Full text of "The Christ; a poem in three parts: The advent, The ascension, and The judgment. Edited, with introd., notes, and glossary by Albert S. Cook"

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ICD

THE ALBION SERIES

an6

J. W. BRIGHT AND G. L. KITTREDGE

GENERAL EDITORS

Ube Hlbion Series*

This series will comprise the most
important Anglo-Saxon and Middle
English poems in editions designed to
meet the wants of both the schola:
and trie student. Each volume will
ordinarily contain a single poem,
critically edited, and provided with
an introduction, notes, and a full
glossary.

Ecce lingua Britanniae, quae nil aliud noverat
quam barbarum frendere, jamdudum in divinis
laudibus Hebraeum coepit Alleluia resonare.
Ecce quondam tumidus, jam substratus sanc
torum pedibus servit Oceanus, ejusque barbaros
motus, quos terreni principes edomare ferro
nequiverant, hos pro divina formidine sacer-
dotum ora simplicibus verbis ligant ; et qui
catervas pugnantium infidelis nequaquam metu-
erat, jam nunc fidelis humilium linguas timet.
Quia enim perceptis caelestibus verbis, clares-
centibus quoque miraculis, virtus ei divinae
cognitionis infunditur, ejusdem divinitatis ter-
rore refrenatur, ut prave agere metuat, ac
totis desideriis ad aeternitatis gratiam venire
concupiscat.

GREGORY THE GREAT, Moral. 27. n.

THE

CHRIST OF CYNEWULF

a poem in Ubree parts

THE ADVENT, THE ASCENSION, AND
THE LAST JUDGMENT

EDITED
WITH INTRODUCTION, NOTES, AND GLOSSARY

ALBERT S. COOK

PROFESSOR OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE
IN YALE UNIVERSITY

GINN AND COMPANY

BOSTON ' NEW YORK CHICAGO LONDON

Cfre fltftengum

GINN AND COMPANY PRO
PRIETORS BOSTON U.S.A.

TO THE MEMORY OF

ffrancis James Cbilfc

PROFESSOR IN HARVARD COLLEGE FROM 185! TO 1896

WHOSE MODESTY AND 'KINDNESS

NO LESS THAN HIS FRUITFUL LABORS IN ENGLISH SCHOLARSHIP

HAVE MADE HIM AN INSPIRATION AND A MODEL

TO HIS YOUNGER COMRADES

THROUGHOUT AMERICA

PREFACE.

MY especial interest in the Christ dates from the year 1889, when
I published in Modern Language Notes the discovery that a hymn
quoted by Bede constitutes an important source for the Third Part.
A little earlier in the same year I had commented on the word
synrust, occurring in line 1320. In 1896 I published some notes
on the Christ in the Festgabe fur Eduard Sievers. Besides, I had
interested myself in Cynewulf to the extent of publishing, in the first
number of Anglia for 1892, an article on the date of the Old English
Elene. It was not unnatural, therefore, that when the editors of the
present series requested a contribution from me, I should designate
the Christ as my choice. At that time I had made no collections
toward an edition, and everything not mentioned above, including
my notes in the Journal of Germanic Philology, has accordingly been
done since the invitation was extended. The discovery of the sources
of the First Part was made on March 8 and 9, 1897.

So far as the existing state of English scholarship would allow, I
have sought to edit an ancient English classic with some approach
to the care which has been bestowed upon certain of the Greek and
Roman masterpieces. This has required not only an acquaintance
with the labors of my predecessors in the same field; but also some
reading in the Fathers, the liturgies, and the hymns of the Church.
Where I have been baffled, I have not hesitated to say so frankly,
that the future inquirer may the more readily discover the problems
that stand in pressing need of solution. Some, I doubt not, are
insoluble ; but I cannot flatter myself that I have left nothing for
my successors to do.

For the readings of the manuscript I have chiefly depended upon
Assmann, in the Grein-Wiilker Bibliothek, upon Gollancz, and upon
Schipper. In capitalization and punctuation I have followed my own

vii

Vlll PREFACE.

judgment. The Variants make no account of the employment of f>
and # according to the views of the different editors. Where an
emendation seemed reasonably certain, I have not hesitated to incor
porate it into the text, whether it originated with another or with
myself. I regret that Cosijn's notes in Vol. 23 of Paul and Braune's
Beitrdge reached me too late to enable me to make a consistent use
of them throughout ; but in one way or another I have endeavored
to turn them to full account. A number of changes required, accord
ing to Sievers, on metrical grounds, have been recorded in the
Variants, but I have not been courageous enough, in most cases, to
embody them in the text. The subdivisions of the poem recognized
by previous editors, as well as those which I approve, have been
indicated by breaks in the printing ; the object in preserving the
former is to indicate the progress made in the understanding of the
text.

The arrangement of the Glossary on the' principle that a is
alphabetically equivalent to a has been adopted in deference to the
demand of the general editors, and it should be understood that
I personally regard it as wholly indefensible ; students had at length
obtained some measure of relief from the perplexing arrangements
adopted in Ettmiiller's Lexicon and Grein's Sprachschatz, and hence
forth we should, I believe, have adhered to the strictly alphabetic
order,' which, so far as relates to a and <^, ought to cause no more
difficulty in Old English than in Latin lexicons.

One or the other of the general editors has read most of the
proof. My chief obligations to Professor Bright are mentioned in the
Notes ; but it should also be said that he is responsible for the indi
cated quantities in proper names.

The assistance of others than the general editors has in all cases,
I believe, been recorded in the Notes. I have particularly to record
my gratitude to Professor T. Bouquillon, of the Catholic University
of America, for information concerning the Greater Antiphons, duly
quoted in its proper place. With respect to the latter, the fact
that Cynewulf is now known to have used them may be of interest
to liturgiologists.

It has frequently been urged as a reproach against Old English
that it had no literature worthy of the name, and was itself not
literary. Even Lowell somewhere says : ' Hasty generalizes are apt
to overlook the fact that the Saxon was never, to any great extent,

PREFACE. IX

a literary language. Accordingly it held its own very well in the
names of common things, but failed to answer the demands of
complex ideas derived from them.' If this book, by elucidating
somewhat more perfectly the meaning of a noble piece of Old Eng
lish poetry, should do something to remove this unfounded and
unfortunate prejudice, I shall not regret a labor which, after all,
has been its own abundant reward.

GREENSBORO, VERMONT,
August 15, 1899.

ADDITIONAL NOTE.

For this second impression, I have corrected some misprints in
the text, and have added a few supplementary notes, and a select
list of books and articles which have appeared since the above was
written.

NEW HAVEN, CONN.,
April 3, 1909.

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

INTRODUCTION.

PACK

I. THE CHRIST . xiii

THE EXETER BOOK xiii

UNITY OF THE CHRIST xvi

PART I. THE ADVENT xxv

THE CELEBRATION OF ADVENT BY THE MEDIAEVAL CHURCH XXV

THE SPIRIT OF ADVENT .... . xxix

THE GREATER ANTIPHONS xxxv

THE CHARACTER OF THE ANTIPHONS AND THEIR INFLUENCE

UPON CYNEWULF xli

PART II. THE ASCENSION xliii

PART III. DOOMSDAY ..... . xlv

GRAMMATICAL NOTES ... . xlvi

STRESSED VOWELS . xlvi

UNSTRESSED AND SLIGHTLY STRESSED VOWELS xlviii

CONSONANTS . xlix

NOUNS . xlix

WEAK ADJECTIVES .... . xlix

COMPARISON OF ADJECTIVES xlix

PRONOUNS . .... . xlix

NUMERALS . . 1

VERBS , 1

II. POEMS ATTRIBUTED TO CYNEWULF .... Hi

THE RIDDLES AND CYNEWULF. . ... . . Hi

THE ANDREAS AND CYNEWULF . . lx

THE GUTHLAC AND CYNEWULF . . . . . . Ixii

THE PHOENIX AND CYNEWULF Ixiii

OTHER POEMS ATTRIBUTED TO CYNEWULF .... Ixiv

Xll TABLE OF CONTENTS.

PAGE

III. FACT AND OPINION CONCERNING CYNEWULF . . Ixvi

CYNEWULF AND THE EPILOGUE TO THE ELENE . . . Ixvi

THE DATE OF CYNEWULF Ixviii

THE HOME OF CYNEWULF . . . . . . . . Ixxi

CYNEWULF'S IDENTITY . Ixxii

THE THEOLOGY OF CYNEWULF Ixxvi

CYNEWULF AS MAN AND AS POET Ixxviii

TABLE OF SIGNIFICANT DATES . . . . . . xcix

TABLE OF ABBREVIATIONS ci

CHRIST.

PART I. THE ADVENT i

PART II. THE ASCENSION 18

PART III. DOOMSDAY 34

CHRIST 1665-1693 63

NOTES 67

GLOSSARY ......, , . . 227

INTRODUCTION.

I. THE CHRIST.

THE EXETER BOOK. Since the Christ is contained in the Codex
Exoniensis, or Exeter Book, in which it forms the first poem, a general
account of this volume and of Leofric, its donor, is here presented.

Leofric, 1 a priest whose education had been acquired in Lotharingia,
and who had been the chaplain of Edward the Confessor during
some part of the latter's residence on the Continent, which termi
nated in 1042, was in 1046 or thereabouts made Bishop of Devon
and Cornwall, and Chancellor to King Edward. His see was first
at Crediton, but being dissatisfied with this place as a residence,
on account of the depredations practised by pirates, he removed to
Exeter, and was enthroned in the old cathedral in 1050.

Leofric found the cathedral despoiled of lands, books, and orna
ments ; King Athelstan (925-940), who had provided Exeter with
the first stone fortifications mentioned in Anglo-Saxon history, had
endowed the church with twenty-six estates, but of these only one of
the poorest remained, consisting of two hides, on which there were
but seven head of cattle. For some time Leofric fed the congrega
tion from his own means ; he recovered much, if not the whole, of
the alienated land, and bestowed on the cathedral much real estate
of his own. At his accession the cathedral possessed but five books
a Capitulary (Capitulare), a worn-out Vesperale (Nihtsang), an
Epistolary, and two worn-out Lectionaries. Besides these, its sole
treasures were one old mass-vestment and one reliquary. 2 Leofric
gave to it, among other things, crosiers and vestments, silver chalices
and ivory candlesticks, bells and banners, an ivory altar, two copies

1 The best account of his life is by Warren, The Leofric Missal, pp. xix-xxvi ;
see also the article in the Diet. Nat. Biog., and the authorities quoted there,
among whom, however, Warren does not appear.

2 Kemble, Cod. Dipl. 4. 276; Warren, p. 2.

xiii

XIV INTRODUCTION.

of the Gospels bound in ivory, more than thirty other service-
books, Boethius' Consolations in Latin and in Old English, Gregory's
Pastoral and Dialogues, portions of the Bible, and various works by
Porphyry, Prosper, Prudentius, Isidore, Bede, Orosius, Persius,
Sedulius, Arator, and Amalarius, all in Latin, besides the work which
we have still to mention. 1 This, the only one now remaining in the
possession of the cathedral, is described as i MYCEL ENGLISC BOC
BE GEHWILCUM ]>iNGUM ON LEODwiSAN GEWORHT, that is, One great
English book on various topics, composed in verse, known now as the
Codex Exoniensis, or Exeter Book. The other existing volumes of
Leofric's donation are the following :

Brit. Mus. : Harl. 2961.

Corp. Chr. Coll. Camb. : S. 12 ; D. 5 ; L. 12.

Camb. Univ. Lib.: Gg. 3. 28; li. 2. n. 2

Oxford: Bodl. 579 ; 8 708 ; Auct. F. i. 15 ; Auct. F. 3. 6. 4

The manuscript is 14 centimetres in height and 18^ in breadth
approximately 5 ^ by 7^ inches. 5 It is written on vellum, apparently
by a single hand 6 of the early eleventh century. 7 Schipper explains
any difference in the writing as probably due to the varying consistency
of the parchment. Thorpe calls the writing 'fair and rather fine/ and
Conybeare speaks of 'the clearness and beauty of its characters.' 8

At present the volume proper consists of 123 leaves, or 246 pages,
from 8 a to i3o b . Only one leaf is wanting in the interior of the
volume, that between fol. 37 and fol. 38. 9 On the other hand, sev
eral leaves are missing at the beginning and end. 10 Probably because

1 The document recording these gifts is extant in MS. Bodl. Auct. D. 2. 16. fol.
ia-2b, and MS. Harl. 258. fol. 125^ Some librarian has also transcribed it on
fol. 1-2* of certain comparatively modern leaves bound in at the beginning of the
Exeter Book. It is printed in Kemble, Cod. Dipl. 4. 274-6 (No. 940), and in
Dugdale, Monasticon 2. 527, with a translation ; see also the abstracts, with trans
lation, in Conybeare, Illustrations, pp. 199-200, in Warren, pp. xxi-xxiv, and in
Wright, Biog. Brit. Lit., Anglo-Saxon Period, pp. 38-39.

? This is a copy of the Old English Gospels ; see Skeat, Gospel of Saint Mark,
p. vii. 3 The Leofric Missal.

4 For the contents of these MSS. in general, see Warren, pp. xxiii, xxiv.

6 Schipper, in Germania 19. 327. 6 Schipper, p. 328.

7 Thorpe says, of the tenth ; but cf. Conybeare, Illustrations, p. 10 ; Schipper ;
Wiilker, p. 223. 8 P. 198. 9 Schipper, p. 327.

10 A copy of the MS., made by Robert Chambers in 1831, now constitutes
Addit. MS. 9067 of the British Museum (Wiilker, Grundriss, p. 222).

THE EXETER BOOK. XV

of the book's remaining unbound for a considerable period, the first
page shows signs of wear and is marred by ink-blots, so that in
several places it is practically undecipherable. The last page 'has
sustained serious damage by the action of a fluid on the ink, whereby
much of the writing is rendered wholly illegible.' 1 The last twelve
leaves have been burned through, apparently by a bit of ignited
wood or other substance ; only slight traces of the injury appear on
foil. 1 1 6, n8. 2

Only the commonest abbreviations are found. The whole manu
script must have been corrected by another hand after writing, the
corrections being in a paler ink. Thorpe's transcript is in general
accurate, but he has overlooked fragments of six riddles toward the
end. 3 The hemistichs are but seldom divided by a point. Vowels
marked long in the MS. are noted by Wiilker, Bibl. 3'. 239-243.

The first account of our volume was given by Wanley, pp. 279-281.
He describes the book in general, then notes in order the legal docu
ments contained in the first seven leaves, and finally catalogues the
poems of the manuscript proper, as he understood them, dividing the
whole into ten books. His list of the poems is reproduced with sub
stantial correctness by Wiilker, Grundriss, pp. 219-221; an excerpt
relating to the Christ is to be found on p. 67, infra. Referring to
Leofric's designation of the volume as large (* mycel '), Wanley says
that it is now of only medium thickness, but ascribes this to the loss
of leaves at the beginning and end. 4

In 1812, Conybeare published \nArchaeologia, Vol. 17, his 'Account
of a Saxon Manuscript,' etc. 5 This was followed by his Illustrations,
edited by his brother in 1826. In the latter the volume is designated
as the Exeter Manuscript?

Thorpe's description, contained in the preface to his edition
(1842), is very brief and vague, consisting of only a single para
graph.

The collation by Schipper, 7 in 1874, was made with much care,
and is the basis of the chief statements here made concerning the
manuscript.

1 Thorpe, Cod. Exon,, p. v. 5 See Wiilker, p. 221.

2 Schipper, p. 327 ; cf. Trautmann, in Anglia 16. 207.

3 Schipper, p. 328 ; Wiilker allows only five in his Grundriss (p. 224), but cf.
Bibl. 3 1 . 237. e P. 8.

4 P. 279; Wiilker, p. 218. 7 Germania 19. 327-338.

XVI INTRODUCTION.

From the date ascribed to the volume by the most competent
experts, it seems not unlikely that it may have been executed and
carefully revised under Leofric's own directions, in which case we
are tempted to assume that the selection and compilation of the
poems was also due to the good bishop. It is clear that he was a
man of taste as well as of judgment, a lover of art as well as an
excellent administrator. At present, the Christ is the longest and
most important poem in the collection, being at least one-fifth longer
than the Guthlac, and nearly two and a half times as long as the
Phoenix or the Juliana. If the book were put together by a man as
judicious, learned, and artistic as Leofric, it would seem fitting that
he should begin it with a poem of such great beauty and
significance.

The Christ is contained on folios 8 a ~32 b , the very beginning of the
manuscript proper. Part I ends in the middle of 14% and Part II
near the foot of i9 a . For details see the Variants.

UNITY OF THE CHRIST. The unity of the Christ was apparently never
suspected until Dietrich undertook his investigation. 1 Wanley had
prepared the way for the recognition of the three Parts, as indicated
in the present edition, by dividing the whole into three books at 440
and 867, 2 but this division was ignored until after the time of Die
trich. This scholar divided at 440 and 779, a division which is
manifestly untenable in view of the fact that there is a two-line space
at 440 and 867, while there is only a half-line space at 779 ; that
there is a * long flourish of capital letters ' at the beginning of each
Part ; 3 and that an inspection of the sources confirms the indications
of the manuscript. 4

Dietrich connects I and II in the following manner. Rightly
regarding lines 378-439 as the conclusion of I, he assumes that the
he of 436, 438 refers to Christ, and that the efrel where Christ is rep
resented as dwelling points forward to II, which relates how he
ascended to his home in the skies 5 (cf. 630, 741). This view is to some
extent invalidated by the strong probability that >$<?.does not refer to
Christ. 6 Further, Dietrich remarks that 445-453 i^mistakably points
back to the Nativity, and that NU, 440, has an illative significance. 7

1 Haupt^s Zs. 9. 193-214. 6 Cf. infra, p. 114.

2 See infra, p. 67. 6 See note on 436.
8 Gollancz 1 , p. xviii. 7 P. 208.

4 See notes on 78215-796, 850-866, and pp. 171-2.

UNITY OF THE CHRIST. XV11

Dietrich's III begins at 779, evidently because 779-866 contains
allusions to the Last Judgment (782-814, 82 4-849). 1 Having
assumed this, it is easy to prove that 779-866 is closely related to
the remainder of the poem, which is all occupied with the Last Judg
ment. The remarkable fact is that Dietrich, who discovered the
dependence of Part II upon Gregory's homily, should have overlooked
the dependence of 779-866 upon that part of the homily which is
really its basis. Moreover, as a proof of the close connection of all
three Parts, Dietrich would call every Part a 'coming.' For I and
III this is evident, but it verges on the absurd when he declines to
call the Ascension a departure from earth, or a return to heaven, and
designates it as an arrival a coming into glory. Not less strained
is it to designate the Ascension as the middle point of the life of
Christ, the Nativity and the Last Judgment marking the beginning
and the end. More acute is Dietrich's suggestion that the unity of
the poem is indicated by the fact that on all three occasions Christ
is represented as accompanied by angels. 2 Its force is weakened,
it is true, by the consideration that this attendance of angels is
mentioned only in II and III. On the other hand, since I does not
describe the Nativity, as Dietrich assumed, but expresses the senti
ments proper to the season of Advent, it is not surprising that this
omission should occur. Dietrich adds that, should linguistic differ
ences between the three Parts be urged, the answer is that such
must occur between the different works of every good poet, along
with resemblances ; so, for example, between the Elene and the
Juliana. He reserves for eventual future publication the coinci
dences between I and II, taken together, and III, and the resem
blances between all three and the Elene and Juliana, as well as the
Andreas. He thereupon adduces the internal rime of 591-6, as
compared with EL 114-5, 1237-1246, 1248-1251, and five instances
in the Andreas.

Sievers appears to have been the first to question the unity of the
Christ. In 1887, in an article on expanded lines in Old English, he
argued as follows. 3 There is only one expanded line in I and II
(v. 621). Part III (assumed by him to begin at 779 4 and end at

1 Cf. infra, paragraph at foot of p. 175.

2 Cf. 449-461, 941, 1013, etc.
8 PBB. 12.455-6.

4 He admits, however, the possibility that 779-866 end II.

XV111 INTRODUCTION.

1693) has, on the other hand, many expanded lines, distributed
pretty uniformly. 1 Accordingly, in this respect I and II resemble
the/u/iana, while III is rather akin to the Elene. Furthermore, an
author is much more likely to name himself at the beginning or end
of a work than in the middle of it. He accordingly concludes that
I and II at all events belong to a different period from III, and that,
if Cynewulf is the author of all three, each must be regarded as an
independent work.

In 1888, Cremer 2 came to a different conclusion. 1-778 was called
A, while B was 7791693. Utilizing his own results and Frucht's,
Cremer maintained that B differs neither linguistically nor metric
ally from Elene and Juliana, while, in respect to metre, A is more
remote. A is to be subdivided into I and II ; B is by Cynewulf,
as further proved by the runes. Conceding the justness of Die
trich's view with respect to the unity of the thought underlying the
whole, and allowing that there are passages markedly transitional
from I to II, and from II to III, Cremer still contended that, in at
least one case, 3 A differs linguistically from B 1 , and that when

I and II were completed, it was easy for a later poet to perceive the
drift, and determine the subject of the poem which should logically
follow. Moreover, III being well organized, while I and II, accord
ing to Cremer, are not organized at all, III must be by a better poet
(Cynewulf), who has thus completed an unfinished poem. He then
repeats Sievers' argument about the position of the runic passage.
Cynewulf introduces III with his name, as if to say, * Here my part
begins.'

In 1892 Mather, 4 from ' independent work and a careful consid
eration of Cremer's dissertation,' came to the result, after applying
several new metrical and alliterative tests, that * there is no good
reason for doubting that the three Parts of the Christ are by
Cynewulf.'

In 1894, Trautmann expressed his belief that, on metrical grounds,

II was not by the author of I and III, 5 and in 1896 presented his

1 These are : 888-9, 9 2I > IO 49 1162-3, I2o8 > *3<>4i T 359> I 377 J 381-5, 1409
1422-7, 1460, 1487-8, 1495-6, 15*3-4, 1546, 1561, [1665-7, 1669, 1689].

2 Metr. und Sprachl. Unter sue hung, pp. 47-8.

3 The dat. hdm, hdme.

4 M. L. N. 7. 97-107.

6 Anglia, Beiblatt 5. 93, note. Cramer agrees with Trautmann.

UNITY OF THE CHRIbT. XIX

views on the subject in full. 1 He adduces several considerations
tending to invalidate Dietrich's opinion :

1. The three Parts, divided as in our text, are without transitional
passages, and are therefore independent poems.

2. The styles are different : I is chiefly invocation and praise,
II homiletic and doctrinal, III descriptive.

3. The divisions, capitals, points, and 'Amen' of the manuscript
are to the same effect.

4. The argument from the position of the runes.

5. II is based upon Gregory's homily, while the source of I remains
undiscovered, that of III is only partially known.

6. In II there is 'a not wholly incomplete description of the Last
Judgment.' This is out of place, if III is by the same author.

7. 'The threefold coming of Christ' has not been found in any
other author. With such a conception of ' coming,' we might go
further, and add the harrowing of hell, the resurrection, and the
Pentecostal descent of the Holy Ghost.

8. I and III have many expressions not found in Cynewulf's other
works. Extensive lists of these are presented.

9. The metre, especially that of III, is not in Cynewulf's manner.
Trautmann concludes that we know nothing of the author, either

of I or of III, but that II is, according to the concordant testimony
of language, metre, and runes, by Cynewulf.

In 1897, Blackburn published a paper 2 written in 1895, before
he had seen Trautmann's views, in which he presents the following
opinions :

1. An argument identical with No. 3 of Trautmann. He adds
that a line of capitals is used to mark the beginnings of other poems
that he names.

2. Part I should be called The Immaculate Conception. It is
strange, on Dietrich's hypothesis, that the poet treats only of what
precedes Christ's birth or follows his death. Poems on such single
topics are found elsewhere, e.g. the Last Judgment, and the Harrow
ing of Hell.

3. This resembles Trautmann's No. 2. I is almost purely lyric ;
II is a poetical homily; III is descriptive, or descriptive-lyrical.
Each part has a distinct plan, and seems complete and perfect in

1 Angl. 1 8. 382-8. 2 Angl. 19. 89-98.

XX INTRODUCTION.

itself. [Blackburn does not realize that 779-866 has a source in
Gregory.] Lines 1665-1693 do not belong to III.

4. Identical with Trautmann's No. 4.

He concludes 'that II is by Cynewulf, but that as yet we have no
proof concerning the other Parts. Dietrich's only argument for the
connection of I and II is from Nu t but this is inconclusive. Dietrich
argues that differences of style do not prove difference of authorship ;
true, but neither do resemblances in style prove identity of authorship.
Blackburn adds names and epithets of the Deity peculiar to each of
the three Parts, and states that I averages one kenning to 6^ lines ;
II, one to each 5^ ; and III, one to each 13^. In respect to style,
he says that the differences between I and II are but slight, not
enough, unsupported by others, to prove difference of authorship,
but that III differs from the other two to an extent which suggests
such difference.

In 1896, Wiilker 1 believed that the manner of II and III is quite
different from that of I, and that a considerable interval may have
elapsed between the composition of I and of II, whereas II and III
are closely connected.

In 1899, Brandl 2 subscribed to Trautmann's opinion.

Resuming what precedes, we have this result :

Sievers separates 1-778 (perhaps 1-866) from 779 (867)-end.

Cremer assigns 779-end to Cynewulf, while I and II are by an
undiscovered poet.

Mather believes that all these parts (following Dietrich's division)
are by Cynewulf.

Trautmann and Blackburn assign 440-866 to Cynewulf, but deny
him the authorship of I and III.

Moreover, while Sievers unites I and II, and opposes them to III,
in which respect he is followed by Cremer and Blackburn, Trautmann
regards all three as independent, though he groups I and III in con
tradistinction to II. All agree, of course, in ascribing to Cynewulf
the Part which contains the runes, though Cremer assigns the runic
passage to III, Trautmann and Blackburn to II, while Sievers is un
decided. The variety of results with respect to which two Parts, if
any, are to be associated together, leads one to look with suspicion,
at the outset, on the attempts to overthrow Dietrich's conclusion.

1 Gesch. der EngL Lift., p. 41.

2 Ten Brink's Gesch. der EngL Lift., i 2 . 64.

UNITY OF THE CHRIST. XXI

There are manifest difficulties in the way of determining the com
mon authorship, or even the coherence, in a particular order, of
various poems whose association in a given manuscript may be purely
accidental. If any one doubts this, let him assume that the various
poems, or even the various groups of poems, comprised in Tennyson's
Maud, had come down to us from a remote age, undated and adespota,
perhaps wholly disarranged from their present order, and it may be
with their number incomplete. Let him then assume that he is required
to determine, by tests of vocabulary, metre, rime, tone, and subject-
matter alone, whether these poems were written by a single author,
and in what order they originally stood, and he may readily convince
himself that he would have no slight task. Now the task is evidently
harder where the metre is uniform through numerous poems, and the
poetical vocabulary is partly conventional, and includes many stock
formulas, as is the case in Old English. Differences in vocabulary,
etc., between different poems by the same author are to be expected,
as Dietrich has said, even when the poems are on kindred themes,
or form members of a poetical cycle ; witness, for example, the
sonnet-cycles of the Elizabethans, or Spenser's Shepherd's Calendar.
Similarities, on the other hand, while they may indicate common
authorship, might quite as well, in a period when there was a strongly
marked poetical tradition, or when the influence of an individual
was powerful, denote deliberate or unconscious imitation. On the
whole it is easier, as one can readily see, to make out a plausible
argument for diversity of authorship than for identity, especially in a
literature in which transitions between one member of a poem and
another were not, in general, very definitely marked.

Taking for granted, then, that the task is one of extreme difficulty
and delicacy, let us endeavor to ascertain what are the probabilities
concerning the coherence of the three Parts, as we may provisionally
agree to call them, and the existence of the poem which Dietrich
called Christ.

1. The argument that each has a distinct plan and style is not
conclusive against the unity. This may be tested by Maud, or In
Memoriam, or even by the Idylls of the King.

2. So long as we have no other OE. example of a long poem
divided into several members, the capitals, points, etc., which occur
at 440, 867, and 1665, while they are pretty conclusive with respect
to the intended unity of each of the Parts, by no means demonstrate

XX11 INTRODUCTION.

that the several poems do not constitute members of a larger
unity.

3. The argument from the position of the runes seems to favor
Sievers' theory that some time elapsed between the composition of

II and of III, and Cremer's view that II may originally have been
intended to complete the poem. I can not regard it, however, as

V conclusive against the assumption that III forms part of the whole.
The same may be said of the references to the Last Judgment toward
the close of II.

4. The sources of I are from the Breviary 1 ; so, too, is Gregory's
homily, the most important source of II, 2 and perhaps also the Ascen
sion hymn, or at least part of it, since, as it is found in the Surtees
Hymns, it may have existed in the Breviary of the period.

5. The secondary source of II is a hymn ascribed to Bede ; the
chief source of III is a hymn first quoted by Bede. 3

6. Not only is Gregory the author of the principal source of II,
but he furnishes important subsidiary sources for III. 4

7. Part II contains allusions to the Nativity: 444 ff., 587, 628,
720 ff., 786 ff. ; and to the Judgment : 520 ff., 782 ff. ; III refers to
the Nativity : 1418 ff.

8. Several of the features of the Judgment are common to II and

III : thus, the great numbers assembled, and their dread of the
coming sentence : (II) 795-6, 801-4, 833-847 : (III) 889-892, 1015-
1026, 1040-1042, i229 b -i23o a ; the destruction of beauteous and
precious things: (II) 8o4 b -8o5 a , 8o7 b -8o8 a , 812-14; (III) 995-6;
the progress of the destroying flame : (II) 8o8 b -8n : (III) 964-
1004; the destruction of buildings: (II)8n: (III) 973-4, 976 b -977 a ;
the shaking of the heavens : (II) 825 : (III) 932; and the requital of
the wicked: (II) 827-831: (III) 1265, 1269-1271, 1538-1543 (cf.
leahtrum fa, 529 : 1538) .

9. The motive of the Harrowing of Hell is found in every Part :
I (25 ff., 145 ff.); II (558 ff., 730 ff.); Ill (1159 ff.). Elsewhere in
OE. poetry it is found only in the poem of that name, and in
Gu. 1076, EL 181, Rid. 5 6s. Surely this circumstance is not purely
fortuitous.

10. Dietrich's argument from Nu, 440, seems to be borne out by
several instances in the Christ ; see especially (I) 326, (II) 512, 850.

1 Cf. infra, pp. 71 ff. 2 Cf. infra, pp. 115-6. 3 Cf. infra, p. 171.

4 See notes on 112712-1198, 1247-1259, 1280 ff., 1305, 1327-1333, 1649-1664.

UNITY OF THE CHRIST. XX111

11. Rime is found in II and III: 591-6, 757: 1320, 1481-2,
1496, 1570-1, 1646. So is etymological or identical alliteration:
592 a : 980, 1121, i395 a .

12. Abstract nouns preceded by to occur pretty uniformly through
the three Parts. 1

13. There are traces of pleonasm in both I and II : 41, 118 : 592.

14. The Trinity is glorified in both I and II : 378 ff. : 598*^99,

773-4-

15. The co-eternity of Christ with the Father is emphasized in
both I and II : 122, 216 ff., 236 ff., 350 ff. : 465.

1 6. There are verbal and material resemblances between the sev
eral Parts, ranging from the occurrence of a rare word, or of a word
in an unusual sense, through that of groups of two, three, or four
words, to the partial identity of two or more lines. I give illustrations
and tolerably full references under each of the following heads :

I : II : III.

61-2. . . , hu bee heofones Cyning

sifre gesecefr, ond sy/fcymeft.
143-6. Sylfa wolde

swylce grundas eac . . .
slfce gesecan.

523-4. Wile eft swa-beah eorfran

sylfa gesecan.

945-7. . . . bonne folca Weard

. . . ear frail micgfre
sylfa gesecefr.
Again :

418. Onfeng xt/temnati flsesc unwemme.

720 2 a . . . . ba he onfismnan dstdg

maege'S unmasle, ond bier mennisc hiw
onfeng butan firenum.

I4i8b-i42oa. pa ic sylf gestdg,

maga in modor, beah waes hyre maegdenhad
seghwass onwalg.

Other instances are (a) 15, 27 : 504, 656 : 1042 ; (^) 59, 239, 356
672: 1087; (c) 65 : 722, 758 : 1421 ; (d) 124, 427 : 632 : 1421 ;
(e) 296 : 488, 653 : 1383, 1401 ; (/) 387 : 661 : 1467-8.

1 See infra, note on 28.

XXIV INTRODUCTION.

I : II.

1 06 : 696, soSfaesta sunnan leoma.
142 (cf. 250), 367 : 587, hidercyme ('Advent').
Again :
298. J>urh clizne gebyrd cennan sceolde.

444. dcenned -went J>urh clcznne had.

Other instances :

(a) 22, 82, 337: 613, 789: (b) 83: 740; (c) 102, 209: 601,
612; (//) 122: 465; (<?) 150, 374: 586, 754; (/) 159: 743;
() 201 ff., 335 ff. : 823 ; (k) 207 : 728 ; (/) 223 : 788; (/) 226:
588; (K) 251: 559, 821; (/) 255: 786^-787*; (m) 273: 755;
(n) 316 : 463 ; (o) 316 : 474, 714 ; (/) 407 : 631 ; (?) 420 : 513.

I : III.

230, 277 : 1343, 1543, to widan feore.

Other instances :

(a) 7: 1113; (b) 92, 113, 359: 1442; (c) 102: 1342, 1520;
(d) 103: 1228; (<?) 117: 1542, 1631; (/) 128: 1219, 1367;
(^) 171 : 1120; (//) 181 : 1263, 1268 ; (/) 207% 21 i a : I4i9-i42o a ;
(j) 227: 1198; (k) 235, (107): 968; (/) 266, (112): 1414;
(m) 278,381: 1024, 1368, 1599; () 284: 1189; (o) 359: 1442.

II : III.

492 : 927, heofonengla J>reat.
Again :

548-9. )>aet him celbeorhte englas togeanes

. . . heapum cwoman.

9289. ymbutan fara'S, celbeorhtra scolu,

. . . heapum geneahhe.
Again :

6o4 b -6o5 a . . . . zehta sped,

welan ofer widlond.

I 3^3 b ~4 a - mea hta sped,

welan ofer widlonda gehwylc.
Again :

832-3* ponne magna Cyning on gemot cymefr

Kymma maste.

941-2. Wile yElmihtig mid his engla gedryht,

mcegencyninga Meotod, on gemot cuman.

THE ADVENT. XXV

Other instances :

(a) 470 : 1129, 1179 ; (b) 479 : 1645 ; (c) 489 : 1360 ; (d) 5i5 b :
94i b ; (<?) 518: 904; (/) 563: 1407-8; (g) 610: 1596; (h) 618:
1515; (/) 62i a : i379-8o a ; (/) 621^-626: 1409^13; (k) 623,
(414): 1196; (/) 632, 739, 841, 849 : 971, 1080, 1148, (1333), 1558,
1570, 1585, 1588 (see note on 1588) ; (m) 632, (427) : 1471, (1173);
() 681 : 1529; (o) 707, 816 : 1057; (/) 729: 1467; (q) 768:
I 54 5 W 7 8 S : 947 ; 0) 795> 8 3 2 : 942 ; (/) 800: 1283 ; (u) 819 :
1326, 1579-80; (v) 820: 1480; (w) 824-5*: 1527-8*; (x) 825 b :
932 b ; (y) 829 : 1538 ; (z) 830 : 985 ; (aa) 831 : 965, (931), 1006 ;
(bb) 832 : 916, 942 ; (cc) 834 : 998 ; (dd) 835 : 1229 ; (ee) 848-9 :
1580-1 ; (ff) 865: 1220.

Whatever may be said of individual parallels, I cannot think that
such a series of correspondences is without significance.

17. There are no clearly marked dialectal differences between
the three Parts. 1

1 8. The Advent implies the Second Advent, and the two notions
were constantly associated in the liturgies ; 2 the Ascension, too, sug
gests the Last Judgment. 3

I conclude, therefore, that there is a strong presumption, amount
ing in my judgment to certainty, that the three divisions are by the
same author, Cynewulf ; that they stand in an organic relation to one
another; and that they may thus be fairly regarded as forming, in
combination, a single poem. This of course does not exclude the
possibility that the three Parts may have been written at different
times.

PART I. THE ADVENT.* The celebration of Advent by the medie
val church. The beginnings of the observance of the Advent
season are lost in the obscurity of the early Christian ages. About
the middle of the fifth century the indications begin to be unmis-

1 See pp. xlvi-li. 2 See pp. xxvii, xxix ff.

8 See Acts i. n ; infra, p. 117, vv. 67-8; p. 118, vv. 113-6; note on 782b~796;
and p. xliv. It is significant that in Otfrid the treatment of the Last Judgment
follows immediately upon that of the Ascension.

4 The section on the Advent has been developed at such length because this
part of Cynewulf's poem can be fully understood only through a comprehension
of its historic basis, and through participation in the spirit of the season which it
celebrates. The nature of the Ascension and of the Last Judgment is presented
with sufficient clearness by Cynewulf himself.

XXVi INTRODUCTION.

takable. Maximus of Turin (fl. 465) has left us two homilies 1 and a
sermon 2 in which he exhorts the faithful to clothe themselves with
the garments of righteousness, and thus to make ready for the cele
bration of their Lord's nativity. Similarly, Caesarius of Aries 3
(d. 542) delivered two sermons 4 on the subject of the Advent, in
which he urges Christians to abstain from avarice, hatred, pride,
anger, drunkenness, and lasciviousness, and to be sober, merciful,
pure, humble, and rich in alms-deeds. In one of these he draws
a vivid picture of the preparations in some great man's household
for his birthday, in order to illustrate how the soul should be made
ready for Christ's coming. 'Abstain,' he exhorts, 'even from con
jugal endearments ; invite the poor frequently to your banquets ;
rise early for vigils ; stand in church at prayers and singing ; utter
no idle or worldly speeches yourself, and reprove those who do ;
keep peace with all men, and bring back to concord those whom you
perceive to be at variance.'

The general observance of Advent in the Western world is proba
bly due to the Franks. About the year 480, Perpetuus of Tours
recommends the faithful to fast three times a week from Martinmas
(Nov. n) to Christmas, 5 a period of forty-three days. In 524, the
Council of Lerida interdicts marriage during the Advent season, a
precept which is still observed. In 567, the Second Council of Tours
enjoins monks to fast from the beginning of December till Christ
mas. 6 In 582, the Council of Macon ordains that from Martinmas
to Christinas the Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays shall be days
of fasting, and that mass shall be celebrated according to the Lenten
rite. 7

The practice of observing an Advent fast must have been intro
duced into England as early as the seventh century, even if it was
not already in use among the Irish. Bede tells us of Eadbert,
Bishop of Lindisfarne (d. 698), that he used to spend the forty days
before Christmas in a place remote from the church, and encom
passed by the sea, continuing in abstinence, prayer, and tears. 8

1 Migne 57. 221-8. 7 Ib.

2 Migne 57. 531-4. 8 Eccl. Hist. 4. 30.

3 Cf. infra, p. 210.

4 Migne 39. 1973-7.

6 Gregory of Tours, Hist. Franc. 10. 31.

6 Gueranger, The Liturgical Year, Advent, p. 25.

THE ADVENT. XXV11

Three-quarters of a century earlier, St. Egbert (d. 729), we are told
on the same authority, 1 used to subsist on one meal a day of bread
and skimmed milk during the three fasts of forty days Lent,
Advent, and the period immediately following Whitsunday. The
same three quadragesimal fasts are recognized in the Penitential
' drawn up under the eye, and published with the authority ' of Arch
bishop Theodore 2 (d. 690), who may have been influenced by the
Greek practice. 3 In the Dialogue* of Egbert, Archbishop of York
(d. 766), there is the appointment, in addition to the Ember Feasts,
of a period of twelve days before the Nativity, to be spent in fastings,
watchings, prayers, and alms ; on which twelve days not only were
the clergy, but the laity also, with their wives and households,
exhorted to resort to their confessors. 5

The fast of forty days, or six weeks, was observed in France
throughout the reign of Charlemagne, as well as in Spain, and is to
this day practised in the Cathedral of Milan. In the oldest manu
scripts of the Sacramentary of Gregory the Great, the number of
Sundays is five, but by the ninth or tenth century they were reduced
to four, 6 as in the present Roman Breviary and Anglican Prayer
Book. In 867, as we know from a letter of Pope Nicholas I to the
Bulgarians, four weeks was the period recognized at Rome. 7

The Church recognized a threefold, or even fourfold, advent of
Christ, which should form the theme of meditation at this season :

1. Christ's coming in the flesh.

2. His coming to the soul of the believer through faith.

3. [His coming to the individual Christian at death.]

