''The'' ''Dream of the Rood'' is one of the Christian poems in the corpus of

Old English literature Old English literature refers to poetry and prose written in Old English in early medieval England, from the 7th century to the decades after the Norman Conquest of 1066, a period often termed Anglo-Saxon England. The 7th-century work '' Cædmo ...

and an example of the genre of dream poetry. Like most Old English poetry, it is written in

alliterative verse In prosody, alliterative verse is a form of verse that uses alliteration as the principal ornamental device to help indicate the underlying metrical structure, as opposed to other devices such as rhyme. The most commonly studied traditions of ...

. ''

Rood A rood or rood cross, sometimes known as a triumphal cross, is a cross or crucifix, especially the large crucifix set above the entrance to the chancel of a medieval church. Alternatively, it is a large sculpture or painting of the crucifixion ...

'' is from the Old English word '' rōd'' 'pole', or more specifically '

crucifix A crucifix (from Latin ''cruci fixus'' meaning "(one) fixed to a cross") is a cross with an image of Jesus on it, as distinct from a bare cross. The representation of Jesus himself on the cross is referred to in English as the ''corpus'' (Lati ...

'. Preserved in the 10th-century

Vercelli Book The Vercelli Book is one of the oldest of the four Old English Poetic Codices (the others being the Junius manuscript in the Bodleian Library, the Exeter Book in Exeter Cathedral Library, and the Nowell Codex in the British Library). It is an ant ...

, the poem may be as old as the 8th-century

Ruthwell Cross The Ruthwell Cross is a stone Anglo-Saxon cross probably dating from the 8th century, when the village of Ruthwell, now in Scotland, was part of the Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of Northumbria. It is the most famous and elaborate Anglo-Saxon monumental ...

, and is considered one of the oldest works of Old English literature.

Synopsis

The poem is set up with the narrator having a dream. In this dream or vision he is speaking to the Cross on which Jesus was crucified. The poem itself is divided up into three separate sections: the first part (ll. 1–27), the second part (ll. 28–121) and the third part (ll. 122–156). In section one, the narrator has a vision of the Cross. Initially when the dreamer sees the Cross, he notes how it is covered with gems. He is aware of how wretched he is compared to how glorious the tree is. However, he comes to see that amidst the beautiful stones it is stained with blood. In section two, the Cross shares its account of Jesus' death. The

Crucifixion Crucifixion is a method of capital punishment in which the victim is tied or nailed to a large wooden cross or beam and left to hang until eventual death from exhaustion and asphyxiation. It was used as a punishment by the Persians, Carthagi ...

story is told from the perspective of the Cross. It begins with the enemy coming to cut the tree down and carrying it away. The tree learns that it is not to be the bearer of a criminal, but instead Christ crucified. The Lord and the Cross become one, and they stand together as victors, refusing to fall, taking on insurmountable pain for the sake of mankind. It is not just Christ, but the Cross as well that is pierced with nails. Adelhied L. J. Thieme remarks, "The cross itself is portrayed as his lord's retainer whose most outstanding characteristic is that of unwavering loyalty". The Rood and Christ are one in the portrayal of the Passion—they are both pierced with nails, mocked and tortured. Then, just as with Christ, the Cross is resurrected, and adorned with gold and silver. It is honoured above all trees just as Jesus is honoured above all men. The Cross then charges the visionary to share all that he has seen with others. In section three, the author gives his reflections about this vision. The vision ends, and the man is left with his thoughts. He gives praise to God for what he has seen and is filled with hope for eternal life and his desire to once again be near the glorious Cross.

