and praise be his
Always without end from every creature.

829. After Constantine has accepted Christianity, his mother Helena
(Elene) undertakes a pilgrimage to the Holy Land for the purpose of
discovering the true cross. After many failures she finally learns
where it is hidden. The passage here translated relates the discovery
of the cross.

_b_. ANONYMOUS POEMS OF THE CYNEWULFIAN SCHOOL

THE DREAM OF THE ROOD

[Critical edition: Cook, _The Dream of the Rood_, Oxford, 1905.

Author: "Making all due allowance, then, for the weakness of certain
arguments both pro and con, the balance of probability seems to incline
decidedly in favor of Cynewulfian authorship."--Cook.

Translations: English Prose: Kemble. Verse: Stephens, 1866; Morley, 1888;
Miss Iddings, 1902.

The poem has much in common with _Elene_, especially the intimate
self-analysis. Portions of it are on the Ruthwell Cross in Dumfriesshire.
It is claimed as Cynewulf's, but there is nothing to indicate this except
the beauty of style, which has caused it to be called "the choicest
blossom of Old English Christian poetry."]

Lo, I shall tell you the truest of visions,
A dream that I dreamt in the dead of night
While people reposed in peaceful sleep.
I seemed to see the sacred tree
5 Lifted on high in a halo of light,
The brightest of beams; that beacon was wholly
Gorgeous with gold; glorious gems stood
Fair at the foot; and five were assembled,
At the crossing of the arms. The angels of God looked on,
10 Fair through the firmament. It was truly no foul sinner's
cross,
For beholding his sufferings were the holy spirits,
The men of the earth and all of creation.
Wondrous was that victory-wood, and I wounded and stained
With sorrows and sins. I saw the tree of glory
15 Blessed and bright in brilliant adornments,
Made joyous with jewels. Gems on all sides
Full rarely enriched the rood of the Savior.
Through the sight of that cross I came to perceive
Its stiff struggle of old, when it started first
20 To bleed on the right side. I was broken and cast down with
sorrow;
The fair sight inspired me with fear. Before me the moving
beacon