The Ruthwell Cross and its Texts

A New Reconstruction and an Edition of The Ruthwell Crucifixion Poem

von Kerstin Majewski

397 Seiten, Hardcover

Kurzbeschreibung des Verlags

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.

• Reihe: Ergänzungsbände zum Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde
• ISBN: 9783110785395
• Sprache: Englisch
• Erscheinungsdatum: 24.10.2022
• Genre: Geschichte/Mittelalter
• Verlag: De Gruyter