making a goblet from his skull; his head is probably the object held in the tongs in Wayland's hand. With his other hand Wayland offers the goblet, containing drugged beer, to Beaduhild, Niðhad's daughter, whom he then rapes when she is unconscious. Another female figure is shown in the centre; perhaps Wayland's helper, or Beaduhild again. To the right of the scene Wayland (or his brother) catches birds; he then makes wings from their feathers, with which he is able to escape. In a sharp contrast, the right-hand scene shows one of the most common Christian subjects depicted in the art of the period; however here "the birth of a hero also makes good sin and suffering". The Three Magi, identified by an inscription (ᛗᚫᚷᛁ, "magi"), led by the large star, approach the enthroned Madonna and Child bearing the traditional gifts. A goose-like bird by the feet of the leading magus may represent the Holy Spirit, usually shown as a dove, or an angel. The human figures, at least, form a composition very comparable to those in other depictions of the period. Richard Fletcher considered this contrast of scenes, from left to right, as intended to indicate the positive and benign effects of conversion to Christianity. Around the panel runs the following alliterating inscription, which does not relate to the scenes but is a riddle on the material of the casket itself as whale bone, and specifically from a stranded whale: Left panel The left panel depicts the mythological twin founders of Rome, Romulus and Remus, being suckled by a she-wolf lying on her back at the bottom of the scene. The same wolf, or another, stands above, and there are two men with spears approaching from each side. The inscription reads: Carol Neuman de Vegvar (1999) observes that other depictions of Romulus and Remus are found in East Anglian art and coinage (for example the very early Undley bracteate). She suggests that because of the similarity of the story of Romulus and Remus to that of Hengist and Horsa, the brothers who were said to have founded England, "the legend of a pair of outcast or traveller brothers who led a people and contributed to the formation of a kingdom was probably not unfamiliar in the 8th-century Anglo-Saxon milieu of the Franks Casket and could stand as a reference to destined rulership." Rear panel The rear panel depicts the