Monks' Dormitory, Durham cathedral, catalogue no. XLI

Found in restoration of 1864, possibly in south wall of nave, which was taken down. Kept in Vicarage garden until 1896 when donated to chapter library, Durham

St Mary

Broken and fairly worn

A (broad): The figure of a man riding a horse to the left is surrounded by a wide flat-band moulding. The figure is shown in profile and has his hair tied in a pigtail. He holds the reins of his horse in one hand and a spear in the other. The way in which his horse's neck is arched and its head checked against the frame gives a skilful impression that he is reining it in. Its ear is pricked, and it has an oval, pointed eye.

B (narrow): Within an irregular wide flat-band moulding a bird stands over a bound beast. The bird has a round head and oval eye. Its wings and tail are outstretched. Below its beak is a twist of what may be foliage, a snake, or merely a median-incised interlace, which forms part of the binding round the neck of the canine-type head of the animal below. This stands with head turned and thrown back. Its jaws are gaping and bound, the bindings also passing round its body and neck. There are traces of double outlines on the body.

C (broad): Framed in an irregular wide flat-band moulding is a frontal figure with grotesquely hunched shoulders, possibly holding a club or a 'Thor's hammer' in its right hand. It has a wedge-shaped face with curling hair or horns on either side. The rounded eyes and the nose are lightly incised.

D (narrow): Pattern D with outside strands well and deeply modelled with median grooves is framed in a moulding.

The deep cutting and lively confident figures of humans, birds and beasts make this one of the most appealing carvings of its age. The horse and rider with pigtail seems to be a Scandinavian motif found also in a closely similar form on Hart 1, where it is also combined with Scandinavian and Anglian-survival ornament. The horse and rider (although not with a spear) is also found on Chester-le-Street 1, just as the bound canine species is also found at Chester-le-Street on no. 12. However, by far the liveliest horsemen are found on Sockburn 3 and 14. On 14 the riders carry spears; on 3 the rider carries a bird. If the bird on face B here is attacking a snake and the bound beast is the wolf Fenrir, then we have a clear illustration of Scandinavian mythology. The `horned man' on face C could also, like the `bound devil' from Kirkby Stephen, Westmorland, be a Scandinavian feature, and the connection would be emphasized if one could be certain that what he held in his right hand was a `Thor's hammer'. (See also the bound figures on Gainford 5.) Adcock (1974, 320, pl. 160c) sees a relationship with Chester-le-Street in the cutting and the interlace motif on face D, and it seems clear that there was a fruitful interchange between the Anglian community at Chester-le-Street and the carvers in the new Anglo-Scandinavian centres along the Tees (Introduction, p. 30; Cramp 1980, 4, 7, pl. 3B-D).

First half of tenth century

Stuart 1867, 64-5, pl. cxiii, 3; Haverfield and Greenwell 1899, no. XLI, 104-5 and figs.; Hodges 1905, 230; Cramp 1965a, 7; Adcock 1974, 320, pl. 160C; Cramp 1980, 4, 7, pl. 3B-D

1. The following are general references to the Gainford stones: Greenwell 1880-9b, lxviii; Allen and Browne 1885, 352; (—) 1887-8b, 373. Brock 1888, 176, refers to stones in a graaden (later taken to Durham) and mentions illustrations by STuarts but does not describe them individually. (—) 1905-6b, 343-4, refers to discovery of stones in 1864-5 restoration, and there is also a reference to the finding in 1905 of another stone in the field west of the churchyard wall, and to the discovery of bones and a sword in the churchyard in 1889.