Proposal

The Dream of the Rood is an Old English hypertext. Hypertext is commonly thought of as a computerized textual medium, which allows a reader or writer to access other sources of information either within the World Wide Web or through another database within the computer. However, while the age of computers has drawn our attention towards the concept of hypertext, hypertext is really a reading and writing mode that has been with us for some time now. For example, before the development of mass printing, texts were individually handwritten, and before writing, there were only highly fluid oral "texts." As Sandy Feinstein says, "oral performances as well as medieval compilations, are the precursors of hypertext" (137). Such works as Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales can be read in a variety of orders, which affects the overall meaning of the work. Even farther back, there are examples which predate Western civilization. For example the Chinese I Ching (Book of Changes) dates back over three-thousand years. It is a tool of divination which consists of throwing coins, which reveal solid or broken lines. These lines are then assembled in a hexagram. Each hexagram has text appropriate to it. This process is not unlike contemporary hypertext fiction which allow for a variety of narrative patterns and endings, not is this pattern unlike the narrative and thematic patterns of The Dream of the Rood.

Three main segments compose The Dream of the Rood. These segments are (1) the sighting of the cross by the unidentified dreamer, (2) the narration of Christ’s crucifixion by the cross itself, (3) the dreamer’s reflection on the crucifixion events as

told by the cross. My study might seek two to do three things: (1) examine the other texts that have combined to form The Dream of the Rood, (2) examine the narrative frames within the poem (3) examine aspects of translation. The poem itself is also a combination of two earlier texts drawn from the Vercelli Book and The Ruthwell Cross. My study might seek to examine these two earlier texts to see what editorial decision have been made in combining these texts to form the present version of The Dream of the Rood. Then, I would examine the narrative frames within the poem. For example, what is the dreamer doing while the cross is speaking? The cross flashes between blood and jewels, but the reader does not know what it finally stops on. Also, who is the cross speaking for? Does it speak for itself, Christ, or both? If it alternates between speaking for itself and cross, can and/or how does the reader know who the cross is speaking for? Finally, I might examine the possibilities of alternate translations. Since many of the words, such as holmwudu, have alternate or unclear translation, I might examines the narrative and thematic possibilities opened by substituting certain translations for others.