Thorwald's Cross-Slab (No. 128)

Thorwald's Cross-Slab (No. 128)

A fragment of a cross without a circle showing Odin and the Fenris Wolf. The shaft is decorated with ring chain with the ring extended in two out curving horns. On one side a scene from Ragnarok, when the gods and the heros go forth to that last battle with all the forces of evil. Odin, plunges his spear into the breast of the Fenis Wolf, who seizes him in its jaws, afterwards comes Vidar the silent, son of Odin.

The artist has done a closing scene of Northern Heathendom on one side and on the other the coming of Christ. There is a missionary figured, holding in one hand a cross, in the other a copy of the Gospel. The fish in front is the well known Christian symbol, the knotted serpents witness the triumph of Christ over the Devil with the treading on adders or bruising the serpent's head. There are the remains of an inscription reading: Thyryaltr, raisti krus, tho. translated as Thorwald raised this cross ...