SOURCE: Charles W. Kennedy, "Introduction," in The Poems of Cynewulf, Peter Smith, 1949, pp. 1-42.

[In the essay that follows, Kennedy reviews what is known about Cynewulfs identity and the four poems signed with his name and suggests that the scholastic religious tradition which directs the primary content of Cynewulfs poetry is interlaced with more "romantic" overtones.]

Of the many problems arising from a study of Anglo-Saxon literature few are more confusing and baffling than those which connect themselves with the poems confidently or tentatively ascribed to Cynewulf. Of no one genius in the entire range of English literature do we know at once so little and so much. For when stripped of conjecture, surmise, and academic theory, our actual knowledge of Cynewulf, of his circumstances and life, is small. He is the merest shadow of a name given us in eight Anglo-Saxon runic letters. Scholars have had their way with him without dread of disproof, and pictured him a bishop or a wandering minstrel as they would. So ignorant are we of all that made his life.

Yet of the man himself we know much. The personal passages, in the poems signed with his name, give us swift gleams of insight into his nature in an intimate way such as is unique in the history of Anglo-Saxon poetry. Apparently some time during the life of this man there came a sharp and decisive change in his nature. The influence of the Christian faith in some way touched him, and the current of his life was turned. A sense of sin, a dread of final judgment linked with an unshaken faith in the goodness and perfect justice of God, give a wistful note to these striking passages of personal revelation, which draw the reader closer to him, in involuntary response to an appeal alone remaining after the centuries have laid an obliterating finger on the event and circumstance of his life.

It has come to pass since Kemble's¹ discovery in 1840 of the runic passages establishing a personality upon which conjectural theories might be hung, that the various suppositions as to the life of Cynewulf and the possibility of his authorship of many poems not signed by his name, have been exalted into a Cynewulf problem about which has been waged a bitter if bloodless battle of words. Various critics have gone various lengths in assigning to him poems which are in his manner, and which he might have written. Thus for example Kemble² and Thorpe regarded it as probable that Cynewulf was the author of both the Exeter Book and the Vercelli Codex. Ten Brink,³ making unqualified attributions to Cynewulf, which as a matter of fact rest merely on opinion, gives him the Riddles, Phoenix, Vision of the Cross, Descent to Hell, Guthlac, and Andreas, in addition to the Elene, Juliana, and Christ. This is no meagre list. Yet Sarrazin⁴ is able to surpass it by arguing for the Cynewulfian authorship of Beowulf Judith, Wanderer, Seafarer, the Gnomic Verses of the Cottonian MS., and by assuming part of the Genesis, Exodus, Vision of the Cross, and a number of minor poems to be in Cynewulf's manner, and probably composed in part by him and in part by imitators. To this extent had attribution proceeded by the year 1888.

In this year was made the first and only discovery since that of Kemble's discovery of Cynewulf's runic signature in Juliana, Elene, and Christ which has definitely added to the known facts in the vexed question of Cynewulfian authorship. In the summer of 1888 Napier,⁵ in collating the homilies and poetry in the Vercelli MS., found a fragment of 28 lines following immediately upon, and apparently belonging to, the short poem of 95 lines known as the Fates of the Apostles. These lines contained a runic passage again giving us the signature of Cynewulf, not in the due order of the letters, as had been the case in the other three signatures, but in the order FWULCYN—the E being omitted as in the signature of the Christ. Because of the position of the Fates, following as it does immediately upon the Andreas, to which it might be considered as forming an epilogue, and the apparent unity of the first 95 lines of the Fates and Napier's fragment, scholars such as Sarrazin, Trautmann, Skeat and Gollancz have held that this discovery had the effect of determining the Cynewulfian authorship, not only of the Fates of the Apostles, but also of the Andreas.

As a matter of fact it is extremely difficult to make definite attributions in the Cynewulf question on the evidence which is before us, and many theories, confidently regarded by their holders as proven, may be quickly rejected as unproven. The use of metrical tests, of word and phrase lists, and investigations of dialectal usage, never completely convincing in effect, has been exalted beyond its proper sphere of supplementary evidence. Thus for example the study of style and vocabulary, upon which Sarrazin largely depends for results in support of his theory of the Cynewulfian authorship of Beowulf, and which he summarizes in tables of phrase correspondence⁶ between Beowulf and the Cynewulfian poems, seems to me to prove little more than that these poems are in the same language, and show at times a merely normal and natural correspondence of phrase or turn of thought, and that in Anglo-Saxon poetry style and imagery are in the main conventional and formal.

It is evident therefore that as undoubted work of Cynewulf we can claim only the four poems signed with his name—the Elene, Juliana, Fates of the Apostles, and that portion of the Christ which contains the runic signature. To these, with some degree of probability, may be added Andreas, on the ground of its close relation to the Fates of the Apostles, and the remaining portions of the Christ, on the ground that the three sections, the Nativity, the Ascension, and the Last Judgment, constitute an integral poem signed by Cynewulf at the end of a section instead of at the end of the whole. It may indeed be that the signature was originally made at the end of a completed poem, and that the section known as the Last Judgment was a later addition by Cynewulf. Such a view would be borne out by the added strength and vigour of the third section, which might well find its cause in a maturer genius.

Here assumption must end. The attributions here made are made in connexion with and upon the basis of runic passages containing the name of Cynewulf, and these four complete poems—the Fates of the Apostles being considered merely as an epilogue—represent conservative opinion as to the undoubted work of Cynewulf. One or two other poems are sufficiently in the manner of Cynewulf to warrant their inclusion in this translation as the work of pupils or imitators writing in the traditions of their master.

THE EXETER BOOK

All the undoubtedly genuine poems are therefore found either in the Exeter Book or in the Vercelli MS. Our knowledge of the first is the older. At the death in 1071 of Leofric, the first Bishop of Exeter and tenth of Crediton, under whom the see was transferred from that city to Exeter, the Exeter library consisted of sixty volumes, among which was a manuscript indexed as I mycel Englisc bōc be gehwilcum, bingum on lhowisan geworht—i.e. a large English book on various subjects written in verse. This is the manuscript which has preserved to us so large a body of Anglo-Saxon verse, and which, from the Cathedral where it is still kept, has come to be known as the Exeter Book. Written by a single hand on vellum, apparently at the beginning of the eleventh century,⁷ the manuscript contains a number of important poems, among others the Christ, Guthlac, Juliana, Phoenix, Wanderer, Seafarer, Harrowing of Hell, and Ruin.

THE VERCELLI MANUSCRIPT

The Vercelli manuscript, on the other hand, had drifted out of England. Discovered in 1832 by Blume, a German Professor of Law, in the course of his investigation of the contents of the manuscripts in the Cathedral library at Vercelli, near Milan, the Codex Vercellensis is a thick volume, of the late tenth or early eleventh century,⁸ consisting in the main of Anglo-Saxon homilies, but containing, interspersed among them, six poems. These are the Andreas, Fates of the Apostles, Soul's Address to the Body, a fragment of twenty-seven lines on Psalm xxviii, Dream of the Rood, and Elene. How this manuscript found its way from England to Northern Italy is unknown. Wiulker's suggestion,⁹ which rests, however, upon no definite evidence, is that, since there was originally at Vercelli a hospice at which Anglo-Saxon pilgrims to Rome were accommodated, there may have been in connexion with this a small library, and that such a volume, finding its way to this library, may have passed later into the keeping of the Cathedral. It was also suggested by a writer in the Quarterly Review, vol. 75, that the manuscript may have been presented to the Cathedral library by Cardinal Guala Bicchiere in the thirteenth century. This theory is an interesting one because of the poem Andreas included in the Vercelli manuscript, and the connexion of Cardinal Guala with two churches named in St. Andrew's honour the Church of St. Andrew in Vercelli, which Guala founded, and St. Andrew's Church in Chesterton, Cambridgeshire, which he received as a benefice from Henry III. Cook¹⁰ argues for this theory at some length, but can hardly hope to win conviction. The matter must after all remain one of conjecture.

