May Williamson: The Non-Celtic Place-Names of the Scottish Border ...

xvi
The whereabouts of Æðelfrið’s army is unknown. Most historians take it for granted that the
Anglians had crossed to the West Coast and conquered Dumfriesshire, but there is no proof of
this. It is equally likely that they marched up the East Coast and proceeded along the southern
shores of the Forth. The battle is as likely to have been fought near Stirling as at the head of
Liddesdale.
Strategically, of course, a decisive victory in the latter area would drive an effective wedge
between the Britons of Cumbria, and those of Strathclyde which would make possible future
English penetration into the lowlands of Cumberland and Dumfriesshire. Since evidences of
fairly effective Anglian settlement are to be found both in place-names of an early type and in
the Anglian monuments of the 7 th and 8 th centuries in these areas, it is obvious that the Celtic
population must have given way either of their own free will or to the persuasion of war about
this period.
A point near the Dawston Burn in Castleton parish is usually accepted as the site of the battle.
As a meeting place it is very convenient. The Angles could have come up Tynedale and the
Scots up Liddesdale from /xliii/ the shores of the Solway where the Irish had perhaps landed.
A stream called Day Sike, running to join the Border at Bell’s Burn, may also have taken its
name from Dægsa stn. This was according to Bede “a famous place”, and some kind of
obelisk may have marked the limit of British territory, for it is here that the Catrail ends, an
ancient earthwork which may have marked the boundary between Anglian and Celtic lands
before this decisive battle drove the Britons farther westward. The name is variously spelt:
æt Egesan stane, 603 ASC A; æt Dægstane, 10 th century gloss on this text; æt Dægsan stane,
603 ASC E; Degsastan, c730 Bede HE; Flo Wig; Degsa stone, ib.
The first element seems to be an OE personal name Dæg(i)sa, an -isa derivative of Dæg-,
seen in Dæghræfn, Beowulf, etc. This recalls the unexplained runes on the Ruthwell Cross:
ᚫᚷᛁᛋᚷᚫᚠdægisgæf, which seem to contain the same name, which is of a very early type: cf
Dickins and Ross, 4 n 4 . The association with the Cross strengthens the belief that the battle
was fought in Dumfriesshire.
/xliv/ THE RUTHWELL CROSS
If the date of this monument could be established on purely aesthetic and philological
considerations, the period and extent of Anglian supremacy in Dumfriesshire could be more
definitely determined. Unfortunately two of the chief authorities on the subject base their final
conclusions upon external knowledge of Northumbrian history.
In form and manner the Ruthwell Cross is closely associated with the Bewcastle Cross, and
belongs to approximately the same period. Mr T D Kendrick dates the latter about the year
700, on the grounds that exact counterparts to certain features are found in the illumination of
the Lindisfarne Gospels, and that these forms do not appear in later English work. The
parallels are seen in the almost classical scroll, in the intricately-planned interlace work, and
in the “bold lateral curves in the ‘hollow line’ manner” in one of the panels (Kendrick, 132).
Ruthwell must be some years earlier, to judge by the less stylised treatment of the figures, and
the rather barbaric technique of certain passages such as Mary Magdalen’s arm, and the beasts
under Christ’s feet, which recall the manner of the Franks Casket (ib, 130). On these /xlv/
grounds the cross can justifiably be dated about 680 AD.