The River Laune Crozier (or Innisfallen or Dunloe Crozier) is a late 11th-century

Insular crozier An Insular crozier is a type of processional bishop's staff (crozier) produced in Ireland and Scotland between and 1200. Such items can be distinguished from mainland European types by their curved and open crooks, and drop (that is, the hollo ...

, now at the Archaeology branch of the

National Museum of Ireland The National Museum of Ireland ( ga, Ard-Mhúsaem na hÉireann) is Ireland's leading museum institution, with a strong emphasis on national and some international archaeology, Irish history, Irish art, culture, and natural history. It has thre ...

. The object would have been commissioned as a

staff of office A staff of office is a staff, the carrying of which often denotes an official's position, a social rank or a degree of social prestige. Apart from the ecclesiastical and ceremonial usages mentioned below, there are less formal usages. A gold- or ...

for a senior clergyman, most likely a bishop. It consists of a wooden core decorated with fitted bronze and silver metal plates. Although the metalwork is somewhat corroded in parts, it is fully intact and considered one of the finest surviving Irish examples, alongside those found at

Clonmacnoise Clonmacnoise (Irish: ''Cluain Mhic Nóis'') is a ruined monastery situated in County Offaly in Ireland on the River Shannon south of Athlone, founded in 544 by Saint Ciarán, a young man from Rathcroghan, County Roscommon. Until the 9th ce ...

and Lismore. Its drop plate (that is, the hollow box-like extension at the end of the crook) shows a human figure in

high relief Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces are bonded to a solid background of the same material. The term ''relief'' is from the Latin verb ''relevo'', to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that the ...

with a long thin nose, spiral ears and a beard that radiates out and intertwines with the designs around him. It was discovered in 1867 deposited in the bed of the

River Laune The River Laune (; Irish: ''An Leamhain'') is a river in County Kerry, Ireland, which flows from Lough Leane (sometimes written as Lough Lein), one of the Lakes of Killarney, through Beaufort, past Ballymalis Castle, through the town of Killo ...

, by the

Lakes of Killarney The Lakes of Killarney are a scenic attraction located in Killarney National Park near Killarney, County Kerry, in Ireland. They consist of three lakes - Lough Leane, Muckross Lake (also called Middle Lake) and Upper Lake. Surroundings The l ...

County Kerry County Kerry ( gle, Contae Chiarraí) is a county in Ireland. It is located in the South-West Region and forms part of the province of Munster. It is named after the Ciarraige who lived in part of the present county. The population of the co ...

, by a fisherman who initially mistook it as either a salmon or a gun, before establishing it as a "curious handstick". It was first exhibited at the

Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...

(then the South Kensington Museum) in 1869, on loan from John Coffey,

Bishop of Kerry The Bishop of Kerry is the Ordinary of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Kerry, one of the suffragan dioceses of the Archdiocese of Cashel and Emly in Ireland. The Episcopal see changed its name from Ardfert and Aghadoe to Kerry on 20 December 19 ...

.Murray (2010), p. 48

Description

The River Laune Crozier is of especially fine workmanship and unusual in that its metalwork is mostly of silver rather than the more typical copper-alloy. Four panels contain elaborate gilded filigree.Murray (2010), p. 46 The staff is long and the hook is wide. The crook was made from a single casting, onto which the drop-plate and

openwork Openwork or open-work is a term in art history, architecture and related fields for any technique that produces decoration by creating holes, piercings, or gaps that go right through a solid material such as metal, wood, stone, pottery, cloth, l ...

crest were attached. Considering it spent an estimated 500–600 years buried under water, it is in good condition and its structure is fully intact; some of the metal is corroded and parts of the decorative panels or inserts are lost.Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland (1892), p. 607 The shaft comprises three separate tubes of silver bent joined by four decorative and elaborate knopes.Murray (2010), p. 53Murray (2007), p. 86 The crest panels contain both

zoomorphic The word ''zoomorphism'' derives from the Greek ζωον (''zōon''), meaning "animal", and μορφη (''morphē''), meaning "shape" or "form". In the context of art, zoomorphism could describe art that imagines humans as non-human animals. It c ...

and abstract patterns and are bordered by bands of niello with inlaid gilt wire.Murray (2010), p. 49 Each side of the crook contains nine representations of imagined or

fantastic The fantastic (french: le fantastique) is a subgenre of literary works characterized by the ambiguous presentation of seemingly supernatural forces. Bulgarian-French structuralist literary critic Tzvetan Todorov originated the concept, characte ...

animals rendered in

low relief Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces are bonded to a solid background of the same material. The term ''relief'' is from the Latin verb ''relevo'', to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that the ...