THE POET

Our knowledge of the personality of Cynewulf, the poet, depends upon four signatures of his name in runic characters, occurring in the poems Juliana, Christ, Elene, and Fates of the Apostles. The runic characters … [represent] the letters CYNEWULF. In two of the poems, Christ and The Fates of the Apostles, the E is omitted. The method in which the runic signature is made is a most interesting one. Except in Juliana these Anglo-Saxon runes not only fulfil the function of letters, but each rune also represents a word. In the Juliana the runes are used only as letters forming words, which when combined give us Cynewulf's name. We obtain a certain set of meanings for the Anglo-Saxon runes from the Runic Poem, which is, however, generally accepted as being a late production, and in certain instances fails to throw any light whatever upon Cynewulf's usage of the runic characters.… The lines of the Runic poem so far as these characters are concerned may be translated as follows:

"Cēn is known to every one of living
 creatures at the fire, shining and bright; it
 burneth most often
where princes rest within.

Ȳr is a joy and honour to every prince and
  earl. It is fair upon the horse, a steadfast
  war equipment in the field.

"Nȳd lieth heavy on the heart; yet it becometh
 a help and a healing unto every one of the
 children of men, if they hearken unto it
 early.

"Eoh is a joy unto the earls of princes, a
 horse proud of foot, where the warrior upon
 his steed exchangeth speech with the
 mighty; and it is ever a comfort unto the
 unquiet.

"Wyn he enjoyeth who knoweth little of care,
 of sorrow, or woe, and he hath for himself
 blessedness and bliss and eke many cities.

"Ūr is headstrong and horned, a savage beast.
 With its horns the great moor-stepper
 fighteth; that is a valiant wight.

"Lagu seemeth wearisome unto the peoples, if
they must visit it upon dancing ships, and the
  sea waves terrify and the steed of the deep
  suffereth not a bridle.

"Feoh is a comfort unto every man; yet must
 each one of men deal it out widely, if that
 he will obtain judgment before God."

From this poem, therefore, according to Kemble, we obtain the following meanings for the runes composing Cynewulf's name, taking them in due order of the letters: Torch, bow, need, horse, hope, bull, water, money. Certain of these meanings may be applied at once to Cynewulf's signature in the four poems mentioned. With here and there a very slight shade of different meaning, such as wealth instead of money, or woe instead of need, the N, E, L, and F runes may be translated in the signed poems as Kemble translates them. Wynn, however, instead of hope, is to be translated joy. The C, Y, and U runes for which Kemble derives the meaning torch, bow, and bull, cannot be so translated as Cynewulf uses them. For the U rune Cosijn and Gollancz propose the pronominal adjective "our," Gollancz supporting his contention by the fact that upon the margin of a runic alphabet Ur was in one instance glossed as "noster." This is somewhat against the general usage of runes, which requires them to be substantives, but on the whole seems the best that can be done if the original name of the rune be retained. The C rune as used by Cynewulf quite evidently cannot mean torch. As there is an Anglo-Saxon adjective cēne, however, meaning bold, keen, courageous, it has been rather generally assumed that the C rune may take on this meaning in Cynewulf, and, being used as a substantive, may be translated as hero or by some equivalent phrase.

The Y rune is the one which has perhaps given most difficulty. Nothing at all is to be made of the meaning "bow," and a number of substitutions have been offered. Of these either yrmðu, "misery," proposed by Kemble and followed by Thorpe, Grein, and Wülker, or yfel, as an adjective to be translated "wretched," as a noun to be translated "affliction,' proposed by Gollancz, seem to fit the context better than other conjectures that have been made.¹¹

Taking the runes, then, with these values Cynewulf has employed them in his poetry. It is an important fact that in those sections of his poems, which precede and follow the runic signature, Cynewulf drops at once into a personal tone. The veil between writer and reader is torn away, and we listen to his confession of sin, dread of judgment, longing for the sympathy and the prayer of friends and readers, as to the words of one speaking directly to us. It must be noted, however, that these passages are of a very general nature, and throw little light upon the actual facts of Cynewulf's life. When Leo¹² brought forward his view that Cynewulf was in youth a wandering minstrel, it was based upon the fact that Leo attributed the Riddles to him, believing that the so-called First Riddle could be interpreted as meaning "Cynewulf," and the last of the series as meaning "The Wandering Minstrel." Putting the two together, and taking this bit of information in connexion with what he believed to be references in the Elene to the receipt of treasure and appled gold in the meadhall, Leo was able to build up a theory, as a matter of fact based upon nothing at all, that Cynewulf was in early life a wandering minstrel. And in spite of the absolute lack of evidence for such a belief it was destined, once taking root, to endure for many years. In a most interesting article on "The Autobiographical Element in the Cynewulfian Rune Passages"¹³ C. F. Brown has shown that the runic signatures themselves are not autobiographical in nature, and that the specific information which Cynewulf has left us of his life is extremely meagre. Except in the most general sense all that Cynewulf tells us of himself is to be found in the Elene, lines 1237-1257. These lines may be translated as follows: "Thus have I spun my lay with craft of word, and wrought it wondrously, aged and nigh unto death by fault of this failing house; at times I mused upon it and sifted my thought in the dungeon of night. I knew not clearly of the rood aright till wisdom with ample power imparted wider counsel in the thoughts of my heart. I was stained by my deeds of evil, shackled in sin, harried by sorrow, bound in bitterness, compassed about with trouble, till that in majesty the King of might granted me knowledge to console old age, till that he meted out to me His radiant grace, instilled it in my heart, revealed its glory, made it more ample, loosed my body, and undid the bolts of my breast, and taught me song-craft, which in the world I have used with will and gladness. Full often had I pondered on the glorious cross, nor once alone, ere I unriddled all the marvel of that glorious tree. I found the tale of that victor-token in books, to make it known in writings in due course of time."

In this passage we learn all that Cynewulf specifically tells us of his life—his conversion to a life of religious contemplation, his learning which he employs in searching out and piecing together the true tale of the cross which he has just narrated, his poetic powers which find their spring in religious thought, and finally old age pressing hard upon him with sorrow and decay. Brown's¹⁴ statement, however, that probably not overmuch weight is to be laid upon Cynewulf's confession of early sin must be questioned. It is by no means certain that this is a theological commonplace.

These facts are all that are to be had from the Elene. Those interpretations of the rune passage which make the allusion to the receipt of treasure and appled gold, the meadhall and war-horse of the Elene, apply to Cynewulf himself, did so only by emending the original text in order to get a translation not so convincing as that which Brown¹⁵ proposes. With Bradley's article¹⁶ upon the so-called First Riddle to be discussed later, and the above-mentioned article by Brown upon the autobiographical element in the rune passages, the theory which made the early life of Cynewulf the life of a wandering minstrel vanishes from the scene.

The identity of the poet remains undetermined to the present day. Our absolute lack of knowledge of the external circumstances of his life, and the fact that the name of Cynewulf is no uncommon one, have made the task of identifying him doubly hard. The religious nature of his poetry, and the fact itself of his learning, argues a connexion with the church, and attempts have been made to identify him definitely with three ecclesiastics of the same or a similar name, whose lives fell in or near the conjectured period in which the Cynewulfian poetry was written. These are Cenwulf, Abbot of Peterborough and Bishop of Winchester, died 1006; Cynewulf, Bishop of Lindisfarne, died (circ.) 783; and Cynulf, one of the four priests in the company of Tidfrith, Bishop of Dunwich, who at Clovesho, October 12, 803, signed his name, after that of the bishop, to a decree forbidding laymen to be elected to the lordship of monasteries.

The identification with Cenwulf of Winchester first suggested by Kemble,¹⁷ and later adopted by Thorpe, Ettmiiller, and Earle, may be set aside as one hardly deserving serious consideration. Two arguments are strong against it. In the first place the two names are separate and distinct names not to be confused as variants of a single form.¹⁸ In the second place the time is much later than the age at which out poet must have lived. In the runic passages of the Juliana and the Elene the author's named is spelled Cynewulf. In the runic passages of the Christ and the Fates of the Apostles the e is omitted, and the name apears as Cynwulf. This affords a not unimportant clue to an approximate date for these poems. Sievers¹⁹ points out that the older form of the name would have been Cyniwulf, the change from an i to a later e coming approximately about the middle of the eighth century. Again, about the end of the eighth century or beginning of the ninth, instead of Cyni- or Cyne- we find a movement toward the form Cyn(e disappearing before h, 1, r, w, and s), though all three forms are found. On the basis of this evidence it would seem that the Juliana and the Elene could not have been written before the middle of the eighth century, nor the Fates of the Apostles and Christ before 800. On the other hand, that we may not rely too confidently on the spelling of his name as an index to the date and order of composition of the various poems is shown by the fact that in the personal passages in the Elene the poet expressly states that he is old "and ready to depart by reason of this failing house (the body)," which would seem to place the Elene later in his lifetime. At any rate it has been made clear that any identification which places the death of Cynewulf in the eleventh century may be quickly rejected.

