Antiquary: Created page
{{Use British English|date=May 2024}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2024}}
{{Coord|54.0474|-2.9018|display=title}}
[[File:Heysham_hogback.JPG|thumb|upright=1.25|Face B]]
The '''Heysham hogback''' is an [[Early Middle Ages|early medieval]] sculpted stone discovered around the beginning of the 19th century in the churchyard of [[St Peter's Church, Heysham]], on the [[Lancashire]] coast, and now kept for protection inside the church. It is one of seventeen known early medieval stones in [[Heysham]].{{sfn|Williams|2017}} It is a product of the 10th-century [[Viking activity in the British Isles|Norse culture of the British Isles]] of which the precise purpose is not certainly known, though it may be a grave-marker. The carvings on the stone have been the subject of much dispute, different scholars interpreting them as showing the patriarch [[Adam]], the Norse hero [[Sigurd]], scenes from the [[Ragnarök|end of the world]] in [[Norse myth]], or perhaps as being intended to blend both Christian and pagan themes. It has been called "perhaps the best example of its kind in the country".<ref>{{cite web |url=https://redrosecollections.lancashi...D=1714748625624#b0ddv_DeQ14AAAGPANVjaQ/270894 |title=Hogsback tomb, St. Peter's Church, Heysham |author=Lancashire County Council |website=Red Rose Collections |access-date=3 May 2024 }}</ref>
== History ==
[[File:St. Peter's Church, Heysham.JPG|thumb|upright=1.25|[[St Peter's Church, Heysham]]]]
The Heysham hogback is, like other [[Hogback (sculpture)|hogback]]s, a grave-marker, monument or perhaps [[cenotaph]], dating from the 10th century and probably from the period 920–950.{{sfn|Ewing|2003|pp=1, 3}}{{sfn|Williams|2017}} The man it commemorates is thought to have been a high-status individual connected with the Hiberno-Norse communities of [[History of medieval Cumbria|Cumbria]] or [[History of Yorkshire|Yorkshire]], and its position on the coast suggests that he was a trader.{{sfn|Durham University|2020}}
The first documentary record of the hogback is a mention in the 1811 edition of ''An Historical and Descriptive Account of the Town of Lancaster'', published by Christopher Clark, of its discovery in St Peter's churchyard. The 1807 edition of this work does not mention it, from which it has been argued that it must have been unearthed between those two years,{{sfn|Durham University|2020}} but this inference has been disputed.{{sfn|Williams|2017}} The same work claims that "at the time of its discovery, there was found deposited under it, the remains of a human skeleton, and also, a piece of iron, which had apparently been the head of a spear". This, if true, would make it the only hogback found in association with human remains or grave goods.{{sfn|Durham University|2020}}{{sfn|Ewing|2003|p=3}} A much later account in [[Edward Lewes Cutts|Edward L. Cutts]]'s ''A Manual for the Study of the Sepulchral Slabs and Crosses of the Middle Ages'' (1849) surmises that it was found in the adjoining [[St Patrick's Chapel, Heysham|St Patrick's Chapel]].{{sfn|Durham University|2020}}<ref>{{cite book |last=Cutts |first=Edward L. |author-link=Edward Lewes Cutts |date=1849 |title=A Manual for the Study of the Sepulchral Slabs and Crosses of the Middle Ages |url=https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=9LYaAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA75#v=onepage&q&f=false |location=London |publisher=John Henry Parker |pages=74–75 |access-date=3 May 2024 }}</ref>
It was kept in the open air in St Peter's churchyard where it suffered erosion from the weather and from the many local children who, over the years, played at taking rides on it. In 1961 it was taken into the church, where it remains.{{sfn|Ewing|2003|p=14}}<ref>{{cite web |url=https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1279836?section=official-list-entry |title=Parish Church of St Peter, Main Street |author=<!--Not stated--> |website=Historic England |access-date=4 May 2024 }}</ref>
== Physical description ==
[[File:Hogsback tombstone, St Peter's Church, Heysham (1) - geograph.org.uk - 439385.jpg|thumb|upright=1.25|Face A]]
