Scholars have long made an earnest search for analogues to The Dream of the Rood,but the very remoteness of the parallels thus afforded so far is a unique testimony to the high degree of originality in the poem. Closer in some ways than any of them, in that it gives us a dialogue with the cross, the "Disputation between Mary and the Cross" might have been cited; but here again comparison shows that the Dream is a poem standing apart in the unusually fine quality of its inspiration and in its genuine feeling. The poet seems to have had little to work on for a basis, either as a source or as a guide. Yet we know that he was deeply religious and we can be sure that he must have been thoroughly acquainted with those parts of the ecclesiastical service which were devoted to the celebration of the cross. In writing such a poem he could hardly rid his mind of all the echoes of the hymns and responsive utterances and the liturgical offices which he was accustomed to hear at various times during the church year.

No hymn or piece of liturgy seems to have furnished him a model, and nothing could be more different in spirit and manner than his work and the type of hymn probably accessible to him. The poet writes primarily as a narrator; subjective expression in the form of complaint or panegyric comes in only incidentally, although perhaps all the more spontaneously. But he naturally would express himself in the idiom of the church. And it is the purpose of this study to trace such resemblances as may be found and to detect allusions which seem to have been deliberate, in order to gain a further knowledge of the poet's working method and to assist in reproducing a sense of the connotativeness of the poem. Its meaning for contemporary readers or hearers will thus be shown deepened; we may arrive at some conclusions regarding its relation to certain other Anglo-Saxon treatments of parts of the theme; and our conclusions may have some bearing on the general problem of the attribution of the poem.

What were the liturgical forms familiar to the poet? We may safely conjecture the general outlines from those of a somewhat later period. In regard to the hymns the difficulty is greater because presumably the hymns follow no traditional scheme. Yet even here, beautiful as the hymns are, the phrases in speech and figure are often stereotyped formulae which were freely passed around; andby reviewing the common stock of a later time we can assume with fair safety that the figures were known in some earlier form. Wholesale borrowing from an early favorite is one of the most striking features in the growth of hymnology. And if the Dream of the Rood shows a use of the phrase or formula turning up generally elsewhere, it seems extremely likely that the Anglo-Saxon poet was the debtor. I shall attempt to point out all such borrowings, and in doing so I shall include many slighter reminiscences or casual parallels which I should not mention in a strict category. Since the chief point consists in the number of the parallels, so far as the hymns are concerned, I shall put them in the body of the discussion rather than in the footnotes.

Þuhte me þaet ic gesawe syllicre treow
  on lyft lædan leohte bewunden,
  beama beorhtost. Eall þæt beacen wæs
  begoten mid golde; gimmas stodon.
DR, ll . 4-6.

As scholars have noted before, these lines afford a tantalizing parallel to some similar lines in the Elene, which I shall quote, together with the Latin of the Acta Sanct., to see whether any conclusions may be reached in regard to the resemblance.

  Geseah he frætwum beorht
wlitig wuldres treo ofer wolcna hrof
golde geglenged: gimmas lixtan.
wæs se blaca beam bocstafum awriten
beorhte and leohte.
Elene, ll. 88-92.

Intendens in caelum vidit signum crucis Christi
ex lumine claro constitutum, et desuper litteris
aureis scriptum titulum.
Holth., Elene, p. 4,1. 85.

The parallel to the Elene at first seems remarkable and among the points of similarity may be noted the following: "ic gesawe" (geseah he); "syllicre treow" (wuldres treo); "beama beorhtost" (se blaca beam); "begoten mid golde" (golde geglenged); "gimmas" (gimmas). Yet there are certain points in which the Dream is closer to the Latin: "on lyft" (in caelum); "leohte bewunden" (ex lumine claro constitutum); the use of "beacen" in this connection (signum). And some of the ways in which it resembles the Elene fade in importance when more carefully examined. "Ic gesawe" is necessary in the Dream as part of the obvious schematism (see also 11. 21, 33, 51, pointed out by [Albert S.] Cook in his edition, p. 17, n. 14.) The use of "treow" is natural in either case as an epithet for the cross, since it is the usual gloss for lignum and arbor of the hymns.

The use of "beama" here may have more significance. But we may note that it is also to be found in a similar passage in the Riddles:

Ic seah on bearwe beam hlifian
tanum torhtne.
Rid., 54,ll. 1. ff.

