Scandinavian-Britain

232 SCANDINAVIAN BRITAINAt Heysham we have the gods at Ragnarok Mr.;Kermode finds at Andreas Odin fighting the Fenriswolf.At Gosforth we have Heimdal with his horn,repeated at Jurby. Even if all the identifications ofProf. A. Bugge and Mr. Kermode are not accepted,there are stillenough to show that Edda subjects wereillustrated in both districts on crosses put up as monumentsof Christian burial. Of Runic inscriptionsthere is a wealth in these Manx stones, and from thelanguage and lettering it is concluded that the inscribedcrosses date from 1040 onwards; and further,that there was some relation to East Gothia (Sweden)and Jsederen (Norway) in the carvers of these runes.One stone (Michael, No. 104) isthought by Prof.Sophus Bugge to be Swedish in character, though onthe whole the language is Norse, and of the eleventhand twelfth centuries. But while the inscribed stones,which are not paralleled by Cumbrian crosses, are comparativelylate, there are also some uninscribed whichmay be of the tenth century. One of these is thecross which bears the figure of a bishop, and isconnected by Mr. Kermode with bishop Roolwer(Hrolfr), mentioned in 1060 across;which, however,has a close resemblance to Cumbrian stones showingthe debased spiral forms imitated from Anglian floralscrolls, though at the same time it shows Celticmotives absent in Cumbria, with no special Scandinaviancharacter. Its Madonna can be matched byYorkshire stones earlier than the eleventh century.The conclusion seems to be that perhaps a hundredyearsearlier than Roolwer there was a Christian