The second theory which identifies the poet with Cynewulf, Bishop of Lindisfarne, an identification suggested by Dietrich²⁰ and followed by Grein and more recently by Trautmann,²¹ unfortunately does not admit of definite proof. One argument that Cook regards as quite conclusive²² weighs strongly against the theory. We know that the Bishop of Lindisfarne left his charge in 779 or 780 and died some three years later. If with Cook,²³ therefore, we take the dates of the Christ and the Fates of the Apostles to have been later than 783, there is no possibility of their having been written by Cynewulf of Lindisfarne. Cook²⁴ finds another and still stronger argument against the identification in the correspondence of lines 1277-1321 of the Elene, lines which in that poem immediately succeed the runic passage, with the description of the Day of Judgment given by Alcuin in his De Fide Sanctce et Individuce Trinitatis, Bk. 3, ch. 21.²⁵ The correspondence of ideas is so close as in Cook's opinion to postulate a dependence of Cynewulf upon this source; and as the De Fide must have been written after 800, being dedicated to Charlemagne, the date of the Elene would seem to be determined as early in the ninth century. The belief of Cook, however, that the similarity of the passages in the Elene and the De Fide would tend to show a dependence of Cynewulf upon Alcuin and therefore establish the date of the Elene as later than 800, was attacked by Trautmann²⁶ on the ground that Cynewulf and Alcuin might in the passages in question have borrowed from a common source. That this was in all probability the case is proved by C. F. Brown in his article on "Cynewulf and Alcuin."²⁷ He discovers a source for the Alcuin passage in a sermon by St. Eligius, Bishop of Noyon. With a portion of this sermon Alcuin had combined fragments from Augustine's Enchiridion. Brown also proves that the ideas of the judgment day which Cook takes to be peculiar to the Elene passage and to Alcuin were current in the writings of the earlier church fathers. Since there is evidence that Cynewulf was familiar with the patristic writings, Brown concludes that he may well have drawn upon them in the Elene passage. This argument, therefore, for placing the Elene in the ninth century may be dismissed.

Trautmann relies for one of his strongest bits of evidence toward proving Cynewulf Bishop of Lindisfame upon a particular translation of a certain sentence in the runic passage of the Christ which seems to me unwarranted. The passage is as follows—

           U(nne) was longe L(ond) flodum bilocen, lif-wynna dael,

which he translates as follows—"Vergonnt war mir lange der besitz des (eines) flutumschlossnen landes," and adds to this "Das flutumschlossne land ist die insel Lindisfarena Ee, der bischöfliche sitz jenes Cynewulf."²⁸

This interpretation one will be little inclined to follow, I think, even if one accept Trautmann's interpretation of the U and L runes. The thought in the personal passage at this point is not specific but general. The poet is considering the transitory nature of all earthly benefits and possessions. As they were formerly overwhelmed by the waters of the flood, so at the last day they shall burn in the fire of judgment. This is his thought as I understand the passage, and not a particular reference to an estate of his own surrounded by water. Therefore, while there is a slight possibility that, if the date of the later Cynewulfian poems could in some way be shown to fall before 783, our author may be one with the Bishop of Lindisfame, as Trautmann so positively states him to be, the facts at present before us are not sufficient to furnish definite proof in the matter.

The third theory of the identity of Cynewulf, which would make him Cynulf, the priest accompanying Tidfrith, bishop of Dunwich, at Clovesho in 803, has been proposed by Cook.²⁹ The date would certainly fit the accepted dates of the Cynewulf poems more nearly than either of the earlier identifications. As a theory, however, it must be said that if there is little definitely against it, there is also little definitely for it. It throws no clear light on the question of the person of Cynewulf. The theory of Cook is an interesting possibility, but it yet remains for it to be proved anything more than this.

Yet in spite of the mists that veil the identity of Cynewulf to a sympathetic reader of his poems, he seems less an unknown singer of the eighth century than an intimate friend. So strong is the personal element in all he writes and so winning its appeal. We find in him combined a passionate poet of the singing heart, in whom the colour³⁰ and fragrance of the world find instant response, and one who can put all this away to dream in ecstatic vision of the joys of wider and fuller life hereafter. His theology taught him to expect rigorous judgment for men according to their works, and it is with trembling and fear that he awaits the reward of his deeds. How vividly we feel the sincerity and simplicity of his heart! "How great a need have I of gentle friends upon my way when I seek out alone my long home, that unknown dwelling-place." This same thought comes to Everyman when summoned of Death to appear before God, and he exclaims—

Alas! I may well wepe with syhes depe:Now have I no maner of companyTo help me in my journey, and me to kepe.

The personal note in the religious strains of Cynewulf, the sense of weakness and penitence and aspiration, are echoed centuries later in the poems of Donne and Herbert, of Christina Rossetti and Newman; and the devotional element which here and there brings to English verse so wistful and so tender cadences finds its source on English soil in him.

Few who have realized the transient nature of all the beauties of the world have loved them so well. His verse reflects his keen delight in outdoor sights and sounds, the gleam of the sea, the tender green of earth, sunrise and sunset and the beauty of the stars, or the sound of the harp and the gleeman's voice, and the flash and colour of gold and jewels. His love of nature is intimate and vital, giving us vivid etchings of land and sea in a thousand moods, descriptions which in truth of portrayal are not surpassed by Chaucer. The sea atmosphere of his poems, the raging of wind and wave smiting against headlands as in the Christ, or the gentle, smiling grandeur of the sea stretching from the sandy shore to the horizon, as in the Elene, the sinking of the sun under the wave and the gathering of dusk, the hurry and gay bustle of an embarkation and the glad arrival at the haven—how well he knew to paint these scenes! Few lines are sometimes needed to give us a vividness and intensity of feeling which bear the stamp of truth.

No less a master of description is he in portrayal of the more vehement and impetuous forces of life. The pomp and lust and fury of war, the shock of battle in the Elene, where shield clashes upon shield, and above, unwavering and relentless, the eagle soars in expectant flight, all scenes of bloodshed and cruelty and martyrdom, the tumult of surging waters and the hurtling might of flame, all are sketched with brief insistent power. In choosing to write upon the Last Judgment in the third section of his Christ Cynewulf assigned himself a task which might well give pause to a poet of highest genius. Yet he does not fail. In almost every instance where intensity and dramatic force are to be obtained by artless means Cynewulf obtains these in ample measure. To him the fires of the Judgment Day are real flames that should consume earth, while the stars sank from their stations, and he needed no canons of art to aid him in their portrayal. As he saw them in his heart so he painted them. Simple, naive, direct, his dramatic power increases with the grandeur of his subject and the intensity of his feeling, and not even Dante's painting of the flame-red towers of the city of Dis or the slow remorseless fall of the flakes of fire surpass Cynewulf in the sweep and splendour and majesty of his Day of Judgment.

It will be easily seen, however, that the freshness of outlook upon life, keen enjoyment of beauty in all its manifestations, and power of vivid, forceful portrayal have a more important effect in the poetry of Cynewulf than the mere adornment of a particular passage or the vivifying of single scenes. It affects intimately the entire tissue of his work. In all the signed poems of Cynewulf he was working after certain models, and in the case of the poems Juliana and Elene, where his material is drawn from the more or less formal sources of the saints' legends so dear to the heart of the early church, there was more than a slight danger that a rehandling of this material, without great genius, would descend into a mere translation, or such a reworking of the legend as would better fit it to make its appeal to the social and religious spirit of the day. As a matter of fact Cynewulf's treatment of his material is in each case something more than either. It is a new poem upon a borrowed theme, fresh, vital, and sincere. This is by no means to say that Cynewulf's method of poetic architecture is free from criticism. As Cook³¹ points out, the perspective and symmetry in the Christ are marred by frequent repetitions, irrelevancies, and anticipations, and the same faults may be found in the other poems. But granting all these things, one must after all feel that in view of the traditional scholastic methods of the school in which he was bred and in comparison with the so-called Caedmonian poetry, sincere and dramatic as in part it is, we may only marvel that in this early poet we find to so full a degree the tender, wistful, passionate strains of the poetry of a later civilization. Such is the nature of this unknown voice singing in the mists of Anglo-Saxon England.

