248 General Discussion of the Crosses 



tRODISMINNAMAGEOICRICNECYNINGBvERBYFIGYNDEB 

 LODEBESTEMED 



rA 



SRODEHET^I^LM^R 



WYRICAN7 



ADiELWOLDHYSBEROl^O 



CRISTET0L0FEF0R^LFRICESSAVLEHYRABER0^0R2 



This gives us : 



' Rod is min nama ; geo ic ricne Cyning bser, 

 byfigynde, blode bestemed. I^as rode het 

 iE[)lm£er wyrican, and Adelwold hys ber6t)o[r], 

 Criste to lofe, for ^Ifrices saule hyra berol)or ; ' 

 which may be thus translated : 



' Rood is my name ; of old I bore the mighty King, trembhng, 

 bedewed with blood. This rood had ^Ethelmaer made, and 

 yEthelwold his brother, to the glory of Christ, for the soul 

 of /Elfric their brother.' 

 The Brussels inscription thus proceeds with at least as much 

 freedom as that of the Ruthwell Cross. The byfigynde is a trans- 

 posed adaptation of Bifode (42) ; 44 is materially changed ; and the 

 phrase from 48, while remaining unaltered, is moved up several lines 

 so that the effect of the whole is that of extreme condensation, with 

 line 44, retaining ic rJcne Cyning as its core, becoming dominant. 

 As to its bearing upon the date of the Ruthwell Cross inscription, 

 Logeman^ assigns the Brussels inscription to about the year 1100, 

 and this can hardly be far from the truth. In any case, I presume that 

 no expert, in view of the phonology, would date it earHer than 1000. 

 To the words cited as proof by Logeman might be added the Late 

 West Saxon gro'^ and wyrican ; the latter may be compared with the 

 wyricean of the Blickling Homilies ^, commonly referred to A. D. 

 971, and the wyrihta, -e of the Lindisfarne Gospels (ca. 950). The 



^ Logeman reads D, but the facsimile does not seem to bear him out. We 

 clearly have a Latinized form such as is often found in Bede's Ecclesiastical 

 History ; this is borne out by the A of Adelwold, for A'2. 



^ On the back of the reliquary is the Old English sentence : 

 DRAHMALMEWORHTE ; 

 which resolves itself into : 



' Drahmal me worhte.' 

 This, in modern English, means : ' Drahmal made me.' 



3 P. 10. 



* Bill bring, Altenglisches Elementarhuch, § 298. 



6 75. 13. 



(36) 



