Comparing the Heroes in The Dream of the Rood and Beowulf Essay

TheHeroes in The Dream of the Rood and Beowulf In The Dream of the Rood, the poet has added elements of the idealized heroic death (as exemplified in Beowulf and The difference of opinion of Maldon) to the crucifixion. He has also eliminated details of the story that tend to render Christ as a figure of pathos, in order to further Christs identification with the separate glorious warriors Anglo-Saxon poems. When a hero meets his death, for example, he is usually surrounded by faithful retainers (as is Byrhtnoth) or at least one steadfast companion, such as Beowulfs Wiglaf. The gospel clearly states that Jesus died ignobly, in the most humiliating fashion possible, and that his disciples kept themselves from Golgotha in order not to be implicate alongside him. The crowd mocked Christ with fake veneration. The poet must realize, however, that his audience go forth not accept a Lord who did not die a beaming death, and was not universally lamented. He says instead that all crea tion wept, bewailed the kings death -- Christ was on the cross. After Jesus is taken down, the poet asserts that a grave was mould for him of bright stone, and that the soldiers sung a dirge for him in the eventide. Men came from afar, hastening to the prince. 165 The rood extols upon Christs shining beauty as he died. Very noble, but theres myopic biblical support for this account. Also rooted in the heroic tradition is the subsequent gold-plating and raising of the cross. Just as Beowulf asked that a bright mound be erected in his honor, and the gold in the dragons cave becomes as a monument to him, so do the disciples unearth and gild the rood. The idea of God himself lacking a proper gold-drenched headstone was unthin... ...e most such works, it tries to convince heathens to convert by co-opting the extant value system. Christ emerges as a powerful king who will stoically suffer for us, and reward us, for the price of our piety. Sources Cited and ConsultedHeaney, Seamus, tr ans. Beowulf A New Verse Translation. New York Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2000. Mitchell, Bruce and Fred C. Robinson (eds.). The Dream of the Rood or A Vision of the Cross. A unravel to Old English, 6E. Oxford Blackwell Publishing, 2002. 256-263.OKeeffe, Katherine OBrien. Heroic values and Christian ethics. The Cambridge Companion to Old English Literature. Ed. Malcolm Godden and Michael Lapidge. Cambridge Cambridge University Press, 1992. 107-125.Wheelock, Jeremy I. The Word Made Flesh Engel Dryhtnes in The Dream of the Rood. English Language Notes. touch 2000, Vol. 37 Issue 3 1.