REAL ROOD - This is a translation of the Dream of the Rood PDF

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This is a translation of the Dream of the Rood...

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Maya Kulukundis EEL Exercise 2 Word Count: 1079 Within the following lines, I have attempted to provide a translation that reflects the status of the Rood as a vehicle for the emotion of the Crucifixion as well as focusing specifically on Anglo-Saxon warrior culture and its impact upon depictions of Christ. There is a celebration of masculinity and strength as well as a great pain within the poem, something I have tried to mirror within my word choice and sentence structure. 27: The best wood began to speak these words: 28: ‘I still remember it, that which happened a very long time ago 29: That I was cut down from the edge of the wood, 30: Ripped up by my root. Strange villains seized me there, 31: They made me into a spectacle for themselves there, commanded me to Raise up their criminals; 32:Men carried me there on their shoulders, until they set me ona hill;

This change in voice represents a shift in the poem, in which the personified Rood’s informs the dreamer of its own role and emotion towards the crucifixion. The Rood is endowed with individuality and capacity for human ethos and pathos and expression of them through prosopopoeia, or personification. To further characterise the Rood, I have

altered the word order of “þæt wæs geara iu “ic þaet gyta geman,” – that was a very long time ago, I remember it still – to “I still remember it, that which happened a very long time ago.” I feel that introducing the idea of the crucifixion with the rood itself, with the ‘I’, helps to further emphasize the role of the Rood and the narrative ownership that the Rood has over this piece. We are being told of the Rood’s experience of the crucifixion, the Rood is our narrative bias and like this we see first the Rood, then the event.

Within 'Germanic' contemporary culture, 'comitas' - meaning warrior society - had a strong emphasis on loyalty and community. Here, we see the cross being ripped from its community by "strange feondas." The vocabulary used is forceful and I have chosen to translate ‘feondas’ not as the literal ‘enemies’ but as ‘villains,’ for I wanted to introduce the idea of morality – this opens up the narrative and invites the reader to see the Rood as on the side of Christ and as an additional victim of the crucifixion.

33:Villains enough secured me there. I then saw the Saviour ofMankind 34: Hasten with great zeal, as if he wanted to climb up on me. 35: There I did not dare against the Lord’s word 36: To bow or break, when I saw the 37: Surface of the earth tremble. I had the power to 38: destroy all the adversaries, but I stood fast.

Here, the frustration that the Rood feels at being unable to retalliate due to "his position as Christ's retainer" 1 is overwhelming. This is an important sentiment for it acts as a demonstration of the suffering of the Rood, forced into the act of crucifying his lord. If one is to take a typological reading of the bible, one may recall the suffering of Abraham in Genesis 22. Abraham’s loyalty to God is so great that he is prepared to sacrifice his only son, Isaac and is rewarded by his Lord:2 Similarly, the Rood’s aforementioned adornements are his reward for this challenging act of loyalty. In my translation, I wanted to thus emphasize the enormity of this loyalty to the word of God. In lines 37-8, I have strayed from Mitchell and Robinson’s suggestion of ‘ealle ic mihte feondas gefyllan’ as “I was able to fell all the adversaries,” into “I had the power to destroy..” I have made this choice as I feel that having the Rood allude to his own power of destruction conveys how tantalising the thought of protecting Christ is, how frustrating his duty is and hence how impressive it is that the Rood “stood fast.” The word “destroy” also felt like a choice more emotive and loaded than “fell.” I have also chosen the translation “zeal”

39: He stripped himself then, the young hero - that was God almighty! 40: Strong and steadfast; he ascended on the high gallows. Here, Christ’s agency is highlighted and we may note a significant difference between The Dream’s depiction of this moment and that of the Gospels. Within the gospels, Christ is stripped three times: primarily before being presented the crown of thorns, secondly of 1 John V Fleming, The dream of The Rood and Anglo Saxon Monasticism 2 Genesis 22, 17, “I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies..”

the purple cloak and lastly by the cross3. Within the Biblical account, this is a humiliation that is a key aspect of Jesus’ passion, mocking his status.4 However, here the biblical voice is altered. I have changed the word order from “‘Stripped himself then the young hero’ into a line beginning with ‘he,’ ‘hine,’ to depict Christ’s agency. This depiction of Christ would be more fitting with that of an Anglo-Saxon hero. Within Germanic ‘comitas,’ 5 a warrior hero would not exhibit moments of weakness and thus the humiliation of being (passively) stripped is subverted. Perhaps that is why we see this version of Christ as so stoic. I have accordingly translated ‘strang and stiðmod,” not as the suggested ‘strong and resolute’ but as ‘strong and steadfast,” as this mirrors the alliteration of the OE and so emphasizes Christ’s strength.

3 Mark 15:16-20 The Soldiers Mock Jesus, “And they clothed him in a purple cloak; (we read here that his own clothes were removed) and after twisting some thorns into a crown, they put it on him. And they began saluting him, “Hail, King of the Jews!” They struck his head with a reed, spat upon him, and knelt down in homage to him. After mocking him, they stripped him (this is the second occurance) of the purple cloak and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him out to crucify him.” Mark 15:22-26 The Crucifixion of Jesus, “And they crucified him, and divided his clothes among them, casting lots to decide what each should take.”

4 This can be seen in Christian artwork, noteably, Jesus Mocked by the Soldiers, Edouard Manet (1865) and The Mocking of Christ, Matthias Grundewald (1503-1505) 5 “Comitas” refers to Germanic warrior culture...