This is a work in progress, with only some cursory notes. Additionally I’ll move or remove much of the intro text, it was written before I had a concrete idea for this website.
The Dream of the Rood
The Dream of the Rood is an Old English dream-vision: a sleeper sees a wondrous tree, wound in light and gold, that is also a cross of blood and glory. The cross itself speaks. It tells how it was felled, raised, and forced to become the instrument of a Lord’s death, and how that death became victory.
The fullest text survives in the tenth-century Vercelli Book. Lines closely related to the poem are also carved in runes on the eighth-century Ruthwell Cross in Dumfriesshire. Poem and monument together make one of the richest survivals of early English Christian imagination.
A distant modern echo is Angela Elwell Hunt’s children’s book The Tale of Three Trees (1989): three trees dream of glory and are reshaped, against their first hopes, into the manger, the fishing boat, and the cross. It is not a retelling of The Dream of the Rood, but something of a spiritual successor — the same instinct that a tree’s life might be gathered into the story of Christ, told so that a child can hear it.
The poem
Listen! The best of dreams I will tell,
what I dreamed in the middle of the night
after speech-bearers remained in rest.
It seemed to me that I saw a most wondrous tree
5 led into the air, wound about with light,
brightest of beams. All that beacon was
covered with gold; gems stood
fair at the corners of the earth; five also there were
up on the cross-beam. All the angels of the Lord looked on there,
10 fair through creation. That was no criminal's gallows indeed,
but holy spirits beheld it there,
men over the earth, and all this glorious creation.
Wondrous was that victory-tree, and I stained with sins,
wounded with defilements. I saw the tree of glory
15 honoured with garments, shining with joys,
decked with gold; gems had
worthily covered the Ruler's tree.
Yet through that gold I could perceive
the ancient strife of wretches, that it first began
20 to bleed on the right side. I was all troubled with sorrows;
I was afraid before that fair sight. I saw that eager beacon
change garments and colours; at times it was wet with moisture,
drenched with the flow of blood, at times adorned with treasure.
Yet lying there a long while
25 I beheld, sorrowful, the Saviour's tree,
until I heard that it uttered sound.
Then the best of woods began to speak words:
It was long ago (I still remember it)
that I was hewn down at the holt's end,
30 moved from my stem. Strong enemies took me there,
made me a spectacle for themselves, commanded me to raise their criminals.
Men bore me there on their shoulders until they set me on a hill;
enemies enough fixed me there. Then I saw the Lord of mankind
hasten with great courage that he would climb upon me.
35 There I dared not then, against the Lord's word,
bow or break, when I saw tremble
the corners of the earth. I might have
felled all the foes, yet I stood fast.
The young hero stripped himself then — that was God Almighty,
40 strong and resolute. He mounted the high gallows,
bold in many's sight, when he would redeem mankind.
I trembled when the warrior embraced me. Yet I dared not bow to earth,
fall to the corners of the ground, but I had to stand fast.
A cross was I raised. I lifted a powerful King,
45 the Lord of heavens; I dared not bend.
They drove me through with dark nails. On me those wounds are seen,
open wounds of malice. I dared not harm any of them.
They mocked us both together. I was all drenched with blood
poured from that man's side after he had sent forth his spirit.
50 Much have I endured on that hill
of cruel fates. I saw the God of hosts
harshly stretched out. Darkness had
covered with clouds the Ruler's corpse,
the bright radiance; a shadow went forth,
55 dark under the clouds. All creation wept,
lamented the King's fall. Christ was on the cross.
Yet eager ones came there from far away
to that prince; I beheld it all.
I was sorely troubled with sorrows; yet I bowed to the men's hands,
60 humble, with great courage. They took there Almighty God,
lifted him from that heavy torment. The warriors left me then
to stand, drenched with moisture. I was all wounded with arrows.
They laid down the limb-weary one, stood at his body's head;
they beheld there heaven's Lord, and he rested there a while,
65 weary after the great struggle. Then they began to make a tomb for him
in the sight of his slayer. They carved it of bright stone;
they set therein the Lord of victories. Then they began to sing a song of sorrow
wretched in the evening-time. Then they wished to go again,
weary from the glorious prince; he rested there with little company.
