ABSTRACT
The Franks Casket is a small box made from the jawbone of a whale, probably in Northumbria or at least by a Northumbrian artist, possibly at the monastic site of Whitby, or that of Jarrow, or that of Ripon, most likely in the first half of the eighth century. Language and translation are crucial to the creation of this space – the Old English and Latin languages, the runic and Roman alphabets, and the translation between the verbal and the visual. Translation can also be understood as the 'transfer of language, culture and power', an act which in and of itself creates a third space. In order for places to be bridged or peoples to be gathered they must first be separate, and stories of exile are central to the creation of a new postcolonial space by both the casket, and the Anglo-Saxons more generally.
