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DREAM OF THE ROOD: AN INTERNAL ANALYSIS

Janet Duthie CollinsGodfrey, Illinois

Dream of the Rood (afterwards DR), an Old English poem found in the Vercellimanuscript (ca. 950–1000 a.d.), differs from other Old English poems in that it hasa distinct break in style beginning at line 78. Previous studies mention the presenceof the break, but do not define the differences between the two halves. Dickins andRoss (1956 and 1963) consider the poem to be a composite, consisting of fragmentsfrom two earlier poems, both of which were expanded in the Vercelli DR. Theycompare passages in the A portion (afterwards A) of the Vercelli DR (lines 1-77) tosimilar passages carved on the Ruthwell Cross (ca. 650-750 a.d.), suggesting that theRuthwell Cross and DR were each derived from the same, earlier poem. Because nopassages from the B half (afterwards B) of the Vercelli DR (lines 78-156) areinscribed on the Ruthwell Cross, they consider this an indication that B is derivedfrom a separate, later, unknown source. They further suggest that the original poemfor B was augmented prior to or even at the time of the Vercelli manuscript com-pilation by selections from other, unknown Old English poems (cf. the passage[lines 140-156] that is similar to a passage found in the Harrowing of Hell).

S. Cook (1904) discusses the poem in relation to the four signed Cynewulfpoems in particular, as well as to other Old English poems. Cassidy and Ringler(1971) in their introduction to DR list the possible literary sources for the poem (thepassion gospels and apocalypses of the New Testament, doctrinal and devotionalliterature, and Matthew 27 for the cruxificion) but with no detail.

Bruce Mitchell in his Old English Syntax (1985) discusses various syntactic struc-tures found in DR and compares them to those found in other OE poems. His comments on paratactic and hypotactic constructions in Old English poetry, andspecifically DR, are insightful and thought-provoking. He states that the use or dis-use of parataxis and hypotaxis does not determine authorship—most Old Englishpoems include both constructions and often in the same passage.

All these studies provide extensive comparative notes and discussion regardingboth linguistic and poetic structures of DR to outside writings. However, they donot provide a comparative analysis of the two halves. Most literary studies considerthat the style of B is of lesser quality than is the style of A. No details are given tosupport this evaluation other than the suggestion of disparate poetic abilities. Thereis a need for a detailed linguistic analysis and internal comparison of the poetic andlinguistic features of the poem in order to discover the variables that define the styl-istic differences that would support the perception of a stylistic break between thetwo halves. This paper provides such a study.

The pertinent variables, that together delineate the stylistic differences separat-ing the A and B halves of DR from each other, were found in the lexical, syntactic,and semantic units, and poetic features. Table 1 is a summary table that details thepercentage analysis of each variable. The actual occurrence numbers are includedin the text.

lexical variables. Although a common vocabulary occurs in A and B, each half includes forms not found in the other half. These latter forms are of two types: Type I—individual forms, each a different attribute of the basic form—and Type II—the same form that carries multiple and different meanings accord-ing to context, function, and position. Crist ‘Christ’, man ‘man’, werg ‘criminal’ (asubset of man), rod ‘rood or cross’, and the relative pronouns all belong to the TypeI category. Each has multiple variants that carry essentially the same meaning as thebase word. Each one presents a different facet to the main meaning.

Of the variant forms used to indicate ‘Christ’, five occur in common: dryhten‘Lord’, God ‘God’, Cyning ‘King’, wealdend ‘Ruler’, and Crist ‘Christ’. These wordsmaintain the same connotations throughout the poem. Nine different words mean-ing ‘Christ’ occur in A, each featuring a different aspect of Christ, but collectivelypainting a multifaceted picture: frea ‘Lord’, hælend ‘Savior’, hælet ‘Hero’, beorn ‘Man,Hero, Berne’, hlaford ‘Lord, Loaf-Provider’, guma ‘Man’, ædling ‘Prince’, limwerig ‘thelimb-weary One’, and teoden ‘Prince, Lord’. Five different forms are restricted to B:bearn ‘Bairn, Son’, ealdor ‘Prince’, weard ‘Guardian’, sunu ‘Son’, and anwealda ‘theonly-Ruler’. Each presents an ordinary aspect of Christ.

