With the frost he kindled fire; Drove the snakes from brake and brier, Hurling out the writhing brood With the lightning of his rood.

The stanza uses elemental, almost mythic imagery—frost, fire, snakes, lightning—to portray a figure who brings order and safety by mastering harsh conditions. “Drove the snakes from brake and brier” suggests clearing hidden dangers from wild undergrowth, while “kindled fire” from “frost” implies ingenuity: creating warmth and protection out of adversity. The final line’s “lightning” intensifies the sense of sudden, purifying force; “rood” (the cross) can imply moral or spiritual authority, casting the action as not merely practical but righteous—an exorcism of threats from the landscape and, by extension, from human life.