The Purpose Of Paganism In 'The Dream Of The Rood'?

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It became clear to me that “The Dream of The Rood” was a piece written in order to persuade a certain group. In particular, the mixture of Paganism and Christianity in order to combine or otherwise bring about to the forefront a new religion to the masses. Although, in an ironic way the work is not helping the purpose of persuasion in that it conjoins the ecclesiastical standing of God to that of a talking cross, but the text, however, does contain this universality otherwise used to reach out. In this sense, the ultimate goal is to not only persuade, but also pressure the reader or to whomever the work was being orated, in a way affiliate him or herself to this form of worshiping and into taking the leap of faith into a form of arcane but ubiquitous religion. Towards the end of the work, the protagonist, whom I point to as the worshiper that has the dream, and is an …show more content…

With that in mind, it is important for the purpose of the text because it not only gives an anecdote, but it creates this narrative that becomes intertwined possibly with other texts of God and Christian as well as Pagan beliefs of the time and creates a new form of views. God was depicted as the rood since there was no image of him, I assume, which for Christianity it was simple to put the power onto this talking rood that delivered a message that is meant to be spread. From lines 28 to 30 it has a creeping effect onto the reader’s emotions, and this is done through the events that are happening to this rood, told by it sounds to me sacrificial since it was it, or he who was chosen out of the rest of the trees that were. Similarly, this same idea can be said about the dreamer, he out of everyone else was chosen to have the dream or vision. That is to say that maybe it will happen to those who are listening to the work. Again used for persuasion

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