Forgotten Ground Regained
Introduction to the Dream of the Rood
A treasured poem of the Old English corpus, The Dream of the Rood was likely composed by a single learned author in eighth-century Northumbria. Scholars have identified scriptural, liturgical, and other literary sources for the poem, including Aldhelm’s riddles, and have credited the author with knowledge of the cult of the cross and the christological controversies. The poem was known in its day, serving as a source for other poets, and a portion of it appears in a runic inscription on the Ruthwell (“rivel”) Cross in southwestern Scotland. It fell into obscurity until a German law professor discovered the manuscript now known as the Vercelli Book in 1822. The poem is primarily in traditional two-stress alliterative halfverses, with numerous hypermetric half-verses. It falls into three parts. In the first, the speaker-dreamer leads the reader-hearer from a vision of the jeweled Cross Triumphant to a fearful fixation on the bleeding Cross, which corresponds to the speaker dreamer’s consciousness of sin.
In the second part, the Cross narrates its shameful tale as Christ’s executioner. The Crosstells how it suffered the torment and indignity of the crucifixion, in sharp contrast to the boldheroism of Christ the King, who leapt on the Cross like a warrior charging the shield-wall. TheCross then relates its burial, exhumation, and glorification, and its new vocation as an agent ofsalvation. Lastly it commissions the speaker-dreamer to preach the Passion, Resurrection, andLast Judgment.
In the third part, the speaker-dreamer narrates how he eagerly accepted the Cross’s charge, and awaits the day the Cross will escort him to the heavenly mead-hall. The poem closes with an image of Christ returning to his kingdom that fuses the Ascension with the Harrowing of Hell.
By situating the speaker-dreamer as the hearer of the Cross’s story, the poet subtly equates the reader-hearer with the speaker-dreamer. By inflicting torture and burial on the Cross, and resurrecting it as a savior, the poet equates the Cross with Christ himself. When the Cross addresses the speaker-dreamer, twice, as hæleð min se leofa, my beloved hero, it identifies the speaker-dreamer with Christ, who is also hæleð and beorn. There are no shields, swords, or helmets in the poem; no royal boars, stags, or dragons; no scourges, cords, or plaited thorns. Instead, the poet leads the reader-hearer, by means of structural parallels, from the passive wretchedness of the Christ-killer to the energetic devotion of the disciple.
My thanks to Tim Murphy and Maryann Corbett for their advice on this translation.I also owe a debt to Mary Rambaran-Olm for her comprehensive website at dreamofrood.co.uk and to Tom Cable. Thanks as well to Greg Williamson, poetry editor of Sewanee Theological Review, for including this in the Pentecost 2014 issue.
Copyright © 2014 William G. Carpenter
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