being the most prominent, these will be described first. The lower of the two figures of beasts which are depicted is in a better state of preservation than the one above it, and by common consent it has been identified as a dragon, whose tail extends to form an interlace pattern below him. The Norse peoples believed the dragon to be a beneficent beast who was able to drive away the evil World Serpent or Midgardsorm, hence the Vikings’ placing of a dragon’s head mascot upon the prows of their longships for protection. It was not until later centuries that the dragon’s reputation was to suffer with his diminishment to a symbol of evil. A relatively recent article (1976) by J.T. Lang, ‘Sigurd and Weland in Pre-Conquest Carving in Northern England’(Yorkshire Archaeological Journal Vol. XXXXVIII) comments upon the story in the Völsunga Saga of the Norse hero Sigurd receiving enlightenment by eating the heart of Fáfnir, whom he had slain.  Fáfnir was originally human, but had been turned into a dragon for having murdered his father Hreidmar, and for appropriating the treasure given by Odin and Hœnir to his brother Regin and himself in compensation for the loss of their brother Otr, who had been murdered by the false god, Loki. Regin, seeking revenge (and also, no doubt, the treasure) persuades Sigurd to slay Fáfnir, whom Sigurd duly puts to the sword. According to Lang, Sigurd’s eating of the heart of Fáfnir might possibly be regarded as a symbol for the Christian Eucharist. It is worth mentioning that a dragon also occurs upon a contemporary Anglo-Danish cross fragment preserved in All Saints’ Church at Asfordby. The uppermost of the two carvings on the west is difficult to adjudge with certainty, but most previous commentators are of the opinion that it is probably a representation of an eagle. The Vikings practised an especially savage ritual known as the Rite of the ‘Blood Eagle’, in which a defeated enemy’s lungs were torn out and forced apart so as to resemble the wings of an eagle. The ‘Blood Eagle’ was then held aloft and dedicated to Odin, the Ruler of the Norse Gods, as a victory offering. When the Vikings took York in 867 it is believed that the Northumbrian king Ælla was put to death in this gruesome manner by York’s new ruler, Ivarr. If the carving here does indeed represent an eagle, as presumed, there may be another possible parallel here between Christ’s sacrifice, through his Blood upon the Cross, with that of the votive ‘Blood Eagle’.  The southern side of the shaft is carved with a leafy vine scroll, which may have originated as a depiction of Yggdrasil, the Nordic ‘World Tree’ or ‘Tree of Life’, but which found easy assimilation into Christian iconography as symbolising Communion in Jesus Christ, ‘the True Vine’. Note how the vine scroll is continuous, running the entire length of the shaft, paying no attention to