The hogback's length is {{convert|205.8|cm|abbr=on}}, its width varies between {{convert|17.8|cm|abbr=on}} and {{convert|20.3|cm|abbr=on}}, and its height between {{convert|33.0|cm|abbr=on}} and {{convert|39.4|cm|abbr=on}}. It is made of [[Ward's Stone]] sandstone, a pale brown [[millstone grit]] of the Silsden Formation which could have originated anywhere on the [[Morecambe Bay]] coast between Heysham and [[Bolton-le-Sands]]. It is in good condition except on the ridge, which shows signs of wear.{{sfn|Williams|2017}}{{sfn|Durham University|2020}}
== The carvings ==
The hogback is carved on all sides with figures. At each of the two ends is a beast with a head disproportionately large for its body-size and, unusually, with four legs – on most hogbacks only two are shown. Face A is topped by a row of ''tegulae'', i.e. tile shapes, below which is a roof area featuring amid abstract decoration a recumbent human figure, curly-tailed animal and a twisting snake-like shape. The lower "wall" section is framed by four human figures, two on each side, with hands raised in the ''[[wikt
rans|orans]]'' position; between the two humans on the right is a beast, possibly a dog, in a vertical position. In the middle of the "wall" area, between the two groups of human figures, are five beasts, three of which are at "ground" level; one of these is identifiable as a stag with antlers. Above "ground" level are two more beasts, one, perhaps a dog, standing on the stag's back and the other in an inverted position above one of the "ground"-level beasts. Face B has, above, two rows of ''tegulae''. Beneath them, reading from left to right, are two beasts, one above the other, two large birds, a tree (?) with horizontal branches, a third bird, a human figure in the ''orans'' position, and on the furthest right two more beasts.{{sfn|Durham University|2020}}<ref>{{cite book |last=Bailey |first=Richard N. |date=1980 |title=Viking Age Sculpture in Northern England |url=https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=fZ8tAQAAIAAJ&q="usually+he+has+only+two+legs" |location=London |publisher=Collins |page=97 |isbn=9780002162289 |access-date=3 May 2024 }}</ref>{{sfn|Edwards|1998|p=95}}
== Interpretation ==
[[File:Heysham_hogback_restoration.jpg|thumb|upright=1.25|A "diagrammatic restoration" of the Heysham hogsback published in 1892. Face A above, face B below.]]
The very first published record of the Heysham hogback, in 1811, confessed that "it is not so easy to discover the Artist's meaning in the figures represented thereon".<ref>{{cite book |author=<!--Not stated--> |date=1811 |title=An Historical and Descriptive Account of the Town of Lancaster: Collected from the Best Authorities |url=https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=rEQTAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA126#v=onepage&q&f=false |edition=2nd |location=Lancaster |publisher=C. Clark |pages=125–126 |access-date=3 May 2024 }}</ref> This has not stopped scholars from forming theories, some of which were presented to the [[Lancashire and Cheshire Antiquarian Society]] towards the end of the 19th century. The archaeologist [[George Forrest Browne]] wrote in 1887 that the scenes depicted could scarcely be anything but an animal hunt, pictured for its own sake rather than as a religious allegory.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Browne |first=George Forrest |author-link=George Forrest Browne |date=1887 |title=Pre-Norman Sculptured Stones in Lancashire |url=https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=VSDQAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA3#v=onepage&q&f=false |journal=Transactions of the Lancashire and Cheshire Antiquarian Society |volume=5 |page=3 |access-date=4 May 2024 }}</ref> To this Thomas Lees objected that "The persons are represented less as hunters than as themselves hunted by wild beasts."{{sfn|March|1891|p=69}} His own view, given in 1891, was that the subject of the sculpture was the Death of Adam, a story found in Greek [[New Testament apocrypha|apocryphal]] Christian sources: the [[Life of Adam and Eve#Greek Apocalypse of Moses|Apocalypse of Moses]], the [[Gospel of Nicodemus]], the [[Acts of Philip]] and certain Islamic legends.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Lees |first=Thomas |date=1891 |title=An Attempt to Interpret the Meaning of the Carvings on Certain Stones in the Churchyard of Heysham, Lancashire |url=https://archive.org/details/transactionslan00socigoog/page/n103/mode/2up |journal=Transactions of the Lancashire and Cheshire Antiquarian Society |volume=9 |pages=38–46 |access-date=4 May 2024 }}</ref> The same year, Henry Colley March criticised this interpretation, the story of Adam's death being in his view too little-known in the early Middle Ages and capable of explaining too few of the figures on the hogback. He considered the scenes there a depiction of the story of Ragnarök, the end of the universe in Norse mythology, reinterpreted by a Christian artist to proclaim Christ the Conqueror and Christ the Redeemer.{{sfn|March|1891|p=68–87}}
