The Ruthwell Cross 235 



stone, approximately twelve feet, the distances between the points 

 of contact diminishing somewhat in the ascent. After the last 

 contact at the right, the vine divides in such a way that it ends 

 in the opposite upper corners in bunches of fruit. The points of 

 contact on the left side are three in number. Meanwhile the vine 

 throws off branches alternately to the left and right, which, re- 

 curving, form with the main vine irregular circles, each, except 

 the lowest, enclosing a bird or animal. When the branch is thrown 

 off to the right, the animal's head is turned to the left ; when to the 

 left, the animal's head faces the right. Each animal pecks at a fruit 

 which forms the termination of the branch by which the animal is 

 supported. There are thus five of these creatures on this face of 

 the lower monolith, of which three have their heads turned to the 

 left ; the lowest seems to be an animal, the next two, birds, and the 

 last two, animals. This vine ends at an upper border, belonging 

 to the lower monolith. 



Here, as on the west face, two fragments of The Dream of the 

 Rood are written in runes, one, as there, beginning at the top 

 and continuing down the right margin, and the other extending 

 down the left margin. See pp. 19-20, above. 



Above this lower monolith is an upper section, broken into two 

 parts, a large section of the lower part having been replaced in recent 

 times by plain hewn stone. 



The vine which originally occupied this lower part may have begun 

 near the middle of the lower margin, had its first contact at the 

 left, and afterwards thrown off a branch to the right, which would 

 then have enclosed a bird or animal facing the right. The upper 

 part has the vine touching the right, and then the left, with an 

 animal under the branch thrown off toward the left, and a bird 

 enclosed in the last coil of the vine, which here makes a return 

 upon itself. Of the carving in the lower part, nothing remains 

 except a bunch of fruit in the lower right-hand corner, above which 

 is a short offshoot of the main vine, and above that the descending 

 curl (apparently) of the first branch (thrown off to the right) at its 

 point of contact with the margin. There would, then, probably, 

 have been a bird or animal in the viny portion of the lower part. 



On this upper portion there are, or have been, runes. On the 

 right-hand margin there are, above, runes which have never been 

 deciphered, their uprights being at right angles to the direction of 

 the margin, and the runes to be read from the left. Below, on the 

 right, and written in the same manner, are the runes which have 

 been read dcegisgcef. On the upper part there seem to be traces 

 of runes on the left margin, and transverse to it. 



(23) 



