Article contents
‘The Dream of the Rood’ and Anglo-Saxon Monasticism*
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 29 July 2016
Extract
The earliest text of The Dream of the Rood consists of a few lines of runic inscriptions carved around the edges of a North English high cross now at Ruthwell in Dumfriesshire. It represents no more than a fragment of the text as we find it in the Vercelli MS, a short passage describing the Crucifixion and the ordeal of the Cross. The precise relationship between the Ruthwell runes and the Vercelli poem is a matter of conjecture and dispute. To some critics the Ruthwell inscriptions represent an ‘earlier poem,’ of which the Vercelli text is an expansion or a later revision or both. It is a question to which I shall wish to devote some attention in due course. For the present, I would suggest that the runic inscriptions provide a valuable clue to the interpretation of the Vercelli poem along lines so far left unexplored; for the runes form a part of a rich iconographic program, developing a unified meaning closely connected with the figurative meaning of The Dream of the Rood.
- Type
- Articles
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © Fordham University Press
References
1 Baldwin, G. Brown, The Arts in Early England, V (London 1921) 314.Google Scholar
2 Medd, P. G., ‘Rood and Stow — The Cross and the Holy Place as Factors in Anglo-Saxon Parochial Evangelization,’ Church Quarterly Review, 163 (1962) 156.Google Scholar
3 The Religious Meaning of the Ruthwell Cross,’ Art Bulletin, 26 (1944) 230–245. See also Fritz Saxl, ‘The Ruthwell Cross,’ Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institute, 6 (1943) 1–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
4 Throughout this article I use the terms ‘Benedictine’ and ‘Benedictinism’ in the very loose sense employed by monastic scholars since the time of Mabillon. They refer to the principal form of cenobitic monasticism in the West, founded wholly or in part on the Regula of St. Benedict of Nursia. The terms are of quite modern coinage. See Gillet, R., ‘Spiritualité et place du moine dans l'Église selon Saint Grégoire le Grand,’ Théologie de la vie monastique (Paris 1961) 323.Google Scholar
5 All citations, except as noted, are to the edition in The Vercelli Book, ed. Krapp, G. P. (New York 1932). As it is familiar to scholars as one of The Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records, it is henceforth cited as ‘Krapp-Dobbie.’Google Scholar
6 The suggestion brought forward by Wrenn, C. L. (Review of English Studies, 12 [1936], 106) that banan in line 66 is a late West-Saxon gen. pl. form would do violence to the thematic integrity of the poem. Christ's bana is the Cross, not the nameless, unspecified executioners. There is nothing unusual in the use of the word to denote an inanimate object. (Cf. its modern survival in ratsbane.) See also Robert Oliphant, ‘Middle English bāner,’ Philological Quarterly, 41 (1962) 518–519.Google Scholar
7 Two of the Saxon Chronicles Parallel, ed. Charles Plummer (Oxford 1892) 48.Google Scholar
8 ‘Le Monachisme du haut moyen âge (VIIIe-xe siècles),’ Théologie de la vie monastique (Paris 1961) 438.Google Scholar
9 Walther, Hans, Proverbia sententiaeque latinitatis Medii Ævi. no. 21191a. For its monastic implications see the chapter ‘Per crucem ad lucem’ in Colombás, Garcia M., Paraíso y Vida Angélica; sentido escatológico de la vocación cristiana (Montserrat 1958).Google Scholar
10 ‘The Interpretation of the Seafarer,’ The Early Cultures of North-West Europe (H. Chadwick, M. Memorial Studies) (Cambridge 1950) 261–272.Google Scholar