Writing in 1950, [[Hilda Ellis Davidson|H. R. Ellis Davidson]] found the Adamic interpretation far-fetched, preferring March's Ragnarök interpretation of face A, though she was more sceptical of its relevance to face B since it fails to explain several of the beasts. She concluded that March's theory explains the evidence more plausibly than any other.<ref>{{cite book |last=Davidson |first=H. R. Ellis |author-link=Hilda Ellis Davidson |editor-last1=Fox |editor-first1=Cyril |editor-link1=Cyril Fox |editor-last2=Dickins |editor-first2=Bruce |editor-link2=Bruce Dickins |date=1950 |chapter=Gods and Heroes in Stone |title=The Early Cultures of North-West Europe (H. M. Chadwick Memorial Studies) |url=https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=vSFzo9-pdT4C&pg=PA131#v=onepage&q&f=false |location=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press |pages=131–132 |isbn=9781107686557 |access-date=4 May 2024 }}</ref> More recently, support has been expressed both for the Ragnarök theory and by others for an interpretation of the carvings as a version of the Biblical story of Adam's naming of the animals, a theme also explored by medieval Irish sculptors. A new interpretation has also emerged, supported by James Lang and Thor Ewing among others, which would see the carvings as being a portrayal of the legend of Sigurd and [[Regin]], but proponents of this theory face the problem that several of the images normally found in British Sigurd sculptures are absent from the Heysham hogback.{{sfn|Durham University|2020}} [[Rosemary Cramp]] took a compromise position, proposing that face A had a Christian subject and face B a pagan one, though she acknowledged that "it is equally possible that all of these strange motifs were capable of being interpreted in the light of both religions".{{sfn|Ewing|2003|p=6}} Sue Margeson took up a position similar to Browne's, seeing in the Heysham carvings no more than a simple hunting scene.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Margeson |first1=Sue |editor-last1=Andersen |editor-first1=Flemming G. |editor-last2=Nyholm |editor-first2=Esther |editor-last3=Powell |editor-first3=Marianne |editor-last4=Stubkjaer |editor-first4=Flemming Talbo |date=1980 |chapter=The Volsung Legend in Medieval Art |title=Medieval Iconography and Narrative |url=https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=d57YAAAAMAAJ&q="a+simple+hunt+scene" |series=Proceedings of the International Symposium. Centre for the Study of Vernacular Literature in the Middle Ages, 4 |location=Odense |publisher=Odense University Press |page=191 |isbn=9788774923077 |access-date=3 May 2024 }}</ref>
Andrew White, the curator of [[Lancaster, Lancashire|Lancaster]] Museum, has warned that "the only people who are certain about the subject of the Hogback are those who do not know anything about the genre",{{sfn|Ewing|2003|p=7}} and the archaeologist B. J. N. Edwards summed up the state of the scholarship thus: "Despite a number of attempts to 'explain' the sculptures, none has yet been put forward which is really convincing, and it has to go down as a 'don't know'."{{sfn|Edwards|1998|p=95}}
== Citations ==
{{Reflist}}
== References ==
* {{cite web |url=https://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/archives/view/wist_ahrc_2019/fullrecord.cfm?casss_mon_id=2716 |title=Corpus of Anglo-Saxon Stone Sculpture: Heysham 05, Lancashire |author=Durham University |date=2020 |website=Archaeology Data Service |access-date=28 April 2024 }}
* {{cite book |last=Edwards |first=B. J. N. |date=1998 |title=Vikings in North West England: The Artifacts |url=https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=4sacQAAACAAJ |series=Lancaster University. Centre for North-West Regional Studies. Occasional papers, 36 |location=Lancaster |publisher=Centre for North-West Regional Studies, University of Lancaster |isbn=9781862200654 |access-date=3 May 2024}}
