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On Pg 22-23, Read the 4th Full Paragraph. What Did the Soldiers Dream of

The medieval manuscript of The Dream of the Rood

The Dream of the Rood is i of the Christian poems in the corpus of Old English literature and an example of the genre of dream poesy. Like virtually Onetime English poetry, it is written in alliterative verse. Rood is from the Old English give-and-take rōd 'pole', or more specifically 'crucifix'. Preserved in the 10th-century Vercelli Book, the poem may exist as old as the eighth-century Ruthwell Cross, and is considered one of the oldest works of Old English language literature.

Synopsis [edit]

The poem is fix with the narrator having a dream. In this dream or vision he is speaking to the Cross on which Jesus was crucified. The poem itself is divided up into iii separate sections: the first part (ll. 1–27), the 2nd part (ll. 28–121) and the third office (ll. 122–156).[1] In department 1, the narrator has a vision of the Cross. Initially when the dreamer sees the Cross, he notes how information technology is covered with gems. He is enlightened of how wretched he is compared to how glorious the tree is. However, he comes to run into that amongst the cute stones it is stained with blood.[ii] In section ii, the Cantankerous shares its business relationship of Jesus' expiry. The Crucifixion story is told from the perspective of the Cross. It begins with the enemy coming to cut the tree downwards and carrying it abroad. The tree learns that information technology is not to exist the bearer of a criminal, but instead Christ crucified. The Lord and the Cantankerous become i, and they stand together equally victors, refusing to fall, taking on insurmountable pain for the sake of mankind. It is not merely Christ, simply the Cross likewise that is pierced with nails. Adelhied Fifty. J. Thieme remarks, "The cross itself is portrayed every bit his lord'due south retainer whose almost outstanding characteristic is that of unwavering loyalty".[3] The Rood and Christ are one in the portrayal of the Passion—they are both pierced with nails, mocked and tortured. Then, simply as with Christ, the Cantankerous is resurrected, and adorned with gold and silver.[4] Information technology is honoured above all trees simply every bit Jesus is honoured higher up all men. The Cross then charges the visionary to share all that he has seen with others. In department 3, the writer gives his reflections about this vision. The vision ends, and the man is left with his thoughts. He gives praise to God for what he has seen and is filled with hope for eternal life and his desire to once again be near the glorious Cantankerous.[five]

Structure [edit]

There are various, culling readings of the structure of the verse form, given the many components of the poem and the lack of clear divisions. Scholars similar Organized religion H. Patten divide the poem into 3 parts, based on who is speaking: Introductory Section (lines i–26), Speech of the Cross (lines 28–121), and Closing Department (lines 122–156).[6] Though the almost obvious way to split up the poem, this does not take into account thematic unity or differences in tone.[7] Constance B. Hieatt distinguishes between portions of the Cross's voice communication based on speaker, bailiwick, and verbal parallels, resulting in: Prologue (lines 1–27), Vision I (lines 28–77): history of the Rood, Vision II (lines 78–94): explanation of the Rood'due south glory, Vision III (lines 95–121): the Rood's message to mankind, and Epilogue (lines 122–156).[8] M. I. Del Mastro suggests the paradigm of concentric circles, similar to a chiasmus, repetitive and reflective of the increased importance in the center: the narrator-dreamer's circle (lines i–27), the rood'south circle (lines 28–38), Christ's circumvolve (lines 39-73a), the rood's circumvolve (lines 73b-121), and the narrator-dreamer's circle (lines 122–156).[ix]

Manuscript [edit]

The Dream of the Rood survives in the Vercelli Book, then chosen because the manuscript is now in the Italian city of Vercelli. The Vercelli Volume, which can be dated to the tenth century, includes twenty-three homilies interspersed with 6 religious poems: The Dream of the Rood, Andreas, The Fates of the Apostles, Soul and Body, Elene and a poetic, homiletic fragment.

Sources and analogues [edit]

A function of The Dream of the Rood tin be constitute on the eighth-century Ruthwell Cross, which is an xviii anxiety (5.5 chiliad), free-continuing Anglo-Saxon cantankerous that was maybe intended equally a 'conversion tool'.[10] At each side of the vine-tracery are carved runes. There is an excerpt on the cross that was written in runes forth with scenes from the Gospels, lives of saints, images of Jesus healing the blind, the Annunciation, and the story of Egypt, besides as Latin antiphons and decorative scroll-work. Although it was torn down after the Scottish Reformation, it was possible to more often than not reconstruct it in the 19th century.[11] Contempo scholarly thinking near the cross tends to see the runes as a later addition to an existing monument with images.

