Location
St Paul's Church, Jarrow
This year’s Jarrow Lecture will be given by Dr Leslie Webster, formerly of the British Museum and distinguished art historian. Her title is:
‘What has Bede to do with the Franks Casket? The Wider Context’
Admission is free, and there are no tickets required. There are refreshments after the lecture, to which all are welcome.
The Franks Casket is an intriguing object, which juxtaposes Christian images (the epiphany), Classical Roman images (Romulus and Remus), and pagan Anglo-Saxon images (Weyland the Smith). Framing the images are runic inscriptions – riddling, rather than simple identifiers. It was carved of whalebone ivory around 700 in Northumbria, so it is contemporary with Bede, but gives us a very different take on the world from that found in Bede.