This memorial
Hwætred set
and carved this monument
after the prince
after the king Alcfrid
pray for their souls.
The inscription on the Ruthwell cross, after being long a puzzle to
antiquaries, was first deciphered in 1838 by Mr. John M. Kemble, an
eminent Anglo-Saxon scholar. It is written alternately down one side
of the stone and up another, and contains a portion of a poem on the
subject of the Crucifixion. Mr. Kemble’s interpretation received a very
satisfactory confirmation by the discovery of a more complete copy of the
same poem in a MS. volume of Anglo-Saxon homilies at Vercelli.
Mr. D. M. Haigh, whose researches have added much to our knowledge
of Anglo-Saxon runes, has endeavoured to set up for them a claim of
priority over the Norse characters. Instead of considering the additional
Anglo-Saxon letters as a development of the Norse system, he looks on the
Norse alphabet of sixteen letters as an abridgment of an earlier system,
and finds occasional traces of the existence of the discarded characters
in the earliest Norse inscriptions, and in the Scandinavian _Iis-runa_
and _Hahal-runa_, where the letters are classified in accordance with the
Anglo-Saxon groups of eight.
The Scandinavian kingdoms contain numerous runic monuments, some of
them written _boustrophedon_, or with the lines beginning alternately
from the right and left; and there are many interesting inscriptions on
Swedish gold bracteates. The Celtic races, from their connection with
the Scandinavians, became acquainted with their alphabet, and made use
of it in writing their own language; and hence we have, in the Western
Islands of Scotland and in the Isle of Man, runic inscriptions, not
in the Anglo-Saxon, but in the Norse character, with, however, a few
peculiarities of their own. Some of the most perfect runic inscriptions
are in Man; others of similar description exist at Holy Island, in
Lamlash Bay, Arran; and there is an inscription in the same character
on a remarkable brooch dug up at Hunterston, in Ayrshire. Dr. D. Wilson
considers that the Celtic population of Scotland were as familiar with
Norse as the Northumbrians with Saxon runes.
We sometimes find the Norse runes used to denote numerals, in which case
the sixteen characters stand for the numbers from 1 to 16; _ar_ combined
with _laugr_ stands for 17, double _madr_ for 18, and double _tyr_ for
19. Two more letters are used to express higher numbers, as _ur ur_, 20;
_thurs thurs os_, 34.[13]