Bintley, Michael D.J. (2013) Brungen of Bearwe: ploughing common furrows in Exeter Book Riddle 21, The Dream of the Rood, and the Æcerbot Charm. In, Bintley, Michael D.J. and Shapland, Michael G. (eds.) Trees And Timber In The Anglo-Saxon World. Oxford University Press, pp. 144-57. (doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199680795.003.0007).
Abstract
This paper argues Exeter Book Riddle 21, The Dream of the Rood, and the Æcerbot Charm make use of a shared symbolic vocabulary derived from a common ideology of regeneration. These texts may reveal elements of religious beliefs pre-dating the Anglo-Saxon conversion that subsequently became inculturated into the Latin liturgy underpinning later Old English poetry. In both Riddle 21 and The Dream of the Rood, physical and spiritual sustenance are produced with the assistance of a timber object (a plough and a cross) whose origin as a living tree is emphasized. Similar ideas are preserved in the Æcerbot Charm (the ‘charm for unfruitful land’), a text that outlines a composite Christian ritual preserving elements of folk-magic together with accompanying Old English verse.
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