THE SIGNED POEMS OF CYNEWULF

JULIANA

Of the signed poems of Cynewulf the Juliana, a poem in the Exeter Book of 731 lines, marred by two breaks in the manuscript between lines 288 and 289, and again between 558 and 559, is probably the earliest in date of composition, though Wtilker³² is disposed to date it after the Christ. The facts which claim for the Juliana an early place in Cynewulf's writings are many. The style is that of a writer who has not yet mastered narrative verse, and the vivacity of treatment which marks the Elene and Andreas is almost completely lacking. Less influence is felt of that love of nature which gives us in his later poems flashing bits of fresh and artless description. There is one reference to the sea only and that is slight; the splendid sea scenes of the Elene and the Christ are lacking. In short, the style and manner are the style and manner of one using a power not yet brought to full fruition. Moreover, the personal passage at the end of the poem in which his name is signed gives us no hint of his age. In striking contrast are the runic passages in the Elene and the Fates. In the first the voice of the poet is avowedly the voice of an aged man, one for whom the joy of life and youthful gleam have passed away. In the Fates also, though there is no specific reference to the age of Cynewulf, a certain note of weariness and experience of life would seem to urge against so early a date as Wulker assigns it.³³ Trautmann,³⁴ though unwilling to trust too much to the value of internal evidence, is inclined to regard the Juliana as an early poem, many other critics giving it the earliest place.

Mention of St. Juliana is first made in the Martyrologium Vetustissimum ascribed to St. Jerome (d. 420), and the Martyrologium Romanum Vetustius seu Parvum, dating supposedly about the end of the seventh century. Both these notices, however, are slight.³⁵ Bede in his Martyrology³⁶ gives the story at greater length, in most details agreeing with the Acta St. Julianae of Bolland. In the Bollandist collection of the Acta Sanctorum under date of February 16, Vol. II., two lives of St. Juliana are found. The one, by an unknown author and edited from eleven manuscripts by Bolland himself, may be taken as the nearest to the source of Cynewulf. From the fact that this version of the legend gives no account of the translation of St. Juliana to Cumae, supposed to have taken place between 568 and 600, Bolland would date this form of the story no later than the early sixth century.³⁷

The story of St. Juliana as given in the fifth and sixth century prose form of the Acta Sanctorum, which we have taken to be the closest to the source of Cynewulf's poem, may be given in a few words. In the reign of Maximian (308-14) Juliana, a maiden of Nicomedia, daughter of Africanus, a persecutor of the Christians, was wooed by Eleusius, a Roman prefect. Rejecting his suit because he refused to embrace the Christian faith, she suffered persecution at the hand of her suitor by repeated imprisonments, scourgings, fire, breaking upon the wheel, and immersion in molten lead. So great was her faith and fortitude that she was enabled by divine aid to endure these persecutions, to confound the evil spirit that came to her prison to tempt her, and received power to convert many bystanders who witnessed her tortures. Her martyrdom was finally consummated by decollation, and her body translated after death by a certain Sephonia to Puteoli, where a tomb is built for her one mile from the sea. Eleusius, setting sail soon thereafter for his suburban villa, was caught in a great tempest and drowned with twenty-four of his men.

Between the legend of the Acta Sanctorum and the poem of Cynewulf a number of discrepancies exist. Some of these may be explained by the poet's voluntary omission of pagan references, or expansion of Christian sentiments, according as he found them adverse or favourable to the Christian colouring of the poem. In matters of fact or number, where a voluntary change would seem purposeless and unnatural, the correspondence is closer. Thus for example the bath into which Juliana is thrown is represented by Cynewulf as being filled with boiling lead, being thus in agreement with the Acta Sanctorum. Likewise, after the pouring forth of the lead from the vessel, the number of bystanders slain is given both in the Latin and Anglo-Saxon as seventy-five. There is a discrepancy, however, in the number of those drowned of the company which had set sail with the prefect Eleusius after the death of Juliana. The Acta Sanctorum gives the number as twenty-four, Cynewulf as thirty-four. Reference to the translation of Juliana's body to Puteoli is also omitted in Cynewulf.

It is in those portions of the legend that lend themselves to expansion or easy omission that the greatest difference is found. And an examination of these passages reveals with what skill Cynewulf has used these means to add to the gentleness and beauty of Juliana's character or to emphasize the spirit of the Christian faith. Thus at the very beginning of the Acta Sanctorum legend Juliana is convicted of something very closely approximating deceit. Being unwilling to marry Eleusius she puts her unwillingness on the ground of ambition: "Unless thou hold the dignity of a prefect I am in no wise able to be joined to thee." Whereupon Eleusius takes measures to achieve her wish. With fresh naivete the Latin tells us that "he gave a gift to the Emperor Maximian and succeeded the other prefect who was then ruling," apparently a proceeding of much simplicity. When Juliana learned that her demand, perhaps considered an impossible one, had been fulfilled, and when Eleusius again pressed for her hand, she was obliged to change her ground. This time she gives her real reason, and demands his conversion to the Christian faith as a prerequisite to the marriage. Cynewulf, feeling undoubtedly that this double dealing was a blemish upon the poem, omits all reference to the prefecture, and makes belief in the true God her only demand of her suitor. Moreover, as the poem proceeds, the language of Juliana is modified by Cynewulf in such a manner as to bring into softer outline a certain coarseness of nature ascribed to her by the Latin legend. Likewise the fact that Juliana's father is a persecutor of the Christians, and the lukewarm character of her mother's faith, who while abhorring the worship of Mars consorted neither with Christians nor pagans, is omitted from the Anglo-Saxon poem. Nor does Africanus, the father of Juliana, swear by "the merciful gods, Apollo and Diana," as in the Latin text. In the opening lines of his poem Cynewulf makes a noteworthy expansion in his description of the wicked deeds and character of the Roman emperor Maximian. That which the Latin passes over with "persecutoris Christianae religionis" is given in Anglo-Saxon in much detail. He speaks of Maximian as "the profane king, the heathen war-lord, who throughout the world stirred up persecution, slew Christian men, destroyed churches, and poured out the holy blood of righteous worshippers of God upon the grassy plain. His kingdom was broad, powerful, and mighty over the nations, almost over all the spacious earth. Among the cities, went, as he bade, his mighty thanes; oft they committed violence, misled in their deeds, they who despised the law of the Lord in their sinful might. Deeds of hatred they wrought in that they exalted idolatry, slew holy men, destroyed those learned in the Scriptures, burned chosen men and persecuted the champions of God with spear and fire." Since his close following of detail shows that some manuscript was before Cynewulf as he wrote, and that he was not merely reproducing the general outlines of a remembered legend, it is evident either that the version he used was not that given in the Acta Sanctorum, but one similar to it in general detail offering some hint for the apparent expansion, or that Cynewulf has given freedom to his muse in one of the interpolated passages more frequent in his later work. The latter would seem the more likely of belief.

The reflection of Anglo-Saxon life is less vivid in the poem than in the other signed Cynewulfian poems. Certain bits of local colour, however, here and there creep into the text. Before entering upon their conference Africanus and Eleusius lean their spears together, quite in the fashion of Anglo-Saxon warriors. The usual martial epithets applied to divinity and those of Christian faith in the poetry of the period are here used. God is "the Protector of Warriors," etc., Christian men are "the thanes of God," Satan is "the accursed foe," and his followers are his thanes. In short, the whole war of good and evil, is reproduced in the military terms of Anglo-Saxon England. Also reference is made at the end of the poem to the drinking of ale and the giving of treasure in the mead-hall. In the one mention of the sea which the poem contains it is called the swan-road, one of the more usual kennings of the sea in Anglo-Saxon verse, alternating in usage with whale-path, whale-road, sea-monster's home, fishes' bath, etc.

On the whole, therefore, it may be said that while Cynewulf's poem Juliana does not correspond exactly with the prose version of the legend given in the Acta Sanctorum, which is, however, the nearest in detail to the Cynewulfian form of the story, it is unlikely that any version of the legend will be found corresponding exactly to Cynewulf's poem. His work was not intended to be a translation in the strict sense of the term, but such a rehandling of the material of the legend as would give a new poetic rendering of the story, a reweaving into a new artistic whole of such threads as Cynewulf chose to pluck from the source or sources before him.

