ABSTRACT
https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9781315828060/49546f0e-ce84-4e70-9b40-7107f16ee305/content/ufig_f_B.tif" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/>ROM the story of St. Patrick’s Purgatory we learnt that the Triad Bridges were represented in mediæval lore, but perhaps an even more striking example of the belief in these bridges is revealed by the fresco at the Church of St. Peter and St. Paul, Chaldon, Surrey. This old fresco was re-discovered under a coat of whitewash in 1870, and had been painted about A.D. 1200, in red tempera, probably by a monk of Chertsey Abbey. It depicts the Underworld and the ladder which leads thence to Heaven. The upper and underworlds are separated by a band, usually described as a band of clouds, but more probably intended to represent a section of the River of Ocean. In the right hand lower corner, i.e., in the Underworld, is the Tree of the Knowledge of good and evil, around the upper branches of which is wound a serpent. In its position it brings to mind Yggdrasil of the Norse, round which was entwined the Midgard Snake.