A like representation of the Cross is also present in Riddle 9 past the eighth-century Anglo-Saxon author Tatwine. Tatwine'southward riddle reads:[12]

Now I appear irised; my form is shining now. Once, because of the police force, I was a spectral terror to all slaves; but at present the whole world joyfully worships and adorns me. Whoever enjoys my fruit will immediately be well, for I was given the power to bring wellness to the unhealthy. Thus a wise homo chooses to keep me on his forehead.

[edit]

The author of The Dream of the Rood is unknown. Moreover, it is possible that the poem every bit it stands is the work of multiple authors. The approximate eighth-century date of the Ruthwell Cross indicates the primeval likely date and Northern circulation of some version of The Dream of the Rood.

Nineteenth-century scholars tried to attribute the poem to the few named Old English poets. Daniel H. Haigh argued that the inscription of the Ruthwell Cross must be fragments of a lost poem by Cædmon, portrayed in Bede'due south Ecclesiastical History of the English People every bit the start Christian English language poet,[13] stating "On this monument, erected about A.D. 665, we accept fragments of a religious poem of very loftier graphic symbol, and that in that location was simply one man living in England at that fourth dimension worthy to be named every bit a religious poet, and that was Caedmon".[14] Likewise, George Stephens contended that the language and structure of The Dream of the Rood indicated a seventh-century engagement.[15] Supposing that the only Christian poet before Bede was Cædmon, Stephens argued that Cædmon must have composed The Dream of the Rood. Furthermore, he claimed that the Ruthwell Cross includes a runic inscription that can be interpreted as saying "Caedmon fabricated me".[16] These ideas are no longer accepted past scholars.

Besides, some scholars have tried to attribute The Dream of the Rood to Cynewulf, a named Old English poet who lived around the 9th century.[17] Two of Cynewulf'due south signed poems are institute in the Vercelli Volume, the manuscript that contains The Dream of the Rood, among them Elene, which is most Saint Helena'south supposed discovery of the cross on which Jesus was crucified.[eighteen] Thus Franz Dietrich argued that the similarities between Cynewulf's Elene and The Dream of the Rood reveal that the ii must take been authored past the same individual.[xix] Again, however, this attribution is not widely accustomed.

In a series of papers, Leonard Neidorf has adduced metrical, lexical, and syntactical evidence in back up of a theory of composite authorship for The Dream of the Rood. He maintains that the poem contains contributions from at least ii unlike poets, who had distinct compositional styles.[20] [21] [22] [23]

Interpretations [edit]

Paganism and christianity [edit]

Like many poems of the Anglo-Saxon period, The Dream of the Rood exhibits many Christian and pre-Christian images, but in the end is a Christian slice.[24] Examining the poem as a pre-Christian (or heathen) text is difficult, as the scribes who wrote it down were Christian monks who lived in a time when Christianity was firmly established (at least among the literate and aristocratic population) in early medieval England.[25] The style and course of Old English literary practices tin be identified in the poem'southward use of a complex, echoing structure, allusions, repetition, exact parallels, ambivalence and wordplay (every bit in the Riddles), and the linguistic communication of heroic poesy and elegy.[26]

Some scholars have argued that there is a prevalence of heathen elements within the verse form, challenge that the idea of a talking tree is animistic. The belief in the spiritual nature of natural objects, it has been argued, recognises the tree as an object of worship. In Pagan Gods in Old English Literature, Richard North stresses the importance of the sacrifice of the tree in accord with pagan virtues. He states that "the image of Christ's death was constructed in this verse form with reference to an Anglian credo on the globe tree".[27] North suggests that the author of The Dream of the Rood "uses the language of this myth of Ingui in order to present the Passion to his newly Christianized countrymen as a story from their native tradition".[27] Furthermore, the tree's triumph over death is celebrated past adorning the cross with gold and jewels. Work of the period is notable for its synthetic employment of 'Heathen' and 'Christian' imagery as can exist seen on the Franks Casket or the Kirkby Stephen cross shaft which appears to conflate the image of Christ crucified with that of Woden/Odin bound upon the Tree of Life.[28] Others have read the verse form'south alloy of Christian themes with the heroic conventions equally an Anglo-Saxon embrace and re-imagining, rather than conquest, of Christianity.[29]