THE CHRIST

The Christ is found at the beginning of the Exeter manuscript in fifteen sections of varying length and style, certain of them being devotional, others homiletic, and still others almost epic in tone. These sections were considered by Thorpe to be separate poems and were so printed. The first section is incomplete, the first leaf being numbered 8a. Later Dietrich"³⁸ came to the opinion that we may regard all these short poems as parts of a long poem upon the threefold coming of Christ, and divided into sections as follows: 1-440, The Coming of Christ to Earth or the Nativity; 440-779, The Coming of Christ into Glory or the Ascension; 779, The Second Coming of Christ or the Last Judgment. This view, while probably untenable in the matter of division, was important in that it postulated for the first time the unity of these various sections and the attribution of them to a single author. As the runic signature of Cynewulf occurs in the section included in lines 779-866, it afforded ground for the supposition that he may be regarded as the author of this single poem, the Christ. Dietrich's theory was received with interest by the leading critics of his time, but his views did not pass unchallenged. The discussion of the unity of the Christ was rendered a matter of more doubt and difficulty by the fact that lines 779-866 have been regarded by certain students of the poem as ending section II, and by others as beginning section III. Inasmuch as it is in these lines that the runic signature occurs, if one were to argue for the Cynewulfian authorship of that portion of the poem only which may be considered as including the signature, it is easily seen that different views of the relationship of these lines to the second and third sections of the poem at once involves the whole subject of Cynewulf's authorship in much confusion. Sievers³⁹ in 1887, apparently, however, with some doubt, regarded section III as being that portion of the poem included in lines 779-1693, and since in the matter of versification he found differences existing between section 1-779 and section 779-1693, he leans toward the view that, if the entire poem be attributed to Cynewulf, at least sections I and II must be regarded as being written at another period than section III, the first two sections having metrical characteristics in common with the Juliana, while the third section would apparently fall in the same period as the Elene. Cremer,⁴⁰ dividing with Sievers, finds linguistic difference between sections I-II and section III, and inclines therefore, on the basis of the runic passage, to assign section III to Cynewulf and I-II to another poet. Mather,⁴¹ in reviewing Cremer's dissertation in 1892, divides at 779 and concludes: "There is no good reason for doubting that the three parts of the Christ are by Cynewulf." In 1896, in an essay entitled "Der sogennante Crist," Trautmann⁴² assigns lines 779-866 to section II, and supports by many arguments the view that there is no reason for supposing I and III to be by the same hand as II, but that II on the ground of metre, language, and signature may be assigned to Cynewulf. Blackburn,⁴³ arguing also against the unity of the Christ, agrees with Trautmann in giving only section II to Cynewulf.

A careful and conservative consideration of the problems centering around the Christ, as well as a strong argument for the unity of that poem and the attributions of all three sections to Cynewulf, is to be found in Cook's introduction to his edition.⁴⁴ He leans toward Sievers' theory that some time elapsed between the completion of section II and III, and thinks with Cremer that section II may have been originally intended to complete the poem, but does not regard either of these theories as incompatible with the assumption that section III was later added by Cynewulf himself. He supports the inclusion of the runic signature of lines 779-866 in section II by pointing out the fact that these lines 779-866 are related to the preceding portion of section II by common dependence upon one source. Dietrich had pointed out⁴⁵ that a source of section II was found in Gregory the Great's homily on the Ascension, No. 29 in his homilies on the Gospels.⁴⁶ But in assigning these lines 779 ff. to section III Dietrich had apparently overlooked the fact that by so doing he was breaking in upon the unity of his second section, since lines 782-796 and 850-866 are plainly based also upon the same homily of Gregory.⁴⁷ This point tends to strengthen the view, therefore, that the rune signature of Cynewulf, included in lines 779-866, was at the end of section II and not at the beginning of section III. Cook then proceeds to show a close relation between section II and the other two sections. Gregory is not only the principal source of II, but a subsidiary source of III. Part II contains a number of allusions to the Nativity and the Last Judgment. Many features of the Last Judgment are common to II and III. The motive of the Harrowing of Hell is found in all three parts. In certain theological views the three parts of the poem are consistent, and there are various verbal and material resemblances between the three parts. The chain of evidence thus forged⁴⁸ is no slight one. In a review⁴⁹ of Cook's edition, however, while acknowledging Cook's achievement in the discovery of the sources of parts I and III of the Christ, Trautmann takes occasion once again to state his view that the three sections of the Christ are in reality three separate and distinct poems.

It is but natural in a poem of so widely varying poetic spirit as the Christ—a poem in which lyric and devotional passages alternate with those of homiletic or epic nature—that the dependence of the Anglo-Saxon poem upon its sources would be less close and consecutive than in the case of poems based upon legends, as were the Juliana and Elene. And in each section of the poem this is found to be true. While in a certain sense, however, the Christ is a mosaic, to which the better known liturgical writings of Cynewulf's day have all contributed their mite, each part of the poem has one main definite original. In the case of section I Cook gives as the original a series of twelve antiphons comprising the seven Greater Antiphons of the Roman Church for Advent, four other antiphons sometimes used with the Greater Antiphons, and a double antiphon for Lauds on Trinity Sunday.⁵⁰ The short devotional sections of the first part of Cynewulf's Christ (lines 1-440) all breathe the spirit of Advent and, while in no sense translations of the antiphons mentioned, may in each case be shown to be a variation upon the theme of a particular one of these Advent Antiphons.⁵¹

The source of the second portion of the Christ (lines 440-866), or the Ascension, is, as shown by Dietrich,⁵² to be found in Gregory the Great's homily upon the Ascension. Here again we find Cynewulf influenced by the spirit rather than the letter of his original, and while Cook's analysis shows a clear logical dependence of the Anglo-Saxon upon its original, and while certain lines and sections are demonstrably based upon corresponding lines in the Gregory homily, the treatment on the whole is quite free.

This may be said also of the third section of the poem (lines 866-1640) or Last Judgment. While the poetic imagination and fervour of Cynewulf is perhaps more discernible here than in either of the other parts of the Christ, Cook pointed out in 1889⁵³ that one main source of the Last Judgment is to be found in an alphabetic hymn beginning "Apparebit repentina dies magna Domini," cited by Bede in his De Arte Metrica.⁵⁴

From the tender devotional spirit of the Nativity to the flaming, imaginative pictures of the Judgment Day is a change finding, it is true, an inspiration in the differing character of the two subjects. But the cause of the change lies even deeper than this. The poet's imagination has been kindled and his visualizing power has enabled him to give us in his mind-pictures the sweep and force and colour we might more naturally look to find upon a Renaissance canvas. It is the triumph of law, of absolute, unwavering justice. Through the flames in which the world is crumbling into nothingness the eye may yet spell the letters upon the tables of Sinai. It is unnecessary to emphasize the fact that the creed that postulated the fire of Doomsday was as actual to Cynewulf as the Ptolemaic astronomy. Yet it is worth remembering, when we find that in the Ascension and Judgment Day he gives us neither a mere abstract representation of an idea which appealed to his imagination, nor a scholastic restatement of theological dogma. The dream of Judgment Day envelopes an accepted revelation of truth, and the vision and supernal light spring as naturally from his belief as flower from seed. All the affairs of life and death have their origin in choice, and it is choice that Cynewulf stresses in the Ascension and Doomsday. "Every one of men," he says, "while he dwelleth here in life may choose the deceits of hell or the splendours of heaven, the gleaming light or the loathsome night, the spell of glory or the vengeance of darkness, joy with the Lord or tumult with devils, torment with the fiends or bliss with the angels, or life or death as may be dearer to him to accomplish so long as flesh and spirit dwell together upon earth." It is this element of personal choice which reconciles the first and second coming of the Christ, which harmonizes the dusky flames of Doomsday with the tender radiance of the Star of Bethlehem.

ELENE

The Elene, a poem of 1321 lines, containing the runic signature of Cynewulf woven into the text between lines 1258 and 1270, is found in the Vercelli manuscript, folios 121a to 133b. The question of the probable date of this poem has been already discussed, and Cook's theory of its dependence in certain lines upon Alcuin's De Trinitate, and the arguments of Trautmann and Brown against this theory, have been stated.⁵⁵ Aside from this question it can at least be said that from the standpoint of style and handling of material one would be inclined to assign this poem to a period of ripened genius, a view supported by the personal passage and its reference to old age. It is a late poem then, perhaps the latest poem of Cynewulf. Nowhere is the poet's love of active life shown to greater advantage. The account of Elene's sea journey is the finest sea scene in Cynewulf's signed poetry, and in two other descriptions, Constantine's battle against the heathen, and the preparations for embarkation upon the sea voyage, the poet's powers of vivid narration show to equal advantage.

