The Riddle of the Ruthwell Cross: Audience, Intention and Originator Reconsidered

Stancliffe, Clare

Abstract

The Ruthwell Cross is a riddle in more than one respect: in its sophisticated selection of images and texts which link together to suggest overarching theological themes, but with puzzling twists or incongruities;² and equally because this cross, ‘the most impressive single piece of surviving Anglo-Saxon sculpture,’ comes not from a major church of the Northumbrian heartlands, but from a peripheral area in the west, and a site with no known historical context.³ Ruthwell lies just north of the Solway Firth, between the rivers Annan and Nith. Today the cross stands within a post-medieval church, re-erected after being broken and...

Citation

Stancliffe, C. (2017). The Riddle of the Ruthwell Cross: Audience, Intention and Originator Reconsidered. In E. Cambridge, & J. Hawkes (Eds.), Crossing Boundaries: Interdisciplinary Approaches to the Art, Material Culture, Language and LIterauture of the Early Medieval World. Essays presented to Professor Emeritus Richard N. Bailey, OBE, in honour of his eightieth birthday (3-14). Oxbow Books

• Publication Date: 2017
• Deposit Date: Oct 6, 2017
• Pages: 3-14
• Book Title: Crossing Boundaries: Interdisciplinary Approaches to the Art, Material Culture, Language and LIterauture of the Early Medieval World. Essays presented to Professor Emeritus Richard N. Bailey, OBE, in honour of his eightieth birthday
• ISBN: 9781785703072
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1637664
• Publisher URL: https://www.oxbowbooks.com/dbbc/crossing-boundaries.html