Select a site alphabetically from the choices shown in the box below. Alternatively, browse sculptural examples using the Forward/Back buttons.
Chapters for this volume, along with copies of original in-text images, are available here.
Object type: Part of slab or frieze (the 'Fishing Stone')
Measurements: H. 69.9 cm (27.25 in); W. 33 cm (13 in); D. (incomplete) 13.9 cm (5.5 in)
Stone type: Medium-grained red sandstone (St Bees sandstone)
Plate numbers in printed volume: 332
Corpus volume reference: Vol 2 p. 108-109
(There may be more views or larger images available for this item. Click on the thumbnail image to view.)
No carving was present on the reverse of the stone. The visible face is divided into two panels by a horizontal moulding. At the top is a quadruped whose front legs are fettered by the knotted body of a snake; the serpent's triangular head appears below the beast's belly. Between the animal's two rear legs is the knotted extension of its tail. The animal's head is now broken and worn; it may have been backward biting or backward thrown.
The upper part of the scene below is occupied by a horizontal run of fleshy three-strand plain plait, terminating to the right in a spiral curl. Below are two men in a boat separated from each other by a mast topped by a block. The vessel is double-ended. Both figures are forward facing and have pear-shaped heads which are set deep into the shoulders. The figure to the right holds the stem/stern post with his left hand and grasps an axe in his other. The other figure holds an object (which can plausibly be restored as a hammer) in his right hand together with a fishing line in his left. This line terminates below the vessel in an animal's head with two ears, round which cluster four fishes. Traces of a serpentine coil appear in the lower corner of the lower panel.
The stylistic links between this carving and Gosforth 1, 2, 3, 5, and 7 have been outlined in Bailey and Lang 1975 (see Introduction, p. 33), where it was argued that all are work of the same hand. The presentation of the figures with their pear-shaped heads sunk deep into the shoulders is identical to that of the figures on Gosforth 1 and 5. The tight fleshy plait ending in a spiral is found again on Gosforth 1, 2, 5 and 7, whilst the thin snake's body (whose section is rounded where it has not been worn) can be compared with the angular knotted strands beneath the wolf/dog on the south face of Gosforth 1. These comparisons suggest a tenth-century date consonant with the Borre-style elements on Gosforth 1, though it should be noted that Kendrick saw the stone as reflecting the Urnes style (Kendrick 1949, 125).
The lower scene has long been recognized as a depiction of Thór's fishing expedition with the giant Hymir in which he caught the world serpent. This story is recorded by the ninth-century skald Bragi whose narrative was inspired by a shield painting (Jónsson 1907, 124, 128, 130); a tenth-century depiction of the scene from Iceland lies behind the rendering in Húsdrápa (Jónsson 1907, 130, 234) and there are other versions of the tale narrated in Hymiskviđa and Snorri Sturluson (Neckel 1962, 91–2; Jónsson 1907, 83 ff. and 128 ff.; de Vries 1957, 142–3). The use of an ox-head as bait is recorded in the latter two sources and this element is quite clear on the stone, as is the giant's axe. The scene does not appear elsewhere on Insular carvings but is found on stones from Denmark and Sweden (Foote and Wilson 1970, pls. 26 b–c; Davidson 1967, pl. 53); it may also figure on a fragment of metalwork from Sweden (Wilson and Klindt-Jensen 1980, fig. 15).
Together with the vessel on Lowther 4 the Gosforth boat is one of two representations of a ship in English sculpture of the Viking period. Double-ended, and with a 'hunn' for raising and lowering the sail, it can be compared with vessels such as those depicted on a coin found at Dorestad and on Gotlandic carvings (Shetelig and Falk 1937, fig. 19; Brøgger and Shetelig 1953, 73; Ill. 693).
I have argued elsewhere that the significance of the two panels lies in their complementary nature (Bailey 1974a, I, 340; idem 1980, 132). In the lower scene a god is shown struggling with evil in a serpent-like form. The same theme is present in the apparent symbolism of the upper scene, which shows a snake struggling with an animal which can be interpreted as a stag/hart; this is a well recognized Christian symbol of the struggle between Christ or the Christian and the devil. This patterning of material from two religious traditions thus reflects the same type of mind as planned the iconography of Gosforth 1.
