Standard abbreviation: Leg. Rood Tree
Other titles: Post Peccatum Adae, the History of the Holy Rood Tree, History of the True Cross
Clavis numbers: ECCA 121
Category: Relic History
Related literature: Legend of the Thirty Pieces of Silver
Compiled by Stephen C. E. Hopkins, University of Virginia.
Citing this resource (using Chicago Manual of Style): Hopkins, Stephen C.E. “Legend of the Holy Rood Tree.” e-Clavis: Christian Apocrypha. Accessed DAY MONTH YEAR. https://www.nasscal.com/e-clavis-christian-apocrypha/legend-of-the-holy-rood-tree/.
Created August 2018. Current as of March 2024.
1. SUMMARY
Leg. Rood Tree, found in the Latin Post Peccatum Adae, represents the merger of two different medieval legends, sourced from various apocrypha. In it, we see the History of the True Cross narrative blended with the Quest of Seth for the Oil of Mercy. The legend thus provides a full history for the wood which was eventually used in Christ’s crucifixion. Scholars have dated its appearance to the eleventh century, either in Northern France (see Miller) or in England (see Hopkins). Wherever it originated, it quickly became popular, and still exists in some hundred or more manuscripts, of which the chief witnesses are listed below (for fuller lists, see Miller, Pransgma-Hajenius, and Taguchi).
Leg. Rood Tree begins with an account drawn from the Vita Adae et Evae, in which Adam and Eve’s harsh life after their expulsion from Eden is related. As a miserable Adam lies ailing in his old age, Seth sets out to retrace his parents’ footsteps back to Eden, hoping to obtain the “Oil of Mercy” promised to them at their expulsion. At the gates of Eden, the Cherub with a flaming sword invites him to peer through, and Seth sees three visions: one of the splendors of paradise, one of the Tree of Life dead with a serpent winding round it, and the Tree restored with the Infant Christ sitting at its very top. The angel explains that Adam must taste death, but gives Seth three seeds from the Tree and instructs Seth to place them under Adam’s tongue when he is buried. He does so, burying Adam in the “Vale of Hebron.”
Time passes and three sprigs sprout up from Adam’s grave as the angel had foretold (one of cedar, one of cypress, and one of pine). Moses miraculously stumbles upon them while leading the Israelites out of Egypt and plucks them, teaching the people about the Trinity and performing many miracles in the camp. When Moses is buried, the twigs are planted in his grave. The legend next reports that King David is led by the Holy Spirit to Moses’ grave and is commanded to pluck the three twigs, which are unchanged over the centuries. He brings them back to Jerusalem and plants them outside his palace. In some versions of the text, the three grow into a single tree on their own, while in others, drawing on the Legend of the Thirty Pieces of Silver, recount how David places a silver ring around them each year for thirty years until they grow together (in this redaction, the thirty rings become Judas’ thirty pieces of silver). At this point, David dies and Solomon becomes king.
At first, Solomon wishes to use the tree as the central beam for the temple. Yet when builders try to measure and cut it, it miraculously shrinks and grows, preventing them from using it. Solomon gives up and sets the tree up to be reverenced in the temple courts. At this point, one Maximilla (a prostitute in some versions) accidentally sits upon the tree and bursts into flame. As she cries out Christ’s name, her fellow Jews take this as blasphemy and stone her to death, making her the first martyr. They then take the tree out, and, as retribution, use it as a bridge so that it has to be trampled. Then Sibylla (or the Queen of Sheba, or both) comes to visit Solomon and prophesies before the tree/bridge. In some versions she merely says that it will save the souls of all, in others she utters the Fifteen Signs of Doomsday, in yet others she recites Augustine’s translation of the Erythrian Sibyl’s prophecy (“Iudicii signum tellus sudore madescet”). In some versions it is thrown into the Probatica Piscina/Pool of Bethesda (where it is the cause of the healings reported in John 5). The text then skips ahead to Good Friday, when a Jewish leader is inspired to find the tree and call for it to be used in the crucifixion.
Named historical figures and characters: Abel, Adam (patriarch), Cain, David (king), Eve (matriarch), Maximilla, Moses (patriarch), Pharaoh (of Exodus), Queen of Sheba/Sibylla, Seth (patriarch), Solomon (king).
Geographical locations: Mount Calvary/Golgotha, Eden, Egypt, Hebron, Jerusalem, Mount Horeb, Mount Sinai, Pool of Bethsaida, temple (Jerusalem).
