The Dream of the Rood
E21505
The Dream of the Rood is an Old English Christian poem that presents a visionary, first-person account of Christ’s crucifixion narrated by the Cross itself.
All labels observed (3)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| The Dream of the Rood canonical | 5 |
| "The Dream of the Rood" | 1 |
| The Dream of the Rood tradition | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T169156 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
Target entity: The Dream of the Rood Context triple: [Old English, hasLiteraryWork, The Dream of the Rood]
-
A.
Beowulf
Beowulf is an Old English epic poem that recounts the heroic deeds of its eponymous warrior as he battles monsters and a dragon, and is considered one of the most important works of early English literature.
-
B.
Hildebrandslied
Hildebrandslied is an early medieval Old High German heroic poem that recounts a tragic duel between a father and son and is one of the oldest surviving works in the German language.
-
C.
Piers Plowman
Piers Plowman is a major Middle English allegorical poem, attributed to William Langland, that explores social justice and Christian spirituality through a series of dream visions.
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D.
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a late 14th-century Middle English chivalric romance poem that tells the story of King Arthur’s knight Sir Gawain and his beheading game encounter with the mysterious Green Knight.
-
E.
Ancrene Wisse
Ancrene Wisse is an early 13th-century Middle English devotional and instructional guide written for female religious recluses (anchoresses), notable for its spiritual counsel and insight into medieval religious life.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
Target entity: The Dream of the Rood Target entity description: The Dream of the Rood is an Old English Christian poem that presents a visionary, first-person account of Christ’s crucifixion narrated by the Cross itself.
-
A.
Beowulf
Beowulf is an Old English epic poem that recounts the heroic deeds of its eponymous warrior as he battles monsters and a dragon, and is considered one of the most important works of early English literature.
-
B.
Hildebrandslied
Hildebrandslied is an early medieval Old High German heroic poem that recounts a tragic duel between a father and son and is one of the oldest surviving works in the German language.
-
C.
Piers Plowman
Piers Plowman is a major Middle English allegorical poem, attributed to William Langland, that explores social justice and Christian spirituality through a series of dream visions.
-
D.
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a late 14th-century Middle English chivalric romance poem that tells the story of King Arthur’s knight Sir Gawain and his beheading game encounter with the mysterious Green Knight.
-
E.
Ancrene Wisse
Ancrene Wisse is an early 13th-century Middle English devotional and instructional guide written for female religious recluses (anchoresses), notable for its spiritual counsel and insight into medieval religious life.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (50)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
Christian poem
ⓘ
Old English poem ⓘ religious visionary poem ⓘ |
| audience | Christian Anglo-Saxon audience ⓘ |
| authorshipStatus | anonymous ⓘ |
| character |
Jesus Christ
ⓘ
surface form:
Christ
the Dreamer ⓘ the Rood ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin | England ⓘ |
| dateWritten | circa 8th century ⓘ |
| earliestCompositionDate | 7th or 8th century ⓘ |
| form | alliterative verse ⓘ |
| genre |
Christian devotional literature
ⓘ
dream vision ⓘ religious poetry ⓘ |
| influence | Anglo-Saxon devotional tradition ⓘ |
| inscriptionSource |
Ruthwell Cross inscriptions
ⓘ
surface form:
Ruthwell Cross
|
| language | Old English ⓘ |
| length | approximately 156 lines in the Vercelli version ⓘ |
| literaryDevice |
alliteration
ⓘ
personification of the Cross ⓘ vivid imagery ⓘ |
| literaryPeriod | Anglo-Saxon literature ⓘ |
| literarySignificance |
major work of Old English religious poetry
ⓘ
one of the earliest Christian poems in English ⓘ |
| mainTheme |
Crucifixion of Jesus
ⓘ
surface form:
Crucifixion of Christ
|
| manuscriptLocation |
Nowell Codex
ⓘ
surface form:
Vercelli Book
|
| manuscriptRepository | Cathedral Library, Vercelli ⓘ |
| manuscriptWitness |
Nowell Codex
ⓘ
surface form:
Vercelli Book
|
| meter | Old English alliterative meter ⓘ |
| motif |
dream vision
ⓘ
heroic Christ ⓘ martyrdom ⓘ speaking cross ⓘ suffering and redemption ⓘ |
| narrativePerspective | first-person account by the Cross ⓘ |
| narrator |
Christian cross
ⓘ
surface form:
the Cross of Christ
the Rood ⓘ |
| originalScript | Insular minuscule ⓘ |
| portrayalOfChrist | heroic warrior ⓘ |
| possibleAuthor | Cynewulf ⓘ |
| religion | Christianity ⓘ |
| setting | visionary dream ⓘ |
| structure | framed dream narrative ⓘ |
| symbol |
Christ as lord and warrior
ⓘ
Cross as both tree and instrument of salvation ⓘ |
| theologicalTheme |
atonement
ⓘ
resurrection hope ⓘ salvation ⓘ |
| tone | reverent and heroic ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Subject: The Dream of the Rood Description of subject: The Dream of the Rood is an Old English Christian poem that presents a visionary, first-person account of Christ’s crucifixion narrated by the Cross itself.
Referenced by (7)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.