Three forms for man are used in common: man ‘people, man’, freond ‘friend,supporter’, and reordberend ‘speech bearer’. Seven others occur only in A: earme ‘thewretched ones’, secg ‘man, retainer’, feond ‘wicked man, fiend’, fuse ‘the hasteningones’ (Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus), hilderinc ‘warrior’, beornas ‘men’,tegnas ‘thanes, men, disciples’. Three variants occur that are restricted to B: leode‘people’, folc ‘people’, and hæled ‘man, hero’. Again, the connotations of the wordsused in A are more descriptive than those in B. None of the Old English words for‘criminal’, a subset of man, is used in common. Only two forms occur in A: fracod‘vile ones’ (an adjectival substantive) and werg ‘criminal’. Only one word for ‘crim-inal’ occurs in B: bealuware ‘wicked men’ (a compound word ).

Of the variants of rod meaning ‘cross’, those used in common carry two conno-tations that in many instances simultaneously apply: beam ‘tree/beam’, beacen ‘sign’,sigebeam ‘victory tree’ also carry the connotation of ‘cross’ or ‘Christ’ as well as theprimary meaning. Rod means cross, gallows, or Christ’s cross. Context alone deter-mines whether it indicates gallows used for the execution of criminals or the crossChrist died upon, or is used as a symbol for Christ. Three are restricted to A: treow‘tree’, wudu ‘woods, tree’, and gealga ‘gallows’. Only one form occurs in B, and thatonly once: gealgtreow ‘gallows tree’, a compounding of two individual words, eachof which occurs separately in A.

janet duthie collins332

dream of the rood: an internal analysis 333V

aria

bles

A#

A%

B#

B%

Tota

lV

aria

bles

A#

A%

B#

B%

Tota

lV

aria

bles

A#

A%

B#

B%

Tota

l

1.Le

xica

lC

rist

964

536

14m

an7

703

3010

wer

g‘c

rim

inal

’2

671

333

rod

375

125

4C

ombi

ned

tot

al21

6810

3231

2.A

dver

b of

tim

edæ

r‘t

hen

’3

100

——

3da

‘th

en’

1077

323

13t

onne

‘th

en’

——

310

03

Com

bin

ed t

otal

1368

632

19

3.A

dver

b of

loca

tion

dær

‘th

ere’

1579

421

19

4.Sy

nta

ctic

a.A

ppos

itiv

esV

ocat

ive

——

210

02

Nom

inal

436

764

11A

djec

tiva

l3

100

——

3V

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l (re

duce

d9

100

——

9re

lati

ve)

Hal

f-lin

e cl

ause

583

117

6C

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ned

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al21

6810

3231

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Adj

ecti

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457

343

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um

eric

110

0—

—1

Dem

.tæ

t6

100

——

6D

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—3

100

3C

ombi

ned

tot

al11

656

3517

c.Su

bord

inat

ors

dær

‘wh

ere’

——

610

06

hwæ

r‘w

her

e’—

—1

100

1da

‘wh

en’

250

250

4hw

ænn

e‘w

hen

’—

—1

100

1to

nne

‘th

an’

——

110

01

rel.

pron

oun

s—

—11

100

11sydt

an‘s

ince

’11

695

3116

et.a

l.tæ

t‘th

at’

