It was also very engaging for me to read "The Dream of the Rood." I grew up being told a fable "The Three Trees" involving three trees that grew on a mountaintop and dreamt of the great things they would one day be used as. One of the trees wanted only to stay on the mountain and point to heaven, allowing everyone who gazed upon the tree to look upward and think of God. Eventually, the tree was cut down and made into the cross that bore Christ. I always find such lineages within stories to be truly fascinating, especially the minor changes that surround those fundamental truths that make the tales worth telling and repeating. In like manner, Beowulf is retold in The Lord of the Rings, the Arthurian stories, such as Sir Gawain and the Green Night, retold in song, literature, and film--all of these act as ties culturally that allows each of us, as readers, to identify with the true humanity of those characters and audiences that first heard these same stories we all come to love.
Seth Chambers
No comments:
Post a Comment