250 General Discussion of the Crosses 



^ft. 

 Of the whole long inscription on the west face of the Bewcastle 

 Cross, the word ajt, or cejt, can be read at least as certainly as anything 

 else. It is not elsewhere to be found in English in the sense it 

 bears here, ' to the memory of,' though cejter {-csr, -ar, -e) occurs, 

 according to the customary readings, on the Dewsbury, Colling- 

 ham, Yarm, and Thornhill stones in Yorkshire, and the Falstone 

 stone in Northumberland, very near Bewcastle. ^ The lapidary 

 inscriptions excepted, neither Old Enghsh, nor Enghsh of any 

 later period, knows either aft or cefter in this sense. ^ On the 

 other hand, these words, in a great variety of forms, are common 

 in the commemorative runic stones of the Continent, and in those 

 reared by Scandinavians in the Northern and Western Islands,^ 

 and especially the Isle of Man.* It is natural, then, to assume Scan- 

 dinavian influence from the West as accounting for the use of ceft 

 in this sense on the Bewcastle Cross. Now as the Isle of Man ap- 

 proaches to within about 33 miles of the Cumberland coast, and 

 its northern point is distant only about 70 miles from Bewcastle 

 (55 or so from Ruthwell), it is from there that the influence is likely 



1 Sweet, Oldest English Texts, pp. 127, 128, 129 ; Victor, Die North. Runen- 

 steine, pp. 17, 19, 22 ; Plates 4. 10 ; 5. 13, 14 ; 7. 17-19 ; Allen, Mon. Hist. 

 Brit. Church, pp. 211-2, 218; Browne, Conv. of Hept., p. 205; Browne, 

 Theodore and Wilfrith, p. 162. The inscription on the Yarm stone must, 

 at least in its present form, be late, if the y of ysetae is correctly read (see 

 the last reference) ; Canon Greenwell, however [Catalogue, pp. 112-5), follow- 

 ing Skeat, reads gi, but says the character is indistinct. 



2 Neither the Bosworth-Toller nor the New English Dictionary recognizes 

 this meaning. 



^ Anderson, Early Christ. Mon. in Scotland, p. xxviii; Allen, ibid. 3. 19, 

 37 ; Anderson, Scotland in Early Christiaii Times 2. 227 ff. ; cf. Noreen, 

 Altisldnd. und Altnorw. Gram., pp. 15-16. 



* These stones are as follows : Andreas I (Kermode, Catalogue of the Manks 

 Crosses, 2d ed., p. 35), Andreas III (p. 36), Andreas V (p. 37), Ballaugh 

 (p. 37), Braddan I (p. 38), Braddan III (p. 40), Braddan IV (p. 41), Bride 

 (p. 42), Conchan (p. 43), German II (p. 45), Michael I (p. 47), Michael III 

 (p. 49), Michael IV (p. 51), Michael V (p. 52). Two typical inscriptions are 

 these : Andreas III : ' Sontulf hin Suarti raisti krus f)ona aftir Arinbiaurk 

 kuinu sina ' {Sandulf the Black erected this cross to the memory of Arinbjorg his 

 ivife) ; Michael V : ' f lualfir sunr J>uruLfs bins Raujja risti krus J)ono aft 

 Fri{)ii mujjur sino -|- ' (Joalf, son of Thorolf the Red, raised this cross to the 

 memory of Fritha, his mother). Cf. Kermode, Manx Crosses, pp. 195, 201. 



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