down into Hell, whence is no escape, as the endless timeless knot beneath him shows. Thus the Christian artist has here avoided the heathen HELA or HELL, the goddess of Death, the third child of Loké by the giant-witch Angurboda, and has kept close to the Christian deathking of the Revelation. The former, by tradition, rides a three-legged horse. The steed of the latter had four legs. The eight-legged Sleipner, (W)oden's demon-born charger, has been found carved on stones in Gotland, Sweden.

IV. West.

That the reader may have some idea of the whole, I add this side of the Cross, tho on a very small scale. This and the Lóké episode are drawn and chemityped by Prof. Magnus Petersen from the large sunbilds. The Serpent-thing in vain would bite the awful Triquetra, which is carved double on all the 4 crossarms of this side. Lower down the belted Saviour drives back with his Staff

wielding') right arm the double-dragon, his left arm holding the pagan Northern Trump whose sound echoed over all worlds, summoning the mighty ones to withstand the foul armies of the ethnic Gog and Magog. In this case the GJALLAR-HORN OF HEIMDAL, the sleepless warder of Asgard2), has naturally been given to our Lord, and Christ-Heimdal in this way becomes the ever-watchful and the providential Shepherd of his people, as well as their everlasting and almighty King and Captain. - With his Horn-bearing hand he here hurls DEATH AND THE DEVIL into the bottomless pit. The Death on horseback is again from the Revelation (ch. 6, v. 8, and ch. 19, v. 14). Below him, we all can see the Northern fiend LOKE, the slayer of Baldor the Good. He is therefore here in harmony with the Scandinavian god-tale. He is BOUND hand and foot on a rock, for so was he punisht by the wrathful Gods. Above him the Serpent spits his venom, while SIGYN, the criminal's devoted wife, with a cup

1) In Northern god-lore the Staff living and dead

the symbol of might over plays a great part. It afterwards passes

over to Christian Saints. 2) Heimdal dwells on Heaven-burg by Bever-raust (Rocking-bridge, = the Rainbow), which he defends against the Berg-rises (the mountain-giants). Having once run Loke thro with his sword, Heimdal was also called Loké-tamer. In Ragnareek (the twilight of the Gods, the last great battle) Heimdal slays Loke, but himself falls before him. In 1832 N. F. S. Grundtvig says (Nordens Mythologi, p. 542): »i UniversalHistorien staaer unægtelig ogsaa Christus som en Heimdal, der vækker de aandelige Kræfter paa Jorden til den sidste Strid, " undoubtedly therefore in our World-story Christ is a Heimdal, waking up all the spiritual forces on our earth to the last fight. Our pagan forefathers thus held fast the great thought, which sheds such mystic lustre on the Christian system, that we men have the wondrous privilege to be fellow-workers with God. Hence all stout soldiers assemble in Walhall, marshaled there by (W)oden to aid him in the last fearful struggle against the hosts of Sin.

catches the poison-drops. When she draws back to empty the beaker, the pain is so great and Loke's writhings are so terrible that land and sea are shaken, and this is the real cause of what we call earthquakes. Below the whole, under all the carvings, is the round-stemmed World-tree of our fore-elders, which tells us the same story as it told them, only evangelized. The Danish Bishop N. F. S. Grundtvig (Nordens Mythologi, 2nd ed. Kjøbenhavn, 1832, p. 229) said long ago of this Beam of Mankind, this Stem-tree of the human race: »er Gothisk tilgavns, og lader sig ikke afmale end sige steenhugge", Gothic it is to the core, cannot be painted, still less carved in stone. Yet here and elsewhere in England it is plainly carved in stone, which would have delighted the heart of the good old bishop, had he known it.

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And now how old is this Rood stone, 4-sided above and round below? A vext question indeed! No one knows. It is "prehistorical«, having outlived all its records and surroundings. All we can say is, that, like several of its oldest North-English compeers, it is of the most ancient Kelto-Anglic type known to us, pointing back to the great Kelto-Northumbrian missions of the 6th and 7th century. It bears no inscription. Should the now missing Pillar have belonged to it, the whole having made one grave-monument, the death-words may have stood on that fellow-block. not, it was a Churchyard Bible, a preacher in stone as elsewhere, built for purposes of instruction. In any case its execution was directed by Christian talent, and the hands employed have been highly skilled in their art, probably workmen brought over from Italy or Gaul. I know of no other Cross in all Christendom so excessively elegant and graceful, and with such rich non-Roman decorations, as this.

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