440

660

10C

ombi

ned

tot

al17

3433

6650

5.Li

ne

len

gth

Hyp

erm

etri

c32

971

333

Reg

ula

r46

3777

6312

3C

ombi

ned

tot

al78

5078

5015

6

6.Li

nka

geA

syn

deti

c70

7820

2290

para

taxi

sSy

nde

tic

630

1470

20pa

rata

xis

Hyp

otax

is12

2732

7344

(su

bord

inat

ion

)C

ombi

ned

tot

al88

5766

4315

4

7.R

elat

ive

clau

se—

—11

100

11R

edu

ced

1010

0—

—10

rela

tive

cla

use

Com

bin

ed t

otal

1048

1152

21

8.H

alf-

line

clau

ses

Hyp

erm

etri

c5

100

——

5su

bord

inat

eR

egu

lar

——

1310

013

subo

rdin

ate

Reg

ula

r17

4620

5437

com

plet

eH

yper

met

ric

3397

13

34co

mpl

ete

Com

bin

ed t

otal

5562

3438

89

9.C

lau

se w

ord

orde

r se

tsA

lter

nat

ing

410

0—

—4

OV

/VO

Ver

b-in

itia

l9

901

1010

Ver

b-in

itia

l36

7313

2749

Cla

use

(al

l)A

dver

b-in

itia

l12

715

2917

Com

bin

ed t

otal

6176

1923

87

10.C

lau

se-i

nit

ial

686

114

7ad

verb

hw

ædr

e

11.C

lau

se w

ord

orde

r se

tsD

islo

cati

on18

5813

1431

Dis

jun

ctio

n21

728

2829

Bot

h d

islo

cati

on5

712

297

&di

sju

nct

ion

Com

bin

ed t

otal

4466

2333

67

Tabl

e 1.

Perc

enta

ge d

iffe

ren

ce o

fsi

gnifi

can

t va

riab

les.

Relative pronouns make up the last of Type I words. They are formed by theselection of the appropriate form from the demonstrative pronoun paradigms se,dæt, and seo.

This form is then combined with the indeclinable particle te. The form each takesis determined by the gender, number, case, and word class of the antecedent noun,e.g., sede (‘he who’, nominative singular masculine form of the demonstrative se plusthe indeclinable particle te/de). Se and te are also used separately as relative pro-nouns. Relative pronouns occur only in B. Complete relative clauses do not occur inA; only reduced relative clauses do. The multiple occurrences of reduced relativeclauses in A reinforces the perception of a stylistic difference between A and B.

Type II variations consist of those function words which carry multiple mean-ings. Each meaning is brought out according to context and function. Although asingle form with a specific meaning can be statistically insignificant (too few occur-rences), when combined with other related but also statistically insignificant forms,the combined total number of occurrences becomes statistically significant.

The first Type II is dær/tær. It has three separate meanings according to position,function, and context: the first meaning is ‘then’, an adverb of time/sequence, whichoccurs only in A three times1:

(1) …tæt ic wæs aheawen holtes on ende,astyred of stefne minum; genaman me dær strange feondas,geworhton him tær to wafersyne, heton me heora wergas hebban,bæron me dær beornas on eaxlum, odtæt hie me on beorg asetton,gefæstnodon me dær feondas genoge. 29–33

[…that I was hewn on the wood’s edge,deprived of my voice; strong fiends took me then,wrought for/to themselves then a spectacle, commanded me raise up

their criminals,men bore me then on shoulders, until they placed me on a mountain,enough vile men fastened me there (a locative ).]

The second meaning is ‘there’, a locative adverb. It is common to both A and B, butpredominantly found in A (15 occurrences, but only 4 in B):

(2) Aledon hie dær limwerigne… 63they laid there the limbweary one…

The last meaning is ‘where’, a subordinate conjunction occuring only in B (6 times):

(3) tær ic ana wæs mæte wereda 124where I was alone in a small group (idiom for ‘alone’)

Hwær meaning ‘where’ is also a subordinate conjunction found once and only in B:

janet duthie collins334

(4) hwær se man sie. 112where the man is.

