214 THE EUTHWELL CROSS 



But there are always some people with no reputation 

 to lose, who never learn the wisdom of leaving things 

 alone. Of these, was one Mr. John Kemble, a young 

 student of Anglo-Saxon, to whom it occurred in 1838 

 profanely to wonder why, seeing that the character of 

 the cross was Saxon, the language of the inscription 

 should be Norse. He set to work independently, and, 

 assuming that the words were in Anglo-Saxon and 

 none other, made out the legend to be a metrical 

 soliloquy, supposed to be spoken by the Cross itself. 



Over-curious Kemble ! Forthwith there began a 

 storm which raged for years between all the universities 

 of Western Europe, and might be raging still, but for 

 a little incident which occurred about five-and-thirty 

 years ago. Somebody foraging among some Anglo- 

 Saxon homilies preserved at Vercelli, near Milan, lighted 

 upon a hymn entitled ' The Dream of the Holy Rood,' 

 since then known as Coedrnon's hymn. In this the 

 Cross the original Cross of Calvary is supposed to 

 address the sleeper. There are fifty-nine lines in all of 

 this hymn, of which these following seventeen were 

 found to correspond word for word with Kemble's 

 rendering of the Ruth well inscription : 



' Then the young hero prepared himself, 

 Who was Almighty God ; 

 Strong and firm of mood 

 He mounted the lofty cross 

 Courageously in the sight of many. 



I raised the puissant King, 

 The Lord of the Heavens ; 

 I dared not fall down. 