11 Smithers, G. V. ‘The Meaning of The Seafarer and The Wanderer,’ Medium Ævum, 26 (1957) 137–153; 28 (1959) 1–22.Google Scholar
12 On peregrinatio in the early Middle Ages, see Bernhard Kötting, Peregrinatio Religiosa: Wallfahrten in der Antike und das Pilgerwesen in der alten Kirche (Regensberg 1950), and Jean Leclercq, ‘Mönchtum und Peregrinatio im Frühmittelalter,’ Römische Quartalschrift, 50 (1960) 212–225. Vocabulary is treated by Leclercq in Études sur le vocabulaire monastique du moyen âge (Rome 1961); esp. s. v. exilium, peregrinatio, etc.Google Scholar
13 ‘The Meaning of The Seafarer and The Wanderer,’ Medium Ævum, 26 (1957) 145–146.Google Scholar
14 See Hebrews 11.13ff. Google Scholar
15 See Eugène Manning, ‘Le Chapitre 73 de la Règle Bénédictine est-il de Beno, S.ît?’ Archivum Latinitatis Medii Ævi, 30 (1960) 139.Google Scholar
16 ‘Commentarium Pauli Warnefridi Diaconi Casinensis in Regulam Benedicti, S. P. N.’ in the ‘Florilegium Casinense,’ Bibliotheca Casinensis, IV (Monte Cassino, 1880) 71.Google Scholar
17 “Une lettre inédite de Saint Pierre Damien sur la vie érémitique,’ ed. Leclercq, J., Studia Benedictina in memoriam gloriosi ante sœcula XIV transitus Benedicti S. P. (Rome 1947), 287.Google Scholar
18 Testi medioevali inediti, ed. Carmelo Ottaviano (Florence 1933) 18. The idea of robust gaudia as the end of exile is commonplace in early monastic hagiography. See, e. g., the end of Alcuin's second life of St. Willibrord in Monumenta Alcuiniana, edd. Wattenbach and Duemmler (Berlin 1873) 79.Google Scholar
19 See Stanley, E. G., ‘The Search for Anglo-Saxon Paganism,’ Notes and Queries, 209 (1964) 204–209 and continuing in progress.Google Scholar
20 Wardale, E. E., Chapters on Old English Literature (London 1935), 181.Google Scholar
21 The Dream of the Rood. edd. Bruce Dickins and Ross, Alan S. C., 4th ed. (London 1954) 28n.Google Scholar
22 Rosemary Woolf, ‘Doctrinal Influences on The Dream of the Rood,’ Medium Ævum, 27 (1958), 144. Google Scholar
23 Hans Bernhard Meyer, ‘Crux, Decus es Mundi: Alkuins Kreuz-und Osterfrömmigkeit,’ in Paschatis Sollemnia: Studien zu Osterfeier und Osterfrömmigkeit, edd. Balthasar Fischer and Johannes Wagner (Freiburg 1959) 96–107. Google Scholar
24 Meyer, ‘Crux, Decus es Mundi,’ 105. Google Scholar
25 Weltbild und Kultur Deutschlands im Mittelalter (Darmstadt 1953) 1, 41ff.Google Scholar
26 Woolf, ‘Doctrinal Influences,’ 143. Google Scholar
27 ‘ Doctrinal Influences,’ 152.Google Scholar
28 Nor is the typical Gothic Crucifixion of the thirteenth century, showing the dead Christ, expressive in this way. See Émile Mâle, L'art religieux du XIII e siècle en France, 5th. ed. (Paris 1923) 190–191. Google Scholar
29 Le Crucifixe des origines au Concile de Trente: Étude iconographique (Nantes 1959) 74.Google Scholar
30 See Thoby, , Le Crucifixe, plate 31 bis. (Interestingly, the MS is a Benedictine Office Book from New Minster.) An anomolous English ‘pathetic’ Crucifixion dates back to the ninth century: plate 29 bis, and p. 41.Google Scholar
31 Harold McC. Taylor, English Architecture in the Time of Bede (Jarrow 1961) 16. Google Scholar
32 See Johannes Reil, Christus am Kreuz in der Bildkunst der Karolingerzeit (Leipzig 1930) 69–80. Google Scholar
33 Karl Künstle, Ikongraphie der christlichen Kunst (Freiburg 1928) I, 459. Google Scholar
34 ‘ Doctrinal Influences,’ 148.Google Scholar
35 This line, incidentally, is quite similar to a phrase in the Old English version of Nones: ‘syÐÐan his gast asende.’ See The Benedictine Office, ed. Ure, J. M. (Edinburgh 1957) 97–98.Google Scholar
36 This line probably involves a pun (‘He buried death there’), introducing the Pauline idea of the victory over death. Google Scholar