4. His coming to judgment. 8

1 3- 27-

2 Haddan and Stubbs, Councils 3. 173-204, esp. p. 202 ; for other references
cf. Mayor and Lumby's Bede, p. 283. The Irish also recognized the three fasts ;
cf. Plummer's Bede 2. 197. The Christmas fast was known to them as Winter
Lent, Moses' Lent, St. Martin's Lent.

8 Alban Butler, Feasts and Fasts, p. 75 ; Gueranger, p. 27.
4 Haddan and Stubbs, Councils 3. 412-3.
6 Diet. Chr. Ant. 1.662.

6 Gueranger, p. 29.

7 Butler, p. 74.

8 Thus St. Bernard in his third Advent Sermon (Migne 183. 45): 'Triplicem
enim ejus adventum novimus : ad homines, in homines, contra homines.' For
the second he refers to Jn. 14. 23. In the fifth Sermon he says : ' In the first he

XXV111 INTRODUCTION.

It is disputed whether the tone of Advent is on the whole one of
joy or sorrow, whether penitence or joyful anticipation gives it its
prevailing character. * The people are forcibly reminded of the sad
ness which fills the heart of the Church by the sombre color of the
vestments. Excepting on the feasts of the saints, purple is the only
color she uses ; the deacon does not wear the dalmatic, nor the
subdeacon the tunic. Formerly it was the custom, in some places,
to wear black vestments. . . . The Church also, during Advent,
excepting on the feasts of saints, suppresses the Angelic Canticle,
Gloria in excelsis Deo, et in terra pax hominibus bonae voluntatis ; for
this glorious song was only sung at Bethlehem over the crib of the
Divine Babe the tongue of the angels is not loosened yet. . . .
Again, at the end of mass, the deacon does not dismiss the assembly
of the faithful by the words //<?, missa est. He substitutes the ordi
nary greeting, Benedicamus Domino, as though the Church feared to
interrupt the prayers of the people, which could scarce be too long
during these days of expectation. In the Night Office the Holy
Church also suspends on these same days the hymn of jubilation, Te
Deum laudamus. It is in deep humility that she awaits the supreme
blessing which is to come to her ; and in the interval she presumes
only to ask, and entreat, and hope. . . . On the ferial days, the
rubrics of Advent prescribe that certain prayers should be said
kneeling at the end of each canonical Hour, and that the choir
should also kneel during a considerable portion of the mass.' x To
these it may be added that the organ, under the same circumstances,
is silent.

But there is also a joyful aspect to the season. 'The word of
gladness, the joyful Alleluia, is not interrupted during Advent,
except once or twice during the ferial office. It is sung in the
masses of the four Sundays, and vividly contrasts with the sombre
color of the vestments. On one of these Sundays the third
the prohibition of using the organ is removed, and all are gladdened

comes in flesh and weakness ; in the second, in spirit and power ; in the last, in
glory and majesty ; and the second coming is the means whereby we pass from
the first to the third.' To a similar effect Honorius of Autun, Gemma Animae
3. i (Migne 172. 641), who says that we put ourselves back into the days of his
saints of old who looked forward to his coming ; we anticipate his coming to us
at death ; and we remember that he is to be our judge. Cf. Gueranger, pp. 81 ff.
1 Gueranger, pp. 35-7.

THE ADVENT. XXIX

by its grand notes, and rose-colored vestments may be used instead
of the purple.' l Honorius of Autun 2 explains that the Gloria in
excelsis and Te Deum are not sung, because the righteous before
Christ's Advent were kept in the sadness of hell. So the dalmatic
was not worn, because the garments of innocence and immortality were
restored to us by Christ. Usage, however, must have differed under
different circumstances. Tl e laity were least strenuous in observ
ing the rigors of the season, the clergy more so, and the monks most
of all. 3 Then, north of the Alps the tone seems always to have
been a sadder one. ' The four Sundays of Advent, which, under the
influence of Prankish monastic customs, were soon to be regarded
as so many stages in a penitential season, marked at Rome, on the
contrary, in the eighth century, and even in the twelfth, the progress
of a season of gladness, in which everything took its tone from the
joyful expectation of the coming of the Redeemer ; and the third,
the Sunday Gaudete, with all the pomp of its " station " at S. Peter's,
was the culminating point of this joyous going up to Bethlehem.
The six days before the 24th of December garnished their ferial
Psalms at Vespers and Lauds with Antiphons which already reflected
the sparkle of the Savior's star. . . . And so at last the 24th was
reached, when the Benedictus at the ferial Lauds had for its Antiphon
that which is now transferred to the first Vespers of Christmas :
" Dum ortus fuerit so/, video it is Regem regum procedentem a matre*
\_sic~], tanquam sponsus de thalamo suo." Yet but one more night,
and the King of kings would come forth from His tabernacle.' 5

The spirit of Advent. The spirit of Advent is one of impatience with
the present, and of longing for the future. The believer, like the
prophets under the Old Dispensation, looks forward to the manifes
tation of Christ upon the earth ; as the hart pants for the water-
brooks, so he desires that Christ shall fill his soul, and that the
Kingdom of God shall indeed come among men ; and he looks for
ward to the Last Day with a dread not unmixed with exultation,
when he thinks that his Judge is also his Redeemer, and that the

1 Gueranger, p. 37.

2 Gemma Animae 3. 3 (Migne 172. 642).

8 Cf., for example, Butler, p. 95. 4 In the present Breviary, Patre. ED.

6 Batiffol, Hist. Rom. Brev., pp. 117-8; the mixed character of the Advent
celebration is recognized by Ralph of Tongres (d. 1403) : De Canon. O6s.,
Proprietat. 16.

XXX INTRODUCTION.

terrors of that scene shall usher in a joy that for him, if he be found
faithful, shall know no end. It is in this sense that the office for
Advent must be conceived, if it is to be comprehended and deeply
enjoyed. In particular, the relation between the First and the
Second Advent must be kept in mind, if we would fully enter into
the anticipatory Christmas joy, and yet feel the solemnity with which
the Middle Ages contemplated the coming of Christ as Judge, with
its tremendous consequences for every man. 1 In this connection it
is significant that the first preparation for the approaching Advent
season is, in the Roman Breviary, indicated by the Text (Capitulum)
recited at the Vespers of the Saturday preceding the First Sunday :

Brethren, now is it high time to awake out of sleep, for now is our
salvation nearer than when we believed.

The verse immediately following this in the Bible (Rom. 13. 12), is
the one on which the first part of the Collect is based.

yElfric has two sermons on the Advent, 2 which are very instructive
with reference to the Church's attitude in his time. In the first
of them he says : ' The holy prophets foretold both the First Advent
at the birth, and also the Second at the Great Judgment. We also,
God's servants, confirm our faith with the services of this tide,
because we in our hymns confess our redemption through his First
Advent, and we admonish ourselves to be ready on his Second Ad
vent, that we may from the Judgment follow him to everlasting
life, as he has promised us.' In another place he says: 3 'We
should honor Christ's generation and nativity with spiritual gladness,
and adorn ourselves with good works, and occupy ourselves with
hymns to God, and shun those things which Christ forbids, which
are sins and works of the devil ; and love those things which God
has enjoined, that is, lowliness and mercy, righteousness and truth,

1 The Prayer Book Collect for the First Sunday in Advent, though it does not
directly represent any ancient one, yet beautifully reflects this sentiment :

' Almighty God, give us grace that we may cast away the works of darkness,
and put upon us the armor of light, now fn the time of this mortal life, in which
thy Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility ; that in the last day, when
he shall come again in his glorious Majesty to judge both the quick and dead,
we may rise to the life immortal, through him who liveth and reigneth with thee
and the Holy Ghost, now and ever. Amen.'

2 Horn. i. 600-619.

3 Horn. 2. 22.

THE ADVENT. XXxi

alms-deeds and temperance, patience and chastity. . . . Guard
yourselves against surfeiting and drunkenness, as Christ said in his
Gospel.'

We may now turn to a brief consideration of the Roman office for
Advent, selecting those points which may best illustrate its beauty
and meaning, though selection is most difficult, and the choice may
not always be the happiest one.

At the Vespers of the Saturday preceding the first Sunday in
Advent we have the following verse, the appropriateness of which
will readily be seen, as the Antiphon to the Magnificat :

Behold, the name of the Lord cometh from far, and his glory filleth
the world.

The Collect for this service, which recurs ever and anon throughout
the season, is the following : 1

Lord, we beseech thee, stir up thy strength and come, that
through thy protection we may be delivered from the dangers which
hang over us by reason of our sins, and through thy making us free
we may be saved, who livest and reignest with God the Father in the
unity of the Holy Ghost, [one] God, world without end. Amen.

We now come to the first Advent service proper, that for Matins
on the First Sunday. The first words of the Church, in the still
midnight, are these : 2

Come let us adore the King our Lord, who is to come.

As this Sunday is often called the Aspitiens a longe, its character
may be illustrated from that Respond. I borrow the language of
Batiffol : 3

' Take, for example, that admirable Respond for Advent Sunday, the
Aspiciens a longe, where, assigning to Isaiah a part which recalls a
celebrated scene in the Persae of ^Eschylus, the liturgy causes the
precentor to address to the listening choir these enigmatic words: 4

1 look afar off, and behold, I see the power of God coming, and a
cloud covering the whole earth. Go ye forth to meet him, and say :
Tell us whether thou be he who shall rule over the people Israel.

1 The beginning from Ps. 80, which may well be read here for its bearing on
the service. 8 Pp. 115-17.

2 Gueranger, p. 128. 4 I translate the Latin. ED.

XXX11 INTRODUCTION.

' And the whole choir, blending in one wave of song the deep
voices of the monks and the clear notes of its boy readers, repeats
like a reverberating echo of the prophet's voice :

I look afar off, and behold, I see the power of God coming, and a
cloud covering the whole earth.

PRECENTOR.

All ye children of the earth and sons of men, the rich and the poor
together,

CHOIR.

Go ye forth to meet him, and say : * Tell us whether thou be he that
shall rule over the people Israel.

PRECENTOR.

Hear, O thou Shepherd of Israel, thou that leadest Joseph like a
sheep, [thou that sittest upon the Cherubim]. 2

CHOIR.
Tell us whether thou be he who shall rule over the people Israel.

4 But what need thus to scan the horizon in doubt ? He whose
coming is known, he is the Blessed One, and no triumph can be
fair enough to welcome his Advent :

PRECENTOR.

Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be ye lift up, ye everlasting
doors, and the King of glory shall come in 3

CHOIR.
Who shall rule over the people Israel.

PRECENTOR.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost.
* And then the whole of the opening text is repeated in chorus :
I look afar off, etc.' 4

1 This sentence is omitted in Batiffol, probably through inadvertence.

2 So in Batiffol. 3 Cf. below, pp. 132-3.

4 The variations in the Sarum Use are interesting. Cf. Procter and Words
worth, col. xxi. ED.

THE ADVENT. XXX1H

The four Sundays of Advent have each a distinct character.
The first is sufficiently designated by the Respond quoted above.
According to Honorius of Autun, the second relates to the prophecy
of Christ's coming to Jerusalem, the third to the Second Advent,
and the fourth to the calling of the Gentiles. However, usage and
interpretation varied at different times. To some extent the Gospel
for the day is an index to the thought for which the day stands. In
the Roman Missal the Lessons are : (I) Lk. 21. 25-33 ; (II) Mt.
ii. 2-10 ; (III) Jn. i. 19-28; (IV) Lk. 3. I-9. 1 According to this,
the First Sunday would have reference to the Second Advent. In
^Elfric's time, Lk. 2 1 is the Gospel for the Second Sunday. Accord
ing to Gue'ranger, 2 the sentiment of the Second Sunday is one of hope
and joy, and the coming designated is that to the soul of the believer.
The Third Sunday is still more joyful. 'This Sunday has had the
name of Gaudete* given to it, from the first word of the Introit ; it
also is honored with those impressive exceptions which belong to
the fourth Sunday of Lent, called Laetare. The organ is played at
the mass ; the vestments are rose-color ; the deacon resumes the
dalmatic, and the subdeacon the tunic ; and in cathedral churches
the bishop assists with the precious mitre.' 4 Finally, the Fourth
Sunday 'is called Rorate, from the Introit, but more frequently Canite
tuba, which are the first words of the first Responsory of Matins,
and of the first Antiphon of Lauds and Vespers.' 5 The thought is
that of the desert, which needs the refreshment of the dew, and the
personage in view is, besides the Savior, John the Baptist. The
Introit is :

Drop down dew, ye heavens, from above, and let the clouds rain the
Righteous One ; let the earth open and send forth a Savior. 6

For the Third and Fourth Sundays the Invitatory is : 7
O come, let us worship ; the Lord is now at hand.

Out of the series of offices for the season I select, .as sufficiently
exhibiting the character attributed to the four Sundays by the Roman
Breviary, the Antiphons for Lauds and Vespers :

1 In the Anglican Prayer Book as follows: (I) Mt. 21. 1-9; (II) Lk. 21.
25-33 ( as in ^Ifric); (III) Mt. n. 2-10; (IV) Jn. i. 19-28.

2 P. 165. 6 Gueranger, p. 243, note.

3 Cf. the Anglican Introit for this day. 6 Cf. Isa. 45. 8.

4 Gueranger, p. 206. 7 Cf. p. xxxv. i.

XXXiv INTRODUCTION.

FIRST SUNDAY.

1. In that day the mountains shall drop down new wine, and the
hills shall flow with milk and honey. Alleluia.

2. Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion ; shout, O daughter of
Jerusalem. Alleluia.

3. Behold, the Lord shall come, and all his saints with him j and
the light in that day shall be great! Alleluia.

4. Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters ; seek ye the
Lord while he may be found. Alleluia.

5. Behold, the great Prophet shall come, and he shall rebuild
Jerusalem. Alleluia.

SECOND SUNDAY.

1 . Behold, the Lord shall come hi the clouds of heaven with great
power. Alleluia.

2. Zion is our strong city ; salvation will God appoint for walls and
bulwarks ; open ye the gates, for God is with us. Alleluia.

3. Behold, the Lord shall appear, and shall not lie ; though he tarry,
wait for him, because he will come, he will not tarry. Alleluia.

4. The mountains and the hills shall break forth before God into
singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands, for the
Lord, the King, shall come unto his everlasting kingdom. Alleluia,
Alleluia.

5. Behold, our Lord shall come with power, and shall enlighten the
eyes of his servants. Alleluia.

THIRD SUNDAY.

1. The Lord will come and will not tarry, and will bring to light
the hidden things of darkness, and manifest himself to all nations.
Alleluia.

2. Rejoice, O Jerusalem, with great joy, because thy Savior shall
come unto thee. Alleluia.

3. I will place salvation in Zion, and my glory in Israel. Alleluia.

4. Every mountain and hill shall be made low ; and the crooked
shall be made straight, and the rough places plain ; come, O Lord,
and tarry not. Alleluia.

5. Let us live righteously and godly, looking for that blessed hope
and the appearance of the Lord. Alleluia.

1 Italics indicate the explicit allusions to the Second Advent.

THE ADVENT. XXXV

FOURTH SUNDAY.

1. Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, for the day of the Lord is at hand ;
behold, he shall come and save us. Alleluia.

2. Behold, the Desire of all nations shall come, and the house of the
Lord shall be filled with glory. Alleluia.

3. The crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain ;
come, O Lord, and tarry not. Alleluia.

4. The Lord shall come ; go out to meet him and say : Great is his
beginning, and of his kingdom there shall be no end ; the mighty God,
the Lord, the Prince of Peace. Alleluia.

5. Thy almighty Word, O Lord, shall come from thy royal throne.
Alleluia.

The Greater Antiphons. Before proceeding to the special consid
eration of the Greater Antiphons, we must first examine the Antiphon
in general and fix its meaning and use. On this subject Cardinal
Newman l says : * The Antiphons or Anthems are sentences pre
ceding and succeeding the separate Psalms and Songs, and are
ordinarily verses taken from the particular compositions to which
they are attached. They seem to answer the purpose of calling
attention to what is coming, of interpreting it, or of pointing out the
particular part of it which is intended to bear on the service of the
day; in all respects answering the purpose of what is called by
musicians a key-note. They are repeated at the end, as if to fix the
impression or the lesson intended.' See also Neale and Littledale,
Comm. on the Psalms i. 34-5, and cf. 35-45, 5 1-62. 2

The importance attached to the Antiphons by the ministrants in
divine service is attested by a story told of Ceolfrith and (probably)
Bede in the anonymous History of the Abbots : 8 In the monastery
over which Ceolfrith presided, all who could read, or preach, or recite

1 Tracts for the Times, No. 75 (Vol. Ill), p. 22.

2 It is to the city of Rome itself, and not to any of the provincial churches, that
the systematic use of Antiphons is due. So Batiffol, p. I. The Dialogue of Egbert,
Archbishop (735-766) of York (Haddan and Stubbs, Councils 3.412) mentions
the Antiphonaries attributed to Gregory, which were extant, and those which
Egbert had seen at Rome (apud apostolorum Petri et Fault limina). Baumer
(p. 280) thinks the Antiphonaries used by Egbert at York were identical in con
tent with those which Amalarius found in use at Metz. Pope Hadrian caused a
revision to be made in 783 or 784.

8 Cited in Plummet's ed. of Bede i. xii.

XXXVI INTRODUCTION.

the Antiphons and Responds were swept away, except the abbot
himself and one little lad nourished and taught by him, who is now
a priest of the same monastery, and both by word of mouth and by
writing commends to all who wish to know them the abbot's worthy
deeds. And the abbot, sad at heart because of this visitation,
ordained that, contrary to their former rite, they should, except at
Vespers and Matins, recite their Psalms without Antiphons. And
when this had been done with many tears and lamentations on his
part for the space of a week, he could not bear it any longer, but
decreed that the Psalms, with their Antiphons, should be restored
according to the order of the regular course ; and all assisting, by
means of himself and the aforesaid boy he carried out with no little
labor that which he had decreed, until he could either train himself, or
procure from elsewhere, men able to take part in the divine service.' 1

The following passage from Gueranger 2 will explain the particular
use made of the Greater Antiphons, which underlie so much of the
First Part of the Christ : 'The Church enters to-day [Dec. iy] 3 on
the seven days which precede the Vigil of Christmas, and which are
known in the liturgy under the name of the Greater Ferias. The
ordinary of the Advent office becomes more solemn ; the Antiphons
of the Psalms, both for Lauds and the Hours of the day, are proper,
and allude expressly to the great Coming. Every day, at Vespers,
is sung a solemn Antiphon, which consists of a fervent prayer to the
Messiah, whom it addresses by one of the titles given him by the
sacred Scriptures.

' In the Roman Church there are seven of these Antiphons, one
for each of the Greater Ferias. They are commonly called the O's
of Advent, because they all begin with that interjection. In other
churches, during the Middle Ages, two more were added to these
seven : 4 one to our Blessed Lady, O Virgo Virginum ; and the other
to the angel Gabriel, O Gabriel ; or to St. Thomas the Apostle, whose

1 On the speed with which certain unworthy priests hurried through the service,
omitting the Antiphons, cf. Tommasi 4. xxxm, where he quotes an anonymous
author of De Benedictions Dei, in the preface to Batheric, Bishop of Ratisbon, who
was consecrated A.D. 814.

2 The Liturgical Year, Advent, pp. 508-9.

8 According to Blunt, p. 249, the Antiphons were sung from Dec. 16 to Dec. 23,
St. Thomas' day having its own proper Antiphon ; but this must be an error. ED.

4 Martene says (lib. 4. cap. 10) : ' Et revera novem designat ordinarium Namne-
tense ' ; so, he adds, does the Antiphonary of St. Martin of Tours. ED.

THE ADVENT. XXXV11

feast [Dec. 21] comes during the Greater Ferias ; it began O Thoma
Didyme^ There were even churches where twelve Great Antiphons
were sung ; that is, besides the nine we have just mentioned, there
was O Rex pacifice to our Lord, O Mundi Domina to our Lady, and
O Hierusalem to the city of the people of God.

* The canonical Hour of Vespers has been selected as the most
appropriate time for this solemn supplication to our Savior, because,
as the Church sings in one of her hymns, 2 it was in the evening of
the world (vergente mundi vespere} that the Messiah came amongst
us. These Antiphons are sung at the Magnificat, to show us that
the Savior whom we expect is to come to us by Mary. They are
sung twice, once before and once after the Canticle, as on Double
Feasts, and this to show their great solemnity. In some churches it
was formerly the practice to sing them thrice : that is, before the
Canticle, before the Gloria Patri, and after the Sicut erat. Lastly,
these admirable Antiphons, which contain the whole pith of the
Advent liturgy, are accompanied by a chant replete with melodious
gravity, and by ceremonies of great expressiveness, though, in these
latter, there is no uniform practice followed.'

1 'It is more modern than the O Gabriel ; but, dating from the I3th century, it
was almost universally used in its stead.' See p. xxxix, note i.

2 The Conditor alme siderum. The line is thus introduced :

Qui condolens interitu
Mortis perire saeculum,
Salvasti mundum languidum,
Donans reis remedium,
Vergente mundi vespere.

Cf . the reason for the use of the Magnificat at vespers given by Bede ( Works
5. 306) : ' It comes to pass by the bounty of the Lord that if we at all times medi
tate upon the acts and sayings of the Blessed Mary, the observance of chastity
and the works of virtue will always continue in us. For the excellent and salutary
custom has grown up in Holy Church that all shall sing her hymn [the Magnificat]
every day with the Vesper Psalms, in order that the recalling of the Lord's incar
nation by this means may the oftener incite the souls of the faithful to devotion,
and that the consideration of the example set by his mother may confirm them
in the stability of virtue. And it is meet that this should be done at Vespers, so
that the mind, wearied in the course of the day, and distracted by various opinions,
may, at the approach of the season of quiet, collect itself in the oneness of medi
tation, and through this wholesome reminder may hasten to cleanse itself by the
prayers and tears of the night from everything useless or harmful which it had
contracted by the business of the day.'

XXXV111 INTRODUCTION.

These Greater Antiphons l are usually designated by their opening
words, as follows : 2

1. O Sapientia.

2. O Adonai.

3. O Radix Jesse.

4. O Clavis David.

5. O Oriens.

6. O Rex gentium.

7. O Emmanuel.

This is the order observed in the Roman Breviary and the Sarum Use. 3
Durandus 4 mystically interprets many circumstances relative to
the first seven Antiphons. Thus they express the longing of the
ancient fathers for the coming of Christ ; there are seven of them,
because Christ possessed the seven gifts of the Spirit, 5 and bestowed
them on the world, but also because these seven gifts enlightened
the prophets. In these Antiphons the Church reveals the diversity
of her ills. We are ignorant (cf. Ant. i), subject to eternal pains (2),
servants of the devil (3), bound by habitual sin (4), enveloped with
darkness (5), and exiles from our fatherland (6 and 7) ; 6 refers to
the salvation of the Gentiles, and 7 of the Jews. When two more
are added, the O Virgo, or the O Gabriel, and the O Thoma* the
nine orders of angels are signified. Certain churches sing twelve
Antiphons, which then signify the twelve prophets, apostles, tribes,
and the number of thousands saved from each tribe. The O is a
note of admiration rather than a call. 7 It is proper that there shall
be special Antiphons, Responds, etc., for this season, that they may,
like heralds coming thicker and faster, arouse us to make ready for
our Lord, and to prepare a fit dwelling-place for him. This is the
significance of the quotation from Rom. 13, with which Advent
begins : 8 ' Let us cast away the works of darkness, and put on the
armor of light.' 9

1 See pp. 71 ff. They are translated by Blunt, pp. 249-250.

2 Cf. infra, pp. 101, 72, 107, 76, 88, 73, 94.

3 As noted below (p. 85), the order in Amalarius is i, 4, 7, 3, 5, 2, 6 (Migne
105. 1266-9).

4 Rationale 4. n. 6 Cf. p. xxxix, note i.
6 Cf. infra, p. 72. 7 Cf. infra, p. 72.

8 Rather from the Capitulum for Sext of the First Sunday in Advent.

9 Note the appropriateness of this to the season of the year.

THE ADVENT. XXXIX

For the feast of thre Expectation of the Virgin (Dec. 18), which
has been kept since the Tenth Council of Toledo (A.D. 656), there is
another : l

S. O Virgo virginum. 2

In the Vatican MS., 8 is substituted for 7 ; in the St. Gallen
Antiphonary 8 8 follows 7, and is in turn followed by these : 4

9. Gabriel.

10. Rex pacifice. 5

11. mundi Domina.

12. O Hierusalem. 8

1 This feast is observed with special devotion in Spain (Batiffol, p. 514). The
first sentence is more grammatical in the Vatican MS. B. 79, the Responsorial
and Antiphonary printed by Tommasi, Vol. 4. It there reads (p. 28) : ' O Virgo
virginum, quomodo fiet istud ? quia nee primum tui similis visa est, nee habebis
sequentem.' This Antiphon occurs also in the Sarum, York, and Hereford
Breviaries (cf. infra, pp. 84, 85). A part of the usual form is found among the
Antiphons for Lauds on Christmas Day. The Antiphon for St. Thomas' Day,
Dec. 21, is as follows (Batiffol, p. 522) : ' O Thoma Didyme, qui Christum meruisti
cernere : te precibus rogamus altisonis, succurre nobis miseris, ne damnemur cum
impiis in Adventu Judicis.' This does not, however, come into question as one
of our sources. 2 Cf. infra, p. 84.

3 Antiphonarium Hartkeri, MS. St. Gallen 390, 391, pp. 40, 41. This is de
scribed on p. 133 of the Verzeichniss der Handschriften der Stiftsbibliothek von St.
Gallen, Halle, 1875, as a small parchment quarto of the tenth or eleventh century ;
the date is confirmed by Tommasi 4. xxxin. According to my measurement on
Aug. 3, 1898, it is 1 6 centimetres wide by 22 high, the writing occupying about 12
by i6, though a marginal e extends to 15 centimetres. The Antiphons are pro
vided with neumes ; the spelling is not exactly reproduced by Tommasi, pp. 182-3.
Vezzosi says (Tommasi 4. xxxiv) : ' Romanis ritibus admiscentur passim illi
monachorum, quorum usui olim inserviebat. . . . Exhibet porro X saeculi ritus
in cursu diurno atque nocturno usitatos ; exhibet discrimen inter Romani cleri
et monachorum in Galliis Antiphonarios libros.'

4 Cf. infra, pp. 73, 100, 103, 81.

6 The First Antiphon for the Vespers of Christmas Eve begins : Rex pacificus
magnificatus est.'

6 Tommasi says of them : I know not whether they are additions made by
monks,' and adds that they certainly seem older than Honorius of Autun (see
quotation on p. 72). The St. Gallen MS. adds another Antiphon, which cannot,
however, be classed with the O's : [13]. ' Qui ventunis est veniet, et non tardabit ;
jam non erit timer in finibus nostris.'

The best authorities seem to be of opinion that these occasional Antiphons are
of monastic origin. This is quite in consonance with the historic fact that the

xl INTRODUCTION.

The following information with respect to the O's has been kindly
communicated to me in a letter from Professor T. Bouquil!ofc?W"the
Catholic University of America :

'Those Antiphons were generally sung at Vespers at the Magnifi
cat, sometimes at Lauds at the Benedictus. Sometimes the Anti-
phon was recited before and after the Magnificat (as is done to-day) ;
sometimes repeated three times in succession ; l sometimes recited
after each verse of the Benedictus, beginning with the verse, In
sanctitate et justitia? They were and are intoned by a dignitary
bishop, archdeacon, etc.

' The Antiphons were and are sung in churches where the divine
office is sung publicly and solemnly, as in cathedrals (of Europe),
churches to which chapters are attached, and churches connected
with monasteries. Even where part of the office is only recited,
Vespers and Lauds are sung. The melodies of which Gueranger
speaks are undoubtedly the Gregorian or plain-chant. You may find
them complete in the publications of the Benedictines of Solesmes;
in the Vesperale 3 of our churches they are abbreviated. The Anti
phons are not divided ; a member of the choir intones, and all follow
with him. 4

development of the liturgy was in large measure due to monks (see Batiffol, chaps.
I and II). The arch-cantor John, whom Benedict Biscop brought into England,
was, it will be remembered, abbot of St. Martin's monastery at Rome (Bede 4. 18).
We shall not be far astray, I believe, if we suppose these four Antiphons to be of
Benedictine origin.

1 So at Tours, according to Martene, De Antiquis Ecclesiae Ritibus, lib. 4. cap.
10. ED.

2 The Vatican MS. printed by Tommasi assigns them (p. 27) to the Benedictus,
and hence to Lauds. Tommasi notes : ' Consentit . . . Rituale M. S. Benedicti
Canonici,' but refers to Amalarius and Alcuin (and so p. 182) as if testifying in
favor of Vespers. The St. Gallen MS. assigns them to Vespers (p. 182). The
Vatican MS. adds : ' Ad has omnes Antiphonas versus Ostende nobis? which
Tommasi interprets as meaning that the verse Ostende nobis, Domine, mi s eric or di am
tuam, etc., is to precede the Canticle. ED.

8 Note that Exeter cathedral possessed a well-worn Vesperale when Leofric
succeeded to the bishopric; cf. supra, p. vii. In the Vesperale published by H.
Dessain at Mechlin, the music of the Greater Antiphons is on pp. 17-20. ED.

4 On the whole question of how the Antiphons were sung, see especially Tom
masi 4. xxi-xxxvu. The subject is too large to discuss here. I give but one
quotation, from the Vatican Antiphonary (Tommasi 4. 37) : ' In nocte Natalis
Domini, ad omnes Antiphonas Vigiliae chorus choro respondet, et sic omnes
Antiphonas cantamus ante Psalmos et infra Psalmos ubi inveniuntur, et in fine

THE ADVENT. xli

'They were begun Dec. 17, St. Nicholas' Day, and finished on
St. Lucia. 1 When eight were sung, they were begun a day earlier,
and so on/

It is scarcely necessary to dwell at length on the Antiphons for
Trinity Sunday ; the important facts are presented at the appropriate
place in the Notes. 2

The character of the Antiphons and their influence upon Cynewulf.
The Antiphons which underlie Part I are prose, but rhythmic prose.
In their general frame they are not unlike a brief Collect. The
better to illustrate this statement, let us see what a typical Collect
contains. According to Goulburn, 3 the constituent parts of a Col
lect are: ' ist, the invocation; 2dly, the recital of some doctrine
or fact, which is made the basis of the petition ; 3dly, the petition
itself, which rises upon this basis ; 4thly, the aspiration, which is
the feather or wing to the petition ; 5thly, in all Collects addressed
to the Father, the alleging of the Mediator's work on our behalf, and
the pleading of his name.' 4 Of course many Collects are deficient

Psalmorum, et post Gloria Pafri, et post Sictit erat, Sed chorus cujus est versus
infra Psalmum qui est Antiphona incipit Antiphonam, alter respondet, et qui
incipit finit earn.' To this Tommasi subjoins : ' Hoc est, ab uno chore prima
Antiphonae parte cantata, chorus alter alteram perficit partem.' This is borne
out by Amalarius, De Eccl. Officiis 4. 7 (Migne 105. 1180) : 'Antiphona dicitur vox
reciproca. Antiphona inchoatur ab uno unius chori, et ad ejus symphoniam.
Psalmus cantatur per duos chores. Ipsa enim, id est Antiphona, conjunguntur
simul duo chori. . . . Duobus choris alternatur Antiphona.' Tommasi observes
(4. xxxvi) that the men were on the right of the officiating priest, and the women
(of course not in the choir) on the left ; with this cf. Exod. 576-7 :

Weras wuldres sang, wlf on 65mm,
folcsweota mzest fyrdleoS golon.

See also Baumer, p. 122 ; Batiffol, pp. 94-6. ED.

1 This is of course an error : St. Nicholas' day is Dec. 6, and St. Lucy's Dec.
13. Professor Bouquillon is evidently referring to the Vatican Antiphonary,
which, as already mentioned, assigns the O's to the Benedictus, and also inserts
them between St. Nicholas' day and St. Lucy's. ED.

2 Cf. infra, pp. 108 ff.

8 The Collects of the Day, i. 22.

4 This is beautifully illustrated by the Collect for the Burial of the Dead. The
divisions begin as follows: (i) ' O most merciful God '; (2) 'who is the resurrec
tion'; (3) 'we meekly beseech thee'; (4) 'that, when we shall'; (3) 'grant this';
(5) 'through Jesus Christ.'

xlii INTRODUCTION.

in some respect^ or reduced to the barest essentials. 1 In these cases
the resemblance to one of the O's is more evident, as may be seen
by a comparison, for example, with the O Sapiential It is signifi
cant that the English Collect' for the Sunday after Ascension has
been modeled upon the Antiphon for Ascension quoted in the
Notes. 3 The structure of Collect and Antiphon is here so far one
that we have the parallelism of invocation and recital on one hand,
and of petition on the other. 4 This parallelism, and the resulting
rhythm, and in some cases rime, tend to approximate prose to verse.
The mediaeval sermons are full of it, 5 and this circumstance may
account for the relation between our poem and the sermons of
Gregory and Caesarius.

From all that has been said, it is apparent that we must conceive
of Cynewulf as so thrilled by the sweet and solemn chanting of the
Greater Antiphons of Advent, and so imbued with their spirit through
reflection upon their rich devotional and doctrinal contents, that he
gladly yielded to the impulse to reproduce them in English under
the form of variation. In so doing he employed the peculiarly
monastic Antiphons side by side with those sanctioned by the
Church universal ; he abridged, expanded, suppressed, or trans
posed, as his genius dictated ; freely interpolated matter from other
sources, when it suited his purpose so to do ; and welded the whole
together by closing with a magnificent doxology to the triune God,

1 Thus in the Collect for Whitsunday : ' Deus, qui hodierna die corda fidelium
Sancti Spiritus illustratione docuisti : da nobis in eodem Spiritu recta sapere, et
de ejus semper consolatione gaudere. Per ... in unitate ejusdem. . . .' Except
for the 5th division, this much resembles one of our Antiphons.

2 Infra, p. 101. 3 P. 118.

4 So in the first seven of the O's, the O Rex pacifice, and the O Hierusalem (?),
but not in the others (infra, pp. 73, 84, 103, 108).

5 Norden goes so far as to say (Die Antike Kunstprosa 2. 844): 'Die rhetor-
ischen an den hohen Festtagen gehaltenen Predigten der Christen waren nichts
anderes als Hymnen in Prosa,' adducing as early examples Gregory Nazianzen
(Pair. Gr. 35. 537 ; 36. 72) and Sophronios (Patr. Gr. 87 III. 3321). Not less
significant are the remarks of Baumer (Gesch. des Breviers, p. 2) : ' Da das Gebet
der Ausdruck der tiefsten und innersten das Menschenherz bewegenden Geftihle
und Empfindungen ist, so haben auch diese Gebete der Kirche, gleich denen des
Alten Bundes, naturgemass einen vorherrschend lyrischen Charakter. . . . Diese
wunderbare Vereinigung von lyrischer Poesie und gottgegebenem Inhalt ist auch
dem officiellen Gebete der Kirche eigen geblieben.' Cf. my Notes, pp. 195, 209,

2IO, 222, 223, etC.

THE ASCENSION. xliii

followed by a few resumptive lines in which, returning to the theme
of Advent, he alludes to the reward which Christ will bestow upon
the righteous at his second appearing. 1 Throughout the whole he
alternates between joy and exultation over the approaching fulness
of Christ's manifestation, 2 and intense desire that he will liberate
the individual sinner from the thraldom of sin and build up his own
Church in its most holy faith, while interspersed are rejoicings over
the manifest fulfilment of prophecy, tributes to the mother of the
Divine Son, and vivid realization of the historic circumstances con
nected with the Nativity.

PART II. THE ASCENSION. 3 As the source of Part I is found in
the Breviary, so also is the principal source of Part II, the Ascension j_
sermon of Pope Gregory the Great. The fact that Gregory was the
father of English Christianity, or at least of Roman Christianity in
England, together with the circumstance that to him was attributed
the constitution of the liturgy, the compilation of the musical service-
books employed by the Church, and the institution of the school for
chanters from which England had received its training in sacred song, 4
imparts a singular interest to this poetic amplification of one of his
most eloquent homilies. 5 The Venerable Bede, too, as in the Third
Part, is represented among the originals by a hymn full of spirited
movement and dialogue, and thus two of the glories of the English
Church are associated in the substance of this Ascension poem.
If now we consider the highly dramatic character of the angelic
addresses in the opening portion, 6 the vivid allusions to contemporary
activity in the most varied walks of life, 7 the touches of personal senti-

1 Cf. 434 with 846, 1361, 1587. 8 See p. xxv, note 4.

2 As, for example, 45 ff. 4 Joan. Diac. 2. 6.

6 Ozanam (Dante et la Philosophic Catholique, p. 32 ; cf. p. 27) is tempted to
call him the last of the Romans. If this be true, he in whom ancient Rome died
was he from whom the civilization of England began to live. As to its truth, cf.
Gregory's own words (Migne 76. 1010) : ' Ipsa autem quae aliquando mundi
domina esse videbatur qualis remanserit Roma conspicimus ? Immensis dolori-
bus multipliciter attrita, desolatione civium, impressione hostium, frequentia
ruinarum. . . . Ubi enim senatus? Ubi jam populus ? . . . Quia enim senatus
deest, populus interiit, et tamen in paucis qui sunt dolores et gemitus quotidie
multiplicantur, jam vacua ardet Roma.' Cf. Lanciani, The Destruction of Ancient
Rome, p. 88.

6 E.g. 517-526, 558-585; cf. the dramatic lines, 164-214.

7 664-681.

xliv INTRODUCTION.

ment, 1 and the introduction of the poet's name in the puzzling runic
passage, 2 we shall be able to understand the peculiar fascination
exerted by this Part. A conspicuous link with Part I is provided
by a section in which the Advent is definitely named, 8 while Part III
is as evidently preluded by the references to the Last Judgment in the
passage which includes the runes, no less than by the circumstance
that the Ascension is the express pledge of the Second Coming.
Moreover, the Trinity is here glorified, 4 as in I, 5 and two hymns
transmitted by Bede furnish sources respectively for II and III. 6

It is an artistic flaw that certain sequences are insufficiently
motived here, as throughout the Christ. Especially is this true of
the fine address on the Harrowing of Hell, 7 and of the reference to
the Advent. 8 These may be compared with the lack of art in por
tions of Part III. 9

On the whole this Part compares favorably, allowance being made
for the character of its theme, with the two others, and Cyne-
wulf has escaped the censure visited upon religious painters by
Ruskin : 10 * I can not understand why this subject was so seldom
treated by religious painters, for the harmony of Christian creed
depends as much upon it as on the Resurrection itself, while the
circumstances of the Ascension, in their brightness, promise, miracu-
lousness, and direct appeal to all the assembled Apostles, seem more

1 789-796. We are not bound, I think, to attach very great importance to the
use of the first personal pronoun in this passage. Why, for example, should we

lay any more weight upon

Hum ic wene me
ond eac ondraede dom l Sy rejjran, etc.,

than upon the following lines in the Doomsday translated from the Latin of Bede
(15-20; Bibl. 2. 251)?

Ic ondraide me eac dom J>one miclan

for mandSdum minum on eorSan,

ond J73et ece ic eac yrre ondrsde me

ond synfulra gehwam aet sylfum Code,

ond hu mihtig Frea eall manna cynn

todaJle?? ond todeme'S >urh his dihlan miht.

The ' I ' may very easily be used as frequently in hymns and homilies, or as in
the Book of Psalms. 6 Infra, pp. 116, 171.

2 797-807. 7 558-585 ; cf. infra, pp. 129 ff.

3 586-599. 8 586-599.

4 599. 9 See pp. xci ff.

5 378 ff.; cf. 357-8. 10 Giotto and his Works in Padua.