Structure

There are various, alternative readings of the structure of the poem, given the many components of the poem and the lack of clear divisions. Scholars like Faith H. Patten divide the poem into three parts, based on who is speaking: Introductory Section (lines 1–26), Speech of the Cross (lines 28–121), and Closing Section (lines 122–156). Though the most obvious way to divide the poem, this does not take into account thematic unity or differences in tone. Constance B. Hieatt distinguishes between portions of the Cross's speech based on speaker, subject, and verbal parallels, resulting in: Prologue (lines 1–27), Vision I (lines 28–77): history of the Rood, Vision II (lines 78–94): explanation of the Rood's glory, Vision III (lines 95–121): the Rood's message to mankind, and Epilogue (lines 122–156). M. I. Del Mastro suggests the image of concentric circles, similar to a

chiasmus In rhetoric, chiasmus ( ) or, less commonly, chiasm (Latin term from Greek , "crossing", from the Greek , , "to shape like the letter Χ"), is a "reversal of grammatical structures in successive phrases or clauses – but no repetition of wor ...

, repetitive and reflective of the increased importance in the center: the narrator-dreamer's circle (lines 1–27), the rood's circle (lines 28–38), Christ's circle (lines 39-73a), the rood's circle (lines 73b-121), and the narrator-dreamer's circle (lines 122–156).

Manuscript

''The Dream of the Rood'' survives in the

, so called because the manuscript is now in the Italian city of

Vercelli Vercelli (; pms, Vërsèj ), is a city and ''comune'' of 46,552 inhabitants (January 1, 2017) in the Province of Vercelli, Piedmont, northern Italy. One of the oldest urban sites in northern Italy, it was founded, according to most historians, ...

. The Vercelli Book, which can be dated to the 10th century, includes twenty-three

homilies A homily (from Greek ὁμιλία, ''homilía'') is a commentary that follows a reading of scripture, giving the "public explanation of a sacred doctrine" or text. The works of Origen and John Chrysostom (known as Paschal Homily) are considered ex ...

interspersed with six religious poems: ''The Dream of the Rood'', ''

Andreas Andreas ( el, Ἀνδρέας) is a name usually given to males in Austria, Greece, Cyprus, Denmark, Armenia, Estonia, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Finland, Flanders, Germany, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, Romania, the Netherlands, and Indonesia. The name ...

'', '' The Fates of the Apostles'', '' Soul and Body'', ''

Elene ''Elene'' is a poem in Old English, that is sometimes known as ''Saint Helena Finds the True Cross''. It was translated from a Latin text and is the longest of Cynewulf's four signed poems. It is the last of six poems appearing in the Vercelli man ...

'' and a poetic, homiletic fragment.

Sources and analogues

A part of ''The Dream of the Rood'' can be found on the eighth-century

, which is an , free-standing Anglo-Saxon cross that was perhaps intended as a 'conversion tool'. At each side of the vine-tracery are carved

rune Runes are the letters in a set of related alphabets known as runic alphabets native to the Germanic peoples. Runes were used to write various Germanic languages (with some exceptions) before they adopted the Latin alphabet, and for specialised ...

s. There is an excerpt on the cross that was written in runes along with scenes from the Gospels, lives of saints, images of Jesus healing the blind, the Annunciation, and the story of Egypt, as well as Latin antiphons and decorative scroll-work. Although it was torn down after the

Scottish Reformation The Scottish Reformation was the process by which Scotland broke with the Papacy and developed a predominantly Calvinist national Kirk (church), which was strongly Presbyterian in its outlook. It was part of the wider European Protestant Refor ...

, it was possible to mostly reconstruct it in the 19th century. Recent scholarly thinking about the cross tends to see the runes as a later addition to an existing monument with images. A similar representation of the Cross is also present in Riddle 9 by the eighth-century Anglo-Saxon writer

Tatwine Tatwine ( – 30 July 734) was the tenth Archbishop of Canterbury from 731 to 734. Prior to becoming archbishop, he was a monk and abbot of a Benedictine monastery. Besides his ecclesiastical career, Tatwine was a writer, and riddles he compo ...

. Tatwine's riddle reads:

Now I appear iridescent; my form is shining now. Once, because of the law, I was a spectral terror to all slaves; but now the whole earth joyfully worships and adorns me. Whoever enjoys my fruit will immediately be well, for I was given the power to bring health to the unhealthy. Thus a wise man chooses to keep me on his forehead.

