132 Transactions. 
737, and this early date is confirmed by the handwriting and 
by the close agreement of the lines with Bede’s Latin prose 
translation, which runs thus :— 
*‘ Nunc Laudare debemus auctorem regni coelestis, potentiam Creatoris 
et consilium illius, facta Patris gloriae. Quomodo ille, cum sit aeternus 
Dens, omnium miraculorum auctor exstitit, qui primo filiis hominun coelum 
pro culmine tecti, dehine terram custos humani generis omnipotens creavit.” 
“CADMON ME FEXUOTHO.” 
I have already mentioned that the runes on the top stone have 
been interpreted “‘Cadmon me made,” and on this point I think 
there can be no doubt. Now, we only know of one Cadmon, 
and we know him chiefly as a poet, and we are further told by 
the venerable Bede that this Cadmon composed poems on “ The 
creation of the world and the origin of the human race, and the 
whole story of Genesis, of Israel’s departure out of Egypt and 
entrance into the land of promise, of many other parts of the 
sacred history, of the Lord’s Incarnation, Passion, Resurrection, 
and Ascension into heaven, of the coming of the Holy Spirit, 
and the doctrine of the Apostles,” &c. Yet, notwithstanding all 
this, it is asserted by many scholars that the ‘“ Dream of the 
Rood” was not composed by Cadmon, but by another poet— 
Cynewulf. Thus Mr Sweet, in his “ Anglo-Saxon Reader” 
(fourth ed., 1884), tells us that the poem was written by Cyne- 
wulf, on the strength of Cynewulf’s name being introduced into 
another poem in the same manuscript (Ver. cod.), in the 
form of an acrostic in Runic letters! He also informs us that 
“The Runic inscription of the Ruthwell Cross in Dumfriesshire 
also gives a fragment of the poem in the old Northumbrian 
dialect of the seventh or eighth century.” On the other hand, 
Prof. Zupitza, in his “Alt und Mittelenglisches Uebungsbuch” 
(3d ed., Wien, 1884), gives us the Runes with the various read- 
ings, but ignores the top stone altogether, and yet he cites among 
his authorities the ‘“ Vetusta Monumenta” and Prof. Stephens’ 
“ Runic Monuments!” In conclusion, I cannot do better than 
quote the thoughtful words of Dr Anderson in his lecture on the 
Cross. He says—‘“ This, then, is the story of the decipherment 
of the Runes on the Ruthwell Cross. I know nothing in the 
whole range of monumental history that surpasses it in interest. 
It makes us regard the monument not only as a finger-post in 
the history of Christian art, but as a landmark in the history of 
English literature. In its sculptured decorations it preserves to 
a ee all 