DOOMSDAY. xv

fitted to attract the joyful contemplation of all who received the
faith. How morbid and how deeply to be mourned was the temper
of the Church which could not be satisfied without perpetual repre
sentation of the tortures of Christ, but rarely dwelt upon his triumph ! '

PART III. DOOMSDAY. For the general organism of this Part
Cynewulf is dependent upon the hymn quoted by Bede ; l for the sug- V
gestion of the Sign of the Son of Man to the vision of Constantine, ,
a passage in Ephraern Syrus, 2 or one doubtfully attributed to Augus
tine ; 8 for the mourning of the universe at Christ's death, to Gregory ; 4 V
for the bloody sap of the trees, to the Apocrypha; 5 for Christ's t/
address to the sinner, to Caesarius of Aries, 6 or, more ultimately,
Ephraem Syrus ; for the sword of victory in the hand of the Judge, /
to Prudentius ; 7 and for the account of the joys of the blessed, to v
Gregory and Augustine. 8 Yet such is Cynewulf's imaginative power
and command of language that sutures are nowhere visible; the
whole is molded, or rather fused, into a poem of the greatest moral
fervor, intensity, and vividness. Though there is somewhat too
much pausing for reflection, and though the poet occasionally
retraces his steps, there is much vigor, and almost continual prog
ress. The scenes described are realized with startling clearness;
the speeches are majestic and yet tender, pathetic but awful ; the
poet's personal appeals are by no means conventional, and the fates
of the damned and the blessed are depicted according to the dic
tates of an unwavering faith.

As the organism of this Part is less transparent than those of the
other two, it may not be superfluous to attempt an analysis. 9 The
great lines are apparently these :

1. The trumpet call to judgment, and the resurrection of the dead.

2. The coming of the Judge.

3. The destruction of the universe.

4. Men's deeds and thoughts shall be manifest.

5. The good and the evil are irresistibly urged and drawn before
the throne of judgment.

6. The celestial Rood, the Sign of the Son of Man, shall be
advanced in the sight of all.

1 7/hz, pp. 171 ff. 8 Pp. 193-4. 5 P. 200. 7 P. 216.

2 Pp. 189 ff. 4 P. 195. 6 P. 210. 8 P. 222.

9 A more detailed analysis will be found on pp. 170-171; cf. pp. 175-7.
Artistic flaws are noted on pp. xci ff.

Xlvi INTRODUCTION.

7. The reminiscences and reflections aroused by the sight of the
Rood. (Dumb creatures sympathized with the death of Christ,
while sinners remained hard of heart.)

8. The redeemed are gathered on the right, and the wicked on
the left.

9. Three causes of the happiness of the just and the misery of
the unrighteous.

10. The good are welcomed to heaven.

11. The wicked are first reminded of Christ's love, and then cast
down to hell.

12. Exhortation to be wise in time.

13. The horrors of hell.

14. The joys of heaven.

GRAMMATICAL NOTES. Only the more significant facts are noticed,
especially those that bear on the question of dialect and on the
mutual relations of the three Parts.

Stressed vowels. Here may be noted :

Short a : usually (? before m and n. Isolated exceptions are (once
each, unless otherwise stated) : Latin words like ancrum (II), sancta
(I); then anginn (I), ascamode (III), forhwan (HI), frarn (III, twice),
lange (I, III), manna (I, II), onfangen (I), scandum (III).

Short a in inflection: blacra (III), wrace (III).

Breaking, and u- and o- umlaut, occur regularly in all usual posi
tions, the latter sometimes going beyond the strict WS. limits, as
in beofian, cearu, cleopian, freoftian, heafela, liotm-, meotud, teala
(but fela, wela) ; in inflection : -cleofu, freoSa, -hleodu (III ; also
-hlidu, II), -hleoSu, leomo ; but brego (not breogo), gemetu, gesetu.
Giofu (I), geofum (II), occur side by side with the obi. cases
giefe, gife.

Gedreag (999) is not clear to me.

Before /-f- cons, occurs exceptionally a {Gram. 158. 2) : alwalda,
alwihta(?) ; cald (II, III); hals (II, but mundheals II); waldan,
-end always except wealdan (1388), onwald (I) ; onwalg (III).
Umlaut of this a in aelde (I, II, III, MS. once elda, 311 ; but yldu,
'age,' III), wselm (II, III). Umlaut of a before r-fcons. (Gram.
158. i) gives ce in waergftu (I, III). Meaht is constant, but meahtig
(II, III; once aelmeahtigne, 759), mihtig (I, II, III); the vb. has
meahte. Niht is constant (II, III), but sinneahtes (I), sinnehte
(III). /^affects a following eo, io only in woruld, wudu, utan ; so

GRAMMATICAL NOTES. xlvii

sweopu, sweotul-, weorud (once weredum, III), etc. ; but witon
(1243), not wioton ; wiht, not wuht.

I-umlaut of a varies in maenigo (I), m^ngu (II).

For swser, swaese occur swar (III), swase (III, but swaes, II, III).
Gaest is constant (no gast). Engan (237) seems to represent aengan.

Short i is usually retained, but becomes^ in crybb (III), drync (III),
fyrwet (I), hyder (II, but hider-, I), sygor (II, but sigor, I, II, III),
wynster (II I, but winster, 1 1 1) , yrmen (II). Geh wylc, swylc are constant.

Long I is regularly retained, but scynan (III).

Short y is regularly retained. Rare exceptions are : cinn (III),
flihte (399), hingrendum (III), riht (18), simle (I, II, but symle, I,
II, III), Brim (I, 423).

Long y is regularly retained. Exception : fir (III).

Confusion of ea and eo, ea and eo, pointing to Anglian influence,
in pret. 3 sg. beorn (II) ; geondspreot. Besides geoguft (III) occurs
gioguS (III) ; neod (I, III), niod (I) ; geo (II), iu (I, III) ; cf. sioh;
iowa.

WS. ie, le are usually represented by j, y : byldo, dyrne, fyllan,
hwyrfan, scyppend, scyrian, awyrged, yrre, etc. ; gebygan, dyre, hyhsta,
strynan, etc. But scild- (II ; sceldun, III). Occasional forms are fier
(I) ; giedd (II); -giell (II) ; gietan (II, III) ; giet (I) ; hienjm (II) ;
degol (I, II); leg (II, III, lig, III); toleseS (III). Alternative are
gief-, gif, gyf-; yrmSu (I, II, III), ermSu (I); gild (I) gield (III),
gyld (III); gielp (II), gylp (II) ; styll (II), styllan (II), stiell (II) ;
sylei* (III), seJeS (II); gieman (II, III), giman (III); iecan (II),
yean (III) ; nied (I), nyd (III) ; nyhst (II), nehst (I) ; onsien (II,
III), onsyn (II, III); scyne (II, III), scienne (III); yldu, 'age,'
may be compared with aelde, * men ' ; with and without umlaut are
beornan (II), byrnan (II, III) ; eowan (I, II, also iowan, I), eawan
(I, III), ywan (I, II, III) ; lyhtan (I, III), leohtan (I) ; eostor (I,
III), Systro (I, III).

With regular sylf (I, II, III) occurs once self (III).

Influence of palatals on following vowels. Here occur with g:
geo (II), iu (I, III); gioguS (III), -geogu (III); geatu (I, II);
gatu (I); giefan (but gifen, III, gyfen, III), giefe (but gife, II),
geaf, gefon ; gietan, -geat, qndgiet ; gield (HI), gyld (III) ; gielp
(II), gylp (II); giedd (II); widgiell (II); giet (?).

With c : ceafl ; cear- ; ceaster ; cyle ; cyrran.

With sc : sceaden ; gesceaf t ; sceal ; gesceap, gesceapen ; scearp ;

INTRODUCTION.

sceafca; sceolde, sceolon (II, III, but sculon I, II, III); scild (II);
sceop (III, but scop, I, II), scyppend ; scyrian (I, III); but scaecen
(II), sceldun (III), scod (III); scQmu, scQmian, scqnd ; scua.

Unstressed and slightly stressed vowels. Variation between orgete
(III ; cf. qndgete) and orgeate (III). Weakening of middle vowel in
inlocast (I ; cf. Gram. 43. 3). Exceptional change of middle vowel
in firina (56). Weakening of swa-J>eah to se-Seah (I). Mansworan
for -swaran (1611). Wideferh (I, II) side by side with -feorh (II).
With owiht (I, III) occurs oht (I), and with awo (II, III) occur a
(I, II), 6 (I, II ; cf. no, I, III). Dsedhwaete and domhwate both
occur in I.

Nouns regularly ending in -u generally have -o : byldo, haelo, word-
geryno, etc. ; less frequently -u : haelu, etc. Once (MS.) waergfta

Be- and bi- occur as follows in the three Parts : I has be-, 9 ; bi-, 6 ;
II has be-, 5; bi-, 15; III has be-, 2; bi-, 36. In 1000 lines this
would be expressed by saying that be- occurs in I, 20.5 times; in

II, 11.7; in III, 2.5; bi- occurs in I, 13.7 times; in II, 35.1; in

III, 45. Expressed in ratios this would give for be- :

II : I : : 57 : 100
III : I : : 12 : 100

For bi- :

II : I : : 256 : 100

III : I : : 329 : 100

For I : be- = i

For II :be-=

For III : be- =

This is striking, yet can hardly invalidate the conclusion, derived
from an examination of the other grammatical phenomena, that the
three Parts do not greatly differ. The preposition, it may be added,
occurs as bi in I (4), II (5), III (6); as be in III (2) a result
which does not seem compatible with that above.

After long syllables, the syncopation of the vowel of a short syl
lable takes place regularly, and the same is true after the short
syllables of fseger(?), h^fig, micel, and yfel. MS. exceptions occur in
the case of certain adjectives in ~ig, such as aelmihtig, Jenig, blodig,
gesailig, werig. For these, which have been usually normalized iri
the text, see the Variants. Synnig has oblique syngum, etc. No
syncopation in eowerum, 1503 ; feowerum, 878. On the other ti&nd

GRAMMATICAL NOTES. xlix

MS. syncopation irregularly occurs after short syllables (see Vari
ants) : bitrum (I, III), dysge (III), mqnge (III), etc. Egsa is uni
form, not $gesa ; maegne (I, II, III), but maegene (I, 382).

Consonants. C regularly changes to h in pp. dreahte, Seahte,
rejit, slant, but not in Srycton (III). D interchanges with & in ead-
(II), eaSmod (I), eaSmedu (I, III), and in Dauides (I), Dauipes
(II). G final is not changed to h \ deag, dreag, stag ; g before </,
ft, and n is retained, except in ongean (III), togeanes (II), -hydig
(II, III). ZTis usually retained in compounds of heah, but heag-
^ngel (I, III; also heah^ngel, I, II), headune (II); ns. hea; asm.
heanne ; assimilation of h also in heannissum (I) ; loss before cons,
ending in hreone ; fah, pi. fa ; feorh, feores, etc. ; loss initially
in rape (III, but hraSe, III). L is irregularly geminated in aell-
beorhte (HI), ejlpeodum (III); spatl occurs as in WS. (Gram. 196.
2). Metathesis of r is not constant in bearhtm (III), brehtm (III).
Sis assimilated in blis (I, II, III), liss (I, III), but not in blets- (I),
milts (I, III). > is retained in cySde (I, II, III). W occasionally
becomes u in saul (I, II), is lost in fea (III), hra (I), and fluctuates
in a (I, II), awo (II, III); for qndlata see note on 1435.

Nouns. Daeg has gp. dagena (II, III), daga (III). Sunu has
np. sunu (I). Dohtor has np. dohtor (I). Tungol has np. tungol
(II, III), tunglas (I). Sae has np. saes. Short monosyllabic and
polysyllabic neuter nouns end np. in -0, -u.

Weak adjectives. Besides sylfa, for which see Glossary, adjectives
are declined weak where prose would require strong in the following
lines: nom. 932,983; gen. 21,58,94, no, 165,396, 711,867; dat. (to
widanfeore, ealdre) 230, 277, 1343, 1514, 1543; ace. 183 (gen.?), 439
(ealne widan feorh); inst. 309, 371, 389, 510, 1086 ; nom. pi. 363, 364.

Comparison of adjectives. Comp. aerra ; sella, sellra ; str^ngra ;
wyrsa. Sup. aerest ; aeSelast (III) ; b^tast (III), be^tst (III) ; hyhsta ;
selest. Adverbs : comp. fier, l^ng.

Pronouns. Personal : me (I, II), mec (III) ; 6e (I, III), Sec (I,
II, III) ; ure (I, II) ; us (I, II), usic (I, III); eowic (II); hyre (III),
hire (III); hy (I, II, III), hi (II, III), hie (I, II), hio (I, 322);
hyra (I, II, III), hira (III, 1171)- Possessive: his, but sin (III,
five times). User (but gen. Ore above) has usses, ussum, etc. (I, II,
III). Demonstrative: seo (I, II, III), sio (I, III); inst. y (II,
III), Si (I, II), Son (I, II); Sam (once San, III); Sara. Des has
Sisse, -es, -um. Indefinite : gehwone (I, II, III), gehwane (I).

1 INTRODUCTION.

Numerals. Anne occurs twice (III), aenne once (III).

Verbs. The ind. pres. 2 and 3 sg. of strong verbs take no um
laut, except cymeS (I, II, III) and faereS (III). Neither do they
contract the ending, with the exception of regular contract verbs and
two in -5 : biwriSan, cweftan ; these have bewriS (II), cwi$ (II, III).

Verbs in e of Ablaut Classes III and V regularly take * in the ind.
pres. 2 and 3 sg. : spricefl (I), wigeS (III).

Ind. pres. 2 sg. of both strong and weak verbs ends in -st : bemur-
nest (I), spricest (I) ; cleopast (I). Exception : inlihtes (I).

Ind. pret. pi. ends in -on, -an, -un.

Ind. pret. 2 sg. of weak verbs, preterite presents, and willan
ends in -es: brohtes (I), gebohtes (I), gehogdes (III), hyrdes (III),
sealdes (I), polades (III), worhtes (I); sceoldes (III), wisses (III),
nysses (HI), noldes (III). Exception : gefyldest (I, 408).

Many weak verbs of Class II form the pret. in -ade.

Certain past participles of Ablaut Classes III, V, and VI vary the
root vowel between a, a, and e (Gram. 368, N. 4 ; 378, N. i, 2): (a)
bigrafan, hafen (II), but ahaefen (II) ; (fr) gefraegen (II), scaecen
(II); (<r) ofslegen (III). That of cuman is cymen (I), cumen (II) ;
that of don is -den (III), -don (III); that of fon is -fen (III), -fqng-
en, -fangen (I, II, III).

Biseon, * moisten,' has pp. biseon (Gram. 383, N. 4).

Onwreon has the pret. 3 sg. onwrah, not onwreah (Gram. 383).

Cuman has 3 sg. cymefi ; pret. 3 sg. cwom ; pi. cwoman, -un ;
opt. 3 sg. cume (I), cyme (I) ; imp. sg. cum (I), cym (I); pp. cymen
(I), cumen (II).

Niman has 3 sg. nimeS ; pret. 3 sg. nom.

Giefan has pret. 3 pi. gefon (III) ; pp. giefen (III), gifen (III),
gyfen (III).

Seon takes the pret. pi. in Angl. segun (II, III, but sawan II,
740) ; gesewen (I). Imp. sg. sioh (I).

Licgan has 3 sg. liget* ; pret. 3 sg. laeg ; pi. lasgon, -un (I, III),
lagun (III).

Hatan has pret. 3 sg. heht.

Scildan has pret. sceldun (III, 979 ; MS. scehdun).

The three forms, eawan, eowan (lowan), ywan are used side by
side ; imp. sg. Iowa (I), ywe (I).

The imp. sg. of gesecan is gesece (I), though that of secan is
sec (II).

GRAMMATICAL NOTES. 11

The irregular weak verbs in cc of the First Class have breaking in
the pret. and pp. : areahtum (III), bepeaht (I, III), gedreaht (III) ;
but also ger^ht (I) ; geslaeht (I). Yean has pp. geyced ; biSryccan
the pret. pi. bi)>rycton.

Uninflected past participles of weak verbs in d do not contract
the ending : sended (I). Inflected past participles from long stems
regularly syncopate the e of -ed, -en : bibyrgde, gedyrde, gecypte,
geswencte, etc. ; biwundne, gebundne, etc. Short stems retain the
e: gecorene.

Sorgian has ptc. sorgende (Gram. 412, N. n).

Haebbe has 2 and 3 sg. : hafast, hafaS. Lifgan has 3 sg. leofaft ;
imp. sg. leof a ; ptc. lifgende. S^cgan has 3 sg. sagaS (HI), -sejjft
(III) ; imp. sg. saga. Hycgan has pret. pi. hogdun. Drean has
3 sg. SreaS ; pp. Sread. Freogan has 3 pi. freogafi.

Sculan has pi. sculon (I, II, III), sceolon (II, III) ; pret. sceolde,
etc. ; opt. scyle.

Magon has 2 sg. meaht, pi. magon (I, II, III), maegon (I); pret.
pi. meahtan ; opt. pi. maegen (III), magon (III).

Of the verb wesan the following are the more interesting forms :
earn (I), beom (III); eart (I), bist (I); is (I, II, III), bifi (II, HI);
sind (I, II, III), sindon, -an (II, III), beoS (II, III); sie (I, III),
si (II), sy (HI); wesan (II, III), beon (I). Negative contract:
nis (I, III.)

Willan has sg. wille (II, III), wile (I, II, III); neg. nyle (II, III),
nele (III); pi. nellaS (III).

Hi INTRODUCTION.

II. POEMS ATTRIBUTED TO CYNEWULF.

THE RIDDLES AND CYNEWULF. Many of the accounts of Cynewulf,
popular and even scholarly, are based upon the assumption that he
wrote the collection of riddles in the Exeter Book, or at least the
largest part of them. This assumption dates from 1857, when Leo
published his famous interpretation of the First Riddle. As soon as
Cynewulf was credited with the authorship of this riddle, it was easy
to assign others to him, then the whole series, and then, by subtle
combinations of' inferences from this hypothesis with known facts or
other hypotheses, to weave an extensive web of more or less credible
supposition concerning the poet. In the last analysis, this romantic
fable depends wholly upon the assumed discovery of the name
Cynewulf in the First Riddle (so-called), conceived as a charade.
Hence it is necessary first to examine this poem, or poetic fragment,
which is accordingly presented here.

Leodum is minum swylce him mon lac gife ;
willa^ hy hine a^ecgan gif he on >reat cymeS.

Ungellc is us.

Wulf is on lege, ic on o^erre;
faest is >aet eglond, fenne biworpen ;
sindon waelreowe weras Her on ige ;
willa'S hy hine a>ecgan gif he on breat cyme$.

Ungellce is us.

Wulfes ic mines widlastum wenum dogode.
ponne hit wass renig weder ond ic reotugu saet,
, J?onne mec se beaducafa b5gum bilegde ;

waes me wyn t5 >on, waes me hwae)>re eac laft.

Wulf, mm wulf, wena me Jnne
seoce gedydon, J?me seldcymas,
murnende mod, nales meteliste.
Gehyrest >u Eadwacer, uncerne earne hwelp ?
bireiS wulf to wuda.

paet mon eaj>e toslite^, j^aette naHre gesomnad wass,
uncer giedd geador.

To this I append a literal translation, with alternative renderings
where such are necessary, it being premised that the poem is, at
best, decidedly obscure.

THE RIDDLES AND CYNEWULF. 1111

To my people it is as if one give to them a gift (or, gifts) ;

They will dfrecgan him if he comes into [the] throng (or, into a calamity).

Different is it with us.

Wolf (or, Wulf ) is on an island, I on another ;
Firm is the island, surrounded with bog ;
There on the island are fierce men ;
They will dbecgan him if he comes into the throng (or, calamity).

Different is it with us.

I dogode with (or, to) the far- wandering hopes of my wolf (or, Wulf).
(Or, I dogode in hopes with the long journeys of my wolf (or, Wulf)).
(Or, I dogode my Wulf with (or, to) far- wandering hopes)
When it was rainy weather and I sat tearful,
Then the warlike one covered me with boughs (or, arms) ;
It was joy to me to that extent, yet it was also sorrow.

Wolf (or, Wulf), my wolf (or, Wulf), me thy hopes
Have made sick, thy infrequent comings,
Anxious heart, not at all needs of food.
Dost thou hear Eadwacer, our earne cub ?
(Or, Dost thou hear, Eadwacer? Our earne cub)
(Or, Dost thou hear Eadwacer ? Our earne cub)
(He) beareth a wolf (or, Wulf) to the wood.
(Or, A wolf ( or, Wulf) beareth to the wood.)
One easily separates that which never was united,

Our song together.

It will be seen that there are three words whose meaning is
unknown, aj>ecgan, dogode, and earne; four whose meaning is
ambiguous, frreat, wulf (Wulf), wldlastum, bogum ; one whose
usual sense does not seem quite to fit the context, wenum (u>end).
Besides, the construction is ambiguous in vv. 3 and 4 from the end,
ambiguous or unintelligible in v. 4 from the end.

On this precarious basis, fabrics of ingenious interpretation have
been reared. The most famous of these has had a deleterious effect
upon Old English scholarship, especially as regards Cynewulf. I
refer to that of Leo, 1 which was published in 1857. By arbitrarily
changing words, significations, and syntax, 2 Leo succeeds in render
ing as follows : 3

1 Quae de se ipso Cynewulfus Poeta Anglosaxonicus tradiderit.

2 Leodum to leofrum, dogode to do gode (with gode as adv. (!) and the phrase J
rendered as 'enjoy,' 'yield to'), dfrecgan as 'reveal,' 'as if ' to 'as' (swylce), 'gift' / .
to 'meaning' (Idc}, 'there' to 'here' (J>#r), 'thy' (third indented line) to 'after ^
thee' (i.e. subjective to objective genitive), uncerne earne to 'of us two,' hine and r

he to stand for the neut. Idc, and geador from adv. to adj.

8 A fairly accurate translation of Leo's version may be found in Morley, 2. 218-9.

Hv INTRODUCTION.

[I]

Meine Glieder verhalten sich wie man ihnen Bedeutung zutheilt ;
Sie werden dieselbe offenbaren, wenn die Bedeutung sich zusammenschaart.

[2]

Ungleich verhalt sich's mit uns.

Ein Wolf ist auf einer Insel, ich auf der andern;

Vollkommen ist die Insel mit Sumpfland umgeben.

Wilde Manner sind hier auf dem Eilande.

Sie werden dieselbe offenbaren, wenn er mit (ihrer) Schaar zusammenkommt.

Ungleich verhalt sich's mit uns.

Ich gebe mich den weitgehenden Sehnsuchten nach meinem Wolf hin.

Wenn es regniges Wetter war und ich weinend sass,

Dann umfasste mich der Kampfschnelle mit seinen Armen.

Das ward mir Wonne, ward mir doch auch Leid.

Wolf ! mein Wolf ! die Sehnsuchten nach dir

Haben mich krank gemacht, deine seltenen Besuche;

Das trauernde Gemiith (that's), nicht durch Nahrungsmangel.

Hb'rst du ? Eadwaccer, unserer beider Jungen, tragt ein Wolf zum Holze.

[4]

Das sondert man leicht aus einander, was nie Zusammenhang hatte,
Unserer beider gemeinschaftliches Lied.

This becomes a charade, embodying the name of Cynewulf, by a
resort to the following expedients. In the first place, we must
assume that cyne may be represented indifferently by cene, ccen, and
cm, but never by itself. Secondly, can, regarded as a Northumbrian
word, must represent cwen. Thirdly, Eadwacer, a noun represented
in Continental history by Odoacer, and found in the later period of
Old English history, must here stand for the vowel ^, and besides
must be represented as the child of the * queen ' and Wulf. Fourthly,
' island ' must = ' syllable,' and bog must = ' anything that parts one
syllable from another.' Fifthly, wcelhreoive, ' fierce,' must = cene,
'bold,' and wuda, 'wood,' must = cen, 'pine-torch,' assumed to be =
' split wood.'

With these presuppositions, everything follows logically. No. i
(of course in Leo's translation) shows that the relation between
the two elements (according to Leo, syllables) of the name varies
according to the meaning attributed to each, but that the sense will
be clear the moment you put the two words together. No. 2 declares

THE RIDDLES AND CYNEWULF. Iv

that cene = w&lhreowe is in one syllable, and wulf'm another, but that
you will understand them when they meet, because when they meet
they will be sure to fight, and the difference between them will thus
become evident (' Sensus revelabitur, si congrediuntur scilicet cene
et wulf, quia pugna necessario inter eos sequitur, et diversitas
eorum luce clarius apparet'). The reader must overlook, in his
acceptance of this, that the cruel ones have all the time been on
the island of the wolf (j><zr on Ige). No. 3 makes known that the
person in whose mouth it is put is a queen, or at least a woman,
and that therefore she is to be called cwen, which we may easily
represent as coin, since we are dealing with the Northumbrian dialect.
It is true that in North, we once find coen (L. n. 31), as we have
an occasional coefranne (Mk. 2. 9), etc., but side by side with it six
cwoen, cuoen, and two cuen; accordingly, we must assume that there
is a mere graphic loss of one or the other of the two vowels, or else
that coen was pronounced not essentially otherwise than cw&n. But
No. 3 also reveals to us that e joins wulf to cen, since a wolf carries
something to the wood, and this something is apparently Eadwacer,
who, as we have seen, stands for e. It might be objected that hwelp
is perhaps the object of gehyrest, and that wulf may be the object of
birefr, instead of the subject. Finally, in No. 4 we are reminded that
since cene and coen are, after all, diverse in sound, it cannot be difficult
to sever them. 1

And now that the solution of the first riddle is evidently Cynewulf,
we may go on, as Dietrich 2 (1859) did, and interpret the last riddle,
No. 89 (95), as 'the wandering minstrel ' - who but Cynewulf?
and 86 (90), which is written in Latin and introduces the word lupus,
as referring to the same poet. 8

Only one step remained, to attribute to Cynewulf the whole col
lection of riddles, which was virtually done by Dietrich. 4 As he had
now become a wandering minstrel, it was easy to see the application
of Elene 1259-1260 :

beah he in medohealle maiSmas )>ege,
aeplede gold.

1 ' Facile fit ud id, quod nunquam inter se cohaeserit, separetur, scilicet com-
munis duarum syllabarum, sive potius membrorum nominis, cene et coen, cantus.'

2 Die Rdthsel des Exeterbuches, in Haupfs Zs. 1 1. 448-490 ; see esp. pp. 487-9 ;
cf. Dietrich in Lit. Centrbl. for March 28, 1858, p. 191, and Jahrb. f. Rom. und
Eng. Lit. i. 241. * P. 251.

8 Dietrich, p. 489; cf. Haupfs Zs. 12. 232-252, esp. 249-250.

Ivi INTRODUCTION.

For the romance that grew out of these assumptions, cf. Wiilker,
Angl. i. 483-5 ; Grein, Kurzgefasste Angelsdchsische Grammatik^
pp. 11-15.

As the question whether the First Riddle is to be interpreted as
* Cynewulf ' is one on which a whole train of assumptions concerning
the poet has depended, and still continues to depend, it is important
to see how other scholars have dealt with the problem presented by
these perplexing lines.

Rieger 2 (1868, pub. 1869) was the first to formulate weighty
objections to Leo's solution, though he had no other rendering to
propose. 3

1 The solution of the First Riddle as 'Cynewulf' was accepted not only by
Dietrich (see above, p. Iv ; also, 1860, in Kynewulfi Poetae Aetas, p. i), but
by Eduard Miiller, 1861 (Ueber das Ags. Ratsel des Exeterbuches, p. 5); Grein
(Germ. 10. 307; so still in his Kurzgef. Ags. Gram., 1880, p. 13); Rieger, 1868,
pub. 1869 (Zs.f. D. Phil. i. 215-219) ; Sweet, 1871 (Warton's Hist. Eng. Poet. 2. 16,
and so still in Anglo-Saxon leader, 7th ed., 1894, p. 164); Hammerich, 1873
(Aelteste Christliche Epik, p. 96, tr. Michelsen); Ten Brink, 1877 (Hist. Early Eng.
Lit., pp. 51-3); Wiilker, 1878 (Angl. i. 483-507), 1885 (Grundriss, pp. 165-6),
and 1888 (Ber. der K. Sachs. Ges. der Wiss., Philos.-Hist. Klasse, p. 211); Th.
Miiller, 1883 (Ags. Gram., p. 29); Lefevre (Angl. 6. 182, 185); D'Ham, 1883 (Der
Gegenwdrtige Stand der Cynewulffrage, p. 12); Prehn, 1883 (Composition und
Quellen der Ratsel des Exeterbuches, p. II ; Neuphil. Studien, 3. 155); Robinson,
1885 (Our Early Eng. Lit., pp. 60-61) ; Sarrazin, 1886 (Angl. 9. 517) ; Hicketier,
1888 (Angl. 10. 564 ff.); Brooke, 1892 (Hist. Early Eng. Lit., pp. 7, 8, 134 ff.),
1898 (Eng. Lit. from the Beginning to the Norm. Conq., pp. 160162, somewhat
doubtfully). 2 Zs.f. D. Phil. i. 215-9.

3 He is inclined to find the word cynn signified by the leodum minum of v. I,
yet is obliged to confess that dryht would be a better rendering, and that in any
case, cynn, or even cynne, is not cyne. In No. 3 he would read cane = civene,
instead of coen = cwen, referring to Rid. 73'. The last two lines of No. 3 he
translates: ' Horst du Eadwacer, unsern zornigen Welf ? Er tragt den Wolf zum
Holze (das zerlegt man leicht was nie vereinigt war) unser Ratselwort zusammen.'
After suggesting various emendations and new renderings, he gives his restored
text of the Riddle, as follows :

Leodum is minum swylce him mon lac gife.
Wulf is on lege, ic on ofterre.
Faest is J?aet eglond, fenne biworpen.
Sindon waelreowe weras j^ser on Ige :
willa'S hy hine a>ecgan gif he on J>reat cyme's.

Ungelice is us.

Wulfes ic mines widlastum, wenum dogode,
Kmne hit waes re nig weder and ic reotugu saet.

THE RIDDLES AND CYNEWULF. Ivii

In 1883, Trautmann l attempted to overthrow Leo's supposed
proof, and provide a wholly new solution. In the former attempt
he was entirely successful ; in the latter he remains on the same
plane of ingenious, but impossible, conjecture as his predecessor. 2
His answer to the charade is ' The riddle.'

Trautmann will not allow that Riddle 86 has any reference to
Cynewulf, and solves Riddle 89 again as * The riddle,' and not as
1 The wandering minstrel.' 8

ponne mec se beaducafa bSgum bilegde,
waes me wyn to >on, waes me hwae^re eac lift
Wulf, mm Wulf, wena me bine
seoce gedydon, >me seldcymas,
murnende mod, nales metellste.

Ungelice is us.
Gehyrest bu Eadwacer, uncerne earne hwelp ?

BireS wulf to wuda,
(>aet mon ea5e tSslite'S, baette nasfre gesomnad waes)

uncer giedd geador.

1 Anglia, Anz. 6. 158-169.

2 Thus he proceeds. The first two lines mean : ' We riddles like to be guessed/
or, more circuitously expressed : 'It is to us riddles as agreeable (i.e. to be guessed)
as if somebody made us a present ; we will receive him (i.e. the guesser) if he
comes to us' ('es ist meinen Leuten (d.i. uns Ratseln), als ob ihnen jemand Gaben
bringe ; sie wollen ihn aufnehmen wenn er zu ihnen kommt '). Passing on to
No. 2, we may easily see that the guesser is on one island, the riddle on another;
that this island is encompassed with difficulties (fenne) ; that the wolf is accom
panied by other fierce guessers. In No. 3, it is clear that the riddle is saddened
by the wild (wandering) conjectures of Wulf, but that when she is guessed
(embraced) she is at once happy and sad. Why ? Simply for this reason : As a
maiden likes to be won and not to be won, so a riddle likes to be guessed and
yet not to be guessed. But further : Wulf 's bad guesses, his infrequent hitting
of the mark, make the riddle ill. At length, Eureka ! the wolf drags the whelp
to the forest the riddle is guessed. No. 4 enounces : Riddle and solution may
easily be disjoined, since they were never united ; but the answer brings riddle
and guesser together.

8 Cf. 2\%Q Anglia, Anz. 7. 210. Trautmann's views were accepted by Holthaus,
1884 (Anglia 7, Anz. 120 ff.) and Ramhorst, 1885 (Das AltengL Gedicht vom
Heiligen Andreas, pp. 2, 23). They were opposed, so far as his own solution is
concerned, by Nuck, 1888 (Angl. 10. 390-394), and by Hicketier, 1888 (Angl, 10.
564 ff.), the latter of whom argues at length in favor of Leo's identification of
Riddle i, and Dietrich's of 86 and 89. Morley, 1888 (Eng. Writers 2. 217 ff.)
follows Trautmann in rejecting Leo's explanation, but also rejects Trautmann's,
which he attributes, by the way, to Dietrich, though he translates faithfully from
the former. Morley would render Riddle i by ' The Christian preacher ' (P. 225),

Ivili INTRODUCTION.

We now come to Henry Bradley's (1888) view 1 concerning the
First Riddle, so-called. To him * the so-called riddle is not a riddle
at all, but a fragment of a dramatic soliloquy, like Deor and The
Banished Wife's Complaint, to the latter of which it bears, both in
motive and in treatment, a strong resemblance.' He adds: 'The
poem is certainly " enigmatical " enough ; but its obscurity may be
due to the absence of context, and in part also to the monodramatic
form. . . . The speaker, it should be premised, is shown by the
grammar to be a woman. Apparently she is a captive in a foreign
land. Wulf is her lover and an outlaw, and Eadwacer (I suspect,
though it is not certain) is her tyrant husband. Whether the sub
ject of the poem be drawn from history or Teutonic legend, or
whether it be purely the invention of the poet, there seems to be no
evidence to determine.' Bradley then translates :

Is to my people as though one gave them a present.
Will they give him food if he should come to want ?
It is otherwise with us.

Wulf is on an island, I on another.
The island is closely surrounded by fen.
On yonder isle are fierce and cruel men ;
Will they give him food if he should come to want ?
It is otherwise with us !

I waited for my Wulf with far-wondering longings
When it was rainy weather, and I sat tearful.

When the brave warrior encircled me with his arms
It was joy to me, yet was it also pain.

O Wulf, my Wulf ! it was my longings after thee
That made me sick it was thy seldom coming
It was a sorrowful heart, not the want of food !

Dost thou hear, Eadwacer ? The cowardly (?) whelp of us two
Shall Wulf carry off to the wood.

Easily can that be broken asunder which never was united,
The song of us two together.

sees in 86 a series of allusions to the Bible, and recognizes no ground for asso
ciating 89 with Cynewulf , even if it be granted that it means ' The wandering
minstrel.'

1 Academy, No. 829, March 24, 1888, pp. 197-8.

THE RIDDLES AND CYNEWULF. lix

Bradley subjoins : l * Some points in this translation are open to
dispute. The rendering of on frreat cuman as "to come to want " is
suggested by the Icelandic phrase at j>rotum koma in the same sense
[but Cleasby-Vigfusson does not so render it]. . . . Aj>ecgan, which
occurs only in this passage, I take as the causative oiticgan, and as
meaning " to give food to, to entertain." The adjective earne, which
I regard as the accusative of earh, " cowardly " [Holthausen, AngL
15. 188, proposes earmne~\, is commonly explained as "swift," from
earu [but against this would be Gram. 300, though see Anm.]. . . .'

Finally, Sievers (189 1) 2 calls Leo's interpretation impossible, and
approves of its overthrow by Trautmann. That Leo in 1857 could
suppose that the poet would reveal the first two syllables of his name
by means of the adj. cwne, cene, and the nouns cm and cam, is compre
hensible in view of the knowledge of OE., and especially of Early
Northumbrian, then current, but nowadays this ought to be impos
sible. Sievers then adduces these points :

1. Cynewulf must have the first syllable short.

2. C(ienewu/f\s inadmissible ; the first syllable being long, the form
must be Ccenwulf.

3. In Early Northumbrian there could be no possible interchange
of cyne, cizne, cen, and cwcen ; besides, in Early Northumbrian there
is no such loss of w as occasionally takes place in Late Northum
brian. Sievers' date for the Riddles, it should be said, is earlier
than the time of Cynewulf. How, concludes Sievers, could a hearer
of the riddle be expected to guess Cyni, when there were set before
him cceni, cwotn, and cen ? Even the Norse scalds never reached
such a point as this.

The conclusion of the whole matter is accordingly this. Cyne-
wulf's name is not found in the First Riddle, which in all probability
is not a riddle at all. Hence there is no ground for assuming that
either Riddle 86 or Riddle 89 is intended to denote Cynewulf.
There is therefore nothing in any of the Riddles to indicate that
Cynewulf was a wandering minstrel. Finally, the Riddles, on the
best authority, probably antedate Cynewulf.

1 Bradley's explanation is approved by Herzfeld, 1890 (Die Rdtsel des Exetcr-
buchcs, p. 67), who adduces further considerations in its favor, and thinks that
Wulf drags away the child of Eadwacer and the lady as a hostage, while she is
kept in custody by her husband. Bulbring, 1891 (Literaturbl. 1891, No. 5, 157;
discusses Bradley's theory; so Gollancz, Acad. 44. 572. 2 Angl. 13. 19-21.

Ix INTRODUCTION.

THE ANDREAS AND CYNEWULF. Grimm l assumed that the Andreas
might be by Cynewulf, though he seemed rather to incline to Aid-
helm. 2 Kemble 3 says that Cynewulf was probably the author of all the
poems in the Vercelli Book, ' and those likewise which occur in the
other collection ' [the Exeter Book]. Thorpe subscribes to Kemble's
opinion. 4 Ettmiiller says of Andreas : 5 * Eodem fortasse auctore,
nam, quod dictionem attinet, cum priore \_Elene~] be'ne convenit.'
Dietrich 6 weakened the force of the disparities alleged by Grimm,
and adduced correspondences between Andreas and both Juliana
and Christ, the more notable being such as/w/. 242-3 : An. i464 b ~5 ;
JuL 245-6 a : An. 1343-4*; Jul. 629 : An. 1344; Jul. 481 : An. 1328;
Chr. 861: An. 555, 602; Chr. 998-9 a : An. 1556-7;* ; Jul. 233^4 :
An. 57 b -8 ; Jul. 236-7 ; An. 1077, 1079 ; Jul. 590 : An. 1473 ; Jul.
307-311 ; An. 1700 ff. Grein 7 followed Dietrich, without adducing
any reason, and so do Rieger 8 and Sweet, 9 the latter assuming it as
probable that the Andreas originally contained an acrostic, and that
it and the Elene are by the same author, ' from their marked resem
blance of language and style.' Ten Brink 10 likewise assigns the
Andreas to Cynewulf. Hammerich n leaves the question undecided.
Wiilker 12 denies Andreas to Cynewulf, though he gives no reason.
Fritzsche 13 follows Wiilker, his arguments being drawn from the treat
ment of the sources, the verse, the vocabulary, and the absence of
runes ; on the other hand, he conceives Andreas to be by an imitator
of Cynewulf, perhaps a pupil. Miiller 14 follows Fritzsche, while Ten
Brink 15 and Ebert 16 are half inclined to agree, as is also Lefevre. 17

1 Andreas und Elene, pp. L, LI.

2 He adduced such correspondences between Andreas and Elene, not found in
other poems, as on herefelda, wopes hring, brecan ofer bcefriveg, ceht besittan, byrlas
(secgas] gceldon, hreopon friccan ; gehfru, iifrweota, sewte, earhf&r, unslaw. On the
other hand, he recognized the disparity of (An.: El.}: sifrnesa: brimnesen ;
drgeblond: earhgeblond ; ferhfrloca : ferhfrsefa; slfr gesettan ; sift dsittan.

3 Arch. 28. 363 ; Cod. Verc., p. viii. 10 Early Eng. Lit., p. 58.

4 Horn. I. 622. 11 P. 97.

5 Scopas, p. xi, and previously (1847) m his Handbuch I. 132 ff.

6 Kynewulfi Poetae Aetas, 2-5 ; cf. Haupfs Zs. l 3 Angl. 2. 441.

9. 21 o, 213. u Ags. Gram., p. 26.

7 Germ. 10. 365 ; Ags, Gram., p. n. 15 Early Eng. Lit., p. 389.

8 At least by implication ; Zacher^s Zs. i. 319. 16 P. 69.

9 Warton's Hist. Eng. Poet. 2. T 6. ... 17 Angl. 6. 184.
.W.Angl. i. 506; later, in. , his Gesch. der Engl. Lift., p. 45 (so already in 1888,

cf . p. Ivi, note i ), he ascribes it to an imitator, as does Fritzsche.