One may add Rid., 56, 1. 7; and Crist (Part III), 1. 1089.

It may be objected that "beacen" of theDream cited as a parallel to signum in the Latin is also found in the Elene, 1. 100: "Swa he þæt beacen geseah." But there it is the equivalent of some form of "viso autem signo" and has nothing to do with the lines I have quoted. It is necessary to add that "beacen" is not much evidence either way, since as "signum" it is common enough in the hymns: Mone, i, p. 174,1. 7 (Crux insignis palmæ signum); Daniel, iv, p. 276,1. 9 (Crux est signum, quod est dignum); IV, p. 185 and Mone, I, p. 145 (signum salutis); Daniel v, p. 183 (triumphale signum); Dreves, IX, p. 26, No. 25, la (signum Christi triumphale); XXXIX, p. 21, No. 9, 4a (signum triumphale); XLVIII, p. 57, No. 58 (venerabile signum). Most striking of all is the appearance in the liturgical phrase: "Hoc signum crucis erit in caelo." This phrase is an almost sufficient explanation for the entire passage in the Dream and with this in mind there is hardly any need to call on Constantine's vision. The way it could be expanded may be suggested by the use of the same idea in the Irish Altus Prosator: "Xristo de celis domino descendente celissimo profulgebit clarissimum signum crucis et vexillum."

My conclusions regarding the similarity to the Elene, then, are these: the episode in the Dream may possibly be based on one having nothing to do with the story of the Inventio; the verbal parallels may be due to the general similarity in situation (we have already seen the parallels in the Riddles and I shall refer to Daniel, 11. 496 ff. later); in at least two expressions the Dream is closer to the Latin. The detail of gold and gems in both the Dream and the Elene is certainly of the highest importance, but I shall reserve that for special study. If anything can be deduced at present it is that if the Dream alludes to the episode in the Inventio, it went straight to some source approximating the Latin, while the Elene utilized both the Dream and the Inventio story. What version of the Inventio may have been known to the poet of the Dream it is, of course, impossible to say; but he may have found his source in some form used in the lectio for the feast of the Inventio. For instance, in the York Breviary (Surtees Soc., ii, col. 272, lectio ij) we have: "Et intuens in celum: vidit signum crucis Christi." In a different version the shining of the cross may have been added, which is a regular detail in Constantine's vision.

Begoten mid golde; gimmas stodon
fægere set foldan sceatum, swylce þær fife
  wæron
uppe on þam eaxlgespanne.
DR, ll. 7-9.

On this passage Serrazin bases his argument for the intimate connection with the Elene: "Dass aber Constantinus, nach K's Darstellung das Kreuz schon in der kostbaren Verzierung gesehen haben soll, welche ihm erst nach der Auffindung zuteil wurde, ist ein offenbarer Anachronismus, der sich nur dadurch erklärt, dass dem Dichter das visionäre Kreuz Constantins so vor dem geistigen Auge schwebte, wie es dem Traumseher erschienen war." Ebert's comment in another connection but on the same general idea is applicable here—that such a conclusion assumes that the poet of the Dream or of the Elene could see no other passage on the subject and no example of such a cross other than the one first described.

The chief problem is whether there were such crosses in England at the time in question. Ebert cites two allusions, both of which are however somewhat inferential: the Ded. S. Crucis of the Pontificale of the Archbishop of York—here "in splendore cristalli" may well refer to the "crux de christallo," carried in the English Church in Eastertide until Ascension Day, which after all may not have been a jewelled cross; in Tatwine's Riddle the word "nitescere" may describe the shining beryl or merely thelight of a gold cross. Supporting evidence is derived from Ebert's examples of gemmed crosses of the time, but it must be said that the force of the total argument is slight compared with what we should have. If we are to believe that the poet actually saw such a cross, would he not have been so much impressed by such a rarity as to have devoted much more of his description, indeed the whole poem, to its details? Would not a crux gemmata have seemed a rarity in England in the eighth or ninth centuries, as we might infer from the material so far adduced?

