on the left, "to sit beside the horse-block outside the gates of the court for seven years, offering to carry visitors up to the palace on her back, like a beast of burden.... Rhiannon's horse-imagery and her bounty have led scholars to equate her with the Celtic horse-goddess Epona." Satan and the Nativity? Austin Simmons (2010) parses the frame inscription into the following segments: herh os-sitæþ on hærm-bergæ agl drigiþ swæ hiri er tae-gi-sgraf sær-den sorgæ and sefa-tornæ This he translates, "The idol sits far off on the dire hill, suffers abasement in sorrow and heart-rage as the den of pain had ordained for it." Linguistically, the segment os- represents the verbal prefix oþ- assimilated to the following sibilant, while in the b-verse of the second line er "before" is an independent word before a three-member verbal compound, tae-gi-sgraf. The first member tae- is a rare form of the particle-prefix to-. The inscription refers specifically to the scene on the left end of the casket's right side. According to Simmons, the 'idol' (herh) is Satan in the form of an ass, being tortured by a personified Hell in helmet. The scene is a reference to the apocryphon Decensus ad Inferos, a popular medieval text translated into Anglo-Saxon. In one version of the story of the Harrowing of Hell, a personified Hell blames Satan for having brought about the Crucifixion, which has allowed Christ to descend to Hell's kingdom and free the imprisoned souls. Therefore, Hell tortures Satan in retribution. Simmons separates the other scenes on the right side and interprets them as depictions of the Nativity and the Passion. Runological and numerological considerations Each Anglo-Saxon runic letter had an acrophonic Old English name, which gave the rune itself the connotations of the name, as described in the Old English rune poem. The inscriptions on the Franks Casket are alliterative verse, and so give particular emphasis to one or more runes on each side. According to Becker (1973, 2002), these tell a story corresponding to the illustrations, with each of the scenes emblematic of a certain period of the life and afterlife of a warrior-king: The front inscription alliterates on both the F-rune ᚠ feoh (wealth) and the G-rune ᚷ gyfu (gift), corresponding to the jewellery produced by the goldsmith Welund and the gifts of the three Magi. “In this box our warrior hoarded his treasure, golden rings and bands and