THE ANDREAS AND CYNEWULF. 1x1

Holtbuer took the same side. 1 Ramhorst 2 came to an opposite con
clusion from Fritzsche. Sievers 8 assumes non-Cynewulfian author
ship, on account of the dat. feeder, An. 1412, and is followed by
Cremer 4 and Mather. 5 Sievers reiterated his opinion in much more
emphatic terms in his later article, 6 regarding the conclusion that
Andreas is not by Cynewulf as one of the few certainties established
by the researches into the questions of authorship in Old English.
Brooke hesitates between the view of Fritzsche and that of Gollancz. 7
Sarrazin 8 sought once more to vindicate the Andreas for Cyne
wulf, on the ground that the runic passage discovered by Napier is
the conclusion of the Fates of the Apostles, and that, in turn, of
the Andreas ; the same opinion is enunciated by Gollancz 9 and Traut-
mann. 10 Arnold is persuaded that the writer of the Andreas was not
Cynewulf. 11 Brandl 12 characterizes the Andreas as * eher die Arbeit
eines begabten Nachahmers in anderer englischer Mundart.' Frau-
lein Buttenwieser is convinced that the Andreas is not by Cynewulf, 13
while Kolbing is as certain of the opposite view."

Finally, it should be mentioned that Dr. Arthur W. Colton, in an
unpublished investigation undertaken while he was a graduate student
at Yale, discovered some striking correspondences between Andreas
and the undoubted poems of Cynewulf. Words and phrases were
listed separately, and these were divided into four main categories,
according as the expression occurred in one, two, three or four poems
besides the Christ, the plan being that formulated in my edition of
the Judith. The ratio of correspondences between the Christ and
the Elene was .085, this ratio being the result of dividing the total
number of correspondences by the number of lines in the poem ; in
\hzjuliana, .084 ; in the Andreas, .075 ; in the Guthlac and Phoenix,
.09 each. Other results were : Hymns, .055 ; Satan, .043 ; Salomon,
.04 ; Daniel, .039 ; Beowulf, .032 ; Genesis, Riddles, .03 each ; Metres,

1 AngL 8. 40. PBB. 10. 483. 6 M. Z. N. 7. 106.

2 Cf. p. Ivii, note 3. 4 P. 49. 6 AngL 13. 25.

7 Early Eng. Lit., pp. 413, 485 ; Eng. Lit. from the Beginning, p. 187.

8 Angl. 12. 383; cf. Beibl. 6. 205 ff. 9 Cynewulfs Christ, p. 173.

10 AngL, Beibl. 6. 21 (recanting 5. 93); Kynewulf, p. 9. Cramer agrees with
Trautmann. i 1 Notes on Beowulf, p. 123.

12 Ten Brink's Gesch. der Engl. Litt., i*. 68. In Herrig's Archiv, 100. 330-334,
Brandl argues that the beginning of the Andreas is imitated from the Fates of the
Apostles, the latter being an independent poem, a traveler's charm or prayer.

13 Studien iiber die Verfasserschaft des Andreas^ u Engl. Stud. 26. 100.

Ixii INTRODUCTION.

.027; Exodus, .025; Psalms, .on. Poems under 500 lines were
included in the inquiry, but their ratios were not calculated. Many
of the more striking correspondences with the Andreas will be found
in my Notes, as, e.g. 404-5, 481, 488, 856, 888 b -889 a , 999, mi,
1196, 1343, 1373, i437~ 8 > !5 6 4, etc.

As for myself, I am strongly inclined to assign the Andreas to
Cynewulf, though I hesitate to express a positive opinion, in the
present state of our knowledge, especially against Fritzsche's
hypothesis of a close imitation. If the view of Sarrazin, Gollancz,
and Trautmann were quite convincing, one need not hesitate ; but of
this I do not feel certain.

THE GUTHLAC AND CYNEWULF. The Guthlac is perhaps the dullest
of Old English poems, or at least of the longer ones, so that it cannot
even sustain a comparison with Juliana. For this reason, one would
be tempted to affirm that Cynewulf could have had nothing to do with
it. Yet Kemble, Thorpe, Dietrich, Grein, Rieger, Sweet, Ten Brink,
Lefevre, D'Ham, and Brooke all assign it to him. 1 Thomas Arnold
can see no reason for assigning it to him. 2 That the second
part, or Guthlac B (791-1353), alone belongs to Cynewulf, is the
opinion of Charitius, 3 Cremer, Mather, Wiilker, Trautmann, Cramer,
and Brandl. According to Dr. Colton, 4 not only is the ratio of corre
spondences of the Guthlac with the Christ .09, surpassing that of
either the Elene or the Juliana, but, while the ratio with Guthlac A
is .078, that with Guthlac B mounts to .113, while if only the first
500 lines of Guthlac A be taken into consideration, it falls to .058.
Sievers merely says that Guthlac A contains two instances oifeondas
(189% 392 a ), while Cynewulf employs frynd for the corresponding
plural (EL 360*). The ascription of at least Guthlac B to Cynewulf
is therefore practically universal, 5 and the best authorities assume
that in this case it must have preceded Juliana. Recently Mr.
Gollancz has prefixed the lines printed at the end of the Christ
in the present edition to the Guthlac, as the beginning of that poem ; 6
but this procedure is likely to meet with scant approval.

The passages of Guthlac B which seem to me to be most nearly

1 References on p. Ix ; Rieger in Zacher's Zs. i. 325; D'Ham, in Der Gegen-
wdrtige Stand der Cynewulf-Frage, 1 883.

2 Notes on Beowulf, p. 123. 4 See p. Ixi.

3 Angl. 2. 265-308. 5 It is denied by Holtbuer (Angl. 8. I ff.).
6 Thf Exeter Book; cf. Cynewulf 's Christ, p. xix; infra, pp. 63-4.

THE PHOENIX AND CYNEWULF. Ixiii

Cynewulfian in thought and tone are lines 791-843% 1067-1077,
I252 b -i3i7, though it must be admitted that these contain phrase
ology which is non-Cynewulfian, if judged by the standard of the
undoubted poems ; that they cannot well be torn from their context ;
and that my designation of them as Cynewulfian signifies scarcely
more than that I consider them the finest passages in this Part. If
either Guthlac B or the whole was written by Cynewulf, a good deal
of it must be prentice-work, touched up when he had attained the
fulness of his power and art. A strong argument against the ascrip
tion to him of Guthlac A (and perhaps of the whole poem) is that
not only is mention made in the poem of persons still living who
remembered the temptations of the hermit, 1 but apparently also of
their occurrence within the lifetime of the poet himself. 2 Now, as
Guthlac died in A.D. 714, Cynewulf, who wrote neither the Juliana
nor the Elene before 750, nor the Christ and the Vercelli fragment
before 8oo, 8 cannot have known him personally, though he may have
been acquainted with men who had known him. Either, then, we
must refrain from pressing the assumption that the words

Hwaet ! we )>issa wundra gewitan sindon ;
call )>as geeodon in lissera
tida timan.

refer to Cynewulf himself, or we must be prepared to accept the con
clusion that he did not write Guthlac A, whether or not, with Ten
Brink, we admit the possibility that both parts may proceed from the
same author.

THE PHOENIX AND CYNEWULF The Phoenix is ascribed to Cyne
wulf by Kemble, Thorpe, Dietrich, Grein, Sweet, Hammerich, Ten
Brink, Gabler, Holtbuer, Brooke, and, though hesitatingly, by Traut-
mann. 4 Those who would deny Cynewulf's authorship are Wiilker,
Sievers, Cremer, Ebert, 5 Mather, Cramer, and Brandl. 6 Dietrich calls

1 124-8.

2 724-7 ; cf. 372-3. On the other hand, in Guthlac B the poet appeals to the
testimony of books (8'5ob ff.). gee p. Ixviii.

4 References in general as on p. Ix; Gabler's views in AngL 3. 488 ff.; Holt
buer s in AngL 8. I ff.; Trautmann's in his Kynewulf (cf . AngL BeibL 5. 93).

5 Gesch. der Litt. des Mittelalters 3. 75. Ebert says of the arguments employed
by Gabler, ' On such grounds all the works of Schiller could be ascribed to Goethe,
and all of Goethe's to Schiller.'

6 Wiilker in the Anglia, Grundriss, Berichte, and Geschichte ; Sievers in PBB.
10. 501 ; Brandl in Ten Brink's Gesch. i*. 63.

INTRODUCTION.

attention 1 to the fact that the real theme of the poem is similar to
that of the Third Part of Christ. He alleges the similarity of words,
phrases, and ideas between the Phoenix and the Christ? and, though
less important, between it and the Elene, as well as the Guthlac and
the Andreas, which Dietrich assigns to Cynewulf. The stylistic
method was employed at much greater length by Gabler, who came
to the same result as Dietrich. The counterproof is based upon
metrical considerations. Trautmann gives a list of correspondences
in phrase between the Phoenix and the other Cynewulfian poems,
reckoning the Andreas among them, sums up the discussion, and
announces his own opinion, 3 for which reason it is unnecessary here
to enter into the matter at length.

The theme of the Phoenix would have been congenial to Cyne
wulf, and his reading may well have included Lactantius. 4 The
verbal parallels and similarities of thought are striking, and the per
centage of correspondences in Dr. Colton's table 5 agrees remarkably
with that of the Juliana and the Elene. In respect to the prominence
of color, flowers, fragrance, and music, of brooks, trees, groves, and
plains, the Phoenix excels the undoubted poems ; but against this
must be set Cynewulf's impressibility, the fact that his vocabulary
and imagery change to some extent with his mood and with the origi
nal upon which he is working. From no three of his undoubted
poems could one, on stylistic grounds, and in the absence of the runic
testimony, have ascertained his fourth. When he is paraphrasing
long, didactic speeches he is another man than when he is telling a
stirring tale, or reproducing the spirit of a poem full of sublime senti
ment and magnificent appeals to the imagination. There is there
fore no a priori ground for assuming that the Phoenix cannot be by
Cynewulf. Much of the sentiment is demonstrably his ; the corre
spondences in phraseology indicate the hand of a master, so inwoven
are they into the tissue of the style ; and a doxology like that of
lines 615-629 would of itself almost persuade the critic to believe in

1 Kynewulfi Poetae Aetas, p. 8.

2 Thus Ph. 420: Chr. 142, 250-253, 367, 587 ; Ph. 50-70, 589, 611-617: Chr.
1634-1664 (esp. Ph. 56, 613: Chr. 1660-1661); Ph. 329, 493: Chr. 1228; Ph.
516: Chr. 1079; p h" 5 2 5 : Chr. 811 ; Ph. 584: Chr. 820; Ph. 604: Chr. 505;
Ph. 628 : Chr. 726.

3 Kynewulf, pp. 1-30, 42.

4 Lactantius was among the authors included in the York Library, according
to Alcuin. 5 See p Ixi.

OTHER POEMS ATTRIBUTED TO CYNEWULF. IxV

Cynewulf s authorship, so similar is it in tone and setting to those of
the Elene 1 and the Christ? It cannot be said that the question is
decided ; but I believe that scholars will end by assigning the Phoe
nix, like the Andreas, to Cynewulf.

OTHER POEMS ATTRIBUTED TO CYWEWULF. Among other poems
which have been ascribed to Cynewulf, perhaps the most important
are the Dream of the Rood? the Harrowing of Hell* and the Physio-
logus (Panther, Whale, Partridge)? In no case has cogent proof in
favor of the affirmative view been offered. The Dream of the Rood is
worthy of Cynewulf, and in certain respects is strikingly suggestive
of the Elene and of parts of the Christ; there are, too, certain corre
spondences of phraseology ; but nothing has yet been alleged which
forces us to conclude that Cynewulf was its author. Under these
circumstances a certain scepticism is almost obligatory upon the
student ; for with every poem assigned to an author upon insufficient
grounds, the possibility of new combinations favorable to the admis
sion of still another poem is increased, until one might end by imput
ing practically the whole of Old English poetry to a single author
a danger by no means imaginary, as the history of Old English
scholarship is sufficient to prove. 6

1 744-7 54. 2385-415.

8 Kemble, Thorpe, Dietrich (De Cruce Ruthwellensi}, Grein (GrammatiK),
Rieger, Sweet, Ten Brink (esp. in Haupfs Zs. 24. 61-70), Zupitza, Miiller ; opposed
by Wiilker, Ebert (Sitzungsbcrichte der K. Sticks. Ges. der Wissenschaften, Phil.-
Hist. Klasse, 1884, pp. 81-93), Sievers (Angl. 13. 21), Holtbuer, Trautmann
(Kynewulf, p. 40), Brand!.

4 Kemble, Thorpe, Dietrich (Haupfs Zs. 9. 213), Grein, Ten Brink, Lefevre,
Kirkland ; opposed by Wiilker, Holtbuer, Cramer, Trautmann, Brooke, Brandl.

6 Kemble, Thorpe, Dietrich (Kyncwulfi Poetae Aetas), Trautmann.

6 Cf. p. Ixiii, note 5.

INTRODUCTION.

III. FACT AND OPINION CONCERNING CYNEWULF.

CYNEWULF AND THE EPILOGUE TO THE ELENE. Certain lines l at the
close of the tene are so important with reference to the biography
of Cynewulf that a new translation is here presented :

' Thus I, old and ready to depart by reason of the treacherous (or,
dying 2 ) house 3 (or, tabernacle), have woven wordcraft and won-
drously gathered, have now and again pondered and sifted my
thought in the prison of the night. I knew not at all the truth con
cerning it (or, concerning the cross 4 ) before wisdom, through its
(///. the) noble power, inspired (lit. revealed) a larger view into the
cogitation of my heart. I was guilty of misdeeds, fettered by sins,
tormented with anxieties, bound with bitternesses (or, bitter ones),
beset with tribulations, before he bestowed inspiration through the
bright order 5 (i.e. the clerical office, or, those in holy orders) as a
help to the aged man. The mighty King granted [me his] pure (lit.
blameless) grace and poured it into my mind, revealed it [as] glori
ous, and in the course of time dilated it ; he set my body free, un
locked my heart (///. the enclosure of the breast), and released (or,
revealed) the power of song, which I have since joyfully made use
of in the world. Not once alone, but many times, I reflected on the
tree of glory, before I had the miracle disclosed concerning the
glorious tree, as in the course of events I found related in books,
in writings, concerning the sign of victory. Until that the man 6 had
always been buffeted by billows of sorrow, [was] an expiring TORCH, 7
though in the mead-hall he had received treasures, appled gold. 8

1 1238-1277. 2 Reading/^?; cf. El, 88 1.

3 I.e. his body ; cf. Chr. 14, 820, 1480.

4 Supplying rode, with Grein ; cf. 601.

5 Cf . J>urh hdligne had, Gu. 65 ; see p. Ixxxii, note I.

6 MS. 'strife.'

7 These words represent the runes.

8 Cf. Jul. 683 ff. :

Ne J?orftan >a >egnas . . .
. . . wenan j?aet hy in winsele
ofer beorsetle beagas J>egon,
aepplede gold.
Cf. Ph. 506.

CYNEWULF AND THE EPILOGUE TO THE ELENE. Ixvii

Y (?) lamented ; the companion in MISERY (or, FORCED companion)
suffered affliction, an oppressive secret, where (or, though 1 ) before
him the STEEP measured the mile-paths and proudly ran, decked
with wires (i.e. metal ornaments). JOY has waned, pleasure has
decreased with the years ; youth has fled, the former pride, u (?)
was of old the splendor of youth ; now, after the allotted time, are
the days of [his] years departed, the joys of [his] life have vanished,
as WATER glides away, the hurrying floods. Every one's WEALTH is
transitory under the sky ; the ornaments of the field pass away under
the clouds like the wind when it rises loud before men, roams among
the clouds, rushes along in rage, and again on a sudden grows still,
close locked within its prison, held down by force.'

In order that the essential points shall be more evident, the pas
sage may be thus condensed :

* I, now old and failing, have practised the art of authorship,
reflecting on my themes in the watches of the night. While I was
still an unregenerate sinner I had no real conception of the signifi
cance of the cross and its story. Then God's ministers instructed
me (or, perhaps, I took orders) when I was no longer young, and
God himself has inspired me by the gift of his grace. Only since
that time have I been able to compose poetry, and this I have done
with joy. I had already meditated much upon the cross before I
was enabled to discover {or, reveal) the miracle concerning it which
I found recorded in books. Until then (i.e. the time of his conver
sion) Cynewulf was unhappy, though he received gifts in hall, and
though his horse, in trappings of gold, raced proudly along the high
ways. For him the joys of youth are now fled ; and even thus the
riches and the beauty of the world, nay, the world itself, vanishes
away.'

Still more briefly, Cynewulf's autobiography, as contained in the
Elene, may be thus formulated :

1. When I was young I received gifts in hall, and was present
when my horse careered across the plain in gorgeous trappings (or,
perhaps, when horses were raced) ; yet I was not happy, for I was
still a sinner.

2. In later years I was converted, and life acquired a new mean
ing. I began to reflect, practised the poetic art, thought deeply and

1 Emending JxJr to J>eah ; cf . 1 2 59.

Ixviii INTRODUCTION.

read widely about the cross of Christ, and finally have been enabled
to write this account of its Invention by St. Helena.

3. The joys of sense, the pride of life, have departed with my
youth. I am now an old man ; yet I realize that I am not only ran
somed from the power of sin, but have received special grace from
on high, and by divine assistance have brought to a close this poem
on a subject very near to my heart.

THE DATE OF CYNEWULF. The name which our poet bore is found
in three forms Cyniwulf, Cynewulf, Cynwulf (Cynulf}. Of these,
the oldest is Cyniwulf, and the latest Cynwulf, Cynewulf being
intermediate in date between the two. 1

The loss of the vowel, as in Cynwulf, takes place only before /, r,
w, and h (at a late period also before s), sounds which are especially
favorable to such elision. In the South and the Midland, and pre
sumably also in the North, the change of i to e, and hence of Cyni-
to Cyne-, took place about 750, and at all events not earlier than
74o. 2 The i continues to persist sporadically, but it is clear that
such use is archaic, since by 750 the use of e is perfectly well estab
lished. Cyn- is at least fifty years later, apparently, and except
in one word, Cynric, is not found in Saxon territory. With a single
exception, Cynuise (Bede, Ecd. Hist. 3. 24), Cyn- appears to belong
to the ninth century. It occurs in the Liber Vitae, which Sweet
says is 'of the beginning of the ninth century, or end of the preceding
one'; 3 in the Northumbrian Genealogies, 'written between the years
8n and 814 '; 4 and in the charters dated 799-802. 5 The e continues
traditionally, like the /', side by side with the syncopated form.

The application of what precedes to the dating of the Cynewulfian
poems will at once be evident. The Juliana and the Elene have
Cynewulf ; the Christ without question, and the Fates of the Apostles
almost certainly, have Cynwulf ' ; and there is no Cyniwulf. Hence
ihefutiana and the Elene were not written down before 7 so, 6 nor the

1 These statements all repose upon the demonstration by Sievers, Angl. 13.
11-15 (written in 1890, pub. 1891).

2 Sievers notes an exception, p. 11, in the case of a single charter, but evidently
does not consider this as invalidating the general principle.

3 OET., p. 153. 4 OET., p. 167. 5 OET., pp. 430 ff.

6 Sievers, p. 15 : 'Also vor 750 konnen Juliane und Elene auch aus sprach-
lichen Grunden nicht wol fallen.' He adds (p. 19) that the Riddles belong to the
period of the *', and still earlier.

THE DATE OF CYNEWULF.

Christ and the Fates of the Apostles (or, at all events, the Vercelli
runic fragment) before 800. This is quite in accord with the results
of my own study. In a paper published in 1892, entitled The Date
of the Old English Elene^ I showed that vv. 1277-1321 of that poem
correspond to a portion of Bk. 3, chap. 21 of Alcuin's treatise on the
Trinity, which was dedicated to Charlemagne as Emperor, and, there
fore, after the year 800, probably in 802, or between this date and
804, the year of Alcuin's death. There is no need to repeat the
arguments employed in my article. The thought of Alcuin is not
dissimilar to that of Caesarius of Aries, in a sermon printed among
Augustine's works, 2 but, on the whole, the resemblances between the
passage of the Elene and that in Alcuin are much closer. One indi
cation that Cynewulf is drawing from Alcuin, and not from Caesarius,
is the fact that the latter, in speaking of purgatorial torment, allows
that it may be inflicted in this life ; 3 Alcuin, on the other hand, knows
nothing of the alternative. 4

If it be admitted that the resemblances between the two passages
point to a relation of dependence between Cynewulf and Alcuin, it
can hardly be doubted which is to be regarded as dependent, the
famous Alcuin, in the judgment of all enlightened persons in Europe
undoubtedly the first man at Charlemagne's court, or the clerical
poet, of whom no record outside his own poems remains. Alcuin
was a theologian of repute ; Cynewulf, though conversant with doc
trine, would hardly have ventured, if we may judge from his pro
cedure throughout the Christ, to speak so confidently on a tenet of
vital importance, without being supported by an authority whom all
his associates would regard as a champion, or at least a prominent
representative, of orthodox belief. Alcuin had vigorously combated
the Adoptian heresy and the worship of images. Moreover, with the
possible exception of the Pope and Charlemagne himself, no man on

1 AngL 15. 9-20. 2 Migne 39. 1946-9.

8 ' Sed prius aut in hoc saeculo . . . amarissimis tribulationibus sunt excoquendi
. . . aut certo illo igne . . . longo tempore cruciandi.'

4 ' Sunt ergo quidam justi minutis quibusdam peccatis obnoxii, . . . quae illius,
ignis ardore purgantur. . . . Illoque transitorio igne et toto extremi diei judicio
complete, dividentur,' etc. Cf. El. 1312-4:

Swa bi5 fara manna selc
ascyred ond asceaden scylda gehwylcre,
deopra firena, Jmrh J>aes domes fyr.

IXX INTRODUCTION.

the Continent had so much influence in England as he. What more
natural, then, than that his views on a subject like the Last Judg
ment should be promulgated and eagerly accepted in the region
where he was educated, where he had won his first distinction as a
teacher and scholar, and where his friends and correspondents were
the highest in the land ?

But if Cynewulf obtained his conception of the fire of the Judg
ment Day from Alcuin, then the Elene must have been written
subsequent to 802. From this conclusion we can only escape by
assuming that Alcuin's views were divulged to friends before the
De Fide Trinitatis was published ; but even on this supposition
the date could hardly be set back more than a very few years. The
Elene, then, it would appear, was written at least as late as 800, and
probably later. This is not inconsistent with the retention of the e
in Cynewulf, for, as we have seen, the later form never quite sup
planted the earlier. If, however, our poet continues to write Cynewulf
subsequently to 800, and in two poems writes Cynwulf, the latter
poems must probably, in accordance with the facts adduced above,
be assigned to a still later date. It would be hard to disprove an
assumption that they were produced as late as 820 or 825, though,
as we have seen, it is not impossible that they may have been written
in the first decade of the ninth century. The order of the poems
may have been : Juliana, Elene, Fates of the Apostles (?), Christ, though
all that can well be affirmed with confidence is that the first three
preceded the last one. Since the poet speaks of himself as old in
the Elene^ the interval between this and the Christ can hardly have
been very long. As to Cynewulf's date, 2 we may assume that he
was born about the year 750, or perhaps somewhat earlier, and died
not very far from 825, though these dates are mere inferences from
those respecting the composition of his poems. 8

1 EL 1237. 2 See the table of Significant Dates, p. xcix.

3 The views of others may be briefly presented. Kemble thought that Cynewulf
flourished at the beginning of the eleventh century (Arch. 28. 362). He was fol
lowed by Thorpe (^Elfric's Homilies, 1.622), Ettmiiller (Scopas und Boceras, p. x),
and Earle (Anglo-Saxon Lit., p. 228); in 1865 (Two of the Sax. Chron., p. xxi),
he had assigned Cynewulf to the tenth century. Grimm believed him to have
been a contemporary, and perhaps a pupil, of Aldhelm, who died in 709 (Andreas
und Elene, pp. LI-LII. 169). Dietrich rejected Thorpe's view, and assigned the
poet to the latter part of the eighth century (EberCs Jahrb. i. 242 ff., 246; Kynewulfi
Poetae A etas, p. 16 ; cf. Haupfs Zs. 9. 212), identifying him with the bishop who

THE HOME OF CYNEWULF. Ixxi

THE HOME OF CYNEWULF. Upon this point we are restricted to
inference. Grimm seems to intimate 1 that he considers Cynewulf to
have been a West Saxon. He was at first followed by Dietrich, and
the same opinion was also held by Th. Miiller. Leo was the first to
assume that he was a Northumbrian, 2 though on grounds that were
largely untenable. Not till 1865 did Dietrich change his opinion,
and concede that Cynewulf was a Northumbrian. 3 Rieger assented
to this, 4 as did Grein and Ten Brink. 5 Wiilker, who at first regarded
Cynewulf as a West Saxon, 6 in 1895 endeavored to prove that he was
a Mercian. 7 Sievers, in his articles on rime 8 and metre, 9 brought
forward new arguments to show that the poet was a Northumbrian. 10
Ramhorst 11 and Leiding 12 were of the same opinion. Trautmann
says: 13 * Ich stehe nicht an, den Satz, "Cynewulf war ein Nordhum-
bre," fur einen der best bewiesenen zu halten die es gibt.' This
seems to him so certain that he deems it unnecessary to attempt a
refutation of Wiilker's opinion.

There seems to be no reason to doubt that Cynewulf was an
Anglian, 14 whether or not a Northumbrian in the narrower sense.
We know too little about the Mercian dialect, as distinguished from
Northumbrian proper, to make any very positive affirmations respect
ing the possibility of assigning a given poem of Cynewulf's to the
one region rather than the other. 15

died in 782 or 783 (De Crucc Ruth-w., pp. u ff., 14). Dietrich is followed by
Grein (Ags. Gram., p. n). Ten Brink thinks of the period 720-730 to not later
than 800 (Early Eng. Lit., p. 51); in substantial agreement are Wiilker (Angl.
I. 483 ff.), Heinzel (Ueber den Stil der Altgerm. Poesie, p. 43), Miiller (Ags. Gram.,
p. 26), Ebert (Lit. des Mittelalters, 3. 40), Gollancz (Cynewulf ' s Christ, p. xxii),
and Brooke (f/ist. Early Eng. Lit., p. 375 ; Eng. Lit. from the Beginning, p. 165).
Trautmann (Kyneiviilf, pp. 93 ff.) has recently revived and championed Dietrich's
identification of the poet with the bishop who died in 783.

1 See p. Ix, note I. 5 The proofs in Haupt's Zs. 23. 68 ff.

a Op. cit., p. 21. 6 Angl. i. 507.

8 De Cruce Ruthw., pp. 13, 14. 7 Angl. 17. 106-9.

4 Zacher's Zs. i. 219. 8 PBB. 9. 235, note.

9 PBB. 10. 209 ff., and esp. 464-475.

10 Cf. also Angl. 13. 10 ff.

11 Das Altengl. Gedicht vom Heiligen Andreas, pp. 26, 27.

12 Die Sprache der Cyneivulfischen Dichtungen, 1888, p. 77.
18 Kynewulf, p. 91.

14 For indications of Anglian dialect in the Christ, see pp. xlvi-li.

15 See the conjecture on p. Ixxiv.

Ixxii INTRODUCTION.

CYNEWULF' s IDENTITY. Attempts have been made to identify the
poet with (i) Cenwulf, or Kenulph, abbot of Peterborough and
bishop of Winchester (d. 1006), to whom ^Elfric dedicated his life of
St. ^Ethelwold ; l (2) with Cynewulf, bishop of Lindisfarne from
737-8 to 779-780, who died 781-3. Kemble was the first to sug
gest Cenwulf, 2 and was followed by Thorpe, Ettmiiller, and Earle. 3
Dietrich proposed the bishop of Lindisfarne, 4 and was followed by
Grein ; this theory has been revived by Trautmann.

The former conjecture is impossible, because the poet unmistak
ably spells his name Cynewulf or Cynwulf, while the bishop's name
is as certainly Cenwulf (Kenulf).

The latter conjecture is inadmissible for two reasons. First, what
we know of the bishop is not consistent with what we infer concern
ing the poet. The former lived as bishop in continual trouble. He
was confined for a time in Bamborough by order of King Eadbert, 5
because he had allowed a relative of the king, named Offa, who had
taken refuge from his enemies at the shrine of St. Cuthbert, to remain
without food until he nearly perished with hunger, and then to be
taken from the Sanctuary and put to death. After a time he was
restored to his office, but not before the king had ordered that Lin
disfarne should be besieged. In 779 or 780 he retired, worn out
with age and labors, and spent the last three years of his life in
retirement and prayer. 6 Nothing is said of his being a monk, which
the poet probably was ; 7 nothing of any love for literature; while it
is evident that his life from 738 to 790 was quite unfavorable either
to study or to the composition of poetry, and that it was too late to
begin, when more than seventy years of age, 8 the pursuits from which
he had been debarred by anxiety and toil. This is the first reason,
and it is perhaps sufficient, though Wiilker 9 adduces still others. 10

1 White, sElfric, p. 65.

2 Arch. 28. 362.

8 See the references above, p. Ixx, note 3.
* De Cruce Ruthw., p. 14.

5 In 750, according to Simeon of Durham.

6 Simeon of Durham, Hist. Dun. 2. 2, 4.

7 See p. xcv.

8 Bishops must at least be thirty years old, the canonical age for a priest.

9 Angl. i. 496-8.

10 He assumes, for example, from the lines in Elene, that Cynewulf must have
been at least fifty years old before he renounced the secular life. He would

CYNEWULF'S IDENTITY. Ixxiii

But the second principal reason is quite as conclusive. The poet
had not ceased his writing by 783, and perhaps had not even
begun it. 1

It is evident that the two attempts to identify the poet with
ecclesiastics of the same name have been failures. There is one
possibility, however, which has been overlooked, but which I arn
tempted to bring forward as a hypothesis which has some considera
tions in its favor. Before doing this, however, it will be desirable to
summarize Wiilker's reasons for believing Cynewulf to have been a
Mercian. 2 They are these :

1. Literature is not brought forth amid continual tumult and strife,
but under the reign of peace. Now Northumbria was anarchic in
this period, and the devastations of the Danes had begun ; the
better condition of Mercia is indicated by the fact that while North
umbria had fifteen rulers from 685-809, Mercia had but seven from
675 to 819.

2. If Cynewulf was a Mercian, we can more readily understand
why his poems have reached us in a West Saxon transcription.
Wessex had no direct relation with Northumbria, while, on the other
hand, Egbert conquered Mercia (825), and may thus have brought
the poems into Wessex.

3. The poem of Guthlac was no doubt written by Cynewulf ; and
Guthlac was a Mercian. A Northumbrian would have preferred to
write about an Aidan, a Cuthbert, or an Oswald.

4. If Cynewulf was a Northumbrian, it is strange that Alcuin
nowhere mentions him.

So far Wiilker. It may be added that the Mercian reigns particu
larly in question are those of Offa, 758-796 ; Ecgfrith, 796-7 ; and
Ccenwulf, 797-820.

There was a certain Cynulf at the synod of Clovesho in 803. This

hardly have been made bishop in less than five years from that time. He would
accordingly have been ninety years old at his death. Again, the Elene is inter
preted as meaning that he left the world to devote himself to quiet contemplation,
which the bishop of Lindisfarne certainly did not do.

1 See the arguments on pp. Ixviii ff. No one now believes, with Grimm (see
p. Ixx, note 3), that Cynewulf was a contemporary of Aldhelm, nor with Earle in
1865 (tt>.), that Cynewulf was the father of Cyneweard, the bishop of Wells who
died or was exiled in 97 5, as recorded in the poem on the death of Edgar in the
OE. Chronicle.

2 Angl. 17. 106-9 5 see P- l xx i-

Ixxiv INTRODUCTION.

is attested by his signature to a decree executed at Clovesho on
October 12 of that year. The synod was a notable one, in that the
primacy of the see of Canterbury, which had for several years been
contested in favor of the newly created archiepiscopate of Lichfield,
was here solemnly recognized, according to the tenor of a letter
received from Pope Leo III, and the archbishopric of Lichfield was
abolished. This involved the full reinstatement in his rights of
^Ethelheard, archbishop of Canterbury from 793 to 805. The same
day, by a synodal act, ^Ethelheard and the clergy, assembled in
obedience to the papal orders, forbade the election of laymen to the
lordship of monasteries, and it is this decree 1 that was signed by
Cynulf, in common with all the other members of the synod. Cyn-
ulf is one of the subscribers following Tidfrith, bishop of Dunwich,
and was no doubt a priest of that diocese. 2 The whole episode
which engrossed the attention of the synod is said by an eminent
authority to be * perhaps the most important piece of English church
history between the death of Bede and the age of Dunstan.' 3

Now it would seem to be possible that this Cynulf might be the
poet. Briefly stated, the arguments are these :

1. The date agrees with what we should expect. 4

2. The form of the name is such as the poet was using at this
time (-u/ffor -wu/fmay be disregarded). 6

3. Cynewulf was almost certainly an ecclesiastic ; if not a monk,
then a priest, or perhaps both.

4. Dunwich was the seat of a school established by its first bishop,
Felix, from which school, in later times, the University of Cambridge
was asserted to have sprung; so that the traditions of learning may
well have persisted there.

5. Through ^thelheard, the archbishop of Canterbury, and Tid
frith, his own bishop (798 ?-823 ?), Cynewulf could have kept in
touch with Alcuin, from whom he derived his notions concerning
the fire of Doomsday. 6 ^Ethelheard was in favor at once with Offa
and with Charlemagne, and Alcuin constantly corresponded with

1 In Xemble, Cod. Dipl. 5. 64 (No. 1024); OET., p. 441; Birch, Cart. Sax.,
No. 323 ; Palaeogr. Soc., No. 23. 4 See pp. Ixviii ff.

2 The subscriptions are as follows: 'Ego tidfrift, dammucae (Kemble, 'dum-
mucae') ciuitatis episc' sig' crucis subscripsi ' ; then two abbots, and then, as
one of four priests, ' cynulf pr.' 6 See p. Ixviii.

3 Stubbs, in Diet. Chr. Biog., s.v. Ethdhard (j). 6 See p. Ixix.

CYNEWULF'S IDENTITY. Ixxv

him. 1 About the time of the Council of Clovesho, Tidfrith received
a letter of advice from Alcuin, who had heard of his exemplary life
from an East Anglian abbot named Lull, one of the two abbots that
subscribed the charter of 803, as related above. 2 Possibly Tidfrith,
^Ethelheard, or, more likely, Alcuin, may have been the 'eminent
man ' whom Cynewulf apostrophizes at the beginning of Part II.
Cf. pp. Ixix, Ixx.

6. At Dunwich, Cynewulf would have had ample opportunity to
become acquainted with the sea.

A few facts about Dunwich may here be of interest. About 631,
Felix, who had been born and ordained in Burgundy, came to Hono-
rius, archbishop of Canterbury, and desired to preach to the Angles.
He succeeded in his mission, was made bishop of Dunwich, and
held his see for seventeen years, until his death. 3 Soon after
his accession, he 'assisted King Sigebert in founding a school.
Bede's account is : 4 * Patriam reversus, ubi regno potitus est, mox
ea quae in Galliis bene disposita vidit imitari cupiens, instituit sco-
lam in qua pueri litteris erudirentur, juvante se episcopo Felice, quern
de Cantia acceperat, eisque pedagogos ac magistros juxta morem
Cantuariorum praebente.' A couple of years after this, the Irish
monk Fursey came to the King, and built a monastery at Burgh
Castle, near Yarmouth ; it was here that he had the visions of the
other world, which have been called anticipations of the sterner parts
of the Divina Commedia," and which might have been in Cynewulf's
mind when he wrote the Third Part of the Christ. Of Dunwich the
antiquary Spelman heard that it was reported at one time to have
had fifty churches, but its ancient site is now swallowed up by the
ocean. In the time of Felix, it was the chief seaport on the East
Anglian coast, and the most central place for communications
inland. 6 Finally, it is of interest to remember that East Anglia fell
under the rule of Offa in 794, 7 that Egbert came to the throne of
Wessex in 802, and that Mercia and East Anglia virtually passed
under his sway at the battle of Ellandune in 825.

Objections may no doubt be brought against this theory, but to
me there seems nothing intrinsically improbable in it. If it be urged

1 Diet, Nat. Biog. 18. 24. 5 Bright, Early Eng. Ch. Hist., p. 126.

2 Diet. Nat. Biog. 56. 384 ; Man. Alcuin, ed. Diimmler, p. 739.
8 Bede, Ecd. Hist. 2. 15. 6 Diet. Nat. Biog. 18. 291.

4 3. 18. 7 Green, Making of England, p. 416.

Ixxvi INTRODUCTION.

that we know nothing about the dialect of East Anglia, one might
reply that at all events it was Anglian ; if that the Dunwich school
may by this time have become extinct, it is yet possible, nay, very
likely, that Cynewulf may have attended the still more famous one
of York, and by no means certain that he was not a Northumbrian
or Mercian by birth. If the influence of Offa was sufficient to raise
the Mercian yEthelheard to the see of Canterbury, 1 it was sufficient
to induct a priest from another province into his East Anglian office.
It is thus possible that the court which Cynewulf knew was the court
of Offa, and that it was there that he received the * appled gold '
mentioned in the Elene?

THE THEOLOGY OF CYNEWULF. In general, Cynewulf is an orthodox
believer, after the standard of the Western Church in his time, and,
except for his doctrine of Purgatory, is no doubt in substantial
agreement with Gregory the Great, the father of Roman Christianity
in England. 3

Not only does he frequently extol the Trinity, 4 but he specifies the
three Persons, 5 even explicitly identifying the Father with the Son, 6
and with the Spirit. 7 The Father is thought of especially as the
Creator, 8 though this function is sometimes attributed to the Son, 9
and sometimes exercised by him in conjunction with the Father. 10
Christ, though God's Son, 11 and conceived by the Holy Ghost, 12 is
God of God, 13 without beginning, 14 co-eternal and co-abiding with the
Father, 15 and eternally generated by him. 16 He is called Emmanuel, 17
and designated a priest after the order of Melchisedec. 18 Of his
life on earth, we have mention of his birth, 19 his miracles, 20 his trial and

1 Diet. Nat. Biog. 18. 23. 2 See p. Ixvi.

3 Only the more important points are touched on in this sketch. In general,

no attempt is made to give exhaustive references, though they may be complete
in particular cases.

*Jul. 726; El. 177; Chr. 379, 599.

5 Chr. 357, 773- 13 Chr. 109.

6 El. 1084-6 ; Chr. 470 ff., 727-8. 14 Chr. in.

ijul. 724; El. 1 1 06. 15 Chr. 122, 236 ff., 350 ff., 465.

8 Jul. in ff . : Chr. 224 ff., 472; and often in kennings.

9 El. 726 ff. ; Chr. 14 ff. 16 Chr. 216 ff.

10 Chr. 239-240. t 17 Chr. 132.

11 EL 179, 770, 813 ; Chr. 205. 18 Chr. 137 ff.

12 Chr. 207-8. 20 El. 298 ff., 779.

19 El. 392, 776 ; Chr. 65, vs\& passim in Part I ; 724 ff., 786 ff., 1418 ff.

THE THEOLOGY OF CYNEWULF. Ixxvii

crucifixion, 1 harrowing of hell, 2 resurrection, 3 and ascension. 4 He
sitteth at the right hand of the Father, 5 throned among the angels,*
and thence shall come in glory to judge the world. 7 He is eternally
forgiving men, 8 visits their souls in response to prayer, 9 grants them
abundant and manifold gifts, 10 and even exhibits his kindness to
the impenitent wicked whom he is about to condemn. 11 The Holy
Ghost, frequently designated as the Comforter, 12 proceeds, according to
the Western doctrine, from both the Father and the Son ; 13 his agency
is manifested in various ways, 14 but especially as the Giver of Grace. 15
Angels are represented as communicating with men, 16 but chiefly
as in attendance upon Christ. 17 The rebellion and overthrow of
Satan and his attendant angels are recorded; 18 he and his are ever
the instigators of evil, 19 and hurl their darts, 20 sometimes represented
as poisoned, 21 at the believer.

