The Ruthwell Cross And Its Texts

The Ruthwell Cross is one of the finest Anglo-Saxon high crosses that have come down to us. The longest epigraphic text in the Old English Runes Corpus is inscribed on two sides of the monument: it forms an alliterative poem, in which the Cross itself narrates the crucifixion episode. Parts of the inscription are irrevocably lost. This study establishes a historico-cultural context for the Ruthwell Cross’s texts and sculptures. It shows that The Ruthwell Crucifixion Poem is an integral part of a Christian artefact but also an independent text. Although its verses match closely with lines of The Dream of the Rood in the Vercelli Book, a comparative analysis gives new insight into their complex relationship. An annotated transliteration of the runes offers intriguing information for runologists. Detailed linguistic and metrical analyses finally yield a new reconstruction of the lost runes. All in all, this study takes a fresh look at the Ruthwell Cross and provides the first scholarly edition of the reconstructed Ruthwell Crucifixion Poem—one of the earliest religious poems of Anglo-Saxon England. It will be of interest to scholars and students of historical linguistics, medieval English literature and culture, art history, and archaeology.

In bringing together these scattered witnesses to the sustained brilliance of Anglo-Saxon artistic achievement across several centuries, ?amonn ? Carrag?in has produced a study of great significance to Anglo-Saxon history.

The Ruthwell Cross, a late seventh-or eighth-century high cross in the kirk at Ruthwell in the Scottish Borders, is one of the most intriguing examples of sculpture to survive from the early Middle Ages. With its Latin inscriptions, a Runic poem related to the "Dream of the Rood," and an extensive program of finely carved images, the cross has long attracted the interest of scholars from a variety of disciplines. Bringing together papers delivered at a conference sponsored by the Index of Christian Art in Princeton in 1990, this illustrated volume addresses some of the most debated issues surrounding this major literary and artistic monument of Anglo-Saxon culture. The volume begins with an introduction to the historiography of the cross by Brendan Cassidy. Robert T. Farrell discusses the fate of the cross from the seventeenth century, its current state of preservation, and its reconstruction; David Howlett uncovers patterns of significance in the Latin and Runic inscriptions; Douglas MacLean suggests the most likely date for the cross on the basis of contemporary historical events; Paul Meyvaert addresses the message of the iconographic program in the light of the theology and religious beliefs of the time. The volume also contains an extensive bibliography and the complete series of sixteenth-to nineteenth-century drawings and engravings of the entire cross and of its parts.

The Ruthwell Cross, a late seventh-or eighth-century high cross in the kirk at Ruthwell in the Scottish Borders, is one of the most intriguing examples of sculpture to survive from the early Middle Ages. With its Latin inscriptions, a Runic poem related to the "Dream of the Rood," and an extensive program of finely carved images, the cross has long attracted the interest of scholars from a variety of disciplines. Bringing together papers delivered at a conference sponsored by the Index of Christian Art in Princeton in 1990, this illustrated volume addresses some of the most debated issues surrounding this major literary and artistic monument of Anglo-Saxon culture. The volume begins with an introduction to the historiography of the cross by Brendan Cassidy. Robert T. Farrell discusses the fate of the cross from the seventeenth century, its current state of preservation, and its reconstruction; David Howlett uncovers patterns of significance in the Latin and Runic inscriptions; Douglas MacLean suggests the most likely date for the cross on the basis of contemporary historical events; Paul Meyvaert addresses the message of the iconographic program in the light of the theology and religious beliefs of the time. The volume also contains an extensive bibliography and the complete series of sixteenth-to nineteenth-century drawings and engravings of the entire cross and of its parts.

The Dream of the Rood is a poem that has entranced generations of scholars. It is one of the greatest religious poems in English literature, the work of a nameless poet of superb genius. Immediately attractive, its poetic content is readily accessible to the modern reader, being in the mainstream of Western religious thought. Representative of the Golden Age of Anglo-Saxon culture, drawing on both visual and doctrinal motifs, it provides a ready introduction to its own intellectual and artistic milieu. This is underlined by intimate links with the Ruthwell Cross, the documentary context of the earlier version, and itself often regarded as one of the finest monuments of the Anglo-Saxon Age. This edition presents a conservative text with variant readings described in the notes. In his introduction Professor Swanton describes the Vercelli Book, in which the full text of The Dream of the Rood is found, and gives an account of the Ruthwell Cross, the sources for which are scattered and not normally familiar to students of Old English. The relationship between the two texts, the doctrine behind the poem and its style and structure are also discussed. The edition includes extensive notes and a glossary.