It seems well worth while to collect the evidence to show that there were many such crosses in the British Isles and that the poet did not need to depend on a vision for the details. Precious stones, possibly jewels, were used in ornamenting the early churches; most interestingly for us in the Priory at Hexham:

Porro beatae memoriae, adhuc vivens gratia Dei, Acca episcopus, qui magnalia ornamenta hujus multiplicis domus de auro et argento, lapidibusque pretiosis et quomodo altaria purpura et serico induta decoravit, quis ad explanandum sufficere potest.

Pope Gregory sent the famous cross of Columcille to Iona as early as 590. We may note that the jewelled cross was common in Europe in the early period: still extant are those in the mosaics in Italy, dating from the fourth to the eighth century. They are plain Roman or slightly pattée, and both the crossbeam and the upright are jewelled. Some of them have specifically five jewels on the cross-beam: that in S. Apollinare in Classe in Ravenna; that in the catacomb of Pontianus; and that in S. Giov. Laterano in Rome. The number varies, however, in other crosses of this type: for example, that in the apse of S. Pudenziana; that in S. Paolo fuori le mura; and that in the apse of S. Teodoro. The evidence shows that this cross was widely popular. It came from a Byzantine source, apparently, and spread over Europe, not merely in the form of mosaics but in other decorative forms. And with the Oriental influence so powerful in Celtic and early English Christianity, it seems more than likely that it penetrated to the British Isles. The form appears in the plain English altar cross, and the jewelled type is reproduced in the well-known Cross of Cong.

But what evidence we have indicates that this particular form arrived later than the period with which we are concerned. And even if it were known earlier, one might well question why, if this was the cross the poet had in mind, he laid so much emphasis on the five jewels of the cross-beam and neglected the greater number on the upright. Furthermore, there is no reason for supposing that the number on the crossbeam was likely to have been just five.

But another type of cross was familiar in England at the very time when the poem was probably composed, and it affords a more satisfactory explanation of the passage. I refer to the Celtic cross, which may be most readily recalled in the forms in stone: the arms of equal length and pattée, usually placed in a circle. Sometimes in each angle is a dot or small cross, making—with the circle or boss at the center—five units of ornamentation. This last characteristic is extremely common in the Celtic cross of English and Scottish territory. In the stone representations it will be found that whatever the variation in the arrangement of the dots, crosses, or bosses, importance seems to be attached to the number five.

The significance of these crosses for us may now be clear, and their importance will be greater if we can find any replicas of the type using precious stones. Fortunately there is good evidence that the same type was used in the jewelled cross; and this too maintains the quincunx, some-times with the jewels in place of the dots or crosses and sometimes with a gem at the end of each beam. The form appears in the ornamentation of the box of St. Molaise; and in the pectoral cross formerly considered the property of St. Cuthbert. Here it is comprehensible what the poet means by the five jewels on the "eaxlgespan," since they would form the chief points of color and decoration. And here we have another link between a "Cynewulfian" poem and Celtic Christianity.

The general explanation of the use of the number five in the bosses has been the symbolism of the five wounds. Thus [W. O.] Stevens and J. R. Allen have held this view. Bayley, engaged in propounding another thesis however, glances at it with hostility: "The five knobs or bosses erroneously supposed to represent the 'five wounds of Christ,' are of frequent occurrence." For the jewels on the cross, Cook quotes another interpretation from the Legenda Aurea: "And in sign of these four virtues the four corners of the cross be adorned with precious gems and stones. And in the most apparent place is charity, and on the right side is obedience, and on the left side is patience, and beneath is humility, the root of all the virtues." This suggestion is supported by the use of the same virtues in the ladder figure of the cross in Alanus de Insulis. An Anglo-Saxon reading of the significance of such elements, although it does not touch on the number, gives a similar idea:

Þurh þæet gold we understandað geleafan and god in gehygd; þurh þæt seolfor riht lice spræce and getingnysse on Godes lare; ðurh þa deorwurðan gymstanes halige mihte.

The jewels, then, may have symbolized certain virtues.

