Brussels Cross

From the early part of the twelfth century comes an important Anglo-Saxon cross-reliquary, now preserved at the Cathedral of SS. Michel and Gudule, Brussels, and therefore known as the Brussels Cross. Badly damaged and with its once jeweled front missing, it takes the form of a large piece of cross-shaped wood covered with a silver plate bearing medallions containing the evangelist symbols on the arms and an Agnus Dei at the center. An inscription around the edges reads: + Rod is min nama; geo ic ricne Cyning bær byfigynde, blod bestemed (‘Rood is my name. Trembling once, I bore a powerful king, made wet with blood’). These lines bear a close relationship to ll. 44 and 48 in the Old English poem, 'The Dream of the Rood'. This is followed by a common form of dedication: þas rod het Æþmær wyrican and Aðelwold hys beroþo[r] Criste to lofe for Ælfrices saule hyra beroþor (‘Æthlmær and Athelwold, his brother, ordered this rood to be made so as to praise Christ for the soul of Ælfric, their brother’). Do transoms bear inscriptions generally? The Anglo-Saxon inscription is contained on a silver strip which runs around the edges of the cross. It is written not in runes, but in Roman letters, in a curious mixture of Latin-style majuscules and miniscules. The letters 'NE' of ricne, 'NG' of cyning and 'ME' of bestemed are written as ligatures. Although it has not proved possible to identify with any certainty the persons named in the inscription, the text is in late West-Saxon which would ascribe it to the late tenth century or perhaps later.

The Brussels Cross and its two-line inscription in Anglo-Saxon verse were first brought to public attention in modern times by H. Logeman in 1891. Traditionally reputed to contain the largest extant fragments of the True Cross, it has been preserved at the Cathedral of SS. Michel and Gudule since the middle of the seventeenth century. The cross is 46.5 by 28 cm. (18.3 by 11 inches) in size. The front was once covered by a jeweled gold plate, probably taken away by French soldiers under Dumouriez in 1793; the back is still covered with silver, with the symbols of the four evangelists at the ends of the four arms and the symbol of the Agnus Dei in the centre. Across the silver plating of the transverse arms the artist has inscribed his name: + Drahmal me worhte (‘Drahmal created me’). The name of this craftsman, Drahmal, is probably a Norseman and from the northern England, but nothing more can be deduced about him. Judging from the language of the inscription as well as from the epigraphy and the ornamentation, the cross most likely dates from the beginning of eleventh century.

The Brussels Cross was crafted in England, but the three brothers, Ælfric, Æthelmær and Æthelwold, cited in the prose part of the inscription, have never been positively identified. The language is a fairly regular late West-Saxon, with one Anglian form, bestemed, and a few irregular spellings, such as byfigynde (with 'y' for 'e' in the ending) in the verse, wyrican and beroþor (both with an intrusive vowel) in the prose. The form bestemed (for West-Saxon bestiemed, bestymed) does not necessarily indicate a northern origin for the inscription; it is usually explained as a traditional spelling taken over from older poetic vocabulary.

Some scholars have identified Ælfric, Æthelmær and Æthelwold with Africus, Agelmarus and Agelwardus of Worcester around the year 1007. Others have suggested that the Æthelmær is the well-known patron of Ælfric, who founded the abbey at Eynsham in 1005, but offer no identification of the other two names. It is possible, furthermore, that the holy relic which forms part of the present cross is the same as the lignum Domini ('Wood of the Lord') sent by Pope Marinus to King Alfred in 883 or 885. None of these possibilities is susceptible to proof. A scholar known as D’Ardenne offers the most plausible analysis. He favors the identification of the relic with Alfred’s lignum Domini ('Wood of the Lord'), and he has studied all the available evidence to present a highly plausible account of its later history. According to him, the relic remained in the hands of the West-Saxon royal family until near the end of the tenth century, when it left the possession of the direct line. Its new owners had it enclosed in a reliquary (the present cross) and presented it to Westminster Abbey. It later found its way to the Netherlands, probably during the reign the last Norman King of England, Stephen (1135-1154), when numbers of Flemish soldiers were in England.

References

S. d'Ardenne, 'The Old English Inscription on the Brussels Cross'. In English Studies XXI (1939): 145-64, 271-2.

R. Kelly & C. Quinn, Stone, Skin and Silver. Litho Press / Sheed & Ward (1999)

A. van Ypersele de Strihou, Le Trésor de la Cathédrale des Saints Michel et Gudule à Bruxelles (2000).

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