Commissioned by the London Contemporary Church Music Festival, and premiered at St Pancras Church, May 13th 2015 and broadcast live on BBC Radio 3.

I am fascinated by the influence of Anglo-Saxon, Germanic and Norse mythology on Christianity in the Middle Ages. Christian poets attempted to appeal to those still embedded in the pagan traditions, adapting the gospels to fit the cultural climate. It is particularly apparent in what is often called the earliest English poem, The Dream of The Rood, which exists in three forms: on runes on the 7th-century stone Ruthwell Cross in Dumfriesshire, Scotland (although it was possibly added later, a sort of Middle Ages graffiti); in Old English on parchment on the 10th-century expanded version in the Vercelli book in Northern Italy; and on silver, in Roman letters on the Brussels Cross made in Wessex. The symbol of the cross took on an especially Germanic/Celtic flavour in the 7th century, represented as both a battle-standard and as a version of the Tree of Life – and it is strangely reminiscent of the Norse god Odin’s quest to glean the meaning of life by hanging himself on the great tree Yggdrasil for nine days and nine nights.

The Dream of the Rood is an incredibly evocative poem notable for its mystical, dream-like quality and a sense of heroism, with its depiction of Jesus Christ as a proactive, perhaps even aggressive, warrior. It uses a riddle-like opening in which the poet dreams of the tree which was the cross bearing Christ at the crucifixion. The tree then speaks to him in his dream, describing in vivid, fleshy imagery its own wounds as if it itself experienced the torture with and for Christ. The section that was added in the Vercelli version has the tree explain Christ’s ultimate triumph and the salvation message, before the poet/dreamer’s renewed sense of hope.

It is a lengthy poem in the expanded form; I wanted to create my own loose translation of the text, and particularly used Michael Alexander’s (The Earliest English Poems, Penguin) and Mary Rambaran-Olm’s (dreamoftherood.co.uk) as the basis for my own, fragmented and reduced version. I borrowed fragments of the original Old English poem for the ‘tree-speak’.

For the ‘song of tears’, I used a rough transcription of a keening song as sung by Kitty Gallagher and recorded by Alan Lomax in 1951 (2015 is his centenary) on World Library of Folk and Primitive Music, Vo. 2: Ireland (Rounder, 1998).

Dream Of The Rood (fragments)LIVE

Kerry Andrew is a composer, performer and author based in West  Yorkshire, England. 

They specialises in vocal music and opera, choral music, folk, jazz, and community music. Choral and experimental work has been heard on BBC Radio 3, BBC Radio 4, 6Music and Classic FM and on national news channels. Kerry won a British Composer Award in 2010 and two more for her chamber operas 'Woodwose' and 'Dart's Love' in 2014. They won their 4th for 'who we are' for the National Youth Choirs at the Royal Albert Hall. They were 2010-12's Handel House Composer in Residence. In 2017, she made her Proms debut with BBC Ten Pieces.

Her debut novel, Swansong, is out now: https://www.waterstones.com/book/swansong/kerry-andrew/9781911214229 and her second novel, SKIN, is published in February 2021.

Kerry performs as alt-folk artist You Are Wolf http://soundcloud.com/you-are-wolf; music can be heard and ordered here: https://youarewolf.bandcamp.com/

She performs with the award-winning vocal trio https://soundcloud.com/juicevocalensembleuk

She also performs with the jazz/classical/rock collective https://soundcloud.com/dollyman.

‘Stunning‘ Classic FM

‘Brilliant, Berio-like vocal effects…‘ The Times

www.kerryandrew.net

Dream Of The Rood (fragments)LIVE

Kerry Andrew Composer