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Object type: Hogback [1]
Measurements: L. 158.7 cm (62.5 in); W. 20 < 32 > 16 cm (7.9 < 12.6 > 6.3 in); D. 34 < 59 > 35 cm (13.4 < 23.2 > 13.8 in)
Stone type: Coarse-grained red sandstone (Penrith sandstone)
Plate numbers in printed volume: 444 - 7
Corpus volume reference: Vol 2 p. 130
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Hogback, type g, without end-beasts. The monument has bowed side-walls and a curved roof. There are three rows of tegulation, type 9, on the steeply pitched roof.
A (long): Below the curving and overhanging eaves is a figural scene, carved in near-incised manner, set over the coiling body of a serpent whose head is visible at the left. Above the serpent's head is a boat with three strakes, and zoomorphic stem and stern posts. Eight warriors sail in the vessel, their shields slung over the gunwales. Between snake and vessel is a fish with a dorsal fin. To the right of the boat, at the centre of the stone, is a demi-figure, drawn full-face, with left arm raised(?) and right arm bent across the body. This is surrounded by fragments of key pattern. To the right of the figure is a row of at least eight (and probably ten) warriors carrying round shields; their legs protrude below.
C (long): Six demi-figures, each with long curled hair and a single arm bent across the body are set above the curling body of a serpent. The figure at the extreme left of the row appears to have two arms.
Band D (ends): Plain.
The narrow proportions and the figural ornament on the sides are characteristic of Cumbrian tastes in hogbacks. The main figural scene on side A is closely paralleled in its iconography by two stones from Gotland and presumably therefore illustrates some episode from Scandinavian mythology or history (Lindqvist 1941–2, pl. 28, fig. 82; ibid., figs. 97–102; Ill. 693). This interpretation is further strengthened by the fact that the scene is placed over the coiling body of a serpent in a manner which suggests the all-enveloping nature of the world-serpent of Scandinavian mythology. At the same time it should be noted that hogbacks at both Penrith (no. 7) and Cross Canonby (no. 5) have similar snakes coiling around the base of the stone and this could therefore merely represent a meaningless local fashion.
The demi-figures on side C are almost identical to those on the other figural hogback from Lowther (no. 5). For these figures again a Scandinavian background seems likely since, both on this stone and more clearly on its companion carving, they are accompanied by fragments of key patterns; such ornament disposed in a similar fashion around human figures can be found on the Oseberg tapestries and the Gotland picture stones (Wilson and Klindt-Jensen 1980, pl. xix; Lindquist 1941, figs. 81, 86, pls. 27, 31). It seems likely therefore that the iconography of these Scandinavian-derived scenes was carried to England on such materials as fabrics, shield paintings or wood carvings; their preservation in stone in both Gotland and England is the result, not of direct contact between those two countries but of the existence of independent traditions of stone sculpture in both areas, which preserved depictions which were circulating in more perishable media elsewhere in the Viking world.
