The archæology and prehistoric annals of Scotland

by Sir Daniel Wilson

"Fortunately," says he, "we are in possession of what must be admitted to be an important document in the case before us, a document the existence of which was unknown as well to Mr. Repp as, to the best of our belief, to all others now living, that have devoted attention to the monument in question. Dr. Duncan observes that the capital of the column, which in the delineations he gives of it shews no characters or traces of such, had, however, formerly inscriptions, now quite illegible. The greater part of them, meanwhile, are found on a delineation of the two broader sides of the said capital, which together with the two Runic sides of the whole column, (consequently more of it than has been given by Hickes or Gordon,) is to be seen on a large folio copperplate engraving, now the property of me, Finn Magnusen. It was given to me some years ago by my much-lamented friend and predecessor, Professor Thorkelin, who, however, his memory being impaired by age, could not remember anything more about it than that it represented a column in Scotland, and that he had obtained it, he knew not how or of whom, during his travels in Britain."[572]

This rare and indeed seemingly unique print Professor Magnusen accordingly designates the "Thorkelin Engraving." Its age he conceives must be about 150 years, or perhaps still older. "Be this as it may," he adds, "it serves to throw a new and most important light—in fact, the most important yet obtained—on the design and purpose of the column, inasmuch as it has preserved the initial words of its inscription, setting forth that one Ofa, a descendant of Voda, had caused it to be cut," &c. Accordingly, setting aside the humbler attempts of Mr. Repp, the Danish professor substitutes a marriage for the devastation of his predecessor, discovers four important historical personages in the record, nearly fixes the precise year A.D. 650 for the handfasting, and altogether furnishes an entirely new chapter of Anglo-Saxon history, based almost entirely on this Thorkelin print! Some able northern scholars, more familiar with Anglo-Saxon literature than Professor Magnusen, adopted the very summary process of dealing with the new element thus unexpectedly brought to bear on the inquiry, by doubting the authenticity, if not even the existence, of this unique print. Of its existence, however, there can be no doubt, since, instead of being the rarity which Professor Magnusen imagined, it is to be found in every archæological library in the kingdom, being none other (as I think will no longer be doubted) than one of two etchings, executed by the well-known Scottish antiquary, Mr. Adam de Cardonnel, and forming Plates LIV. and LV. of the Vetusta Monumenta, vol. ii., published in 1789. These are accompanied by a description furnished by R. G., (Roger Gale,) and to it the following postscript has subsequently been added, which it will be seen supplies the account Professor Magnusen failed to obtain from his aged friend: "Since this account was read before the Society [of Antiquaries of London,] the drawing has been shewn to Mr. Professor Thorkelin, who has been investigating all such monuments of his countrymen in this kingdom, but he has not returned any opinion." These engravings of the Ruthwell inscription appear to have excited little interest, probably on account of their being accompanied by no critical analysis or attempt at translation. They would seem to have escaped the notice of Mr. J. M. Kemble, otherwise he would have found there all that the drawings of Dr. Duncan supply, with, indeed, some slight additions; for it chances oddly enough that the old Scottish Antiquary has copied the Anglo-Saxon Runes—about which it may reasonably be doubted if he knew anything—a great deal more correctly than the Latin inscription in familiar Roman characters, some of which he has contrived to render totally unintelligible. It was probably a result of this carelessness, that in arranging a broken fragment of the top of the cross, along with the lower stem, he misplaced the parts, wedding the imperfect upper fragments of the Latin, to the remainder of the Anglo-Saxon inscription. The offspring of this misalliance was the Ofa, Voden's kinsman, of Professor Magnusen, whose double genealogy is given with amusing precision, "according to the Younger Edda!" The slightest glance at Cardonnel's etchings will shew that the learned Dane, in attempting to decipher this supposed invaluable addition, was only torturing ill-copied Roman characters into convenient Northern or Anglo-Saxon Runes.

