Dream of the Rood: Personifying the Cross

DREAM OF THE ROOD: PERSONIFYING THE CROSS

            The story of Jesus Christ's crucifixion is well-known for those in the Christian faith. Because of Christianity's dominance in the western world, the story is recognized among other circles as well. In all biblical accounts of the crucifixion, Jesus meets his end when he is nailed to the cross as a sacrifice for the redemption of humankind. The cross is seen as an inanimate object that is seen only as a tool for destruction. However, in 'Dream of the Rood', the cross is given a voice. It is seen as a character that suffered along with Christ and a beacon of hope for sinners. 

            The cross first appears in the poem as a “more wonderful tree / lifted in the air, wound round with light / the brightest of beams. That beacon was entirely / cased in gold...”¹ This is not an image that is usually associated with the cross. In biblical tellings, the cross is seen only on Good Friday, a dark day, with light and hope returning only three days later on Christ’s resurrection. The cross itself becomes a symbol of hope. The narrator of the poem is able to see their own likeness, their own sins, reflected in the image of the cross. “Wondrous was the victory-tree, and I stained with sins, / wounded with guilts… / Nevertheless, I was able to perceive through that gold / the ancient hostility of wretches, so that it first began / to bleed on the right side. I was all drenched with sorrows.”²

            The cross itself also suffered alongside Christ. The reader is able to feel remorse for the cross as it is personified through the tale it tells to the narrator. The tale starts while it was still a tree; “That was very long ago, I remember it still, / that I was cut down from the edge of the wood, / ripped up by my roots. They seized me there, strong enemies, / made me a spectacle for themselves there, commanded me to raise up their criminals.”³ The strong verbs ‘cut’, ‘ripped’, and ‘seized’ suggest that the tree, as it was taken down to be fashioned into a cross, experienced this as a painful and traumatic event. Then, as Jesus was crucified, the cross also took the nails that drove through his hands. "They pierced me with dark nails; on me are the wounds visible, / the open wounds of malice; I did not dare to injure any of them. / They mocked us both together. I was all drenched with blood / poured out from that man's side after he had sent forth his spirit.”⁴ 

           The narration of the cross expresses a great sorrow at what happened to both it and to the life that was lost through the crucifixion. It is unusual for an account of the cross as if if was a true character in the event. In this narrative, the cross is in every right its own character, if not the main protagonist. It is a character that, normally perceived as merely an object, has a chance to tell its own story. 

1.  Elaine Treharne, trans.. Old and Middle English: An Anthology (Oxford: Blackwell Publishers Ltd., 2000), lines 4-7.
2. Ibid., lines 18-20.
3. Ibid., lines 28-31.
4. Ibid., lines 46-49.

           

Glass Sword by Victoria Aveyard

*Spoilers*


Read: May 30-June 6, 2017
Published: February 9, 2016
Genre: Fantasy

Mare Barrow's blood is red—the color of common folk—but her Silver ability, the power to control lightning, has turned her into a weapon that the royal court tries to control. The crown calls her an impossibility, a fake, but as she makes her escape from Maven, the prince—the friend—who betrayed her, Mare uncovers something startling: she is not the only one of her kind.
Pursued by Maven, now a vindictive king, Mare sets out to find and recruit other Red-and-Silver fighters to join in the struggle against her oppressors. But Mare finds herself on a deadly path, at risk of becoming exactly the kind of monster she is trying to defeat.Will she shatter under the weight of the lives that are the cost of rebellion? Or have treachery and betrayal hardened her forever?




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Why did you read this book?
I read the first one at the request of my sister and had to read the next one. I know, I know, I didn't do a review of the first book, but I'll do a summary in this review.


Super Quick Summary of Red Queen:
Mare is a Red because she has red blood and no powers. The Reds are peasants and live under the rule of Silvers (who have silver blood and powers). Mare is later discovered as a Newblood (a person who has red blood and powers...a combination of a Red and a Silver). The Silver Queen tries to hide this from the people and pass her off as a Silver. They say she is some long lost Silver princess or something and she becomes engaged to the younger prince, Maven. The elder, Cal, is her pal, too, but she doesn't trust him as much. Mare and Maven work with the Red revolutionary group, the Scarlet Guard. However, Maven betrays Mare and Cal and was working against them with the queen the whole time. Cal and Mare have their issues but they escape together and join up with the Scarlet Guard.


What did you like about this book?
In the first book, I really liked Maven, but Cal really grew on me in this one. I enjoyed his character development more than any of the other characters. He went from an almost-king with everything to a Silver, surrounded by Reds, with nothing. And yet, he carried himself with strength and dignity. He was easily my favorite character in this book. I also liked that the characters were on the move, searching for Newbloods. It reminded me of Charles and Erik searching for young mutants in X-Men: First Class. The strange thing about this book is that I didn't really like that much about it, but I needed to know what was going to happen. I enjoyed it overall and had a hard time putting it down, but it's difficult to pinpoint exactly what it was that I enjoyed. I think it was just the way that Victoria Aveyard wrote it. She has done some fantastic world building and created a place that I would love to stay in for another book.


What didn't you like about this book?
The biggest drawback to this book was the characters. There were too many of them all introduced at the same time and I had difficulty remembering who was who outside of the core group (Mare, Cal, Kilorn, Shade, and Farley). I didn't care if any of them died in the missions because I didn't know them. Also, my opinion of Mare dropped dramatically in this book. It dropped right off a cliff. I really liked her in the first book, but she just turned into an awful person throughout Glass Sword, and not even in a way where she could be a good anti-hero. She was selfish and cruel to the people she cared about and she blatantly used them. On top of that she was whiny and stupid, making the same mistakes and not thinking about consequences. It's really hard to read a book when you can hardly stand the voice of it.


Bottom-Line:
I did enjoy it, despite my dislike of the main character. I have high hopes for the third book and I'd recommend the first two to people interested in the young adult dystopia genre.




"No one is born evil, just like no one is born alone. They become that way, through choice and circumstance." -Victoria Aveyard, Glass Sword