37 Opera Omnia. ed. Ballerini, P. A. (Milan 1877) III, cols. 327–328.Google Scholar
38 ‘ Doctrinal Influences,’ 153n.Google Scholar
39 Doctoris ecstatici Dionysii D. Cartusiani Opera Omnia (Tournai 1908) XXV. 93. Google Scholar
40 Chapters on Old English Literature, 182.Google Scholar
41 p. 18. Google Scholar
42 The Dream of the Rood. ed. Cook, Albert S. (Oxford 1905) xlii.Google Scholar
43 p. 18. Google Scholar
44 Frank Willett, ‘The Ruthwell and Bewcastle Crosses — A Review,’ Memoirs and Proceedings of the Manchester Literary & Philosophical Society, 98 (1956–57) 112. Google Scholar
45 Burrow, J. A., ‘An Approach to The Dream of the Rood,’ Neophilologus, 43 (1959) 133.Google Scholar
46 Sister Anna Mercedes [Anne Clare] Courtney, The Dream of the Rood: A Doctrinal Commentary (Fordham Diss., 1963) convincingly demonstrates that the rhetorical pattern of the poem follows the principles established by St. Augustine in De catechizandis rudibus. Google Scholar
47 Burrow, ‘An Approach,’ 133. Google Scholar
48 ‘ An Approach,’ p. 133.Google Scholar
49 ‘ Vita Leutfridi Abbatis Madriacensis,’ MHG Script. rer. Mer. VII, 13. See also Mesnel, J. B., Les Saints du diocèse d’Évreux (Évreux 1918) 6. 131–132.Google Scholar
50 Sauvage, E. P. ed., ‘Vita Audeoni, S. Rotomagensis Episcopi,’ Analecta Bollandiana, 5 (1886) 119. For a discussion of the two episodes, see Mesnel, , Les Saints d’Évreux, vi, 25–26.Google Scholar
51 ‘ Monachisme du haut moyen âge,’ 441.Google Scholar
52 ‘ Les conceptions du martyre chez les Irlandais,’ Revue Bénédictine, 24 (1907) 360–373; and the expanded chapter ‘Le désir du martyre et le quasi-martyre’ in Dévotions et pratiques ascétiques du moyen âge (Maredsous 1925).Google Scholar
53 Malone, E. E., The Monk and the Martyr (Washington 1950) 15 and n; 100 ff.Google Scholar
54 The Exeter Book, edd. Krapp-Dobbie (New York 1936) 217, 218. Guthlac is called ‘se martyre,’ p. 64.Google Scholar
55 See the important discussion by Ursmer Berlière, L'ascèse bénédictine des origines à la fin du XII e siècle (Maredsous 1927) 144ff. Google Scholar
56 PL 195.263. Cited by Berlière, 140. Google Scholar
57 Leclercq makes the point that the monastic nature of the mission explains the slowness of the conversion of Germany, ‘Monachisme du haut moyen âge,’ 439–440. Google Scholar
58 Addleshaw, G. W. O., The Pastoral Organization of the Modern Dioceses of Durham and Newcastle in the Time of Bede (Jarrow 1963) 7.Google Scholar
59 Corbin, Solange, La Déposition liturgique du Christ au Vendredi Saint (Paris 1960) 96.Google Scholar
60 Cf. the compilation of visions in Gretser, J.'s ‘De Sancta Cruce,’ tom. 1.3.1–13 (Opera Omnia [Regensburg 1734] I, 323ff.). Often the light from the Cross carves the universe into quadrants with its beams, and this may explain the expression æt foldan sceatum in line 7. See the note in Dickins and Ross.Google Scholar
61 This point was suggested to me by an unpublished paper by Faith Patten, ‘Structure and Meaning in The Dream of the Rood.’ Google Scholar
62 Prof. Richard Ringler has pointed out to me that for ealle men in this passage is more likely to mean ‘for the sake of all mankind’ than, as it is usually taken, ‘before all men.’ Google Scholar
63 ‘ De Sancta Cruce,’ tom. 1.5–25 (Opera, I, 479).Google Scholar
64 Bolton, W. F., ‘Connectives in The Seafarer and The Dream of the Rood,’ Modern Philology 66 (1958) 261Google Scholar
65 p. 33n. Google Scholar
66 Das altenglische ‘Traumgesicht vom Kreuz’ (Heidelberg 1935) 50–51.Google Scholar
67 The Dream of the Rood: A Doctrinal Commentary, 135–136.Google Scholar
