One of the key words in Anglo-Saxon heroic and elegiac poems, dream, carries quite a strong connotation inherited from the pre-Christian era. It is based on a view of the world as a complex consisting of two alien areas: on the one hand, populated, civilized, secure, and glorious areas (often represented by a feast in the lord's hall), whose existence is heavily dependent on an ideal lord-retainer relationship, and on the other hand, uncivilized, insecure, inglorious ones often inhabited by exiles, outlaws, animals, and monsters. Dream retained this basic idea as well as its place as a key word even after it began to be used to represent supreme joy in heaven. But at the same time, it sometimes began to represent a concept alien to its basic, pre-Christian idea under the influence of the Christian dichotomous view of heaven and earth, the degraded counterpart of heaven. What I examine here is the process through which dream acquired a new meaning based on the new, Christian worldview.
