“Dream of the Rood”

The Dream of the Rood starts as if the narrator was a normal person dreaming about a precious tree that was put down and fallen. The tree is described as a powerful and inspirational. After the poem proceeds to describe the tree and everything around it, along with the change in narrative that seems like the tree is the narrator itself, it seems as if the tree is compared to Christ himself. As it is famously known, Jesus Christ was tortured and punished for being the symbol of hope and path to greatness, the tree could be seen as someone like Christ, who was once cut down and then brought to “life” to serve the purpose of being the cross for the one, Jesus Christ, who could never die, someone who would endure the pain for those who followed him so that they could enjoy the salvation. Just like that, the dreamer, or the tree, viewed the sacrifice of the physical tree as something that was meant to feed the purpose of being one with Christ and die with him as he achieved salvation. This is a powerful message to the Anglo-Saxon as it shows that not only Jesus but also the literal tree or every other living beings’ purpose was to fulfill the purpose of God, whether it was war or peace, everyone had the duty to serve for the higher being, just as that tree that was unhappy to be cut down but realized the greater purpose when Jesus was nailed on its wood. The overall purpose of the story, as I see it, was to show that sometimes we might not realize our purpose, but something higher being beyond our capabilities have planned something for us, so it’s better to serve the higher being than question it, even if it means being destroyed as an earthly being.

#ENGL2322 #Rood