Mary, the mother of Christ, is regarded as ever virgin. 22
The redemption of the world was effected by the death of Christ, 23
and on this account the Cross is extolled. 24 The sinner may obtain

*Jul. 289 ff., 304, 447; El. 180, 205 ff., 424, 480, 671, 774, 855; Chr. 727, 1428 ff.

2 Chr. 30 ff., 145 ff., 558 ff., 730 ff., 1150 ff.

El. 185 ff, 486, 780 ff.

4 EL 1 88; Chr., Part II, passim.

6 Chr. 531-2.

6 El. 732 ff.

7 El. 726; Chr. 782 ff., and Part III, passim.

8 Chr. 426 ff.

9 Chr. Part I, passim.

10 Chr. 600 ff., 659 ff., 776 ff. ; 860 ff.

11 Chr. I379ff.; cf. Chr. 1116-7, 1200-1203, 1 208-121 2.
12 //. 724; El. 1037, 1106; Chr. 207, 728.

13 Chr. 357-8.

14 //. 241; El. 1037-9, 1058, 1144 ff., 1157; Chr. 207-8.
15 El. 199; Chr. 649, 710.

16 Jul. 563; El. 72 ff.; Chr. 315 ff., 506 ff., 558 ff.

17 EL 733 ff.; Chr. 385 ff, 440 ff, 492 ff, 548 ff, 941 ff, 1008 ff, 1649, etc.; the
Cherubim and Seraphim are mentioned, EL 750, 755, the Seraphim Chr. 386.
l */ut. 420 ff.; EL 761 ff, 942 ff.

19 Jul. 242 ff, 396 ff.; EL 940 ff.; Chr. 256 ff, 363 ff.
Jul. 382 ff, 404 ff.; Chr. 761 ff.

21 //. 471; Chr. 768.

22 EL 340; Chr. 37 ff, 77 ff, 207, 211, 298, 300, 333, 419, 1420.
28 EL 181; Chr. 616 ff, 1093 ff - '449 ff.

24 El., passim ; Chr. 1084 ff.

IxXViii INTRODUCTION.

pardon if he repents and turns from his evil ways ; 1 confession is to
be practised, 2 and the believer to be baptized. 3 Every one is to be
judged according to the deeds done in the body ; 4 according to these
he is assigned to hell, 5 a brief purgatorial fire 6 (especially clear in
the jE/ene), or heaven; 7 but the purgatorial fire ceases on the Day
of Judgment, and thereafter there is only the twofold division into
sinners and the righteous. 8

Cynewulf deplores the blindness of error, 9 believes in the inter
cession of saints, 10 and desires the prayers of his readers. 11

CYNEWULF AS MAN AND AS POET. Cynewulf, the one Old English
poet who has left us at once his name and a body of poetic work
distinctly recognizable as his own, was born not far from the year
750. 12 Bede had then been dead several years, Boniface was termi
nating his apostolate in Germany, and Egbert of York was in the midst
of his flourishing and beneficent archiepiscopate. Alcuin, who was
to exert so important an influence upon education in Western Europe,
who was to inaugurate, under the patronage of Charlemagne, the first
Renaissance of ancient letters, and who was to leave his impress on
Cynewulf s writings, was a youth of fifteen years or thereabouts.
Pepin had just ascended the Prankish throne, and Charlemagne was a
mere lad of eight. Egbert, who was to bring England under a single
sceptre, was not for many years to be born, but Offa, whose name
has become so celebrated in history and legend, must have been
nearly, if not quite, a man grown.

For more than a century the great rival powers in England had
been Northumbria and Mercia. Northumbria began a long contest
for supremacy in the closing years of the seventh century. Pen da,

1 El. 513-6.

2 Chr. 1301 ff.

3 EL 172, 192, 490, 1034-6, 1044; Chr. 484.

4 Jul. 702, 707, 728; El. 527, 623, 825, 1301; Ap. 81; Chr. 128, 434, 473, 783,
803, 827 ff., 846, 891, 1219, 1240, 1361, 1367, 1575-7, 1589, 1629.

5 Chr. 1269-1271, 1531 ff., 1593 ff.

6 El. 1295-8 ; 1396 ff. ; (?) Chr. 956-9, 999-1006; (Ph. 520-526 ff.).

7 El. 825, 1315 ff. ; Chr. 434 ff., 1639 ff.

8 Cf . my article in Angl. 1 5. 9 ff.

9 Jul. 13, 61, 138, 301, 368, 460; El. 306 ff., 311, 371, 1041, 1119; Ap.itf>\ Chr.
344, 1126-7, "87.

10 Jul. 695 ff., 716 ff. ; Ap. 90 ff.; Chr. 335 ff.

"/*' 7i8 ff. ; Ap. 88. 12 See p. Ixx.

CYNEWULF AS MAN AND AS POET. Ixxlx

the powerful king of Mercia, who for years had fought valiantly
in the waning cause of heathenism, was slain in 655, and the
people of this middle province at last turned to Christianity. From
670, on the death of that Oswy who had been victorious over Penda,
the glory of the Northumbrian kingdom began to decline. Mercia,
which almost immediately had begun to recover, under Wulfhere
(659-675), from the blow inflicted by Oswy, continued to be a for
midable rival of Northumbria. The genuineness of its conversion
was attested by the foundation of the abbeys of Ely, Peterborough,
and Crowland, and the arts of peace came in the train of the new
religion. But it was Northumbria which, while beginning to decline
as a military state, distinguished itself by application to learning and
culture.

From the death of King Egfrith, in 685, to that of Alcuin in
804, York was the national centre of education. Among its arch
bishops were two such men as Egbert (732-766) and ^Ethelbert
(766780). Egbert was not only a patron of learning, but himself a
writer of authoritative books, some of which are still extant. He had
splendid tastes. * He acquired many sacred vessels for his churches,
made of silver and ornamented with jewels and gold, together with
figured curtains of silk, apparently of foreign manufacture. He was
also-a reformer of church music, and seems to have introduced the
observance of the hours.' But his 'chief claim to the gratitude of
posterity was his establishment of the school or university of York,
and his commencement of the library in connection with it. ...
Scholars flocked to York from all parts of Europe, and among the
pupils was the illustrious Alcuin, who speaks affectionately of the
piety and goodness of Egbert, telling us what an excellent instructor
he was, how just and yet how gentle. . . . The children of the
school of York taught the schools or universities of Italy, Germany,
and France.' l ^Ethelbert, or Albert, his successor, really had the
principal direct share, while Egbert still lived, in the formation of
the library, and the conduct of the school. * He sought for MSS.
everywhere. More than once did he go abroad, with Alcuin as his
companion, not only to gain hints for his educational work, but to
acquire books for his collection at home. Alcuin speaks of Albert's
visit to Rome and of his honorable reception by kings and great

1 Diet. Chr. Biog. s.v.

1XXX INTRODUCTION.

men, who tempted him in vain to take up his abode with them. The
same writer in a well-known passage l enumerates many of the works
which the library contained. He mentions forty-one authors, a few
out of many, whose works were in the collection at York. Among these
are some of the fathers, Christian poets, and grammarians. The clas
sical writers are only Cicero, Pompeius, Pliny, Virgil, Statius, Lucan,
and Boetius, in Latin, and Aristotle in Greek. Alcuin speaks of
treatises in Greek and Hebrew without telling us what they are. In
the western world there was probably no library out of Rome itself
so large and important as this.' 2 As archbishop he rebuilt York
minster, which had been wholly or partially destroyed by fire in 741,
and set up in its chapel an altar decorated with silver, jewels, and
gold, and over it a tall crucifix, also made of precious metals. 3
Unfortunately, in the archiepiscopate of his successor, Eanbald I
(780796), a state approaching anarchy supervened. ' King after
king was murdered or dethroned, and all the foundations of society
were so violently shaken that it would be impossible for the church
and school of York to make their influence properly felt. Alcuin
did his best to restore peace and order. He had gone to France
soon after Albert's death to assist Charlemagne in his educational
work, but he came home to Northumbria in A.D. 790 to lend the
king and Eanbald a helping hand. It was all in vain. The dis
order was so great that after a short sojourn the great scholar left
Eanbald and York and went back to France, where the rest of his
life was passed.' 4 In 793 Lindisfarne was -devastated by the Danes,
who followed it up with an attempt upon Jarrow in 794.

While the ascendency of Northumbria, military, religious, and
educational, was thus passing away, Mercia had more than regained
the ground temporarily lost. For twenty years it was the head of all
England south of the Humber, and, though this supremacy was suc
cessfully contested by Wessex in the battle of Burford in 754, the
remaining years of the century were marked by a steady advance.
As Freeman says, 'During the greater part of the eighth century
everything looked as if the chief place in the island was destined for

1 This passage is frequently quoted. A translation may be found in West,
Alcuin, pp. 34-35.

2 Diet. Chr. Biog. 's.v. Ethelbert (6\.

3 This fact is interesting in relation to the Elene and the Dream of the Rood.

4 Diet. Chr. Biog. s.v.

CYNEWULF AS MAN AND AS POET. IxXXl

Mercia. ^Ethelbald (716-757), Offa (757-796), and Cenwulf (797-
819), through three long reigns, taking in more than a century, Aept
up the might and glory of their kingdom. . . . Though none of
these Mercian kings are enrolled on the list of Bretwaldas, yet the
position of Offa was as great as that of any English king before the
final union of the kingdoms. In one way it was higher than that of
any of them. Offa held, not only a British, but a European posi
tion. . . . With the great king of the Mercians Charles [Charle
magne] corresponded as an equal.' 1

Thus Mercia had succeeded to the position forfeited by Northum-
bria, and was ready in turn to resign its sway to Wessex. In 802
Egbert, who had learned the art of empire at the court of Charle
magne, ascended the throne of that kingdom. In 821 Cenwulf of
Mercia died, and his kingdom was immediately involved in civil war.
Egbert profited by the advantage thus offered, and in 825 was
fought the battle of Ellandune, which decided the fate of Mercia.
By 829 Egbert was overlord of all England, and the crown was on
its way to Alfred.

Thus Northumbria, Mercia, and Wessex successively played the
leading parts in the struggle for the primacy in England ; and litera
ture and learning came southward as the preponderance of dominion
shifted. Cynewulf's life may well have witnessed both transfers of
power. In his youth the school of York was at the acme of its use
fulness and reputation, and it is no idle conjecture that he may have
attended it under the mastership of ^Ethelbert, and that both the
latter and Alcuin, 2 and perhaps Egbert himself, may have personally
instructed the future poet. If it is he who witnessed the decree at
Clovesho in 8o3, 3 he was present at the final abandonment of the
attempt made by Offa in 787 to rival the ecclesiastical claims of
Canterbury by the creation of an archbishopric at Lichfield, this
retreat being significant of the decline of the Mercian power since the
death of Offa in 796, and perhaps as well during the closing years of
that king's life. Finally, Cynewulf may well have lived to see the
sceptre depart from Mercia with the overthrow at Ellandune in 825.
If these inferences be correct, his maturity would have corresponded
with the prominence of Mercia in English affairs, and he would
stand, not only as the sole representative of the literature of that

1 Encyc. Brit. 8. 282. 2 See pp. Ixix, Ixxix. 8 See p. Ixxiv.

IXXXU INTRODUCTION.

province and period, but as the chief representative of its learning
and culture. He would have received the torch from Northumbria,
and have been the means of its reaching Wessex, if he did not
actually deliver it with his own hands.

Whether or not Cynewulf received instruction at the Minster
School of York, he must have acquired at least the rudiments of
Latin at some school during childhood or adolescence, since on no
other hypothesis can we account for the ripeness of scholarship
which he displays in his poetry. His reading was so extensive, and,
what is more to the purpose, so perfectly assimilated, that it is incon
ceivable that he should have been ignorant of letters until late in
life, if we press the gamelum to geoce* of Elene 1247, and assume that
he was an old man when his conversion took place. On this assump
tion we still have no little difficulty in accounting for his mastery of
patristic, hymnic, and liturgical literature, his clearness and certainty
as a theologian, his command of poetical form, and his perfect
subordination of a considerable variety of material to the demands
of a noble and delicate art. Even if he was a comparatively young
man at the time of his conversion, or calling, or awakening how
ever we choose to name it it is still almost necessary to assume that

1 It is true that in El. 1237 Cynewulf represents himself as old at the time of
writing this epilogue ; it is also true that he represents the bestowal of divine
grace or inspiration through clerical influence as a comfort to him in his age, or
perhaps even as designed to be such a comfort. Yet we are not absolutely bound
to conclude that because he was old at the time of writing the epilogue he was old
at the time of this bestowal, nor even that because such bestowal was a comfort
to him in his age he was therefore old at the bestowal ; formulas like gamelum to
geoce do usually, it is true, denote purpose, but occasionally, as in Falsehood of
Men 46, Chr. 124, seem to denote mere result. Having already called himself
old in line 1237, and being, at least in his own view, old when he wrote, he may
have confused the present comfort derived from the earlier grace with a comfort
instantaneously derived from the divine gift ; in other words, he may have con
fused his age at the time of the bestowal with his present age.

The translation of Idre by ' grace ' or ' inspiration ' perhaps calls for a word of
explanation. The word frequently means ' precept,' occasionally ' prophecy,' in
Gen. 771 apparently 'grace,' 'favor' (being synonymous with hyldo). Here it is
explained by rtimran gefreaht (1241), which certainly does not mean mere in
struction, by gife unscynde, where ' gife* may, as often, mean 'grace' (cf . Jul.
516-7), and by leofrucrfzft onleac, etc., which certainly points to something else
than mere learning. Cf. p. Ixvi.

CYNEWULF AS MAN AND AS POET.

he had received instruction in letters as a youth. The facilities for
a grown man to acquire, from a state of perfect illiteracy, such knowl
edge as he came to possess, were, we may be sure, practically
unknown in that age, for they are not precisely common even now.
The case of Alfred is not in point, for Alfred was a king, and could
command instruction not accessible to meaner men ; yet, with all
the help afforded him by scholars, he by no means surpassed our
author in the quality of his scholarship.

Cynewulf was almost certainly, for at least a part of his younger
manhood, a thane or retainer of some king or great lord, and possi
bly, though by no means certainly, of noble birth. If noble birth
be denied him, then his valor must have been proportionately greater,
since he was the recipient of gold in the mead-hall, 1 and possessed
a beautifully caparisoned charger. 2 That he was neither a king's
minstrel nor a wandering gleeman is evident from two considerations.
First, though horses were often bestowed as gifts upon warriors, we
have no mention of their bestowal upon minstrels. Secondly,
though Cynewulf speaks of the minstrel who can loudly play the
harp in the presence of warriors, 3 it is in quite other terms that he
refers to himself 4 in terms that suggest, not the dashing improvisa
tor, but the reflective student, drawing his materials from many
sources, 5 and pondering long upon a subject before feeling suffi
ciently sure of himself to undertake its treatment in verse. He
gathers from far and near, and grows weary of the quest, before he
finds his song ; 6 his poem is fitted together; 7 though he attributes
much importance to natural ability in respect to mastery of ' word-
craft,' 8 yet his own wordcraft is deftly woven ; 9 before all things

1 El. 1259; cf./ut. 686 ff. ; El. 100, 1199.

2 El. 1262-4; cf. Beow. 234, 286, 315, 853-6, 864 ff., 916-7, 1035 ff- IO 45-9>
1399 ff., 2163 ff., 2174-5; Run- X 9> 2 7 > *d' !5> 2 2 3> ?8 > By. 188-9, 239-240 ;
Exod. 170-171 ; An. 1096-9 ; Gn. Ex. 87-88 ; Husband's Message 43-45. Note
how often horses and other treasures are associated in the poetry, and the use ot
both to reward deeds of prowess.

8 Chr. 668-670.

* El. 1238-1243**, 1246-12573.

8 Note his historic sense, El. 643 ff., though in dependence upon his source.

6 Ap. 1-2 ; cf. El. I238b; (Ph. 546-8).

7 Ap. runic passage 3 (infra, p. 153).

8 El. 586-5953 ; cf. El. 314, 419.

9 El. 12383.

INTRODUCTION.

wisdom and understanding are necessary for him who would charm
with words ; l eventually the theme, the matter, the conduct of one's
song may flash upon him as the result of a divine inspiration, but for
himself, at least, there must be much preliminary searching and long
consideration before he at length produces, with a certain feeling of
pleasure, what he is willing to give to the world. 2 He evidently has
a great admiration for skill in the other arts, 3 as well as in writing, 4
and indeed for skill and dexterity of all kinds. 5 And what he
avows is borne out by the character of his own writing. We see
how widely and thoughtfully he reads this is peculiarly true of the
Christ how he adapts a bit from one source to another from a
different source, how he makes each subservient to the scheme of
the whole. We see, too, with what care he sometimes chooses an
epithet, as, for instance, when he applies to flame an adjective
heorugtfre, l sword-greedy,' 'greedy for destruction as the sword '
which elsewhere occurs only once in the poetry, 6 and is there applied
to a living being, namely, Grendel's mother. One may think the
epithet bold, even to the verge of frigidity, yet must admit that it
was deliberately chosen and applied, and that, if it does not pass the
limit prescribed by good taste, it is highly effective.

But if Cynewulf is a student of poetry and a lover of learning
rather than an improvisator such as we hear of in the Beowulf, who
on the completion of the hero's first exploit immediately celebrates
it in hall ; 7 and if everything points to his maturity as the epoch in
which he developed the reflective habit, and practised his exacting
art, there can be no difficulty in assuming that he had experience of
military adventures in his youth. In this way he would have accu
mulated the fund of exact knowledge concerning war, and all its
pomp and circumstance, which he exhibits in his poems, while at the
same time he would be performing the deeds of valor for which he
was to receive guerdon from his lord. That he was familiar with
armies and battle can hardly be doubted by any one who reads the

1 Chr. 664-8a ; cf. EL 418 ; Chr. 713.

2 El. 1238 ff., I252b ff. It will be noted that his frequent meditation on the
cross must have occurred after his conversion, and not during the period when he
was ' fettered by sins.'

3 In architecture, EL 1018 ff.; Chr. 9 ff. ; in jewelry, EL iO23b ff., (Ph. 302-4) ;
(in sculpture, An. 712).

4 Chr. 672. 6 Beow'. 1498.
6 Chr. 664-680. 7 Beow. 867 ff.

CYNEWULF AS MAN AND AS POET. IxxXV

opening of the Elene, and who bears in mind that of all the splendor
and movement depicted by the poet there is virtually nothing in the
original. 1 Admirable are his graphic descriptions of arms and armor, 2
of the assembling of a host, 8 of an army on the march, 4 with trum
peters sounding, 5 heralds shouting, 6 shields clashing, 7 horses stamp
ing, 8 and over all the ominous cry of the black raven 9 and dewy-
feathered eagle, 10 and from the distant forest the long howl of the
expectant wolf. 11 Now the banner is advanced, 12 the arrows begin
to fly, 13 swords crash through shields. 14 At length Constantine
orders the labarum to be raised on high 15 and the war-cry to be
shouted ; 16 at this the enemy takes to flight, seeking refuge among
the rocky fastnesses, 17 or drowned in attempting to swim the river, 18
while after them the javelins dart like angry serpents, 19 and the host
pursues from daylight till dark. 20

Perhaps to Cynewulf the Welsh represented the heathen against
whom Constantine fought, and he may have figured to himself the
Roman Emperor as a prototype of Offa, who, like Constantine, pos
sessed fearlessness, decision, and political sagacity, and aimed at
some such imperial position in Britain as that held by the son of the
British Helena in the East. Perhaps it was in the battles beyond
the Severn, waged by Offa after 779, that Cynewulf witnessed the
magnificence and horror of war. And perhaps the destruction of
towns by fire on some such ravaging expedition may have inspired
the terrible pictures of conflagration in the Christ?*

But Cynewulf has not merely, nor even chiefly, the soldier's enthu
siasm for war. He has the poet's love for beauty the beauty of

1 For example, lines 110-143 are represented by the following: ' Et veniens
cum suo exercitu super barbaros, coepit caedere eos proxima luce ; et timuerunt
barbari, et dederunt fugam per ripas Danubii, et mortua est non minima multitude '
(cf. Glode, in Angl. 9. 277).

2 EL 23-25, 125, 234-5, 256 ff. n El. 28, 112-3.
8 EL 19. 12 El. 107, 113.

* EL 35 ff., 50 ff. 14 EL 114, 122.

6 EL 54, 109. 15 El. 128-9.
1. 541 cf. 550. 17 EL 133-5.

7 EL 50. 18 EL 136-7.

8 El. 55. w El. 140-1.

9 EL 52 ; cf. no ff. *> EL 139-140.

10 El. 29; cf. in. 21 See p. xciv, and cf. An. 1542 ff.

18 EL 116 ff. ; cf. the malignant archer of Chr. 761 ff., and/w/. 384 ff., 471.
16 Or the song of victory to be sung, sigeleofr galen, EL 1 24.

IxXXvi INTRODUCTION.

the world, the splendor of art, the loveliness of woman, the glory of
manhood. His eye is caught by the gleam of gold in ornaments l
or on apparel, 2 and he mentions a second time the golden gates 3
which serve him as a metaphor. To him the earth is all green. 4 At
the crucifixion the trees weep bloody tears, 5 and at the Judgment the
mighty Cross is all bedewed with the pure blood of heaven's King, 6
though it shines like a sun in the heavens. 7 It is the white hands
of Christ that are pierced by the nails. 8 These notes of color, though
so simple, are, it must be confessed, effective out of all proportion to
their simplicity. 9 The veil of the temple is a wonderful tissue of
colors. 10 The nails of Christ's cross, newly discovered in the earth,
shine like stars, or glitter like precious stones. 11 On the sword that
keeps the way of the tree of life there is a shifting play of color as it
turns this way and that in the strong grasp of the cherubic guard, 12
and the earthly Paradise is resplendent with hues. 13 The sign that
Constantine sees in the heavens is set with gold and lucent with
gems ; 14 the true cross found by Helena is similarly adorned by her. 15
I have said that Cynewulf loves the beauty of the world. This is
shown by the fact that, though he has a utilitarian sense of the earth
as bringing forth food for men, and as producing wealth of all kinds, 16
he yet conceives of it in its array 17 no doubt as dressed in living
green, with grass and trees, 18 and among them flowers and fruits. 19

1 Ckr. 995; cf. 292. 5 Chr. 1175.

2 EL 992. 6 Chr. 1085-6.

8 Chr. 250; 308 ff., esp. 318. 7 Chr. 1101-2.
4 Chr. 1128. 8 Chr. mo.

9 If we may attribute the Phoenix to Cynewulf (see p. Ixiii), we shall discover a
greater profusion and variety of color. Thus the trees (36), groves (13, 78), and
earth (154) are green, and there are numerous references to herbs, blossoms,
leaves, and fruits. Flame (218) and the feet of the phoenix (310) are yellow.
And various parts of the bird's plumage are at first gray (121, 153), and then
green, crimson, brown, purple, and white (293-8), while the phoenix himself is
compared to a peacock (312). 12 El. 758-760.

10 Chr. 1139. 13 Chr. 1391.

KEI. 1113-6. ^ El. 1023-6.

14 El. 90. Precious stones greatly attract Cynewulf ; thus he informs us of one
notable specimen in the army of Queen Helena (El. 264-5), an< ^ like Shakespeare,
he alludes to eyes as the jewels of the head (Chr. 1330; so An. 31 ; Gu. 276).

16 Chr. 604-5, 609-611 ; cf. Jul. 42-44, 100 ff.

17 Chr. 805 (probably with allusion to Gen. 2. i Vulg.) ; cf. El. 1271.

1 8 Cf. Chr. 1169 ; Jul. 6; (Ph. 13 ff.).

1 9 Chr. 1389 ; (Ph. 20 ff., 34 ff., 71 ff.).

CYNEWULF AS MAN AND AS POET. IxXXvii

On it fall the dew and the rain ; 1 it is blessed with serene weather ; a
the stars, fixed in their places, 8 circle round it, 4 and blaze in the
heavens 5 with mild beauty ; 6 and over it stand the sun and moon, the
candles of the sky, 7 shining aloft like jewels. 8

Cynewulf s sense of color is somewhat obscured, as the reader will
already have noted, by his passion for light. Misery is to him
synonymous with the deprivation of light, and bliss with its intensity
and abundance. 9 He is a sort of Zoroastrian, and worships the sun.
Christ himself is the sunburst out of the East, 10 flooding the world
with day, and the presence of divinity, 11 of angels, 12 and even of good
men, 13 is attested by a glory of light. When Christ comes to the Judg
ment, his approach is heralded by a sunbeam of unimaginable bright
ness from the southeast. 14 Even when the poet uses the word ' white/
we must not think of the ordinary acceptation, but of a dazzling white
ness, a brilliancy. 15 On the other hand, his devils and wicked men
are painted an unrelieved black, 16 and the flames of hell 1T and of the
Judgment Day 18 are of a corresponding hue, though not necessarily
of pitchy blackness. 19

Among natural objects, Cynewulf is much impressed by the sea.
This is natural, on the supposition that he lived as priest at Dunwich ; m
perhaps, too, he may have crossed the strait on some visit to the
court of Charlemagne, which his relation to Alcuin renders not im
probable ; 21 or he may have coasted along the shores of England or

1 Chr. 609. . 5 Chr. 968, 1149-1150.

2 Chr. 605. 6 Chr. 1148.
8 Chr. 933. 7 Chr. 606-8.

4 Chr. 671, 883; Jul. 498. 8 Chr. 692, 695 ; cf. 935-6.

Cf.//. 333, 419. 53 5 2 4, 554-5. 68 3 ', El - 3 IQ -3 I2 > 767; Chr. 26 ft., 92,
116-8,742,1247, 1346, 1385, 1409, 1422-3, 1541,1656-7. For the Biblical con
ception, cf., e.g. 2 Pet. 2. 4, 17 ; Jude 6, 13, with Ps. 36. 9 ; I Tim. 6. 16; Jas. i.
17 ; i Jn. i. 5 ; Rev. 22. 5.

10 Chr. 104 ff., 696 ff., 1651 ; cf. 230 ff.

11 Chr. 204, 504 ff.; cf. El. 94; Chr. 483, 519, 1085 ff., 1101-2.

12 //. 564; EL 73; Chr. 447 ff., 507, 545, 880, 928, ion ff., 1018, 1276.

13 Chr. 879, 1238 ff., 1467; cf. 896 ff.

14 Chr. 899 ff. ; cf. 1009, 1334 ff.

16 So El. 73; Chr. 447, 454, 545, 897, 1018, mo; cf. the Gr. \eu*c6s, as, e.g. in
Mt. 17. 2 ; Jn. 20. 12; Acts i. 10; Rev. 3. 5; so Lat. candidus.

16 Chr. 257, 269, 896-7, 1522, 1564; cf. 1104, 1560. 19 Cf. Chr. 934.

17 Chr. 1532 ; cf. El. 931 ; Chr. 871. See p. Ixxv.

18 Chr. 965-6, 994. 21 See pp. Ixix, Ixxiv.

IxXXVili INTRODUCTION.

Wales in some military expedition, if the theory suggested above is
true. 1 At all events, his familiarity with the ocean seems to imply
personal experience.

In the Christ he refers to the extent of the ocean, 2 its depth, 3 its
roughness, 4 its power and rage, 5 its coldness, 6 its perilousness/ its
multitudinous billows, 8 and the rush of its floods. 9 In the Juliana
there is a brief account of an ocean voyage. 10 But it is in the Elene
that the true zest of the sailor is displayed. There, when the jour
ney in search of the cross has been decided on, a multitude of men
hasten to the shore, where the vessels stand ready, swinging at
anchor. Band after band go on board, and load the ships with coats
of mail, shields, and spears. The foam spouts from the high prows ;
the waves beat against the sides ; loud is the din of ocean. Under
the bellying sails the vessels rush forward ; the chargers of the sea
dance upon the waves. Soldiers and queen alike are in high spirits
over the voyage as they moor the vessels, and prepare to start for
Jerusalem. 11 If we may attribute the Andreas to Cynewulf, 12 we shall
have materials for a still completer and finer account of an ocean
voyage, 13 beginning with a picture of sunrise over the sea, and con
taining, among other things, a notable description of a storm. 14

Cynewulf is susceptible to the beauty of woman, though he ex
presses his admiration in general phrases, and preferably in terms of
light. 15 The Virgin Mary is the joy of women, the fairest maiden. 16
In the Juliana the people gaze with wonder on the maiden's beauty, 17
and she is repeatedly called ' sunshine ' or ' sun.' 18 Her bridegroom
addresses her with : * My sweetest sunshine, Juliana ! What radiant
beauty hast thou, the flower of youth ! ' 19 And her father, with still
greater tenderness, says to her : * Thou art my daughter, dearest and
sweetest to my heart, the light of my eyes, my only one on earth,
Juliana ! '

Of manly beauty he has less to say, and then, indeed, it is an
angel he is describing : to Constantine ' there appeared a certain

1 See p. Ixxxv. 8 Chr. 854. 15 Cf. p. Ixxxvii.

2 Chr. 852, 1144, 1164; cf./w/. H2. 16 Chr. 72.
Chr. 856. 9 Chr. 985. 17 162-3.

Chr. 858 ; ci.Jul. 401. 10 //. 671-5. 18 Thus, e.g. 229, 454.

Chr. 1145-6. 12 See p. Ix. 19 166-8.

Chr. 851. 13 An. 235-536. 2 93-95.

Chr. 853. 14 An. 369 ff.

11 El. 225-255. Of all this there is not a word in the original.

CYNEWULF AS MAN AND AS POET. Ixxxix

hero in the form of a man, beautiful, radiant, and bright of hue,
more glorious than he ever saw under heaven before or since/ l
On the other hand, for the virtues and accomplishments of manhood
he has great admiration. Constantine ' was a true king, a guardian of
men in war.' Through God's help 'he became a stay to many men
throughout the world, an avenger on the nations.' 2 The courage,
gayety, activity, staunchness, and fidelity of soldiers are dwelt upon
in the Elene? But it is in the Christ that Cynewulf intimates his
delight in skill and science of various sorts. His gamut of appre
ciation is a wide one, and includes the bodily activities of the athlete,
the soldier, and the sailor ; the art of the armorer and the musician ;
the knowledge of the traveler, the astronomer, and the theologian ; the
deftness of the author, and the power and persuasiveness of the
orator. 4 Energy, coupled with knowledge, directed by skill, and
manifest in action such seems to be, in this notable passage, his
ideal for men. 5 But in order to touch the heart to fine issues, and
thus nobly to direct the activities of others, wisdom is the supreme
endowment, the wisdom that cometh from on high. 6

Cynewulf had himself, as we have seen, probably known the
activities of the soldier and seaman, and hence of the traveler ; he
was keenly alive to the thrill of song and the music of the harp ; 7
he was a zealous student of the Bible ; of the poetry, or poetical
prose, of Bede, Gregory the Great, Jerome, Augustine, Prudentius,
Caesarius of Aries, and Alcuin ; of the creeds, the antiphons, and
the hymns of the church. So familiar does he become with Latin
that words from that language slip unobserved, as it were, into his
lines. 8 He practises himself in various forms of poetic art in

1 El. 72-75. 2 EL 13-17 ; cf. 99 ff., 202 ff.

. 8 22, 38, 46^ ff., 64, 121, 242, 246, 261, 273, etc. Among vices, he points out
the danger of drunkenness, Jul. 483 ff .

* Chr. 664-681.

6 (Cf. Gu. 948-950.)

6 Chr. 664-8* ; cf. El. 1241 ff. ; (Gu. 502-4, 620-2, 1245 ff.).

7 El. 744 ff.; Chr. 387 ff., 400 ff., 502 ff., 668 ff., 1649 ; ( An - 7*9 869 ff. In
the Phoenix there are some lovely lines, 131 ff., from which Tennyson may have
derived the suggestion for Percivale's description of the music accompanying the
Holy Grail, and which he has scarcely improved save through condensation ; cf.
Ph. 11-12, 539 ff., 615 ff., 635 ; Gu. 1288 ff.). See Padelford's OE. Musical Terms,
Bonn, 1899.

8 Thus rex, El. 1042 ; culpa, Chr. 177 ; sancta, Chr. 50, 88 ; (and Ph. 667-677).

XC INTRODUCTION.

didactic J and dramatic 2 dialogue, and even dramatic monologue, 8
thus in some sense anticipating Browning ; in poetical enumeration,
brightened only by brief characterizations ; 4 in narration ; 6 and inci
dentally in description. 6 He employs all the figures of speech
known to the Germanic rhetoric, and many borrowed from the
ancients, 7 even producing elaborate similes by expanding his Latin
originals. 8 Yet withal he seems to possess a good sense of values
in his authors, 9 clear vision of realities, and lyric susceptibility and
intensity, rather than the higher order of constructive ability and
epic breadth of vision.

The fault of Cynewulf is in harmony with the tendency of the
Old English poets in general, a tendency to dwell too much upon
details, and neglect the architectonics, the perspective of the whole.
The more intensely a poet feels, the greater is this danger, espe
cially if a sufficient outline has not been provided for him by 'an
author on whom he is dependent. Thus it is that the construction
of Parts I and II of the Christ is better than that of Part III : the

1 Juliana (and Guthlac).

2 Chr. 164-213.

3 Chr. 510 ff., 558 ff., 1376-1523.

4 Fates of the Apostles.

5 Elene, and Part III of the Christ; (Andreas).

6 Especially in Elene, Christ ; (Andreas ; Phoenix).

7 Cf. Jansen's collection, covering 143 pages, in his book, Beitrage zur Synony-
mik, etc. ; he includes the Riddles, it is true. For rime see 591 ff., 757, 1320,
1481-2, 1496, 1570-1, 1646.

8 So Chr. 850 ff., 867 ff. ; Jansen adds El. 355 ff., Chr. 744 ff.

9 Take, for" example, his choice of Caesarius, whom he employs as a source
for some of the finest passages in Part III. Of this author his biographer says
(Arnold, Caesarius von Arelate, p. 122): ' Casarius besitzt in hohem Grade di
Gabe der Anschaulichkeit und des bildlichen Ausdmcks. Seine Sprache ist
popular, well sie konkret ist ; seine Ermahnungen wirken packend, weil sie sich
auf bestimmte Vorgange der wirklichen Lebens beziehen, und sich nicht in
abstrakten Allgemeinheiten bewegen. Auch das Innerlichste und Geistigste
sucht er greifbar zu gestalten. Seine Bilder sind nicht rasch wechselnd und kurz
angedeutet, sondern meist eingehend behandelt und sorgfaltig ausgefiihrt. Sie
sind nicht uberraschend und blendend, .ber treffend und eindringlich, erinnernd
an die Art des Ezechiel.' It is no small merit to have made choice of such a
model for style and matter, a man who, as Arnold says, 'in virtue of his noble
dignity, simplicity, and naturalness came as near to the classicity of the ancients
as in his age was possible.'

CYNEWULF AS MAN AND AS POET. XC1

two together are not much longer than the third, and the originals
selected were in each of those two cases sufficient to provide the
framework of the division, while in Part III, notwithstanding the pre
ponderance of the Latin Judgment Hymn as a source, much material,
not greatly inferior in extent and interest, is drawn from other authors.
It is true that Part I, being based upon a series of Antiphons, is
essentially lyrical in character, and the only unity demanded is that
secured through the character of the Advent season to which the
Antiphons belong. In Part II the lyrical and dramatic passages
introduced do not seriously interrupt .the steady flow of meditative dis
course, and it is with commendable art that the prefigurement of Part
III is introduced near the end without seriously marring the harmony
imposed by adherence to the general tenor of Gregory's homily.

It is in Part III, as already intimated, that the faults of construc
tion are most obvious and flagrant. Thus the circumstances attend
ing the passion of Christ are twice introduced, once as suggested
to "the mind by the sight of the visionary Rood, 1 and once as touched
upon by Christ himself in his address to the wicked. 3 Hence it is
there that there is a twofold reference to the buffeting and spitting, 8
to the crown of thorns, 4 to the wounds in hands and feet, 5 and even
a threefold reference to the wounds in the side. 6 On each occasion
the references are appropriate, but the repetition of them is only
confusing and weakening. Nor is this a solitary instance. Three
times do the stars fall 7 at the Judgment Day ; twice the trumpets
sound ; 8 twice the winds storm : 9 twice is there the crash of the
universe ; 10 twice do the dead arise ; n twice .the deeds of men are
made manifest ; 12 three times the devouring flame rages ; 18 five times
the wicked lament; 14 and four times does Christ come to Judgment, 16
on three occasions with attendant hosts. Within a single sentence
we have 'the bright sign ' and * the high rood,' 16 where evidently the

1084 ff. 7 933 ; 939 ; 1043-

1433 ff. 8 878-889* ; 947 b-8.

1 1 2 1-4 ; 1 433-6. 9 940 ; 949-95 1 .

1125-6; 1444. 10 93; 953-5-

1109-1110; 1454-6. "886-898; 1022-1042 (perhaps only allusive).

nii-2; 1447-9; 1457-8. 12 1036^-8; iO45 a -io56*.
18 930-932 ; 964-1003 ; I043b- 4 a.

14 889b-892; 961 (cf. 1015-7); 991 ff. ; 1229; 1567; cf . 833 ff.
16 899-906; 924-9 (incidental mention) ; 941-7* ; 1007-1021.
16 1 06 1, 'i 064.

XC11 INTRODUCTION.

same thing is meant, and in this very sentence * the exalted multi
tude ' and ' the band of angels ' ; l besides, in alternate lines there
occur ' seo hea duguft ' and seo hea rod,' and the abstract se
egsan )>rea ' (cf. ' se hearda daeg ') side by side with concrete objects
and the sound of the trumpet. In this same sentence, too, much is
resumptive, while the rest is clearly anticipatory. Yet the effect of
the passage is not so bad as the analysis would indicate, since the
confusion in some way reflects the agitation of the waiting multi
tudes, compelled forward alike by fire, trumpet, angel-host, and the
glittering crimson cross. Occasionally an excess of mere parallel
ism becomes cloying, though the synonyms may be varied with con
siderable skill. 2 But more wearisome than this are the frequent
didactic passages, 3 in some cases, however, not distinguishable
from the lyrical reflections which the situations extort from the
poet.

But there are other faults quite as serious. Thus, immediately
after the opening simile of this Part, we are told that a host of the
faithful 'so ascend to Zion's hill,' 4 but neither here nor elsewhere are
we told why they ascend or who they are, whether angels or right
eous men. Lines 956-9, relating how sinners pass into the flame
of the Last Day, weaken the effect of 994, where the flame seizes
upon them. In the account of the signs that accompany the cruci
fixion of Christ, the heaven is represented as discerning who made it
bright with stars, 5 and the sea as discovering who set it in its bed, 6
reference being made in the former case to the Star in the East, and
in the latter to Christ's walking on the water ; both are totally irrele
vant, and are due to an unpardonable transposition of matter in
Gregory's homily. In the same passage not only does the earth give
up those whom she contains, but so does hell ; 7 the former is based
upon the Biblical account, the latter apparently upon the homily, by
a confusion between the sense of infernus as 'the hidden parts of
the earth,' and as ' the abode of departed spirits.' Accordingly, we
have the crucifixion confused with the resurrection, in so far as
there is reference both to the local resurrection and to the Harrow
ing of Hell. Again, lines 1316-1326 seem to be wholly irrelevant

1 1062-3. 4 87 5-7. '1163-8.

2 Thus 1531-6*., 5 1148-1152. ' 7 1157-1163.

8 Thus 921-4, 1056^1060, io79b-i 080, 1199^1203, 1301-1333, 1549-1590,

CYNEWULF AS MAN AND AS POET. XC111

to the context ; l and elsewhere there is an excess of emphasis in call
ing sinners devils, 2 and in designating them as black. 8

But it would be leaving a wrong impression not to add that both
faults of structure and verbal infelicities are to be found in the other
two Parts, and indeed in Cynewulf's remaining poems. Some of
these have been mentioned above, 4 but one or two may be touched
upon here. Whatever interpretation we may put upon wopes hring?
it is a conceit which, though not unparalleled in modern poetry, is
almost as frigid as many in the Scaldic verse ; and one's condemna
tion is intensified by the fact that Cynewulf is so fond of it as to
repeat it. A typical instance of bad art is to be found in a superflu
ous line and a half of Part II. 6 In this same Part we have an inar
tistic repetition of a word at the end of two neighboring lines ; 7 an
even worse instance, because here the lines are contiguous, is to be
found in the repetition of Waldend, 555, 556, unless the second is
corrupt. This last is paralleled, however, in the Elene? The cross
of Christ is several times referred to, in the Elene and the Dream of
the Rood, as the sigeb'eam, an entirely appropriate designation ; but
the poet is so under the influence of convention as to include the
crosses of the two thieves with that of Christ under the same
kenning. 9

It is pleasant to turn from lapses such as these, from which no poet
is altogether free, to the undeniably great qualities which Cynewulf
manifests in the poem before us. In the First Part he is full of rever
ence, of attachment to what he regards as essential verities, of enthu
siasm, of passionate, mystical longing, and even of a tenderness 10
like that of a Preraphaelite painter. This section ends with the
thought of the home-coming to the Christian's fatherland.