The second Type II form is tonne. It functions either as a subordinate conjunctionor as an adverb, each with a different meaning according to function. Both occuronly in B. The first meaning, ‘than’, the subordinate conjunction, is used only incomparatives (once):

(5) tæt ic tone sigebeam secan mote ana oftor tonne ealle men 127[that I may seek the victory tree/crossalone oftener than all men]

tonne, meaning ‘then’, is an adverb of time, occuring only in B (3 time):

(6) ne tearf dær tonne ænig anforht wesan 117any there do not need then to be afraid

The third Type II form is ta/da, with two functions and a different meaning foreach, according to context. ta/da, ‘then’ is an adverb that indicates sequential time.It occurs twice in each half:

(7) He da on heofenas astag. 103He then ascended into the heavens.

ta/da ‘when’ is a subordinate conjunction that indicates time. This subordinator isused three times in A and twice in B:

(8) ta ic bifian geseah eordan sceatas. 36when I saw the earth’s surface tremble/shake.

The fourth Type II form hwænne ‘when’ is also a subordinator, indicating time. Itoccurs once and only in B:

(9) hwænne me Dryhtnes rod… gefetige… 136when Christ’s cross shall fetch me…

syntactic variables. The use of certain syntactic units also contributes to thegrammatical and stylistic differences between A and B. These syntactic units con-sist of appositives, substantives, complete relative and reduced relative clauses, linelength, dislocation and disjunction of word order, word order patterning,parataxis, and hypotaxis.

dream of the rood: an internal analysis 335

Appositives are elaborations not required by the story line but inserted in orderto fulfill alliterative or other poetic requirements. In DR, appositive constructionstakes five forms: vocative, nominal, adjectival, verbal, and clausal. Each fulfills a different function. If an appositive set alone is not of a sufficient number of occur-rences to be significant, the combined total can be definitive in distinguishingbetween the styles of A and B.

The function of the vocative is to attract the hearer’s attention as well as to meetpoetic requirements. It should be noted that an appositive can have an appositiveof its own as in (10) below. There hæled min is the vocative to the subject tu, whilese leofa, an appositive adjectival substantive, explicates the vocative appositive:

(10) Nu du miht gehyran hæled min se leofa 78, 95Now you might hear my hero, the dear (one)

The nominal appositive is a descriptive phrase that can further delineate the refer-ent noun, (11) below, or can be just another way of saying the same thing, (12), (13)below—no new information or very little is added. Four occur in A and seven in B.

(11) scire sciman 54‘bright radiance’, modifying Wealadendes hræw ‘the Lord’s corpse’

(12) Anwealda ælmihtig 153the almighty Only-Ruler

(13) ælmihtig God 93, 106, 156almighty God

Appositive adjective phrases fulfill the same function as the noun phrase apposi-tives do. They occur only in A. All three are in superlative constructions:

(14) beama beorhtost 6the brightest of trees (i.e., Christ’s cross)

Verbal appositives are reduced relative clauses that either repeat or elaborate on anantecedent predicate using different words. The verb is either a past participle, apresent participle, or an adjectival substantive. There are nine reduced relativeclauses in A and none in B. The reverse is true for the full relative clause, all in B butnone in A (cf. above discussion on Type I relative pronouns).

(15) leohte bewunden 5wound (around) by light

(16) dær licgende lange hwile 24lying there a long while

(17) synnum fah 13stained by sin

janet duthie collins336

An appositive can be an appositive to another appositive as (18) is to (17):

(18) forwunded mid wommum 14grieviously wounded by sin

The clausal appositive is the last type noted in DR. This appositive consists of afour word, 1/2 line long, independent clause that inserts extraneous comment notrequired by the story line (19), acts as a nominal modifier (20), or provides a com-mentary on a particular passage (21). The clausal appositive occurs only in A.

(19) ic tæt gyta gemon 28I remember that yet

(20) tæt wæs God ælmihtig 39that was God almighty

(21) tæt wæs egeslic wyrd! 74that was a dreadful fate!

The second syntactic variable is the substantive—adjectival, numeric, or demon-strative. Although adjectival substantives occur almost equally in A (4) and B (3),those in A provide an entirely different flavor to the style of A than does the pedes-trian adjectival selection used in B—contrast (24) and (25) with (26) and (27).