2. RESOURCES
2.1 Visual Art and Iconography
Baltimore, Walters Art Museum, MS W.98 (1290–1300): a Book of Hours featuring an initial C with the Queen of Sheba making the sign of the cross with two knobbed sticks (fol. 120r).
New York, Pierpont Morgan Library, M.917/945 (1435–1445): the Hours of Catherine of Cleves, featuring numerous illustrations that portray apocryphal motifs, including a scene of the Queen of Sheba before Solomon at the tree/bridge (p. 109).
Baert, Barbara and Lee Preedy. A Heritage of Holy Wood: The Legend of the True Cross in Text and Image. Leiden: Brill, 2004.
Piero, Carlo Bertelli, Anna Maria Maetzke, and Marilyn Aronberg Lavin. Piero Della Francesca: The Legend of the True Cross in the Church of San Francesco, Arezzo. Milan: Skira, 2001.
Pierpont Morgan Library. The Stavelot Triptych: Mosan Art and the Legend of the True Cross. New York: The Library, 1980.
Pfleger, Susanne. Eine Legende und ihre Erzählformen. Studien zur Rezeption der Kreuzlegenden in der italienischen Monumentalmalerei der Tre- und Quattrocento. Frankfurt am Main: P. Lang, 1994.
2.2 Websites
“The History of the True Cross.” Wikipedia.
“Gospel of Nicodemus.” Celtic Literature Collective (Robert Williams’ translation into English based on the Middle Welsh version (NB: mislabeled “Gospel of Nicodemus” due to error in Manuscript Catalogue—it is really Post Peccatum Adae).
3. BIBLIOGRAPHY
3.1 Manuscripts and Editions
3.1.1 Anglo-Norman
B Brussels, Royal Library, MS II.282, fols. 155a–157c
C Cambridge, Trinity College, O.1.17
Prangsma-Hajenius, Angélique M. L. La Légende Du Bois De La Croix Dans La Littérature Française Médiévale. Assen, Pays-Bas: Van Gorcum, 1995 (edition based on B).
Taguchi, Mayumi. “The Legend of the Cross before Christ: Another Prose Treatment in English and Anglo-Norman.” Poetica 45 (1996): 15–61 (edition based on C).
3.1.2 Latin
A Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, lat. 3433, fols. 211–213 (15th cent.)
P Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, lat. 11601, fol. 87 (15th cent.)
V Vienna, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, 4373, fols. 130–131 (15th cent.)
Z Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, lat. 27006, fols. 200–201 (15th cent.)
Meyer, Wilhelm. “Die Geschichte des Kreuzholzes vor Christi.” Abhandlungen der philosophisch-philologischen Classe der Königlich Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften 16 (1882): 103–66 (Type VI “Legende” edition based on A with variants from P, V, and Z).
Additional manuscripts:
Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, 288, fols. 82r–84v (ca. 1100–1299)
Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, 66A, fols. 221v–224r (14th cent.)
London, Bodleian Library, MSS Royal 8E.xvii, fol. 121a (13th cent.)
Taguchi, Mayumi. “The Legend of the Cross before Christ: Another Prose Treatment in English and Anglo-Norman.” Poetica 45 (1996): 15–61 (see p. 16 n. 16 for a lengthy list of Latin MSS).
The legend appears also in Jacobus de Voragine’s The Golden Legend. See The Golden Legend: Readings on the Saints. Translated by William Granger Ryan; 2 vols. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993 (vol. 1, pp. 277–84).
3.1.3 Middle English
Oxford, Bodleian Library, Ashmolean 43
Cambridge, Magdalene College, MS Pepys 2125
Oxford, Bodleian Library, Bodley 343
Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. Eng. poet. a. 1
Oxford, Trinity College, MS 29 (post 1482) ~ six extracts dispersed throughout a world history
Morris, Richard. Legends of the Holy Rood: Symbols of the Passion and Cross-Poems. London: Early English Text Society, 1881 (text II on pp. 18–47, a poetic adaptation of PPA in rhyming couplets, from Bodleian MS. Eng. poet. a. 1; text III on pp. 62–86 contains most of PPA from the same MS and Ashmolean 43).
Napier, Arthur S. History of the Holy Rood-Tree: A Twelfth Century Version of the Cross Legend, with Notes On the Orthography of the Ormulum (with a Facsimile) and a Middle English Compassio Mariae. London: Early English Text Society, 1894 (edition based on Bodley 343).