In the Second Part we come closer to the ordinary life of men, 11
lighted up, however, by reflections from the glistering raiment of
angels, and the pure brightness of the ascending Son of God. Then,
preluding on the terrors of the Day of Doom, the poet discloses him-

. \ \ .<: '.V" . ' ':.-. ='-'*. " * "" / ; - ' ": ' - 3

1 Gf . note. , * 760, 764.

2 E.g. 895, 1532. 8 Repetition of craftige, 314, 315.
8896, 1560, 1565, 1607. 9 El. 847.

4 See p. xliv. 10 Chr. 341 (cf. note); see also/w/. 93-96.

6 Chr, 537; EL 1232; cf. An. 12.81; Gu. 1313.

11 For example, 664 ff.

XC1V INTRODUCTION.

self to us in the attitude of a trembling sinner apprehensive for his
own fate. But at the close we perceive the heavenly port to which
our course is directed, a haven prepared for our reception by our
ascended Lord.

Finally, in the Third Part, though the faults are more numerous, it
is partly because the strain is of a higher mood. Here there are
such sublimities as have rarely been united within the same com
pass. Each individual one may be approached, may perhaps be
equaled, somewhere in the compass of the Divina Commedia, but
nowhere within the same space does Dante assemble so many and
such varied traits of stern beauty and tremendous power. The con
cordant singing of the angelic trumpets that wake the dead, swelling
from each of the four corners of the earth, and shivering to the
very stars ; the splendor of light from the southeast, announcing
the coming of the Son of God ; the mingled majesty and sweetness
of his countenance ; the throngs of attendant angels ; the torrent of
flame that issues, with the noise of the falling heavens and the
hurtling stars, from before the presence of the King, while the sun
is turned to blood; the upward and forward rush of the risen dead,
encountering the conflagration that is devouring heaven, earth, and
sea, burning the waters of the great deep like wax, and melting with
its impetuous onset the mountains * and the ocean-guarding cliffs ;
and the lamentations of the rising multitudes, blended with the din
of trumpets, winds, flames, and a ruining universe ; this forms the
appropriate prelude to the scene of Judgment. That scene discloses
Christ on Mount Zion, surrounded by the chivalry of heaven, and
high above the illimitable throng that waits, in fear and anguish, the
sentence of doom. All eyes are fixed alternately upon the Son of
Man and upon his Sign in the heavens. For the Cross towers like
the mythic Yggdrasil, dripping with blood, but flooding the whole
world with a blaze like sunlight. 2 Yet the sight of the Rood only
impels men to look on Him whom they pierced, and to behold in
his white hands and holy feet the print of the nails. Then they
recall the scene of his judgment, when he was mocked and crowned
with thorns, and of his crucifixion, when earth, sea, and hell were
moved by his sufferings, when the sun was darkened and rocks
were rent, while only men were untouched by the agony of their God.

1 Cf. Ovid, Met. 2. 216 ff.; with 1. 987, Met. 2. 265 ff.

2 Cf. Dante, Paradiso, Canto 14, esp. v. 94.

CYNEWULF AS MAN AND AS POET. XCV

At once penetrating in its compassionate sweetness, and awful
in its justice, is Christ's address to the sinner ; and of unex
ampled energy are the two lines in which the sweep of the victor-
sword in the right hand of the Judge hurls the whole multitude of
the lost to the pit of hell. But again, as at the close of Parts I and
II, the poet, after a description of the abode of endless misery, where
darkness and serpents, torturing flame and piercing frost, combine to
execute the just vengeance of the Almighty, returns to his favorite
theme of the reward of the faithful, the Beatific Vision, eternal youth
and joy, the hymning of angels in a day without night. Thus, in a
space of less than eight hundred lines, Cynewulf brings together
elements which remind us successively or alternately of the terrors
of the Inferno, the sweet humanity of the Purgatorio, and the splen
dors of the closing cantos of the Paradiso, presenting them with the
utmost vividness and poignancy, in a style of uniform elevation.

So much may fairly be said without challenging for Cynewulf a
comparison with Dante which he would be unable to sustain. In
grasp, in variety, in narrative skill, in the development of a difficult
thought, in architectonic power, Cynewulf is hopelessly inferior ; but
in compunction, gratitude, hope, love, awe, and tenderness, he belongs
to the same order; and in his sense of the sublime and the ability
to convey it to his readers, he need not shrink from a comparison
with either Dante or Milton, in other words, with the very prophets
of the sublime among the poets of Christianity.

We have considered the inner life of Cynewulf as reflected in his
poetry, but how shall we picture the author of the Christ in his habit
as he lived ? What were the congenial avocations of his riper years,
whose business and burden was the utterance of that nervous, vivid,
tender rhythmic speech, fraught with suggestions of a heroic past, which
strove to disclose the kingdoms of life and death, to pierce the dark
ness of heathenism with a lyric cry, and to invest the lives of others
with the heaven which lay habitually about his own soul ? In what
relations did he stand to the men who surrounded him, and to the
fatherland whose mighty career lay wrapped in embryo, conditioned
by the religion of which he was a passionate devotee, nay in some
sense by the very song he sung ?

At some time in his life, whether earlier or later, he had come,

XCV1 ' INTRODUCTION.

in a peculiar sense, under the sway of religion. 1 Whether or not he
became a monk we have no means of knowing ; but we do know that
the monastic life was the natural resort of the elect souls of that age,
and that the Antiphons which he loved bear traces of monastic influ
ence. 2 That he eventually became a priest at Dunwich is by no means
improbable. 3 Here, within sound of the sea, he would listen to the
music in which he delighted, 4 and would, on the recurrence of each
Advent season, join in the chanting of the Antiphons which he so
aptly paraphrased. Here he would be surrounded by memories of
St. Felix, would have leisure for study and composition, and would
no doubt enjoy the intimacy of his bishop, his fellow-priests, and
the teachers of the famous school. Stirring events would occur,
from time to time, in the world about him, 5 but they would not
disturb the tenor of his peaceful life; for as yet the Danes had
not begun to ravage the East Anglian territory, and to constitute
themselves its absolute masters. Yet he would not forget the
interests of his youth and early manhood ; all would live again in
his pages battle and voyage, mead-hall and race-course, jewels and
fair women but subordinated to his poetic purpose, heightened
and transfigured by the vision and the faculty divine. As his life
time fell within the reigns of two notable English kings, Offa and
Egbert ; as he was a contemporary of Charlemagne and probably out
lived him ; and as we cannot suppose that he was wholly blind to the
course of events in his own day, he may have had some premonition
of the influence which his poetry would exert, and therefore have
taken precautions that his name should not perish, by interweaving
it into the very substance of his verse. 6 That he, like Alfred, loved
the poetry of his native tongue, is beyond question. Caedmon, who
knew no Latin, could only sing in English, if at all ; Aldhelm, who
knew Latin, wrote only in that language ; Bede has left us but one brief
English poem, though the vigor which that displays is evidence that
he was under no necessity of writing in Latin ; so that Cynewulf is
the first Christian poet who, being thoroughly conversant with Latin,

1 Cf. pp. Ixvi ff.

2 Cf. p. xxxix.

3 Cf. p. Ixxiv.

4 Cf. p. Ixxxix, note 7.
6 Cf. pp. Ixxx ff.

6 Cf. pp. 152-4, esp. 153, top.

CYNEWULF AS MAN AND AS POET. XCV11

deliberately adopted the vernacular as the vehicle for a considerable
body of poetry, and in this showed himself at once a good scholar, a
good Christian, and a good patriot. 1

As to the fate of his poetry in the period which followed, we are
reduced almost wholly to conjecture. That Egbert may have con
veyed it to Wessex after his victory over the Mercians is a plausible
hypothesis ; 2 and that these poems were among those which were
taught to Alfred's children, and which he himself learned by heart in
his rare moments of leisure, is at least equally probable. What we
know is that they were still prized at the beginning of the eleventh
century, since they are contained in the two great collections of
Old English poetry, part in the Exeter, and part in the Vercelli
Book ; and we may infer that they were rather frequently transcribed,
since side by side with forms which are clearly Anglian, and others
which are manifestly Late West Saxon, there are others, though com
paratively few in number, which are no less evidently Early West
Saxon, 8 that is, belong to the age of Alfred. If we consider these
facts, and the undoubted influence exerted by Cynewulf upon subse
quent poets, we shall not hesitate to conclude that he was known
and prized throughout the Old English period. When the Norman
Conquest was imminent, and the religious revival of the older Eng
land was still in progress, his poems were embodied in collections of
Old English verse, and, by the piety of ecclesiastics whose education
was Continental, 4 have been preserved for the English race and for
the world.

1 For a somewhat exaggerated view of his Germanism, see Price's Teutonic
Antiquities in the generally acknowledged Cynewulfian Poetry ; cf. Kent, Teutonic
Antiquities in Andreas and Elene.

2 Cf. p. Ixxiii.

3 Cf. p. xlvii. In ^Elfric's Homilies there is no ie ; see Fischer, The Stressed
Vowels of sEl/riSs Homilies, Vol, i (Pub. Mod. Lang. Assoc. of America, Vol. 4,
No. 2).

4 See my Cardinal Guala and the Vercelli Book (Library Bulletin No. 10,
University of California, 1888).

TABLE OF SIGNIFICANT DATES.

521-597. St. Columba's life.

597. Arrival of Augustine in Kent.

63 1 (ca.). St. Felix becomes bishop of Dunwich.

632. Mohammed dies.

635. Aidan settles at Holy Isle (Lindisfarne).

640 (?). Aldhelm born.

642. Oswald slain by Penda.

657-680. Within this period Caedmon flourished.

664. Synod of Whitby.

669. Theodore and Hadrian land in Britain.

671. Hadrian founds Canterbury School.

673. Bede born.

674. Wearmouth monastery founded.
680. Abbess Hilda dies.

6815. J arrow monastery founded.

685-758. Comparatively flourishing period of Northumbria, somewhat

interrupted 705-729.
687. St. Cuthbert dies.

689 or 690. Benedict Biscop dies. Archbishop Theodore dies.
692. Willibrord missionary in Frisia.
700. Durham Book, or Lindisfarne Gospels, written in Latin by Bishop

Eadfrith.

709. Aldhelm dies (b. 640 ?). Wilfrith dies (b. 634).
711. Saracens invited into Spain.
714. St. Guthlac dies (b. 673?).
716. Ceolfrith dies (b. 642).
718-755. St. Boniface missionary in Germany.
732. Saracens defeated at Poitiers by Charles M artel.
735. Bede dies (according to Mayor and Lumby, 742).
735-766. Egbert archbishop of York (archiepiscopate revived).
735-804. Alcuin's life.
742-814. Charlemagne's life.
750 (ca.). Cynewulf born.
751. Pepin king of the Franks.

xcix

C TABLE OF SIGNIFICANT DATES.

755. St. Boniface dies.

757-796. Off a king of the Mercians.

759-829. Deterioration and anarchy of Northumbria.

766. Alcuin head of Egbert's school at York.

771. Charlemagne sole king of the Franks.

781. Alcuin settles at Charlemagne's court.

786-809. Caliphate of Haroun-al-Raschid.

787. First landing of the Danes in England.

789. King Egbert at the court of Charlemagne.

794. Offa seizes East Anglia.

800. Charlemagne crowned emperor by Pope Leo III.

802. Egbert king of Wessex. Alcuin's work on the Trinity.

804. Alcuin dies.

820. Macregol, who wrote the Latin text of the Rushworth Gospels, dies.

825 (ca.). Cynewulf dies.

829. Egbert overlord of all England.

849. King Alfred born.

856. OE. Judith written (or perhaps 918?).

871. Alfred king of Wessex.

901. King Alfred dies.

924. St. Dunstan born.

937. Battle of Brunanburh.

950 (ca.). Northumbrian gloss in Durham Book.

955 (ca.). ^Elfric born.

957. St. Dunstan bishop of Worcester.

963. St. ^Ethelwold bishop of Winchester.

984. St. yEthelwold dies.

988. St. Dunstan dies.

990-995. >lfric's Homilies.

990-1000. West Saxon translation of the Gospels.

991. Battle of Maldon.

998. yElfric's translations from the Old Testament

1020-1025. ^Elfric dies.

1066. Battle of Hastings.

TABLE OF ABBREVIATIONS.

A. Assmann, in Grein-Wiilker, Bib-
Hot he k der Angelsdchsischen Poesie,
Vol. 3. 1897.

An. Andreas.

Angl. Anglia.

Anz. Anzeiger.

Ap. Fates of the Apostles.

Arch. Archaeologia.

Athan. Athanasius.

Az. Azarias.

Beibl. Beiblatt.

Beow. Beowulf.

Bibl. Bibliothek der Angelsdchsischen
Poesie.

Bibl. Quot. Biblical Quotations in Old
English Prose Writers. 1898.

Bl. Horn. Blickling Homilies.

Blunt. In .his Annotated Book of Com
mon Prayer. 1884.

Br. 1 Brooke, History of Early English
Literature. 1892.

Br. 2 Brooke, English Literature from
the Beginning to the Norman Con
quest. 1898.

Br. Az. Brother Azarias, The Develop
ment of English Literature: The Old
English Period. 1879.

B.-T. Bosworth-Toller, Anglo-Saxon
Dictionary.

By. Byrhtnoth.

Cart. Sax. Cartularium Saxonicum.

Cat A. Cathemerinon.

Chr. Christ.

Cod. Dipl. Codex Diplomatics.

Cod. Exon. Codex Exoniensis.

Con. Con. 1 and Con. 2 in agreement.
Con. 1 Conybeare (1812), in Archaeolo-

gia, Vol. 17. 1814.
Con. 2 Conybeare, Illustrations of

Anglo-Saxon Poetry. 1826.
Cos. Cosijn, ' Anglosaxonica IV,' in

Paul and Braune's Beitrage, Vol.

23-
Cramer. In his Quellen, Verfasser,

und Text des Altenglischen Gedichtes

' Christi Hollenfahrt? 1896. (Also

Angl. 19. 137-174.)
Cremer. In his Metrische und Sprach-

liche Untersuchung der Altenglischen

Gedichte Andreas, Gufrlac, Phoenix.

1888.

D. Dichtungen der Angelsachsen.

Dan. Daniel.

Daniel. In his Thesaurus Hymnologi-

cus. 1841-56.
Dietrich. In Haupt's Zs., Vol. 9.

Ebert. In his Allgemeine Geschichte

der Literatur des Mittelalters in

Abendlande. 1874-87.
El. Elene.
Ettm. Ettmiiller, Engla and Seaxna

Scopas and Boceras. 1850.
Ettm. Lex. Ettmiiller, Lexicon Anglo-

saxonicum . 1851.
Ex. Gn. Exeter Gnomes.
Exod. Exodus.

Frucht. In his Metrisches und Sprach-
liches zu Cynewulfs Elene, Juliana,
und Crist. 1887.

Cll

TABLE OF ABBREVIATIONS.

Gen. Genesis.

Gn. C. Cotton Gnomes.

Gn. Ex. Exeter Gnomes.

Go. Go. 1 and Go. 2 in agreement.

Go. 1 Gollancz, Cynewulfs Christ.

1892.
Go. 2 Gollancz, The Exeter Book, Part I.

1895.

Goth. Gothic.
Gr, 1 Grein, Bibliothek der Angel-

sdchsischen Poesie. 1857.
Gr. 2 Grein, in Germania, Vol. 10.

1865.
Gram., Gr. Sievers' Old English

Grammar, translated by Albert S.

Cook. Gram.* = Sievers, Angel-

'sdchsische Grammatik. Dritte Aus-

gabe. 1898.

Greg. Magn. Gregory the Great.
Gu. Guthlac.

Hammerich (-Michelsen). In his Ael-
teste Christliche Epik der Angel-
sachsen, Deutschen, und Nordldnder.
1874.

Haupfs Zs. Zeitschrift fur Deutsches
Alterthum.

Hel. Heliand.

Hertel. In his Der Syntaktische Ge-
brauch des Verbums in dem Angel-
sdchsischen Gedichte ' Crist' 1891.

Hist. Dun. Historia Dunelmensis.

Horn. Homilies.

Hy. Hymn.

Ind. Forsch. Indogermanische For-
schungen.

Jansen. In his Beitrdge zur Synonymik
und Poetik der allgemein als dcht
anerkannten Dichtungen Cyneivulfs.
1883.

Joan. Diac. Joannes Diaconus, in
, Migne, Vol. 75.

Jud. Judith.

Jul. Juliana.

K. Korner, Angelsdchsische Texte.
1880.

Kirkland. In his Study of the Anglo-
Saxon Poem, The Harrowing of
Hell. 1885.

Lehner. In his Die Mariewverehrung

in den Ersten Jahrhunderten. 1 88 1 .
Lind. The Lindisfarne Gospels, or

Durham Book, in Skeat, The Gos
pels, etc. 1871-87.
Lit. Central. Literarisches Centralblatt.
Livius. In his The Blessed Virgin in

the Fathers of the First Six Centuries.

1893.
LWS. Late West Saxon.

M. Miiller (L. C.), Collectanea Anglo-

Saxonica. 1835.
Men. Menologium.
Metr. Metre.

Migne. In his Patrologia Latina.
M. L. N. Modern Language Notes.
Mod. Moods of Men.
Mon. Alcuin. Monumenta Alcuiniana.
Mone. In his Lateinische Hymnen des

Mittelalters. 1853-55.
Morley. In his English Writers.

1887-95.

NED. New English Dictionary.

OE T. Oldest English Texts, ed. Sweet.
1885.

Part. Partridge.

Pair. Gr. Patrologia Graeca, ed.

Migne.
PBB. Paul und Braune's Beitrdge

zur Geschichte der Deutschen Sprache

und Literatur.
Ph. Phoenix.
Ps. Psalm.

R. Rieger, Alt- und Angelsdchsisches

Lesebuch.
Rid. Riddle.

TABLE OF ABBREVIATIONS.

Robinson (W. C). In his Our Early

English Literature. 1885.
Rim. Poem. Riming Poem.
Rose. In his Darstellung der Syntax

in Cynewulfs Crist. 1890.
Run. Runic Poem.
Rush. 2 The Rushworth Mark, Luke,

and John, in Skeat, The Gospels, etc.

1871-87.

S. Schipper,inGertnania,Vo\. 19. 1874.

Sal. Salomon and Saturn.

Salzer. In his Die Sinnbilder und

Beiworte Martens. Linz, 1888-92.
Sat. Christ and Satan.
Schubert. In his De Anglosaxonum

Arte Metrica. 1870.
Seaf. Seafarer.
Siev. Sievers, in Paul und Braune's

Beitrdge.
Spr. Sprachschatz,

Th. Thorpe, Codex Exoniensis. 1842.
tr. translates, translated.

W. Wanley, Catalogus.

Wand. Wanderer.

Wid. Widsith.

Wond. Great. Wonders of Creation.

Wii. Wiilker, in Grein-Wiilker, Bib-

liothek der Angelsdchsischen Poesie,

Vol. 3. 1897.
Wulfing. In his Die Syntax in den

We r ken Alfreds des Grossen, I. Teil.

1894.
WW. Wright- Wiilker, Anglo-Saxon

and Old English Vocabularies. 1884.

Zacher's Zs., Zs.f. D. Phil. Zeitschrift
fur Deutsche Philologie.

-f All editors after the one named.

CHRIST.

PART I. THE ADVENT.

Cyninge.

Du eart se weallstan )>e fia wyrhtan iu
wiflwurpon to weorce ; wel )>e geriseS
J>aet Jm heafo[d] sie healle maerre,
5 ond gesomnige side weallas
faeste gefoge, flint unbraecne,
J>aet geond eorftb[yri]g call eagna gesihpe
wundrien to worlcie wuldres Ealdor.
Gesweotula nu )>urh searocraeft \>ln sylfes weorc,

10 softfaest, sigorbeorht, ond sona forlaet

weall wi$ wealle. Nu is fam weorce |>earf
)>aet se Crae[f]tga cume ond se Cyning sylfa,
ond ]?onne gebete nu gebrosnad is
bus under hrofe. He |>aet hra gescop,

15 leomo Isemena ; nu sceal Liffrea

J?one wergan heap wrapum ahreddan,
earme from egsan, swa he oft dyde.

Eala J>[u] Reccend ond ]>u riht Cyning
se J>e locan healdetS, lif ontynefc

4 MS. heafolS. 5 ' and ' always represented by a contraction, except in 927,
1225, where ond occurs ; hence ond has been substituted for the contraction
in all cases, including prefixes. 7* MS. eor^b . . . g; Th. eofSbfuend] (?) ; Gr>
eor5an ; note eorflweall (?) {for eor~8an call) ; Gr. 2 eorSb[yri]g. 7b MS. eagnan
with erasure of final n. 8b M. begins sentence. 9 M. geswutula ; J>in in first
hemistich. 10 MS. forl^t (^ rare, and probably always a correction)', M. forlet.

ii M. wid. 12 MS. craestga; M. craeftiga. 13 M. )>one. 14 M. om. hra.

15 M. leoma; Th. note laemenu (?) ; Gr. 1 laemenu. 16 From here to 26 there
was much that I found scarcely legible in September, 1894 (A. S. C.). 17 M.
earma. i8 a MS. ba. 19 Th. ontyned.

2 CHRIST. [PART i.

20 eadga us siges, 6}>rum forwyrned,

wlitigan wilslfes, gif his weorc ne deag.

Huru we for |>earfe fas word sprecafc,

giaS pone J>e mon gescop

)>aet he ne hete ceose sprecan

25 cearfulra J>ing, ]>e we in carcerne

sittaS sorgende sunnan wilsift,

hwonne us Liffrea leoht ontyne,

weorSe ussum mode to mundboran,

ond J>aet tydre gewitt tire bewinde ;
30 gedo usic |>aes wyrSe, )>e he to wuldre forlet,

]>a we heanlice hweorfan sceoldan

to pis enge lond, cole bescyrede.

Forfon secgan maeg se tte soft spriceft

paet he ahredde, )>a forhwyrfed waes,
35 . frumcyn fira. Waes seo faemne geong,

maegt5 manes leas, }>e he him to meder geceas ;

J>aet waes geworden butan weres frigum,

paet )>urh Bearnes gebyrd bryd eacen weart5.

Naenig efenlic |>am, aer ne sijtyan,

20* Th. eadga ... us siges ; Gr. 1 eadga"S us siges; Siev. suggests sigores (PBB.
x. 485) ; Go? After ga, which conies at the end of the line, a small piece of parchment
has been cut out ; at most one letter could have been on if, but probably none at all.
2O b Gr. 1 forwyrneS. 21 Go. 1 wilsi)>es, the last two letters can scarcely be read, the

whole word is barely visible. 22 M. nu we. 23* MS. giatS ; Gr. 1

[modgeomre halsi] giaft; S., A. think the last letter before g looks like o ; Go. 1 [nu
gema^rsiJgiaiS, and declares the space in the MS. renders Grein's reading impossible.
23^ Gr. 1 bone, but restores J>e in Appendix, p. 414. 24 M. hete . . . ofe ; Gr. 1
heose ; and in note conjectures a verb heosan, ' hasten/ on the analogy of a Bavarian
hosen, hoseln, hosnen, and adj. husig, but this is rejected by Sievers on metrical
grounds (PBB. x. jvj); Gr. 2 hete [heo]fe, interpreting J>ing as 'concionem,' ' multi-
tudinem ' ; S. hete to hofe ceose, but Go. 1 states that there is no trace of hofe, and
A. that there is not sufficient room ; Go. 1 two or three letters are obliterated before
ceose, the first probably h, and suggests her ; Edd. agree as to general illegibility ;
<?/" sprecan A. reads only s . . . . an. 26 b M. sunnan wirnde; Th. note very doubtful
in MS.; Gr. 2 sunnan wyrnde (part, pi.) ; Go. wil-sift, 1-s almost obliterated, but i"5
quite legible. 27 ' Siev. frlga. 28 M. weorde. 30^ Th. note ^ (?). 31 MS., Th.
>a>e. 33 Go., A. se fte hardly legible. 35 Gr. 1 note fromcyn (?).

PART I.] CHRIST. 3

40 in worlde gewearS wifes ge[<?]a[V]nung;
|>aet degol waes Dryhtnes geryne.
Eal giofu gaestlic grundsceat geondspreot;
J>ser wisna fela wearS inlihted,
lare longsume, Jmrh lifes Friiman,
45 J>e aer under hoftman biholen laegon,

witgena woflsong, J>a se Waldend cwom,
se pe reorda gehwaes ryne gemiclafc
Sara )>e geneahhe noman Scyppendes
Jmrh ho[r]scne had hergan willafc.

50 Eala sibbe gesihfc, sancta Hierusalem,

cynestola cyst, Cristes burglond,

engla epelstol, ond \>SL ane in fe

saule sotJfaestra simle gerestafc,

wuldrum hremge. Nsefre wommes tacn
55 in ]?am eardgearde eawed weorj>e8,

ac )>e firina gehwylc feor abtigeS,

waergSo ond gewinnes. Bist to wuldre full

halgan hyhtes, swa )>u gehaten eart.

Sioh nu sylfa |>e geond )>as sidan gesceaft

-1>A

60 swylce rodores hrof rume geondwlitan * >

ymb healfa gehwone, hu fee heofones Cyning

slfte gesecetS, ond sylf cymet$,

nimeS card in |>e, swa hit jgr gefyrn

witgan wisfaeste wordum saegdon,
65 cy^don Cristes gebyrd, cwsedon fe to frofre,

burga betlicast. Nu is )>aet Beam cymen,

awaecned to wyrpe weorcum Ebrea,

bringe^ blisse |>e, benda onlyseft

40 MS., Edd. gearnung ; Gr. 1 note geeacnung (?). 42 Gr. 1 geondspreat, but
restores -spreot in Gr. 2 47 Gr. 1 (App., p. 369} ryne, ' mysterium ' (so in Sprach-
schatz). 49 MS. hoscne. 53 Th. note saula (?). 59 Gr. 1 sylfan; Gr? sylfa,
nsf. 61 Th., Gr. healsa.

4 CHRIST. [PART I.

nijmm geneSde, nearopearfe conn,
70 hu se earma sceal are gebldan.

* Eala wifa wynn geond wuldres J>rym,
faemne freolicast ofer ealne foldan sceat
pass }>e sefre sundbuend secgan hyrdon ;
arece us paet geryne ]?aet J?e of roderum cwom,

75 hu Jm eacnunge aefre onfenge

Bearnes J>urh gebyrde, ond pone gebedscipe
aefter monwlsan mo[t] ne cuSes.
Ne we so^llce swylc ne gefrugnan
in ajrdagum sefre gelimpan,

80 }>aet 6u in sundurgiefe swylce befenge,
ne we ]>2ere wyrde wenan J>urfon
toweard in tide. Huru treow in )?e
weor^licu wunade, nu ]>u wuldres prym
bosme gebaere, ond no gebrosnad weart5

85 maeg^had se micla. Swa eal manna beam
sorgum sawa<5, swa eft ripaS,
cennaS to cwealme.' Cwae<5 sio eadge maeg
symle sigores full, Sancta Maria :
* Hwaet is }>eos wundrung ]>e ge wafiat5,

90 ond geomrende geh|)um m^ena^,
sunu Solimae somod his dohtor?
fricgaft furh fyrwet hu ic fsemnanhad,
mund minne, geheold, ond eac modor geweaiU
mer[^] MeotudesSuna? Forpan }>aet monnum nis

95 cu$ geryne, ac Crist onwrah
in Dauldes dyrre msegan

69 Gr. 2 ni^Sum ; Gr. 1 genedde; Th. says that a leaf is obviously wanting between
nearo and J?earfe; S. says there is no sign of this. 70 Gr. 1 nu. 73 Th. note
sand- (?). 77 MS. mod; Th. note, Gr. Sprachschatz mode; Gr. 1 mdt; Gr. 1 note
mot, in the sense of ' meeting,' appositional -with gebedscipe ; Go. 1 note mod
(=' desire'); A. mot. 78 Th. swylcne. 91 MS. solim^. 93 Th., Gr. 1 inne,
but Th. translates 'my'; Gr. 1 note minne or mine (?); Gr. 2 minne (so MS.).
94 MS., Edd. maere.

PART i.J CHRIST. 5

J>set is Euan scyld eal forpynded,
waerg$[0] aworpen, ond gewuldrad is
se heanra had. Hyht is onfangen
100 past nQ bletsung mot bairn gemaene,
werum ond wifum, a to worulde forS
in }>am uplican engla dreame,
mid S6$f seder symle wunian.'

Eala Earendel, engla beorhtast
105 ofer middangeard monnum sended,

ond sottfaesta sunnan leoma,

torht ofer tunglas, }>u tida gehwane

of sylfum pe symle inlihtes.

Swa Jm, God of Gode gearo acenned,
no Sunu sopan Faeder, swegles in wuldre

butan anginne aefre waere,

swa }>ec nu for fearfum J>in agen geweorc

bidets Jmrh byldo, faet ]>u )>a beorhtan us

sunnan onsende, ond ]>e sylf cyme,
115 }>aet t5u inleohte ]>a fe longe aer

|>rosme be)>eahte, ond in peostrum, her

saeton sinneahtes synnum bifealdne,

deorc dea}>es sceadu dreogan sceoldan.

Nu we hyhtfulle haelo gelyfab
1 20 }>urh })aet Word Codes weorodum brungen,

)>e on frymfte waes Faeder aelmihtgum

efenece mid God, ond nu eft gewearS

flaesc firena leas, }>aet seo fsemne gebaer

geomrum to geoce. God waes mid us
125 gesewen butan synnum; somod eardedon

mihtig Meotudes Beam ond se monnes Sunu,

97 Th. 0teforwended (?). 98 MS. waergfta; Gr. 1 waerg^u. 108 Gr. 1 inlihtest.
1137%. tr. bide-S by 'awaiteth ' ; byldo in MS. from hyldo (Go.). 114 Th. note J>u
sylf a (?). 118 sceadu in MS. from sceaflu. 121 MS., Edd. aelmihtigum.

CHRIST. [PART I.

gejjwsere on J>eode. We paes }>onc magon
secgan Sigedryhtne symle bi gewyrhtum,
J?aes J>e he hine sylfne us sendan wolde.

130 Eala gaista God, hu \>u gleawllce

mid noman ryhte nemned waere

Emmanuhel, swa hit engel gecwae$

serest on Ebresc; faet is e[f]t gereht

rume bi gerynum : Nu is rodera Weard,
135 God sylfa mid us'; swa faet gomele gefyrn

ealra cyninga Cyning ond J>one claenan eac

Sacerd softllce saegdon toweard.

Swa se maare iu Melchlsedech,

gleaw in geste, godprym onwrah
140 eces Alwaldan. Se waes ae bringend,

lara laadend }?am longe his

hyhtan hidercyme, swa him gehaten waes

faette Sunu Meotudes sylfa wolde

gefselsian foldan majgSe,
145 swylce grundas eac Gaistes maegne

sife gesecan. Nu hie softe J>aes

bidon in bendum hwonne Beam Codes

cwome to cearigum. For)>on cwaadon swa

suslum geslaehte : ' Nu fu sylfa cum,
150 heofones Heahcyning. Bring us haalolif

wergum witefeowum wope forcymenum,

bitrum brynetearum. Is seo bot gelong

eal aet ]?e anum \_cefter\ ofer)>earfum.

I33b MS., Th. est; Th. renders by 'grace.' 134 Th. note runa (?). 138 GV. 1
note maera (?). I4ib Th. note >am \>e (?) ; Gr. 1 note J>am attraction for J?am \>e.
151 MS., Edd. werigum. 152 Th. bryne tearum. 153 Th. assumes a gap
before oer}>earf um ; Gr. 1 does not ; S., Go. about five letters obliterated ; Siev. for (?);
7%., S. divide, ofer J?earfum ; Holthausen (Ind. Forsch. iv. 384) aefter o.

PART I.] CHRIST. 7

Hajftas hygegeomre hider [gesece ;
155 ne lait] )?e behindan, ponne }m heonan cyrre,

maenigo pus micle; ac jm miltse on us

gecyS cynelice, Crist nergende,

wuldres ^E}>eling ; ne Iset awyrgde ofer us

onwald agan. Lsef us ecne gefean
160 wuldres pines, paet pec weorftien,

weoroda Wuldorcyning, pa pu geworhtes aer

hondum pmum. pu in heannissum

wunast wideferh mid Waldend Faeder.'

' Eala Joseph min, lacobes beam,
165 maeg Dauides mairan cyninges,

nu ]>u freode scealt fasste gedaelan,

alaetan lufan minel'

4 Ic lungre earn

deope gedrefed, dome bereafod,

for^on ic worn for )>e word [a] hrebbe
170 sldra sorga ond sarcwida

hearmes gehyred, ond me hosp sprecatJ,

tornworda fela. Ic tearas sceal

geotan geomormod. God ea|>e maeg

gehselan hygesorge heortan minre,
175 afrefran feasceaftne. Eala faemne geong,

maegt5 Maria!'

' Hwaet bemurnest t5u,

154* Th, hyge geomre. 154** Th. hider . . . ; Gr. 1 hider [gesohtest] ; S., Go., A.
ten or eleven letters obliterated or faded ; S. no s or f among the lost letters ; A. the
first letter may have been g, the sixth e, traces of both being visible, then two gone,
then the upper part of\or\>(?}; Go. as above in text, by conjecture. 155* Th.
>e behindan . . . es nu laet; Gr. 1 [ne] be behindan nu laet; ,. No gap between
behindan and bonne, es nu laet not in MS. 161 A. geworhte. 162 Gr. heahnis-
sum. 163 Th., Gr. 1 wide ferft; Gr? widefer'S; MS. wide ferh. 166 Gr. 1 note
hu bu (?). 169 Th. note worda (?); Gr., R., K. worda; Gr. 1 note worde (inst.);
Go. 1 Probably a scribal error for worda, or else worde, 'in word,' construed with
haebbe gehyred ; MS. worde. 171 Th. hospsprecafl.

8 CHRIST. [PART I.

cleopast cearigende ? Ne ic culpan in }>e,

incan ainigne sefre onfunde,

womma geworhtra; ond ]>u fa word spricest
180 swa jm sylfa sie synna gehwylcre

firena gefylled.'

1 Ic to fela haebbe

]>aes byrdscypes bealwa onfongen.

Hu maeg ic ladigan lapan spraece,

oppe ondsware aenge findan
185 wra}>um towif>ere ? Is J?aet wide cu$

J?aet ic of J>am torhtan temple Dryhtnes

onfeng freolice fsemnan claine,

womma lease, ond nu gehwyrfed is

Jmrh nathwylces. Me nawfer deag,
190 secge ne swige. Gif ic soft sprece,

fonne sceal Dauides dohtor sweltan,

stanum astyrfed. Gen strengre is

}>aet ic morpor hele : scyle manswara

\a.]> leoda gehwam lifgan sipfan,
195 fracoft in folcum.'

pa seo fsemne onwrah

ryhtgeryno, ond )ms reordode :

' S65 ic secge furh Sunu Meotudes,

gaista Geocend, )?aet ic gen ne conn

|mrh gemaecscipe monnes ower
200 senges on eorftan ; ac me eaden weart5,

geongre in geardum, ]>set me Gabrihel,

heofones heagengel, haelo gebodade,

184 MS., Edd. aenige. 185 R. to wibere. 188 R. assumes loss of two hemistichs,
l88b and i89 a , after lease, and conjectures : weres ne cufte, hal waes J?aere maeg'Se
had; Gr. 1 gewyrped, on account of alliteration. 189 The text is here apparently
corrupt ; Gr. nathwylces [searo], to which Siev. (PBB. x. 515) objects on metrical
grounds ; R. indicates omission ; K. nathwylcne. 190 Th., Gr. 1 spraece. 194 Gr.,
K. lifian. 196 Gr., R., 1C., A. ryht geryno. 199 Gr. 1 [man] gemaecscipe; Gr*
retracts, and Siev. likewise (PBB. x. 5/5) objects. 202 Gr. 1 heahengel.

PART I.] CHRIST. 9

saegde softlice paet me swegles Gaest
leoman onlyhte ; sceolde ic lifes prym

205 geberan, beorhtne Sunu, Beam eacen Codes,
torhtes Tirfruma[n]. Nu ic his tempel earn
gefremed butan facne ; in me frofre Gsest
geeardode. Nu pu ealle forlset
sare sorgceare. Saga ecne pone

210 mserum Meotodes Sunu paet ic his modor ge-

wear8,

fsemne forS se-peah, ond pu faeder cweden
woruldcund bi wene ; sceolde witedom
in him sylfum beon so^e gefylled.'

Eala ]>u so$a ond ]>u sibsuma

215 ealra cyninga Cyning, Crist aelmihtig,
hu \>u er waere eallum geworden
worulde frymmum mid pinne Wuldorfaeder
cild acenned purh his craeft ond meaht !
Nis aenig nu eorl under lyfte,

220 secg searoponcol, to }>aes swrSe gleaw
\>e pset asecgan maege sundbuendum,
areccan mid ryhte, hu \>e rodera Weard
aet frym5e genom him to Freobearne.
paet waes, |>ara pinga \>e her peoda cynn

225 gefrugnen mid f oleum, aet fruman aerest
geworden under wolcnum, paet witig God,
lifes Ordfruma, leoht ond pystro
gedaelde dryhtlice, ond him waes domes geweald,
ond pa wisan abead weoroda Ealdor :

230 * Nu sie geworden, forp a to widan feore,

204 GrJ K. scolde. 206 MS., Th. -fruma ; Th. note tir fruman, adopted by R>>
Gr., 1 K., and A.\ Go. tirfruma[n]. 210 Th., Gr. 1 suna. 211 Th., Gr., ^., A. se
>eah. 229 Gr. 1 weroda. 230 MS. for^a (S.), forb a (Go., A.)\ Th. forj>a; Gr. 1
fufSum; Gr. 1 note for^am as MS. reading (after Thorpe}.

IO CHRIST. [PART I.

leoht lixende, gefea lifgendra gehwam
pe in cneorissum cende weorSen.'

Ond pa sona gelomp, fa hit swa sceolde ;
leoma leohtade leoda mgegpum,

235 torht mid tunglum, aefter pon tida bigong ;
sylfa sette paet pu Sunu were
efeneardigende mid pinne engan Frean
sermon oht pisses aefre gewurde.
pu eart seo Snyttro pe pas sidan gesceaft,

240 mid pi Waldende, worhtes ealle.

Forpon nis alnig paes horse, ne paes hygecraeftig,
J>e pin fromcyn maege fira bearnum
sweotule gesepan. Cum nu, sigores Weard,
Meotod moncynnes, ond pine miltse her

245 arfaest ywe ; us is eallum neod

paet we )nn medrencynn motan cunnan,
ryhtgeryno, nu we areccan ne maegon
paet faedrencynn fier owihte. V

pu ]nsne middangeard milde geblissa

250 purh Sinne hercyme, haelende Crist,

ond pa gyldnan geatu, pe in geardagum
ful longe er bilocen stodan, .4,;

heofona Heahfrea, hat ontynan ;
ond usic ponne gesece, purh pin sylfes gong

255 eat>mod to eorpan. Us is pinra arna pearf.
HafaS se awyrgda wulf tostenced,
deor[c] d[^-S]scua, Dryhten, pin eowde,

231 Th. leohtlixende ; Gr., A. leoht, lixende ; Go. 1 tr. ' bright-shining? 237 Th.
note agan or agen (?); Gr. 1 angenfrean ; Gr. 1 note angen-frea (dominus dilectus).
comparing Angen]>eow, etc. ; Gr. 2 as in text. 238 MS., Edd. aer J>on. 242 Th.
note frumcyn (?); Gr. 1 frumcyn ; Gr? fromcyn. 243 Th. note (p. 501) gese>an,
probably an error for gesecgan, but Gr. 1 note rejects this. 244 MS. milstse.
245 Siev. suggests eowa, eawa, for MS. ywe. 247* Th., Gr., A. ryht geryno ;
247b Th., Gr. magon. 253 Th., Go. heah frea. 257 MS., Edd. deor daedscua ;
Th. note deorc deaftscufa, which Gr. 1 note rejects.