(22) fuse 57the hastening (ones)

(23) limwerigne 63the limb-weary (One) (i.e., Christ)

(24) fea 115the few (people)

(25) mid ta halgum 143, 154with the holy (ones)

When a numeric is used as a substantive, the number itself is used without anaccompanying noun. The only occurrence is in A.

(26) swylce tær fife wæron uppe on the eaxlgespanne 8likewise five were there up on the crossbar

The last syntactic variable consists of demonstratives used as nominal substantives.There are six occurrences of the form tæt, all restricted to A. Three differentdemonstrative forms are used as nominal substantives in B: dam, tan, and se.

(27) tæt wæs geara iu—ic tæt gyta geman 27that was long ago—I remember that yet

dream of the rood: an internal analysis 337

(28) for tan ic trymfæst nu hlifige under heofenum 84for that I glorious now tower under heaven

(29) me is willa to dam mycel on mode 129my desire to that is great in mind

(30) se ah domes geweald 107that (one) possessed the power of judgment

line length. The next stylistic difference is brought about by line length. Hyper-metric lines change style through an increase in the number of words, syllables, andprimary stresses within the line. Hypermetric lines are a means of expansion, a wayto add more details. They also alter the character of the poem wherever they occur,making it wordier than the terse four-foot line inherited from Early Old English.The contrast between a hypermetric line and a regular one is great. Hypermetriclines can have an extra foot in either half line (31) or in both half lines of a line (32).

(31) strang ond stidmod; gestah he on gealgan heanne… 40strong and resolute; he mounted on the gallows high…

(32) Bedealf us man on deopan seate: hwædre me tær Dryhtnes tegnas 75One buried us in a deep pit: nevertheless God’s thanes [adorned]

me there…

There are 32 hypermetric lines in A, interspersed among the regular four-foot lines,but only one in B (line 133). The hypermetric line in B does not differ in form fromthose in A:

(33) gewiton of worulde dreamum, sohton him wuldres Cyning. 133went from the world’s joys, sought for themselves the King of Glory.

A comparison of regular lines hypermetric lines illustrates the stylistic contrastexisting between the two line lengths (34). The give and take or tension betweenhypermetric and regular lines in A helps differentiate A’s style from B’s.

(34) Syllic wæs se sigebeam, and ic synnum fah,forwunded mid wommum, geseah ic wuldres treowwædum geweordod, wynnum scinan. 15–16[Wondrous was the victory tree, and I stained with sin,grievously wounded with sin, I saw the tree of glorydecorated by weeds (coverings) shine beautifully.]

word order dislocation and /or disjunction. The dominant word order pat-terns of all syntactic units is OV. VO word order occurs only when a reordering isnecessary to meet alliteration and/or stress requirements. Three processes occur

janet duthie collins338

that reorder the elements of a syntactic unit. Dislocation, the first process, reversesthe positions of contiguous elements (gebiden hæbbe in (36)). The second process,disjunction, maintains the regular order but inserts extraneous elements fromother syntactic units between the syntactic elements (cf. separation of be and thepast participial form by adverbial phrase, in (35)). The third process is that of dis-junction and dislocation in the same syntactic unit (also illustrated in (36)). Theposition of feala, the governing head of the genitive wradra wyrda, normally wouldoccur after the genitive noun phrase; however, dislocation reversed the positions offeala and wradra wyrda, and disjunction separated the unit elements with themedial insertion of ic on tam beorge gebiden hæbbe.

(35) wæs mid wætan bestemed 22was with moisture made wet

(36) Feala ic on tam beorge gebiden hæbbe wradra wyrda. 50–51Many I on the mount endured have of cruel experiences.

word order sets. Interplay in clause word order also affects style. The interplayconsists of alternating clausal OV and VO word order in successive half lines. Fourinstances occur in A but none in B.