In 1838, Mr. John M. Kemble, an English Anglo-Saxon scholar, undertook to unwind this ravelled skein, and in an able paper "On Anglo-Saxon Runes,"[573] pointed out the valuelessness of any amount of knowledge of the Scandinavian languages as a means for deciphering Anglo-Saxon inscriptions. Following out his own views he accordingly produced a translation differing, toto cœlo, from either of those already referred to, but which commends itself in some degree even to the mere English student, who detects in the old Anglo-Saxon the radicals of his native tongue; as in the original of Mr. Repp's Cristpason:—Krist waes on rodi,—Christ was on the Rood or Cross. Combating with the difficulties arising solely from the mutilated and fragmentary state of what Mr. Kemble so justly styles "this noble monument of Anglo-Saxon antiquity," he demonstrates the rhythmic character of the construction, deducing from this the strongest proof of the accuracy of his reading. Still should the reader, who is thus compelled to consider two learned versions of this inscription as no better than the Antiquary's Agricola dicavit libens lubens, hesitate about accepting the third as less open to challenge, his scepticism could not perhaps be greatly blamed. A remarkable chance, however, threw in the way of the intelligent Anglo-Saxon scholar an altogether indisputable confirmation of the general accuracy of the conclusions he had arrived at. A comparison of the various steps in this process of elucidation furnishes one of the most singular modern contributions to the curiosities of literature. A few years ago a MS. volume consisting chiefly of Anglo-Saxon homilies, was discovered at Vercelli, in the Milanese, but which also contained, intermingled with the prose, some Anglo-Saxon religious poems. One of these, entitled a "Dream of the Holy Rood," extends to 310 lines, and in this are found the whole of the fragmentary lines previously translated by Mr. Kemble, along with the context which fills up the numerous lacunæ of the time-worn inscription on the Ruthwell cross. No confirmation of the accuracy of conclusions previously published could well be more gratifying or satisfactory than this; independently of which the beauty of the Anglo-Saxon poem suffices to convey a singularly vivid idea of the civilisation existing at the period—probably not later than the ninth century—when it was engraved on the venerable Scottish monument which has anew excited the veneration of the modern descendants of its old Anglo-Saxon builders, and, with some portion of its former beauty renewed by the piety of modern hands, is restored to the occupation of its ancient site. Of the high civilisation of this period, however, the student of Anglo-Saxon history can need no new proof when he bears in mind, as Mr. Kemble has remarked, "that before the close of the eighth century Northumberland was more advanced in civilisation than any other portion of Teutonic Europe."

The "Dream of the Holy Rood" represents the sleeping Christian suddenly startled by the vision of the Cross, the instrument of man's salvation, which appears in the sky attended with angels, and manifesting, by various changes, its sympathy in the passion and the glory of the Redeemer. At length the Cross itself addresses the sleeper, and describes its feelings on being made the instrument of the suffering of the Son of God. It is from this beautiful part of the poem that the verses have been selected for inscription on the Ruthwell cross. The following extracts, in which the fragments still legible on the old monument are printed in italics, will help the reader to form some idea of the refinement of the period when the cross was erected, and may also suffice to shew how little need there is to seek in Scandinavian, or other foreign sources, for the taste or skill manifested in the works of early native art. The Cross thus speaks in person:—

'Twas many a year ago,
I yet remember it,
That I was hewn down
At the wood's end,
Stirred from out my dream.
Strong foes took me there,
They made me for a spectacle,
They bade me uplift their outcasts:
There men bore me upon their shoulders
until they set me down upon a hill,
There foes enough fastened me.
There saw I the Lord of mankind
hasten with mighty power,
because he would mount on me.
There then I dared not,
against the Lord's command,
bow down or burst asunder;
There I saw tremble
the extent of the earth.
I had power all
his foes to fell,
but yet I stood fast.
Then the young hero prepared himself,
That was Almighty God,
Strong and firm of mood
he mounted the lofty cross,
courageously in sight of many,
when he willed to redeem mankind.
I trembled when the hero embraced me,
yet dared I not bow down to earth,
fall to the bosom of the ground,
but I was compelled to stand fast.
A cross was I reared.
I raised the powerful king,
the lord of the heavens;
I dared not fall down.
They pierced me with dark nails,
on me are the wounds visible!
* * * * * * *
They reviled us both together.
I was all stained with blood
poured from the man's side.
* * * * * * *
The shadow went forth,
wan under the welkin:
All creation wept;
they mourned the fall of their king.
Christ was on the cross,
yet thither hastening,
unto the noble one.
All that beheld I,
With sorrow I was overwhelmed.
* * * * * * *
The warriors left me there
Standing defiled with gore;
I was all wounded with shafts.
They laid him down limb-weary,
They stood at the corpse's head;
They beheld the Lord of heaven,
and he rested himself there awhile,
weary after his mighty contest.

