Abstract The Anglo-Saxon Franks Casket is interpreted as an extended metaphor for the origin and destiny of the English people. The right panel has already been identified by Ari Bouman and Simonne d’Ardenne as representing Hengest mourning his brother Horsa. The left panel literally depicts Romulus and Remus founding Rome, but it is argued that it figuratively represents Hengest and Horsa founding the English nation. The rear panel depicts the conquest of Jerusalem by Titus, a metaphor for the Saxon conquest of Britain. The lid is interpreted as literally depicting the death of Achilles inside the walls of Troy, and as figuratively representing the death of Horsa at Ægelesthrep . The front panel represents the progress of the English from paganism to Christianity. It is proposed that the Casket was created to hold the dowry for the marriage of a Northumbrian princess to a Merovingian king or prince. 1
J.Huston McCulloch (Mon,) studied this question.