of British legends and the highly developed Arthurian
romances of succeeding centuries.
FURTHER READING
Weiss, Judith, ed. Wace’s Roman de Brut: A History of the
British. Text and Translation. Exeter: University of Exeter
Press, 2002.
J. D. Ballam
ROUNDEL (RONDEAU) A short type of lyric
composition, initially developed in France, that grew
in popularity from the 13th to the 16th centuries with
the BALLADE and the VIRELAI. The seven- or eight-line
form is built upon a REFRAIN sung at the outset and
close of the song. The fi rst line of the refrain is then
taken up in the fourth verse.
The form evolved considerably over time, growing
to encompass 12 and 15 line versions. In English lan-
guage poetry, the form is composed typically of 13
lines of eight syllables, also over three STANZAs, rhym-
ing either a or b, plus two shorter refrains, rhyming c.
In GEOFFREY CHAUCER’s PARLIAMENT OF FOWLES, for
example, the birds sing an interlaced roundel with
their mates at Nature’s departure.
FURTHER READING
Butterfi eld, Ardis. Poetry and Music in Medieval France: From
Jean Renart to Guillaume de Machaut. Cambridge: Cam-
bridge University Press, 2002.
Daniel O’Sullivan
“RUIN, THE” ANONYMOUS (before 1072) “The
Ruin” appears in the EXETER BOOK, a late 10th-century
manuscript, which is severely damaged in several
places. Because of this, the existing text of “The Ruin”
is diffi cult to read, with several missing lines.
The narrator of this ELEGY describes what he or she
sees, an inexplicable and confusing ruined town or
settlement whose builders were from a different time
and culture. The speaker notes the unbarred gate and
the unprotected town—a stronghold made vulnerable
because its inhabitants, warriors “joyful-hearted and
bright with gold” (l. 33), are all dead, probably due to
some pestilence, and there remains no one who can
repair or rebuild the “mutilated” towers and walls.
The text reveals Anglo-Saxon attitudes toward loss,
helplessness, and loneliness. Echoing other elegies,
particularly “THE WANDERER,” the narrator of “The Ruin”
notes the emptiness of a former mead hall, once fi lled
with sound and celebration, but now quiet because of
WYRD, or fate (ll. 22–24). Mourning a community he or
she cannot interpret, the speaker considers social and
natural disasters while pondering the former inhabit-
ants. Based on his or her own culture, the speaker
assumes it must have been nature that destroyed this
society. The potential for natural disaster (disease, bad
weather, destruction of crops) and the threat of annihi-
lation was frequently embodied in Anglo-Saxon litera-
ture as an attack by a physical force, such as the
monster Grendel in BEOWULF.
Some readers assume the ruin being described in
the poem is the Roman city of Aquae Sulis (now known
as Bath), which was protected by an outer wall and
contained bathhouses (burnsele), large temples, and
great halls. Such a place might have been confusing to
an Anglo-Saxon. If the city is Bath, then the poem may
date as early as the mid-seventh century, when King
Osric of the Hwicce occupied the area. The ruins
would have been at least two centuries old and similar
to those described in the poem.
Other scholars view the poem as an ALLEGORY of the
destructive nature of fate. In either case, the ruins
depicted in the poem and the narrator’s comments
evoke the fear of human and cultural annihilation
through natural or other means.
FURTHER READING
Magennis, Hugh. Images of Community in Old English Poetry.
Cambridge Studies in Anglo-Saxon England. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1996.
Treharne, Elaine, ed. and trans. “The Ruin.” In Old and
Middle English: An Anthology, 84–87. Malden, Mass.:
Blackwell, 2000.
Susannah Mary ChewningRUNES See FUTHARK ALPHABET.
RUTHWELL CROSS (ca. seventh century)
A large stone cross standing 17 feet, 4 inches tall,
now housed in the town of Ruthwell (near Dumfries),
Scotland, this artifact is highly signifi cant to EnglishRUTHWELL CROSS 349