Christian Heroism in 'The Dream of the Rood'

Abstract

This essay argues that, like the eighth-century Franks Casket, the Old English poem The Dream of the Rood attempts to reconcile heroic and Christian values in one aesthetic unity. It argues that the Rood-poet is largely successful in reconciling such values, but not entirely. Whilst the poem remains catechetical without relinquishing the warrior spirit, for instance, pacifistic and self-abnegatory Christian ethical strains nonetheless resist assimilation with early medieval Germanic ideals. This testifies to the cultural tensions of early Britain.