The Ruthwell Monument Runic Poem in a Tenth-Century Context

Abstract

The goal of this essay is to test the generally accepted notion that the runic crucifixion text on the Ruthwell monument is a product of the eighth century by substituting a tenth-century context which better fits both cultural and textual considerations. The fact that this text, a long one in epigraphical terms, was written in runes, that it was written in English, and that its content can be productively read against liturgical parallels probably unavailable in England before the Regularis Concordia in the late tenth century support the inscription as a probable tenth- or eleventh-century addition to the monument. On the argument that the monument was already standing when the decision to add the runic poem was made, it is difficult to say exactly when the runic text may have been added. Surviving runic manuscripts document a very strong interest in runic writing in the late tenth and early eleventh centuries, and close attention to one of these, chosen more or less at random, confirms the details preserved in the Ruthwell runes, such as the velar and palatal allophone of /c/ and /g/. Secondly, that such material should be added in English to the cross is more likely at a late date than at an early one. Finally, prayers for the adoration of the cross are specified by incipits in the Regularis Concordia and are datable in full form and Passion liturgy arrangement only in the tenth and eleventh centuries and later. Nevertheless, they were then pervasive and offer excellent intertexts for reading with the runic composition on the Ruthwell monument.