This large gravestone, while having no exact date, has survived all the way from the Viking Age, which is dated c. 790-1066. For more information, see https://www.britannica.com/list/5-fast-facts-about-vikings The gravestone is on display in The Yorkshire Museum in York, For more information, see http://www.worldtreeproject.org/document/336 a museum with multiple objects from the Viking era in its collection: For more information, see http://www.worldtreeproject.org/items/browse?tags=The+Yorkshire+Museum a hoard, a sword, a stirrup, and an arm-ring. And, of course, this gravestone.
York is an important place when it comes to research into the Viking Age. At Coppergate, York, there was a major excavation which finished in 1981. “The Coppergate excavations revealed a series of complete plans of wooden houses and workshops […] from the Scandinavian settlement of York in the 870s up to the Norman Conquest”. For more information, see Graham-Campbell, James. “The Vikings in England”. History Today. London, Vol. 32, Issue 7, 1982, pp. 40-43, p. 41. It is a place rich with Viking history, and thus perfect for an object like the gravestone to be displayed.
Carved into the rough surface of the gravestone we can see a fierce battle taking place. A large dragon has coiled itself around the stone, his tail end on the left hand of the stone, his head on the right. And the hero, pictured in the middle, is about to strike the dragon with a sword that he holds in his hand.
The dragon’s name is Fafnir, and the hero about to do battle with him is named Sigurd – a hero of legend. Sigurd plays a large part in the Volsunga saga. This lengthy tale was only written down around 1270, For more information, see https://www.britannica.com/topic/Volsunga-saga yet the legend of Sigurd is present in the poetic Edda, which had already been composed during the Viking Age. For more information, see https://www.britannica.com/topic/Edda
The tale of Sigurd and Fafnir is a tale which you may or may not be familiar with, but that inspired a grand author of whom you surely have heard: J.R.R. Tolkien
What elements of this saga, this battle and this gravestone do we find within Tolkien’s fiction? Read on as we follow the tale, from dragon to hero to the sword that stood between them.