The source of the Elene is usually given as the Vita Quiriaci contained in the Acta Sanctorum collection under the date of May 4. In this life is given an account of St. Helena's journey to Jerusalem, and her discovery of the cross and the nails used at the Crucifixion. That this is the original which Cynewulf used in the composition of his poem, however, is by no means certain. Glöde,⁵⁶ after a careful examination of the discrepancies existing between the Anglo-Saxon poem and the Latin life of Quiriacus, decides that while Cynewulf was in all probability reproducing some Latin version, the Vita Quiriaci is to be taken merely as a similar form of the legend, and not that particular version which Cynewulf had before him.

The legend of Constantine's vision and the discovery of the true Cross by St. Helena, mother of Constantine, is one section of a vast body of legendary literature connected with the cross which sprang up in the early Christian centuries and flourished through the Middle Ages. Most of these legends are concerned either with the history of the wood of the cross before Christ, or the fate of the cross itself after the Crucifixion. An early hint of the origin of the wood of the cross in the Garden of Paradise is given us in the Apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus, Pt. II, chap. 3, where Seth relates how he had been sent by Adam, who was ill, to beg for the oil of the Tree of Mercy in the Garden of Paradise. The Archangel Michael refused the oil, but prophesied the redemption of men. From this kernel there later grew up a body of legends of the cross varying in many details, but tracing the history of the wood of the cross back to the Tree of Knowledge.⁵⁷ A complete from of this legend was given in the Invention of the Holy Cross in the Golden Legend. According to this version of the story Seth is given by Michael a branch of the tree of which Adam had eaten, with the prophecy that when the branch bore fruit Adam should be healed. Seth, coming and finding his father dead, planted the tree upon his grave, where it throve until the time of Solomon. The Queen of Sheba on her visit to Solomon worshipped it, prophesying the Crucifixion, and for this reason Solomon had it buried deep under ground. Here the Pool Bethesda welled forth, receiving virtue from the buried wood, and many miracles were wrought there. When the time of the Passion drew near, it rose and floated on the surface of the water, and of it was made the cross. According to a twelfth century form of the legend⁵⁸ the rod of Moses sprang from this same branch. It was later planted, and grew to the tree of which the cross is made.⁵⁹

Early in the Christian era traditions also grew up that the cross was composed of three of four distinct species of wood, a belief possibly suggested first by the words of Isaiah lx. 13: "The glory of Lebanon shall come unto thee; the fir tree, the pine tree and the box together, to beautify the place of my sanctuary; and I will make the place of my feet glorious." Thus Bede speaks of the cross as being formed of four kinds of wood, cypress, cedar, pine and box; the main shaft being of cypress as far as the tablet, and pine above it, the tablet of box. As to the use of the box, however, he seems uncertain. "Crux Domini de quatuor lignis facta est, quae vocantur cypressus, cedrus, pinus et buxus. Sed buxus non fuit in cruce, nisi tabula de illo ligno supra frontem Christi fuit, in qua conscripserunt Judaei titulum: Hic est Rex Judaorum. Cypressus fuit in terra usque ad tabulam, cedrus in transversum, pinus sursum."⁶⁰

The legend of the discovery or invention of the cross by St. Helena arises within a century after the event is said to have taken place. Eusebius first tells us in his Life of Constantine⁶¹ of the vision which the Emperor saw when praying to the true God that He would reveal himself unto him. "About noon, when the day was already beginning to decline, he saw with his own eyes the trophy of a cross of light in the heavens, above the sun, and bearing the inscription: 'Conquer by this."' Whereupon, moved by the vision, he ordered a standard to be made in the likeness of his dream for use in battle, and was instructed in the Scriptures. The sequel to this vision, which has to do with the journey of Helena to Jerusalem and the discovery there of the cross and nails, is narrated in the ecclesiastical histories of Socrates and Sozomen. Socrates narrates⁶² that Helena "was divinely directed by dreams" to go to Jerusalem, and there, under a statue which had been erected to Venus in a temple built in her honour, discovered the cross and nails. Sozomen⁶³ gives practically the same account, save that Helena instead of being prompted by dreams had gone to Jerusalem in order to offer prayer. Moreover, in the account of Sozomen, the information of the whereabouts of the cross is obtained from one of the Hebrews, who had it by tradition from his forefathers. This detail is reproduced in the Vita Quiriaci of the Acta Sanctorum and in Elene. Similar versions of the invention are given by Rufinus⁶⁴ and Theodoret.⁶⁵

The succeeding history of the cross is variously given. According to general tradition part of it was left by Helena in Jerusalem, in a church built upon the site of the discovery, where the former temple of Venus had stood; and a portion was sent to Constantinople. This was divided by Constantine, and part placed in the church of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme in Rome. The portion of the cross left in Jerusalem was carried off by Chosroes II, after the taking of Jerusalem in 614. It was recovered by Heraclius in 628, brought back to Jerusalem and its restoration commemorated later by the Exaltation of the Cross⁶⁶ on September 14. After the capture of the city by the Saracens in 637 all trace of it was lost. The fragment brought by Helena to Constantinople is later supposed to have been moved to the Sainte Chapelle in Paris.

The Elene abounds in the more usual motifs of the saints' legends of which it is a type. The character of Helena herself, as was also the case with Juliana, is consciously elevated by her struggle, given at times in wearisome detail and repetition, against unbelief and stubbornness of heart. The introduction of Satan, bewailing the devastation wrought in his domain by the conversion of Judas to the cause of Elene, is a conventional device for enhancing the glory of the heroine. It may be compared with the somewhat cruder struggle between Juliana and Satan's emissary, which, beginning in dialectic debate, ended in a physical chastisement administered by the maid of Nicomedia. All such means for the creation of an atmosphere of miracle and wonder, or for revealing the close relation of human life to the powers of heaven and hell, Cynewulf accepted without question. It is in the two interpolated descriptive passages that we are suddenly transferred from the more unreal atmosphere surrounding these events, as portrayed in the Latin legend, to the vital air of the real world. The many touches here and there which render the poem essentially Anglo-Saxon serve to accomplish this, and with careful reading one recognizes with what consummate skill the poet has used the old and the new, the borrowed theme and the imaginative vision which clothes it in new beauty.

THE FATES OF THE APOSTLES

The Fates of the Apostles, a short poem of 122 lines, containing the runic signature of Cynewulf in the last 27 lines, is found in the Vercelli manuscript. As has been already stated, the poem which was known as the Fates of the Apostles, in the early editions of that manuscript, had only 95 lines and contained no signature; but in 1888 a further fragment of 27 lines with the Cynewulf runes was discovered by Napier, following in the codex immediately after the Fates of the Apostles and apparently belonging to it. This gives us our fourth signed Cynewulfian poem.

This short poem is a mere recounting, in a few lines, of the work and manner of death of each of the twelve apostles. There is no opportunity for poetic imagery or expression save in the personal passage, where the familiar reflections upon death and appeals for sympathy and prayer usual to the Cynewulf signature are found. No immediate source for the poem is yet known, though Krapp points out in his edition of the Andreas and Fates of the Apostles⁶⁷ that, while the poem differs slightly from the Martyrology of Bede and the Breviarium Apostolorum, it may well have been compiled from such Latin lists as these were based upon.

Since so slight a poem upon a theme so lacking in unity offers no opportunity to the poet for the attainment of poetic effect, it is somewhat surprising that Cynewulf should have been careful to mark it definitely as his by affixing his signature. Moreover, it seems strange that the opening lines of the poem should be: "Lo! travel-worn, with weary heart, I wrought this lay, made gleaning far and wide." To begin by telling us of the difficulties of writing a poem which he was about to set forth is certainly not as usual as if such a statement came after the telling of his story. As a matter of fact, this is exactly what does occur in the Elene, where, at the end of the legend proper and the beginning of the personal passage, Cynewulf tells us: "Thus have I spun my lay with craft of word and wrought it wondrously, aged and nigh unto death by fault of this mouldering house."

Moreover, the statement in the Fates seems to carry with it the implication of more thought and labour than would seem to be represented in so short a poem, though the references to "wide gleaning," and to sources employed are explained by Krapp as being merely "conventional poetic formula." This may perhaps be so. But it is evident that if with reasonable probability a dependence of this short poem upon the Andreas could be assumed, all of these difficulties would vanish at once.

Notes

¹Archaeologia, xxviii, 363. "On Anglo-Saxon Runes."

²The Poetry of the Codex Vercellensis, i, 8.