, with open mouths, front paws, and

Ringerike style Viking art, also known commonly as Norse art, is a term widely accepted for the art of Scandinavian Norsemen and Viking settlements further afield—particularly in the British Isles and Iceland—during the Viking Age of the 8th-11th centuries ...

interlace patterns emanating from their heads before intertwining with their bodies.Murray (2010), p. 50 Similar to the Clonmacnoise Crozier, the drop (i.e., the plate at the front of the crook) shows a human head in

. The man has oval eyes, a long and thin nose, a beard and a handlebar moustache that radiates out and intertwines with the designs around him. He has spiral ears and a long, square chin. The panel is decorated with abstracted interlaced filigree, while the base of the drop shows an animal with large ears, also in high-relief. The insert below the drop is decorated with filigree and zoomorphic designs.Murray (2010), p. 51 File:Bastone pastorale di river laune, 1090 ca. 02.jpg, Crest on the head of the crook File:Bastone pastorale di river laune, 1090 ca. 04.jpg, Middle knop File:Bastone pastorale di river laune, 1090 ca. 05.jpg, Tappering ferrule at crozier's base

Provenance

The crozier was discovered in 1867 buried in the bed of the

, near Beaufort bridge and Dunloe Castle, in

Killarney Killarney ( ; ga, Cill Airne , meaning 'church of sloes') is a town in County Kerry, southwestern Ireland. The town is on the northeastern shore of Lough Leane, part of Killarney National Park, and is home to St Mary's Cathedral, Ross Castl ...

. The find was made by local man Denis O'Sullivan while boat fishing for

salmon Salmon () is the common name for several list of commercially important fish species, commercially important species of euryhaline ray-finned fish from the family (biology), family Salmonidae, which are native to tributary, tributaries of the ...

. O'Sullivan said that the water was especially low and clear that day, and he at first mistook it for a salmon lying at the bottom of the river. After it did not move when he hit it with his rod, he realised it was inanimate, but was able to drag it out of the water. He at first thought it was a gun, but then realised it was a kind of "curious handstick".Murray (2010), p. 47 When the object was identified as a highly valuable and rare early medieval crozier, O'Sullivan became a local celebrity, and sold the object to Moriarty for £18, declaring that "this was far and away the best salmon he ever landed".Murray (2010), p. 48 It passed to John Coffey and again to Charles O'Sullivan, both bishops of Kerry. It came to international prominence when displayed at the

(then the South Kensington Museum) in 1869, and for the

Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland The Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland is a learned society based in Ireland, whose aims are "to preserve, examine and illustrate all ancient monuments and memorials of the arts, manners and customs of the past, as connected with the antiquit ...

in 1891. While displayed at the V&A, it was described as "one of the most perfect specimens of early Irish art... that has survived to this day". More recently, the sophistication of its craftsmanship was compared to that of the

Cross of Cong The ''Cross of Cong'' ( ga, Cros Chonga, "the yellow baculum") is an early 12th-century Irish Christian ornamented cusped processional cross, which was, as an inscription says, made for Tairrdelbach Ua Conchobair (d. 1156), King of Connacht an ...

and the Shrine of St. Patrick's bell.Thickpenny (2020), p. 159

Dating

It is dated to the late 11th century, and is not thought to have been reworked. Its origin is uncertain; it is likely to have been made at Aghadoe Cathedral (est. 939 AD by

Finian Lobhar Saint Finian the Leper ( ga, Saint Finian Lobhar) was an early Irish saint credited by some sources with founding a church and monastery at Innisfallen in Killarney. Life Saint Finian was a disciple of St. Columba. He was a strict Irish abbot, w ...

(''St. Finian the Leper'') and one of the most prominent ecclesiastical foundations in the county), but is recorded in the

Irish annals A number of Irish annals, of which the earliest was the Chronicle of Ireland, were compiled up to and shortly after the end of the 17th century. Annals were originally a means by which monks determined the yearly chronology of feast days. Over t ...

as held at the nearby

abbey An abbey is a type of monastery used by members of a religious order under the governance of an abbot or abbess. Abbeys provide a complex of buildings and land for religious activities, work, and housing of Christian monks and nuns. The conce ...

