Æt Foldan Scêatum
Post date: Feb 19, 2012 9:43:57 PM
I've begun working on my first illustration – which is actually the second, ordinally. The full image will be 10" x 12", as depicted in the sketch on the left. The color was done with watercolor and black walnut ink.
This image is based on lines 6b-17 of the poem:
Eall †æt bêacen wæs
begoten mid golde; gimmas stôdon
fægere æt foldan scêatum, swylce †ær fife wæron
uppe on †âm eaxlgespanne. Behêoldon †ær engel Dryhtnes ealle,
fægere †urh for∂gesceaft. Ne wæs ∂ær hûru fracodes gealga,
ac hine †ær behêoldon hâlige gâstas,
men ofer moldan ond eall †êos mære gesceaft.
Syllic wæs se sigebêam, ond ic synnum fâh,
forwunded mid wommum. Geseah ic wuldres trêow
wædum geweor∂od wynnum scînan,
gegyred mid golde; gimmas hæfdon
bewrigen weor∂lîce Wealdendes trêow.
All that tree-beacon
was covered in gold; and gems stood
beautiful at the reaches of the Earth,
of which there were five up on the crossbeam.
All the Lord’s angels watched there,
fair for all eternity.
That was surely not a bad-man’s gallows,
for they saw it there, the holy spirits,
the men on Earth, and all the glorious beings.
Wondrous was this victory-tree,
and I, marked with sin,
was wounded with grave sores of guilt.
I saw the glorious tree
honored with adornments, shining with joys,
adorned with gold; and gems nobly
had covered that tree of the forest.
The dreamer describes the splendor of the bêacen (lit. beacon – metaphorically, the tree) that has come to him in his dream. It is no ordinary tree; it is a tree who has received glorification from God and the heavens. It shines before the dreamer, before all of creation, gilded, set with jewels, vast, inconceivably expansive, reaching all the far corners of the Earth. The branches of this tree extend up into the heavens. The roots below ground envelop the underworld. The dreamer briefly alludes to the fact that this tree suffered for what is now bestowed upon it. Christ, the Lord, was hung from its 'branches'. Yet that does not make it an evil tree. As we will see later in the poem, it is the co-suffering of Jesus and the cross, the pain that the tree had to bear, that has granted it the honor of holiness. It has earned the fearful awe of all the living things on Earth.
It is hard for a modern reader to understand the presence of this tree. The World Tree in Anglo-Saxon culture, is a metaphor for life – not only the growth and cycles, but also the physical space in which life exists. "Middle Earth" is the land between the heavens and the underworld. It is the Earth where humans reside; it is the trunk of the World Tree. This illustration hopes to convey how one tree can be covered with gems fægere æt foldan scêatum, beautiful at the reaches of the Earth, and still exist as a presence before an audience. Though physically disconnected from the world, this tree is intimately connected with life, with the Earth, and it serves as a divine link between the three divisions of existence. The tree is a divine entity, rather than a physical being, and it simultaneously inhabits all of its forms even while presenting as just one. This tree is tree, cross, gallows, rot, splinters, relic, spirit, messenger, and person, all in one.