³Geschichte der englischen Literature, i, 64-75.

⁴Beowulfstudien, G. Sarrazin, Berlin, 1888.

⁵ Published in the Academy, September 8, 1888, and the Zeitschrift für deutsches Alterthum, xxxiii (1888), 66 ff.

⁶Beowulfstudien, 110-111, 112-113, 114-116, and ff.

⁷ Wülker, Grundriss, 223.

⁸ Wülker, Grundriss, 237.

⁹Grundriss, 237.

¹⁰The Dream of the Rood, ed. Cook, Introd. v., vi.

¹¹ For a fuller discussion of the runes as used by Cynewulf see Cook's edition of the Christ, 151 ff., or Trautmann's Kynewulf, Bonner Beiträge, i, 43-70, also Gollancz' edition of the Christ, 173.

¹²Quae de se Cynewulfus tradiderit, Halle, Universität-Programm.

¹³Englische Studien, xxxviii, 196.

¹⁴Englische Studien, xxxviii, 219.

¹⁵Ibid., 203 ff.

¹⁶Academy for March 24, 1888.

¹⁷Archaeologia, xxviii, 362.

¹⁸ Sievers, Anglia, xiii, 20.

¹⁹Anglia, xiii, 11-15.

²⁰De Cruce Ruthw., 14.

²¹Kynewulf, Trautmann, Bonner Beiträge, i.

²²The Christ of Cynewulf, Cook, Introd., 73.

²³Ibid., Introd., 69.

²⁴Anglia, xv, 7-20.

²⁵ Migne's Patrologia Latina, ci, 53.

²⁶Anglia Beiblatt, xi, 324.

²⁷Mod. Lang. Ass. Pub., xviii, 308-334.

²⁸Kynewulf, Trautmann, Bonner Beiträge, 94.

²⁹The Christ of Cynewulf, Cook, Introd., 73.

³⁰ Notice Cynewulf's love of colour as shown by a fairly wide use of colour adjectives, and particularly his love for contrast between light and darkness, with all that it symbolized. See "Colour in Old English Poetry," by W. E. Mead, Mod. Lang. Ass. Pub., xiv, 169.

³¹The Christ of Cynewulf, Cook, Introd., 91.

³²Geschichte der englischen Literatur, 41.

³³Geschichte der englischen Literatur.

³⁴ "Ist es zwar meist bedenklich aus stil, wortgebrauch, versbau, behandlung der quelle, etc. auf frühere oder spätere zu schliessen, so fühl ich mich doch gestimmt die Juliana für ein früheres werk des dichters zu halten." Bonner Beiträge, Kynewulf 113.

³⁵ See Juliana, edited by W. Strunk, Introd., 24.

³⁶ Migne Patrologia Lat., xciv, 843.

³⁷ For a complete discussion of various forms of the legend see J. Garnett, Mod Lang. Ass. Pub., xiv, 279 ff.

³⁸Zeitschrift für deutches Alterthum, ix, 193-214.

³⁹ "Rythmik des Alliterationsverses," Paul und Braune's Beiträge, xii, 455-6.

⁴⁰Metrische und Sprachliche Untersuchung, 47-8, Bonn, 1888.

⁴¹Mod. Lang. Notes, vii, 97-107.

⁴²Anglia, xviii, 382 ff.

⁴³Anglia, xix, 89-98.

⁴⁴The Christ of Cynewulf.

⁴⁵Zeitschrift für deutsches Alterthum, ix, 204.

⁴⁶ Migne, lxxvi, 1218-9 (Sancti Gregorii Magni Homiliarum in Evangelica, Lib. ii, Homil. xxix).

⁴⁷ For an analysis of the relation of section II to Gregory's homily, also to a hymn of Bede, see Cook, 115.

⁴⁸ For complete statement see Cook, Introd., 21 ff.

⁴⁹Anglia Beiblatt xi, 321-329.

⁵⁰ For a list of these antiphons with translations and table of correspondences with the text of the Anglo-Saxon, see Cook, 71.

⁵¹ A somewhat more detailed examination of the sources of sections I and II of the Christ by Johannes Bourauel is to be found in Bonner Beiträge, xi, 65 ff. He sums up his conclusions as follows: "Als sichere ergebnisse zu der Quellenfrage des Crist stelle ich folgende auf.

(a) Crist I beruht auf dem Lectionale, Graduale, Antiphonarium, Missale, und Hymnarium der Gregorianischen Liturgie. (b) Erweiterungen und Ausschmuckungen sind der hl. Schrift, den kirchen Vatern und den christlichen Dichtern, besonders Sedulius, Fortunatus, Gregorius und Ambrosius entnommen. (c) Die Quellen zu Crist I und II waren samtlich Lateinische.

⁵²Zeitschrift für deutsches Alterthum, ix, 204.

⁵³Mod. Lang. Notes, iv, 342.

⁵⁴ For copy of this hymn and analysis of its relation to section III, see Cook, 171.

⁵⁵ Page 15.

⁵⁶Cynewulf's Elene und ihre Quelle, Rostock, 1885, also Anglia, ix, 271-318.

⁵⁷ For a number of these legends of the cross see Legend of the Holy Rood, ed. R. Morris, E.E.T.S., 46.

⁵⁸History of the Holy Rood-Tree ed. A. S. Napier, E.E.T.S., 103, original series.

⁵⁹ In the Dream of the Rood, however, there is naturally no attempt made to identify the wood of the cross in any of the ways mentioned above, as the cross wood legend is of later date.

⁶⁰Patrologia Latina, xciv, 555.

⁶¹ Chap. xxviii.

⁶²Hist. Eccles., i, 17.

⁶³Hist. Eccles., ii, 1.

⁶⁴Hist. Eccles., i, 7.

⁶⁵Hist. Eccles., i, 18.

⁶⁶ See the account of the carrying off of the cross by Chosroes, and its recapture by Heraclius in Caxton's Golden Legend "Of the Exaltation of the Holy Crosse."

⁶⁷Andreas and Fates of the Apostles, ed. G. P. Krapp, 1906, Introd., 30-32.

CYNEWULF

"On Anglo-Saxon Runes," J. Kemble, Archaeologia, XXVIII, 360 ff. 1840.

Handbuch der deutschen Literaturgeschichte, Lud. Ettmuller, I, 132 ff. 1847.

Quae de se ipso Cynewulfus tradiderit, H. Leo. 1857. Commentatio de Kynewulfi Poetae Aetate, Franz Dietrich. 1859.

Disputatio de Cruce Ruthwellensi, Franz Dietrich. 1865.

Geschichte der englischen Literatur, Ten Brink, I, 64-75. 1877.

"Ober den Dichter Cynewulf," R. Wuilker, Anglia I, 483-507. 1878.

Kurzgefasste ags. Grammatik, C. Grein, pp. 11-15. 1880.

Grundriss zur Geschichte der angelsachsischen Literatur, R. Wuilker, Chap. III. 1885.

"Zu Cynewulf," E. Sievers, Anglia, XIII, 1-25. 1891.

"Cynewulfs Heimat," R. Wuilker, Anglia, XVII, 106-110. 1895.

Geschichte der englischen Literatur, R. Willker, pp. 39 ff. 1896.

Kynewulf der Bischof und Dichter, M. Trautmann, Bonner Beiträge, I. 1898.

The Christ of Cynewulf, A. S. Cook, Introduction, Section III. 1900.

Geschichte der englischen Literatur, R. Wiulker, 2nd. ed., pp. 40-45. 1906.

"Zur Chronologie und Verfasserfrage altenglischer Dichtungen," G. Sarrazin, Englische Studien, XXXVIII 2, 145-195. 1907.

"The Autobiographical Element in the Cynewulfian Rune Passages," C. F. Brown, Englische Studien, XXXVIII 2, 196-233. 1907.

TEXTS

The Poetry of the Codex Vercellensis, Part I. J. Kemble. 1843.

Andreas.

The Poetry of the Codex Vercellensis, Part II, J. Kemble. 1856.

Elene, Dream of the Rood, Fates of the Apostles.

Bibliothek der angelsachsischen Poesie, Vol. I, C. Grein. 1857.

Christ, Phoenix.

Bibliothek der angelsachsischen Poesie, Vol. II, C. Grein. 1858.

Andreas, Fates of the Apostles, Juliana, Guthlac, Elene, Dream of the Rood, Riddles.

Bibliothek der angelsachsischen Poesie II, 1st half, Grein-Wilker. 1888.

