which is different from the Edda, written by Snorri Sturluson. Several versions exist, all consisting primarily of text from the Icelandic mediaeval manuscript known as the Codex Regius, poets who have acknowledged their debt to the Codex Regius include Vilhelm Ekelund, August Strindberg, J. R. R. Tolkien, Ezra Pound, Jorge Luis Borges, and Karin Boye, Codex Regius was written in the 13th century, but nothing is known of its whereabouts until 1643, when it came into the possession of Brynjólfur Sveinsson, then Bishop of Skálholt. At the time, versions of the Edda were known in Iceland, but scholars speculated that once was another Edda, an Elder Edda. Brynjólfur attributed the manuscript to Sæmundr the Learned, a larger-than-life 12th century Icelandic priest and that attribution is rejected by modern scholars, but the name Sæmundar Edda is still sometimes associated with both the Codex Regius and versions of Poetic Edda using it as a source. Bishop Brynjólfur sent Codex Regius as a present to the Danish king, for centuries, it was stored in the Royal Library in Copenhagen but in 1971, it was returned to Iceland. The Eddic poems are composed in alliterative verse, most are in fornyrðislag, while málaháttr is a common variation. The rest, about a quarter, are composed in ljóðaháttr, the language of the poems is usually clear and relatively unadorned. Kennings are often employed, though they do not arise as frequently, nor are they as complex, like most early poetry, the Eddic poems were minstrel poems, passing orally from singer to singer and from poet to poet for centuries. None of the poems are attributed to an author, though many of them show strong individual characteristics and are likely to have been the work of individual poets. Scholars sometimes speculate on hypothetical authors, but firm and accepted conclusions have never been reached, the dating of the poems has been a source of lively scholarly argument for a long time, and firm conclusions are hard to reach. Lines from the Eddic poems sometimes appear in poems by known poets, for example, Eyvindr skáldaspillir composed in the latter half of the 10th century, and he uses a couple of lines in his Hákonarmál which are also found in Hávamál. It is possible that he was quoting a poem, but it is also possible that Hávamál. The few demonstrably historical characters mentioned in the poems, such as Attila, the dating of the manuscripts themselves provides a more useful terminus ante quem. Individual poems have individual clues to their age, for example, Atlamál hin groenlenzku is claimed by its title to have been composed in Greenland, and seems so by some internal evidence. If so, it can be no earlier than about 985, in some cases, old poems may have been interpolated with younger verses or merged with other poems. For example, stanzas 9-16 of Völuspá, the Dvergatal or Roster of Dwarfs, is considered by scholars to be an interpolation. The problem of dating the poems is linked with the problem of finding out where they were composed, Iceland was not settled until about 870, so anything composed before that time would necessarily have been elsewhere, most likely in Scandinavia
10.
Loki
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In Norse mythology, Loki, Loptr, or Hveðrungr is a god or jötunn. Loki is the son of Fárbauti and Laufey, and the brother of Helblindi, by the jötunn Angrboða, Loki is the father of Hel, the wolf Fenrir, and the world serpent Jörmungandr. By his wife Sigyn, Loki is the father of Narfi and/or Nari, by the stallion Svaðilfari, Loki is the mother—giving birth in the form of a mare—to the eight-legged horse Sleipnir. In addition, Loki is referred to as the father of Váli in Prose Edda, though this also refers to Odin as the father of Váli twice. Lokis relation with the gods varies by source, Loki sometimes assists the gods, Loki is a shape shifter and in separate incidents he appears in the form of a salmon, a mare, a fly, and possibly an elderly woman named Þökk. Lokis positive relations with the end with his role in engineering the death of the god Baldr. In both the Poetic Edda and the Prose Edda, the goddess Skaði is responsible for placing a serpent above him while he is bound, Loki may be depicted on the Snaptun Stone, the Kirkby Stephen Stone, and the Gosforth Cross. Lokis origins and role in Norse mythology, which scholars have described as that of a trickster god, have been much debated by scholars. Loki has been depicted in or is referenced in a variety of media in popular culture. The etymology of the name Loki has yet to be solved and it may be related to Old Norse luka, meaning close, shut. The name Hveðrungr is also used in reference to Loki, occurring in names for Hel, in the Poetic Edda, Loki appears in the poems Völuspá, Lokasenna, Þrymskviða, Reginsmál, Baldrs draumar, and Hyndluljóð. In stanza 35 of the Poetic Edda poem Völuspá, a völva tells Odin that, among other things, she sees Sigyn sitting very unhappily with her bound husband, Loki. In stanza 54, after consuming Odin and being killed by Odins son Víðarr, the poem Lokasenna centers around Loki flyting with other gods, Loki puts forth two stanzas of insults while the receiving figure responds with a single stanza, and then another figure chimes in. The poem begins with an introduction detailing that Ægir, a figure associated with the sea, is hosting a feast in his hall for a number of the gods. There, the gods praise Ægirs servers Fimafeng and Eldir, Loki could not bear to hear that, and kills the servant Fimafeng. In response, the gods grab their shields, shrieking at Loki, the gods then return to the hall, and continue drinking. Entrance and rejection Loki comes out of the woods, and meets Eldir outside of the hall, Loki greets Eldir with a demand that Eldir tell him what the gods are discussing over their ale inside the hall. Eldir responds that they discuss their weapons and their prowess in war, Loki says that he will go into the feast, and that, before the end of the feast, he will induce quarrelling among the gods, and mix their mead with malice
11.
Sigyn
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In Norse mythology, Sigyn is a goddess and is the wife of Loki. Sigyn is attested in the Poetic Edda, compiled in the 13th century from traditional sources. In the Poetic Edda, little information is provided about Sigyn other than her role in assisting Loki during his captivity. In the Prose Edda, her role in helping her husband through his time spent in bondage is stated again, she appears in various kennings, Sigyn may appear on the Gosforth Cross and has been the subject of an amount of theory and cultural references. Sigyn is mentioned a time in the ending prose section of the poem Lokasenna. Sigyn, again described as Lokis wife, holds a basin under the dripping venom, the basin grows full, and she pulls it away, during which time venom drops on Loki, causing him to writhe so violently that earthquakes occur that shake the entire earth. Sigyn appears in the books Gylfaginning and Skáldskaparmál in the Prose Edda, in Gylfaginning, Sigyn is introduced in chapter 31. There, she is introduced as the wife of Loki, Sigyn is mentioned again in Gylfaginning in chapter 50, where events are described differently than in Lokasenna. Here, the gods have captured Loki and his two sons, who are stated as Váli, described as a son of Loki, and Nari or Narfi, Váli is changed into a wolf by the gods, and rips apart his brother Nari or Narfi. The guts of Nari or Narfi are then used to tie Loki to three stones, after which the turn to iron, and Skaði places a snake above Loki. Sigyn places herself beside him, where she holds out a bowl to catch the dripping venom, however, when the bowl becomes full she leaves to pour out the venom. As a result, Loki is again described as shaking so violently that the planet shakes, the final mention of Sigyn in Skáldskaparmál is in the list of ásynjur in the appended Nafnaþulur section, chapter 75. The mid-11th century Gosforth Cross located in Cumbria, England, has interpreted as featuring various figures from Norse mythology. The bottom portion of the west side of the features a depiction of a long-haired female, kneeling figure holding an object above another prostrate. Above and to their left is a knotted serpent and this has been interpreted as Sigyn soothing the bound Loki. Due to this connection with Loki, Sigyn has been theorized as being a goddess dating back to an older form of Germanic paganism
12.
Heimdallr
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In Norse mythology, Heimdallr is a god who possesses the resounding horn Gjallarhorn, owns the golden-maned horse Gulltoppr, has gold teeth, and is the son of Nine Mothers. Heimdallr is said to be the originator of social classes among humanity, Heimdallr and Loki are foretold to kill one another during the events of Ragnarök. Heimdallr is additionally referred to as Rig, Hallinskiði, Gullintanni, two lines of an otherwise lost poem about the god, Heimdalargaldr, survive. Heimdallr also appears as Heimdalr and Heimdali, the etymology of the name is obscure, but the one who illuminates the world has been proposed. Heimdallr may be connected to Mardöll, one of Freyjas names, Heimdallr and its variants are sometimes modernly anglicized as Heimdall or Heimdal. Heimdallr is attested as having three other names, Hallinskiði, Gullintanni, and Vindlér or Vindhlér, the name Hallinskiði is obscure, but has resulted in a series of attempts at deciphering it. Gullintanni literally means the one with the golden teeth, Vindlér translates as either the one protecting against the wind or wind-sea. All three have resulted in theories about the god. A lead spindle whorl bearing an Old Norse Younger Futhark inscription that mentions Heimdallr was discovered in Saltfleetby, the spindle whorl itself is dated from the year 1000 to 1100 AD. On the inscription, the god Heimdallr is mentioned alongside the god Odin and Þjálfi, in the Poetic Edda, Heimdallr is attested in six poems, Völuspá, Grímnismál, Lokasenna, Þrymskviða, Rígsþula, and Hrafnagaldr Óðins. Heimdallr is mentioned thrice in Völuspá, in the first stanza of the poem, the undead völva reciting the poem calls out for listeners to be silent and refers to Heimdallr, This stanza has led to various scholarly interpretations. The holy races have been considered variously as either humanity or the gods, the notion of humanity as Heimdallrs sons is otherwise unattested and has also resulted in various interpretations. Some scholars have pointed to the introduction to the poem Rígsþula. Later in Völuspá, the völva foresees the events of Ragnarök, schach details that Heimdallar hljóð has aroused much speculation. Snorri seems to have confused this word with gjallarhorn, but there is no attestation of the use of hljóð in the sense of horn in Icelandic. Various scholars have read this as hearing rather than horn, larrington says that Odin exchanged one of his eyes for wisdom from Mimir, guardian of the well, while Heimdall seems to have forfeited his ear. In the poem Grímnismál, Odin, tortured, starved and thirsty, in the poem Lokasenna, Loki flyts with various gods who have met together to feast. At one point during the exchanges, the god Heimdallr says that Loki is drunk and witless, and asks Loki why he wont stop speaking
13.
