Name:	Top of the Ruthwell Cross
Picture:
Description:	Ruthwell, County Dumfries. Royal Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh. H. 0.42m. Double-sided top arm of the Ruthwell Cross. South side: St John the Evangelist with an open book beside an eagle (his symbol), which rests on a branch. Around the margin: In Principio Erat Verbum. Reverse side: a dove on a twig of a vine. Runic inscription on the margin: Cadmon Me Fawed ('Cadmon made me'.)
Date:	680 A.D.
Discussion:	The Ruthwell Cross was a Preaching Cross, i.e. it told of the life of Christ by illustrating scenes from the gospels, accompanied by a text describing the scenes in Latin or Runic. According to Dinwiddie 1933: 9, the reconstructed Cross is incorrect -- St. John should face north, not south. The Runes on the side accompanying the dove may read Cadmon me Fawed, but it is so worn as to be meaningless today. See Dinwiddie 1933: 7-10.