Old English Religious/ Christian Poetry (Caedmon, Cynewulf)

 

  The coming of Christianity introduced the Anglo-Saxons with the Holy Bible that influenced a rich body of Christian literature. After conversion to Christianity the Anglo-Saxon poets turned away from pagan themes, and sought subjects for their poetry in the Bible or in the lives of saints. They did not, however, wholly abandon the pagan sentiments and ideas, but used them after getting them filtered through their new religion. They applied the techniques of Anglo-Saxon heroic poetry to purely Christian themes. As a result, the old English religious poetry shows a great blending of pagan and Christian elements. There are two glaring stars in the sky of Anglo-Saxon religious poetry- Caedmon and Cynewulf.

 The story of Caedmon’s miraculous transformation into the first religious poet of England and his nine-lined Hymn of Creation is contained in Venerable Bede’s Latin work, Ecclesiastical History of the English People. Caedmon was a layman at the monastery of Whitby around 664 AD.  His Genesis, Exodus, Daniel, and Christ and Satan contained in the Junius MS while Judith, belonged to the Caedmonian school, is preserved in the Beowulf MS.


   Genesis begins with an account of creation and continues till Abraham’s offer to sacrifice his son Isaac. In this 3000 lined work Genesis A spans for lines 1-234 and 852-893 while Genesis B, dealing with Satan’s rebellion and expulsion, is considered as an interpolation. The Satan in Genesis B admirably suggests in many aspects the proud Satan of Milton’s Paradise Lost. In Exodus Moses is presented as a courageous leader liberating the Israelites from the Egyptian bondage. Daniel is a paraphrase of the first five chapters of the biblical book of Daniel. Christ and Satan reveals Caedmon’s artistic maturity as he works from various sources and presents Satan psychologically as tormented figure. The poem deals with the Fall of the Angels, Christ’s Harrowing of Hell, his Resurrection, his Ascension, his Temptation and the Day of Judgment. Judith, a brave poem full of action and passion, is concerned with the apocryphal story of Judith cutting off Holofernes’ head.

   Cynewulf, the 8th century Northumbrian monk and first English poet to have signed his works, represents a further maturing of artistic vision, craftsmanship and influence of classical models. He signed his name in runic letters as a request to his readers to remember his name in their prayers. His signed poems are Christ, Juliana, Elene and The Fates of the Apostles while The Dream of the Rood, Andreas, Guthlac, The Phoenix, and Bestiaries are attributed to Cynewulfian school.

   Christ is a didactic poem, and falls into three well-defined parts dealing with the Advent, Ascension and Last Judgment respectively. Juliana deals with the life and death of St Juliana, a young Christian virgin. Elene is Cynewulf’s masterpiece and begins the Cult of Cross as Emperor Constantine’s mother Helena undertakes a sea voyage in search of the Holy Cross. The Fates of the Apostles is an account of the adventures of twelve apostles. The Dream of the Rood is the finest and most original of the Old English poems. In the poet’s dream the True Cross narrates its origin and how it shared Christ’s passion. It is the first instance of dream poem in English. Andreas narrates the adventure of St Andrew in search of St Matthew who has been imprisoned by the cannibals. A young shipman who sails the boat turns out to be Christ in disguise. St Matthew is set free and the savages are converted by a miracle. The Phoenix draws a parallel between the resurrection of a mythological bird on earth with that of Christ. Guthlac provides the biography of a Mercian priest while Bestiaries apply a moral application to the world of animals.

  


Christian poetry incorporates the typical Anglo-Saxon love for sea, mist, cloud and glory. The battles of Genesis are described after the manner of scops and in Exodus the heroic leadership of Moses and the drowning of the Egyptian army in the Red Sea are rendered with skilled details and energy of an Anglo-Saxon warrior. Phoenix is called as “valiant warrior”. In Genesis the description of chaos as somber waste reminds of the Anglo-Saxon love of nature while Andreas and Elene bring out that of the sea.

   Christianity gave to Old English poetry a new kind of heroine, fashioned after Virgin Mary with attributes of sweet and tender grace, maidenhood and motherhood such as Empress Helena, Judith and Juliana. The New Testament popularized the cult of Holy Cross. The parallel between the resplendent phoenix and Christ in terms of Resurrection shows lively imagination.

……………..THE END………………

Questions:-

Give a critical survey of Old English Christian/ religious poetry.

Or, write a note on the influence of Christianity on Old English poetry.

Or, write an essay on the significance of Anglo-Saxon Christian poetry.

Or, access the contribution of Caedmon and Cynewulf to Old English religious poetry.

 

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