Fenrir
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In Norse mythology, Fenrir, Fenrisúlfr, Hróðvitnir, or Vánagandr is a monstrous wolf. Fenrir is attested in the Poetic Edda, compiled in the 13th century from traditional sources. Depictions of Fenrir have been identified on various objects, and scholarly theories have been proposed regarding Fenrirs relation to other beings in Norse mythology. Fenrir has been the subject of artistic depictions, and he appears in literature, Fenrir is mentioned in three stanzas of the poem Völuspá and in two stanzas of the poem Vafþrúðnismál. In stanza 40 of the poem Völuspá, a völva divulges to Odin that, in the east, there will come from them all one of that number to be a moon-snatcher in trolls skin. Then shall Friggs sweet friend fall, in the stanza that follows Vafþrúðnir responds that Sól will bear a daughter before Fenrir attacks her, and that this daughter shall continue the paths of her deceased mother through the heavens. In the Prose Edda, Fenrir is mentioned in three books, Gylfaginning, Skáldskaparmál and Háttatal, in chapter 13 of the Prose Edda book Gylfaginning, Fenrir is first mentioned in a stanza quoted from Völuspá. Fenrir is first mentioned in prose in chapter 25, where the figure of High tells Gangleri about the god Týr. High says that one example of Týrs bravery is that when the Æsir were luring Fenrir to place the fetter Gleipnir on the wolf and this was done at Fenrirs own request because he did not trust that the Æsir would let him go. High says that Odin sent the gods to gather the children, upon their arrival, Odin threw Jörmungandr into that deep sea that lies round all lands, and then threw Hel into Niflheim, and bestowed upon her authority over nine worlds. However, the Æsir brought up the wolf at home, and only Týr had the courage to approach Fenrir, the gods noticed that Fenrir was growing rapidly every day, and since all prophecies foretold that Fenrir was destined to cause them harm, the gods formed a plan. The gods prepared three fetters, The first, greatly strong, was called Leyding and they brought Leyding to Fenrir and suggested that the wolf try his strength with it. Fenrir judged that it was not beyond his strength, and so let the gods do what they wanted with it, at Fenrirs first kick the bind snapped, and Fenrir loosened himself from Leyding. The gods made a second fetter, twice as strong, the gods asked Fenrir to try the new fetter, and that should he break this feat of engineering, Fenrir would achieve great fame for his strength. Fenrir considered that the fetter was very strong, yet also that his strength had grown since he broke Leyding, Fenrir allowed them to place the fetter. High says that, as a result, to loose from Leyding or to strike out of Dromi have become sayings for when something is achieved with great effort, the dwarves constructed Gleipnir from six mythical ingredients. After an exchange between Gangleri and High, High continues that the fetter was smooth and soft as a ribbon, yet strong. The messenger brought the ribbon to the Æsir, and they thanked him heartily for completing the task, the Æsir went out on to the lake Amsvartnir sent for Fenrir to accompany them, and continued to the island Lyngvi
14.
Thor
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In Norse mythology, Thor is a hammer-wielding god associated with thunder, lightning, storms, oak trees, strength, the protection of mankind, and also hallowing and fertility. The cognate deity in wider Germanic mythology and paganism was known in Old English as Þunor and in Old High German as Donar, into the modern period, Thor continued to be acknowledged in rural folklore throughout Germanic regions. Thor is frequently referred to in place names, the day of the week Thursday bears his name, in Norse mythology, largely recorded in Iceland from traditional material stemming from Scandinavia, numerous tales and information about Thor are provided. With Sif, Thor fathered the goddess Þrúðr, with Járnsaxa, he fathered Magni, with a mother whose name is not recorded, he fathered Móði, and he is the stepfather of the god Ullr. The same sources list Thor as the son of the god Odin and the earth, Jörð. Thor has two servants, Þjálfi and Röskva, rides in a cart or chariot pulled by two goats, Tanngrisnir and Tanngnjóstr, and is ascribed three dwellings. Thor wields the mountain-crushing hammer, Mjölnir, wears the belt Megingjörð and the iron gloves Járngreipr, Thor has inspired numerous works of art and references to Thor appear in modern popular culture. Like other Germanic deities, veneration of Thor is revived in the period in Heathenry. The name of the god is the origin of the weekday name Thursday, by employing a practice known as interpretatio germanica during the Roman Empire period, the Germanic peoples adopted the Roman weekly calendar, and replaced the names of Roman gods with their own. Latin dies Iovis was converted into Proto-Germanic *Þonares dagaz, from which stems modern English Thursday, beginning in the Viking Age, personal names containing the theonym Thórr are recorded with great frequency. Prior to the Viking Age, no examples are recorded, thórr-based names may have flourished during the Viking Age as a defiant response to attempts at Christianization, similar to the wide scale Viking Age practice of wearing Thors hammer pendants. They regard it as a duty to offer to him, on fixed days. Hercules and Mars they appease by animal offerings of the permitted kind, in this instance, Tacitus refers to the god Odin as Mercury, Thor as Hercules, and the god Týr as Mars, and the identity of the Isis of the Suebi has been debated. In Thors case, the identification with the god Hercules is likely at least in part due to similarities between Thors hammer and Hercules club. In his Annals, Tacitus again refers to the veneration of Hercules by the Germanic peoples, Donar, the southern Germanic form of the gods name. According to an account, the Christian missionary Saint Boniface felled an oak tree dedicated to Jove in the 8th century. Around the second half of the 8th century, Old English mentions of a figure named Thunor are recorded, gabriel Turville-Petre saw this as an invented origin for the placename demonstrating loss of memory that Thunor had been a gods name. Adam details that Thor, they reckon, rules the sky, he governs thunder and lightning, winds and storms, fine weather and fertility and that Thor, with his mace, looks like Jupiter
15.
Christianity
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Christianity is a Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ, who serves as the focal point for the religion. It is the worlds largest religion, with over 2.4 billion followers, or 33% of the global population, Christians believe that Jesus is the Son of God and the savior of humanity whose coming as the Messiah was prophesied in the Old Testament. Christian theology is summarized in creeds such as the Apostles Creed and his incarnation, earthly ministry, crucifixion, and resurrection are often referred to as the gospel, meaning good news. The term gospel also refers to accounts of Jesuss life and teaching, four of which—Matthew, Mark, Luke. Christianity is an Abrahamic religion that began as a Second Temple Judaic sect in the mid-1st century, following the Age of Discovery, Christianity spread to the Americas, Australasia, sub-Saharan Africa, and the rest of the world through missionary work and colonization. Christianity has played a prominent role in the shaping of Western civilization, throughout its history, Christianity has weathered schisms and theological disputes that have resulted in many distinct churches and denominations. Worldwide, the three largest branches of Christianity are the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, and the denominations of Protestantism. There are many important differences of interpretation and opinion of the Bible, concise doctrinal statements or confessions of religious beliefs are known as creeds. They began as baptismal formulae and were expanded during the Christological controversies of the 4th and 5th centuries to become statements of faith. Many evangelical Protestants reject creeds as definitive statements of faith, even agreeing with some or all of the substance of the creeds. The Baptists have been non-creedal in that they have not sought to establish binding authoritative confessions of faith on one another. Also rejecting creeds are groups with roots in the Restoration Movement, such as the Christian Church, the Evangelical Christian Church in Canada, the Apostles Creed is the most widely accepted statement of the articles of Christian faith. It is also used by Presbyterians, Methodists, and Congregationalists and this particular creed was developed between the 2nd and 9th centuries. Its central doctrines are those of the Trinity and God the Creator, each of the doctrines found in this creed can be traced to statements current in the apostolic period. The creed was used as a summary of Christian doctrine for baptismal candidates in the churches of Rome. Most Christians accept the use of creeds, and subscribe to at least one of the mentioned above. The central tenet of Christianity is the belief in Jesus as the Son of God, Christians believe that Jesus, as the Messiah, was anointed by God as savior of humanity, and hold that Jesus coming was the fulfillment of messianic prophecies of the Old Testament. The Christian concept of the Messiah differs significantly from the contemporary Jewish concept, Jesus, having become fully human, suffered the pains and temptations of a mortal man, but did not sin
16.
