The archæology and prehistoric annals of Scotland

by Sir Daniel Wilson

The inscription literally reads:—Mal-lymkun raisti krus thana eftir Mal-muru fustra sun; i.e., Mallymcun raised this cross, after Malmor his foster-son. The frequent allusions in Runic inscriptions to the foster-father, brother, or son, shews the singular estimation in which such peculiar ties of adopted relationship were held by the northern races at that early date, as they have continued to be even to our own day among the Scottish Highlanders. But the most thoroughly Scandinavian in character of all the Manx Runic crosses is the beautiful one which stands in the churchyard at Kirk Braddan. I am not aware if crosses of this form are found in Denmark or Norway, but in nearly all the principal details, especially on the shaft, it differs entirely from the other Manx crosses, and corresponds to those on Scandinavian relics of the Iron Period. It has been broken in two, and otherwise mutilated; but the two principal pieces have been clasped together with iron bands, so that a good idea can still be formed of it in its perfect state. The shaft is decorated with the common dragon ornaments, intricately intertwined over its whole surface; thus greatly differing in style from the Runic crosses wrought by the skilful hands of Gaut, as well as from the contemporary standing stones of the Scottish mainland. This, therefore, we may be justified in assuming, is the work of some Norwegian artist, whose style was derived from his own fatherland, though in some degree modified by the favourite models of Celtic art which have influenced the form of other Christian monuments in the island. It is probably one of the latest of all the Runic memorials in Man, while at the same time it presents the Scandinavian characters accompanying a style of art to some extent derived from the same foreign source. It can hardly indeed admit of doubt, that in some at least of the Manx monuments we must recognise the adaptation of the Norse literature and dialect to native memorials. The cross cut in relief on the flat slab, with the subordinate accompaniments illustrative of feats of war or the chase, appear to be peculiarly characteristic of primitive Pictish art; while the perforated head with interlaced ornamentation, such as that which is here associated with the old dragon pattern and other Pagan devices of Scandinavia, is more directly traceable to the early Christian arts of Celtic Ireland. The Society of Antiquaries of Scotland possesses a complete cast of this beautiful cross, taken when the iron clamps were removed for the purpose of being renewed, and which thus supplies a portion of the Runic inscription which can no longer be seen. It is as follows:—

ᚦᚢᚱᛚᛁᚮᚱ᛬ᚾᛂᛅᚴᛁ᛬ᚱᛁᛌᛐᛁ᛬ᚴᚱᚢᛌ᛬ᚦᚨᚿᚨ᛬ᛆᚠᛐ᛬ᚠᛁᛅᚴ᛬ᛌᚢᚿ᛬
[ᛌ]ᛁᚿ᛬[ᛒ]ᚱᚢᚦᚢᚱ᛬ᛌᚢᚿ᛬ᛅᛆᚮᚱᛌ

Literally,—þurlior neaki risti krus þana aft fiak sun sin bruþur sun eaors. Orthogr.: Thorliótr neaki reisti kross þenna eft Fiak sun sinn, bróđurson Eaors; i.e., Thorlior Neaki raised this cross after Fiak his son, the nephew (brother's son) of Eaor. In addition to this the following marks occur on the under side of the head of the cross, and have been variously figured in the different editions of Camden, and elsewhere. The Runic ᚢ appears to be used in its literal sense, and the remainder may be assumed as rude attempts at Roman characters, in which case I think there can be little hesitation in reading it as the sacred name IHESVS—a curious example of the transition from the use of Runes to Roman characters.

Kirk Braddan Cross.

It has already been noted that the term Runic is used in Scotland in the vaguest sense, being frequently understood as synonymous with Scandinavian. In the account of St. Madoes' Parish, Perthshire, for example, we read: "In the churchyard there is a very beautiful specimen of that class of monuments called Runic, from their imagined Norse or Danish origin." It may be perhaps assumed that another stone in the parish of Anwoth, Kirkcudbrightshire, has no better claims to rank among the Runic monuments of Scotland, notwithstanding that the older Statist applies the name in reference to its inscription. It is thus described in the Old Statistical Account of the parish, along with a large moat which occupies a steep rocky peninsula jutting out into the sea: "Near to this moat stands a thin stone, nearly perpendicular, five feet three inches high, engraved on both sides with the rude figure of a cross, accompanied with several ornamental strokes, which some antiquaries suppose to be Runic inscriptions."[570] But one other remarkable Runic monument remains to be considered, surpassing in extent and importance any of those yet described, and rendered not the less interesting from the very curious literary controversy to which it has given rise. This is the celebrated cross of Ruthwell, in Dumfriesshire, inscribed not in Northern but Anglo-Saxon Runes. Like the few English examples yet discovered, it is in the Northumbrian dialect of Anglo-Saxon, and therefore is traceable, not to that northern intrusion of the Scandinavian branch of the Teutonic races which we have hitherto considered, and by which the old Celtic race of Scotland has been so greatly modified, but to the influx of a Teutonic race from the south, by which the Celtic occupants of the Scottish Lowlands and the whole Northumbrian kingdom, were ultimately superseded. Nevertheless the cross of Ruthwell may be referred to here without any great risk of confusion, along with those inscribed in the old Norse dialect; notwithstanding the justice of Mr. J. M. Kemble's remarks, that "the characters of the Norwegians, Swedes, Danes, and Icelanders, are not less distinct from those of the Goths, High and Low Germans, and Anglo-Saxons, than the languages of the several nations which they represented."[571] The Ruthwell cross is unquestionably by far the most important Runic monument in Britain, and has excited an attention fully equal to the great interest justly pertaining to it. A beautiful engraving of this ancient monument in the fourth volume of the Archæologia Scotica, accompanied with careful fac-similes of its inscriptions, renders any minute description of it superfluous.

