Dream of The Rood - Possible Authorship

Possible Authorship

The author of Dream of the Rood is unknown, but by knowing the approximate date of the Ruthwell Cross, scholars have been able to suggest possible authors. These include the Anglo-Saxon poets Caedmon and Cynewulf.

Knowledge about Caedmon, who flourished in the middle of the 7th century, comes from Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People. According to Bede, Caedmon was an illiterate herdsman who one night dreamt how to praise God by singing beautiful Christian verses. Caedmon then became the foremost Christian poet, who led the way for others such as Bede and Cynewulf. Old English scholar and noted commentator on the Ruthwell Cross Daniel H. Haigh argues that the inscription of the Ruthwell Cross must be fragments of one of Caedmon's lost poems, stating "On this monument, erected about A.D. 665, we have fragments of a religious poem of very high character, and that there was but one man living in England at that time worthy to be named as a religious poet, and that was Caedmon". Another runic scholar, George Stephens contends that the very language and structure of the verses in Dream of the Rood could only have come from the 7th century and a time before Bede. Considering that the only Christian poet before Bede was Caedmon, Stephens makes the point that there could have been no one else during this time period or living in the same area that could have authored the poem other than Caedmon. Furthermore, Stephens claims that there is a runic inscription on the Ruthwell Cross, that, when translated, comes to mean "Caedmon made me". Despite this evidence most scholars reject the Haigh and Stephens assertion that there is in fact such an inscription.

Cynewulf lived roughly c. 770-840 AD, yet very little is known about his life. The only information scholars have on Cynewulf's life is what they can discover from his poetry. Two of Cynewulf's signed poems were discovered in the Vercelli Book, which includes Cynewulf's holy cross poem "Elene" as well as Dream of the Rood. Where many scholars will argue that all of the poems in the Vercelli are in fact Cynewulf's, the noted German scholar Franz Dietrich demonstrates that the similarities between Cynewulf's "Elene" and The Dream of the Rood reveals that the two must have been authored by the same individual. Dietrich makes four main arguments: one, the theme of both poems is the cross, and more importantly, in both poems, the cross suffers with Christ; two, in "Elene" Cynewulf seems to make clear references to the same cross in Dream of the Rood; three, in "Elene" and his other poems Cynewulf usually speaks of himself, which makes it quite possible that the dreamer in Dream of the Rood is none other than Cynewulf himself; and finally four, "In both poems the author represents himself as old, having lost joys or friends and as ready to depart.