Crucifixion
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It is principally known from classical antiquity, but remains in occasional use in some countries. The crucifixion of Jesus is a narrative in Christianity. Ancient Greek has two verbs for crucify, ana-stauro, from stauros, stake, and apo-tumpanizo crucify on a plank, in earlier pre-Roman Greek texts anastauro usually means impale. New Testament Greek uses four verbs, three of them based upon stauros, usually translated cross, prospegnumi, to fix or fasten to, impale, crucify occurs only once at the Acts of the Apostles 2,23. The English term cross derives from the Latin word crux, the Latin term crux classically referred to a tree or any construction of wood used to hang criminals as a form of execution. The term later came to specifically to a cross. The English term crucifix derives from the Latin crucifixus or cruci fixus, past participle passive of crucifigere or cruci figere, Crucifixion was often performed in order to terrorize and dissuade its witnesses from perpetrating particularly heinous crimes. Victims were left on display after death as warnings to others who might attempt dissent, Crucifixion was usually intended to provide a death that was particularly slow, painful, gruesome, humiliating, and public, using whatever means were most expedient for that goal. Crucifixion methods varied considerably with location and time period, in some cases, the condemned was forced to carry the crossbeam to the place of execution. A whole cross would weigh well over 135 kg, but the crossbeam would not be quite as burdensome, weighing around 45 kg. Upright posts would presumably be fixed permanently in place. Objects used in the crucifixion of criminals, such as nails, were sought as amulets with perceived medicinal qualities, while a crucifixion was an execution, it was also a humiliation, by making the condemned as vulnerable as possible. Although artists have depicted the figure on a cross with a loin cloth or a covering of the genitals. Writings by Seneca the Younger state some victims suffered a stick forced upwards through their groin, despite its frequent use by the Romans, the horrors of crucifixion did not escape mention by some of their eminent orators. Frequently, the legs of the executed were broken or shattered with an iron club, an act called crurifragium. This act hastened the death of the person but was meant to deter those who observed the crucifixion from committing offenses. The gibbet on which crucifixion was carried out could be of many shapes, at times the gibbet was only one vertical stake, called in Latin crux simplex. This was the simplest available construction for torturing and killing the condemned, frequently, however, there was a cross-piece attached either at the top to give the shape of a T or just below the top, as in the form most familiar in Christian symbolism
17.
Jesus
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In Christology, the Person of Christ refers to the study of the human and divine natures of Jesus Christ as they co-exist within one person. There is no discussion in the New Testament regarding the dual nature of the Person of Christ as both divine and human. Hence, since the days of Christianity theologians have debated various approaches to the understanding of these natures. In the period following the Apostolic Age, specific beliefs such as Arianism and Docetism were criticized. On the other end of the spectrum, Docetism argued that Jesus physical body was an illusion, docetic teachings were attacked by St. Ignatius of Antioch and were eventually abandoned by proto-orthodox Christians. However, after the First Council of Nicaea in 325 the Logos, historically in the Alexandrian school of christology, Jesus Christ is the eternal Logos paradoxically humanized in history, a divine Person who became enfleshed, uniting himself to the human nature. The views of these schools can be summarized as follows, Alexandria, Antioch, Logos assumes a specific human being The First Council of Ephesus in 431 debated a number of views regarding the Person of Christ. At the same gathering the council debated the doctrines of monophysitism or miaphysitism. The council rejected Nestorianism and adopted the term hypostatic union, referring to divine, the language used in the 431 declaration was further refined at the 451 Council of Chalcedon. However, the Chalcedon creed was not accepted by all Christians, because Saint Augustine died in 430 he did not participate in the Council of Ephesus in 431 or Chalcedon in 451, but his ideas had some impact on both councils. On the other hand, the major theological figure of the Middle Ages. The Third Council of Constantinople in 680 held that both divine and human wills exist in Jesus, with the divine will having precedence, leading and guiding the human will. John Calvin maintained that there was no element in the Person of Christ which could be separated from the person of The Word. Calvin also emphasized the importance of the Work of Christ in any attempt at understanding the Person of Christ, the study of the Person of Christ continued into the 20th century, with modern theologians such as Karl Rahner and Hans von Balthasar. Balthasar argued that the union of the human and divine natures of Christ was achieved not by the absorption of human attributes, thus in his view the divine nature of Christ was not affected by the human attributes and remained forever divine
18.
Old Norse religion
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Norse religion refers to the religious traditions of the Norsemen prior to the Christianization of Scandinavia, specifically during the Viking Age. Norse religion is a folk religion and it was the northern variation of the religion practiced in the lands inhabited by the Germanic tribes across most of Northern and Central Europe prior to Roman and Holy Roman incursions. However, it was not formalized nor categorized as a subset of Germanic paganism until it was described by outsiders who came into contact with native practitioners. The Norse - or people of Scandinavia - have always had contact with cultures outside Scandinavia. They were well aware of foreign religions and they traded, intermarried and sometimes worked as henchmen for other cultures, including the Romans. Most titles bestowed upon Norse religion are the ones which were used to describe the religion in a competitive manner, some of these terms were hedendom, Heidentum, Heathenry or Pagan. A more romanticized name for Norse religion is the medieval Icelandic term Forn Siðr or Old Custom, knowledge about Norse religion has been gathered from archaeological discoveries and from literature produced after the Christianization of Scandinavia. The literary sources that reference Norse paganism were written after the religion had declined, the vast majority of this came from 13th-century Iceland, where Christianity had taken longest to gain hold because of its remote location. The key literary texts for the study of Norse religion are the Prose Edda by Snorri Sturluson, the Gesta Danorum by Saxo Grammaticus and the Poetic Edda, by an unknown writer or writers. Saga literature informs us of the not only of the literate elite. Sagas are categorized on the basis of events described in the saga took place. Though Sagas are often mythical in nature, the ambitions are to give a realistic description of past events. Many sites in Scandinavia have yielded information about early Scandinavian culture. The oldest extant cultural examples are petroglyphs or helleristninger/hällristningar and these are usually divided into two categories according to age, hunting-glyphs and agricultural-glyphs. The hunting glyphs are the oldest and are found in Northern Scandinavia. These finds seem to indicate an existence based on hunting and fishing. These motifs were gradually subsumed by glyphs with more zoomorphic, or perhaps religious, the glyphs from the region of Bohuslän are later complemented with younger agricultural glyphs, which seem to depict an existence based more heavily on agriculture. These later motifs primarily depict ships, solar and lunar motifs, geometrical spirals and anthropomorphic beings and these finds shows several signs of rituals in a seemingly religious context, including some strong indications of human sacrifice such as the case of the Tollund Man bog body
19.
Sandstone
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Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized minerals or rock grains. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar because these are the most common minerals in the Earths crust, like sand, sandstone may be any color, but the most common colors are tan, brown, yellow, red, grey, pink, white, and black. Since sandstone beds often form highly visible cliffs and other topographic features, quartz-bearing sandstone is converted into quartzite through heating and pressure, usually related to tectonic compression within orogenic belts. They are formed from cemented grains that may either be fragments of a rock or be mono-minerallic crystals. The cements binding these grains together are typically calcite, clays, grain sizes in sands are defined within the range of 0.0625 mm to 2 mm. The formation of sandstone involves two principal stages, first, a layer or layers of sand accumulates as the result of sedimentation, either from water or from air. Typically, sedimentation occurs by the settling out from suspension. The most common cementing materials are silica and calcium carbonate, which are derived either from dissolution or from alteration of the sand after it was buried. Colours will usually be tan or yellow, a predominant additional colourant in the southwestern United States is iron oxide, which imparts reddish tints ranging from pink to dark red, with additional manganese imparting a purplish hue. Red sandstones are seen in the Southwest and West of Britain, as well as central Europe. The regularity of the latter favours use as a source for masonry, either as a building material or as a facing stone. These physical properties allow the grains to survive multiple recycling events. Quartz grains evolve from rock, which are felsic in origin. Feldspathic framework grains are commonly the second most abundant mineral in sandstones, Feldspar can be divided into two smaller subdivisions, alkali feldspars and plagioclase feldspars. The different types of feldspar can be distinguished under a petrographic microscope, below is a description of the different types of feldspar. Alkali feldspar is a group of minerals in which the composition of the mineral can range from KAlSi3O8 to NaAlSi3O8. Plagioclase feldspar is a group of solid solution minerals that range in composition from NaAlSi3O8 to CaAl2Si2O8. Lithic framework grains are pieces of ancient source rock that have yet to weather away to individual mineral grains, accessory minerals are all other mineral grains in a sandstone, commonly these minerals make up just a small percentage of the grains in a sandstone
20.
Irton Cross
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Irton Cross is an Anglo-Saxon cross in the graveyard of St Pauls Church, Irton with Santon, Cumbria, England. Dating from the early 9th century, it lies chronologically between the Bewcastle Cross and the Gosforth cross and has affinity with the earlier Anglo-Roman style of Bewcastle. The west face has two panels of interlace, between which is a panel which contained three lines of runes, all of which is surrounded by a border of knotwork. The east face also has two panels with a key pattern, and two with chequers, which are in fact small sunken crosses. There is fine work on the narrow north and south sides, with leaves stem and fruit. The graveyard is open to the public and the cross can be examined at any time and it is to the south of the church. A replica of the cross can also be see at the Victoria, the cast was made in 1882, and along with the Gosforth cross, it can be seen in the cast hall of the museum. The Gosforth District - C A Parker,1904
21.
