ON THE MEANING OF STRĒLUM IN THE RUNIC CRUCIFIXION POEM ON THE RUTHWELL CROSS

he 14 verses of the Crucifixion Poem, inscribed with Old English runes (fuþorc) on the eighth-century Ruthwell Cross, to some extent match with verses of the poem The Dream of the Rood in the Vercelli Book (second half of the tenth century). This paper discusses the relationship of the two texts with the example of the phrase miþ strēlum ġiwundad (‘wounded with arrows’) and reconsiders the meaning of Old English strǣl (‘arrow’). Three of the runic poem’s formulae indicate that ‘arrows’ are the weapons with which the Cross, not Christ, is wounded at the crucifixion.