* {{cite journal |last=Ewing |first=Thor |date=2003 |title=Understanding the Heysham Hogback: A Tenth-Century Sculpted Stone Monument and Its Context |url=https://www.hslc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/152-2-Ewing.pdf |journal=Transactions of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire |volume=152 |pages=1–20 |access-date=28 April 2024 }}
* {{cite journal |last=March |first=Henry Colley |date=1891 |title=The Pagan-Christian Overlap in the North |url=https://archive.org/details/transactionslan00socigoog/page/n113/mode/2up?view=theater |journal=Transactions of the Lancashire and Cheshire Antiquarian Society |volume=9 |pages=49–89 |access-date=2 May 2024 }}
* {{cite web |url=https://howardwilliamsblog.wordpress.com/2017/07/04/the-heysham-5-hogback/ |title=The Heysham 5 'Hogback' |last=Williams |first=Howard M. R. |author-link=Howard Williams (archaeologist) |date=4 July 2017 |year=2017 |website=Archaeodeath: Death & Memory – Past & Present |access-date=28 April 2024 }}
== External links ==
{{Commons category|Heysham hogback}}
* [ What We Don't Know About the Heysham Hogsback], a talk by [[Howard Williams (archaeologist)|Howard Williams]] at [[Vimeo]]
* [https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/hog...ls&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=model-upload 3D model of the Heysham hogsback by Roger Lang]
{{Völsung}}
[[Category:10th-century artifacts]]
[[Category:Anglo-Norse England]]
[[Category:Anglo-Saxon archaeology]]
[[Category:Archaeological sites in Lancashire]]
[[Category:Burial monuments and structures in the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:History of Lancaster]]
[[Category:Hunting in art]]
[[Category:Medieval European sculptures]]
[[Category:Nibelung tradition]]
[[Category:Outdoor sculptures in England]]
[[Category:Sculptures depicting Adam and Eve]]
[[Category:Sculptures of Norse mythology]]
[[Category:Stone sculptures in England]]
[[Category:Viking art]]
Okumaya devam et...
{{Use British English|date=May 2024}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2024}}
{{Coord|54.0474|-2.9018|display=title}}
[[File:Heysham_hogback.JPG|thumb|upright=1.25|Face B]]
The '''Heysham hogback''' is an [[Early Middle Ages|early medieval]] sculpted stone discovered around the beginning of the 19th century in the churchyard of [[St Peter's Church, Heysham]], on the [[Lancashire]] coast, and now kept for protection inside the church. It is one of seventeen known early medieval stones in [[Heysham]].{{sfn|Williams|2017}} It is a product of the 10th-century [[Viking activity in the British Isles|Norse culture of the British Isles]] of which the precise purpose is not certainly known, though it may be a grave-marker. The carvings on the stone have been the subject of much dispute, different scholars interpreting them as showing the patriarch [[Adam]], the Norse hero [[Sigurd]], scenes from the [[Ragnarök|end of the world]] in [[Norse myth]], or perhaps as being intended to blend both Christian and pagan themes. It has been called "perhaps the best example of its kind in the country".<ref>{{cite web |url=https://redrosecollections.lancashi...D=1714748625624#b0ddv_DeQ14AAAGPANVjaQ/270894 |title=Hogsback tomb, St. Peter's Church, Heysham |author=Lancashire County Council |website=Red Rose Collections |access-date=3 May 2024 }}</ref>
== History ==
[[File:St. Peter's Church, Heysham.JPG|thumb|upright=1.25|[[St Peter's Church, Heysham]]]]
The Heysham hogback is, like other [[Hogback (sculpture)|hogback]]s, a grave-marker, monument or perhaps [[cenotaph]], dating from the 10th century and probably from the period 920–950.{{sfn|Ewing|2003|pp=1, 3}}{{sfn|Williams|2017}} The man it commemorates is thought to have been a high-status individual connected with the Hiberno-Norse communities of [[History of medieval Cumbria|Cumbria]] or [[History of Yorkshire|Yorkshire]], and its position on the coast suggests that he was a trader.{{sfn|Durham University|2020}}
