The Evangelist and his symbol, the eagle, face each other. Their pose, as well as the large size of the eagle in comparison to the evangelist, is intended to convey the divine inspiration passed to the human evangelist through his symbol. John appears to be seated. He reaches out towards his symbol with his left hand, which possibly supports a scroll or book. Traces of an inscription survive. The letters INP run upwards within the left border of the panel, while the letters BVM run downwards in the lower corner of the right border. They can most likely be reconstructed as the beginning and end of the Latin phrase ‘In principio erat verbum’ (In the beginning was the word), the opening line of John’s gospel.

This panel originally faced the other way, capping the west face of the Cross. It was placed back to front when the cross was reconstructed by the Rev Henry Duncan in 1823.

The transom has never been found. The current stone is the work of the mason commissioned by Duncan to reconstruct the cross in 1823. The carvings are masonic symbols and were supplied by Duncan, a keen freemason: a triangle at the centre, flanked by a whale or dolphin to the left and a dragon to the right.

The lower arm of the cross-head contains an archer drawing back his bow, possibly firing an arrow at the eagle originally positioned at the top of this face of the cross (see west face). A square pouch hangs from a strap below his right arm. It may be meant to represent a quiver, though it has also been suggested that it is a book satchel and that the archer should be understood as firing arrows of scripture. The archer’s cloak flies out behind him emphasizing his dynamic pose and the force of his movement. The panel may relate to the words of the poem inscribed on the left border of the south face, where the cross describes itself as ‘wounded with arrows’.

There is some debate over the subject of this panel. Some scholars believe that it depicts the Visitation (Luke 1:30–56), the moment at which Elizabeth (pregnant with John the Baptist) and Mary (pregnant with the Christ child) embrace, and the Baptist leaps for joy in recognition of Christ’s divinity. Other scholars believe it represents the biblical sisters Martha and Mary (Luke 10:38–42), symbols of the active and contemplative sides of monastic life. Still others believe that it is a deliberate conflation of the two subjects. The concrete blocks and lower fragments of the panel were added by Duncan during his restoration of the cross. The difference in scale between the hemlines and feet in the lower section and the proportions and drapery of the torsos in the upper section may indicate that the block with the feet does not belong here and is, perhaps, part of a now lost monument. Unlike the other figures on this side of the cross, the women wear sturdy shoes or slippers.

The inscription is unique on the monument for its combination of Latin and runic letters. It reads […] marþ[a] (left border); mar[ia] m[…]r + (top border); dominnæ c[…] (right border). The words have been translated as either ‘Martha and Mary worthy women’, or, more problematically, ‘Martha and Mary, mother of the Lord’.

This panel depicts Mary Magdalene washing Christ’s feet with her tears and drying them with her hair (Luke 7:37–8). The Magdalene’s massive hand and extended arm may have been meant to emphasize her gesture, and hence her penitence, or they may simply be the work of a second-rate carver. Christ stands above the Magdalene holding up a book in his covered left hand. His right hand was originally raised in blessing. His pose echoes that seen in the Christ over the beasts panel on the opposite face of the cross. The facial features of both figures have been hacked or worn away.

The Latin inscription surrounding the panel reads: + A[TT]V[LIT] [ALA]B[A]S (across the top); TRVM · V[NGUE]NTI · & S[T]AN[S] [R]E[TR]O SECVS PEDES (down the right side); · EIUS LACRIMIS · COEPIT RIGARE · PEDES EIUS & CAPILLIS (down the left side) · CAPITIS SUI TERGEBAT (across the bottom). Translation: ‘+ She took an alabaster jar of ointment, and standing behind at his feet, she began to wash his feet with her tears and dried them with the hair of her head’.

Christ, on the left, extends his hand towards the man blind from birth (John 9:1–8) on the right. A thin diagonal line incised in the background of the panel indicates that Christ’s right hand may originally have held a wand with which to anoint the blind man’s eyes. While the blind man has been carved in profile, Christ’s body and face are turned slightly outwards, allowing us a better view of the miracle. The lower part of the panel may have been left blank by the sculptor for reasons unknown, or may have contained an inscription that was destroyed at a later date. The extension of the robes of the two figures over the border of the blank section of the panel is part of Duncan’s restoration.