Innisfallen Innisfallen ( ) or Inishfallen (from ga, Inis Faithlinn , meaning 'Faithlinn's island') is an island in Lough Leane; one of the three Lakes of Killarney in County Kerry, Ireland. Innisfallen is home to the ruins of Innisfallen Abbey. Geog ...

island (''Faithlinn's island'').O'Sullivan (1899), pp. 242–243The Islands of Ireland: Sailing to Innisfallen
. ''

Irish Examiner The ''Irish Examiner'', formerly ''The Cork Examiner'' and then ''The Examiner'', is an Irish national daily newspaper which primarily circulates in the Munster region surrounding its base in Cork, though it is available throughout the country. ...

'', 16 March 2016. Retrieved 14 November 2021 The art historian

Griffin Murray Griffin Murray is an Irish archaeologist and art historian specialising in medieval Ireland and Insular art–especially metalwork–in the period between 400–1550 AD. His interests include identifying and contextualizing the social role of med ...

describes it as "probably broadly contemporary with the earliest stone church on the island and obviously relates a period of wealth and investment in the monastery at the time. It was of great significance to the community, as... the staff of office of the

abbot Abbot is an ecclesiastical title given to the male head of a monastery in various Western religious traditions, including Christianity. The office may also be given as an honorary title to a clergyman who is not the head of a monastery. The fem ...

and handed on from one abbot to the next. It symbolised the power of the founding saint of the monastery, St Finian, and by association the power of the abbot and the monastery itself."

Citations

Notes

Sources

* Breen, John Rev. "The Innisfallen Crozier". ''The Catholic Bulletin'', Vol. XII, October 1922 * Ó Floinn, Raghnal; Wallace, Patrick (eds), ''Treasures of the National Museum of Ireland: Irish Antiquities''. Dublin:

, 2002. * Ó Floinn, Raghnal. "A Fragmentary House-Shaped Shrine from Clonard, Co. Meath". ''Journal of Irish Archaeology'', volume 5, 1990. * Friar O'Sullivan of

Muckross Abbey Muckross Abbey (Irish: ''Mainistir Locha Léin'' and ''Mainistir Mhucrois'') is one of the major ecclesiastical sites, found in the Killarney National Park, County Kerry, Ireland. It was founded in 1448 as a Franciscan friary for the Observant ...

. "Ancient History of the Kingdom of Kerry". ''Journal of the Cork Historical and Archaeological Society'', 1899 * Murray, Griffin. "The Medieval Treasures of County Kerry".

Tralee Tralee ( ; ga, Trá Lí, ; formerly , meaning 'strand of the Lee River') is the county town of County Kerry in the south-west of Ireland. The town is on the northern side of the neck of the Dingle Peninsula, and is the largest town in County ...

Kerry County Museum Kerry County Museum ( ga, Músaem Chontae Chiarraí) is a museum located in Tralee, County Kerry in Ireland. The museum is based in the Ashe Memorial Hall in the centre of Tralee. The aim of the museum is to collect, record, preserve and display ...

, 2010. * Murray, Griffin. "Insular-type crosiers: their construction and characteristics". ''Making and Meaning in Insular Art: Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference on Insular Art'', 2007 * "Proceedings and Papers". ''The Journal of the

'', Fifth Series, Volume 1, No. 8, 1891. * Thickpenny, Cynthia (ed.). ''Peopling Insular Art: Practice, Performance, Perception''. Glasgow: Oxbow Books, 2020. * Young, Susan. ''The Work of Angels. Masterpieces of Celtic Metalwork, 6th—9th Centuries AD''. London:

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

, 1989.

External links

The River Laune (Inisfallen) Crozier
video lecture by Griffin Murray.

National Museum of Ireland – Archaeology The National Museum of Ireland – Archaeology ( ga, Ard-Mhúsaem na hÉireann – Seandálaíocht, often known as the "NMI") is a branch of the National Museum of Ireland located on Kildare Street in Dublin, Ireland, that specialises in Irish and ...

{{Insular art Collection of the National Museum of Ireland Insular croziers