Author: Dr. Alfred Becker

Summary: The runic and Roman texts appearing on the Franks (Auzon) Casket are well-known to students of Old English. The iconography is likewise familiar but contains many unusual features which are seldom discussed in detail. Dr. Becker submits the runes and imagery to close examination using heuristic principles. The result of his study is a re-evaluation of the entire iconographic and textual program of the box as a heroic course of life and the prosperity of a warrior king, based on a sequence of conceptual runes whose meaning determines the choice of images as emblems. At the same time, the number and value of the runes establish an eternal calendar backed by an astronomical cycle (comparable to the Nebra sky disk). A separate chapter is devoted to the only image referring to Norse sources, a representation of Welund, the mythical goldsmith, the emblem of prosperity.