The Latin inscription in the border reads: + ET PRAETERIENS · VIDI[T] (down the left side) {HOMINEM CAECVM} A NATIBITATE · ET S{ANAVIT EVM} (down the right side). Translation: ‘+ And passing by he saw a {man blind} from birth and {healed him}’.

The archangel Gabriel seems to be entering at the left of the panel from a space outside the cross. The lower part of his robe flutters behind him, and both it and his right foot appear to overlap the panel’s left border. On the right, the Virgin Mary, facing out at us, holds on to her robe with her right hand as she shrinks slightly away from the angel in humility. Both figures are tall, elegant and finely carved, making this one of the most classicizing of the cross’s panels. The hole in the centre of the panel may be a relic cavity (perhaps for a relic of the True Cross), or it may have been made at some point during the toppling of the cross, or during its restoration and reconstruction.

All that remains of the inscription in the border are the letters ‘+ INGRESSVS ANG’ (across the top border), and ‘TE […] BE (down the left border). It has been reconstructed as ‘Ingressus angelus ad eam dixit ave gratia plena dominus tecum benedicta tu in mulieribus’ (Entering the angel said to her: “Hail full of grace, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women”.)

Crucifixion: The base of the cross may originally have been sunk in the ground and this carving added to it when the cross was raised and moved to a new location. It is carved in a 9th-century style, so is clearly later than the rest of the carvings on the cross. At the centre is the crucified Christ, his head drooping to the right. Discs representing the sun and the moon are carved either side of the top of his cross. The figures standing below the cross to either side of Christ may be the Virgin Mary and John the Evangelist, who witnessed the Crucifixion, or they may be Longinus and Stephaton, the spear- and sponge-bearer.

There is no carving on this side of the cross-head. The transom is lost and the present stone was added during reconstruction so it is impossible to say whether anything might originally have been carved on the ends of the cross-arms.

This section has been restored by Duncan with mortar and cement block in-fill. Two fragments of the original shaft remain. The inhabited vine-scroll of the upper fragment contains a bird and beast that nibble at its fruit. The inhabited vine-scroll is symbolic of both the tree-of-life and of the faithful partaking of the eucharist. Any inscription that might have surrounded the panel has been worn away. The lower fragment contains a small section of vine-scroll with a curling flower and leaf. A fragmentary inscription runs vertically down the border in contrast to the horizontal rows of runic characters inscribed on the main shaft. It reads ‘dægisgæf[.], and has never been convincingly translated. It has been wrongly reconstructed as part of lines 52b–55b from The Dream of the Rood, and thought to be a fragment of a personal name from a longer memorial inscription.

The upper curve of the vine-scroll encloses a flower. Beneath it two birds and three beasts inhabit five of its curling tendrils. The lowest section of the vine-scroll has been badly damaged. The tails of two of the hybrid beasts intertwine with the stems of the scroll and end in leaf-like shapes that suggest a union of beast and scroll that may be meant to further their symbolic evocation of the union of the faithful with Christ in the eucharist, and of the words of Christ ‘I am the vine; you the branches: he that abideth in me, and I in him, the same beareth much fruit’ (John 15:5). If anything was carved on the base of this side of the stone it has been worn away.

The damaged areas of the East (and West) faces are due to weathering in addition to when the Cross was torn down during the Reformation, scattered and neglected in the churchyard. Missing pieces of the Cross were filled in with rough mortar and pieces of cement. Since the runic inscription was contained in the outside margins on the East and West faces of the Cross, some of the runes are now missing, being worn away by weathering.

