the 'Loki Stone'

3D Model

Viking age carving in St Stephen’s church, Kirkby Stephen, Cumbria. Scan made for films about the Gosforth Cross for an RSA Fellowships project. www.gosforthcrossproject.blogspot.co.uk . The carving either shows Loki being punished by the Gods for causing the death of Baldr (in the ‘Gylfaginning’), or Satan bound in hell (in the ‘Book of Revelation’) or… both…or neither! The great Victorian interpreter of ‘Viking-Age’ stones, William Slater Calverley, first suggested the Loki connection, and it was the perceived link between this carving and the Gosforth Cross that led him to realise the rich saga content of that masterpiece of Anglo-Scandinavian art.

For a full academic description, see http://www.ascorpus.ac.uk/catvol2.php?pageNum_urls=113