Published in Senses and sensibilities in classical and medieval worlds

Keywords: Keywords: Anglo-Saxon England, Christianity, Literature, Old English, Society.

One of the main symbols of the Christian tradition is the Holy Cross on which Christ was executed. However, unlike the conception of an instrument of torture, in the tradition that was developed, the Cross emerges as a symbol of victory, conquest over death, and the primary symbol of worship since the beginning of the Christian Era and during the Early Middle Ages. In the current article we intend to analyze the presence of the cult of the Cross in Anglo-Saxon England and its link with the Byzantine Christian tradition, mainly in the field of material culture and in the religious literature of the period. We also bring, in the end of this article, the complete translation of the poem The Dream of the Rood to Portuguese.