30 pages • 1 hour read
AnonymousThe Dream of the Rood
Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1996A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
The Rood
In “Dream of the Rood,” the rood symbolizes Christ, his sacrifice, and the salvation he offers humanity. The rood is also a mediator between Christ and human beings: The rood clarifies this when it says that God “worthied [it] above foresty trees” (Line 92), just as he chose Mary above all women. Like Mary, the rood too is an object of devotion, a mediator for Christ, just like Christ himself is humankind’s mediator before God.
The rood attains this exalted status because it experiences Christ’s pain: The rood describes how it was slick with the blood of the savior, and how the nails that pierced the flesh of Christ wounded the rood as well. Since the poem presents Christ’s suffering as inseparable from his triumph, the rood is a symbol of victory in sacrifice. The rood is both a “beacon” (Line 7a), studded with gems and “gotten in gold” (Line 6b), and a bleeding figure filled with “traumas / wretched and old” (Line 19). It is symbolic of eternity because it unites the past—Christ’s Passion—and the present and future—his triumph. It is a symbol of transformation because it goes from being a tree in the forest, to an instrument of torture, to an object of veneration. It is a symbol of salvation because it shows the speaker how he, too, can become transformed through faith.
At the same time, the rood in the poem is also close to its Old Norse and Germanic roots: The word “rood” itself is derived from the Old Saxon “roda” and the Old Norse “rōtha,” which roughly mean “pole.” The rood is thus also symbolic of the Coexistence of Pre-Christian and Christian Values, with the Tree of Life or the speaking tree a symbol common to mythologies across the world. Not only does the speaker use the terms “rood” and “tree” interchangeably, he also visualizes the rood as a tree. Much as the Norse Yggdrasill acts as a causeway between the celestial and earthly realms, the poem’s rood-tree functions as a path between heaven and the “middle yard” of Earth.
The Dream
In the second line of the poem, the speaker refers to the dream of the rood as, “what dreamed me in middest night” (Line 2). While many translations would phrase the line as “what I dreamed” or “the dream I had,” this particular version is the closest to the corresponding expression in the original Old English: “hwæt me gemætte to midre nihte.” This framing invokes the genre of the “dream-vision” (See: Background), with the dream standing outside the realm of the speaker’s usual experience and taking on a mystical, prophetic quality. It is less a dream in the contemporary sense of the word, and more a vision or a waking hallucination.
The dream symbolizes the process of spiritual transformation. In experiencing the dream, the speaker experiences Divine Grace. The speaker is different from other people, as he is not one of the “chatterers,” the noisy human beings who talk incessantly during the day and go to bed early at night. Instead, the speaker is awake in “the middest night,” the dark, quiet hour of contemplation. He is in a more receptive, alert state of mind than the “chatterers,” which is why he receives the dream. The dream itself reveals the tale of Christ’s Passion and resurrection, leading to the speaker’s own spiritual transformation and his preaching to the reader/audience: Since the speaker had this prophetic dream, he can now spread its message of salvation to others.
Heroism
One of the most distinct features of “Dream of the Rood” is that it presents the story of Christ’s crucifixion through a blend of pre-Christian, Anglo-Saxon, and early Christian imagery to create a motif of heroism. While some early examples of Old English literature, such as Beowulf, directly reflect the influence of Old German and Old Norse warrior sagas, in “Dream of the Rood” this influence is transmuted into Christian terms to present the story of Christ in the mode of a heroic pre-Christian warrior.
The rood appears to the speaker plated with gold and studded with gems. Gold and precious stones were important elements in Anglo-Saxon culture, usually worn by the highborn. Warriors, kings, and nobles were often buried with gold and other precious artifacts. Significantly, the poem describes the “warren” (tomb) (Line 66) of Christ as carved from “carbuncle, chalcedony” (Line 66)—gems often used in Anglo-Saxon burials. The followers of Christ set up a “sorrowing song” (Line 67b) in the evening at his resting place, much in the manner of dirges sung in Anglo-Saxon culture. Christ’s devotees are referred to as “thanes” (Line 76) or nobility, while the rood itself is portrayed as Christ’s “comitatus,” his commander, who stands by his side.
The portrayal of Christ in the poem is strikingly modeled after a young hero of Germanic legend. In the first instance he appears to the rood, he is called “the first free-born” (Line 33b), racing up to mount the rood. This is in variance with the biblical account of Christ’s crucifixion, which is a somber event during which Christ has to carry the large wooden cross across his shoulders and is left exhausted by the ordeal. “Dream of the Rood” omits these details and presents Christ as eager to mount the cross “merrily” (Line 34), like a young warrior impatient to ride into battle. According to the heroic code of Anglo-Saxon sagas, the warrior is portrayed as unafraid in the face of adversity and death.
Christ’s ascension is depicted as a victory, with the rood a victory tree and the world tree. When Christ ascends to heaven with his company, he keeps a banquet table for saints and good souls, like a victorious lord returned from a battle. The speaker declares he will go out seeking the cross, in a process analogous to a quest. The rood uses the metaphor of the cross blazoned across the breast, like an insignia of war, to describe believers. This motif of heroism thus presents Christ’s crucifixion as a victorious battle for humanity.
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