The Carolingian Cross is but one variation in the vast historical imagery of Christian symbolic representations of the Crucifixion of Jesus, going back to at least the ninth century.

The use of the triquetra to form the symbol of the cross is both a representation of Christian theological conceptions of the Holy Trinity inter-fused with pre-Christian or pagan ideas of the tree of life.

[5] Yggdrasil for the Scandinavian people's brought both inspiration and knowledge to all those who believed in it,[6] and would be a prime motivating symbol for the connection between Christ and the religious transformation of the pagans.

[8] External to Christianity, the triquetra symbol is found not only in ancient Celtic systems of religious thought, but also within that of the Scandinavian Vikings, and many other Germanic tribes within the Frankish region.

[21] The design of the Carolingian cross borrows heavily from the compositional style of insular art contained within the interlacing or knot work of the Anglo-Saxon Lindisfarne Gospels ‘carpet pages’.

[22] Sacred number theory was one of the most important features of Christian art throughout the Middle Ages, and one of the prime arguments against images and sculptures of the cross being seen as blasphemous idolatry.

[23] Augustine of Hippo created one of the first defences of Christian imagery by asserting that the universe operated according to ordered design, that numerical geometric representations constituted the core of divine providence.

[25] The Irish monks used the logic of Boethius’ ideas on universal geometry noting that: “everything that is fashioned from the first nature of things (a prima rerum natura), is perceived to be given form by the ratio of numbers”, for this was the principal exemplar in the creator's mind.

[26] Gospel manuscripts were a vital component to the Christianisation of Frankish medieval Europe, as most non-Christian societies of the time had sparse written records of their religious beliefs and were generally illiterate in Latin.

[27] The visual imagery and spoken poetry of gospels aided in the spread of the cross being understood by all lay people and non-Christians alike as the ultimate representation of Christ.

[35] One of the main problems with any kind of historical inquiry into pagan ritual, lifestyle, and beliefs systems of this time is that they are predominantly told from the Christian clerical perspective.

[38] Much of what was going on during this time was an ‘enculturation’ of ideas; a cross-blending of faiths, where many of the “pagans” infused elements of Christianity into their own belief system and vice versa.