The poem may be viewed every bit both Christian and pre-Christian. Bruce Mitchell notes that The Dream of the Rood is "the cardinal literary document for understanding [the] resolution of competing cultures which was the presiding business organization of the Christian Anglo-Saxons".[24] Inside the single civilisation of the Anglo-Saxons is the alien Germanic heroic tradition and the Christian doctrine of forgiveness and cocky-cede, the influences of which are readily seen in the poetry of the period. Thus, for case, in The Dream of the Rood, Christ is presented as a "heroic warrior, eagerly leaping on the Cross to practice battle with decease; the Cross is a loyal retainer who is painfully and paradoxically forced to participate in his Lord'due south execution".[xxx] Christ can also exist seen as "an Anglo-Saxon warrior lord, who is served by his thanes, especially on the cross and who rewards them at the feast of celebrity in Sky".[31] Thus, the crucifixion of Christ is a victory, considering Christ could have fought His enemies, but chose to die. John Canuteson believes that the poem "show[s] Christ's willingness, indeed His eagerness, to comprehend His fate, [and] it also reveals the physical details of what happens to a human, rather than a god, on the Cross".[32] This image of Christ as a 'heroic lord' or a 'heroic warrior' is seen frequently in Anglo-Saxon (and Germanic) literature and follows in line with the theme of understanding Christianity through pre-Christian Germanic tradition. In this way, "the poem resolves not but the pagan-Christian tensions within Anglo-Saxon culture but as well electric current doctrinal discussions apropos the nature of Christ, who was both God and man, both human and divine".[33]

Christ as warrior [edit]

J.A. Couch notes an interesting paradox inside the poem in how the Cross is set up to be the manner to Conservancy: the Cross states that information technology cannot autumn and information technology must stay stiff to fulfill the will of God. All the same, to fulfill this grace of God, the Cross has to be a critical component in Jesus' death.[34] This puts a whole new light on the actions of Jesus during the Crucifixion. Neither Jesus nor the Cantankerous is given the role of the helpless victim in the poem, but instead both stand firm. The Cross says, Jesus is depicted every bit the strong conquistador and is made to appear a "heroic German lord, one who dies to salve his troops".[35] Instead of accepting crucifixion, he 'embraces' the Cross and takes on all the sins of mankind.

Mary Dockray-Miller argues that the sexual imagery identified past Faith Patten, discussed below, functions to 'feminize' the Cross in club for it to mirror the heightened masculinity of the warrior Christ in the poem.[31]

Sexualised and gendered language [edit]

Religion Patten identified 'sexual imagery' in the poem between the Cantankerous and the Christ figure, noting in particular lines 39–42, when Christ embraces the Cantankerous afterward having 'unclothed himself' and leapt onto it.[6] This interpretation was expanded upon past John Canuteson, who argued that this encompass is a 'logical extension of the implications of the marriage of Christ and the Church', and that it becomes 'a kind of wedlock consummation' in the poem.[32]

Parellels with penance [edit]

Rebecca Hinton identifies the resemblance of the poem to early on medieval Irish sacramental Penance, with the parallels between the concept of sin, the object of confession, and the part of the confessor. She traces the establishment of the exercise of Penance in England from Theodore of Tarsus, archbishop of Canterbury from 668 to 690, deriving from the Irish gaelic confession philosophy. Within the poem, Hinton reads the dream every bit a confession of sorts, ending with the narrator invigorated, his "spirit longing to start."[36]

Editions, translations, and recordings [edit]

Editions [edit]

  • The Dream of the Rood, ed. by Michael Swanton, rev. edn (Exeter: University of Exeter, 1987).
  • The Dream of the Rood , ed. by Bruce Dickins and Alan S. C. Ross, 4th edn (London: Methuen, 1954).
  • 'Dream of the Rood', in The Vercelli Volume, ed. by George Philip Krapp, The Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records: A Collective Edition, 2 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1936), pp. 61–65.