PART I.] CHRIST. I I

wide towrecene ; faet ftu, Waldend, ser

blode gebohtes, paet se bealofulla
260 hynefi heardlice, ond him on haeft nimeS

ofer uss[#] nioda lust. ForJ>on we, Nergend, J>e

biddatS geornlice breostgehygdum

pset ]>u hraedlice helpe gefremme

wergum wreccan ; faet se wites bona
265 in helle grund hean gedreose ;

ond pin hondgeweorc, haele)>a Scyppend,

mote arisan, ond on ryht cuman

to )>am upcundan ae^elan rice,

J>onan us air ]>urh synlust se swearta gaest
270 forteah ond forty[/^/]e, ]>aet we, tires wone,

a butan ende sculon erm)>u dreogan,

butan fu usic fon ofostlicor, ece Dryhten,

set fam leodscea]>an, hfgende God,

Helm alwihta, hreddan wille.

275 Eala ]>u msera middangeardes,

seo claeneste cwen ofer eor)>an

fara [)>]e gewurde to widan feore,

hu |>ec mid ryhte ealle reordberend

hatafl ond secgat5, haslet geond foldan,
280 blife mode, )>aet fu bryd sie

)>aes selestan swegles Bryttanl

Swylce ]>2i hyhstan on heofonum eac

Cristes fegnas cwepa^ ond singa^$

)>aet fu sie hlsefdige halgum meahtum
285 wuldorweorudes, ond worl[d]cundra

270 MS., Edd. fortylde ; TA. note fortealde, seduced by false stories ' (?) ; Gr. 1
note fortylde = fortilde ; Cos. fortyhte. 275 MS., Th., Go. maera ; Th. note maera
is, undoubtedly, an error of the scribe for maria. 276 a Th. note suspects the loss of
a leaf, but Gr. 1 note rejects. 277 MS. bara ege wurde ; Th. note \. gewurden ; S.
reads gege, but first g erased ; A. assumes that the scribe neglected to write \> on the
erasure. 281 Go. 1 note MS. selesten. 285 MS. worlcundra.

12 CHRIST. [PARTI.

hada under heof onum, ond helwara ;

forfon fu faet, ana ealra monna,

gefohtest frymlice, frlsthycgende,

faet fu fmne maegShad Meotude brohtes,
290 sealdes butan synnum. Nan swylc ne cwom

senig ofer ofer ealle men,

bryd beaga hroden, fe fa beorhtan lac

to heofonhame hlutre mode

siffan sende. ForSon heht sigores Fruma
295 his heahbodan hider gefleogan

of his maegen]>rymme, ond fe meahta sped

snude cySan, paet ]m Sunu Dryhtnes

J?urh clsene gebyrd cennan sceolde,

monnum to miltse, ond fe, Maria, for5
300 efne unwemme a geheald[a]n.

Eac we faet gefrugnon, faet gefyrn bi }>e

so^faest saegde sum woftbora

in ealddagum, Esaias,

fast he waare gelaaded J>se[r] he lifes gesteald
305 in fam ecan ham eal sceawode.

Wlat fa swa wlsfaest witga geond feodland

offaet he gestarode fair gestafelad waes

aefelic ingong. Eal waes gebunden

deoran since duru ormaete,
310 wundurclommum bewrifen. Wende swfSe

fast senig [^]lda aefre [ne] meahte

swa faestlice forescyttelsas

oix ecnesse 6 inhebba[n],

300 MS., Th., Go. gehealden ; Th. note gehealdan (?). 304^ MS., Edd. J>xt; Th.
note >aer (?)._ 3 o6 MS. wisfaeft (A., biit not Th., Go.}. 307 Grl o )>aet.
310 Th. note assumes the loss of an adverb after swifte. 311 MS., Edd. elda; MS.
omits ne, and so Th., Go.; Th. note ne is obviously -wanting after aefre; Gr. 1 [ne];
A. ne.^i^ MS., Th. o in hebba; Th. note owiht hebban (?); Gr., 1 A. in hebban;
Go. in-hebba.

PARTI.] CHRIST. 13

offe Saes ceasterhlides cluster onlucan,
315 ser him Codes engel, furh glaedne gefonc,

fa wisan onwrah, ond faet word acwaeS :

* Ic f e maeg secgan faet soft gewearS

faet $as gyldnan gatu giet sume stye

God sylf wile, Gaestes maegne,
320 gefselsian, Faeder aelmihtig,

ond, ]>urh fa faestan locu, foldan neosan ;

ond hlo fonne aefter him ece stond[a]$

simle singales swa beclysed

J>aet nsenig 6)?er, nym]>e Nergend God,
325 hy aefre ma eft onluce^.'

Nu J>aet is gefylled faet se froda )>a

mid eagum |>aer on wlatade.

pu eart ]>aet wealldor ; J>urh J>e Waldend Frea

sene on fas eorSan ut siSade,
330 ond efne swa fee gemette meahtum gehrodene

claene ond gecorene Crist aelmihtig ;

swa Se aefter him engla peoden

eft, unmaele aelces finges,

liofucaegan bileac, lifes Brytta.
335 Iowa us nu fa are fe se engel fe,

Codes spelboda, Gabriel, brohte.

Huru faes biddaS burgsittende

faet tSu fa frofre folcum cy^e,

finre sylfre Sunu. Siffan we mota[n]
340 anmodllce ealle hyhtan,

nu we on faet beam foran breostum stariaS.

Gefinga us nu fristum wordum

faet he us ne lalte leng owihte

in fisse deaSdene gedwolan hyran,

315 7%. note glaewne (gleawne) (?). 322 MS., TA., 0. stondefl. 339^/6"., Th.
motam.

14 CHRIST. [PART i.

345 ac faet he usic geferge in Faeder rice,
fair we sorglease siff an motan
wunigan in wuldre mid weoroda God.

Eala f u halga heofona Dryhten,
fu mid Faeder }>Inne gefyrn wsere

350 efenwesende in fam aefelan ham.
Naes senig fa giet engel geworden,
ne faes miclan maegenfrymmes nan
Se in roderum up rice biwitigaft,
feodnes fryftgesteald ond his fegnunga,

355 V^ PU Merest waire mid fone ecan Frean
sylf settende fas sidan gesceaft,
brade brytengrundas. Baem inc is gemsene
Heahgaest hleofaest. We J>e, Hallend Crist,
furh eafimedu ealle biddaS

360 faet ]>u gehyre haefta stefne

J>mra niedjnowa, nergende God,
hu we sind geswencte furh ure sylfra gewill.
Kabbah wraecmaecgas wergan gaestas,
het[^]l[^]n helsceafa[], hearde genyrwad,

365 gebunden bealorapum. Is seo bot gelong
call aet fe anum, ece Dryhten.
Hreowcearigum help, faet fin hidercyme
afrefre feasceafte, feah we faehfo wit5 fee
furh firena lust gefremed haebben.

370 Ara nu onbehtum, ond usse yrmfa gefenc,
hu we tealtriga^ tydran mode,
hwearfiat5 heanllce. Cym nu, haelef a Cyning ;
ne lata to lange. Us is lissa f earf,
faet f u us ahredde, ond us haelogiefe

345 Go. faederrice. 353 Th., Gr. 1 bewitiga'S. 358 Tk. heah gaest. 361 MS.
med ; TA., Gr, 1 nied without remark. 364* MS. hetlen helsceaba ; Th. note hetlan
(hetolan) helsceaj?as (?); Ettm. (Lex.) hetlan helsceaftan; 3(>4b MS. genyrwad
(A.-, not Th., Go). y]\ MS. hu >e.

PARTI.] CHRIST. 15

375 sofcfaest sylle, paet we sijtyan fortS
pa sellan ping symle moten
gepeon on peode, J>mne willan.

Eala seo wlitige, weorfcmynda full,

heah ond halig, heofoncund prynes,
380 brade geblissad geond brytenwongas,

]>[ec] mid ryhte sculon reordberende,

earme eorSware, ealle maegene

hergan healice, nu us Haelend God

wserfaest onwrah J?aet we hine witan motan.
385 Forfon hy, diedhwsete, dome geswit5de,

)>aet so^faeste seraphinnes cynn,

uppe mid englum a bremende,

unapreotendum ]>rymmum singaS

ful healice, hludan stefne,
390 faegre feor ond neah. Habba|> folgopa

cyst mid Cyninge. Him }>aet Crist forgeaf,

faet hy motan his aetwiste eagum brucan,

simle-singales, swegle gehyrste,

weor^ian Waldend wide ond side ;
395 ond mid hyra fiprum Frean aelmihtges

onsyne wear[dia]S, ecan Dryhtnes,

ond ymb feodenstol fringaS georne,

hwylc hyra nehst maege ussum Nergende

flihte lacan frit5geardum in.
400 LofiaS Leoflicne, ond in leohte him

fa word cwe)>aS, ond wuldriafc

aepelne Ordfruman ealra gesceafta :

* Halig eart J>u, halig, heahengla Brego,

sotS sigores Frea ; simle ]>u bist halig,

381 MS., Edd. ba. 385 Gr> daedhwate. 393 Th. note swegles (?). 394 Th.
note weorSia'S (?). 395 Th., Gr. 1 aelmihtiges. 396 MS., Th. wearft; Th. note
weardia (?), and so Edd. 399 6V. 1 flyhte.

1 6 CHRIST. [PARTI.

405 dryhtna Dryhten ; a 1pm dom wunaft
eor51ic mid aeldum in aelce tid
wide geweorfad. pu eart weoroda God,
forj>on }m gefyldest foldan ond rodoras,
wigendra Hleo, wuldres fines,

410 Helm alwihta. Sie pe in heannessum
ece hselo, ond in eorfan lof,
beorht mid beornum. pu gebletsad leofa,
]>e in Dryhtnes noman dugejmm cwome
heanum to hrofre. pe in heahpum sie

415 a butan ende ece herenis.'

Eala ! hwaet )>aet is wraeclic wrixl in wera life,

faette moncynnes milde Scyppend

onfeng aet falmnan flassc unwemme,

ond sio weres friga [w]iht ne cu)?e,
420 ne furh seed ne cwom sigores Agend

monnes ofer moldan ; ac faet waes ma[r^] craeft

fonne hit eorftbuend ealle cupan

furh geryne, hii he, rodera prim,

heofona Heahfrea, helpe gefremede
425 monna cynne J?urh his modor hrif.

Ond, swa forS gongende, folca Nergend

his forgifnesse gumum to helpe

daeleft dogra gehwam, Dryhten weoroda.

Forpon we hine domhwate, dsdum ond wordum,
430 hergen holdllce. paet is healic raid

monna gehwylcum J>e gemynd hafaS,

)>aet he symle oftost ond inlocast

ond geornllcost God weorjnge.

410 Gr. 1 heahnessum. 416 Th. note assumes a gap of more than a line after
hwaet, but against the MS. 419 MS. niht. 421 MS., Edd. ma; Siev. (PBB. x.
5/5) suggests mara. 423 Gr. 1 >rym. 426 MS., Edd. for'S gongende. 432 Gr. 1
note inlicast (?).

PARTI.] CHRIST.

He him psere lisse lean forgildefl,
435 se gehalgoda Hailend sylfa,

efne in |?am eftle jjaer he ser ne cwom,

in lifgendra londes wynne,

j>ser he gesselig sijtyan eardatS,

ealne widan feorh wunaft butan ende. Amen.

PART II. THE ASCENSION.

440 Nu Su geornllce gaistgerynum,
mon se rnaira, modcraefte sec
Jmrh sefan snyttro, ]>aet J>u soft wite
hu faet geeode J>a se ^Elmihtga
acenned wearS Jmrh claenne had,

445 sif^ 11 he Marian, maegSa weolman,
maerre meowlan, mundheals geceas
)>aet })er in hwltum hraeglum gewerede
englas ne oSeowdun, ]>a se ^feling cwom
Beorn in Betlem. Bodan wseron gearwe,

450 fa ]mrh hleo|>orcwide hyrdum cyftdon,
saegdon soSne gefean, faette Sunu waere
in middangeard Meotudes acenned,
in Betleme. Hwaefre in bocum ne cwitS
fast hy in hwitum fair hraeglum ofiywden

455 in ]?a aefelan tid, swa hie eft dydon
t5a se Brega maera to Bethania,
peoden frymfaest, his fegna gedryht
gelaftade, leof weorud. Hy faes Lareowes
on fam wildaege word ne gehyrwdon

460 hyra Sincgiefan: Sona walron gearwe
haeleS mid Hlaford to falre halgan byrg,
fser him tacna fela tires Brytta
onwrah, wuldres Helm, wordgerynum,
serfon up stige ancenned Sunu,

465 efenece Beam agnum Faeder,

440 W., Go. 1 gasst gerynum. 443 MS., Edd. aelmihtiga. 445 Gr. 1 note
maeg^Se (:). 453 Siev. suggests cwtfteS (PBB. x. 475}. 456 Th., Gr. brego.
465 Siev. suggests Fasdere (PBB. x. 483], and so in 532.

CHRIST. 19

)>aes ymb feowertig, )>e he of foldan asr

from deafte aras, dagena rimes ;

haefde pa gefylled, swa air biforan sungon,

witgena word, geond woruld innan,
470 }>urh his prowinga. pegnas heredon,

lufedun leofwendum, lifes Agend,

Faeder frumsceafta. He him faegre paes

leofum gesijmm lean aefter geaf,

ond |>aet word acwaefl Waldend engla,
475 gefysed, Frea mihtig, to Faeder rice :

* Gefeoft ge on ferfte ; naif re ic from hweorfe,

ac ic lufan symle Iseste wi$ eowic,

ond eow meaht giefe, ond mid wunige

awo to ealdre, paet eow efre ne bi5
480 ]mrh gife mine godes onsien.

FaraS nu geond ealne yrmenne grund,

geond widwegas ; weoredum cy6a$,

bodia^ ond bremaS, beorhtne geleafan,

ond fulwia6 folc under roderum,
485 hweorfaS to heofonum ; hergas breotaj),

fyllaS ond feoga5 ; feondscype dwsescatS,

sibbe sawa5, on sefan mantia,

)>urh meahta sped. Ic eow mid wunige

forS on frofre, ond eow friSe healde
490 strengftu sta|>olfaestre on stowa gehwa[w] > '-
Da wearS semninga sweg on lyfte

hlud gehyred ; heofonengla freat,

weorud wlitescyne, wuldres aras,

cwomun on corSre. Cyning ure gewat

471 Th. note lofedun (?), with reference to 304. 469 Gr. 1 woruld-innan ; A,
woruldinnan. 476 MS., Edd. fer$$e. 479 Th., Gr. 1 awa. 482 MS. wid wegas ;
TA., Gr. 1 wide wegas; Gr. 1 note wid- wegas (?) ; Gr. 2 widwegas. 485 Gr. 1 note
hweorfaft hi (?). 490 Th. note /. strengfte, unless the word be sometimes indeclin
able ; Th., Gr. stowe; MS., Edd. gehware; Siev. (PBB. x. 485) gehwaem.
493 ^- wlite scyne.

20 CHRIST. [PART II.

495 furh paes temples hrof, f>aer hy to segun,

pa pe leofes pa gen last weardedun

on ]?am pingstede, pegnas gecorene.

Gesegon hi on heahjm Hlaford stigan

Godbearn of grundum. Him waes geomor sefa,
500 hat aet heortan hyge murnende,

paes ]>e hi swa leofne leng ne mostun

geseon under swegle. Song ahofun

aras ufancunde, ^Epeling heredun,

lofedun Liffruman, leohte gefegun
505 pe of paes Haelendes heafelan lixte.

Gesegon hy aelbeorhte englas twegen

faegre ymb paet Frumbearn fraetwum blican,

cyninga Wuldor. Cleopedon of heah)m

wordum wrgetlicum ofer wera mengu
510 beorhtan reorde : 'Hwaet bldat5 ge,

Galilesce gunian, on hwearfte ?

Nu ge .sweotule geseo^ softne Dryhten

on swegl faran, sigores Agend ;

wile up heonan card gestigan
515 aefelinga Ord mid }>as engla gedryht,

ealra folca Fruma, Faeder ej>elstoll.

* We mid fyslice ]?reate willaS
ofer heofona gehlidu Hlaford fergan
to faere beorhtan byrg mid fas blrSan gedry[h]t,
520 ealra sigebearna ]>aet seleste

ond aefeleste, fe ge her on stariaft,
ond in frofre geseot5 frastwum blican ;
wile eft swa-feah eor^an maegSe
sylfa gesecan side herge,

496 MS., Th. weardedum. 503^/6"., Tk. heredum. 508 Th. heahjm; Gr. 1
heah'Sum. 519 Con. 2 byrig always; MS., Edd. gedryt, except Gr. 1 gedryht.
521 Gr. 1 \>3i\.for )>e; Con? iSaege.

PART II.J CHRIST. 2 1

525 ond ponne gedeman dseda gehwylce

para Se gefremedon folc under roderum.'

Da waes wuldres Weard wolcnum bif[o]ng[e]n,

heahengla Cyning, ofer hrofas upp,

haligra Helm. Hyht was genlwad,
530 blis in burgum, furh )>aes Beornes cyme.

Gesaet sigehremig on }>a swtyran hand

ece Eadfruma agnum Faeder.

Gewitan him \>a, gongan to Hierusalem

haeleft hygerofe in $a halgan burg
535 geomormode, ponan hy God nyhst

up stigende eagum segun,

hyra Wilgifan. pair waes wopes hring ;

torne bitolden waes seo treowlufu,

hat aet heortan ; hrep]er innan weoll,
540 beorn breostsefa. Bidon ealle J'ser

)>egnas )>rymfulle peodnes gehata

in fsere torhtan byrig tyn niht j^a gen,

swa him sylf bibead swegles Agend,

aerfon up stige ealles Wai den d
545 on heofona gehyld. Hwite cwoman

eorla Eadgiefan englas togeanes.

Daet is wel cweden, swa gewritu secgaS,

}>aet him aelbeorhte englas togeanes

in fa halgan tid heapum cwoman,
550 sigan o[/] swegle. pa waes symbla maest

geworden in wuldre. Wel J>aet gedafenatJ

526 Con. z fla. 527 MS., Con?- (p. xxx},Th. bifengun; Con? bifengum; Th.
note bifangen (?); Gr. 1 bifangen; Go. 1 bifongen, but, in his note, calls the MS. read
ing an error for bifangen; Go?- bifen. 535 Con? geomor mode; Siev. neist.
536 Tk. note more correctly up-stigendne ; Gr. 1 up stigende. 537 Con? wofes.
539 MS., Con. hreder. 540 MS. b e orn, -with erasure behveen b and o ; Con.? Gr. 1
beam, Con? tr. by 'filii'; MS. bidan ; Con. ftaere. 542 Con. tyr riht; Go. pa-gen.
543 Con? himself. 544 MS., Edd. aer >on. 545 Th. note gehlyd (?).
548 MS. aelbeorhte ; Go. albeorhte 550 MS., Edd. on.

22 CHRIST. [PART II.

to ]?sere blisse beorhte gewerede
in J>aes peodnes burg fegnas cwoman,
weorud wlitescyne ; gesegon wilcuman
555 on heahsetle heofones Waldend,

folca Feorhgiefan, fraetwum ealles waldend
middangeardes ond maegen}>rymmes.

^ ' HafaS nu se Halga helle bireafod

ealles faes gafoles J?e hi geardagum
560 in faet orlege unryhte swealg.

Nu sind forcumene, ond in cwicsusle

gehynde ond gehaefte, in helle grund

dugujmm bidseled, deofla cempan.

Ne meahtan wi}>erbr[^<r]an wige spowan,
565 waepna wyrpum, sifpan wuldres Cyning,

heofonrices Helm, hilde gefremede

wi|? his ealdfeondum Anes meahtum,

faar he of hoefte ahlod hu])a masste,

of feonda byrig folces imrim,
570 ]?isne ilcan ]?reat ]>e ge her on stariatJ.

Wile nu gesecan sawla Nergend

gaesta giefstol, Godes agen Beam,

aefter guSplegan. Nu ge geare cunnon

hwaet se Hlaford is se ]>isne here laadetS.
575 Nu ge fromlice freondum togeanes

gonga6 glaedmode. Geatu, ontynaft ;

wile in to eow ealles Waldend,

Cyning on ceastre, corftre ne lytle,

fyrnweorca Fruma, folc gelaedan
580 in dreama dream, t5e he on deoflum genom

|>urh his sylfes sygor. Sib sceal gemaene

554 Th. wlite scyne. 556 b Siev. suggests (PBB. x. j-/^) that Waldend is from
the preceding line, and would read Frsetwan (as.) ealles. 559 Gr? )>e heo.
564 MS. ne^ahtan, me by another hand ; MS., Edd. wi^erbrogan ; Cos. wi>erbreo-
can. 577 Con.' 2 (p. xxx} hi to; Gr.\ A. in to. 578 Con.' 2 corftrene, tr. 'coro-
nam.' 580 Con? draema draem. 581 Gr. 1 sigor.

PART II.] CHRIST. 23

englum ond seldum a for8 heonan
wesan wideferh. Wser is aetsomne
Codes ond monna, gsesthalig treow,
585 lufu, lifes hyht, ond ealles leohtes gefea.'

Hwaet ! we nu gehyrdan hu }>aet Haelubearn
)>urh his hydercyme hals eft forgeaf,
gefreode ond gefreo)>ade folc under wolcnum,
maere Meotudes Sunu, }>aet nu monna gehwylc

590 cwic fendan her wuna[fc], geceosan mot
swa helle hienjm swa heofones maerjm,
swa fact leohte leoht swa $a la}>an niht,
swa ]>rymmes J>raece swa ]>ystra wraece,
swa mid Dryhten dream swa mid deoflum hream,

595 swa wite mid wra)mm swa wuldor mid arum,
swa lif swa deaS, swa him leofre biS
to gefremmanne, penden flaesc ond gaest
wuniafl in worulde. Wuldor }>aes age
prynysse ]>rym, ]>onc butan ende !

/. 600 Daet is |?aes wyr^e ]>aette wer|>eode

secgen Dryhtne ]?onc dugutJa gehwylcre
j>e us s!6 ond aer simle gefremede
}>urh monigfealdra maegna geryno.
He us set giefeS, ond sehta sped,
605 welan ofer widlond, ond weder li|?e
under swegles hleo. Sunne ond mona,
aefelast tungla, eallum scinat5,
heofoncondelle, haelepum on eor^an.
DreoseS deaw ond ren ; duguSe weccaj>

586 Th. haelu beam. 587 Th,note heals-haeft (?),for hals eft. 590 MS., Go., 1
Go? wunat. 593 MS. (A.) tystra ; Th., Gr., 1 Go. brystra (as if MS.); R. |>ystra,
but assumes ]?rystra as MS. reading; Gr. 1 note hristra (?) J>ystra (?). 6oob Con., 1
Con. 2 "Sect tSe; Ettm. -"Seoda. 601 Con. 1 drythne thone ; Con? secgan dryftne.
604 Con., 1 Con? giefed ; aehta-sped. 605 Con., 1 Con. 2 Th., Ettm., GrJR. wid
lond; Gr? widlond. 608 Con., 1 Con? heofon candelle, and frequently separates
compound words. 609 Con? translates ren dugu'Se by 'pluvia bona.'

24 CHRIST. [PART n.

610 to feorhnere . fira cynne,

lecaS eorSwelan. paes we ealles sculon

secgan pone ond lof peodne ussum,

ond huru fsere haelo fe he us to hyhte forgeaf,

8a he pa yrmSu eft oncyrde,
615 aet [h]is upstige, pe we ser drugon,

ond gepingade peodbuendum

wiS Faeder swaesne fsehpa maeste

Cyning anboren. Cwide eft onhwearf

saulum to sibbe, se }>e ser sungen [waes]
620 purh yrne hyge seldum to sorge :

Ic fee of eorSan geworhte ; on paire pu scealt yrmpum lifgan,

wunian in gewinne ond wraece dreogan,

feondum to hrofor fusleoS galan,

ond to fsere ilcan scealt eft geweorpan
625 wyrmum aweallen ; ponan wites fyr

of faere eorftan scealt eft gesecan.'

Hwaet ! us ]>is se ^Epeling y5re gefremede,

fa he leomum onfeng ond lichoman,

monnes magutudre. Sij>p an Meotodes Sunu
630 engla efel up gestigan

wolde, weoroda God, us se willa bicwom

heanum to helpe on fa halgan tid.
Bi fon giedd awraec lob, swa he cufte,

herede Helm wera, Haelend lofede,
635 ond mid siblufan Sunu Waldendes

611 Con. 2 secath. 612^ Ettm., Gr. 1 dryhtne. 614 Gr. 1 yrm'Sa; Ettm. oncirde ;
7%., Go. eftoncyrde, and so usually in verbs -with separable prefix ; variations in
this respect will not be noted. 615 MS. is. 619 Ettm. sawlum ; Th. note waes
add (?); Ettm., Gr., 1 ^., Go. 1 supply waes or [waes]; Con. 1 Con? omits, with
MS. 620 Ettm. ealdum. 621 MS. ofer, and so Edd. except R. of. 623 Con. 1
Con? hroiSer, fus leoftgalan (translating the last two words by promptis hominum
inimicis). 624 ttm.ylca.n. 626 Con. 1 thaeeore. 627 Con., 1 Con. 2 om. se.
629 Ettm.y Gr. 1 meotudes. 631 Ettm. weoruda. 634 Ettm. lofode. 635 Th.
suna (?); Ettm., Gr. 1 suna.

PART II.] CHRIST. 25

freonoman cende, ond hine fugel nemde,

pone ludeas ongietan ne meahtan

in tSaere godcundan Castes strengflu ;

waes J>aes fugles flyht feondum on eorpan
640 dyrne ond degol, )>am J>e deorc gewit

haef don on hrepre, heortan stsenne ;

noldan hi fa torhtan tacen oncnawan

)>e him beforan fremede Freobearn Godes,

monig, mislic[#], geond middangeard.
645 Swa se fsela fugel flyges cunnode :

hwilum engla card up gesohte,

modig, meahtum strang, J>one m[^]ran ham ;

hwilum he to eor)>an eft gestylde,

purh Gsestes giefe grundsceat sohte,
650 wende to worulde. Bi )>on se witgasong :

4 He waes upp hafen engla faeflmum

in his }>a miclan meahta spede,

heah ond halig, ofer heofona ]>rym.'

Ne meahtan J>a ]>aes fugles flyht gecnawan
655 ]>e )>aes upstiges ondsaec fremedon ;

ond )>aet ne gelyfdon, ]>aette Liifruma

in monnes hiw ofer maegna J>rym,

halig from hrusan, ahafen wurde.

Da us geweorSade se fas world gescop,
660 Godes Gaistsunu, ond us giefe sealde,

uppe mid englum ece stafelas,

ond eac monigfealde modes snyttru

seow ond sette geond sefan monna.

Sumum wordlafe wise sendeS

636 Th. freo noman. 637 Ettm. meahton, and so -on elsewhere. 638 Ettm.
gastcs, and so elsewhere. 641 Gr. 1 note staenene (?). 642 Th. note r. tacnu or
tacna; Ettm. tacnu. 645 Go. 1 faele. 647 MS., Edd. maran, except Gr. 1 note
maeran (?). 651 Th., Go., 1 A. upphafen. 654 MS. fljft. 657 Gr. 1 hiwe (?).
659 Con., 1 Con. 2 Sis. 660 Con. 1 sealede. 664 Th. note wordlace (?); Ettm.
wordlade, comparing OHG. wortleita.

26 CHRIST. [PART II.

665 on his modes gemyiid )mrh his mupes Gaest,
aettele ondgiet ; se maeg eal fela
singan ond secgan ; fam brS snyttru craeft
bifolen on ferSe. Sum maeg fingrum wel
hlude fore haelejmm hearpan stirgan,

670 gleobeam gretan. Sum maeg godcunde
reccan ryhte ae. Sum maeg ryne tungla
secgan, side gesceaft. Sum maeg searollce
wordcwide writan. Sumum wlges sped
giefeft aet gupe, J>onne gargetrum

675 ofer scildhreadan sceotend sendaS,
flacor flangeweorc. Sum maeg fromllce
ofer sealtne sai sundwudu drifan,
hreran holmj>raece. Sum maeg heanne beam
staelgne gestig'an. Sum maeg styled sweord,

680 waepen, gewyrcan. Sum con wonga bigong,
wegas wldgielle. Swa se Waldend us,
Godbearn, on grundum his giefe bryttaft.
Nyle he 2engum anum ealle gesyllan
ggestes snyttru, ))y-laas him gielp scej>j?e

685 ]?urh his anes craeft ofer 6|>re for5.

Dus God meahtig geofum unhneawum,
Cyning alwihta, craeftum weor$aj>
eorfan tuddor ; swylce eadgum blaed
seleS on swegle ; sibbe raeref

690 ece to ealdre engla ond monna.

665 T^.gaest (=:' guest'). 666 Con?' ongiet. 667 Ettm. byiS, and so always ;
Th., Ettm., Gr., 1 K., Go. snyttru craeft; Con., 1 Con.? Gr.? A. snyttrucraeft.
668 Ettm. befolhen. 669 Con?- styrgan, Ettm. styrjan. 671 Ettm. rihte, and
so elsewhere. 672 Con., 1 Con? learolice. 673 Con., 1 Con? word cwide; MS.
sum 11 , S. and A. say the u by another hand. 674 Con., 1 Con? giefed, 'Son. 675
Th. note r. hreoftan ; Ettm. scildhreoftan ; Con., 1 Con? sendeft. 677 Con. 1 sund
wudu; Ettm. J>rifan. 678 Ettm., Gr., 1 K. heahne. 680 Con., 1 Con? begong.
681 Con., 1 Con? wi gielle (='elata voce'). 682 Con., 1 Con? bryttad. 683 Con.
gefyllan (='replere'). 684 MS. hi, not hi, as Th., Ettm., Gr. 1 read; Con. scefte
685 Con., 1 Con? ford.

PART II.] CHRIST. 27

Swa he his weorc weorj>a5. Bi )>on se witga cwaeft

paet ahaefen waeren halge gimmas,

haedre heofontungol, healice upp,

sunne ond mona. Hwaet sindan }>a
695 gimmas swa scyne buton God sylfa ?

He is se soSfaesta sunnan leoma,

englum ond eoro'warum aefele sclma.

Ofer middangeard mona lixefi,

gsestlic tungol ; swa seo Codes circe
700 purh gesomninga sofies ond ryhtes

beorhte bliceft, swa hit on bocum cwi)>

si})J)an of grundum Godbearn astag,

Cyning claenra gehwaes. pa seo circe her

sefyllendra eahtnysse bad
705 under hae|>enra hyrda gewealdum.

paer t5a synsceafcan soj>es ne giemdon,

gaestes }>earfe ; ac hi Codes tempel

brsecan ond basrndon, blodgyte worhtan,

feodan ond fyldon. Hwaefre forS bicwom
710 J>urh Gsestes giefe Codes )>egna blaed,

aefter upstige ecan Dryhtnes.

Bi fon Salomon song, sunu Dauipes,

giedda gearosnottor gaestgerynum,

waldend wer})eoda, ond )>aet word acwaet5 :
715 * CuS }>aet geweor8et5 }>aette Cyning engla,

Meotud, meahtum swift, munt gestylleft,

gehleapeft headune, hyllas ond cnollas

bewrift mid his wuldre, woruld alyseS,

692 Ettm. ahafen. 693 Ettm. up. 695 Ettm. silfa. 698 MS. lixed. 699
Gr. 1 se ; Ettm. swa seo Godes cyrce, gaestlic tungol. 701 Siev. suggests cwi'Se'S.
703 ,E#/tf . cyrce. 704 Ettm. eahtnisse (note ehtnisse (?)). 705 Ettm. hirda.
709 MS. feodan, between o and d a letter erased. 710 MS. blaefi. 712 Ettm.
Davides ; 6V., 1 A. Dauides. 713 7%., Ettm. gearo snottor. 717 Gr., 1 A. hea
dune.

28 CHRIST. [PART IL

ealle eorSbuend, purh pone aepelan styll.'

720 Waes se forma hlyp pa he on fsemnan astag,
maegeS unmaele, ond pair mennisc hiw
onfeng butan firenum ; paet to frofre gewearfc
eallum eorSwarum. Waes se oper stiell
bearnes gebyrda, pa he in binne waes,

725 in cildes hiw clapum bewunden,

ealra prymma prym. Waes se pridda hlyp,
Rodorcyninges raes, pa he on rode astag,
Faeder, frofre Gaest. Waes se feorSa stiell
inbyrgenne pa he pone beam ofgeaf

730 foldaerne faest. Waas se fifta hlyp
pa he hellw[a]rena heap forbygde
in cwicsusle, cyning inne gebond,
feonda foresprecan, fyrnum teagum,
gromhydigne, pair he gen ligeS

735 in carcerne, clommum gefaestnad,

synnum gesaeled. Waes se siexta hlyp,
Halges hyhtplega, pa he to heofonum astag
on his ealdcySSe. pa waes engla preat
on pa halgan tid hleahtre blipe

740 wynnum geworden. Gesawan wuldres prym,
aepelinga Ord, eples neosan,
beorhtra bolda. pa wearS burgwarum,
eadgum, ece gefea ^Epelinges plega.
pus her on grundum Godes ece Beam

745 ofer heahhleopu hlypum stylde,

modig aefter muntum. Swa we men sculon

heortan gehygdum hlypum styllan

of maegne in maegen, mserpum tilgan, .^'

jig Th. call. 724 Ettm. gebyrdo; Gr. 1 gebyrd; Gr? gebyrdu. 725 Th^
Ettm., Gr. 1 biwunden. 728 Ettm., Gr. 1 gast. 731 MS., Th. hellwerena.
737 MS., Edd. haliges. 738 Th. eald cyftiSe. 740 Th., Ettm., Gr. 1 gesawon.
743 7^. eadgu. 748 Ettm. tiljan.

PART II.] CHRIST. 29

}>aet we to |>am hyhstan hrofe gestigan,
750 halgum weorcum, )>aer is hyht ond blis,

gejmngen fegnweorud. Is us pearf micel

faet we mid heortan haelo secen,

pair we mid gaeste georne gelyfatS

J>aet faet Haelobearn heonan up stige
755 mid usse lichoman, lifgende God.
Forpon we a sculon Idle lustas,

synwunde, forseon, ond J>aes sellran gefeon.

HabbatS we us to frofre Faeder on roderum

aelmeahtigne. He his aras ponan,
760 halig of heaht5u, hider onsendeS,

fa us gescilda)) wiS sce|>|>endra -

eglum earhfarum, )>I-laes unholdan

wunde gewyrcen, fonne wrohtbora

in folc Codes forft onsende^
765 of his braegdbogan biterne strael.

Forpon we faeste sculon wiS j?am faerscyte

symle waerlice wearde healdan,

J>y-lais se attres ord in gebuge,

biter bordgelac, under banlocan,
770 feonda faersearo. paet bi$ frecne wund,

blatast benna. Utan us beorgan J>a,

fenden we on eor8an card weardigen !

Utan us to Faeder freoj>a wilnian,

biddan Beam Codes ond }>one blit5an Gaest,
775 ]>aet he us gescilde wit5 sceaj>an waepnum,

lafra lygesearwum, se us lif forgeaf,

752 Ettm. secan. 753 Th. note >aet(?); Ettm. baet ; Ettm. note baer J>aet, MS.
754 Th., Ettm., Go., A. upstige. 757 Ettm. synwunda ; MS. sellran ; Ettm.
selran. 758 Th. note we seems redundant. 760 Th. heahftu ; Ettm . heahftum.
762 MS., Th. englum ; Th. note eglum (?) ; Ettm. J>y. 765 Siev. bitterne (PBB.
x. 496). 767 Ettm. sjmle, and elsewhere. 768 Th., Ettm. ingebuge. 770 Ettm.
byS, and elsewhere. 771 Ettm. uton. 773 Siev. suggests Faedere (PBB. x. 483)
and so i

30 CHRIST. [PART II.

leomu, lie, ond galst ! Si him lof symle,
Jmrh woruld worulda wuldor on heof[o]num.

^) Ne fearf him ondraedan deofla straelas

780 senig on eorSan selda cynnes,

gromra ga.rfare, gif hine God scildej),
duguSa Dryhten. Is }>am dome neah
faet we gelice sceolon leanum hleotan,
swa we widefeorh weorcum hlodun

785 geond sidne grund. Us secgaS bee
hu aet serestan eadmod astag
in middangeard maegna Goldhord,
in faemnan faeftm Freobearn Codes,
halig of heahjm. Huru ic wene me

790 ond eac ondraede dom p]y refran
Sonne eft cymeS engla peoden
]>e ic ne heold teala }>aet me Haalend min
on bocum bibead. Ic J>aes brogan sceal
geseon synwraece, |?ass }>e ic sot5 talge,

795 fair monig[>] beo'5 on gemot laaded
fore onsyne eces Deman.

ponne |-| cwacaS, gehyreS Cyning maetSlan,
rodera Ryhtend, sprecan rej?e word
fam J>e him ser in worulde wace hyrdon,

800 fendan [^ ond *f y|>ast meahtan
frofre findan. paer sceal forht monig
on J?am wongstede werig bidan

777 Con. 1 leomulic ; sel him ; MS. se' (i by another hand], according to S. and
A.\ but, according to Go. 1 s>, and to Go? s e . 778 Con., 1 Ettm. heofonum ; MS.,
other Edd. heofnum. 780 Ettm. alda. 783 h ^/"hleotan by another hand.
784 Th., Ettm. wide feorh. 786 Go. 1 ead mod. 788 Th. freo beam. 789 Th.
heahbu; Ettm. heahftum ; R. heahbum. 790 MS. dyrej?ran. 794 Th. note Perhaps
sinwraece, ' eternal vengeance? which Gr. 1 rejects ; Ettm. talige. 795 MS. laeda'S.
797 For the runes GV. 1 prints the corresponding Roman letters. 798 Ettm. rodora
rihtend. 802 Th., Ettm., Gr., 1 Go. 1 werig; 6>. 2 werig.

PART II.] CHRIST. 31

hwaet him sefter dsedum deman wille

wra]?ra wita. Bi}> se f scaecen
805 eorpan fratwa. fl waes longe

I s flodum bilocen, llfwynna dael,

Y on foldan. ponne fraetwe sculon

byrnan on baele ; blac rasetteo"

recen reada leg, rej>e scri^eo"
810 geond woruld wide. Wongas hreosaS,

burgstede berstafc. Brond bi$ on tyhte ;

ile$ ealdgestreon unmurnlice

gsesta gifrast, )>aet geo guman heoldan,

penden him on eorj>an onmedla waes.
815 Forpon ic leofra gehwone laeran wille

paet he ne agsele gsestes )>earfe,

ne on gylp geote, }>enden God wille

J>aet he her in worulde wunian mote,

somed simian sawel in lice,
820 in }>am gaesthofe. Scyle gumena gehwylc

on his geardagum georne bij^encan

paet us milde bicwom meahta Waldend

803 Th. note Absence of the rune , and the want of connexion in the sense, prove
the loss of a couplet [i.e. long line] between II. 22 and 23 [i.e. after wita] ; Ettm.
note Litera deficientis nomen est Eh, ejusque notio : equus ; Gr. 1 inserts as 804,
after wille : [on ham E. fullan daege engla dryhten], which Siev. criticizes (PBB.
x. J'/J') ; Gr. 1 note 804 habe ich eingeschaltet, weil sonst nicht nur der Buchstabe E.
fehlt, sondern auch der Zusammenhangunterbrochen ist ; E. full = eh -full, egefull
terribilis (sonst ist E = Eh equus) ; A*, indicates omission after wille; J?. note In der
ausgefallenen Zeile muss die erune vorgekommen setn, etwa mit der Bedeutung ege ;
Go. indicates no omission in text ; Wii. leaves a space for the line ; Gr. and Wii. of
course number all succeeding lines one higher than the other Edd. 804 Ettm.
scacen ; Gr. 1 sceacen, but notes MS. reading; Gr. 2 scaecen. 806 Gr} bilocan ;
Gr. 2 bilocen. 807 Ettm. fraetwa. 808 Ettm. birnan, and elsewhere; MS., Th,
blacra setteft (Th., tr., according to Kenble's emendation, 'dusk shall crackle 1 );
Kenble, quoted by Th. (note, and p. 502}, and by Gr. 1 note, emends to blac (blase,
blac) raescettetf; Ettm. blac raesceteS; other Edd. blac rasetteft. 809 Th. Ettm.
recenreada; R. recene reada; Th., Ettm., Gr., 1 R. lig. 812 Th. ontyhte (tr.
' kindled ') . 8 1 3 Th . gaesta (tr. ' of guests ') ; Ettm . gasta ; K. geoguman .814 Ettm.
unmedla 817 Ettm. gilp. 819 Ettm. sawl. 820 Th., Gr. 1 gasthofe; /?. gast-
hofe. 821 Gr. 1 in.

