11th century AD. A bronze openwork stirrup mount of Williams's Class A Type 3, with facing nude male figure held by serpents, restraining the elbows and knees and forming an arc from the shoulders and neck to the wrists; attachment loop above the head, small ledge to the reverse. See Williams, D., Late Saxon Stirrup-Strap Mounts, York, 1997, p.37. 24.2 grams, 56mm high (2 1/4"). Found UK. Acquired circa 2001. Private collection of a Letchworth gentleman. Property of a Hertfordshire lady. There are several Viking mythological figures that can be related to this iconography. One possibility is Loki, a cunning trickster known from many poems to be both friend and enemy of gods and giants. As a punishment for his crimes, gods killed his son and bound Loki with his entrails, and Skadi, a giantess with a personal interest in his punishment, put a snake releasing venom in front of his face. His faithful wife Sigyn sat next to Loki and gathered the venom in a bowl. This imprisonment should have lasted until Ragnarok, the final battle between gods and giants, when Loki would break free, and die in a fight with god Heimdall. Another possibility is that the present mount may represent one of the most famo heroes of the Viking Age, Ragnar Lodbrok, who, according to the legend, was killed by being thrown into a snake pit by order of king Ælla of Northumbria. A similar death was meant for legendary hero Gunnar, known from the cycle of Nibelungs.