(37) synnum fah, forwunded mid wommum 13–14with sin stained, sorely wounded with sin

(38) …hwilum hit wæs mid wætan bestemed, 22–23beswyled mid swates gange, hwilum mid since gegyrwed.

[…at times it was with moisture suffused,drenched with blood’s flow, at times with treasure arrayed.]

The second is the grouping of successive verb-initial clauses into sets which con-trasts with other clause beginnings. Nine sets occur in A and only one in B (Cf.example (1), with genaman, geworhton and bæron in verb-initial positions)

The third clause word order patterning is the clause-initial adverb instead of aclause medial or final position. There are 12 occurrences in A, and five in B. Hwædre‘nevertheless’ occurs six times in A and only once in B; all other clause-initialadverbs involve different adverbs with one occurrence each.

(39) Hwædre ic turh tæt gold… 18Nevertheless, I through that gold…

linkage. The three sentence and clause linkage patterns differ quite strikinglybetween A and B. Asyndetic parataxis occurs when periodic sentences follow oneanother (neither conjunction or subordination occur).

dream of the rood: an internal analysis 339

(40) Rod wæs ic aræred; ahof ic ricne Cyning,heofona Hlaford; hyldan me ne dorste. 44–45[I was raised a cross; I lifted up the great King,the Lord of the heavens; I dared not bend myself.]

Syndetic parataxis occurs when two or more coordinate sentences are linkedthrough conjunction (ond ‘and’, ac ‘but’, or odde ‘or’).

(41) Ac hie tonne forhtiad, ond fea tencat 115But they then are afraid and few think

The last linkage pattern, hypotaxis, occurs when linkage occurs via subordinationof one clause to another using sydtan ‘when, after’, oddæt ‘until’, ta ‘when’, swa ‘so’,tær ‘where’, hwænne ‘when’, hwær ‘where’, swylce swa ‘just as’, tæt ‘that’, ærtan ‘be-fore’, tonne ‘than’, or any relative pronoun.

(42) tæt he tonne wile deman, se ah domes geweald,anra gehwylcum, swa he him ærur heron tyssum lænum life geearnat. 107[that he then will judge, that one who possesses the power of judging,everyone, as he for himself before herein this fleeting life earns.]

Asyndetic parataxis (periodic sentences without subordination or conjunction) isfar more common in A than in B, 70 occurrences in A, and 20 in B. The reverse per-tains regarding syndetic parataxis (coordinate conjunction but no subordination)with six (6) occurrences in A, 14 in B). This is a not surprising result considering B’spropensity for clause linkage via conjunction.

Hypotaxic subordination is more prevalent in B also with only 12 occurrences inA but 32 in B. No relative clauses occur in A, but 11 do in B (included in the totaloccurrences of subordination. The lack of relative clauses, is turn, also affects styleand tone, and is a key factor that distinguishes A from B. Both A and B contain linesin which syndetic and asyndetic parataxis and hypotaxis all occur in the same passage.

(43) tuhte me tæt ic gesawe syllicre treow 4on lyft lædan, leohte bewunden,beama beorhtost. Eall tæt beacen wæsbegoten mid golde; gimmas stodonfægere æt foldan sceatum; swylce tær fife wæronuppe on the eaxlgespanne. Beheoldon tær engel Dryhtnes ealle,fægere turh fordgesceaft. Ne wæs dær huru fracodes gealga,ac hine tær beheoldon halige gastes, 11men ofer moldon ond eall teos mære gesceaft. 12

janet duthie collins340

(43) [(It) seemed to me that I saw a more marvelous treeextend in the air, wound around by light,the brightest of trees. All that beacon wasbegotten with gold; fair gems stood at the earth’s corners; likewise there five were up on the crossbeam. All beheld there God’s angel fair through eternal decree. Indeed, a criminal’s gallow was not there,but there him beheld holy spirits,men over the earth, and all this great creation.]