Victoria and Albert Museum
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The Victoria and Albert Museum, London, is the worlds largest museum of decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 4.5 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and named after Queen Victoria and Prince Albert and these include the Natural History Museum, the Science Museum and the Royal Albert Hall. The museum is a public body sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media. Like other national British museums, entrance to the museum has been free since 2001, the V&A covers 12.5 acres and 145 galleries. Its collection spans 5,000 years of art, from ancient times to the present day, from the cultures of Europe, North America, Asia and North Africa. The museum owns the worlds largest collection of sculpture, with the holdings of Italian Renaissance items being the largest outside Italy. The departments of Asia include art from South Asia, China, Japan, Korea, the East Asian collections are among the best in Europe, with particular strengths in ceramics and metalwork, while the Islamic collection is amongst the largest in the Western world. Overall, it is one of the largest museums in the world, New 17th- and 18th-century European galleries were opened on 9 December 2015. These restored the original Aston Webb interiors and host the European collections 1600–1815, at this stage the collections covered both applied art and science. Several of the exhibits from the Exhibition were purchased to form the nucleus of the collection, by February 1854 discussions were underway to transfer the museum to the current site and it was renamed South Kensington Museum. In 1855 the German architect Gottfried Semper, at the request of Cole, produced a design for the museum, but it was rejected by the Board of Trade as too expensive. The site was occupied by Brompton Park House, this was extended including the first refreshment rooms opened in 1857, the official opening by Queen Victoria was on 22 June 1857. In the following year, late night openings were introduced, made possible by the use of gas lighting, in these early years the practical use of the collection was very much emphasised as opposed to that of High Art at the National Gallery and scholarship at the British Museum. George Wallis, the first Keeper of Fine Art Collection, passionately promoted the idea of art education through the museum collections. From the 1860s to the 1880s the scientific collections had been moved from the museum site to various improvised galleries to the west of Exhibition Road. In 1893 the Science Museum had effectively come into existence when a director was appointed. The laying of the stone of the Aston Webb building on 17 May 1899 was the last official public appearance by Queen Victoria. It was during this ceremony that the change of name from the South Kensington Museum to the Victoria, the exhibition which the museum organised to celebrate the centennial of the 1899 renaming, A Grand Design, first toured in North America from 1997, returning to London in 1999
22.
William Slater Calverley
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The Rev. William Slater Calverley was an unassuming rural English vicar who through diligent study and painstaking scrutiny became an extraordinary amateur antiquarian. Although born in Yorkshire, Calverley claimed his fame through interpreting the carved sculptured relics that he and he made intricate drawings, corresponded with academic authorities, and gave his own interpretation to meaning, which he then relayed to a wider audience. Calverley later reproduced in intricate detail a life-sized reproduction of the famous Gosforth Cross, William Slater Calverley was born near Leeds, Yorkshire in 1847. After completing his education he entered New College, Oxford. During this period he began to study art at the South Kensington School of Art and according to contemporary reports could have achieved the gold medal and this period of study proved very useful later in life. Notwithstanding his artistic ability he chose to enter the church and he was ordained deacon by Bishop Goodwin at Carlisle, Cumberland, in 1872 and afterwards became curate of Eskdale parish, South Cumberland. Under his guidance the church was restored, the vicarage and church yard enlarged and improved, in 1885, he became vicar of St. Kentigerns Church, Aspatria. One important feature of his pastorate of Aspatria was the acquisition of a peal of bells for the church, Calverley ignited an interest in local and ancient history during the church restorations at Dearham, which brought to light remains of ancient art. Through the study of pre-Norman stones and artefacts he became one of the worlds foremost antiquarian scholars, after finding several pre-Norman sculptures he contacted leading authorities, and formed a close working relationship with the English born professor, George Stephens of Copenhagen University. The news created a sensation, prior to these discovery authorities held that Christian monuments contained nothing, although others had tried to make a connection with Buddhism, Druidism, and Astronomy, Calverley identified the Pagan overlap in English relics. His critics were silenced after the Rev. G. F. Browne published his research into the meaning of the Scandinavian legends on the cross at Leeds. As vicar at Aspatria, Calverley began to study the ancient relics of that parish, having realised the importance of these relics he removed them to the vestry. All of his conclusions remain his testimony today, however, it was his interpretation of the meaning of the spiral markings on the Gosforth Cross which aasured his fame. Not content to make sketches of the carvings, Calverley determined to make an exact life-size reproduction a means of understanding the Masonic mystery of the sculpture. Aspatria parish is rich in red freestone and in due course he acquired from the local quarries, with the aid of a retired master mason he carved out the cross and then proceeded with the carving. He reproduced the markings in intricate detail and the cross now stands in its own socket in the east end of Aspatria churchyard. In Calverleys opinion it was a Christian monument, not an heathen pillar surmounted by a cross and he described it as an elaborately carved Christian cross set in a socket of three Calvary steps. Calverley was elected F. S. A. in 1885 and he was also a member of the Royal Archaeological Institute, and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society
23.
Aspatria
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Aspatria /ˌəsˈpeɪtriə/ is a civil parish in the non-metropolitan district of Allerdale, and is currently embraced in the Parliamentary constituency of Workington. Historically within Cumberland the town rests on the side of the Ellen Valley, overlooking a panoramic view of the countryside, with Skiddaw to the South. Its developments are aligned approximately east-west along the A596 Carlisle to Workington road and it lies about 8 miles northeast of Maryport, a similar distance to the Southwest of Wigton, about 9 miles north of Cockermouth and 5 miles from the coast and Allonby. It comprises the townships of Aspatria and Brayton, Hayton and Mealo, and Oughterside and Allerby, in earlier days a Roman road leading from Old Carlisle to Ellenborough passed through the hamlet. The population has increased since the mid nineteenth century. In 1801, the village comprised 98 dwellings with a population of 321, by 1851, there were 236 family entities, comprising 1,123 residents, by 1871, the numbers had increased to 1,778, and twenty years later stood at 2,714. By the start of the 20th century, the population had risen to 2,885, although the population slumped in the 1930s to 3,189, it recovered to 3,500, in 1951, and by 1981, the population appeared stable at 2,745. It is served by Aspatria railway station, Aspatria is located on the fringe of the English Lake District. The parish church of St Kentigern was completed in 1848, fragments of masonry and crosses from earlier structures on the same site are preserved there. Aspatria is an ancient settlement and seems to have been home to a group of Norsemen who fled to the area from Ireland around 900. In 1789, a surgeon by the name of a Mr Rigg employed a group of labourers to level a mound called Beacon Hill, situated close behind his house at Aspatria. After reaching a depth of one metre they dug into a cavity walled around with large stones. At the head of the gigantic skeleton lay a sword almost two metres in length, with a broad blade, ornamented with a gold and silver handle. The scabbard of the sword was made of wood, lined with cloth, the workmen also unearthed several pieces of armour, a dirk with a silver studded handle, a golden buckled belt, and a breast plate. The artefacts remain the property of the British Museum, further finds were made on the same site in 1997 when a mobile phone mast was being constructed. The manor of Aspatria is part of the ancient barony of Allerdale below Derwent, upon the division of the estates of William Fitz Duncan, and his wife Alice de Romney, among their three daughters, the manor passed to Alice the youngest. However Alice died without issue and the passed to an elder sister who had married into the Lucy family. The latter family terminated in a female heir Maud de Lucy and she married Henry Percy, the first Earl of Northumberland, who received the whole of her estates
24.
Hogback (sculpture)
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Hogbacks are stone carved Anglo-Scandinavian sculptures from 10th- to 12th-century England and Scotland. Hogbacks fell out of fashion by the beginning of the 11th century and their function is generally accepted as grave markers. Hogbacks take the form of recumbent monuments, generally with a curved ridge and this shape, and the fact that they are frequently decorated with shingles on either side of the central ridge, show that they are stylised houses for the dead. The house is of a Scandinavian type, one theory is that hogbacks originated among the Danish settlers who occupied northern England in the 870s after the fall of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Northumbria. However, there is not sufficient research to prove or disprove this and it has been suggested that the monument-type was invented about 920. There are particular concentrations of hogbacks in Yorkshire and Cumbria, the former being their likely area of origin, individual examples are found over a much wider area, however, from Derbyshire to Central Scotland. The presence of hogbacks in Scotland is likely due to the Forth-Clyde route, most hogback sites in Scotland are along maritime routes. English hogback sites do not follow this same trajectory, there are stray examples as far afield as the Northern Isles, Orkney and Cornwall. Ireland has an example at Castledermot, Co. Wales also has an example at Llanddewi Aberarth Church. The most numerous collections are the preserved in St Thomass church of Brompton. Discovered in 1867 following the restoration of the church, six were taken to Durham Cathedral Library leaving four whole ones and they are characterized by carvings of bears hugging the slabs with strapwork in their mouths. Elsewhere five are in the kirk of Govan, once a rural parish. There is an example in the visitor centre on Inchcolm island in the Firth of Forth. There are two types of Hogbacks. One is the Brompton type, which is characterized by massive end beasts, the other type is the warriors tomb, which looks more like a house. It does not have massive end beasts, within the two main groups of hogback styles are smaller subsets. The scroll type hogback is a subset of the warriors tomb type and it is characterized by scroll motifs on the horizontal band below the tegulation
25.
