Nancy quickly finished scribbling down that last sentence before she put her quill down and rubbed her wrist with a rather pained expression on her face. Ouch! She hadn't done that much writing in a while and especially the speed she had had to do it was pretty tough. Shaking her head at the professor's question Nancy was glad to be able to give her right hand a short break of writing.

Scribble, scribble, scribble.

This had to be the most Clifford had ever written in a single lesson. He was already on his second roll of parchment! Still, he continued scribbling away - taking notes until the nice Professor asked if they had any questions before moving on.

"Nope. No questions from me, Professor Lupa." The Prefect smiled, setting down his quill and folding his hands on the desk infront of him.

Ok. a question. Set raised his hand. "Proffessor, if I say, wanted to create a new rune for something. Who are the people that could approve it? Who is the highest rune authority? Is there a rune-board that decides everything rune?" Set asked.

"Yes it does, rune sets need to be just that, sets. You'll learn in our next class, when we make out own runes, just how important that is." She said to the girl.

"I wouldn't set my quill down if I were you Prefect," Less said patting his hand. "I am just pausing to ask question... there is more."

She giggled. "There is no high rune authority. Even in the Wizarding world, runes and divination in general aren't looked at in the highest regard. And if you created a new rune, it wouldn't be one to add to a set. It'd be the first of your own type of divination piece you created inspired by runes."

"Alright, moving on. There are very few surviving runic inscriptions and most of them are on stone or metal, being the most durable of material. Only a handful of inscriptions carved on wood have never been found. There is one very famous carving of runes, it's historical and carved in whalebone. Does anyone know what I am talking about?" She asked the class.

After the small pause, Evangeline jolted down some notes, her handwriting still practically perfect no matter how fast she was writing. She looked back up when she heard the Professor's question and raised her hand. "That'd be the Franks Casket, Ma'am! It dates from the 7th Century and tells its story in both runes and Roman script. Mum and I saw it when we went to the British Museum."

Jessica raised her hand." I've heard about Runes carved on a whalebone in Egil's Saga. It was written about 775 years ago, and describes events that happened 250 or more years earlier. When the subject of the story, Egil, visits a farm, he finds that the farmer's daughter is sick and has been wasting away for some time. Egil asks whether anything has been done, and is told, "Runes have been graven, and it is a farmer's son a short way off who did that; but ever since it has been far worse for her than before." Egil then finds the runes carved on a piece of whalebone in the bed. He scrapes the bone clean and burns both it and the shavings. Then he carves new runes, laying them under her pillow, and she quickly becomes well."

Ruby raised her hand and asked "is it 'Dream of the Rood', and the Franks casket of carved whale's bone" she inquired

First his cheek, and now his hand!? Goodness gracious. Clifford took a deep breath before retrieving his quill, trying to ignore the way his cheeks were still a shade darker.

Runes carved in whalebone? Hmmm. Clifford raised his hand in the air again. "Is that The Auzon Runic Casket, Professor?" He asked, brow furrowed as he tried to remember. "The runes tell us that the casket is made of the bone of a beached whale, I think."

Mackenzie was confused. She hadn't heard of it. She knew that if she didn't say anything, her confusion would be fixed shortly.

Anna raised her hand to answer the next question, as well. "Professor, it's called Frank's Casket, and it was made in the first half of the seventh century North of England," she said.

Cale raised his hand. "Umm, I believe it's Franks Casket, Professor," he said, wrinkling his eyebrows. His first guess had been the Oracle Bones, but that didn't seem right--gah, this subject was HARD!

Ana raised her hand "Is it the The Franks Casket, professor?" she was not sure about this one

Sarah raised her hand.She thought she knew this one...
"Is it the Auzon Runic Casket? Otherwise known as Franks Casket?" She put her hand down but carried on talking.
"It was made in the early part of the 7th Century in the north of England and is now housed in the British Museum."

Jake raised his hand. He knew this one, he actually KNEW it! "Ma'am, it's the Frank's Casket..." Jake was about to go on, but she'd already mentioned about paying attention to the question... and he'd already elaborated. "I mean... yes I doooooo know what you were talking about." Sneaky Jake... haha, not.

Copernicus raised his hand. "Professor, is it the Franks Casket? I believe it is a small whalebone chest that can be dated to the mid-seventh century based on the inscriptions."

Both hands in the air, Keefer spoke in a singsong voice and asked, "Is that what is commonly known as Frank's Casket, Professor? I heard it was made during the early 7th century in northern England."

