Ruthwell Cross — The Ancient Codex

Ruthwell Cross, Dumfries and Galloway — Photo: own work / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0

The Ruthwell Cross is a stone Anglo-Saxon cross probably dating from the 8th century, when Ruthwell — now in Scotland — was part of the Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of Northumbria. It stands 18 feet (5.5 m)…

Ruthwell Cross is a carved stone near Ruthwell, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland.

What follows is drawn from published sources, with each claim labelled by how firmly it is established.

History

Ruthwell Cross — historical view — Photo: PaulT (Gunther Tschuch) / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0

During the Reformation the cross was condemned as idolatrous: the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland ordered such monuments destroyed in 1640, and in 1642 an Act 'anent the Idolatrous Monuments in Ruthwell' led to the cross being taken down and broken up by Presbyterian iconoclasts. One piece is said to have been used as a bench.

By 1823 Henry Duncan had collected the surviving pieces, commissioned a new crossbeam (the original being lost) and re-erected the cross in the manse garden. In 1887 it was moved into its current location inside Ruthwell church, where a specially built apse holds it.

It was designated a scheduled monument in 1921; this designation was removed in 2018 because the cross sits in a controlled, safe indoor environment. In 2012 the Visionary Cross project performed 3D scans of the monument.

People

Portrait: Unknown authorUnknown author / Wikimedia Commons / Public domain

Henry Duncan

Minister who gathered the broken pieces and re-erected the cross in the manse garden in 1823
Portrait: Genja Jonas (+ 1938) / Wikimedia Commons / Public domain

Nikolaus Pevsner

Art historian who called the Bewcastle and Ruthwell crosses 'the greatest achievement of their date in the whole of Europe'
Portrait: Richard James Lane / Wikimedia Commons / Public domain

John Mitchell Kemble

Scholar whose 1840s readings of the runes advanced the Dream of the Rood interpretation
Reginald Bainbrigg

Antiquarian who first recorded the runic inscription around 1600 for William Camden's Britannia
Fred Orton

Scholar who argued the monument may originally have been a column rather than a cross

Cultural influences

Insular art tradition — Anglo-Saxon crosses are closely related to contemporary Irish high crosses; the Ruthwell Cross is the most famous and elaborate Anglo-Saxon monumental sculpture and bears the largest figurative reliefs on any surviving Anglo-Saxon cross.
Christian iconographic programme — the carved panels form a sophisticated, unified scheme depicting Christ and biblical scenes, 'almost an academician's monument', remaining one of the most extensively studied visual programmes of the early Middle Ages.
Old English poetry — the runic inscription contains lines similar to lines 39–64 of The Dream of the Rood, possibly making the cross a candidate for the oldest surviving text predating any manuscript of Old English poetry, though many scholars believe the runes were added later, perhaps as late as the 10th century.

Connections

Photo: Oliver Dixon / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 2.0

Bewcastle Cross

Closely related Northumbrian cross, probably by the same artists, sharing the very similar Christ-and-beasts panel
Photo: On Being / Wikimedia Commons / Public domain

The Dream of the Rood

Old English poem whose lines are echoed in the cross's runic inscription (Vercelli Book version)
Photo: Unknown / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0

Franks Casket

Early-8th-century Anglo-Saxon work of similar age, also bearing runic text
Kingdom of Northumbria

The Anglo-Saxon kingdom to which Ruthwell belonged when the cross was made

In culture

The cross has been a major focus of art-historical and literary scholarship for centuries, described as 'one of the most extensive and most studied of all surviving visual programs of the early Middle Ages'. The Visionary Cross project (Catherine Karkov, Daniel Paul O'Donnell, Roberto Rosselli Del Turco) 3D-scanned it in 2012.

What to look for

The large north-side panel showing Christ treading on the beasts (or 'Christ as Judge recognised by the beasts in the desert'), surrounded by a unique Latin inscription naming Jesus Christ the judge of righteousness.
The south-side panel of Mary Magdalene drying Christ's feet, bordered by the longest Latin inscription on the cross.
Other identified scenes: Saints Paul and Antony breaking bread in the desert, the Flight (or Return) into/from Egypt, the Healing of the man born blind, the Annunciation, and a later Crucifixion.
The runic inscriptions carved at the sides of the vine-tracery, recorded since around 1600, containing lines paralleling The Dream of the Rood.
The surviving Evangelist figures (St Matthew and St John) on the arms of the cross-head; the side arms and centre roundel are modern replacements.

Plan your visit

Location: 55.0004°N · 3.4075°W
Nearest settlement: Ruthwell
Access: Open access
Terrain: Easy going
Parking: Parking available nearby — see the official getting-here page.
Start point: At Ruthwell 8.5m south east of Dumfries, sited within the parish church on the B724. · National Grid reference - NY 100 682 · Telephone: 0131 558 9326
Best time: For more information visit www.ruthwellkirk.org.uk Opening times The Ruthwell Cross is free to visit and is situated in Ruthwell Parish Church.
Start point: Ruthwell Parish Church — The cross stands inside Ruthwell Parish Church on the B724. HES states parking is available; this is informal parking at the church rather than a marked car park.