On the other hand, Durandus tells us in the Rationale: "Crux in medio altar significat passiones quam Christus in medio tre subsit." We should expect the wounds to receivespecial attention since they are given so much emphasis in the hymns and the liturgy. The five crosses cut in the altar stones and the five signs of the cross are taken as similarly symbolical. With these may be associated the five grains of incense in the liturgy, and the five stones in David's bag. And if the symbolism was not a matter of some special study and opinion, but the laity in general was expected to know it and derive benefit from it, the evidence for a symbolism other than that of the five wounds would have to be pretty general. Five is not a steady number for the virtues, which are usually classified as four or seven. It seems fairly safe, therefore, to believe that in the Dream the poet mentions the five jewels not only because they were prominent in the actual cross that he knew, but because they represented the sacred wounds, an interpretation of some power.

At this point we may note that the Elene, though it mentions jewels, gives no specific number. Here again, then, if there is any relation between the two poems, the Dream is probably the earlier, or at least it is not indebted to the Elene. Some difficulties remain in the lines of the Dream: the meaning of "fægere aet foldan sceatum" is not quite clear. Perhaps a hint may be found in the passage of the Daniel (11. 500-501):

Ac he hlifode to heofontunglum,
swilce he oferfæðmde foldan sceatas.

The "foldan sceatas" are the corners of the earth, to which the cross reaches as it spreads over the sky. "Stodon" in the Dream, describing the position of the jewels, is fairly strong, possibly meaning something like "stood out." The whole passage I should then read as follows: "Gems stood out (on the cross) shining fair to the corners of the earth; five of these there were, above, on the shoulder-span." The five, as we have seen, were very likely those of the Celtic cross, grouped in a quincunx at the junction of the beams.

Fracoðes gealga.
DR, l. 10.

Cook notes this expression as "a comparatively infrequent designation of the cross." But see Crist and Satan, 11. 511, 550; Menologium, 1. 86; A. S. Hymns (Surtees Soc.), p. 78 (Vexilla regis), 1. 4, "patibulo" glossed "gealgan"; F. E. Warren, The Leofric Missal, Oxford 1883, p. 141 (crucis patibulum); Dreves, ix, p. 27, 5b (In ligno transverso sacri patibuli); Chevalier, Poéesie Lit. du Moy. Age, p. 176, LVI (152); Prudentius, p. 248, 1. 641; Benedictionale S.Æthelwold (X cent., MS., Archaeologia XXIV, p. 108, "per beatae crucis patibulum.")

"Ne wæs þæt …fracooes gealga" might be a reference to the cross of one of the thieves, which would naturally be in the mind of anyone in connection with the Inventio Crucis. But "fracoo" is not paralleled in the Elene; the two sinners are called "scaoena" in the A. S. prose (EETS, XLVI, p. 13), one of them "sceaþæ" in twelfth century prose (EETS, CIII, p. 32,1. 25); the gloss of latro in Wuelcker's Vocabularies is usually sceapa, sometimes þefe; and the whole sentence may be simply a case of Anglo-Saxon understatement.

Syllic wæs se sigebeam.
DR, l. 13.

"Sigebeam" occurs several times in the Elene, as Cook has noted, but the kenning is familiar in the hymns and the liturgy. "Beam" is usually the gloss of trabes; but the reference to the cross in this compound is so direct that we can hardly be arbitrary in considering it the equivalent of lignum. For the hymns we may note the following uses: Mone, I, p. 137 (Salve lignum triumphale); Daniel, v, 183, st. 3; Mone, I, p. 159, 11. 13 (triumphale lignum); Morel, Lat. Hymnen, p. 27, 1. 85; Dreves, XXXI, p. 94, No. 74, st. 7 (O crux, lignum triumphale). For the kindred expression, sigebeacen, sigorbeacen, or sigores tacen, found only in the Elene, note the following: Daniel, v, p. 183 (Ave, triumphale signum); Dreves, IX, p. 26, No. 25, la (Signum Christi triumphale); XXXIX, p. 21, No. 9, 4a (signum triumphale).Compare Prudentius, p. 38, 1. 83 (Dic tropeum passionis, dic triumphalem crucem); Mone, I, p. 142, 11. 35 (signum victoriæ); York Missal, Surtees Soc., II, p. 103 (signum triumphale). Cook,DR, p. 16 (also Crist, notes) takes the Anglo-Saxon expressions as referring to "the victorious sign seen by Constantine," but the use in the hymns shows that unnecessary.

             Geseah ic wuldres treow
wælum geweorðod     wynnum scinan.
DR, ll. 14-15.

