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At Heysham we have the gods at Ragnarok ;
Mr. Kermode finds at Andreas Odin fighting the Fenriswolf.
At Gosforth we have Heimdal with his horn,
repeated at Jurby. Even if all the identifications of
Prof. A. Bugge and Mr. Kermode are not accepted,
there are still enough to show that Edda subjects were
illustrated in both districts on crosses put up as monuments
of Christian burial. Of Runic inscriptions
there is a wealth in these Manx stones, and from the
language and lettering it is concluded that the inscribed
crosses date from 1040 onwards; and further,
that there was some relation to East Gothia (Sweden)
and Jæderen (Norway) in the carvers of these runes.
One stone (Michael, No. 104) is thought by Prof.
Sophus Bugge to be Swedish in character, though on
the whole the language is Norse, and of the eleventh
and twelfth centuries. But while the inscribed stones,
which are not paralleled by Cumbrian crosses, are comparatively
late, there are also some uninscribed which
may be of the tenth century. One of these is the
cross which bears the figure of a bishop, and is
connected by Mr. Kermode with bishop Roolwer
(Hrólfr), mentioned in 1060 ; across which, however,
has a close resemblance to Cumbrian stones showing
the debased spiral forms imitated from Anglian floral
scrolls, though at the same time it shows Celtic
motives absent in Cumbria, with no special Scandinavian
character. Its Madonna can be matched by
Yorkshire stones earlier than the eleventh century.
The conclusion seems to be that perhaps a hundred
years earlier than Roolwer there was a Christian
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