Translations [edit]

  • 'The Vision of the Cross', trans. by Ciaran Carson, in The Word Exchange: Anglo-Saxon Poems in Translation, ed. by Greg Delanty and Michael Matto (New York and London: Norton, 2011), pp. 366–77.
  • 'The Dream of the Rood', trans. by R. M. Liuzza, in The Broadview Anthology of British Literature, Volume i: The Medieval Period, ed. by Joseph Blackness and others (Peterborough, Ontario: Broadview Press, 2006), pp. 23–25.
  • 'The Dream of the Rood', in Old and Middle English c. 890-c. 1400: An Anthology, ed. and trans. by Elaine Treharne, 2nd edn (Oxford: Blackwell, 2004), pp. 108–15
  • 'The Dream of the Rood', in A Choice of Anglo-Saxon Verse, ed. and trans. by Richard Hamer (London: Faber, 1970, ISBN 0571087647
  • The Dream of the Rood, trans. by Jonathan A. Glenn (1982)

Recordings [edit]

  • Michael D. C. Drout, 'The Dream of the Rood, lines i-156', Anglo-Saxon Aloud (4 June 2007).

See besides [edit]

  • Anglo-Saxon futhorc
  • Brussels Cross
  • Holy rood
  • Howard Ferguson – composer of a setting of Dream of the Rood
  • Legend of the Rood

Notes [edit]

