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The Ruthwell Cross
The Ruthwell Cross is a late seventh or early eighth century sculpted "preaching" cross. It can currently be found in the town of Ruthwell, near Dumfries in southern Scotland. Standing about 17 feet tall, the cross is adorned with Latin and Anglo-Saxon runic inscriptions and carvings. The cross, almost thirteen centuries old, has as much history as one would expect for an artifact of this age.
The Ruthwell Cross was partially dismantled most likely during 1642 at the order of the Church of Scotland General Assembly. The General Assembly was looking to rid Scotland of items of Roman worship. Believed to be connected with Roman worship, the cross was dismantled and spread out on the grounds of a small church in Ruthwell. Its pieces, which were large in size, were used as paving in some parts of the church grounds. In the early 1800's the pieces were located and the cross was reconstructed at the order of Reverend Doctor Henry Duncan. Although most of the cross was found and pieced together, Duncan had to construct a new crossbeam for the cross.
The significance of the cross lies in its inscriptions and carvings. Some of the carvings on the cross are said to symbolize passages from the New Testament. Portions of the Anglo-Saxon runic inscriptions have been determined to be passages from one of the most recognized Old English religious poems, "The Dream of the Rood." There is some controversy surrounding this poem, as its author and date of creation remain unknown to this day. Some historians believe it was written by the famous poet Caedmon; however, there is no proof that it is his work.
In conclusion, the Ruthwell Cross has a detailed and important history behind. Its runic inscriptions and carvings give us insight into what the culture was like in those times. The Ruthwell Cross is an important piece of history and is recognized as such in the Ancient Monuments Protection Act of 1882, under which it is protected.
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The Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood is the building is the largest monument of Russian mosaic art. It stands on the shores of the Neva River on the site where on March 1, 1881 Tsar-Liberator Alexander II was mortally wounded by Nikolai Rysakov, a young member of the Narodnaya Volya ("People's Will") movement. Upon Tsar’s death, Russia suffered a devastating blow to the rapid advancing economical and social foundations and sent Russia back to the days of blood and Dark Age. Russian people not only lost their beloved Tsar but lost their chances of having constitutional monarchy enforced and followed by all of Russia. For the first time in a long time Russia was relatively living in peaceful world and had reforms that were for the common people. Thirty years before the assassination, Alexander II drafted and successfully executed his reform plans in every aspect of Russian Empire: self governing power was given to serfs, the cities became more independent, education system and access to education had been eased and improved and major overhaul of outdate military forces had been successfully executed. Russia was finally on her right path. After the assassination, Alexander III was crowned as Tsar Alexander III. One of the first projects Alexander III began his work on was Church of the Savior. New Tsar set the condition that the Cathedral of the Resurrection (the official name of the temple) was to be built on the model of the Old Russian style churches on the exact spot where his father was assassinated. Money for such grand project was collected across Russia for almost two years. It costs staggering 4.5 million rubles and took 24 years to construct. The best of the best were commissioned to erect Church of the Savior. The con...
In several Old English manuscripts runes are found in isolated cases, for instance in Beowulf and in the Durham Ritual. In the riddles of the Exeter Book the occasional introduction of runes sometimes helps to solve the mystery of the enigma, and sometimes increases the obscurity of the passage. Occasionally a poet or scribe will record his name by means of a runic acrostic introduced into the text. Thus, the poems Crist, Juliana, Elene and the Vercelli fragment bear the runic signature of their author, Cynewulf.
The church originally stood in the fields and was given the name St. Martin-in-the-Fields as a way of distinguishing it from the number of churches in the City of London with the same dedication. The church was dedicated to Saint Martin who was England’s patron saint. He was born in Hungary in t...
When reminiscing on past memories of favorite books, cartoons, songs and stuffed animals, many people will think about Winnie the Pooh. The man behind all of your fun filled childhood adventured with Christopher Robin and his bear friend Pooh is Alan Alexander Milne, more commonly known as A. A. Milne. Besides his creation of Winnie the Pooh short story and poetry books he was a very accomplished man through out his whole life. He showed great affection to family members, friends, and to his wife and child. He was also dedicated to his work and set his mind to whatever task he was facing.
