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Rood
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Rood has several distinct meanings, all derived from the same basic etymology.
"Rood" is an archaic word for "pole", from Anglo-Saxon rōd "pole", specifically "crucifix", from Proto-Germanic *rodo, cognate to Old Saxon rōda, Old High German ruoda "rod"; the relation of rood to rod, from Anglo-Saxon rodd "pole" is unclear; the latter was perhaps influenced by Old Norse rudda "club").
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Specifically, rood is an Old English unit of area, equal to quarter of an acre, i.e. 10 890 square feet or 1011.7141056 m² (for the international inch) or about 10.1 are. A rectangular area with edges of one furlong and one rod respectively is one rood, as is an area consisting of 40 perches (square rods.) It is confusingly called an acre in some ancient contexts. The rood is an important measure in surveying on account of its easy conversion with the acre. Rood also refers to a British unit of linear measure between 16.5 and 24 feet. It is related to the German rute (12.36 to 12.47 feet) and Denmark's rode (12.34 feet)[1]
In the meaning "crucifix", rood usually refers to a sculpture or painting of the cross with Christ hanging on it. More precisely, "the Rood" refers to the Cross, the specific wooden cross used in Christ's crucifixion. The word remains in use in some names, such as Holyrood Palace and the Anglo-Saxon poem The Dream of the Rood. The phrase "by the rood" was used in swearing, e.g. "No, by the rood, not so" in Shakespeare’s Hamlet (Act 3, Scene 4).
In church architecture a rood screen is a wooden or stone screen, usually separating the chancel or choir from the nave. The screen may be elaborately carved and was often richly painted and gilded. It supported a large cross or crucifix (the rood), sometimes with attendant figures. Some rood screens incorporate a rood loft, a narrow gallery which could be used by singers or musicians. Rood screens are not unique to Britain: they are found in Christian churches in many parts of Europe.
The rood itself provided a focus for worship, most especially in Holy Week, when worship was highly elaborate. During Lent the rood was veiled; on Palm Sunday it was revealed before the procession of palms and the congregation knelt before it. The whole Passion story would then be read from the rood loft, at the foot of the crucifix, by three ministers.
No original rood now survives in a church in the United Kingdom [2]. Most were deliberately destroyed as acts of iconoclasm during the English Reformation and the English Civil War, when many rood screens were also removed. Today, in many British churches, the rood stair which gave access to the gallery is often the only remaining sign of the former rood screen and rood loft.
A unique rood exists at St Mary's Church, Charlton-on-Otmoor, near Oxford, England, where "the Garland", a large wooden cross, solidly covered in greenery, stands on the 16th-century rood screen, said by Nikolaus Pevsner to be the finest in Oxfordshire. The cross is redecorated twice a year, on 1 May and 19 September (the patronal festival), when children from the local primary school, carrying small crosses decorated with flowers, bring a long, flower-decorated, rope-like garland made of yew and box foliage in procession to the church for a special service. The material from this is used to redecorate the Garland.
An engraving from 1823 shows the rood garland as a more open, foliage-covered framework, similar to certain types of corn dolly, with a smaller attendant figure of similar appearance. Folklorists have commented on the garlands' resemblance to human figures and noted that they replaced statues of St Mary and St James which had stood on the rood screen until they were destroyed during the Reformation. Until the 1850s, the larger garland was carried in a May Day procession, accompanied by morris dancers, to the former Benedictine priory at Studley (as the statue of St Mary had been until the Reformation). Meanwhile the women of the village used to carry the smaller garland through Charlton, though it seems that this ceased some time between 1823 and 1840, when an illustration in J. H. Parker's Glossary of Architecture shows only one garland, centrally positioned on the rood screen.
- ^ Herbert Arthur Klein. (1988). The Science of Measurement: A Historical Survey. New York: Dover. A corrected republication of The World of Measurements: Masterpieces, Mysteries and Muddles of Metrology published by Simon & Schuster in 1974 and by George Allen & Unwin in 1975. 65–66.
- ^ Eamon Duffy, The Stripping of the Altars (Yale 1992)
- Pevsner, Nikolaus, The Buildings of England: Oxfordshire, Penguin Books (original series, 1951–1974)
- Extract from Jacqueline Simpson and Steve Roud, A Dictionary of English Folklore, Oxford University Press, 2000
- Hole, Christina, A Dictionary of British Folk Customs, Granada/Paladin 1978
- St. Mary's, Charlton-on-Otmoor (from acny.org.uk, accessed 07:10, 04 November 2007 (UTC) )
- Rood. Catholic Encyclopedia.
- Hubberholme Church, Yorkshire. Rood loft dated 1558 Possibly the oldest in England.
- Holy Rood Catholic Church
- Rood (Scots)
- Rod (unit) for the "rod, pole or perch" unit of measurement