Andreas, Fates of the Apostles, Dream of the Rood, Elene.

Codex Vercellensis, R. Wuilker. 1894.

Andreas, Fates of the Apostles and Runic Passage, Dream of the Rood, Elene.

The Exeter Book, Part I, E.E.T.S., I. Gollancz. 1895.

Christ, Guthlac, Phoenix, Juliana.

Juliana, Belles-Lettres Series, W. Strunk. 1904.

Cynewulf s Christ, I. Gollancz. 1892.

The Christ of Cynewulf, A. S. Cook. 1900.

Andreas and the Fates of the Apostles, G. P. Krapp. 1906.

The Dream of the Rood, A. S. Cook. 1905.

TRANSLATIONS

Codex Exoniensis, B. Thorpe. 1842.

Juliana, Christ, Guthlac, Phoenix, Riddles.

Dichtungen der Angelsachsen, Vol. I, C. Grein. 1857.

Christ, Phoenix translated into German.

Dichtungen der Angelsachsen, Vol. II, C. Grein. 1858.

Andreas, Juliana, Guthlac, Elene, Dream of the Rood, Riddles, translated into German.

The Poetry of the Codex Vercellensis, Part I, J. Kemble 1843.

Andreas.

The Poetry of the Codex Vercellensis, Part II, J. Kemble. 1856.

Elene, Dream of the Rood, Fates of the Apostles.

The Exeter Book, Part I, E.E.T.S., I. Gollancz. 1895.

Christ, Guthlac, Phoenix, Juliana.

Cynewulf s Christ, I. Gollancz. 1892.

Elene, Judith, Maldon, and Brunnanburgh, translated by J. M. Garnett. 1889.

Der Vogel Phoenix, C. Grein. 1854.

Translated into German.

The Phoenix, translated by A. S. Cook. 1902.

Contained in Select Translations from Old English Poetry, ed. Cook and Tinker.

CRITICAL STUDIES

"Miscellen zur ags. Grammatik," E. Sievers, Paul und Braune's Beiträge, IX, 235. 1884.

"Zur Rythmik des Altgermanischen Alliterationsverses," E. Sievers, Paul und Braune's Beiträge, X, 209 ff., 451 ff. 1885.

"Zur Heimat des Beowulf-dichters," E. Sievers, Paul und Braune's Beiträge, XI, 354. 1886.

"Beowulf und Cynewulf," G. Sarrazin, Anglia, IX, 515-550. 1886.

"Zur Rythmik des germanischen Alliterationsverses," E. Sievers, Paul und Braune's Beiträge, XII, 454-482. 1887.

Beowulfstudien, G. Sarrazin. 1888.

Metrische und Sprachliche Untersuchung der altenglischen Gedichte Andreas, Guthlac, Phoenix, Elene, Juliana, Crist, M. Cremer. 1888.

"Zu Cynewulf," E. Sievers, Anglia, XIII, 1-25. 1891.

"The Cynewulf question from a metrical point of view," F. J. Mather, Mod. Lang. Notes, VII, 193 ff. 1892.

"Parallelstellen in ae. Dichtungen," G. Sarrazin, Anglia, XIV, 186-193. 1892.

"Zur Kenntnis des altgermanischen Verses, vornehmlich des altenglischen," M. Trautmann, Anglia Beiblatt, V, 87-96. 1894.

"Neue Beowulfstudien," G. Sarrazin, Englische Studien, XXI, 221-267. 1896.

Kynewulf der Bischof und Dichter, M. Trautmann, Bonner Beiträge, I. 1898.

"Zu Cynewulfs Runenstellen," M. Trautmann, Bonner Beiträge, II, 118. 1899.

"Color in Old-English Poetry," W. E. Mead, Mod. Lang. Ass. Pub. XIV, 169-206. 1899.

Andreas and Fata Apostolorum, W. W. Skeat. 1901.

"Zur Quellen und Verfasserfrage von Andreas, Crist und Fata," J. Bourauel, Bonner Beiträge, XI. 1901.

Textkritische Untersuchung nach dem Gebrauch des bestimmten Artikels und des schwachen Adjectivs in der altenglischen Poesie, A. J. Barnouw. 1902.

"Cynewulf and Alcuin," C. F. Brown, Mod. Lang. Ass. Pub., XVIII, 308 ff. 1903.

"Zur Chronologie und Verfasserfrage altenglischer Dichtungen," G. Sarrazin, Englische Studien, XXXVIII, 145-195. 1907.

"Berichtigungen, Erklarungen und Vermutungen zu Cynewulfs Werken," M. Trautmann, Bonner Beiträge, XXIII, 85-139. 1907.

"Nachtrage zur Elene, Andreas und Runenstellen," M. Trautmann, Bonner Beiträge, XXIII, 140-146. 1907.

"Untersuchung über die Quelle von Cynewulfs Elene," 0. G1öde, Anglia, IX, 271-318. 1886.

"The Date of the Old English Elene," A. S. Cook, Anglia, XV, 9 ff. 1893.

"Cynewulfs Juliana und ihre Quelle," 0. Glöde, Anglia, XI, 146-157. 1889.

"The Latin and the Anglo-Saxon Juliana," J. M. Gamett, Mod. Lang. Ass. Pub., XIV, 279-298. 1899.

"Cynewulfs Crist," Franz Dietrich, Haupt's Zeitschrift für deutsches Alterthum, IX, 193-214. 1853.

"Cynewulf's Principal Source for the Third Part of Christ," A. S. Cook, Mod. Lang. Notes, IV, 341-352. 1889.

"Der sogenannte Crist," M. Trautmann, Anglia, XVIII, 382-388. 1896.

"The Source for Christ I," A. S. Cook, Festgabe für E. Sievers. 1896.

"Is the Christ of Cynewulf a Single Poem?" F. A. Blackburn, Anglia, XIX, 89-98. 1897.

The Crist of Cynewulf, ed. A. S. Cook, Introduction. 1900.

"Alfred's Soliloquies and Cynewulf's Crist," A. S. Cook, Mod Lang. Notes, XVII, 219-220. 1902.

"The Old-English Poem 'The Fates of the Apostles'," A. S. Napier, Academy, Sept. 8. 1888.

"The Affinities of the Fata," A. S. Cook, Mod. Lang. Notes, IV, 7-15. 1889.

"Die Fata Apostolorum und der Dichter Cynewulf," G. Sarrazin, Anglia, XII, 375-387. 1889.

"Fates of the Apostles," A. S. Napier, Zeitschrift für deutsches Alterthum, XXXIII, 66-73. 1889.

"Der Andreas doch von Cynewulf," M. Trautmann, Anglia Beiblatt, VI, 17-23. 1895.

"Noch einmal Cynewulfs Andreas," G. Sarrazin, Anglia Beiblatt, VI, 205-209. 1895.

"Additional Observations on the Runic Obelisc of Ruthwell, the Poem of the Dream of the Rood, etc," J. Kemble, Archaeologia, XXX, 31-46. 1844.

Disputatio de Cruce Ruthwellensi, Franz Dietrich. 1865.

Legends of the Holy Rood, Morris, E.E.T.S., 46. 1871.

"Notes on the Ruthwell Cross," A. S. Cook, Mod. Lang. Ass. Pub., XVII, 367-391. 1902.

"Die Ratsel des Exeterbuches," Franz Dietrich, Haupt's Zeitschrift für deutsches Alterthum, XI, 448-490, also XII, 232-252. 1859.

"Cynewulf und die Ratsel," M. Trautmann, Anglia, VI, 158-169. 1883.

"The First Riddle," H. Bradley, Academy, March 24, 1888. 1888.

"Recent Opinion concerning the Riddles of the Exeter Book," A. S. Cook, Mod. Lang. Notes, VII, 20-21. 1892.

"Die Auflosungen der ae. Ratsel," M. Trautmann, Anglia Beiblatt, V, 46-51. 1894.

"Zu den ae. Ratseln," M. Trautmann, Anglia, XVII, 396-401. 1895.

"The Sigurd-Cycle in Britain," I. Gollancz, Athenaeum, 1902 II, 551-552. 1902.

"The Sigurd-Cycle in Britain," H. Bradley, Athenaeum, 1902 II, 758. 1902.

"Alte und neue Antworten auf ae. Ratsel," M. Trautmann, Bonner Beiträge, XIX, 167-215. 1905.

"Review of Imelmann's Study," H. Bradley, Mod Lang Review, II, 4, 365-368. 1907.