Comparing Beowulf 'And The Dream Of The Rood'

Many epics, while centered on great heroes facing many obstacles, concern themselves with tales of human nature. In literary terminology, Stephen Greeenblatt defines the epic genre as “an extended narrative poem celebrating martial heroes, invoking divine inspiration, beginning in medias res, written in high style, and divided into long narrative sequences” (A15). Applying this formula, there is no question in defining “Beowulf” as an epic about human nature, but this definition can also apply to “The Dream of the Rood”—albeit in a different way. Both of the works fit the definition of epic since they are both extended narrative poems. Their styles are similar, having both originated in Old English verse, which encompasses a unique form of accentual poetry that is composed of alliteration, caesuras, and phrase repetition. The caesuras are visible in both epics: in the translated form of “Beowulf,” they appear in the form of commas and periods, while “The Dream of the Rood” keeps the spaces that denote the caesuras. This exemplifies that both poems fulfill Greenblatt’s epic criteria by being extended narrative poems. However, a narrative poem must have more than a caesura to be an epic; the definition demands a martial hero who is capable of invoking divine inspiration.

Rather, the poem’s martial hero is a rood—specifically, the rood that Jesus Christ was crucified on. While the rood did not swim across the sea in chainmail with Breca (“Beowulf” 52) or fight demons underwater (72), it did brave some great obstacles and played its own part in the redemption of man. The rood, from “The Dream of the Rood,” claims, “I raised up a mighty king” (34). It goes on to explain how it could not falter in its task, nor could it even bow to this mighty king. Rather, the rood had to muster strength enough to bear the son of God and raise him up for mankind to witness his