In Duncannon Pa at the top of Cemetery Road is the Duncannon Presbyterian Cemetery. The road narrows and bends in between large sections of green lawn filled with gravestones. Follow the most outside road around the cemetery towards the older side where the stones begin to fade, slow down for the sharp bend and at the far corner you'll find where the first log church that was built in Duncannon stood. The one that is standing there now is not that church, but a replica, built to look exactly like the original.
“A poem is nothing but a picture painted black and white.” This anonymous quote perfectly explains ekphrastic poetry. Like a caption following a picture, a poem about a painting contains additional information relating to the contents of the painting. The information portrayed in the poem may not be the painters intended objective in painting what and how they painted. It is simply an opinionative description of what the poet sees. Paulo Uccello’ Saint George and the Dragon inspired poet U. A. Fanthrope to respond to the painting by writing the poem “Not my Best Side.” This poem isn’t just an objective, verbal description of Saint George and the Dragon; Fanthrope is taking it as an opportunity to challenge old, stereotypical positions on mythical times, by showing the stereotypes expressing their opinions. We are reading Fanthrope’s poem about how she reads the painting.
The Dream of the Rood is a poem that illustrates the crucifixion, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ from the perspective of the cross. The illustration comes together in a dream. The rood or the cross communicates with the Dreamer, to give him hope in the future return of Christ and eternal glory. Additionally, the rood encourages the Dreamer to share his dream with others and point them to the cross. This poem is meaningful to me because it prompted me to reflect on the cross and what it represents. It is a symbol of God’s love and what He did on the cross, so we could be saved from our sins.
Many epics, while centered on great heroes facing many obstacles, concern themselves with tales of human nature. In literary terminology, Stephen Greeenblatt defines the epic genre as “an extended narrative poem celebrating martial heroes, invoking divine inspiration, beginning in medias res, written in high style, and divided into long narrative sequences” (A15). Applying this formula, there is no question in defining “Beowulf” as an epic about human nature, but this definition can also apply to “The Dream of the Rood”—albeit in a different way.
Gladiators were combatants equipped for arena battles. These battles were against other soldiers, conquered enemies, slaves, and criminals. Even wild beasts were added to be part of the bloody spectacle. Gladiators were a source of entertainment for Roman crowds, politicians and nobility at the Coliseum. It was the Roman equivalent to a Packer game at Lambeau field. A few gladiators were volunteers, but most were detested as slaves. Regardless of where they came from, gladiators allowed spectators to see an example of Rome 's military principles and, how to die an honorable death. The origin of gladiator combat is unclear, evidence supports that it became an important attribute of politics
Many of the characters and episodes and material artifacts mentioned poetically in Beowulf are likewise presented to us from archaeological sources and from various written sources, especially Scandinavian records, thus adding credibility to the historicity of the poem. But it is obvious that Beowulf, Grendel and the Dragon clearly belong to the classification of “myth.”
Winnie the Pooh: Winnie has an eating disorder and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder aka A.D.H.D where it is very hard to focus. He also had difficulty controlling both his impulsiveness and his obsessive compulsions.
When the Romans went to the gladiator fights, they wanted to watch a very exciting and entertaining contest. So, the Romans purposefully set up the gladiator fights to be unfair by making the matchups unbalanced. The gladiator’s living conditions affected the fight. Yet, with all the morals and myths that the Roman government promoted as what was expected of the roman citizens, the brutal battles that were in the coliseum wouldn’t be tolerated, but they were. The unpredictable outcome of these matches were what made these so entertaining.
The Greek word for "cross" is stauros, and the Latin word is crux. The word primarily means "an upright stake or beam, and secondarily a stake used as an instrument for punishment and execution."4
‘Noughts and Crosses” by Malorie Blackman is a novel which follows the lives and experiences of two characters, Callum and Sephy. Throughout the book Blackman deals with a number of issues including relationships, alcohol abuse, power abuse, depression and violence. However, the key issues of the book are racism and prejudice. These issues of racism and prejudice are conveyed through the narrative techniques of characterization, point of view, language, structure and setting.
Cartoons on a television are glue to children. Children will spend hours a day watching their favorite cartoons, such as “SpongeBob SquarePants” or “Adventure Time.” Unfortunately, the content on these shows, and several others, can harm children. Directly, cartoons can affect how children think and act; additionally, this leads to the indirect effect of children physically hurting one another.