Taguchi, Mayumi. “The Legend of the Cross before Christ: Another Prose Treatment in English and Anglo-Norman.” Poetica 45 (1996): 15–61 (edition based on Pepys 2125).
3.1.4 Middle Irish
Dublin, Royal Irish Academy, 23 P 16 (the Leabhar Breac), pp. 221–222; 227–235 (1408–1411)
3.1.5 Middle Welsh
Aberystywth, National Library of Wales, Peniarth 5, fols. 4r–6r) (ca. 1350)
Aberystywth, National Library of Wales, MS Peniarth 7 (1275) (transcription at Welsh Prose of the Middle Age’s Project)
Aberystywth, National Library of Wales, Peniarth 14, pp. 165–180 (ca. 1250–1350)
Aberystwyth, National Library of Wales, MS Peniarth 32 (transcription at Welsh Prose of the Middle Age’s Project)
Aberystwyth, National Library of Wales, MS Llanstephan 27 (transcription at Welsh Prose of the Middle Age’s Project)
Shrewsbury, Shrewsbury School, 11, pp. 85–100 (ca. 1375–1425) ~ transcription at Welsh Prose of the Middle Age’s Project)
Evans, R. Wallis. “Ystorya Adaf a Proffwydoliaeth Sibli Ddoeth.” Bulletin of the Board of Celtic Studies 35 (1988): 29–32.
Rowles, Sarah. “Ystorya Adaf: Gwlog ar un o Ffynonellau Cyfieithwyr y Chwedlau Crefyddol.” Llên Cymru 29.1 (2006): 44–60 (includes a transcription of Llanstephan 27).
3.1.6 Old Norse
Copenhagen, Arnamagnaean Library, AM 544 4to
Copenhagen, Arnamagnaean Library, AM 65a 8vo
Overgaard, Mariane. The History of the Cross-Tree Down to Christ’s Passion. Editiones Arnamagnaeanae, Ser. B 26. Copenhagen: Munksgaard, 1968 (editions of both Copenhagen MSS, pp. 1–18).
3.1.7 Church Slavic
Kulik, Alexander, and Sergey Minov. Biblical Pseudepigrapha in Slavonic Traditions. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016 (edition of and introduction to the Old Church Slavonic “Tale of the Tree of the Cross,” pp. 104–68).
Thomson, Francis J. Apocrypha Slavica II (Review of Die handschriftliche Überlieferung der altslavischen Apokryphen, vol. 2 by Aurelio de Santos Otero). Slavonic and East European Review 63 (1985): 73–98 (see pp. 85–87 on Holy Rood material).
3.2 Modern Translations
3.2.1 English
Hopkins, Stephen C. E., ed. and trans. “The Legend of the Holy Rood Tree.” Pages 145–59 in vol. 2 of New Testament Apocrypha: More Noncanonical Scriptures. Edited by Tony Burke. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2020 (translation based on Meyer’s edition from PPA).
Napier, Arthur S. History of the Holy Rood-tree. EETS, Old Series 103. London: Oxford University Press, 1894 (p. 69).
3.3 General Works
Baert, Barbara. “Revisiting Seth in the Legend of the Wood of the Cross: Interdisciplinary Perspectives between Text and Image.” Pages 132–69 in The Embroidered Bible: Studies in Biblical Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha in Honour of Michael E. Stone. Edited by Lorenzo DiTommaso, Matthias Henze, and William Adler. Leiden: Brill, 2018.
Borgehammar, Stephan. How the Holy Cross Was Found: From Event to Medieval Legend with an Appendix of Texts. Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell International, 1991.
Burke, Tony and Slavomir Céplö. “The Legend of the Thirty Pieces of Silver.” Pages 393–308 in vol. 1 of New Testament Apocrypha: More Noncanonical Scriptures. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2016 (see p. 297 for discussion of Greek, Amharic, and Arabic versions of the Rood Tree legend).
Caerwyn Williams J.E. “Medieval Welsh Religious Prose.” Pages 63–97 in Proceedings of the Second International Congress of Celtic Studies, Held in Cardiff 6-13 July, 1963. Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1966.
Fallon, Nicole. “The Cross as Tree: The Wood-of-the-Cross Legends in Middle English and Latin Texts in Medieval England.” Ph.D. diss., University of Toronto, 2009.
Furchtgott, Deborah. “Ystoria Adaf ac Efa y Wreic and the Place of Apocrypha in the White Book of Rhydderch.” Proceedings of the Harvard Celtic Colloquium 31 (2011): 106–16.
