Earlier editors such as Dickens and Ross saw a similarity here to the death of Baldr: "The striking similiarity of the Norse story of the lament for Baldr, for whom all things wept save only the giantess Bokk, cannot be due to chance". They also cite E.R. Curtius, European Literature and the Latin Middle Ages, pp. 92ff. It seems very unlikely that a poem as centrally christian as the Dream of the Rood would have even a concealed reference to pagan myth. Cf. the reaction of the earth to the crucifixion in Christ 1127b. Context - Pagan Gods offers a note on the death of Baldr.