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Undergraduate
Classics Teaching Collections |
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Forward |
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| Name: |
Top
of the Ruthwell Cross |
| Picture: |
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| Description: |
Ruthwell,
County Dumfries. Royal Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh. H. 0.42m. Double-sided
top arm of the Ruthwell Cross. South side: St John the Evangelist
with an open book beside an eagle (his symbol), which rests on a branch.
Around the margin: In Principio Erat Verbum. Reverse side: a dove
on a twig of a vine. Runic inscription on the margin: Cadmon Me Fawed
('Cadmon made me'.) |
| Date: |
680 A.D. |
| Discussion: |
The
Ruthwell Cross was a Preaching Cross, i.e. it told of the life of
Christ by illustrating scenes from the gospels, accompanied by a text
describing the scenes in Latin or Runic. According to Dinwiddie 1933:
9, the reconstructed Cross is incorrect -- St. John should face north,
not south. The Runes on the side accompanying the dove may read Cadmon
me Fawed, but it is so worn as to be meaningless today. See Dinwiddie
1933: 7-10. |
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