St Cuthbert's coffin

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St. Cuthbert's coffin is a wooden coffin found in Durham, dated to AD 698, the year of the death of Saint Cuthbert. It is inscribed with Roman lettering and Futhorc runes with names of apostles and saints. The wood is much weathered, and many names are illegible. The runic inscription reads

ihs xps mat(t)[h](eus)

The ma and possibly the eu are bind runes. The t is inverted. Then follows

marcus

the ma again a bind rune, and

LVCAS

in Roman letters, followed by runic

iohann(i)s

and finally Roman

(RAPH)AEL (M)A(RIA)

The names of Matthew, Mark and John are thus in runes, while that of Luke is in Latin letters. The Christogram is notably in runic writing, ihs xps ᛁᚻᛋ ᛉᛈᛋ, with the h double-barred in the continental style, the first attestation of that variant in England. The monogram reflects a runic variant of a partly Latinized XPS from Greek ΧΡΙCΤΟC, with the rho rendered as runic p and the eolc rune (the old Algiz rune z) used to render chi.

[edit] See also

• Franks casket