I think the neck position was merely the artist's attempt to depict the character (Esmeralda) looking lovingly at the goat. This is a nice dagger, but Michelangelo this artist ain't.
We could spend a great deal of time discussing Hugo's work Notre-Dame de Paris and exactly what his intention were in his development of the character of Esmeralda, but this is not a literary forum and i would be willing to bet that the artist who created this knife did it as a direct rendition of the character from the book, not Hugo's deeper modivations or influences such as the story of St. Agnes (as interesting as that story might be).
Bottom line Bill is that IMHO, sometimes a goat is just a goat and a strange neck bend just that as well. Even though you are dismissing the early, rather rediculous idea that this was some kind of "satanic" dagger you still seem to be looking for the occult in this blade. I don't think you will every find it in any convincing manner. Personally i think this blade is just what it appears to be, a nicely crafted commemorative depicting a scene from Victor Hugo's Hunchback novel, which was, indeed, about much more than a love affair between a beauty and a grotesque.
Hugo's original title Notre-Dame de Paris is so named because he felt that the cathedral itself was the main character of the book. The fact that it is upside-down on the sheath, if one chooses to orient it that way (maybe it's Esmeralda and the goat that are upside-down
) i believe is merely because the shape of a cathedral comes to a natural point like the dagger.
This link was probably posted in the original thread but here goes anyway:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hun..._of_Notre_Dame