Curse
The Dane's Skin
Steal from the altar, and become part of the door.
Stand where it happened
- What's there
- Medieval cathedral above the River Severn
- Legend from
- Victorian tradition
- Tone
- Dark history
A thief stole the altar bell. They say his skin was nailed to the door as a warning.
Worcester Cathedral keeps a fragment of skin once fixed to an old cathedral door. The story says that a Dane, or simply a thief, was caught stealing the Sanctus bell from the high altar, was flayed alive, and his skin was nailed to the door as a warning. Jabez Allies wrote in 1852 that he had often seen vestiges of skin on the north doors before they were replaced, and that the doors lay in the crypt. The cathedral library calls the skin human, after a University of Birmingham test, but notes the Viking story appears only in Victorian times. Tests in 2025 identified it as horse or donkey hide.