70 Yet we remained there weeping a good while
stood in place after the voice went up
of the warriors. The corpse grew cold,
the fair life-dwelling. Then someone began to fell us
all to the earth. That was a dreadful fate!
75 Someone buried us in a deep pit; yet the Lord's thanes,
friends, found me there,
adorned me with gold and silver.
Now you may hear, my beloved man,
that I have endured the work of evil-doers,
80 of sore sorrows. Now the time is come
that I am honoured far and wide
by men over the earth and all this glorious creation,
and they pray to this beacon. On me the Son of God
suffered a while; therefore I now, glorious,
85 tower under the heavens, and I may heal
each one of those who has fear of me.
Long ago I was made the hardest of torments,
most hateful to the people, before I opened for them
the right way of life for speech-bearers.
90 Listen, the Lord of glory then honoured me
above the forest trees, the Guardian of the kingdom of heaven,
just as he also honoured his mother, Mary herself,
Almighty God, before all men
honoured her above all womankind.
95 Now I command you, my beloved man,
that you tell this vision to men,
reveal in words that it is the tree of glory
on which Almighty God suffered
for mankind's many sins
100 and Adam's ancient deeds.
Death he tasted there; yet the Lord rose again
with his great power to help men.
He then ascended into the heavens, and will come again here
to this middle-earth to seek mankind
105 on Doomsday, the Lord himself,
Almighty God and his angels with him,
that he will then judge, who has power of judgment,
each one as he has earlier here
in this transitory life earned for himself.
110 Nor may any there be unafraid
because of the word that the Ruler will speak.
He will ask before the multitude where the man is
who for the Lord's name would taste
of bitter death, as he earlier did on the tree.
115 But they will then be afraid, and little think
what they may begin to say to Christ.
Then none need be terrified
who already bears in his breast the best of beacons,
but through the cross shall each soul seek the kingdom
120 from the earth-way
who intends to dwell with the Ruler.
I prayed then to that tree with blithe mind,
with great courage, where I was alone
with little company. My mind was
125 urged on the way forth; I endured many
of all the times of longing. Now it is my life's hope
that I may seek that victory-tree
alone more often than all men,
honour it well. My desire for that
130 is great in mind, and my protection is
directed to the cross. I have not many powerful
friends on earth, but they have gone forth from here
from the joys of the world, sought the King of glory for themselves;
they live now in the heavens with the High Father,
135 dwell in glory, and I look each day
for when the Lord's cross,
which I earlier saw here on earth
in this transitory life, will fetch me
and then bring me where there is great bliss,
140 joy in the heavens, where the Lord's people are
seated at the feast, where there is continual bliss,
and then set me where I afterwards may
dwell in glory, well with the holy ones
enjoy delight. May the Lord be a friend to me,
145 he who here on earth earlier suffered
on the gallows-tree for mankind's sins.
He redeemed us and gave us life,
a heavenly home. Hope was renewed
with blessings and with bliss for those who endured the fire there.
150 The Son was victorious on that expedition,
mighty and successful when he came with a multitude,
a host of spirits, into God's kingdom,
the Almighty Ruler, to the bliss of angels
and all the holy ones who in the heavens earlier
155 dwelt in glory when their Ruler came,
Almighty God, where his homeland was.
Sources
- Modern English: line-by-line reading text prepared for this page; sense follows Michael Swanton, The Dream of the Rood (Exeter Medieval English Texts), as a guide rather than a diplomatic reprint. For citation use Swanton or another printed edition.
- Old English: Vercelli Book poem; editions include G. P. Krapp, The Vercelli Book (ASPR 2), and Swanton (above). Compare the original there or in a facing-page teaching text.
- Monument: Ruthwell Cross, Dumfriesshire; runic verses related to the poem.
- Image: David Dixon, The Ruthwell Cross, Geograph Britain and Ireland / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0.