Cook (p. 17) compares the Elene 11. 88-90, which I have already quoted. Here we may noteespecially the phrase "wlitig wuldres treo" ("geseach ic" in DRI have dealt with in the other connection). Both passages, however, may profitably be compared with one in the Vexilla regis with its Anglo-Saxon translation:

Arbor decora et fulgida
Ornata regis purpura.

treow wlitig ond scinende
gefrætewod cynges mid godewebbe.

Purpura is regularly glossed "godewebb" (see Napier, O. E. Glosses) which means a purple cloth or any rich material. "Wædum" may hold some reminiscence of this expression. Certainly it has nothing to do with the vexillum, which is glossed "guþfana," and which, it is interesting to note, did not appear in the Sarum and York use. The suggestion offered by Stevens that "wædum" "may be a recollection of the veiling of the rood on Good Friday," although it receives some support from line 22, is rendered doubtful by the context here, which has entirely to do with "wynnum," "golde," and "gimmas." On the other hand, line 22 may be read with the meaning "purpura" for "wædum" and it does not lose in clearness or significance thereby.

         Geseah ic þæt fuse beacen
wendan wædum and bleom:  hwilum hit wæs
  mid wætan bestemed,
besyled mid swates gange,    hwilum mid since   gegyrwed.
DR, ll. 21-23.

We have here what seems one of the clearest allusions to the liturgy, to the method of changing the style of the cross between Lent and Easter. Ebert has noted certain foreign cases of using the blood-red cross and asserts without evidence that the custom held among the Anglo-Saxons of the eighth century. He gives this point in another connection and does not deal with "wendan wædum and bleom." Rock, however, has shown the use of the red cross during Lent in England; in the north the use was apparently general, and this may be reflected in the Anglo-Saxon "mid wætan bestemed" and part of the reference in "bleom."

This should be supplemented further by the possibility that there is some borrowing from the hymns in the very vividness of the detail in the Dream: Mone, I, p. 143, No. 109 (O crux, arbor inclita, Cristi membris praedita et sacrata sanguine); Chevalier, Poésie Lit., p. 181, LXV, 174 (Beata crux cum gloria, Celso sacrata sanguine); Mone, I, p. 142, 43 (crux cruore consecrata); Dreves, XIV, p. 82, No. 72; XXXIX, No. 9, p. 21 (crucem tuo sanguine consecratam colimus); LI, p. 86, No. 81, st. 4; Daniel V, p. 184, st. 3; Merrill, Lat. Hymns, p. 67; Daniel, II, p. 101, No. 62; Merrill, p. 19, Pange lingua (Quem sacer cruor perunxit, fusas agni corpore); cf. Anselm, Pat. Lat. CLVIII, col. 937, Orat. XLII (Ave crux …ejus pretiosissimo sanguine cruentata); Mone, I, p. 140,1. 3 (fulgens Christi sanguine); I, p. 125, No. 99, 11. 25-26 (Per sanguinem sacerrimum, rigasti crucis postem); I, p. 186, 11. 30 (Vidit in ara sacram crucis ostiam, Sanguinis undam, laticem de latere, Sancto fluente); Daniel IV, p. 322 (Crux alma…torrente Christi sanguinis ebria); Mone I, p. 159, No. 122, 11. 31; Morel, Lat. Hymn., p. 28, No. 45, 1. 8; Dreves, IV, No. 46,  p. 34; IX, p. 27, 3a (O altitudo atque profundum crucis purpuratae in Christi sanguine); IX, p. 28, No. 29, la (Rubens agni sanguine); XV, p. 46, No. 24 (Agni rubens sanguine); cf. York Missal, Surtees Soc, II, p. 102 (Fuit haec salutis ara Rubens Agni sanguine); Dreves, XLIII, p. 23, No. 32, st. 2 (Tu decora sic consiste, Lota sacro sanguine); Prudentius, p. 86 (Hinc cruoris fluxit unda, lymfa parte ex altera: Lymfa nempe dat lavacrum, tum corona ex sanguine est).

While such expressions as the above account for "mid wætan bestemed," the change implied in the "hwilum … hwilum" clauses needs further explanation. As I have said, the plain red cross was carried during Lent, but on Palm Sunday a more ornamental cross appeared, as the Tracts of Maydeston tell us:

Post distributionem palmarum exeat processio cum cruce lignea … Deinde lectio euangelio feretum cum reliquijs preparatum. in quo corpus Christi in pixide dependat obuiam venientem cum cruce argentea.… Statim vero visa cruce argentea recedat crux lignea.