The first documentary record of the hogback is a mention in the 1811 edition of ''An Historical and Descriptive Account of the Town of Lancaster'', published by Christopher Clark, of its discovery in St Peter's churchyard. The 1807 edition of this work does not mention it, from which it has been argued that it must have been unearthed between those two years,{{sfn|Durham University|2020}} but this inference has been disputed.{{sfn|Williams|2017}} The same work claims that "at the time of its discovery, there was found deposited under it, the remains of a human skeleton, and also, a piece of iron, which had apparently been the head of a spear". This, if true, would make it the only hogback found in association with human remains or grave goods.{{sfn|Durham University|2020}}{{sfn|Ewing|2003|p=3}} A much later account in [[Edward Lewes Cutts|Edward L. Cutts]]'s ''A Manual for the Study of the Sepulchral Slabs and Crosses of the Middle Ages'' (1849) surmises that it was found in the adjoining [[St Patrick's Chapel, Heysham|St Patrick's Chapel]].{{sfn|Durham University|2020}}<ref>{{cite book |last=Cutts |first=Edward L. |author-link=Edward Lewes Cutts |date=1849 |title=A Manual for the Study of the Sepulchral Slabs and Crosses of the Middle Ages |url=https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=9LYaAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA75#v=onepage&q&f=false |location=London |publisher=John Henry Parker |pages=74–75 |access-date=3 May 2024 }}</ref>
It was kept in the open air in St Peter's churchyard where it suffered erosion from the weather and from the many local children who, over the years, played at taking rides on it. In 1961 it was taken into the church, where it remains.{{sfn|Ewing|2003|p=14}}<ref>{{cite web |url=https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1279836?section=official-list-entry |title=Parish Church of St Peter, Main Street |author=<!--Not stated--> |website=Historic England |access-date=4 May 2024 }}</ref>
== Physical description ==
[[File:Hogsback tombstone, St Peter's Church, Heysham (1) - geograph.org.uk - 439385.jpg|thumb|upright=1.25|Face A]]
The hogback's length is {{convert|205.8|cm|abbr=on}}, its width varies between {{convert|17.8|cm|abbr=on}} and {{convert|20.3|cm|abbr=on}}, and its height between {{convert|33.0|cm|abbr=on}} and {{convert|39.4|cm|abbr=on}}. It is made of [[Ward's Stone]] sandstone, a pale brown [[millstone grit]] of the Silsden Formation which could have originated anywhere on the [[Morecambe Bay]] coast between Heysham and [[Bolton-le-Sands]]. It is in good condition except on the ridge, which shows signs of wear.{{sfn|Williams|2017}}{{sfn|Durham University|2020}}
== The carvings ==
The hogback is carved on all sides with figures. At each of the two ends is a beast with a head disproportionately large for its body-size and, unusually, with four legs – on most hogbacks only two are shown. Face A is topped by a row of ''tegulae'', i.e. tile shapes, below which is a roof area featuring amid abstract decoration a recumbent human figure, curly-tailed animal and a twisting snake-like shape. The lower "wall" section is framed by four human figures, two on each side, with hands raised in the ''[[wikt
rans|orans]]'' position; between the two humans on the right is a beast, possibly a dog, in a vertical position. In the middle of the "wall" area, between the two groups of human figures, are five beasts, three of which are at "ground" level; one of these is identifiable as a stag with antlers. Above "ground" level are two more beasts, one, perhaps a dog, standing on the stag's back and the other in an inverted position above one of the "ground"-level beasts. Face B has, above, two rows of ''tegulae''. Beneath them, reading from left to right, are two beasts, one above the other, two large birds, a tree (?) with horizontal branches, a third bird, a human figure in the ''orans'' position, and on the furthest right two more beasts.{{sfn|Durham University|2020}}<ref>{{cite book |last=Bailey |first=Richard N. |date=1980 |title=Viking Age Sculpture in Northern England |url=https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=fZ8tAQAAIAAJ&q="usually+he+has+only+two+legs" |location=London |publisher=Collins |page=97 |isbn=9780002162289 |access-date=3 May 2024 }}</ref>{{sfn|Edwards|1998|p=95}}== Interpretation ==
[[File:Heysham_hogback_restoration.jpg|thumb|upright=1.25|A "diagrammatic restoration" of the Heysham hogsback published in 1892. Face A above, face B below.]]
