Ruthwell Cross

The Ruthwell Cross (Scottish Gaelic: /rɪvl/) is a stone Anglo-Saxon cross probably dating from the 8th century, when the village of Ruthwell, now in Scotland, was part of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Northumbria. It is both the most famous and elaborate Anglo-Saxon monumental sculpture, and possibly the oldest surviving "text" of English poetry, predating any manuscripts containing Old English poem. It has been described by Nikolaus Pevsner thus; "The crosses of Bewcastle and Ruthwell ... are the greatest achievement of their date in the whole of Europe."

The cross was smashed by Presbyterian iconoclasts in 1642, and the pieces left in the churchyard until they were restored and re-erected in the manse garden in 1823 by Henry Duncan. In 1887 it was moved into its current location inside Ruthwell church, Dumfriesshire, Scotland, when the apse which holds it was specially built.

Anglo-Saxon crosses are closely related to the contemporary Irish high crosses, and both are part of the Insular art tradition. The Ruthwell cross features the largest figurative reliefs found on any surviving Anglo-Saxon cross—which are virtually the largest surviving Anglo-Saxon reliefs of any sort—and has inscriptions in both Latin and, unusually for a Christian monument, the runic alphabet, the latter containing lines similar to lines 39-64 of Dream of the Rood, an Old English poem, which were possibly added at a later date. It is 18 feet (5.5 metres) high.

...
Wikipedia