Heminny raised her hand and guessed Franks Casket.

Barry raised his hand " You are refering to the Franks Casket also known as the Auzon Runic Casket. It is as you said a small whalebone chest and is carved with narrative scenes in flat two-dimensional low-relief and with Anglo-Saxon runes." he said quitely. It wasn`t so hard.

"You're talking about the Auzon Runic or Franks Casket.




"Here's a photo of it," Abby says.

"Very Good Two points!" She told them.

"Loveys... it's the Franks Casket, not some wizard named Frank's casket." She giggled, "I'll accept it though." Two points each.

She looked at the girl. "Although that is one of the tales on the Franks Casket, you didn't answer my question."

Sorry hun, I'm not accepting edited answers, if you forget to bold something, or the coding is off, PM me.



"The Franks Casket is Anglo-Saxon, dating back first half of the 8th century AD, found in Northumbria, England. When it was found in the nineteenth century, this 'casket' was being used as a family workbox at Auzon, France. Some time during its mysterious history it was dismantled and the right end panel was separated from the rest of the box. This piece was bequeathed to a museum in Florence, Italy while the rest remains in a museum in England.

"The box is made of whale's bone, carved on its sides and lid with a range of scenes from Roman, Jewish, Christian and Germanic tradition, with text in both the runic and Roman alphabets and in both Old English and Latin. Silver fittings attached to the casket, a handle, locks and hinges, were removed at some time in its history leaving scars which mark their original positions."

Alessia waved her wand and the following image appeared.



"The lid of the casket has the scene of Egil, defending his stronghold." Alessia waved her wand and another image appeared.




"The back panel depicts Titus the roman general, conquering Jerusalem." She waved her wand again.




The right-hand end is difficult to interpret, but recalls a lost Germanic legend with a text partly in encoded runes. This appears to describe a person called Hos sitting upon the 'sorrow-mound'. The decorated panel in the lid shows another Germanic story about a hero named Ægili who is shown defending a fortification from armed raiders.




"The left end shows Romulus and Remus with their wolf mother." She seemed to turn more tender with this image.




"The left part is the Germanic legend of Weland the Smith, while the right depicts the Magi, the three wizards who visited the baby Jesus on the day of his birth. They are labelled 'mægi' in runes.

"Surprisingly, the main runic inscription on the front does not refer to the scenes it surrounds. It is a riddle in Old English relating to the origin of the casket. It can be translated as 'The fish beat up the seas on to the mountainous cliff; the King of terror became sad when he swam onto the shingle.' This is then answered with the solution 'Whale's bone.' That is what tells us that the casket was made from the bone of a beached whale."

"YAY Learning!" Alessia exclaimed with a clap. "Alright... There are a few very important Runestones. Does anyone know their names?"

After flipping through the pages of her book for a moment, Evangeline raised her hand. "There is the Great Stone of Jelling, Professor! And the ... Istaby Stone at Blekinge, or something like that." Hard names, gosh. "The Hilddiguth's Stone and the Hrossketill's Stone, I think." She only hoped that was the answer Professor Lupa was waiting for.

Ooooh. Pretty pictures. Clifford listened to the Professor's words curiously, jotting down the occasional notes when he thought something sounded super duper important even though his hand felt like it was ready to drop off anytime soon.

He jumped in his seat when she unexpectedly clapped her hands though. YAY learning? Okaaaay. A few very important runestones? Clifford raised his hand yet again. "Well, there's The Great Stone of Jelling and Cunebald's Cross." They were runestones, but were they important enough? "Perhaps Hrossketill's Stone?"

Qaz raised her hand and replied, 'There are the Snoldelev stone in Denmark, one of the oldest, and the Manx runestones on the Isle of Man.'

To be perfectly honest, Willow could not remember the last time she had taken so many notes in one single class. And wasn't this one a bit over-entusiastic about learning? As a Ravenclaw, Willow, naturally, enjoyed learning but she'd never used the word yay to describe how she felt about it.

She'd never used the word YAY, as a matter of fact.

Taking a little break from scribbling down some notes as she heard the professor's question, Willow raised her hand, "Well, I know the Rök Runestone is a very important one in Sweden because it is the earliest known example of Swedish writing, Professor."

Juniper slowly raised her hand. "There's the Ledberg stone and the Lingsberg Runestones," she said. Important was a relative term, in Juniper's opinion. But perhaps the stones she suggested would be considered important.