The very first published record of the Heysham hogback, in 1811, confessed that "it is not so easy to discover the Artist's meaning in the figures represented thereon".<ref>{{cite book |author=<!--Not stated--> |date=1811 |title=An Historical and Descriptive Account of the Town of Lancaster: Collected from the Best Authorities |url=https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=rEQTAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA126#v=onepage&q&f=false |edition=2nd |location=Lancaster |publisher=C. Clark |pages=125–126 |access-date=3 May 2024 }}</ref> This has not stopped scholars from forming theories, some of which were presented to the [[Lancashire and Cheshire Antiquarian Society]] towards the end of the 19th century. The archaeologist [[George Forrest Browne]] wrote in 1887 that the scenes depicted could scarcely be anything but an animal hunt, pictured for its own sake rather than as a religious allegory.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Browne |first=George Forrest |author-link=George Forrest Browne |date=1887 |title=Pre-Norman Sculptured Stones in Lancashire |url=https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=VSDQAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA3#v=onepage&q&f=false |journal=Transactions of the Lancashire and Cheshire Antiquarian Society |volume=5 |page=3 |access-date=4 May 2024 }}</ref> To this Thomas Lees objected that "The persons are represented less as hunters than as themselves hunted by wild beasts."{{sfn|March|1891|p=69}} His own view, given in 1891, was that the subject of the sculpture was the Death of Adam, a story found in Greek [[New Testament apocrypha|apocryphal]] Christian sources: the [[Life of Adam and Eve#Greek Apocalypse of Moses|Apocalypse of Moses]], the [[Gospel of Nicodemus]], the [[Acts of Philip]] and certain Islamic legends.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Lees |first=Thomas |date=1891 |title=An Attempt to Interpret the Meaning of the Carvings on Certain Stones in the Churchyard of Heysham, Lancashire |url=https://archive.org/details/transactionslan00socigoog/page/n103/mode/2up |journal=Transactions of the Lancashire and Cheshire Antiquarian Society |volume=9 |pages=38–46 |access-date=4 May 2024 }}</ref> The same year, Henry Colley March criticised this interpretation, the story of Adam's death being in his view too little-known in the early Middle Ages and capable of explaining too few of the figures on the hogback. He considered the scenes there a depiction of the story of Ragnarök, the end of the universe in Norse mythology, reinterpreted by a Christian artist to proclaim Christ the Conqueror and Christ the Redeemer.{{sfn|March|1891|p=68–87}}
Writing in 1950, [[Hilda Ellis Davidson|H. R. Ellis Davidson]] found the Adamic interpretation far-fetched, preferring March's Ragnarök interpretation of face A, though she was more sceptical of its relevance to face B since it fails to explain several of the beasts. She concluded that March's theory explains the evidence more plausibly than any other.<ref>{{cite book |last=Davidson |first=H. R. Ellis |author-link=Hilda Ellis Davidson |editor-last1=Fox |editor-first1=Cyril |editor-link1=Cyril Fox |editor-last2=Dickins |editor-first2=Bruce |editor-link2=Bruce Dickins |date=1950 |chapter=Gods and Heroes in Stone |title=The Early Cultures of North-West Europe (H. M. Chadwick Memorial Studies) |url=https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=vSFzo9-pdT4C&pg=PA131#v=onepage&q&f=false |location=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press |pages=131–132 |isbn=9781107686557 |access-date=4 May 2024 }}</ref> More recently, support has been expressed both for the Ragnarök theory and by others for an interpretation of the carvings as a version of the Biblical story of Adam's naming of the animals, a theme also explored by medieval Irish sculptors. A new interpretation has also emerged, supported by James Lang and Thor Ewing among others, which would see the carvings as being a portrayal of the legend of Sigurd and [[Regin]], but proponents of this theory face the problem that several of the images normally found in British Sigurd sculptures are absent from the Heysham hogback.