The Rood

The Dream of the Rood—an Anglo-Saxon poem dating at least as early as the tenth century—is an old, unique literary work that has survived throughout the ages. Found preserved in the Vercelli Book, the poem is not only distinct in its depiction of Christ but also in the representation of two distinct cultures: paganism and Christianity. These two religious groups are typically seen as clashing, largely due to the historical replacement of pagan religions by Christianity throughout Europe around the time the poem was written. Many would therefore expect an early Christian work such as The Dream of the Rood to convince followers of the older pagan religions to abandon their faith by demonizing the polytheistic gods of paganism while inviting

Many pagan religions emphasized nature as one or more conscious, spiritual beings, usually symbolized by the particular religion’s gods and/or goddesses. In The Dream of the Rood, the rood speaks and tells the story of how it became the cross upon which Christ was crucified on, beginning as a tree (an organism affiliated with nature) but becoming adorned with gold and gems as a sort of idol after it became a symbol of Christ’s legendary crucifixion. The rood even goes on to use the pronoun “we” later in the poem to suggest that it and Christ have become one: an ultimately Christian mixture of both the pagan god and Jesus Christ. The Dream of the Rood was therefore written in a way that allowed converting pagans to connect with the main story of Christianity more easily and deeply, potentially instilling in the new Christians a desire to preserve the poem as a memento of their new faith and resulting in the preservation of the poem for

First, if one looks at the Old English version of the poem he or she will find that The Dream of the Rood is an alliterative poem with the strict rhythmic scheme characteristic of the Anglo-Saxons. Second, the story of Christ’s crucifixion is told in a truly Anglo-Saxon way. Christ is portrayed as a courageous, self-sacrificing warrior who fights against sin and sinful men to the point of death to win salvation for all of mankind, just like an Anglo-Saxon king or warrior would fight to save his kingdom from the enemy. Poems would frequently be written about the stories of such epic heroes. Therefore, in taking note of these characteristics we can label The Dream of the Rood an Anglo-Saxon poem with Anglo-Saxon influences as evidence to back our