This curious poem is marked by what Mr. Kemble has pronounced to betray evidence of modern handling, and is perhaps the amplification by a later Anglo-Saxon poet,—it may be of the simpler address originally graven on the Ruthwell cross. Of the general identity between the poem and the inscription, however, not the slightest doubt can exist; and we therefore no longer depend on any future discovery for supplying the deficiencies of the Runic legend, though we can only guess as to the full extent to which it was carried in its original form. "It always seemed probable," says Mr. Kemble in concluding his observations on the old Scottish monument, "that much of the inscription was missing, and the comparison instituted above renders this certain. The passages which remain are too fragmentary ever to have constituted a substantive whole, without very considerable additions, which there is no longer room for upon the cross in its present form. Buried perhaps beneath the soil of the churchyard, or worked into the walls of neighbouring habitations, the supplementary fragments may yet be reserved for a late resurrection. Should they ever again meet the eyes of men they will add little to our knowledge; still we should rejoice to find them once again resuming their old place in the pillar, and helping to reconstruct in its original form the most beautiful as well as the most interesting relic of Teutonic antiquity."[574]

It would be vain to speculate now on the probability of the former existence of such monuments in other localities, when it is considered that in the great majority of cases scarcely a relic remains even of the ancient parish churches of Scotland, built after the final establishment of a Saxon population in the low country. One other Runic monument, however, is known to have existed in the same district down to a very, recent period. Mr. Charles Kirkpatrick Sharp of Hoddam, informs me that in the ancient church of Hoddam, a sculptured stone, which was built into the wall, bore an inscription of some length, in Runic characters. Of this he made a copy before the final demolition of the ruined church in 1815, but he has since sought for the transcript in vain. The original, it is to be feared, no longer exists; but among various sculptured fragments rescued from the ruins, and now in Mr. Sharp's collection, are portions of the shaft of a cross, divided into compartments with sculptured figures in relief, bearing a very considerable resemblance to the style of decoration on the Ruthwell cross, with the addition in one compartment of the favourite interlaced knotwork of Scottish and Irish sculptors. That the venerable ecclesiastical edifice included in its masonry relics of still earlier date, has already been shewn by the rescue of a Roman altar from its ruined walls, dedicated by a cohort of German auxiliaries to imperial Jove.[575]

Other remarkable Anglo-Saxon memorials have been discovered within the ancient kingdom of Northumbria, as well as beyond its southern limits. One of the most interesting of these is a square font, at Bridekirk, in Cumberland. It is covered on each of its four sides with singular sculptures, in some of which a resemblance may be traced to the decorations of the Scottish standing stones. On the east side a curious group represents the baptism of our Saviour, who stands in a square font with a nimbus encircling his head, and over him is the dove perched on a tree. On the south side is a Runic inscription interwoven among ornaments, which still remains to be satisfactorily explained.[576] Mr. Rolfe of Sandwick has in his possession the silver hilt of a sword found in an Anglo-Saxon barrow, and inscribed in Runic characters.[577] A few other examples of the use of the Anglo-Saxon Runes in England have been discovered from time to time,[578] and receive the attention justly due to objects of such high interest, now that English archæologists have learned that it is to themselves and not to Scandinavian scholars that they must look for the elucidation of the literature of their own Anglo-Saxon progenitors.