“The Dream of the Rood” As A Devotional Poem

The Anglo-Saxon poem “The Dream of the Rood” is one of the prominent poetry in English literature till date. It is totally preserved in three different forms – inscribed by hand in stone, on the skin, and in silver.

The Dream of the Rood” is the most famous of all English religious and devotional poems. It was composed to celebrate the find of a piece of the True Cross. However, it is called a “devotional poem” for a few reasons. 

The word Rood originated from the “rōd”, meaning ‘pole.’ It refers to the crucifixion of Jesus Christ in a more perceptive manner.

“The Dream of the Rood” is a unique work in Anglo-Saxon literature. It is the only poem that deals with the significance of the incarnation, life, death, and resurrection of Christ appropriately.

However, the poet here assimilates the heroic tradition of Germanic poetry with the Christian sentiment. The poem begins with the tale of the speaker. He tells how the Rood appeared to him in a dream and spoke to him. The vision is presented to the reader in the form of a riddle.

Past scholars are divided among themselves as to who wrote “The Dream of the Rood.” Some think that it is a lost poem by Caedmon; others consider it as a poem by Cynewulf.

Narrator, The Dreamer’s Monologue in “The Dream of the Rood”

The narrator in the poem narrates a dream of the tree in a monologue – that of the tree itself. All one point of the poem, the cross, addresses the dreamer of the narrator and tells him the story of Christ’s crucifixion. The end of the poem reverts to the narrator’s monologue. It ends in a homiletic passage, exhorting the Christians to the tree or the Cross, and appears to the narrator in a double form.

One moment it appears to be covered with gold and jewels, shining most resplendently in the sky as a beacon of light. The next moment it is a wooden Cross besmeared with Jesus’s sweat and blood. The tree is bleeding because it bore the body of Christ on it.

The bleeding tree was not without significance for the early Anglo-Saxon Church. The poet makes the Cross of the dream a double symbol. It is at once both the shameful instrument of pain and death and the means of life eternal. It seems the rough wood of gallows strained with blood, at other times it seems a shining symbol of the ultimate victory of man over death.

In the narrator’s dramatic monologue, the poet describes how he was ashamed to see the tree which caused Christ’s death. Through the gold and jewels mashing it, he could perceive:

“What terrible sufferings were once sustained thereon it bled from the right side.”

Narrator of “The Dream of the Rood”

A Turn in Monologue from The Dreamer to The Cross

At one point in the poem, the Cross starts its own monologue. It describes how it was cut down, dragged off by strong enemies, and made into a roadside scaffold to hang the criminals. The soldiers bore it to the hilltop and set it up. Then it saw that Christ, the mankind’s brave king came to climb upon the cross.

The Cross here is given a true heroic personality. It stood steadfastly though it suffered inside further pains of Christ. At the same time, it showed the Christian virtue of obedience to God’s will and endurance to the obligation. The poet turns the Cross into a dramatic character with self-will and a conscience—

“I dared not break or bend a ride against God’s will, through the ground itself shook at my feet.”

The Cross, The Dream of the Rood

Dilemma of The Cross and Christ’s Courage

There is a tragic dilemma in the Cross. It is a sympathetic, yet unwilling instrument of death. He is not only refused permission to avenge the death of his lord but is himself forced to play a major part in it. The conflict between heroic ideal and Christian obedience is utilized to show the personal conflict in the cross’s mind.

Christ is also presented not as a victim but as a man of heroic courage and self-sacrifice. Christ is not led into the cross by a jeering mob; he is stripped by no mocking soldiers. Instead, we see Christ as a young, confident champion.

Christ climbs up the cross to embrace it. It is an act of free will and it resembles Beowulf’s heroic self-sacrifice. The Anglo-Saxon poet, thus, mixed the old pagan heroic ideal of honor with the Christian theme of Christ’s death.

Cutting of The Cross And Its Commandment to The Dreamer

The Cross continues its story to the dreamer. Men eager to serve their lord come to take down the exhausted Christ from the cross. They cut the cross sideways for the tomb. They cut the piece and hid it inside a deep pit. Later, it is rediscovered and decorated with gold and silver.

Now, the vision of the Cross explains to the dreamer its evangelic capacity. It has healing power. Although it was the instrument of squalid death, it has now become the means of eternal life. The cross now gives the dreamer the evangelic mission of preaching Christ’s words to the ignorant people—

“I now command you, my dear man to tell men about this sight, reveal in words that this is the tree of glory on which Almighty God suffered for the many sins of mankind.”

The Cross, The Dream of the Rood.

The Dreamer’s Last Monologue And His Urge to The Reader

The poem then reverts to the words of the original dreamer. If the poem ended simply with the words of the Cross, it would have been structurally weak.

The poem ends with the homiletic words of the narrator who exhorts the reader to religious life. He resolves to seek out the holy roods he has seen in the dream and worship them fully.

The dreamer is no longer passive and silent but declares his veneration for the cross powerfully. He is now old and friendless. His soul is yearning to follow those who have already sought their heavenly home.    

Final Words

“The Dream of the Rood” remains a gem of poetry work till now in English literature. It has surpassed the appeal of Anglo-Saxon literature to establish itself in English literature for more than a thousand years now.

This poem abridges Anglo-Saxon and English poetry by means of ancient heroism and Christian religiosity. Hence, its appeal remains pure and intact till today.

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