Kirkdale sundial

The Saxon sundial at St Gregory's Minster, Kirkdale, near Kirkbymoorside, North Yorkshire, England dates to the mid 11th century. The panel containing the actual sundial above the church doors is flanked by two panels, bearing an inscription in Old English:

+ ORM GAMAL / SVNA BOHTE SCS / GREGORIVS MIN / STER ÐONNE HI / T ǷFS ÆL TOBRO // CAN ⁊ TOFALAN ⁊ HE / HIT LET MACAN NEǷAN FROM / GRVNDE ΧΡE ⁊ SCS GREGORI / VS IN EADǷARD DAGVM CNG / IN TOSTI DAGVM EORL +

Orm Gamal suna bohte Sanctus Gregorius minster ðonne hit wæs æl tobrocan and tofalan, and he hit let macan newan from grunde Christe et Sancti Gregori, in Eadward dagum cuning, in Tosti dagum eorl. (ǷFS being a mistake for ǷES or ǷÆS)

"Orm son of Gamal son bought St. Gregory's minster when it was all broken and fallen down and he let it be made new from the ground, for Christ and St. Gregory, in the days of Edward king, in the days of Tosti the eorl"

The sundial itself is inscribed with

+ ÞIS IS DÆGES SOLMERCA + / ÆT ILCVM TIDE

þis is dæges solmerca, æt ilcum tide.

"This is the day's sun-marker, at every tide."

And at the bottom of the central panel is the line

+⁊ HAǷARÐ ME ǷROHTE ⁊ BRAND / PRS

and Haward me wrohte, and Brand, presbyter(i).

"And Haward wrought me, and Brand, priest(s)."

The reference is to Edward the Confessor and Earl Tostig, Edward's brother-in-law, who was the son of Earl Godwin of Wessex and the brother of Harold. Tostig held the Earldom of Northumbria from 1055 to 1065 fixing the date of the church's reconstruction to that decade. He is also known for the murder of Gamal, Orm's father. The language of the inscription is late Old English, with a failing case and gender system. The compound solmerca is otherwise unattested in English, and has been ascribed to Scandinavian influence (Old Norse solmerki "sign of the zodiac").

References

• Richard Fletcher, St. Gregory's Minster Kirkdale. Kirkdale: The Joint Church Council, 1990.
• James Lang, The Corpus of Anglo-Saxon Stone Sculpture: York and Eastern Yorkshire, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1991.
• R. I. Page, How long did the Scandinavian language survive in England? The epigraphical evidence, In Clemoes and Hughes, eds. England before the Conquest: Studies in primary sources presented to Dorothy Whitelock. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press 1971, pp. 165–181.

External links

• The Kirkdale Sundial