Gillhammer, Cosima. “The Holy Cross Legend: A Unique Version in Oxford, Trinity College, MS 29.” Medium Ævum 88.1 (2019): 52–79.
Gwynn Jones, Thomas. “Ystorya Addaf a Val a cauas Elen y Grog: tarddiad, cynnwys, ac y Testunau Cymraeg a’u lledaeniad.” MA thesis, University of Wales, Aberstwyth, 1936.
Haycock, Marged. “‘Sy abl ffod, Sbli fain’: Sibyl in Medieval Wales.” in Heroic Poets and Poetic Heroes in Celtic Tradition: a Festschrift for Patrick K. Ford/CSANA Yearbook 3-4 (2005): 115–30.
Hill, Thomas D. “The Conversion of Sibilla in the ‘History of the Holy Rood Tree’.” Studies in Philology 105 (2008): 123–43.
Hopkins, Stephen C. E. “A New Revelation: the Middle Welsh Erythraean Sibyl.” North American Journal of Celtic Studies 5 (2021): 30–48.
__________. “Heaven and Hell in the Garden of Eden: the Transmissions of the Ystoria Adda in Wales.” Proceedings of the Harvard Celtic Colloquium 37 (2017): 105–23.
Ker, N. R. “An Eleventh-Century Old English Legend of the Cross before Christ.” Medium Aevum 9 (1940): 84–85.
Klein, Holger A. Byzanz. Der Westen Und Das ‘wahre’ Kreuz: Die Geschichte Einer Reliquie Und Ihrer Künstlerischen Fassung In Byzanz Und Im Abendland. Wiesbaden: Reichert, 2004.
Lazar, Moshe. “La Légende de ‘l’Arbre de Paradis’ ou ‘Bois de la Crois,’ Poème Anglo-Normand du XIIe Siecle et sa Source Latine, d’Après le Ms. 66, Corpus Christi College Cambridge.” Zeitschrift für Romanische Philologie 76 (1960): 34–63.
Miller, A. Robert. “Fünf deutsche Prosafassungen der Kreuzholzlegende ‘Post Peccatum Adae’.” Pages 289–342 in vol. 1 of Metamorphosen der Bibel: Beiträge zur Tagung ‘Wirkungsgeschichte der Bibel im deutschsprachigen Mittelalter’ vom 4. bis 6. September 2000 in der Bibliothek des Bischöflichen Priesterseminars Trier. Edited by Michael Embach and Michael Trauth. 2 vols. Vestigia Bibliae 24–25. New York: Peter Lang, 2002–2003.
__________. “German and Dutch Versions of the Legend of the Wood of the Cross.” 2 vols. PhD diss., Oxford University, 1992.
Morris, Richard. Legends of the Holy Rood; Symbols of the Passion and Cross-Poems. In Old English of the Eleventh, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Centuries. EETS, Old Series 46. London: Early English Text Society, 1871.
Mozley, J. R. “A New Text of the Story of the Cross.” JTS 31 (1930): 113–27.
Murdoch, Brian. The Apocryphal Adam and Eve in Medieval Europe: Vernacular Translations and Adaptations of the Vita Adae et Evae. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009.
Mussafia, Adolfo. “Sulla leggenda del legno della Croce.” Sitzungsberichte der philosophisch-historischen Classe der Kaiserlich Akademie der Wissenschaften 63 (1869): 165–216.
Pettorelli, J. P. “La Vie latine d’Adam et Eve. Analyse de la Tradition manuscrit.” Apocrypha 10 (1999): 195–296.
Prangsma-Hajenius, Angelique M.L. La Légende du Bois de la Croix dans la littérature française médiévale. Assen, Pays-Bas: Van Gorcum, 1995.
Quinn, Esther Casier. The Quest of Seth for the Oil of Life. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1962.
Rowles, Sarah. “Ystorya Adaf: Gwlog ar un o Ffynonellau Cyfieithwyr y Chwedlau Crefyddol.” Llên Cymru 29.1 (2006): 44–60.
Sajavaara, Kari. “The Withered Footprints on the Green Street of Paradise.” Neuphilologische Mitteilungen 76 (1975): 34–38.
Wade, Erik. “‘As Black as They Were Before’: The History of Skin Colour and the History of the Holy Rood-Tree.” Early Middle English 4.1 (2022): 51–83.
Weever, Jacqueline de. Sheba’s Daughters: Whitening and Demonizing the Saracen Woman in Medieval French Epic. New York: Routledge, 1998.