The runic inscription is in the Old English language. It reads: (across the top) [+ ond]gere; (down the right side) dæ hinæ god almeittig · þa hewalde on galgu gistigamodig f[ore] [allæ] men [b]ug … [ahof] ic riicnæ kyniŋc · heafunæs hlafard hælda ic ni dorstæ [b]ismærædu uŋket men ba æt[g]ad[re i]c [wæs] miþ blodi bist[e]mi[d] bi[got][en of þæs gumu sida]… Translation: ‘Almighty God stripped himself when he wished to mount the gallows, brave in the sight of all men. I dared not bow. I [raised aloft] a powerful king. The Lord of heaven I dared not tilt. Men insulted the pair of us together. I was drenched with blood [begotten from that man’s side].

A bird of prey, commonly interpreted as an eagle sits on a flowering branch, which it grips with its large talons. It may be holding something in its curled up right foot, or it may be lifting its foot in preparation for flight. The runic inscription in the border is illegible, but has been read erroneously as both ‘Caedmon made me’ and ‘Colman made me’. Gerard Baldwin Brown read it as FAUŒTHO.

This stone was placed the wrong way round by Henry Duncan, and was originally paired with the archer (who may be taking aim at the eagle) on the east face. The eagle is a common symbol of Christ, and the eagle and tree together may symbolize Christ and the Cross. As it bends to give up the body of Christ, the cross describes itself as ‘wounded with arrows’ in the poem inscribed on the left border of the south side.

The transom has never been found. The current stone is the work of the mason commissioned by Duncan to reconstruct the cross in 1823. The carvings are masonic symbols and were supplied by Duncan, a keen freemason: a sunburst at the centre, flanked by a rooster to the left and a calf to the right. It is clear that the evangelists Mark and Luke would have appeared with their symbols in the arms of the transom, but what would have been depicted in the centre is a matter of debate.

The Evangelist, on the right, holds a book and turns to speak with, or receive inspiration from, his symbol the winged man. The fragmentary remains of a wing are visible between the symbol’s shoulder and the border of the panel. No inscription survives on this badly damaged panel, but as the panel with John and his symbol that originally capped this side was inscribed with the opening lines of his gospel, it is likely that the opening phrase of Matthew’s gospel (‘Liber generationis Iesu Christi’; ‘The book of the generation of Jesus Christ’) would have been inscribed in the border around this panel.

The nimbed and bearded Baptist faces frontally and holds the Lamb of God across his chest with his draped left hand, and points to it with his right. His feet rest on two globes. The outermost legs of the Lamb have been broken away, but originally stood free of the cross. The dimensions of the panel are problematic. The figure of John looks squat and the lines of the drapery and the panel’s borders don’t quite line up. Only fragments of the Latin inscription survive. In the lower section of the left border are the words ‘[…] [A]DORAMVS (we adore), and across the lower border ‘VT NON CVM […]’ (so that not with). Its source remains unknown, but the third person plural voice has led to the suggestion that the source text may have been part of liturgical practices at Ruthwell.

The figure of Christ faces frontally. He holds a scroll (or mappa) in his left hand and his right hand is raised in blessing, echoing his pose in the Magdalene at the feet of Christ panel on the opposite side of the cross. Christ rests his feet on the snouts of two beasts, which cross their paws in recognition of his divinity. Their crossed paws form an X, or chi, the first letter of his name.

The Latin inscription surrounding the panel reads: + IhS XPS IVDEX (across the top)  AEQVITATIS  (down the right side); BESTIAE  ET  DRACON[ES]  COGNOVERVNT  IN DE  SERTO  SALVA[TO]REM  MVNDI  (down the left side). Translation: ‘+ Jesus Christ, judge of equity. Beasts and dragons recognised in the desert the saviour of the world’. There is no one source for this metrical sententia, but it recalls both Psalm 90/91:13 (Thou shalt walk upon the asp and the basilisk: and thou shalt trample under foot the lion and the dragon), and Habbakuk 3:2 (Between two living things you will become known).

Paul and Anthony face each other with their bodies and faces turned outwards slightly towards the viewer. Between them they hold a loaf of bread that had been miraculously delivered by a raven. The bread is a symbol of the eucharistic bread, the body of Christ, which is emphasized by the cross formed at the centre of the loaf as the two saints begin to break it apart. Paul and Anthony were the two earliest hermit saints, and are symbolic of the monastic life. They also form a male counterpart to the female pair of Martha and Mary at the top of the east face of the cross.