And on Easter day …, the "crux de christallo" was used, which was borne until Ascension-tide. With this progressive change in mind, we may better understand what the poet means when he says that he saw the cross change in garb and color, sometimes it was stained with the flowing of blood and sometimes adorned with treasure.

         Geseah ic pa Frean mancynnes
efstan elne mycle pæt he me wolde on gestigan.
þær ic pa ne dorste ofer Dryhtnes word
bugan oððe berstan, þa ic bifian geseah
eorðan sceatas.
(DR, ll. 33-37)

gestah he on gealgan heanne.
(1. 40)

Bifode ic ða me se Beorn ymbclypte; ne dorste
  ic hwæðre bugan to eorðan,
feallan to foldan sceatum, ac ic sceolde fæste
  standan.
(11. 42-43)

It is hard to believe that these passages have not something to do with the striking lines in the Pange lingua of Fortunatus:

Flecte ramos, arbor alta, tensa laxa viscera
Et rigor lentescat ille, quem dedit nativitas,
Ut superni membra regis miti tendas stipite,
(11. 24 ff.)

The cross explains why it was unable to bend. And the last line of the Latin seems to be echoedin the Dream by "Geseah ic weruda God pearle penian" (11. 51-52). Another line from Fortunatus, "Sola digna tu fuisti ferre pretium saeculi," although it was a generally popular sentiment, seems to appear in the following:

  Me þa geweorðode wuldres Ealdor
ofer holtwudu, heofonrices Weard,
swylce he his modor eac Marian sylfe
ælmihtig God for ealle men
geweorðode ofer eall wifa cynn,
(DR, ll. 90-94)

The figure in 11. 34 and 40 is paralleled in Crist and Satan (11. 549 ff.) and in the hymns: Chevalier, Poés. Lit., p. 176, LVI, 152 (Cum ascendisset Dominus Super crucis patibulum); Prudentius, p. 248, 11. 641 (Crux illa nostra est, nos patibulum ascendimus); Liber Hymnorum, I, p. 85, 1.  22. The figure of 1. 42 is paralleled: Mone, I, p. 181, st. 7 (O virtus crucis mundus attrahis amplexando tuis hinc inde brachiis); Dreves, IX, p. 27, 5b:

transverso sacri patibuli
     docemur
     expansis manibus
     crucifixi
     dextros et sinistros
     amplecti.

The most interesting parallel of all, however, is found in the third reading for the feast of St. Andrew in the York Breviary (Surtees Soc., vol. II, col. 88, lectio iij):

Cum pervenisset beatus andreas ad locum ubi crux parata erat: videns eam a longe exclamabat voce magna dicens: salve crux: que in corpore Christi dedicata es: et ex membris ejus tanquam margaritis ornata, ps̄. Omnes gentes, an̄. Antequam te ascenderet dominus noster o beata crux: timorem terrenum habuisti: modo vero amorem celestem obtinens pro voto susciperis. ps̄. Exaudi deus deprecationem. an̄. Amator tuus semper fui: et desideravi te amplecti. o bona crux. ps̄. Exaudi deus orationem.

The Italics are mine. The passage affords us another connection with the northern liturgy and also one with the story of St. Andrew.

Gyredon me golde and seolfre.
DR, l. 77

This line has been taken as a reference to the story of the Inventio. We may note, however, that "golde and seolfre" is not paralleled in the Elene (11. 1023 ff.), where we have "golde and gimcynnum." In the Latin (Acta Sanct., Holth., Elene) we have gold and jewels with a silver box, and also in Eusebius. But the Anglo-Saxon Prose, which may indicate the Irish original, tells us: "bewyrcan het mid golde … mid seolfre … mid deorwurpum gimmum." At this point, then, the Dream is again closer to a possible common original than to the Elene.