In (43) there is hypotactic subordination indicated by tæt (line 4); syndeticparataxis indicated by ac (line 11) between clauses and also by ond (line 12) betweenserial nouns; the first and second nouns of this series in lines 11–12 show asyndeticparataxis (halige gastes, men ofer moldon) as do the clauses in lines 6, 7, and 8 (ealltæt beacen…; gimmas stodon…; swylce tær…) and the appositives in lines 3–4 (leohte bewunden, beama beorhtost). In (44) there are three instances of clausalhypotaxis (subordination): hwær, sede, and swa. The opening clause is the mainclause; the following three clauses are subordinate to it.

(44) frined he for tære mænige hwær se man sie,sede for Dryhtenes naman deades woldebiteres onbyrigan, swa he ær on dam beam dyde. 112–14[asks he before the many where the man is,who for God’s name would taste bitter death,as he before did on the cross.]

The greater number of half-line, complete clauses found in A, 55, vs. 34 in B, empha-sizes the terseness of A’s style.

(45) tæt wæs geara iu—ic tæt gyta geman— 28That was of years long ago— I remember that yet—

While there are only 5 subordinate clauses in A (each in a hypermetric line), thereare 13 in B (each in a regular line). Furthermore, there are 33 complete half lineclauses in A (each in a hypermetric line), but only 1 in the single hypermetricline in B. There is a greater number of half-line complete clauses in A than there isin B. Another stylistic difference is that the half-line clauses in B contain morewords than do the half-line clauses in A

conclusions. Analysis shows that the stylistic differences between A and B werebrought about by the differences in linguistic practices of the poets. No evidencewas found to support the charge of lesser poetic ability of the B poet as the maincause of the stylistic difference.

dream of the rood: an internal analysis 341

Analysis of the test variables and their percentage differences (presented inTable 1) clearly reveals the ones that cause the significant break in style and tonebeginning at line 79.

Lexical, semantic, and syntactic function factors together with poetic factors allcontributed to the stylistic differences. Although a single form in a varible set witha specific meaning can be statistically insignificant (too few occurrances), when itis combined with other members of the same set, the combined set becomes statis-tically significant (cf. appositives, subordinators, and substantives above).

The greater use of half-line appositives in A, contrasted to the very sparse use inB, defines the differences between the two halves. The use of reduced relative clausesand a total lack of complete relative clauses in A resulted in more short and terse halflines in A than in B. The extensive subordination and use of complete relative clausesin B further underscored the stylistic differences. The extensive use of hypermetriclines in A (32), adding more words and syllables to the affected half and full lines, didnot reduce the impact of parataxis (successive periodic sentences) in A.

The combination of more subordinate clauses (hypotaxis) in B than in A, theextensive use of asyndetic paratactic clauses in A, and many fewer occurrences in B,emphasizes the style difference between the A and B sections.

Lastly, clause word order set patterning in A significantly affects the style of A,and widens the contrast with the style of B. Such set patterning is rare in B.

The difference in the story type of each half—the active narrative form of A con-trasted to the quiet, more reflective homiletic form of B—reinforces the impact ofthe stylistic and tonal break caused by the linguistic differences.

The two halves of The Dream of the Rood together form a very satisfactorywhole—the striking linguistic differences of each, combined with the story formatdifferences, enhance the tragedy, glory, brilliance, and passion of the poem.

1 All citations are followed by their line numbers. Glosses of multiline citations are pre-sented in square brackets to distinguish them visually from the citations themselves.

REFERENCES

Cassidy, Frederic G. & Richard N. Ringler, ed. 1971. Bright’s Old English gram-mar and reader. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.

Cook, A. S. 1905. The dream of the rood. Oxford:Clarendon Press.Dickins, Bruce & Alan S. C. Ross, eds. 1963 edition. The dream of the rood.

London: Methuen & Co. Ltd.Krapp, George P., ed. 1932. The Vercelli book. New York: Columbia University

Press. (vol. 5 of Anglo-Saxon poetic records.)Mitchell, Bruce. Old English syntax, vols. 1 and 2. 1985. Oxford: Clarendon

Press.

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