The Ruthwell Cross and its Texts : : A New Reconstruction and an Edition of The Ruthwell Crucifixion Poem / / Kerstin Majewski.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter DG Plus DeG Package 2022 Part 1
• VerfasserIn: Majewski, Kerstin,
• Place / Publishing House: Berlin ;, Boston : : De Gruyter, , [2022]; ©2022
• Year of Publication: 2022
• Language: English
• Series: Ergänzungsbände zum Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde , 132
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (XXVI, 397 p.)

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.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- List of Figures -- List of Tables -- List of Abbreviations and Symbols -- Acknowledgements -- Review of Literature -- Introduction -- Part I: The Ruthwell Cross and its Texts -- 1 The Ruthwell Cross: An Overview -- 2 The Cross in Text and Stone: Situating the Ruthwell Cross in a Particular Historical Context -- 3 The Challenge to Situate The Ruthwell Crucifixion Poem in a Literary Context -- 4 Text, Material, and Memory -- 5 The Figure Sculpture and the Roman Inscriptions -- 6 The Runic Inscriptions on the Ruthwell Cross -- 7 A New Reconstruction of The Ruthwell Crucifixion Poem -- Part II: An Edition of The Ruthwell Crucifixion Poem -- The Ruthwell Crucifixion Poem -- Notes -- Glossary -- 8 Summary and Conclusion -- 9 Appendices -- 10 Bibliography -- 11 Index