Possible authorship

The author of ''The Dream of the Rood'' is unknown. Moreover, it is possible that the poem as it stands is the work of multiple authors. The approximate eighth-century date of the Ruthwell Cross indicates the earliest likely date and Northern circulation of some version of ''The Dream of the Rood''. Nineteenth-century scholars tried to attribute the poem to the few named Old English poets. Daniel H. Haigh argued that the inscription of the Ruthwell Cross must be fragments of a lost poem by

Cædmon Cædmon (; ''fl. c.'' 657 – 684) is the earliest English poet whose name is known. A Northumbrian cowherd who cared for the animals at the double monastery of Streonæshalch (now known as Whitby Abbey) during the abbacy of St. Hilda, he wa ...

, portrayed in Bede's ''

Ecclesiastical History of the English People The ''Ecclesiastical History of the English People'' ( la, Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum), written by Bede in about AD 731, is a history of the Christian Churches in England, and of England generally; its main focus is on the conflict b ...

'' as the first Christian English poet, stating "On this monument, erected about A.D. 665, we have fragments of a religious poem of very high character, and that there was but one man living in England at that time worthy to be named as a religious poet, and that was Caedmon". Likewise, George Stephens contended that the language and structure of ''The Dream of the Rood'' indicated a seventh-century date.Stephens, G. (1866)
The Ruthwell cross
Northumbria, from about A.D. 680, with its runic verses by Caedmon, and Caedmon's complete cross-lay, "The Holy Rood, a dream" from a south-English transcript of the 10th century. London: J. Smith. Supposing that the only Christian poet before Bede was Cædmon, Stephens argued that Cædmon must have composed ''The Dream of the Rood''. Furthermore, he claimed that the Ruthwell Cross includes a runic inscription that can be interpreted as saying "Caedmon made me". These ideas are no longer accepted by scholars. Likewise, some scholars have tried to attribute ''The Dream of the Rood'' to

Cynewulf Cynewulf (, ; also spelled Cynwulf or Kynewulf) is one of twelve Old English poets known by name, and one of four whose work is known to survive today. He presumably flourished in the 9th century, with possible dates extending into the late 8th ...

, a named Old English poet who lived around the ninth century. Two of Cynewulf's signed poems are found in the Vercelli Book, the manuscript that contains ''The Dream of the Rood'', among them ''

'', which is about Saint Helena's supposed discovery of the cross on which Jesus was crucified. Thus Franz Dietrich argued that the similarities between Cynewulf's ''Elene'' and ''The Dream of the Rood'' reveal that the two must have been authored by the same individual. Again, however, this attribution is not widely accepted. In a series of papers, Leonard Neidorf has adduced metrical, lexical, and syntactical evidence in support of a theory of composite authorship for ''The Dream of the Rood''. He maintains that the poem contains contributions from at least two different poets, who had distinct compositional styles.

Interpretations

Paganism and christianity

Like many poems of the Anglo-Saxon period, ''The Dream of the Rood'' exhibits many Christian and pre-Christian images, but in the end is a Christian piece.Mitchell, Bruce. ''A Guide to Old English''. Sixth Edition. Massachusetts. Blackwell Publishers, 2001, p. 256 Examining the poem as a pre-Christian (or pagan) text is difficult, as the scribes who wrote it down were Christian monks who lived in a time when Christianity was firmly established (at least among the literate and aristocratic population) in early medieval England. The style and form of Old English literary practices can be identified in the poem's use of a complex, echoing structure, allusions, repetition, verbal parallels, ambiguity and wordplay (as in the

Riddles A riddle is a statement, question or phrase having a double or veiled meaning, put forth as a puzzle to be solved. Riddles are of two types: ''enigmas'', which are problems generally expressed in metaphorical or allegorical language that requ ...