International Standard Book Number
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The International Standard Book Number is a unique numeric commercial book identifier. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an e-book, a paperback and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, the method of assigning an ISBN is nation-based and varies from country to country, often depending on how large the publishing industry is within a country. The initial ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 based upon the 9-digit Standard Book Numbering created in 1966, the 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108. Occasionally, a book may appear without a printed ISBN if it is printed privately or the author does not follow the usual ISBN procedure, however, this can be rectified later. Another identifier, the International Standard Serial Number, identifies periodical publications such as magazines, the ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 in the United Kingdom by David Whitaker and in 1968 in the US by Emery Koltay. The 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108, the United Kingdom continued to use the 9-digit SBN code until 1974. The ISO on-line facility only refers back to 1978, an SBN may be converted to an ISBN by prefixing the digit 0. For example, the edition of Mr. J. G. Reeder Returns, published by Hodder in 1965, has SBN340013818 -340 indicating the publisher,01381 their serial number. This can be converted to ISBN 0-340-01381-8, the check digit does not need to be re-calculated, since 1 January 2007, ISBNs have contained 13 digits, a format that is compatible with Bookland European Article Number EAN-13s. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an ebook, a paperback, and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, a 13-digit ISBN can be separated into its parts, and when this is done it is customary to separate the parts with hyphens or spaces. Separating the parts of a 10-digit ISBN is also done with either hyphens or spaces, figuring out how to correctly separate a given ISBN number is complicated, because most of the parts do not use a fixed number of digits. ISBN issuance is country-specific, in that ISBNs are issued by the ISBN registration agency that is responsible for country or territory regardless of the publication language. Some ISBN registration agencies are based in national libraries or within ministries of culture, in other cases, the ISBN registration service is provided by organisations such as bibliographic data providers that are not government funded. In Canada, ISBNs are issued at no cost with the purpose of encouraging Canadian culture. In the United Kingdom, United States, and some countries, where the service is provided by non-government-funded organisations. Australia, ISBNs are issued by the library services agency Thorpe-Bowker
26.
W. G. Collingwood
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William Gershom Collingwood was an English author, artist, antiquary and professor of Fine Arts at University College, Reading. His father, also William, was a watercolour artist, and had married Marie Eliabeth Imhoff of Arbon, soon young William was sketching with his father in the Lakes, North Wales, and Switzerland. In 1872, he went to University College, Oxford, where he met John Ruskin, during the summer of 1873 Collingwood visited Ruskin at Brantwood, Coniston. Two years later Collingwood was working at Brantwood with Ruskin and his associates, Ruskin admired his draughtsmanship, and so Collingwood studied at the Slade School of Art between 1876 and 1878. He exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1880, for many years Collingwood dedicated himself to helping Ruskin, staying at Brantwood as Ruskins assistant and travelling with him to Switzerland. In 1883 he married Edith Mary Isaac and settled near to Ruskin in the Lake District, Collingwood edited a number of Ruskins texts and published a biography of Ruskin in 1893. In 1896, Arthur Ransome met the Collingwoods and their children, Dora, Barbara, Ursula, Ransome learned to sail in Collingwoods boat, Swallow, and became a firm friend of the family, even proposing marriage to both Dora and Barbara. After a summer of teaching Collingwoods grandchildren to sail in Swallow II in 1928, Ransome wrote the first book in his Swallows and he used the names of some of Collingwoods grandchildren for his characters, the Swallows. By the 1890s Collingwood had become a painter and also joined the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian. He wrote a number of papers for its Transactions, becoming editor in 1900. Collingwood was particularly interested in Norse lore and the Norsemen, and he wrote a novel, in 1897, Collingwood travelled to Iceland where he spent three months over the summer exploring with Jón Stefánsson the sites around the country in which the medieval Icelandic sagas are set. Collingwood was a member of the Viking Club and served as its president, in 1902 he co-authored again with Jón Stefánsson the first translation it published, a translation of Kormáks saga entitled, The Life and Death of Kormac the Skald. His study of Norse and Anglican archaeology made him recognized as a leading authority. Collingwood joined the Admiralty intelligence division at the outbreak of the First World War, in 1919, he returned to Coniston and continued his writing with a history of the Lake District and perhaps his most important work, Northumbrian Crosses of the pre-Norman Age. He was a climber and swimmer, and a tireless walker into advanced age. In 1927 he experienced the first of a series of strokes and his wife died in 1928, followed by Collingwood himself in 1932. Following the Armistice of 1918, and the treaty of 1919. His knowledge of and enthusiasm for Scandinavian crosses is displayed at Grasmere where the memorial on Broadgate Meadows is a pastiche of an Anglian cross, the short verse at its base was penned by his close friend Canon Hardwicke Rawnsley who was chair of the memorial committee
27.
Ordnance Survey National Grid
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The Ordnance Survey National Grid reference system is a system of geographic grid references used in Great Britain, different from using Latitude and Longitude. It is often called British National Grid, the Ordnance Survey devised the national grid reference system, and it is heavily used in their survey data, and in maps based on those surveys. Grid references are commonly quoted in other publications and data sources. The Universal Transverse Mercator coordinate system is used to provide references for worldwide locations. European-wide agencies also use UTM when mapping locations, or may use the Military Grid Reference System system, the grid is based on the OSGB36 datum, and was introduced after the retriangulation of 1936–1962. It replaced the previously used Cassini Grid which, up to the end of World War Two, had issued only to the military. The Airy ellipsoid is a regional best fit for Britain, more modern mapping tends to use the GRS80 ellipsoid used by the GPS, the British maps adopt a Transverse Mercator projection with an origin at 49° N, 2° W. Over the Airy ellipsoid a straight grid, the National Grid, is placed with a new false origin. This false origin is located south-west of the Isles of Scilly, the distortion created between the OS grid and the projection is countered by a scale factor in the longitude to create two lines of longitude with zero distortion rather than one. Grid north and true north are aligned on the 400 km easting of the grid which is 2° W. 2° 0′ 5″ W. OSGB36 was also used by Admiralty nautical charts until 2000 after which WGS84 has been used, a geodetic transformation between OSGB36 and other terrestrial reference systems can become quite tedious if attempted manually. The most common transformation is called the Helmert datum transformation, which results in a typical 7 m error from true, the definitive transformation from ETRS89 that is published by the OSGB is called the National Grid Transformation OSTN02. This models the detailed distortions in the 1936–1962 retriangulation, and achieves backwards compatibility in grid coordinates to sub-metre accuracy, the difference between the coordinates on different datums varies from place to place. The longitude and latitude positions on OSGB36 are the same as for WGS84 at a point in the Atlantic Ocean well to the west of Great Britain. In Cornwall, the WGS84 longitude lines are about 70 metres east of their OSGB36 equivalents, the smallest datum shift is on the west coast of Scotland and the greatest in Kent. But Great Britain has not shrunk by 100+ metres, a point near Lands End now computes to be 27.6 metres closer to a point near Duncansby Head than it did under OSGB36. For the first letter, the grid is divided into squares of size 500 km by 500 km, there are four of these which contain significant land area within Great Britain, S, T, N and H. The O square contains an area of North Yorkshire, almost all of which lies below mean high tide
28.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
29.
High cross
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A high cross or standing cross is a free-standing Christian cross made of stone and often richly decorated. There was a unique Early Medieval tradition in Ireland and Britain of raising large sculpted stone crosses, Anglo-Saxon examples mostly remained slender in comparison, but could be large, except in earlier Northumbrian examples their decoration is mostly ornamental rather than figures. The crosses often, though not always, feature a ring around the intersection, forming a Celtic cross. The term high cross is used in Ireland and Scotland. Some crosses were erected just outside churches and monasteries, others at sites that may have marked boundaries or crossroads, whether they were used as preaching crosses at early dates is unclear, and many crosses have been moved to their present locations. They do not seem to have used as grave-markers in the early medieval period. In the 19th century Celtic Revival Celtic crosses with decoration in a form of Insular style, became popular as gravestones and memorials. Unlike the Irish originals, the decoration usually does not include figures, High crosses are the primary surviving monumental works of Insular art, and the largest number in Britain survive from areas that remained under Celtic Christianity until relatively late. Saint Adomnán, Abbot of Iona who died in 704, mentions similar free standing ringed wooden crosses, perhaps the earliest surviving free-standing stone crosses are at Carndonagh, Donegal, which appear to be erected by missionaries from Iona. Fleeing the Viking raiders, giving Iona a critical role in the formation of ringed crosses, the round bosses seen on early crosses probably derive from Pictish stones. High crosses may exist from the 7th century in Northumbria, which included much of south-east Scotland. Most Irish High crosses have the shape of the ringed Celtic cross, and they are generally larger and more massive. They have probably more often survived as well, most recorded crosses in Britain were destroyed or damaged by iconoclasm after the Reformation, the ring initially served to strengthen the head and the arms of the high cross, but it soon became a decorative feature as well. The high crosses were status symbols, either for a monastery or for a sponsor or patron, and possibly preaching crosses, some have inscriptions recording the donor who commissioned them, like Muiredachs High Cross and the Bewcastle Cross. Some late Irish examples have fewer figures, approaching life-size, and these are now found across the world, often in contexts without any specific link to the Insular Celts or Britain. The heads tend to be smaller and usually not Celtic crosses, carved figures in these large examples are much larger and carved in deeper relief than the Irish equivalents with similar dates – only some very late Irish crosses show equally large figures. Anglo-Saxon decoration often combines panels of vine-leaf scrolls with others of interlace, although the placement, smaller examples may have only had such decoration, and inscriptions, which are much more common on Anglo-Saxon than Irish crosses. The Gosforth Cross, a very rare almost-complete cross in England, is an example, given the tough granite used, decoration is mostly slight and they are hard to date confidently
30.
