The South Door, All Saints, Staplehurst

[poliphilo]

No, not just a door- an 11th century door.

And not just a 11th century door but one with ironwork that represents Ragnarok- the Norse Doomsday.

In a Christian Church? Well there's a cross at the top so that makes it alright. Savvy?

So... The big circle on the left is the Midgard Serpent and the shapes on the right are the serpent after Thor has smashed it up with his hammer. The circle in the middle is Surt, the Sun Wheel and the dragon flying across the top is Nithoggr the eater of the dead.
The thing in the bottom left hand corner that looks like a long-necked bird might (though I'm not convinced) be the cock whose crowing announces the end of the world.

The door isn't in its original doorway and may well have been brought to Staplehurst from somewhere else. The only comparable piece of work is at Stillingfleet near York.

(Most of the information for this post comes from Anita Thompson's Brief History of Staplehurst)

Comments

[puddleshark.livejournal.com]

Oh, that's breath-taking!

Thank you!

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

And there it is- unsignposted- round the south side of a parish church in an untouristy corner of Kent.

[athenais.livejournal.com]

That's amazing. On a church door!

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Strange but not unusual. Recently converted former Odinists often carried on using pagan imagery in a Christian context. They would have argued that Odin's ordeal on the world tree was a foreshadowing of Christ's death on the cross and the Norse Ragnarok much the same thing as the Christian Doomsday...

[sovay]

And not just a 11th century door but one with ironwork that represents Ragnarok- the Norse Doomsday.

That's terrific. Thank you!

[edited for copy-paste failure, apologies!]

[davesmusictank.livejournal.com]

Fantastic. Thanks for posting.

[pondhopper.livejournal.com]

That is truly a wonderful thing! And there's no indication it's there?

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

If you go into the church you'll find a little square of cardboard stuck to the wall by the inside of the door...

[veronica-milvus.livejournal.com]

Thank you for posting!

[idahoswede.livejournal.com]

Probably the most superb door I have ever seen!

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

Excellent. Thank you.

[happydog.livejournal.com]

This is the kind of stuff that makes traveling outside of the US fascinating for me. It makes me reflect that we here in the US really don't have any history much, and the history we do have, we don't understand.