[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.