Bewcastle Cross
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The Bewcastle Cross is an Anglo-Saxon cross which is still in its original position within the churchyard of St Cuthberts church at Bewcastle, in the English county of Cumbria. The cross, which dates from the 7th or early 8th century, features reliefs. The head of the cross is missing but the remains are 14.5 feet high, the crosses of Bewcastle and Ruthwell have been described by the scholar Nikolaus Pevsner as the greatest achievement of their date in the whole of Europe. Each of the four sides of the cross is decorated with reliefs divided into panels depicting figures, animals, chequers, vine scrolls, interlace knots. The north, west, and south sides of the cross feature runic inscriptions, the largest relief on the side with figures is, as at Ruthwell, Christ treading on the beasts, below Saint John the Baptist. The sundial on its surface, a sundial, is by far earliest English sundial to survive. Scholars have contended that only the name Cyneburh is definitely decipherable on the cross, Cyneburh was a wife of Aldfrith but this was a common name at the time and might not refer to Aldfriths wife. Alfredir was king of Northumbria, and died around 664, the north side contains runes that are not easily decipherable, but may refer to Wulfere, among others, who was a son of Penda, and king of Mercia. Pray for their sins, their souls, referring to Egfrid, son of Oswy and brother of Alhfrith, who ascended to the throne in 670, the south side inscription has been read as, In the first year of Egfrid, king of this kingdom. A replica of the cross, including a guess at the part, is in the churchyard of the neo-Romanesque St Marys Church at Wreay near Carlisle. The Wreay cross differs in style and detail from the original and has described as a reinvention. Easby Cross in the Victoria and Albert Museum, with Bewcastle and Ruthwell the best preserved Northumbrian cross Anglo-Saxon art Cook, Albert Stanburrough, some Accounts of the Bewcastle Cross Between the Years 1607 and 1861 H. Holt and Company. Cook, Albert Stanburrough The Date of the Ruthwell and Bewcastle Crosses. William Nicolson, F. R. S. and the Runes of the Bewcastle Cross, Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London,14, pp. 184–90 Pevsner, Anglo-Saxon Art, From The Seventh Century To The Norman Conquest, Thames and Hudson
31.
Crowle Stone
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The Crowle Stone is the remains of an Anglo-Saxon cross at the back of the Church of England parish church of St Oswald at Crowle, Lincolnshire. This was originally carved as a shaft and until 1919 it was used as a lintel over the west door. The preservation of the stone is almost certainly as a result of the Norman masons reusing it when the church was built in 1150, the stone measures 6 ft 11 in in height 16 in thick and 8.5 in wide. The stone is carved on all three sides. At the bottom of one there is a runic inscription which would date the cross shaft as being before 950 as the use of runes had almost completely died out by then
32.
Dartmoor crosses
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The Dartmoor crosses are a series of stone crosses found in Dartmoor National Park in the centre of Devon, England. Many of them are old navigational aids, needed because of the remoteness of the moorland, some mark medieval routes between abbeys. Other crosses were erected as memorials, for prayer, as town or market crosses, in churchyards, the crosses were erected over a long period of time, some as recently as 100 years ago, the earliest probably almost 1,000 years ago. There is an attached to the origin of the original crosses. The story says there were four monks who did not want to follow their abbots rules on austere living. Once the abbot went to Italy, the four decided to celebrate. They robbed and killed a wealthy Jew, in the same evening the brothers were called to the nearby moor, which was covered in snow and ice at the time. When they reached the place, they realized that the messenger who had beckoned them was the ghost of the murdered Jewish man, the ghost hypnotized them, and they wandered into the mire, fell through the ice, and were sucked into the thick bog. This cross is by the side of the road from Moretonhampstead to Two Bridges, nothing is known of the early history of the cross, although its crude shape suggests that it is very old. It was later used as a marker for Headland Warren. Its survival here is due to its use as a boundary marker. The origin of the name is not known, Cadover Cross is located on Wigford Down, about 250 metres north-west of Cadover Bridge on the minor road between Plympton and Yelverton. Two important 12th century routes used the crossing here, one leading from Tavistock to Plympton Priory. The first documentary evidence for it is a mention as a mark in 1381. The head of the cross was discovered by soldiers in 1873, by 1901 it had fallen again and it remained so until 1915 when Hugh Breton, the vicar of Sheepstor, arranged for it to be re-erected on a new shaft. After searching for a site to re-erect it, they dug a hole and fortuitously discovered the original socket-stone which they raised to ground level. Early 20th century writers described incised crosses on the faces of the cross, Crazywell Cross is an ancient cross close to Crazywell Pool in southern Dartmoor. Like the cross pattée, the arms of the cross grow wider as they move away from the centre and it probably was used as a marker for the track from Buckfast Abbey to Tavistock Abbey
33.
Easby Cross
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The Easby Cross is an Anglo-Saxon sandstone standing cross from 800–820, now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. It originally came from Easby near Richmond in the Richmondshire district of North Yorkshire, Easby was then in the Kingdom of Northumbria. The width of the long faces at the bottom of the lowest fragment is 31 cm, with a depth of 18 cm, four fragments of the cross survive, which have been fitted into a reconstruction in the museum. Three of these were used, probably in the late 12th century, in the rebuilding of Easby Church, all had one face visible in the wall surface, two were on exterior faces of the church, and one on the interior. The fragment with Christ in Majesty on the face was recovered from a field wall nearby before 1869. Both types of reuse are very typical of the fate of broken crosses, some of the sections show that repairs had already been made with molten lead before the cross was broken up, so it may have been unstable or otherwise damaged. This quarry had been used for the 7th century Whitby Abbey and other sculptures in Yorkshire, the front face is carved with figurative reliefs. Those that survive show Christ in Majesty with two angels, and below that panel the halo of a now lost. Below the Christ panel there were three groups of haloed head and shoulder reliefs of apostles in arched compartments. There were two groups of three and one of six, but the face of the topmost figure is now missing, the cross head is missing its arms, which extended to about 90 cm across. The front face shows a bust of Christ blessing and holding a book, the layout and appearance of the apostles heads has also been compared to a Byzantine row of heads around an archivolt from a church in Constantinople of the 6th-7th centuries. The rear face contains a continuous vine scroll inhabited with beasts, the scroll is the type known as medallion scroll. Ernst Kitzinger thought the form of the related to early Carolingian art. The two much narrower side faces contain panels of interlace and vine scroll that alternate apparently rather randomly, the corners have rope-work running the whole length of the faces, which the modern filler sections imitate. The cross dates from the period when Alcuin of York and other Anglo-Saxons held important positions in the court of Charlemagne, the cross is now displayed at the start of the recently re-arranged Medieval galleries. 357, pp. 265–269+272-274, JSTOR Wilson, David M. Anglo-Saxon Art, From The Seventh Century To The Norman Conquest, Thames, Victoria and Albert Museum, Good web-site pages on the individual fragments, linked to in the notes
34.
Legg's cross
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Leggs cross is an Anglo-Saxon cross in County Durham, England, about 4 miles north of Piercebridge on the Pilgrims Way. It is a Grade II* listed structure, the cross is now eroded to an obelisk-like structure, although it once had an inscription reading LEG, giving rise to the name. It has been suggested that the cross was constructed from Roman masonry, other theories for the name include the fact that legge is the Anglo-Saxon word meaning boundary. It is also rumoured that James VI of Scotland rested here with his legs crossed on his way south to claim the English throne
35.
Ruthwell Cross
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The Ruthwell Cross is a stone Anglo-Saxon cross probably dating from the 8th century, when the village of Ruthwell, now in Scotland, was part of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Northumbria. It is both the most famous and elaborate Anglo-Saxon monumental sculpture, and possibly the oldest surviving text of English poetry and it has been described by Nikolaus Pevsner thus, The crosses of Bewcastle and Ruthwell. are the greatest achievement of their date in the whole of Europe. The cross was smashed by Presbyterian iconoclasts in 1642, and the left in the churchyard until they were restored and re-erected in the manse garden in 1823 by Henry Duncan. In 1887 it was moved into its current location inside Ruthwell church, Dumfriesshire, Scotland, Anglo-Saxon crosses are closely related to the contemporary Irish high crosses, and both are part of the Insular art tradition. Whatever the subject, it is clearly the same as the very similar relief that is the largest panel on the nearby Bewcastle Cross which, subject to dating, was probably created by the same artists. These scenes are on the main, lower, section of the shaft, which was broken above the largest scenes, and possibly the two sections were not restored the right way round. Above the large scene on the side is either John the Baptist holding a lamb, or possibly God the Father holding the Lamb of God. The side arms and centre roundel of the cross are replacements, of purely speculative design. On the south side, Martha and Mary are followed by an archer, the subject of almost as much debate as the judging Christ, on the lowest arm of the Cross, and an eagle on the top arm. It was not until two years later, however, that the cross was taken down when an Act was passed anent the Idolatrous Monuments in Ruthwell, the usual account is that the cross was taken down in the church or churchyard soon after the 1642 order and broken up. One piece, it appears, was used as a bench to sit upon, the pieces were later removed from the church and left out in the churchyard. By 1823, Henry Duncan had collected all the pieces he could find, and put together, commissioning a new crossbeam. He then erected it in the manse garden and he was convinced that he was reconstructing a Popish monument, and based his work on drawings of similar Popish relics. Duncan dismissed the early medieval motif of Paul and Anthony breaking bread in the desert as probably founded on some Popish tradition. It has been suggested that the work was not in fact originally a cross, in a 2007 journal article, Patrick W. For that reason, I shall refer throughout to the Ruthwell Monument in preference to the Ruthwell cross, orton is also convinced the piece is made of two different types of stone, “. It seems to make sense to see the Ruthwell monument as originally a column. Amended with the addition of a Crucifixion scene, and then, further amended with the addition of a cross made of a different kind of stone
36.
