The Gosforth Cross is a large stone Anglo-Saxon high cross in the churchyard at Gosforth in the English county of Cumbria. Formerly part of the kingdom of Northumbria, the area was settled by Scandinavians some time in either the 9th or 10th century. The cross itself dates to the first half of the 10th century.
Contents |
The Gosforth Cross has elaborate carvings which have been interpreted as representing characters and scenes from Norse mythology. These were first identified in 1888 by two amateur antiquarians who demonstrated that the cross showed scenes described in the Poetic Edda.[1] Those include images identified as:
The cross also has Christian symbolism, including a depiction of the crucifixion of Christ. The combination of Christian and Norse pagan symbolism on the cross may be evidence of the use of pagan stories to illustrate Christian teachings.[1]
The cross is 4.4 metres tall and made out of red sandstone. It is estimated to date from 920-950 and is still in fairly good condition. The church also has important hogback tombs, and what appears to be a fragment of another cross, showing the god Thor fishing. In 1887, the Rev. William Slater Calverley carved a replica life-sized copy of this cross and erected it in the churchyard at Aspatria, Cumbria.[2]
The following images are photographs published by Finnur Jónsson in Goðafræði Norðmanna og Íslendinga eftir Heimildum in 1913. The identifications of the figures are those suggested by Jónsson in 1913.
|
||||||||||||||