          Is me nu lifes hyht
þæt ic bone sigebeam secan mote.
DR, ll. 126-7

The Christian "hope" is common in hymns of the cross, although not exactly in these terms: Daniel, IV, p. 185 (Crux sancta … vera spes nostra), Mone, I, p. 145, A. S. Hymns, Surtees Soc., p. 156; Daniel I, p. 225, No. CXCVII, 2 (Spes et certa redemptio): Chevalier, Repert. Hymnolog., IV, p. 88, No. 36454 (Crux, ave, spes unica inventionis); No. 36462 (Crux sancta … spes nostra); Dreves, IX, p. 26, No. 25, la (spes et nostra gloria); No. 26, 2a (sanctae crucis, spes nostra); XV, p. 46, No. 24 (spes praeclara); XV,  p. 47, No. 25 (spes mihi viventi); XXI, p. 22, No. 15 (spes unica); XLVIII, p. 57, No. 58 (unica spes hominum). See also the liturgy: York Brev., col. 552 (crux, ave, spes unica), also col. 270; Hereford Brev., HBS, XL, II, p. 159. See a late hymn, Wackernagel, Das deutsche Kirchenlied, Leipzig, 1864, I, p. 252, No. 428 (magna spes credentium). See Anselm, Migne, Pat. Lat., CLVIII, col. 939 (Tu es enim spes mea).

Incidentally it may be worth noting in relation to these lines and to 1. 138 that the lignum vitae figure is extremely common: Mone, I, p. 181, st. 6 (Crux vitae lignum, Vitam mundi portans); I, 174, 1. 8; Dreves, IX, p. 26, No. 25, lb (lignum vitae); XV, p. 46, No. 24 (arbor vitae); XXI, p. 22, No. 15 (arbor vitae); XXXI, p. 94, No. 74, st. 6 (lignum vitae); XXXIV, p. 28, No. 24 (arbor ave vitae); XXXIX, No. 9, p. 21, 3b (vitale lignum); XL, p. 33, No. 14 (lignum vitae).

              And ic wene me
daga gehwylce hwænne me Dryhtnes rod,
þe ic her on eoroan ær sceawode,
of þpysson lænan life gefetige,
and me þonne gebringe þaer is blis micel.
DR, ll. 135 ff.

Stevens cites these lines as indicating that the poet deifies the cross: "In endowing the cross with personality, the poet of the Dream of the Rood outstrips any other writer." While we may agree with this comment in part (although we have noted how the poet borrows details and utilizes allusions), the opinion should be modified by observing the frequency of the figure in the hymns: compare Mone, I, p. 181, st. 7:

O excelsa crux,
ima perforans,
vinctos, quos absolvis,
ad summa erigis.

Also: Mone, I, p. 140, 11. 53; I, p. 142, 11. 43 (Per te nobis … sempiterna gaudia det superna gratia); Daniel, V, p. 183, st. 3 (Tu nos hinc per modum scalae Ducas ad coelestia); V, p. 304, No. 608, 11. 3 (Qui fidelis introducis Ad coelestem Patriam), 1. 8 (Nos transfer ad gloriam); Dreves, XV, p. 47, No. 25 (In te confisum me ducas ad paradisum—addressed to Christ). See Anselm, Pat. Lat., CLVIII, col. 942 (et vitam aeternam nobis attulisti); Greg. Sac., HBS, p. 275 (per crucis lignum ad paradisum gaudia redeamus). See also the "lignum vitae" figure discussed above, especially Mone, I, p. 145, also in A. S. Hymns, Surtees Soc., p. 156; and cf. DR, 1. 148 with A. S. Hymns, p. 83 (Redempta plebs captivata Reddita vitæ praemio).

Most of the conclusions given in the foregoing discussion need not be repeated. Many of them are extremely tentative, hardly more than shadowing as they do possible influence, and not attempting to arrive at the actual source. But to draw the matter together we may note the following points which seem to have received general support in the investigation: in the Dream of the Rood there are several clear allusions to the liturgy; even the phrases at times seem to be borrowed, especially from the hymn Pange lingua; we have observed several parallels in the Dream to Part Three of the Christ; if there is any connection between the Dream and the Inventio, it exists between the former and some document approximating the source of the Elene rather than the Elene itself. If the results of our search for liturgical influence are surprisingly small, the study has served to show all the more how little the poet of the Dream has relied on the conventional material accessible to him and yet with what effectiveness he has brought in reflections of the ecclesiastical services which he knew.