130 - 156

Question 1

What happens in this passage?

Answer 1

This sets up the ultimate conclusion of the poem, in which the dreamer internalises the message of the rood and pledges to live a life which imitates Christ. He makes a further promise to preach this message to others, emphasising the joys of eternal life and the power of Christ

Question 2

mundbyrd?

Answer 2

hope of protection
This is widely used in OE religious and secular poetry and prose which seems to define a relationship between client and patron. Suggests that the dreamer is now a retainer to the cross

Question 3

freonda on foldan?

Answer 3

friends on earth
isolation introduces the theme of exile from poems like The Wanderer
Double fricative alliteration links earth and forward, which emphasises the contrast between earth and heaven

Question 4

mid Heahfaedere?

Answer 4

with the High Father
use of proxemics in the title reaffirms the status of God, and the lord and retainer relationship

Question 5

wuniap on wuldre?

Answer 5

dwell in glory
present tense infinitive
This forms an envelope pattern with 143, which is an almost perfect repetition of this collocation.
Structural and thematic repetition characterises heaven

Question 6

life gefetige?

Answer 6

transitory life
Common theme in OE - repetition of idea in line 109

Question 7

and ponne gebringe / paer is blis mycel

Answer 7

and bring me where there is great bliss
Swanton points out that this repeated syntactic pattern is typical of Latin homiletic rhetoric
anaphor of paer in the B line drives you forward and lengthens the long sentence

Question 8

geseted to symle?

Answer 8

seated in feasting
Characters heaven as a mead hall which reasserts the lord retainer relationship

Question 9

si me Dryhten freond?

Answer 9

may the lord be a friend to me
Subjunctive expresses hope, acting as an explicit prayer. This is the first address to Christ from the speaker

Question 10

he us onlysde / us lif forgeaf?

Answer 10

he redeemed us and gave us life
plural pronoun emphasises how he saved entirety of humanity

Question 11

heofonlicne ham / hiht waes geniwad?

Answer 11

heavenly home. Hope was renewed
Alliteratively linked idea of heaven and hope

Question 12

mid bledum mid blisse, pam pe paer bryne polodan?

Answer 12

with glory and bliss, for those who suffered with fire
suffering and bliss alliteratively linked
A half line - collocation occurs elsewhere eg in Christ - gives overtly religious meaning

Question 13

se sunu waes sigorfaest?

Answer 13

the son was victorious
The only time Christ is referred this way in the poem
victorious suggests that Christ is a warrior in battle
emphasised by ‘gaste weorode’ (troop of souls)
describes the harrowing of hell where he takes everyone from hell to heaven

Question 14

mihtig and spedig?

Answer 14

powerful and successful
proliferation of adjectives describing him

Question 15

wundeon on wuldre?

Answer 15

who dwelled in glory
repetition of 135 but in the past tense - it has been established

Question 16

paer his edel waes?

Answer 16

there his home was
suggests that his sould was alien to the earth and belongs in heaven - there is a limit to the knowledge of heaven so this is where the poem must end
reaffirming that life is a journey and this is the destination