The Latin inscription that surrounds the panel reads: + SCS PAVLVS  (across the top); ET  A[NTONIVS] […] (down the right side); FREGER[VN]T  PANEM IN DESERTO (down the left side). Translation: ‘+ Saints Paul and Anthony […] broke bread in the desert’. It describes an episode recorded in Jerome’s Life of St. Paul.

The Virgin sits side-saddle on a donkey holding the Christ child on her lap. The outermost of the donkey’s legs are carved free from the background of the cross. The sense of motion as he strides across the panel is paralleled by that of the angel Gabriel alighting in the Annunciation panel on the opposite face of the cross. The Christ child is carved on a vertical axis that aligns him with the bread held by Paul and Anthony, and the crossed paws of the beasts in the two panels above, and helps to emphasize the eucharistic symbolism of this side of the cross. Part of a tree, or perhaps part of the figure of Joseph is carved in the upper left panel.

The Latin inscription in the border reads: + MARIA  ET IO[SEPHUS] […] TV […]. Translation: ‘+ Mary and Joseph …’

The lowest panel may or may not have been carved at the same time as the Crucifixion in the corresponding panel on the east face. It has been suggested that, if carved, the subject of this panel may have been the Nativity or the Adoration of the Magi, but no trace of carving survives today.

There is no carving on this side of the cross-head. The transom is lost and the present stone was added during reconstruction so it is impossible to say whether anything might have been carved on the ends of the cross-arms.

Two branches of inhabited vine-scroll (symbolic of the faithful partaking of the eucharist) spiral to enclose a squirrel-like creature at top and a bird at bottom. The inhabited vine-scroll is symbolic of both the tree-of-life and of the faithful partaking of the eucharist. The two blocks beneath this stone were added during reconstruction. There appears to have been an inscription in the border of this section of the shaft, but it is no longer legible.

The damaged areas of the East (and West) faces are due to weathering in addition to when the Cross was torn down during the Reformation, scattered and neglected in the churchyard. Missing pieces of the Cross were filled in with rough mortar and pieces of cement. Since the runic inscription was contained in the outside margins on the East and West faces of the Cross, some of the runes are now missing, being worn away by weathering.

Beneath a plump cluster of berries six birds and hybrid creatures bite at the scroll’s fruit, branches and flowers. Three of the creatures have tails that intertwine with the stems of the scroll and end in leaf-like shapes that suggest a union of beast and scroll that may be meant to further their symbolic evocation of the union of the faithful with Christ in the eucharist, and of the words of Christ ‘I am the vine; you the branches: he that abideth in me, and I in him, the same beareth much fruit’ (John 15:5). Although damaged and worn, the depth of detail of the original carving can still be seen in the eyes, ears and gripping paws of the second beast from the top. The scroll was extended beneath the lower border of the panel, most likely at the same time that the Crucifixion was added to the base of the east face. The hole in this face of the cross is unlikely to have been a relic cavity due to its location, and was almost certainly made during either the toppling or restoration and reconstruction of the monument.

The runic inscription is in the Old English language. It reads: (across the top) [+k]ris[t] wæs on; (down the right side) rodi · hweþræ þer fusæ fearran kwomu æþþilæ til anum ic þæt al bi[h][eald] s[aræ] ic w[æ]s · mi[þ] so[r]gu[m] gi[d]rœ[fi]d h[n]a[g]…; (down the left side) miþ s[t]re[l]um giwundad alegdun hiæ [h]inæ limwœrignæ· gistoddu[n h]im [æt] [his] [li][c]æs [hea]f[du]m [bih]ea[ld]u[n h]i[æ þ]e[r]… Translation: + Christ was on the cross. But eager ones came hither from afar. Noble ones came together. I beheld all that. I was terribly afflicted with sorrows. I bowed [to the hands of men], wounded with arrows. They laid him down, limb-weary; they stood at the shoulders of the corpse. They looked upon the Lord [of heaven].