), and the language of heroic poetry and

elegy An elegy is a poem of serious reflection, and in English literature usually a lament for the dead. However, according to ''The Oxford Handbook of the Elegy'', "for all of its pervasiveness ... the 'elegy' remains remarkably ill defined: sometime ...

. Some scholars have argued that there is a prevalence of pagan elements within the poem, claiming that the idea of a talking tree is

animistic Animism (from Latin: ' meaning ' breath, spirit, life') is the belief that objects, places, and creatures all possess a distinct spiritual essence. Potentially, animism perceives all things—animals, plants, rocks, rivers, weather systems, ...

. The belief in the spiritual nature of natural objects, it has been argued, recognises the tree as an object of worship. In '' Heathen Gods in Old English Literature'', Richard North stresses the importance of the sacrifice of the tree in accordance with pagan virtues. He states that "the image of Christ's death was constructed in this poem with reference to an Anglian ideology on the world tree".North, Richard.
Heathen Gods in Old English Literature
'.

Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press is the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by King Henry VIII in 1534, it is the oldest university press in the world. It is also the King's Printer. Cambridge University Pre ...

, 1997, p. 273 North suggests that the author of ''The Dream of the Rood'' "uses the language of this myth of Ingui in order to present the Passion to his newly Christianized countrymen as a story from their native tradition". Furthermore, the tree's triumph over death is celebrated by adorning the cross with gold and jewels. Work of the period is notable for its synthetic employment of 'Pagan' and 'Christian' imagery as can be seen on the

Franks Casket The Franks Casket (or the Auzon Casket) is a small Anglo-Saxon whale's bone (not "whalebone" in the sense of baleen) chest from the early 8th century, now in the British Museum. The casket is densely decorated with knife-cut narrative scenes ...

or the Kirkby Stephen cross shaft which appears to conflate the image of Christ crucified with that of

Woden Odin (; from non, Óðinn, ) is a widely revered god in Germanic paganism. Norse mythology, the source of most surviving information about him, associates him with wisdom, healing, death, royalty, the gallows, knowledge, war, battle, victory ...

/ Odin bound upon the Tree of Life. Others have read the poem's blend of Christian themes with the heroic conventions as an Anglo-Saxon embrace and re-imagining, rather than conquest, of Christianity. The poem may be viewed as both Christian and pre-Christian. Bruce Mitchell notes that ''The Dream of the Rood'' is "the central literary document for understanding heresolution of competing cultures which was the presiding concern of the Christian Anglo-Saxons". Within the single culture of the Anglo-Saxons is the conflicting Germanic heroic tradition and the Christian doctrine of forgiveness and self-sacrifice, the influences of which are readily seen in the poetry of the period. Thus, for instance, in ''The Dream of the Rood'', Christ is presented as a "heroic warrior, eagerly leaping on the Cross to do battle with death; the Cross is a loyal retainer who is painfully and paradoxically forced to participate in his Lord's execution". Christ can also be seen as "an Anglo-Saxon warrior lord, who is served by his thanes, especially on the cross and who rewards them at the feast of glory in Heaven".Dockray-Miller, Mary. "The Feminized Cross of 'The Dream of the Rood.'" ''Philogical Quarterly'', Vol 76. 1997, p. 2. Thus, the crucifixion of Christ is a victory, because Christ could have fought His enemies, but chose to die. John Canuteson believes that the poem "show Christ's willingness, indeed His eagerness, to embrace His fate, ndit also reveals the physical details of what happens to a man, rather than a god, on the Cross".Canuteson, John. "The Crucifixion and Second Coming of Christ." ''Modern Philology'', Vol. 66, No. 4, May 1969, p. 296 This image of Christ as a 'heroic lord' or a 'heroic warrior' is seen frequently in Anglo-Saxon (and Germanic) literature and follows in line with the theme of understanding Christianity through pre-Christian Germanic tradition. In this way, "the poem resolves not only the pagan-Christian tensions within Anglo-Saxon culture but also current doctrinal discussions concerning the nature of Christ, who was both God and man, both human and divine".