Setting aside certain old and sufficiently vague local traditions recorded in the first Statistical Account of the Parish of Ruthwell, we obtain the earliest authentic notice of it only in the seventeenth century, at which time it appears to have still remained in the parish church, uninjured by any of those earlier ebullitions of misdirected popular zeal to which so many Scottish relics of Christian art fell a prey. When, however, the struggle between Charles I. and his people was rapidly hastening to a crisis, and religious differences were forced by many concurrent influences into violent collision, the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of Scotland, which met at St. Andrews in the month of July 1642, passed an order decreeing the demolition of the Ruthwell cross as a monument of idolatry. The order met with a less hearty and thorough-going execution than might have been anticipated from the spirit prevailing at a period when the whole course of public events had tended to inflame men's minds to the uttermost. The column, however, was thrown down and broken in several pieces; but it still lay in the church, and was examined there by Pennant so recently as 1772. Soon after this, however, it was cast out into the churchyard, where its exposure to weather, and its liability to careless and wanton mutilation, threatened at length most effectually to accomplish the object of the St. Andrews Assembly's Order of 1642, when fortunately the Rev. Dr. Duncan was presented to the parish. Soon afterwards he had the fragments of the venerable memorial pieced together, and re-erected within the friendly shelter of the manse garden,—a monument to his own good taste, with which his name will be associated by thousands who know not the large-hearted benevolence and piety with which he adorned the sacred office which he filled.

Not content, however, with merely restoring the venerable memorial, Dr. Duncan executed careful drawings of it, from which the engravings in the fourth volume of the Archæologia Scotica were made. These are accompanied with a history from his pen, and an accurate translation of the Latin inscription, which is cut in Roman characters on the back and front of the cross. With the Runic inscription, which occupies the remaining sides of the monument, Dr. Duncan attempted no more than to furnish the Scottish antiquaries with an accurate copy, leaving those who deemed themselves able for the task to encounter its difficulties, and render an intelligible version of its meaning. This was accordingly undertaken by Mr. Thorleif G. Repp, a learned northern scholar, and a native of Iceland, then resident in Edinburgh, who, reading the letters correctly enough, proceeded to weave them into imaginary words and sentences, by means of which he makes out the inscription to record "a gift for the expiation of an injury, of a cristpason or baptismal fount, of eleven pounds weight, made by the authority of the Therfusian fathers, for the devastation of the fields." Other portions of the inscription were made to supply the name of the devastated locality, "The dale of Ashlafr," a place as little heard of before as were its holy conservators, the Monks of Therfuse! Dr. Duncan remarks, in furnishing an abstract of Mr. Repp's rendering of the Ruthwell Runes,—"It is obvious that, in future inquiries on this subject, it will be of considerable importance to fix the locality of Ashlafardhal and Therfuse!" The accurate drawings of Dr. Duncan, however, published as they were to the learned world by the Scottish Antiquaries, had at length supplied the most important desiderata towards the elucidation of the old Anglo-Saxon memorial. Professor Finn Magnusen was the first to avail himself of the new elements for the satisfactory investigation of this venerable Teutonic relic, and published, in Danish, in the "Annaler for Nordisk Oldkyndighed og Historie, 1836-37," and nearly at the same time in English, in the "Report addressed by the Royal Society of Northern Antiquaries to its British and American Members," a revised version of the Ruthwell inscription, in which, while confirming the somewhat startling opinion of Mr. Repp, that it was in a language consisting both of Anglo-Saxon and old Northern words, he arrives at very different, but still more precise conclusions. The learned Dane, however, had obtained, as he conceived, a source of information which not even the zealous incumbent of Ruthwell parish had access to.