Sandbach Crosses
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The Sandbach Crosses are two 9th-century stone Anglo-Saxon crosses now erected in the market place in the town of Sandbach, Cheshire, England. They are unusually large and elaborate examples of the type and are recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade I listed building, and they are a scheduled monument. The most recent and authoritative dating places the larger cross from the part of the 9th century. Older theories, now outdated, included the view that they were erected to commemorate the conversion to Christianity of Peada of Mercia about 653, other sources date them to the 9th century. The original site of the crosses is unknown and it is believed that they were brought to Sandbach in the Middle Ages, the earliest documentary evidence is by William Smith, the Rouge-Dragon Pursuivant at Arms of Elizabeth I, who was from Nantwich. In 1585 he wrote two square crosses of stone, on steps, with images and writings thereon graven hard together. Either after the Reformation or during the Civil War they were thrown down, larger pieces of the crosses were found as far away as Oulton and Tarporley while smaller pieces were found on various sites in Sandbach. In the early 19th century they were collected together and in 1816 were reassembled and erected under the direction of George Ormerod, the crosses now consist of two upright columns set in sockets on a base of three stepped stones. The northern cross is the taller and has a mutilated head, the southern cross is truncated and has a mutilated head from a different cross. The crosses have always been a pair and were carved by the same hand and they depict religious scenes, doll-like heads and beasts in panels, together with vine-scrolls, course interlace patterns and some dragons. One of the Crosses appears in a watercolour by William Alexander, from which they were engraved by John Byrne and published in Britannia Depicta, Part III, examples were sold at Sothebys on 22 February 1977, and now appear in the UKs Government Art Collection. Prints and engravings are found at the Cheshire Records Office. Grade I listed buildings in Cheshire East Scheduled Monuments in Cheshire Listed buildings in Sandbach Media related to Sandbach Crosses at Wikimedia Commons Sandbach Crosses, English Heritage
37.
Sheffield Cross
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The Sheffield Cross is an Anglo-Saxon cross, dating from the early ninth century. It is the shaft of a high cross that was rediscovered hollowed out. It is now in the British Museum, the head of the cross is missing. The style of the cross is Mercian, and it is the most northerly known example of this type and it resembles crosses from Bakewell and Eyam, and David Hey uses the similarity of the vine scrolls in the Eyam and Sheffield crosses to hypothesise a single craftsperson. At the time of its discovery the prevailing theory was that the Cross originally stood on the site of Sheffield Parish Church. A cross outside the church is recorded to have been demolished in 1570 during the English Reformation, another theory holds that it was originally from Derbyshire. Several crosses in Sheffield survived the Reformation, including the Market Cross, Irish Cross and Townhead Cross, but all are now lost
38.
Stapleford Cross
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Stapleford Cross is an Anglo-Saxon high cross dating from the eleventh century, now located in the churchyard of St. Helens Church, Stapleford, in Nottinghamshire, England. It is Grade I listed, and also an ancient monument. The cross was said by Pevsner to be by far the most important pre-Conquest monument in Notts. According to its Historic England list entry, The remains of the cross today consist of a 2. 5m high square stone shaft, the lower portion has rounded edges, whilst the top part is more square section, which makes this cross one of the Mercian round-shaft family. The shaft is decorated with various forms of interlace, divided into four sections. The third section also displays a figure, armed with a spear and presumed to be an archangel. According to Kendrick, this dense interlacing is distinctly Mercian in character and it shows similarities to the densely carved Wolverhampton Pillar, and the fine interlacing to be seen on the Brunswick Casket and the Witham Pins. On the other hand, Hill sees a connection with the Bewcastle Cross in Cumbria. The cross is now mounted on a plinth, and is topped by cap. The date of the cross in unclear, english Heritage describe it as eleventh-century in one of two listings, but in its other listing they suggest that high crosses of this type are likely to be eighth, ninth or tenth century. Rev. A. D. Hill suggested a date between 680 and 780 AD, from the style and circumstances of the times. This is the date range quoted on the information displayed at the site. Pevsner says that the date may be as late as c.1050, the original position of the cross in unknown, but it is likely to have been nearby. The first records of the monument date from the eighteenth century, before 1760, the cross was lying on its side in the churchyard, around which time the cross-head was removed. With the head, the cross would have been around 3. 5m high, in 1760, the cross was re-erected at the junction of Church Street and Church Lane, immediately south east of the churchyard. In 1820, it was installed on a new base at the same location, in 1916, the top ball was damaged in a storm. In 1928, the cross together with the 1820 plinth and cap was moved from the location to the churchyard. In 2000, a new stone ball replaced the one damaged in 1916, the cross may be the origin of the name Stapleford which means a crossing near a post
39.
Wolverhampton Pillar
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The Wolverhampton Pillar is the shaft of an Anglo-Saxon High cross, still standing in its original location in the churchyard of St Peters Collegiate Church, in Wolverhampton. It is an ancient monument, and probably dates from around AD996 when a college was founded at this site. The decoration is of a rare type, and has survived the effects of weathering comparatively well. It consists of seven bands, depicting vine scrolls, various animals, acanthus, kendrick considered the decoration to be unique, the only surviving example in England which demonstrated the southern continental Baroque style. He also thought that it illustrated a taste for a display of finicky decoration. Anglian cross 25m south of St Peters Collegiate Church, EH Pastscape list entry MONUMENT NO.118820 Photo showing decoration, by Bob Maddox Plaster cast taken in 1880 for the V&A Museum
40.
St Wilfrid's Church, Halton-on-Lune
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St Wilfrids Church is an Anglican church in Halton-on-Lune, a village in the English county of Lancashire. It is a parish church in the Diocese of Blackburn. Halton may have been the site of an ancient Anglo-Saxon minster, of the current structure, the tower dates from the 16th century and the remainder was built 1876–77 by Paley and Austin. The church is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II listed building, at the time of the Norman conquest of England in 1066, Halton was the centre of a large manor that belonged to Earl Tostig Godwinson. There is evidence of a Christian site at Halton and there was probably an Anglo-Saxon minster there, there may have been a connection to Bishop Wilfrid and certainly by 1252, there was a church dedicated to St Wilfrid. Until the early 18th century, the advowson belonged to the Lord of the Manor, a tower was built in the 16th century. The church was rebuilt in 1792, the current structure was built 1876–77 by Lancaster-based architecture firm Paley and Austin. The churchyard was enlarged in 1872,1901 and again in 1907, St Wilfrids is constructed of yellow sandstone rubble and has red tile roofs. Its plan consists of a nave, with a tower to the west, north aisle, there is a two-storey porch on the south side of the nave, with timber framing to the upper storey. The three-stage tower is 55 feet tall, the west corners have five-stage diagonal buttresses. It has a parapet with pinnacles. At the north-east corner there is a vice, there are two-light belfry louvres with hood moulding. The windows in the walls are in the Decorated style. Internally, the tower measures 12 feet 10 inches square and it has a ring of three bells. Inside the tower there are remains of Anglo Saxon sculpture. The nave measures 49 feet 9 inches by 18 feet 9 inches and it is accessed from the tower through a segmental arch with a single chamfered order. The chancel measures 25 feet by 18 feet and it contains an organ chamber and a vestry. Stained glass in the church includes images of Joan of Arc and Saint George by Lancaster-based firm Shrigley, there is a baptismal font dating from 1848
41.