Christ as warrior

J. A. Burrow notes an interesting paradox within the poem in how the Cross is set up to be the way to Salvation: the Cross states that it cannot fall and it must stay strong to fulfill the will of God. However, to fulfill this grace of God, the Cross has to be a critical component in Jesus' death. This puts a whole new light on the actions of Jesus during the Crucifixion. Neither Jesus nor the Cross is given the role of the helpless victim in the poem, but instead both stand firm. The Cross says, Jesus is depicted as the strong conqueror and is made to appear a "heroic German lord, one who dies to save his troops". Instead of accepting crucifixion, he 'embraces' the Cross and takes on all the sins of mankind. Mary Dockray-Miller argues that the sexual imagery identified by Faith Patten, discussed below, functions to 'feminize' the Cross in order for it to mirror the heightened masculinity of the warrior Christ in the poem.

Sexualised and gendered language

Faith Patten identified 'sexual imagery' in the poem between the Cross and the Christ figure, noting in particular lines 39–42, when Christ embraces the Cross after having 'unclothed himself' and leapt onto it. This interpretation was expanded upon by John Canuteson, who argued that this embrace is a 'logical extension of the implications of the marriage of Christ and the Church', and that it becomes 'a kind of marriage consummation' in the poem.

Parallels with penance

Rebecca Hinton identifies the resemblance of the poem to early medieval Irish sacramental Penance, with the parallels between the concept of sin, the object of confession, and the role of the confessor. She traces the establishment of the practice of Penance in England from Theodore of Tarsus, archbishop of Canterbury from 668 to 690, deriving from the Irish confession philosophy. Within the poem, Hinton reads the dream as a confession of sorts, ending with the narrator invigorated, his "spirit longing to start."

Editions, translations, and recordings

Editions

* ''The Dream of the Rood'', in th
''Old English Poetry in Facsimile Project''
(edition, digital facsimile images, translation), ed. by Martin Foys ''et al''. (Madison: Center for the History of Print and Digital Culture, 2019-). * ''The Dream of the Rood'', ed. by Michael Swanton, rev. edn (Exeter: University of Exeter, 1987). * ''The Dream of the Rood '', ed. by Bruce Dickins and Alan S. C. Ross, 4th edn (London: Methuen, 1954). * 'Dream of the Rood', in ''The Vercelli Book'', ed. by George Philip Krapp
The Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records: A Collective Edition
2 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1936), pp. 61–65.

Translations

* 'The Vision of the Cross', trans. by Ciaran Carson, in ''The Word Exchange: Anglo-Saxon Poems in Translation'', ed. by Greg Delanty and Michael Matto (New York and London: Norton, 2011), pp. 366–77. *
The Dream of the Rood
, trans. by R. M. Liuzza, in ''The Broadview Anthology of British Literature, Volume 1: The Medieval Period'', ed. by Joseph Black and others (Peterborough, Ontario: Broadview Press, 2006), pp. 23–25. *

, in ''Old and Middle English c. 890-c. 1400: An Anthology'', ed. and trans. by Elaine Treharne, 2nd edn (Oxford: Blackwell, 2004), pp. 108–15 *

, in ''A Choice of Anglo-Saxon Verse'', ed. and trans. by Richard Hamer (London: Faber, 1970, *

', trans. by Jonathan A. Glenn (1982)

Recordings

* Michael D. C. Drout,
The Dream of the Rood, lines 1-156
, ''Anglo-Saxon Aloud'' (4 June 2007).

Notes

External links

*
BBC Tyne – 'Dream of the Rood' vocal piece wins top prize
' {{DEFAULTSORT:Dream Of The Rood Old English poems 8th-century poems Christian poetry English folklore Northumbrian folklore Visionary poems Poems based on the Crucifixion of Jesus