La salita di Cristo alla croce nel Dream of the Rood

The original narrative of Christ’s passion in the Dream of the Rood has received a variety of critical interpretations. Christ’s voluntary and active role in the poem, which contrasts with His passive attitude as attested in the Gospels, together with other details, has been often read from a Germanic heroic perspective that overshadows the very profound Christian nature of the work. The present essay aims to question the pagan reading of the poem and to place the crucifixion scene within a theological framework where Christ’s actions, such as hastening, undressing and climbing onto the cross, can be properly understood. In the continuous tension between heaven and earth that punctuates Christ’s life, the verb gestigan takes on special significance. In this regard, questions arise as to how Christ ascends the cross. Considering the equation ladder-cross in Christian exegesis, the paper discusses the likely influence that the iconographic type of Christ ascending the cross with a ladder, although uncommon, may have had on our author. The presence of this pictorial motif in the illuminations of some Armenian Gospels seems to show that, independently or somehow influenced by earlier models originated in the Christian East that have not come down to us, the poet imagined a realistic scene, yet rich in symbolic meaning, to emphasize Christ’s voluntary sacrifice. The web of images woven throughout the poem provides evidence of the degree of literary and religious knowledge achieved in Anglo-Saxon England.