{{sfn|Durham University|2020}} [[Rosemary Cramp]] took a compromise position, proposing that face A had a Christian subject and face B a pagan one, though she acknowledged that "it is equally possible that all of these strange motifs were capable of being interpreted in the light of both religions".{{sfn|Ewing|2003|p=6}} Sue Margeson took up a position similar to Browne's, seeing in the Heysham carvings no more than a simple hunting scene.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Margeson |first1=Sue |editor-last1=Andersen |editor-first1=Flemming G. |editor-last2=Nyholm |editor-first2=Esther |editor-last3=Powell |editor-first3=Marianne |editor-last4=Stubkjaer |editor-first4=Flemming Talbo |date=1980 |chapter=The Volsung Legend in Medieval Art |title=Medieval Iconography and Narrative |url=https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=d57YAAAAMAAJ&q="a+simple+hunt+scene" |series=Proceedings of the International Symposium. Centre for the Study of Vernacular Literature in the Middle Ages, 4 |location=Odense |publisher=Odense University Press |page=191 |isbn=9788774923077 |access-date=3 May 2024 }}</ref>
Andrew White, the curator of [[Lancaster, Lancashire|Lancaster]] Museum, has warned that "the only people who are certain about the subject of the Hogback are those who do not know anything about the genre",{{sfn|Ewing|2003|p=7}} and the archaeologist B. J. N. Edwards summed up the state of the scholarship thus: "Despite a number of attempts to 'explain' the sculptures, none has yet been put forward which is really convincing, and it has to go down as a 'don't know'."{{sfn|Edwards|1998|p=95}}
== Citations ==
{{Reflist}}
== References ==
* {{cite web |url=https://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/archives/view/wist_ahrc_2019/fullrecord.cfm?casss_mon_id=2716 |title=Corpus of Anglo-Saxon Stone Sculpture: Heysham 05, Lancashire |author=Durham University |date=2020 |website=Archaeology Data Service |access-date=28 April 2024 }}
* {{cite book |last=Edwards |first=B. J. N. |date=1998 |title=Vikings in North West England: The Artifacts |url=https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=4sacQAAACAAJ |series=Lancaster University. Centre for North-West Regional Studies. Occasional papers, 36 |location=Lancaster |publisher=Centre for North-West Regional Studies, University of Lancaster |isbn=9781862200654 |access-date=3 May 2024}}
* {{cite journal |last=Ewing |first=Thor |date=2003 |title=Understanding the Heysham Hogback: A Tenth-Century Sculpted Stone Monument and Its Context |url=https://www.hslc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/152-2-Ewing.pdf |journal=Transactions of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire |volume=152 |pages=1–20 |access-date=28 April 2024 }}
* {{cite journal |last=March |first=Henry Colley |date=1891 |title=The Pagan-Christian Overlap in the North |url=https://archive.org/details/transactionslan00socigoog/page/n113/mode/2up?view=theater |journal=Transactions of the Lancashire and Cheshire Antiquarian Society |volume=9 |pages=49–89 |access-date=2 May 2024 }}
* {{cite web |url=https://howardwilliamsblog.wordpress.com/2017/07/04/the-heysham-5-hogback/ |title=The Heysham 5 'Hogback' |last=Williams |first=Howard M. R. |author-link=Howard Williams (archaeologist) |date=4 July 2017 |year=2017 |website=Archaeodeath: Death & Memory – Past & Present |access-date=28 April 2024 }}
== External links ==
{{Commons category|Heysham hogback}}
* [ What We Don't Know About the Heysham Hogsback], a talk by [[Howard Williams (archaeologist)|Howard Williams]] at [[Vimeo]]
* [https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/hog...ls&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=model-upload 3D model of the Heysham hogsback by Roger Lang]
{{Völsung}}
[[Category:10th-century artifacts]]
[[Category:Anglo-Norse England]]
[[Category:Anglo-Saxon archaeology]]
[[Category:Archaeological sites in Lancashire]]
[[Category:Burial monuments and structures in the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:History of Lancaster]]
[[Category:Hunting in art]]
[[Category:Medieval European sculptures]]
[[Category:Nibelung tradition]]
[[Category:Outdoor sculptures in England]]
[[Category:Sculptures depicting Adam and Eve]]
[[Category:Sculptures of Norse mythology]]
[[Category:Stone sculptures in England]]
[[Category:Viking art]]
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