There is an Icelandic Saga of the thirteenth century which relates the history of Thorgunna, a woman from the Hebrides, who was taken to Iceland on the first settlement of the country by Norway, A.D. 1000. She employed witchery in her needlework, and her embroidered hangings were coveted by, and proved fatal to, many persons after her death, till one of her inheritors burned them.[568]
Pl. 71.
One of the ends of the Stole of St. Cuthbert at Durham, which together bear the inscription,
“Aelfled fieri precepit pio Episcopo Fridestano.”
English ecclesiastical art did not necessarily keep to Christian subjects; for it is recorded that King Wiglaf, of Mercia, gave to Croyland Abbey his splendid coronation mantle and “velum;” and that the latter was embroidered with scenes from the siege of Troy.[569]
Pl. 72.
Durham Embroideries, tenth century.