> [[m-kay]]. *The Hanged-God: The influence of pre-Christian literary motifs on the depictions of the crucifixion in The Dream of the Rood and Hêliand*. ## Abstract The Dream of the Rood and the Hêliand represent unique translations of the Christian gospel into early Germanic languages, depicting passages from the story of Christ using literary motifs of pre-Christian culture. This dissertation examines the purposes for each composition by contextualising our understanding of each poems’ purpose and intended audiences. With an examination of specific pre-Christian motifs present in both depictions of the Passion compared with pseudo-historical accounts of pagan ritual sacrifice and veneration of nature from the first century CE to the eleventh, an alternative model of the conversion of the pagan Germans is argued, demonstrating both poems as tools in this hegemonic and accommodative acculturation of Germanic oral tradition.