The Dream of the Rood is one of the Christian poems in the corpus of Old English literature and an example of the genre of dream poetry. Like most Old English poetry, it is written in alliterative verse. The word Rood is derived from the Old English word rōd 'pole', or more specifically 'crucifix'. Preserved in the tenth-century Vercelli Book, the poem may be as old as the eighth-century Ruthwell Cross and is considered one of the oldest extant works of Old English literature.
Synopsis The framing device is the narrator having a dream. In this dream or vision he is hears a speech by the Cross on which Jesus was crucified. The poem itself is divided up into three separate sections: the first part (lines 1–27), the second part (lines 28–121) and the third part (lines 122–156).Acevedo Butcher, Carmen, The Dream of the Rood and Its Unique, Penitential Language . Rome (GA), 2003. p. 2 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.Bradley, S. A. J. Anglo-Saxon Poetry. Ed. S. A. J. Bradley. London, Everyman, 1982, p. 160 In section two, the Cross shares its account of Jesus' death. The Crucifixion 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. Adelheid 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.Lapidge, Michael. The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Anglo-Saxon England. England, 1991.
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 including 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, 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 Vercelli Book, so called because the manuscript is now in the Italian city of Vercelli. The Vercelli Book, which is dated to the tenth century, includes twenty-three homilies interspersed with six religious poems: The Dream of the Rood, Andreas, The Fates of the Apostles, Soul and Body I, Elene and a poetic, homiletic fragment.
Sources and analogues
Parts of the crucifixion narrative in The Dream of the Rood can be found on the eighth-century Ruthwell Cross, which is an , free-standing Anglo-Saxon cross that was perhaps intended as a 'conversion tool'. It is the only Anglo-Saxon stone cross with a vernacular poem. The front and back panels of the cross are covered with carved scenes accompanied by Latin inscriptions, including the Life of Christ, John the Baptist, and Saint Paul and Anthony.
Runic inscriptions are found on the margins of the narrow side panels, which are otherwise covered with inhabited vine scroll. These runic passages give (their section of) the poem in an early Northumbrian dialect. It is unclear whether these passages already existed as part of an entire poem similar to that in the eighth-century Vercelli Book or whether only the central passion narrative was available at the time the Cross was erected, with the dream-vision frame being a later addition.
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 a riddle by the eighth-century Anglo-Saxon writer Tatwine. His Riddle 9 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.Tatwine, ‘Latin Riddle 9 (early 8th century)’, in Sources and Analogues of Old English Poetry, ed. and trans. by D. G. Calder and M. J. B. Allen (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1976), pp. 53-58.In addition, the Brussels Cross, made in the south of England in the eleventh century, is also inscribed with passages representing the speech of the Cross. The back cover includes an image of the Agnus Dei surrounded by the symbols of the four evangelists. Drahmal me worhte ('Drahmal made me') is engraved on the crossbeam at either side of the Agnus Dei. Five of the ten silver strips lining the cross's narrow sides contain a verse distich and prose sentence:Cross is my name. Once, shaking, I carried a powerful king, soaked with blood.
Æthelmær and Athelwold his brother commanded this cross to be made, in honor of Christ, for the soul of Ælfric their brother.The distich, which resembles certain lines in Dream of the Rood, is likely a new piece inspired by it.
Possible authorship The author of The Dream of the Rood is unknown. It is also 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, portrayed in Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People 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".Cook, Albert S., ed. The Dream of the Rood: An Old English Poem Attributed to Cynewulf. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1905. 27 Sep 2007, p. 6 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, a named Old English poet who lived around the ninth century.Krstovic, Jelena. ed. "The Dream of the Rood: Introduction". Classical and Medieval Literature Criticism. Vol 14. Gale Group, Inc., 1995. enotes.com. 2006. 27 September 2007. . Two of Cynewulf's signed poems are found in the Vercelli Book, the manuscript that contains The Dream of the Rood, among them Elene, which is about Saint Helena's supposed discovery of the cross on which Jesus was crucified.Drabble, Margaret. ed. "The Vercelli Book: Introduction". The Oxford Companion to English Literature. Ed. 5th Edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1985. 27 Sep 2007, p. 2 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.Dietrich made four main arguments: one, the theme of both poems is the cross, and more importantly, in both poems, the cross suffers with Christ; two, in "Elene" Cynewulf seems to make clear references to the same cross in Dream of the Rood; three, in "Elene" and his other poems Cynewulf usually speaks of himself, which makes it quite possible that the dreamer in Dream of the Rood is none other than Cynewulf; and finally four, "In both poems the author represents himself as old, having lost joys or friends and as ready to depart." Cook, Albert S., ed. The Dream of the Rood: An Old English Poem Attributed to Cynewulf. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1905. 27 September 2007, p. 12-13 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 final analysis, 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.Mitchell, Bruce. A Guide to Old English. Sixth Edition. Massachusetts. Blackwell Publishers, 2001, p. 139-140 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), and the language of heroic poetry and elegy.