L’enigma del hronæs ban nel Franks Casket: una proposta interpretativa
Abstract
The article presents a new interpretation of the Old English hronæs ban enigma, carved on the front panel of the Franks Casket (Northumbria, 8th century). The riddle, consisting of two alliterative verses written in futhorc runes, describes the stranding of a ‘fish’, hinting at the beached whale from whose bones the casket was made – as the solution hronæs ban “whalebone” clarifies. Nonetheless, the opening hemistich of the first verse has proved cryptic because of its ambiguous syntax, which scholars tend to emend and interpret univocally. Through a detailed lexical analysis of the verses and of their intertextual references, the paper aims at showing that the syntax was, indeed, intentionally made equivocal, thus allowing a twofold reading of the text, both profane and sacred. In fact, from a secular perspective, the riddle could be read as a formula to activate the apotropaic occult power of the casket’s material, whalebone, whilst from a Christian one, it could be seen as a metaphor of the Flood. The article will focus on this latter analogy, examining the myth of the Flood in Anglo-Saxon culture, and exploring the possible reasons behind the mention of this biblical episode in the casket, first and foremost as an allusion to its being an ‘ark’, i. e., a storage box for valuables.
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