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Description: | A Medieval lead-alloy disc, possibly a medal, token or a seal, probably dating to the 13th century. The object is a flat disc with the inscription and motif on the obverse; the reverse is blank but has some filemarks across the surface.On the obverse the central motif is in relief. It depicts a knight in mail, moving right with his sword raised behind his back in his right hand and a shield, possibly with a rampant lion motif, on his left arm. He is advancing on a rampant lion with a mane, shown in profile towards the right but with its head turned left towards the knight (i.e. reguardant). The tail of the beast points straight back and down at an angle, with the tip visible between the knight's feet. There is a tree between the knight and the lion, one branch with foliage between their heads and a lower branch with foliage beneath the point of the shield. The dragon is probably to be found around the legs of the knight, where there are other elements of relief decoration.The inscription is also in relief. It is difficult to read, but the letters may be, * ORA EI ECLnEI TROPPORT BATAILLE .I.H.CIS or ORAG' RANCZnCLA....TROPPORT BATAILLE .I.A.CIS. John Clark and Andrew Rogerson agree that this is likely to be a French inscription, rather than Latin. In translation the inscription may start with ORA "Pray ..." or ORAG' "Storm". There does not appear to be a name contained within the inscription and it may be that it refers to the action on the scene depicted, perhaps with a storm and a battle.Dimensions: diameter: 42.06mm; weight: 25.23g.The scene may be that of Yvain who saves a lion from a dragon in woodland in a poem written in the 1170s by Chretien de Troyes. The motif is particularly close to an illustration of one of the manuscripts of Yvain (Princeton University Garrett MS 125, fol. 37r; see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yvain,_the_Knight_of_the_Lion, top illustration), which has the knight to the left and the lion to the right looking back over his shoulder. It also has a two-branched tree, and the dragon at the knight's feet. Apart from the attitude of the knight (on horseback, and with sword lowered) and an extra tree, the coincidence is very close. This parallel may help to elucidate the features of the dragon, which on the manuscript illustration is facing left with the tail beneath the knight and the head biting the lion's tail. On the medal, the dragon's tail appears to curl up across the knight's body, perhaps extending as far as the chest, and the head may be represented by a lump between the knight's feet, at the end of the lion's tail.There are several examples of seals and seal matrices which depict a standing knight in combat with a lion. For example, the seal of Roger de Quincy, earl of Winchester (c.1235; TNA DL27/203) shows the earl with sword and shield fighting a rampant lion (Harvey & McGuinness 1996:44), and the bone pointed-oval seal matrix of Richard de Cano bears the same motif (c. 1150-1180; Salisbury Museum). Parallels to the standing knight/lion motif range in date from c. 1129 to the later 13th century (Cherry in Saunders and Saunders (ed) 1991, p. 31, fig 5.6, with discussion and further references). for an example on the PAS database, see NARC-C45437. John Goodall has also studied this motif, and sees it as derived from ancient Assyrian seals, brought to England via Crusader souvenirs ('The Royal Assyrian Lion Hunt in Medieval England', Minerva 12.5, Sep/Oct 2001).LON-5DC7C0 differs from these seals, however, as it not only has the tree but the dragon as well. A derivation from the Yvain legend therefore seems more likely. The function of the object is still not certain; despite its similarity to a lead sealing (sometimes used by bishops and, of course, by popes) there is no obvious way in which it could have been attached to a document.
Original Image | Publisher: | http://finds.org.uk | Source: | Portable Antiquities | Identifier: | http://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts/r... | Go to resource |
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