Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.1981, Qupperneq 277

Christian sculpture in Norse Shetland
285
and it is altogether more elaborate, with a second cross-head on the
back, curiously formed of coarse interlace. Typological signs that
it is later are firstly the beasts on the upper corners devouring the
man lying between them, as first found on southerly Pictish stones
during the first half of the ninth century. Then around the rougher
cross-head is a square frame of interlace, which not only contains
bolder rings than those found exceptionally early an the Papil,
cross-head, but appears to loop and bifurcate in a way related to
the Jellinge style of 900 and later, such as the Skaill silver brooches
found in Orkney.
That there was tenth-century Christian stone carving in Shetland
is shown by a grave-slab from Papil (Moar and Stewart 1944 pl.
xv). This bears a broadly incised cross entirely of interlace, the
arm-ends resembling a triquetra, and the intersecting bands in the
centre surrounded by a circle. Thomas firmly dated this as pre-
Norse, reminiscent of the Northumbrian name- or pillow-stones,
while also referring to the Irish tombstones somehow related to
them. It is indeed close to certain Irish slabs, and even more to some
at Iona, which Thomas did not mention in this context though he
did when considering extremely simplified stones that might well
be twelfth century (1973 29—30). These close parallels have long
been dated by Irish antiquaries, and confirmed by Pádraig Lionard,
to the lOth century with also an eleventh century example (1961,
133—5; Moar and Stewart 96). The interlaced heads of the mid-
tenth century cross-slabs by Gaut in the Isle of Man, are cognate
though more elaborate (Shetelig 1954, 124ff). A further, unpubl-
ished, slab at Iona, one with a square oentre to the cross, has along
the whole of one margin an inscription in Norse runes. This appears
to be contemporary, and ascribable to the tenth or eleventh century.
The combination reminds us of the pilgrimage to Iona, and death
there in 981, of Anlaf Cuaran, once Norse king of York and of
Dublin. A fragmentary slab from the old White Ness churchyard
in mainland Shetland, has on one face the triquetral foot of another
simple cross of interlaced bands. It is cruder than that from Papil,
and may be secondary to a more elaborate and quite well executed
interlace design on the other face, which is not easy to complete
(Tait 1937).