2. In the Dream of the Rood the author says (126–31) :
And now my life's great happiness is this,
That to the cross victorious I may come,
Alone, above the wont of other men,
To worship worthily. Desire for this
Is great within my heart, and all my help
Must reach me from the rood[1].
In the Elene Cynewulf says: 'Not once alone, but many times, had I reflected on the tree of glory before I had disclosed the miracle concerning the glorious tree, as in the course of events I found related in books, in writings, concerning the sign of victory.' Dietrich interprets the former passage as prophetic of a future work on the cross, and the latter as a backward reference to the Dream of the Rood. The impulse to compose the Elene is traceable to the vision which appeared to the author of the Rood[2].
3. Cynewulf is fond of speaking of himself and his feelings in the epilogues of his other poems[3], where he adds his name in runes. In like manner he comes forward in his own person in the Dream of the Rood (cf. the next section).
4. In both poems the author represents himself as old, having lost joys or friends, and as ready to de-
- ↑ Miss Iddings' translation, published in Cook and Tinker's Select Translations, pp. 93–9.
- ↑ 'Quod scilicet sibi summo animi ardore crucis contemplator proposuit, id poematis de crucis inventione compositi auctor luculenter exsecutus est. Credibile igitur est, Cynevulfum ad Elenam canendam illo somnio, quod poeta de cruce v. 137 sibi revera apparuisse asserit, animo impulsum esse.'
- ↑ 'Kynewulfus, qui de sua persona suisque sensibus in carminum maiorum epilogis loqui solebat, addito nomine suo Cynewulf, runis expresso' (p. 11). Cf. supra, pp. xviii-xx.