  1. ^ Acevedo Butcher, Carmen, The Dream of the Rood and Its Unique, Penitential Linguistic communication "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 2012-05-03 . {{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy equally title (link). Rome (GA), 2003. p. 2
  2. ^ Bradley, S.A.J. Anglo-Saxon Poetry. Ed. S.A.J. Bradley. London, Everyman, 1982, p. 160
  3. ^ Thieme, Adelheid L. J. (1998). "Gift Giving as a Vital Element of Salvation in "The Dream of the Rood"". South Atlantic Review. Due south Atlantic Modern Language Clan. 63 (2): 108–23. doi:10.2307/3201041. ISSN 0277-335X. JSTOR 3201041. S2CID 165617144.
  4. ^ Galloway, Andrew (1994). "Dream-Theory in The Dream of the Rood and The Wanderer". The Review of English Studies. Oxford University Press. 45 (180): 475–85. doi:10.1093/res/XLV.180.475. ISSN 1471-6968. JSTOR 517806.
  5. ^ Lapidge, Michael. The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Anglo-Saxon England. England, 1991.
  6. ^ a b Patten, Faith H. (1968). "Construction and Meaning in The Dream of the Rood". XLIX: 397.
  7. ^ Shimonaga, Yuki (2010). "The Structure and Thematic Unity of The Dream of the Rood". Multiple Perspectives on English Philology and History of Linguistics: 183–202.
  8. ^ Hieatt, Constance B. (1971). "Dream Frame and Verbal Echo in The Dream of the Rood". Neuphilologische Mitteilungen. 72: 251–263.
  9. ^ Del Mastro, Thou. I. (1976). "The Dream of the Rood and the Militia Christi: Perspectives in Paradox". American Benedictine Review. 27: 170–76.
  10. ^ Schapiro, Meyer (September 1944). "The Religious Meaning of the Ruthwell Cross". The Art Bulletin. 26 (4): 232–245. doi:10.1080/00043079.1944.11409049. JSTOR 3046964.
  11. ^ O Carragain, Eamonn. Ritual and the Rood: Liturgical Images and the Poems of The Dream of the Rood Tradition. London, University of Toronto Press, 2005, p. 7, 228
  12. ^ Tatwine, 'Latin Riddle 9 (early eighth century)', in Sources and Analogues of Old English Poetry, ed. and trans. by D. K. Calder and M. J. B. Allen (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1976), pp. 53-58.
  13. ^ Bede (731). Bede's Ecclesiastical History of England.
  14. ^ Melt, Albert Southward., ed. The Dream of the Rood: An Old English Poem Attributed to Cynewulf. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1905. 27 Sep 2007, p. 6
  15. ^ Stephens, Grand. (1866). The Ruthwell cantankerous: Northumbria, from about A.D. 680, with its runic verses by Caedmon, and Caedmon's consummate cantankerous-lay, "The Holy Rood, a dream" from a due south-English transcript of the tenth century. London: J. Smith.
  16. ^ Cook, A. Due south. (Albert Stanburrough). (1905). The dream of the rood: an old English poem attributed to Cynewulf. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
  17. ^ Krstovic, Jelena. ed. "The Dream of the Rood: Introduction." Classical and Medieval Literature Criticism. Vol xiv. Gale Grouping, Inc., 1995. enotes.com. 2006. 27 September 2007
  18. ^ Drabble, Margaret. ed. "The Vercelli Book: Introduction." The Oxford Companion to English Literature. Ed. 5th Edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1985. 27 Sep 2007, p. 2
  19. ^ Dietrich made four main arguments: one, the theme of both poems is the cross, and more importantly, in both poems, the cantankerous suffers with Christ; two, in "Elene" Cynewulf seems to brand clear references to the same cross in Dream of the Rood; three, in "Elene" and his other poems Cynewulf normally speaks of himself, which makes it quite possible that the dreamer in Dream of the Rood is none other than Cynewulf himself; and finally 4, "In both poems the author represents himself as old, having lost joys or friends and equally ready to depart. Melt, Albert S., ed. The Dream of the Rood: An One-time English Poem Attributed to Cynewulf. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1905. 27 Sep 2007, p. 12-thirteen
  20. ^ Neidorf, Leonard (xix December 2016). "The composite authorship of The Dream of the Rood". Anglo-Saxon England. 45: 51–70. doi:10.1017/S0263675100080224. Retrieved 19 Nov 2021 – via Cambridge Academy Press.
  21. ^ Neidorf, Leonard (2020). "Verbs and Versification in the Dream of the Rood". ANQ: A Quarterly Journal of Brusk Manufactures, Notes and Reviews: 1–iv. doi:10.1080/0895769X.2020.1782723.
  22. ^ Neidorf, Leonard; Xu, Na (2020). "The Textual Criticism of the Dream of the Rood". English Studies. 101 (5): 519–536. doi:x.1080/0013838X.2020.1820711. S2CID 222003457.
  23. ^ Leonard Neidorf (September 2020). "The Textual Status of The Dream of the Rood lines 75–vii". Notes and Queries. 67 (3): 312–315.
  24. ^ a b Mitchell, Bruce. A Guide to Quondam English language. 6th Edition. Massachusetts. Blackwell Publishers, 2001, p. 256
  25. ^ Mitchell, Bruce. A Guide to Old English. Sixth Edition. Massachusetts. Blackwell Publishers, 2001, p. 139-140
  26. ^ Chaganti, Seeta (January 2010). "Vestigial Signs: Inscription, Performance, and The Dream of the Rood". PMLA. 125: 48–72. doi:10.1632/pmla.2010.125.1.48. S2CID 163346214.
  27. ^ a b N, Richard. Infidel Gods in Old English Literature. Cambridge University Printing, 1997, p. 273
  28. ^ Anglo-saxon Art, Leslie Webster, British Museum Press, 2012
  29. ^ Black, Joseph, ed. (2011). The Broadview Anthology of British Literature (2nd ed.). Peteborough, Ontario: Broadview Press. pp. 58–60. ISBN978-ane-55481-048-two.
  30. ^ Black, Joseph ed., Supplement to Broadview Anthology of British Literature. Broadview Press, 2007, p. 23
  31. ^ a b Dockray-Miller, Mary. "The Feminized Cross of 'The Dream of the Rood.'" Philogical Quarterly, Vol 76. 1997, p. 2.
  32. ^ a b Canuteson, John. "The Crucifixion and 2nd Coming of Christ." Modern Philology, Vol. 66, No. iv, May 1969, p. 296
  33. ^ Mitchell, Bruce. A Guide to Old English. 6th Edition. Massachusetts. Blackwell Publishers, 2001, p. 257
  34. ^ Burrow, J.A. "An Approach to The Dream of the Rood." Neophilologus. 43(1959), p. 125.
  35. ^ Treharne, Elaine. "The Dream of the Rood." Old and Middle English c.890-c.1400: An Album. Malden, MA, Blackwell, 2004, p. 108
  36. ^ Hinton, Rebecca (1996). "The Dream of the Rood". Explicator. 54 (2): 77. doi:10.1080/00144940.1996.9934069.

Further reading [edit]

  • Hunter Blair, Peter (1970). The World of Bede . London: Secker & Warburg. ISBN0-436-05010-two . Retrieved 27 September 2007.
  • Swanton, Michael (2004) [1970]. The Dream of the Rood. Exeter: University of Exeter Press. ISBN0-85989-503-three.

External links [edit]

  • BBC Tyne – 'Dream of the Rood' vocal piece wins top prize

smithprour1990.blogspot.com

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dream_of_the_Rood

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