68 See John Lingard, The History and Antiquities of the Anglo-Saxon Church (London 1858) 2. 97–99, where citations are given, and Leclercq, Vocabulaire monastique, 106. See further Pijper, F., De Kloosters (The Hague 1916) 353.Google Scholar
69 The Dark Ages (London 1904) 265.Google Scholar
70 Th, L. Lorié, A. Spiritual Terminology in the Latin Translations of the Vita Antonii (Nijmegen 1955) 126–129. Cf. Wenzel, S., ‘Acedia 700–1200,’ infra, 73–102.Google Scholar
71 AA.SS. Septembris V, pp. 530–531. Cf. Mabillon, J., ed. AA.SS.OSB, Saeclum III (Paris 1672) I, 71 and n.Google Scholar
72 ‘ Et nemo ascendit in caelum, nisi qui descendit de caelo, Filius hominis, qui est in caelo. Et sicut Moyses exaltavit serpentem in deserto, ita exaltari oportet Filium hominis, ut omnis qui credit in ipsum non pereat, sed habeat vitam aeternam’ (John 3.13–16).Google Scholar
73 Marmion, Columba, Christ, the Ideal of the Monk (London 1926) 248.Google Scholar
74 See further Gougaud, Dévotions et pratiques ascétiques, 9; and Du Cange, s.v. ‘Crux.’ Google Scholar
75 Rock, Daniel, The Church of Our Fathers. edd. Hart, G. W. and Frere, W. H. (London 1903–04) 129–130. That the Dreamer describes himself as ‘licgende’ possibly reflects some such practice.Google Scholar
76 Patch, Howard R. ‘Liturgical Influence in The Dream of the Rood,’ PMLA 24 (1919) 233–257.Google Scholar
77 PL 101. 454. See Cabrol, F., ‘Les écrits liturgiques d’Alcuin, RHE 19 (1923) 510. Gerald Ellard, Master Alcuin, Liturgist (Chicago 1956) 167–168, says Alcuin ‘borrowed the Collect used at Rome for the Feast of the Exaltation.’Google Scholar
78 ‘ Doctrinal Influences,’ 151.Google Scholar
79 p. 33n. Google Scholar
80 Epistola 134 in MGH Epistolae, IV, 202. Google Scholar
81 Thomas Wright, ed., The Anglo-Latin Satirical Poets and Epigrammatists of the Twelfth Century (London 1872) 2. 527. Google Scholar
82 See Erika von Erhardt-Siebold, Die lateinischen Rätsel der Angelsachsen (Heidelberg 1925) 109–114. Google Scholar
83 p. 18. Google Scholar
84 p. xlii. Google Scholar
85 ‘ An Approach,’ 132.Google Scholar
86 Ferdinand Holthausen, ed.,‘Altenglische Interlinearversionen lateinischer Gebete und Beichten,’ Anglia, 65 (1941) 232–233. The Benedictine origin of this collection is made certain by the reference to the Opus Dei, 244. These extra-liturgical prayers have been the subject of a recent and careful study by Lilli Gjerløw, Adoratio Crucis: The Regularis Concordia and the Decreta Lanfranci (Oslo 1961).Google Scholar
87 See Paraíso y Vida Angélica, passim. Google Scholar
88 Cf. the echo of this passage in the ‘Lettre inédite de saint Pierre Damien,’ ed. Leclercq, 287. Google Scholar
89 Bouyer, Louis, Le sens de la vie monastique (Maredsous 1959) 72ff.Google Scholar
90 The Benedictine Office, ed. Ure, 100–101.Google Scholar
91 Frolow, A., La Relique de la Vraie Croix (Paris 1961), 48.Google Scholar
92 Cited by Mother Mary Philomena, ‘St. Edmund of Abingdon's Meditation Before the Canonical Hours,’ Ephemerides Liturgicae, 78 (1964) 34. Google Scholar
93 Cited by Mother Mary Philomena, 49 Google Scholar
94 Hugh Farmer, ‘The Studies of Anglo-Saxon Monks (A. D. 600–800),’ in Los Monjes y los Estudios (Poblet 1963), 100. Google Scholar
95 Monumenta Alcuiniana, 198. Cf. Plummer's note on the ‘Rule of St. Benedict,’ Ven. Baedae Opera Historica, 2. 366.Google Scholar
96 François Yandenbroucke, Le moine dans l'Église du Christ (Louvain 1947) 189ff. Google Scholar
97 See especially ‘L'humanisme bénédictin du VIII e au XIe siècle,’ in Analecta Monastica, I (Rome, 1948) 1–20; and The Love of Learning and the Desire for God (New York 1961).Google Scholar
- 11
- Cited by