This Easter Monday brings a beacon in song. The Dream of the Rood harks back to the roots of the Resurrection, and it shines with the undying Light of the world.
One of the oldest works of English literature, it is the tale of the cross that bore Christ.
It is told by the rood itself, which was once a tree, in a vision written down by an unknown author.
Captured in the Vercelli manuscript, it is over a thousand years old.
“Rood” means “rod”, a length of wood. In the poem, we hear the rood speak of its journey to Calvary: from life to death, and to life again.
Hwæt!, it begins - “Listen,”
I will speak of the best of dreams.
And it does.
It happened long ago - I remember it still
I was hewn down at the holt’s end
stirred from my stock. Strong foes seized me there,
worked in me an awful spectacle, ordered me to heave up their criminals.
Those warriors bore me on their shoulders
until they set me down upon a mountain.
Enemies enough fastened me there.
I saw then the Lord of Mankind
hasten with much courage, willing to mount up upon me.
The rood tells us of the moment of crucifixion - and a related verse is captured in runes - on a stone cross which survives to this day.
Krist waes on rodi
Christ was on the rood
The rood speaks of the courage of Christ.
The young warrior stripped himself then - that was God Almighty -
strong and firm of purpose—he climbed up onto the high gallows,
magnificent in the sight of many. Then he wished to redeem mankind.
It is the Ruthwell Cross which gives the earliest example of the text. Likely erected between 700 and 750AD, it stands now in the church at Ruthwell, Dumfries, in Scotland.
The west face shows the runes of the dream, said to be carved in the ninth century.
Though written in a futhark1, they are transcriptions of Old English and not Old Norse.
The evidence for the relation of this cross to the poem was supplied by Dickins and Ross in their 1956 book, The Dream of the Rood2.
The cross was smashed by Presbyterian iconoclasts in 1642, following an order of the Church of Scotland in 1640, which mentioned Ruthwell by name. The parts were scattered in the churchyard.
Yet the dream of the rood survived.
The complete text we have today comes to us from the Vercelli Book, so called as it resides in the library of the Cathedral of that name in Piedmont, Italy.
The poem is a glorious vision of the power of Christ, through the tree that bore him to His death,
On me the child of God suffered awhile
- then preached His resurrection, and the message of salvation for mankind
Now I bid you, my dear man,
to speak of this vision to all men
unwrap it wordfully, that it is the Tree of Glory,
that the Almighty God suffered upon
for the sake of the manifold sins of mankind,
and the ancient deeds of Adam.
Death he tasted there, yet the Lord arose
amid his mighty power, as a help to men.
This is the lesson of the Lord, sprung from the wood to which He was nailed.
I saw that bright beacon change
Drenched with blood
Now adorned with treasure
It appears as vision of a shining tree in the heavens, a threefold dream. The dream of the dreamer, the dream of the rood, and the dream of the redemption of mankind made flesh.
Yet the triune dream is also a warning.
Hither will he come again
into this middle-earth, seeking mankind
on the Day of Doom, the Lord himself,
Almighty God, and his angels with him
The dream is not over, for the rood yet speaks, and the living God will return.
Who dares to answer His call? Who dares not?
He will ask before the multitude where that man may be,
who wished to taste in the Lord’s name
the bitterness of death, as he did before on the Cross.
Yet they will fear him then, and few will think
what they should begin to say unto Christ.
Seek the rood, says the dreamer and the dream, for it is the sign of the Lord.
There will be no need to be afraid there at that moment
for those who already bear in their breast the best of signs,
yet every soul ought to seek through the Rood
the holy realm from the ways of earth—
those who intend to dwell with their Sovereign.”
You can read The Dream of the Rood here in Old English, provided with several modern translations.
I first read RT Donaldson’s translation in the Norton Anthology, which you can find here, on page 70 of the pdf.
Roy Liuzza’s translation is here.
Futhark is a word made from the first six letters of the runic alphabet of the Norsemen. The Elder Futhark is the oldest, with few examples, and is dated from the 2nd century AD. The Younger is the more common, and dates from the ninth century. The runes on the Ruthwell cross are realted to both but are neither, and are said to be an “English” futhark, or runic alphabet.
The Dream of the Rood, Bruce Dickins (Editor), Alan Strode Campbell Ross (Editor), Methuen & Co., Ltd., London, 1956
Wonderful! Thank you! And wishing you a happy and holy Easter.
Lovely to read this, and at Easter too.