The Font At Winterbourne Monkton
Jul. 23rd, 2008 10:46 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
poliphiloThe font is Saxon and the carving Norman (that's what my sources say, anyway)
The zig-zag meander suggests water, and the curving shapes underneath look like horns of plenty.
And then there's this extraordinary figure.
A big-bellied woman, legs splayed, with a leafy sprig coming out of her vulva. In her right hand she holds a sickle. Her face is blank. Her headdress has little points suggesting either horns or a crown. The meander begins at the tip of her sickle and terminates in her cupped left hand.
That's what I think we're seeing anyway. The carving is so rough there may be other interpretations. Traces of paint remain.
Who is she- A river goddess? A fertility goddess? St Mary Magdalene? I really don't know.
The zig-zag meander suggests water, and the curving shapes underneath look like horns of plenty.
And then there's this extraordinary figure.
A big-bellied woman, legs splayed, with a leafy sprig coming out of her vulva. In her right hand she holds a sickle. Her face is blank. Her headdress has little points suggesting either horns or a crown. The meander begins at the tip of her sickle and terminates in her cupped left hand.
That's what I think we're seeing anyway. The carving is so rough there may be other interpretations. Traces of paint remain.
Who is she- A river goddess? A fertility goddess? St Mary Magdalene? I really don't know.
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Date: 2008-07-23 08:39 pm (UTC)http://www.rahmweb.com/stjames/