Page:The Dream of the Rood - ed. Cook - 1905.djvu/17

Rh beautiful poem, of which the lines on the Cross are an extract or episode or fragment, was written by no other than Cædmon.

'First, there is the above direct evidence of the runic carving on the top-stone of the Cross itself. The words are plain enough, and even the unsupported theory that this top-stone may be somewhat younger than the Pillar will not in the least weaken this broad statement. Even if later, the stone only asserted a known fact.

'Second. It was long ago suggested by Mr. Haigh, in his excellent paper in the Archæologia Æliana, that at the period when this monument was raised the seventh century or thereabouts there was no known man in all England, or in fact in all Europe, who could have written so noble an English lay save the author of the Biblical Paraphrase, which has always been acknowledged as his, even though we may admit some natural change and interpolation in later times in the course of its transcription into Old South English. Of course we here do not refer to the piece called The Harrowing of Hell. He therefore boldly concluded that, in his opinion, the Dream of the Holy Rood was from the pen of Caedmon. This splendid, though daring, assumption or implication has now been approved by the very stone itself.

'Thirdly. We have decisive internal evidence. A careful examination of the South English copy (see the Glossary) shows that the scribe was working from a North English original, even in those lines which are not carved on the Cross. But, in addition hereto, a slight acquaintance with the Dream will at once make us aware of one very striking peculiarity of style. This is, an extraordinary mixture of accents. Commonly we have the usual two- Rh