The Dream of the Rood
Poetry Explication: The 'Rood' as Focus of Devotion
The 'Dream of the Rood' is a definitive masterpiece of Anglo-Saxon poetry allowing the reader a small glimpse into the early Anglo-Saxon's adoption of Christianity.
The ‘Dream of the Rood’ is one of the earliest Christian poems in the corpus of Anglo-Saxon literature. The poem is written in two monologues -- the Dreamer and the Cross itself. Both characters, and their different contributions to the poem, are clearly juxtaposed to show the different functions of the cross- through the Dreamer we see the Cross as a material object of veneration, and through the prosopopeia-endowed Cross we are allowed to witness the abstract sign become a liturgical focus of devotion.
The Cross as an Object of Veneration
To understand the symbol of the Cross one must first explore its origins and influence, especially considering that it was not until Emperor Constantine’s conversion to Christianity in 312 AD that the sign gained any other connotative meaning. Crucifixion was a common form of execution and Jesus Christ’s was no different.
The reason Constantine was so significant in redefining the cross was because he believed his victory over Maxentius to be, ‘directly related to his dream or vision of the heavenly sign of a cross, which he believed to be the divine pledge of his triumph'.[1] Constantine also erected a large commemorative metal cross at Jerusalem over the presumed area of the crucifixion, which was then decorated a century later with gold and jewels (and have inspired many representations of jewelled crosses, including that of the ‘Dream of the Rood’).
By the middle of the fourth century not only the Church but the imperial troops used the Cross as an object of veneration. By the time the legend of the cross was adopted by the early Anglo-Saxon church, it had become a widespread symbol of the resurrection and power of Jesus Christ, with all the added particulars such as the concept of the cross itself being soaked in blood:
‘hwilum hit wæs mid wætan bestemed beswyled mid swates gange’ (Lines 22-23)
(now it was reddened with wet drenched with the shedding of blood)
Such importance and veneration was placed upon the cross that, ‘already in the fifth century and thereafter it is not infrequently seen as having an individual life and persona of its own.’ [3]
The Anthropomorphised Cross
Christian belief that the Cross represented Christ’s redemption explains why the gemmed, golden cross in the ‘opening vision’ of the ‘Dream of the Rood’ has traditionally been interpreted as a ‘symbol’. In its anthropomorphised state the Cross is not treated as an ‘abstract’ representation but as a pure symbol within, ‘whose nature both the agony and the mystery of the Passion are internalised.’[4] The Cross in the poem clearly suffers in a graphic and vivid way:
‘Þurhdrifan hi me mid deorcan næglum; on me syndon þa dolg
gesiene,
opene inwidhlemmas’ (Lines 45-47)
(They pierced me with dark nails, the wounds are visible on me, the gaping blows of hate)
This attribution of personality to the Cross, as well as its moral and physical parallel to Christ, makes the Vision of the Cross a living sign rather than a fixed and abstract symbol. The ‘Dream of the Rood’ thus fulfils all its obligations as a religious poem- it is capable of enabling the reader to reconstruct Christ’s suffering in sensory terms, and ultimately understand Christ’s pain on a ‘human scale’.
[1] Michael Swanton, ‘The Dream of the Rood’. Exeter: Manchester University Press. 1987. p. 42.
[2] Ibid. p. 50.
[3] Graham Holderness, ‘The Sign of the Cross: Culture and Belief in the Dream of the Rood.’ Literature & Theology, Vol 11 No 4, December 1997. p. 361.