Insular art
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Insular art, also known as Hiberno-Saxon art, is the style of art produced in the post-Roman history of Ireland and Britain. The term derives from insula, the Latin term for island, in this period Britain, most Insular art originates from the Irish monastic movement or metalwork for the secular elite, and the period begins around 600 with the combining Celtic and Anglo-Saxon styles. One major distinctive feature is interlace decoration, applied to decorating new types of objects mostly copied from the Mediterranean world, above all the codex or book. The finest period of the style was brought to an end by the disruption to monastic centres and these are presumed to have interrupted work on the Book of Kells, and no later Gospel books are as heavily or finely illuminated as the masterpieces of the 8th century. In England the style merged into Anglo-Saxon art around 900, whilst in Ireland the style continued until the 12th century, the influence of insular art affected all subsequent European medieval art, especially in the decorative elements of Romanesque and Gothic manuscripts. Surviving examples of Insular art are mainly illuminated manuscripts, metalwork and carvings in stone, surfaces are highly decorated with intricate patterning, with no attempt to give an impression of depth, volume or recession. The best examples include the Book of Kells, Lindisfarne Gospels, Book of Durrow, brooches such as the Tara Brooch, carpet pages are a characteristic feature of Insular manuscripts, although historiated initials, canon tables and figurative miniatures, especially Evangelist portraits, are also common. The term was derived from its use for Insular script, first cited by the OED in 1908, the Insular style is most famous for its highly dense, intricate and imaginative decoration, which takes elements from several earlier styles. From the Iron Age came the style called late Celtic art or Ultimate La Tène, there is no attempt to represent depth in manuscript painting, with all the emphasis on a brilliantly patterned surface. The origins of the format of the carpet page have often been related to Roman floor mosaics, Coptic carpets and manuscript paintings. Across all the society was effectively entirely rural, buildings were rudimentary. Especially in Ireland, clerical and secular elites were very closely linked. Ireland was divided into numerous, generally small kingdoms, while in Britain there was a number of generally larger kingdoms. The elites of all the peoples had long traditions of metalwork of the finest quality. The Insular style arises from the meeting of their two styles, Celtic and Anglo-Saxon animal style, in a Christian context, and with awareness of Late Antique style. This was especially so in their application to the book, which was a new type of object for both traditions, as well as to metalwork, the role of the Kingdom of Northumbria in the formation of the new style appears to have been pivotal. The Irish monastery at Iona was established by Saint Columba in 563, christianity discouraged the burial of grave goods so that, at least from the Anglo-Saxons, we have a larger number of pre-Christian survivals than those from later periods. The majority of examples survive from the Christian period have been found in archaeological contexts that suggest they were rapidly hidden
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Ardboe High Cross
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Ardboe High Cross is a high cross and national monument located in Ardboe, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. The cross stands at the entrance to a cemetery and a monastery, the monastery was destroyed by fire in the twelfth century. It is believed to have erected in either the ninth or the tenth century. At around 18.5 feet, Ardboe High Cross is Northern Irelands tallest cross, although the head of the cross is damaged, it seems to be the only such cross in Northern Ireland to remain largely complete and original. Around 590 AD, St Colman founded an abbey or monastery at Ardboe and this cross is about 18.5 feet high and 3.5 feet wide. It depicts twenty two panels of Old and New Testament scenes, the east face of the cross depicts the Old Testament scenes in particular which deals with Adam and Eve, the Sacrifice of Isaac, Daniel in the lions den and the Three Hebrews in the Fiery Furnace. Two scenes are from the Genesis, the east face of the head of the cross depicts scenes, Christ’s Second Coming and the Last Judgement. The south side represents Cain murdering Abel, David and the lion, the fight of David and Goliath, the north side portrays the early life of Christ, including in his baptism at the bottom. The west face describes the Adoration of the Magi, the Miracle at Cana, the west face of the head of the cross is carved with scenes from the Passion of Christ and the Crucifixion. Geography in Action - Photograph of Ardboe High Cross
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Clonmacnoise
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The monastery of Clonmacnoise is situated in County Offaly, Ireland on the River Shannon south of Athlone. Clonmacnoise was founded in 544 by St. Ciarán, a man from Rathcroghan. Until the 9th century it had associations with the kings of Connacht. From the ninth until the eleventh century it was allied with the kings of Meath, many of the high kings of Tara and Connacht were buried here. In the modern day, the stands as a preserved ruin under the management of the Office of Public Works. An interpretive center and facilities for visitors have been built around the site, the graveyard surrounding the site continues to be in use and religious services are held regularly on the site in a modern chapel. This was a wooden structure and the first of many small churches to be clustered on the site. Diarmuid was to be the first Christian crowned High King of Ireland, in September 549, not yet thirty-three years of age, Ciarán died of a plague, and was reportedly buried under the original wooden church, now the site of the 9th-century stone oratory, Temple Ciarán. While he was there he prophesied about the debates in the churches of Ireland about the dating of Easter. Towards the close of the century a plague carried off a large number of its students. Clonmacnoises period of greatest growth came between the 8th and 12th centuries and it was attacked frequently during these four centuries, mostly by the English, the Irish, the Vikings and Normans. The Book of the Dun Cow a vellum manuscript dating to the 12th century, was written here, by the 12th century Clonmacnoise began to decline. The reasons were varied, but without doubt the most debilitating factor was the growth of the town of Athlone to the north of the site from the late-12th century. Athlone became the trading town for the midlands of Ireland. The influx of religious orders such as the Franciscans, Augustinians, Benedictines, Cluniacs. Irelands move from a framework to a diocesan one in the twelfth century similarly diminished the sites religious standing, as it was designated the seat of a small. In 1552 the English garrison at Athlone destroyed and looted Clonmacnoise for the final time, the monastery ruins were one of the stops on the itinerary of Pope John Paul II during his visit to Ireland in 1979. The site includes the ruins of a cathedral, seven churches, most of the churches have recently undergone comprehensive conservation works, mostly re-pointing, with the Nuns Church, currently under wraps while it too undergoes the same process
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Iona Abbey
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Iona Abbey is located on the Isle of Iona, just off the Isle of Mull on the West Coast of Scotland. It is one of the oldest and most important religious centres in Western Europe, the abbey was a focal point for the spread of Christianity throughout Scotland and marks the foundation of a monastic community by St. Columba, when Iona was part of the Kingdom of Dál Riata. Iona Abbey is home to the Iona Community, an ecumenical Christian religious order, in 563, Columba came to Iona from Ireland with twelve companions, and founded a monastery. It developed as a centre for the spread of Christianity among the Picts and Scots. The Book of Kells, an illuminated manuscript, is believed to have been produced by the monks of Iona in the years leading up to 800. The Chronicle of Ireland was also produced at Iona until about 740, the abbey was first attacked by Viking raiders in 795, with subsequent attacks taking place in 802,806, and 825. During the 806 Viking attack,68 monks were massacred in Martyrs Bay, other monks from Iona fled to the Continent, and established monasteries in Belgium, France, and Switzerland. In 825, St Blathmac and those monks who remained with him at Iona, were martyred in a Viking raid, however, it was probably not deserted as its continued importance is shown by the death there in 980 of Amlaíb Cuarán, a retired King of Dublin. Ranald, Somerleds son, now Lord of the Isles, in 1203 invited the Benedictine order to establish a new Monastery, building work began on the new Abbey church, on the site of Columbas original church. The following year, in 1204, the site was raided by a led by two Irish bishops. This was a response by Irelands Columban clergy to the loss of its connections, the Iona Nunnery, a foundation of the Augustinian Order, was established south of the Abbey buildings. Graves of some of the early nuns remain, including that of a remarkable Prioress, Anna Maclean, clearly visible under her outer robe is the rochet, a pleated surplice denoting the Augustinian Order. The Nunnery buildings were rebuilt in the century and fell into disrepair after the Reformation. In 1899 the Duke of Argyll transferred ownership of the remains of the Abbey and Nunnery sites to the Iona Cathedral Trust. In 1938, the inspiration of Reverend George MacLeod led a group which rebuilt the abbey, the reconstruction was organised by the architect Ian Gordon Lindsay having generously been passed the project from his senior mentor and friend Reginald Fairlie. The surrounding buildings were also re-constructed during the 20th century by the Iona Community and this ecumenical Christian community continues to use the site to this day. The simple square font was added in 1908 and dedicated to the memory of the Very Rev Theodore Marshall DD, in 2000 the Iona Cathedral Trust handed over the care of the Abbey, Nunnery, and associated sites to Historic Scotland. Many early Scottish kings, as well as kings from Ireland, Norway, however, modern scholars are sceptical of such claims, which were likely mythic associated with increasing the prestige of Iona
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Abbey of Kells
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The Abbey of Kells is a former monastery in Kells, County Meath, Ireland,40 miles north of Dublin. It was founded in the early 9th century, and the Book of Kells was kept there during the later medieval, much of the Book of Kells may have been created there, but historians cannot be certain of the exact date and circumstances of its creation. The Abbey of Kells was reportedly founded by St. Columba ca,554, after High King Diarmuid Mac Caroll of Tara granted the land. A refounding may have happened in the early 9th century by Columban monks fleeing from Iona which was raided by the Vikings. The site was a former Irish hill fort, in 814, Cellach, Abbot of Iona, retired to Kells. After further Viking raids, goods and relics from the abbey were transferred to other Columban houses inland, including Raphoe, Dunkeld and the Abbey of Kells. It is believed that the Book of Kells may have either started in Iona. The Vikings continually raided the abbey during the 10th century and it was sacked and pillaged. Despite the constant raids, the managed to keep the Book of Kells intact until 1006 when it was stolen from the shrine. A reference in the Annals of Ulster is generally believed to refer the theft of the Book of Kells, the force of the removal of the cover probably explains the missing illustrations at the beginning and end of the book. The book was stored in the abbey for the remainder of the Middle Ages, in the 12th century, details of land charters for the abbey were copied onto blank pages of the Book of Kells as was common practice for the period. This is the earliest confirmed reference to its presence at the abbey, later in the same century, the monastery was dissolved with the abbey becoming a parish church and the Book of Kells continued to be kept there. The Book of Kells remained at Kells until the 1650s when Cromwells troops were stationed in the town, at that point it was sent to Dublin for safekeeping. In 1661, the Book of Kells ended up in Trinity College, today, the monastic site includes a 10th-century round tower that rises around 90 feet from the original street level. It has five windows on the top rather than the usual four. The current church building dates to 1778 and was renovated in 1965, nearby is St. Columbs House, a 10th-century oratory. There are also a number of 9th- to 10th-century high crosses, three crosses and a cross base are located on the site itself, whilst the 9th-century Market Cross is now located in front of the old courthouse. Legend has it that it was damaged by Cromwellian soldiers and that it was used to hang participants of the 1798 rebellion, the round tower and high crosses are a National Monument of Ireland