32 CHRIST. [PART n.

3dt aerestan furh faes angles word;
bv6 nu eorneste fonne eft cymeft,

825 reSe ond ryhtwls. Rodor biS onhrered,
ond fas miclan gemetu middangeardes
beofiaft fonne ; beorht Cyning leanaft
faes fe hy on eorfan eargum dsedum
lifdon leahtrum fa. paes hi longe sculon,

830 ferSwerge, onfon in fyrbafte,

waelmum biwrecene, wrafllc ondlean.

ponne msegna Cyning on gemot cymeS
frymma masst[<f], feodegsa brS
hlud gehyred bi heofonwoman,

835 cwanendra cirm ; ce[#]r[/]ge reotaS
fore onsyne eces Deman,
fa fe hyra weorcum wace truwiat5.
Daer bi]> o^ywed egsa mara
fonne from frumgesceape gefraegen wurde

840 aefre on eorftan. paer biS seghwylcum
synwyrcendra on fa snudan tid
leofra micle fonne eall feos Isene gesceaft
fae[t] he hine sylfne on j>am sigefreate
behydan maege, fonne herga Fruma,

845 aefelinga Ord, eallum demet5,

leofum ge laSum, lean aefter ryhte,
feoda gehwylcre. Is us fearf micel '
faet we gsestes wlite air fam gryrebrogan

825 Ettm. rihtwis. 826 Ettm. gemetu. 827 MS., Th. (tr. 'wait'), Ettm.,
Wu. beheofia'3; Gr., 1 R. beofia'S ; X. indicates a break after beofiaS; R. note
Offenbar ist das beziehungswort des hy in z. 13 [828] ausgefallen. 828 Ettm. hi,
and elsewhere. 830 MS. fyr bafte, the y corrected from i (so A.}; not fyr bade,
as Th., Ettm., Gr., 1 Go. read (so A.). 830 MS., Edd. fefSwerige. 831 Ettm.
welmum; Th. note biwrigene or biwrogene (?). 833 MS. maesta (so Go., 1 Go?};
Go. 2 maesta. 835 MS. cwan'endra ; Th., Ettm. Frucht cwanendra; MS. cerge ;
Ettm., Gr. 1 cearge. 837 Ettm. hira, and elsewhere; Siev. (PBB. x. 486) for
metrical reasons prefers treowaS to truwia'S. 839 Ettm. gefregen. 842 MS., Th.,
Wii. leofra; Ettm., Gr. 1 eal. 843 Ettm. )>aet; MS., other Edd. baer.

PART II.] CHRIST. 33

on fas gsesnan tid georne bif encen.
850 Nu is fon gelicost, swa we on laguflode

ofer cald waeter ceolum liftan,

geond sidne sse sundhengestum,

flodwudufm], fergen. Is fast frecne stream,

ySa ofermaeta, )>e we her on lacafc
855 geond fas wacan woruld, windge holmas

ofer deop gelad. Waes se drohtat5 strong

aerfon we to londe geliden haefdon

ofer hreone hrycg ; J>a us help bicwom,

}>aet us to haelo hyfe gelsedde
860 Codes Gsestsunu, ond us giefe sealde,

J>aet we oncnawan magun ofer ceoles bord

hwaer we saelan sceolon sundhengestas,

ealde yftmearas, ancrum faeste.

Utan us to ]>asre hy5e hyht stafelian,
865 t$a us gerymde rodera Waldend,

halge on heahfu, |>a he \_to] heofonum astag.

853 Ettm. flodwudum. 854 R. ofermaetu; Th. onlaca~5. 862 Ettm. hwar.-^
866 Th. heah>u; Ettm., Gr., 1 R. heah-Sum; Ettm. note to heofonum (?), AfS. t
Edd. om. to.

PART III. DOOMSDAY.

Donne mid fere foldbuende

se micla daeg meahtan Dryhtnes

aet midre niht msegne bihlaem[m]e$,
870 scire gesceafte, swa oft sceafia fsecne,

)>eof )>ristllce, )>e on fystre fareS,

on sweartre niht sorglease haele'S

semninga forfehS slaepe gebundne,

eorlas ungearwe yfles gensegeft.
875 Swa on Syne beorg somod up cymefc

maegenfolc micel, Meotude getrywe,

beorht ond bllpe ; him weorj>eft bla&d gifen.

ponne from feowerum foldan sceatum,

J>am ytemestum eorj>an rices,
880 englas aelbeorhte on efen blawafc

byman on brehtme ; beofaS middangeard,

hrOse under haelej>um. HlydaS tosomne,

trume ond torhte, wifc tungla gong,

singaS ond swinsia)> su|)an ond norpan,
885 eastan ond westan, ofer ealle gesceaft ;

weccat5 of deatSe dryhtgumena beam,

call monna cynn, to meotudsceafte

egeslic of paire ealdan moldan ; hataS hy upp astandan

sneome of slsepe J>y faestan. p2er mon maeg sorgende folc
890 gehyran, hygegeomor, hearde gefysed,

cearum cwlpende cwicra gewyrhtu

868 Ettm. meahtum. 869 Th. note bihlemmeiS (?) ; Ettm. bihlemme'S.
871 Th., Ettm., Grl fasreiS. 875 Ettm. om. up. 878 Ettm. fram. 885 MS.
healle. 888 Gr. 1 note egeslice (?); Th., Ettm., Go., A. uppastandan. 890 Th.
hyge geomor.

PART III.] CHRIST. 35

forhte afaerde. paet b'tf> foretacna maest

J?ara J>e ser oJ>J>e sift aefre gewurde

monnum opywed. paer gemengde beotS
895 onhaslo gelac engla ond deofla,

beorhtra ond blacra ; weor}>e$ bega cyme,

hwitra ond sweartra, swa him is ham sceapen

ungelice englum ond deoflum.

ponne semninga on Syne beorg
900 sufaneastan sunnan leoma

cymeS of Scyppende scynan leohtor

]>onne hit men maegen modum ahycgan,

beorhte blican, fonne Beam Codes

)mrh heofona gehleodu hider oSywefl.
905 Cymet$ wundorlic Cristes onsyn,

aefelcyninges wlite, eastan fram roderum,

on sefan swete smum folce,

biter bealofullum, gebleod wundrum,

eadgum ond earmum ungelice.
910 He bi6 |>am godum glaedmod on gesihpe,

wlitig, wynsumlic, weorude }>am halgan

on gefean faeger, freond ond leoftael ;

lufsum ond li|?e leofum monnum

to sceawianne ]>one scynan wlite,
915 weSne mid willum, Waldendes cyme,

Maegencyninges, J>am |>e him on mode aer

wordum ond weorcum wel gecwemdun.

He biS pam yflum egeslic ond grimllc

to geseonne, syngum monnum,
920 fam [}>e] fser mid firenum cumaS forft forworhte.

892 Siev. suggests (PBB. x. j'/j') foretacn, for metrical reasons. 894 7%., GV., 1
Go. )>ar. 895 Ettm. unhaelo. 896 Ettm. blacra. 897 Ettm. hama. 900 Th.
su)an eastan. 901 Ettm. scippende scinan. 903 Ettm. note beorhtre (?). 906
Gr. 1 from. 913 Ettm. note byfi lufsum (?); Ettm. mannum. 914-fiV/w.sceawanne.
919 MS., Edd. synnegum ; but cf. Siev. (PBB. x. 459). 920 Ettm. >am >e.

36 CHRIST. [PART HI.

past maeg wites to wearninga |?am }>e hafaS wisne gepoht,

paet se him eallunga owiht ne ondraedefc;

se for Ssere onsyne egsan ne weorpetS

forht on ferSe, ponne he Frean gesihfc
925 ealra gesceafta ondweardne faran

mid msegenwundrum mon[z]gum to pinge,

ond him on healfa gehwo[n]e heofonengla freat

ymbutan faraS, aelbeorhtra scolu,

hergas haligra, heapum geneahhe./-
930 DyneS deop gesceaft, ond fore Dryhtne faerefc

waelmfyra msest ofer wldne grund,

hlemmeS hata leg ; heofonas berstaft;

trume ond torhte tungol ofhreosaS.

ponne weorpeS sunne sweart gewended
935 on blodes hiw, seo Se beorhte scan

ofer airworuld selda bearnum ;

mona ]>aet sylfe, }>e ser moncynne

nihtes lyhte, nifer gehreoset5 ;

ond steorran swa some stredaS of heofone,
940 )>urh Sa strongan lyft stormum abeatne.
Wile ^Elmihtig mid his engla gedryht,

maegencyninga Meotod, on gemot cuman,

prymfaest peoden. BiS J>aer his J?egna eac

hrepeadig heap. Halge sawle
945 mid hyra Frean faraS, fonne folca Weard

Jmrh egsan frea eorSan masg^e

sylfa geseceS. WeorfeS geond sidne grund

hlud gehyred heofonbyman stef n ;

921 Gr., 1 G0., Wil. wites, with short vowel, but cf. Siev. (PBB. x. 456) on this
and 264; Th. note wearninge (?) ; Ettm. wearninge; Ettm. habbaiS. 924 Th.
J>on. 926 MS., Edd. mongum. 927 MS., Ettm. gehwore. 931 Ettm. welmfyra.

936 Ettm. ealda. 937 Th. note se sylfa(?); Ettm. note Si >aet silfe 'item,
pariter ' exprimere non posset (cf. J>aet a.n = 's0tum '), mona, J?aet silfe leoht, legerem.

938 Ettm. gehweorfeft. 942 Ettm. meotud. 944 Th. note, Ettm. sawla.

PART III.] CHRIST. 37

ond on seofon healfa swogaft windas,
950 blawaS brecende bearhtma mseste,

weccaS ond woniafc woruld mid stormc,

fyllaft mid f[2]re foldan gesceafte.

Donne heard gebrec, hlud, unmaete,

swar ond swiftlic, swegdynna maest,
955 aeldum egeslic, eawed weor}>efc.

pair maegen werge monna cynnes

worn urn hweorfaS on widne leg,

J>a J>ae"r cwice mete5 cwelmende fyr,

sume up, sume ntyer, seldes fulle.
960 ponne bifc unt[w]eo J>aet ]>xr Adames

cyn, cearena full, cwtyeS gesarga[d],

nales fore lytlum, leode geomre,

ac fore )?am maestan msegenearfe}>um,

Sonne call preo on efen nimefc
965 won fyres waelm wide tosomne

se swearta lig, sses mid hyra fiscum,

eorpan mid hire beorgum, ond upheofon

torhtne mid his tunglum. Teonleg somod

J>ry))um baerneS freo eal on an
970 grimme togaedre. GrornaS gesargad

eal middangeard on )>a maeran tid.

Swa se gifra gaest grundas geondsece^,
htyende leg heahgetimbro ;
fylletS on foldwong fyres egsan,

952 MS. feore, and so Edd. ; Ettm. note fyre(?); Th., Go. tr. 'with their
breath? Gr. (Dichtungen) ' mit Feuer? Gr. 2 feore ( vttd' (vgl. v. 973* [i.e. 974]); but
cf. 867; Ettm. gesceafta. 955 Ettm. ealdum. 956 Th., Ettm. maegenwerge
(Th. tr. 'most accursed'). 958 Ettm. metaft cwealmende. 959 Th. note fylle(?),
which Ettm. note rejects. 960 MS., Th. untreo (Th. tr. ' faithless'}-, Ettm.+
untweo. 961 MS. gesargaft. 963 Ettm. maestum. 965 Gr. 1 note wonfyres(?);
Ettm. welm ; Ettm. to somne. 970 Ettm. to gaedre grorna^S ; MS. gesargad, corr.
from gesargad. 973 Ettm. hySende.

38 CHRIST. [PART

975 wldmaire blaist, woruld mid ealle,
hat, heorogifre. Hreosaft geneahhe
tobrocene burgweallas. Beorgas gemeltafc
ond heahcleofu, J>a wiS holme ser
faeste wi$ flodum foldan sce[l]dun,

980 sti5 ond stae6faest, stapelas wiS waege,

waetre windendum. ponne wihta gehwylce
deora ond fugla deaftleg nimet) ;
faereS aefter foldan fyrswearta leg,
weallende wiga. Swa aer waeter fleowan,

985 flodas afysde, fonne on fyrbafie
swelaS saefiscas sundes getwsefde ;
waagdeora gehwylc werig swelteS ;
byrnep waeter swa weax. pair bi5 wundra ma
fonne hit aenig on mode maege apencan,

990 hu faet gestun, ond se storm, ond seo stronge lyft,
brecaS brade gesceaft. Beornas gretaft,
wepaS wanende wergum stefnum,
heane, hygegeomre, hreowum gedreahte.
SeofeS swearta leg synne on fordonum,

995 ond goldfraetwe gleda forswelgaS,
call aergestreon ej?elcyninga.
Dalr biS cirm, ond cearu, ond cwicra gewin,
gehreow, ond hlud wop, bi heofonwoman,
earmlic aelda gedreag. ponan aenig ne maeg
1000 firendaedum fah friS gewinnan,
legbryne losian londes ower ;

975 Gr* blaest, with shorts; T/i., Go. mid-ealle. 977 Ettm. burhweallas.
978 Gr. 1 heah cleofu ; MS. \>u. 979 MS. scehdun ; Th. note sceldun (scyldon)
(?); Ettm. sceldun; Gr. 1 note etwa scendun (?) (vergl. Ahd. sconian 'schonen');
Gr. (Sprachschatti) adopts Th?s suggestion ; Gol note Probably ^ = scedun, past tense of
sceadan, ' to separate'; Go? scefdun. 981 Th. note winnendum. 984 Th. waeter-
fleowan (tr. ' the rivers ') ; Ettm. fleowun. 988 Ettm. birne'S. 991 ttm.grxta$.
993 TA., Go. 1 hygegeomre. 994 ,#/. w^synnumfordone^). 995 ^w.-fraetwa.
998 Gr. 1 ano. 999 Ettm. ealda; Ettm. note gedraeg(P). 1001 Ettm, ohwer.

PART III.] CHRIST. 39

ac J?aet fyr nimeS furh foldan gehwaet,
graefeti grimlice, georne aseceft
in nan ond utan eorSan sceatas,
1005 o)>}>aet call hafaft Sides leoma

woruldwidles worn wailme forbaerned.

Donne mihtig God on pone maeran beorg
mid \>y maestan maegenprymme cymefc,
heofonengla Cyning halig scineS

1010 wuldorlic ofer weredum, waldende God;
ond hine ymbutan ae)>eldugu5 betast,
halge herefeftan, hlutre blica^,
eadig engla gedryht ; ingej>oncum
forhte beofiaS fore Faeder egsan.

1015 Forfon nis aenig wundor hu him woruldmonna
seo unclaene gecynd cearum sorgende
hearde ondrede, Sonne sio halge gecynd,
hwit ond heofonbeorht, heagengla maegen,
for Saere onsyne beofi egsan afyrhte,

1 020 bidaS beofiende beorhte gesceafte
Dryhtnes domes. Daga egeslicast
weorfeS in worulde, fonne Wuldorcyning
J>urh )>rym prea6 J>eoda gehwylce,
hateS arisan reordberende

1025 of foldgrafum, folc anra-gehwylc

cuman to gemote, moncynnes gehwone.

ponne call hrafie Adames cynn
onfehfi flaesce, weor)?eS foldraeste
eardes aet ende. Sceal J^onne anra gehwylc

1030 fore Cristes cyme cwic arisan,
leoftum onfon ond lichoman,

1005 Ettm., Gr. 1 o baet. 1006 Ettm. welme. 1017 Ettm., Gr. (Sprachschatz)
ondraede. 1018 Gr. 1 heahengla. 1020 Ettm. gesceafta. 1023 Siev. (PBB. x.
477) suggests that the metre requires a disyllabic form for Keaft. 1031 Siev.
(PBB. x. 476) would have onfon uncontracted.

4O CHRIST. [PART III.

edgeong wesan ; hafat> call on him
)>aes fe he on foldan in fyrndagum
godes o)>}>e gales on his gseste gehlod,

1035 geara gongum. HafaS aetgaedre bu,
lie ond sawle. Sceal on leoht cuman
smra weorca wlite, ond worda gemynd,
ond heortan gehygd, fore heofona Cyning.
Donne bi)> geyced ond geedniwad

1040 moncyn J>urh Meotud ; micel ariseS

dryhtfolc to dome, si)>J>an deafes bend
toleseS Liffruma. Lyft bio" onbaerned ;
hreosaS heofonsteorran ; hypaS wide
gifre glede. Gaastas hweorfaS

1045 on ecne card. Opene weorpaft
ofer middangeard monna dsede :
ne magun hord wera[s], heortan gepohtas,
fore Waldende wihte bemipan ;
ne sindon him dseda dyrne, ac J>aar biS Dryhtne cutJ,

1050 on ]>am miclan daege, hu monna gehwylc
aer earnode eces lifes,
ond call ondweard paet hi ser offe sitS
worhtun in worulde. Ne biS pser wiht forholen
monna gehygda, ac se msera daeg

1055 hreperlocena hord, heortan gefohtas,
ealle aetyweS. ^Er sceal gefencan
galstes fearfe, se }>e Gode mynteS
bringan beorhtne wlite, fonne bryne costal,
hat, heorugifre, hu gehealdne sind

1060 sawle wit) synnum fore Sigedeman.

1035 Ettm. aet gaedre, and begins 1036 -with bu. 1042 MS. liffruman.
1044 Ettm. gleda. 1047 Th., Ettm., Gr. 1 magon; MS., Go. wera; Th. note
weras (?) ; Ettm., Gr., 1 Wu. weras ; Th. note hord, i.e. breost-hord = heortan
gej>ohtas ; Ettm. note ge^ohta, gen. plur. ab hord dependens, mihi placeret ; Go. 1
The change \to weras] seems unnecessary, //"bemiban is construed intransitively.
1059 Th. heoru gifre. 1060 Ettm. sawla.

PART III.] CHRIST. 41

Donne sio byman stefen, ond se beorhta segn,
ond paet hate fyr, ond seo hea duguS,
ond se engla prym, ond se egsan prea,
ond se hearda daeg, ond seo hea rod,

1065 ryht arsered, rices to beacne,
folcdryht wera biforan bonnatS,
sawla gehwylce, J>ara |>e sift o)>J>e aer
on llchoman leopum onfengen.
Donne weoroda msest fore Waldende,

1070 ece ond edgeong, ondweard gjaeft,
neode ond nyde bi noman gehatne,
beraft breosta hord fore Beam Codes,
feores fraetwe. Wile Faeder eahtan
hu gesunde suna sawle bringen

1075 of )>am e^le J>e hi on lifdon.

Donne beoft bealde )>a ]>e beorhtne wlite
Meotude bringaft ; biS hyra meaht ond gefea
swl^e gesaeliglic sawlum to gielde,
wuldorlean weorca. Wei is J>am pe motun

1080 on )>a grimman tid Gode lician. /

pair him sylfe geseoS sorga masste
synfa men sarigfertte.
Ne bv6 him to are )>aet )>asr fore ellj>eodum
usses Dryhtnes rod ondweard stondeS,
1085 beacna beorhtast, blode bistemed
Heofoncyninges, hlutran dreore,
biseon mid swate, J>aet ofer side gesceaft
scire scineS. Sceadu beoS bidyrned

1063 Th. Jry. 1064 Siev. (PBB. x. 478} would have hea uncontracted.
1070 Siev. (PBB. x. ^77) would have gae$ uncontracted. 1073 Ettm. fraetwa;
Ettm. eahtjan. 1074 Th. note sawle altered from sawla. 1075 Th. onlifdon.
1079 MS. motum. 1081 W. sylf. 1082 Siev. (PBB. x. 478} would have synfa
uncontracted. 1085 Th., 6V., 1 Go. bestemed. 1087 Th. note biseo~5(?). 1088
MS. bydyrned, the i by another hand.

4 2 CHRIST. [PART III.

pair se leohta beam leodum byrhteft.
1090 paet, peah, to teonum [geteod] weorpeft

peodum to prea, pam pe pone Gode

womwyrcende wi[/$]t|V] ne cupun,

paes he on pone halgan beam ahongen waes

fore moncynnes manforwyrhtu,
1095 fair he leoflice lifes ceapode,

peoden moncynne, on pam daege,

mid py weorSe pe no worn dyde

his lichoma leahtra-firena

mid py usic alysde. paes he eftlean wile
uoo purh eorneste ealles ge[m]o[n]ian,

^onne slo reade rod ofer ealle

swegle scineS, on pare sunnan gyld.
On )>a forhtlice firenum fordone

swearte synwyrcend sorgum wlita'S ;
1105 geseo5 him to bealwe past him betst bicwom,

paer hy hit to gode ongietan woldan.

Ond eac pa ealdan wunde ond pa openan dolg

on hyra Dryhtne geseofi dreorigfer^e,

swa him mid naeglum purhdrifan nrShycgende
1 1 10 pa hwltan honda ond pa halgan fet,

ond of his sidan swa some swat forletan,

pair blod ond waeter butu aetsomne

ut bicwoman fore eagna gesyh^,

rinnan fore rincum pa he on rode waes.
1115 Eall pis magon him sylfe geseon ponne,

open, orgete, paet he for aelda lufan,

firenfremmendra, fela prowade.

1090 Gr., 1 Go., 2 Wii. [geteod] ; Go. 1 note The line is evidently defective.
1092 Th. note wom-wyrcendum (?) ; MS., Edd. wita ; Th. note wihte (?). 1093 7%.,
Gr. 1 >aes J?e he. 1094 Th., Gr. 1 manforwyrhtum. 1095 Siev - (PBB. x. 484)
.suggests cyptefor ceapode, comparing gecypte, 1471. 1098 Th. note leahtor-f. (?).
noo Perhaps we should read eornesse (cf. Bl. Horn. 1238); MS., Th., Go.
genomian. 1106 Th. note >aet(?). 1115 Th. ends line with geseon.

PART III.] CHRIST. 43

Magun leoda beam leohte oncnawan

hu hine lygnedon lease on geponcum,
1 1 20 hysptun hearmcwidum, ond on his hleor somod

hyra spatl speowdon ; spraicon him edwit ;

ond on J>one eadgan ondwlitan swa some

helfuse men hondum slogun,

folmum areahtum, ond fystum eac,
1125 ond ymb his heafod heardne gebigdon

beag }>yrnenne blinde on geponcum,

dys[/]ge ond gedwealde.

Gesegun )>a dumban gesceaft,

eorfian ealgrene ond uprodor,

forhte gefelan Frean frowinga ;
1130 ond mid cearum cwiSdun, }>eah hi cwice naeron,

}>a hyra Scyppend sceapan onfengon

syngum hondum. Sunne wearS adwaesced,

pream aprysmed, ]>a sio feod geseah

in Hierusalem godwebba cyst,
1135 }>aet ser Mm halgan hiise sceolde

to weorfunga weorud sceawian :

ufan call forbaerst, )>aet hit on eorjjan laeg

on twam styccum : }>aes temples segl,

wundorbleom geworht to wlite faes huses,
1140 sylf slat on tu, swylce hit seaxes ecg

scearp purhwode. Scire burstan

muras ond stanas mon[z"]ge aefter foldan ;

ond seo eorfte eac, egsan myrde,

beofode on bearhtme ; ond se brad a sae
1145 cyfide craeftes meaht, ond of clomme braec

up yrringa on eorpan fseSm ;

ge on stede scynum steorran forleton

1 1 21 Siev. (PBB. x. 483} suggests spald/<?r spatl. 1 1 27 MS., Edd. dysge. 1 130
Siev. (Heliand, p. xlii) suggests cwiftan ; Th. t Gr. 1 cwico. 1131 MS., Th. J>a J>e.
1134 Gr. 1 [hu]in. \i42MS.,Edd.mong&. 1143 TA.notemynde (?) K\emble\.

44 CHRIST. [PART in.

hyra swaisne wlite. On fa sylfan tid

heofon hluttre ongeat hwa hine healice
1150 torhtne getremede tungolgimmum ;

forfon he his bodan sende fa waes geboren merest

gesceafta scir Cyning. Hwaet ! eac scyldge men

gesegon to soSe, fy sylfan daege

fe [he] on frowade, ]> eodwundor micel,
1155 paette eorSe ageaf fa hyre on laigun

eftlifgende up astodan

fa fe heo aer faeste bifen haefde,

deade, bibyrgde, fe Dryhtnes bibod

heoldon on hrefre. Hell eac ongeat,
1160 scyldwreccende, faet se Scyppend cwom,

waldende God, fa heo faet weorud ageaf,
-hlofe of fam hatan hrefre; hyge wear6 mon[/]gum blissad,

sawlum sorge toglidene. Hwaet ! eac sa cy^de

hwa hine gesette on sidne grund,
1165 tirmeahtig Cyning, forfon he hine tredne him

ongean gyrede, fonne God wolde

ofer sine yfie gan : eahstream ne dorste

his Frean fet flode bisencan.

Ge eac beamas onbudon hwa hy mid bledum sceop,
1170 mon[/]ge, nales fea, ^a mihtig God

on hira anne gestag, fser he earfefu

gefolade fore fearfe feodbuendra,

la^licne dea^ leodum to helpe.

Da wear^ beam monig blodgum tearum
1175 birunnen under rindum, reade ond f icce ;

saep wearS to swate. paat asecgan ne magun

1152 Th., Go. 1 Go? scir-cyning. 1 1 54 Gr. 1 >e [he] ; MS., other Edd. t>e.
1 1 $6 MS., Edd. eft lifgende; Th. upastodan. 1157 Th. bifengen. 1158 MS.
bibyrgede ; Th., Gr. 1 bibyrgede. 1162 MS., Edd. mongum. 1165 ^- carries
him over to 1166. 1166 Th. note r. gyrwede (gearwode). 1 1 68 MS. f ream.
1170 MS., Edd. monge; \$y<?z/. {PBB. x. 486] proposes feawe. 1174 MS., Edd.
blodigum. 1175 Th., Gr. 1 roderum. 1176 Go?- aep; MS. magum.

PART III.] CHRIST. 45

foldbuende, purh frod gewit,

hu fela fa onfundun fa gefelan ne magun

Dryhtnes frowinga, deade gesceafte.

1 1 80 pa fe aefelast sind eorSan gecynda,
ond heofones eac heahgetimbro,
call fore fam anum unrot gewearS,
forht afongen. peah hi ferfigewit
of hyra aef elum aenig ne cufen,

1185 wendon swa-feah wundrum, ]>a hyra Waldend for
of lichoman. Leode ne cu}>an,
modblinde men, Meotud oncnawan,
flintum heardran, paet hi Frea nerede
fram hellcwale halgum meahtum,

1190 alwalda God. paet aet aerestan

foreponcle men from fruman worulde,
purh wis gewit witgan Dryhtnes,
halge, higegleawe, haelefum saegdon
oft, nales gene, ymb faet uj>ele Beam,

1195 tiaet se Earcnanstan eallum sceolde
to hleo ond to hroper haelefa cynne
weorSan in worulde, wuldres Agend,
eades Ordfruma, purh )>a aefelan cwenn.

Hwaes wene6 se }>e mid gewitte nyle
1200 gemunan fa mildan Meotudes lare,

and eal Sa earfeSu fe he fore seldum adreag,

forfon fe he wolde faet we wuldres card

in ecnesse agan mosten ?

Swa fam bits grorne, on ]>am grimman daege
1205 domes )>aes miclan, fam )>e Dryhtnes sceal

deat5firenum forden dolg sceawian,

wunde ond wite. On wergum sefan

1185 Gr. 1 wendon, with short e (but not Dichtungen nor Sprachschatz) ; Th.
ends the line with waldend. 1195 Th. t Go. earcnan stan. 1206 Th., Gr. 1 deafl
firenum ; Gr.' 2 deaiSfirenum. 1 207 MS., Edd. werigum.

46 CHRIST. [PART III.

geseoft sorga maeste : h[y] se sylfa Cyning
mid sine lichoman lysde of firenum,

12 10 furh milde mod, faet hy mostun manweorca
tome lifgan, ond tires blsed
ecne agan ; hy J>aes efiles }>onc
hyra Waldende wi[/$]t[Y] ne cupon ;
forpon pair to teonum pa tacen geseoS

1215 orgeatu on gdd[z/w] ungesailge.

/""s

I ponne Crist siteS on his cynestole,

on heahsetle, heofonmaegna God,

Faeder aelmihtig, folca gehwylcum,

Scyppend scinende, scrife^ bi gewyrntum
1220 call aefter ryhte, rodera Waldend.

ponne beo^ gesomnad on }>a swi)?ran hond

fa cl^nan folc, Criste sylfum

gecorene bi cystum, fa aer sinne cwide georne

lustum Isestun on hyra lifdagum ;
1225 ond }>er womsceafan on fone wyrsan dail

fore Scyppende scyrede weorfaS:

hate^ him gewitan on fa winstran hond

sigora SoScyning synfulra weorud.

pair hy arasade reotaS ond beofiat5
1230 fore Frean forhte ; swa fule swa gset,

unsyfre folc, arna ne wenaft.

Donne bits gsesta dom fore Gode sceaden

wera cneorissum, swa hi geworhtun ger.

paEr biS on eadgum e^gesyne
1235 f r ^ tacen somod, faes fe hi hyra peodnes wel

wordum ond weorcum willan heoldon :
An is serest orgeate ];ger,

faet hy fore leodum leohte blicaf,

1208 Gr. 1 hy ; MS., other Edd. hu. 1210 Th. divides this into three short lines.
1213 MS., Edd. wita; Th. note wihte (?). 1215 MS., Edd. gode. 1223 Th.
ends the line with cwide. 1228 Go. 2 so'S cyning. 1231 MS. weneaft. 1234
Th., Go. eft gesyne.

PART ill.] CHRIST. 47

blaede ond byrhte, ofer burga gesetu ;
1240 him on scinatS aergewyrhtu

on sylfra gehwam sun nan beorhtran.
Ofer is toeacan ondgete swa some,

paet hy him in wuldre witon Waldendes giefe,

ond on seo$, eagum to wynne,
1245 )>aet hi on heofonrice hlutre dreamas,

eadge mid englum, agan motun.

Donne bifl pridde, hu, on )>ystra bealo,

J>aet gesselge weorud gesihS }>aet fordone

sar |?r6wian, synna to wlte
1250 weallendne llg ond wyrma slite

bitrum ceaflum byrnendra scole ;

of }>am him aweaxeS wynsum gefea.

ponne hi J>aet yfel geseoft o^re dreogan,

faet hy }mrh miltse Meotudes genaeson,
1255 fionne hi ]>y geornor Gode fonciaS

blaedes ond blissa, |>e hy bu geseoS,

J>aet he hy generede from niScwale,

ond eac forgeaf ece dreamas :

biS him hel bilocen, heofonrice agiefen.
1260 Swa sceal gewrixled |)am J>e aer wel heoldon

J>urh modlufan Meotudes willan.
Donne bits }>am 6J>rum ungelice

willa geworden : magon weana to fela

geseon on him selfum, synne genoge,
1265 atolearfoSa aer gedenra.

pser him sorgendum sar oftclifeft

]>roht peodbealu on J>reo healfa :

1240 Th., Go. onscina^. 1242 Th. note orgete (?) ; Gr., 1 Wu. to eacan.

1244 Th.> Go. onseo^S; Siev. (PBB. x. 476) would have seo^S uncontracted.

1245 MS., Th., Go. hlutni. 1246 MS. motum. 1248 MS., Edd. gesaelige.
1250 Go., 1 Go. 2 wlite (Go. 1 asserting this to be the MS. reading}. 1265 Gr -^ Go -' 1
WU. atol earfofla.

48 CHRIST. [PART IIL

An is para paet hy him yrmpa to fela,

grim hellefyr, gearo to wite
1270 ondweard seoft, on pam hi a wo sculon

wraec-winnende waergtm dreogan.
ponne is him oper earfepu swa some

scyldgum to sconde, paet hi \ sir scoma mseste

dreogaS fordone : on him Dryhten gesihft
1275 nales feara sum firenbealu laollc ;

ond paet asllbeorhte eac sceawiaS

heofonengla here, ond haelepa bearn,

ealle eorftbuend, ond atol deofol,

mircne maegencraeft, manwomma gehwone.
1280 Magon )mrh pa lichoman leahtra firene

geseon on Jmm sawlum : beoS pa syngan fiaesc

scandum purhwaden[^], swa paet scire glaes,

paet mon yj>aest maeg eall jmrhwlitan.

Donne bift paet pridde pearfendum sorg,
1285 cwipende cearo, paet hy on pa claenan seotJ

hu hi fore goddaadum glade blissiaS,

pa hy, unsaalge, aer forhogdun

to donne, ponne him dagas laestun ;

ond be hyra weorcum wepende sar
1290 paet hi air freollce fremedon unryht.

GeseoS hi pa betran blaade sclnan :

ne biS him hyra yrmSu an to wite,

ac para operra ead to sorgum,

paes pe hy swa faegre gefe[a]n on fyrndagum,
1295 ond swa alnllce, anforletun

1269 GV. 1 wite (but not Sprachschatz nor Dichtungeri). 1270 Siev. (PBB. x.
476} "would have SCO'S uncontracted ; Go?- )>a (Go. 1 asserting this to be the MS. read
ing). 1271 Th., Gr., 1 Go., 1 Go. 2 wraec-winnende; 6V. 2 (and Sprachschatz) wrasc
winnende. 1280 Th. note leahtorfirene (?). 1282 MS., Edd. J?urhwaden;
Frucht >urhwadene (?). 1283 6V. 1 ySast. 1288 Siev. (PBB. x. 477} would have
donne uncontracted. 1290 Gr. 1 hat. 1294 MS., Th., Gr. 1 gefeon.

PART III.] CHRIST. 49

)mrh leaslice lices wynne,

earges flajschoman idelne lust.

pser hi ascamode, scondum gedreahte,

swiciafc on swiman ; synbyrpenne,
1300 firenweorc beraft; on paet pa folc seoS.

Waere him ]>onne betre }>aet hy bealodaede,

aelces unryhtes, ser gescomeden

fore anum men, eargra weorca,

Codes bodan saegdon paet hi to gyrne wiston
1305 firendaeda on him. Ne maeg Jmrh )>aet flaisc se scrift

geseon on paire sawle, hwae|>er him mon soft ]>e lyge

sagaS on hine sylfne, ponne he J>a synne bigaiS.

Maeg mon, swa-J>eah, gelacnigan leahtra gehwylcne,

yfel unclaene, gif he hit anum gesegS ;
1310 ond naenig bihelan maeg on pam heardan daege

worn unbeted ; fiaer hit pa weorud geseotS.
Eala ! paer we nu magon wrape firene

geseon on ussum sawlum, synna wunde,

mid lichoman, leahtra gehygdu,
1315 eagum, unclaene inge]>oncas !

Ne paet aeni^ maeg 6j>rum gesecgan

mid hu micle elne aeghwylc wille

purh ealle list lifes tiligan,

feores forhtlice forft aSolian,
1320 synrust j>wean ond hine sylfne prean,

1296 Th. Jmrhleaslice (tr. 'all-deceiving^. 1298 Gr. 1 note >aes (?). 1299 Th.
note r. byrj>ene. 1300 Siev. (PBB. x. 476} would have scotf uncontracted.
1301 Go., 1 Go. 2 J>on (Go. 1 asserting this to be the MS. reading], 1302 Gr 1 ge-
scomedon. 1305 Th. ends the line with flaesc. 1 306 Th. ends the line with soft.
1307 Th. ends the line with sagaiS. 1309 Siev. (PBB. x. 475) assumes that the
Anglian original had gesagaft. 1311 MS. unbeted from unbeteiS; Th. note r.
weorudas. 1312 Th. note J>aet (?) ; Gr. 1 note baer weras magon (?). 1314 Th. note
leahtor-gehygdu (?). 1317 Gr. 1 note scyle (?). 1319 Gr. 1 note aftolian iibersetzt
Th. durch endure, als ware es a-bolian : es ist das Ahd. adaljan Mhd. edelen nobili-
tare. 1320* Siev. (PBB. x.^r^} would have hwean uncontracted; Gr 1 brean.

50 CHRIST. [PART III.

ond J>aet worn aerran wunde hselan,
J>one lytlan fyrst }>e her lifes sy ;
paet he maege fore eagum eorSbuendra,
unscomiende, eSles mid monnum
1325 brucan bysmerleas, J?endan bu somod

lie ond saw[>/] lifgan mote.
/-/

Nu we sceolon georne gleawlice Jmrhseon

usse hrepercofan heortan eagum

innan uncyste. We mid pam 6<5rum ne magun

1330 heafodgimmum hygej>onces fer<5,
eagum, purhwlltan aenge finga,
hwae]?er him yfel )>e god under wunige,
paet he on )>a grimman tid Gode licie.

ponne he ofer weoruda gehwylc wuldre scinetS

1335 of his heahsetle, hlutran lege,

|?ser he, fore englum ond fore etyeodum,

to }'am eadgestum aerest mae^le^,

ond him swseslice sibbe gehateft,

heofona Heahcyning, halgan reorde
1340 frefrefi he faegre, ond him fri}> beodeS ;

hate5 hy gesunde ond gesenade

on e]?el faran engla dreames,

ond ]?aes to widan feore willum neotan :

* OnforS nu mid freondum mines Faeder rice,
1345 }>aet eow waes ser woruldum wynlice gearo,

blsed mid blissum, beorht eSles wlite,

hwonne ge fa llfwelan mid pam leof[s]tum,

swase swegldreamas, geseon mosten.

Ge |)aes earnedon ]?a ge earme men,

Th. note (p. 503) Read either sawl and moton, or for ~J read mid.
1329 MS. mnan (so Go., 1 Go. 2 ), but A. says Hs. dock wohl innan. 1331 Th.
aengehinga. 1 337 MS. maedleft. 1340 Gr. 1 hi. 1346 Th. note beorhtne (?).
1347 Gr. 1 >onne; MS., Th. leoftum; Th. note r. leofestum; Gr. 1 leofestum.

PART III.] CHRIST. 5 1

1350 worulctyearfende, wUlum onfengu[n]

on mildum sefan. Donne hy him Jmrh minne noman

eaSmode to eow arna bgedun,

J>onne ge hyra hulpon, ond him hleoft gefon,

hingrendum hlaf, ond hragl nacedum ;
1355 ond ]>a fe on sare seoce lagun,

aef[n]don unsofte, adle gebundne,

to J>am ge holdlice hyge stapeladon

mid modes myne. Eall ge paet me dydon,

Sonne ge hy mid sibbum sohtun, ond hyra sefan trymedon
1360 for5 on frofre. paes ge foegre sceolon

lean mid leofum lange brucan.'

OnginneS fonne to |?am yflum ungelice

wordum maeSlan, pe him b[?0]'S on J>a wynstran hond,

purh egsan }>rea, alwalda God.
1365 Ne Jmrfon hi }>onne to Meotude miltse gewenan,

lifes ne lissa, ac |?er lean cumaS

werum bi gewyrhtum worda ond daeda,

reordberendum ; sceolon pone ryhtan dom

aenne geaefnan, egsan fulne.
1370 Bi^ j?asr seo miccle milts afyrred

J>eodbuendum, on ]>am daege,

|?aes ^Elmihtgan, ponne he yrringa

on )>aet fraete folc firene staeleS

lapum wordum, hateS hyra lifes riht
1375 ondweard y[w]an paet he him er forgeaf,

syngum t5 saelum. OnginneS sylf cwetJan,

1350 MS. onfengum. 1354 Go. 1 na.ce dum. 1356 MS., Th., Gr. 1 aefdon ; Gr.
(Sprachschatz) from aefian (afan ?) laborare, but suggests, as an alternative, that it
= aefndon. 1359 G^r. 1 tyrmedon (misprint). 1363 Gr. 1 wordun (misprint}.
1369 MS. anne (S.), but denied by A. 1370 MS. miecle, e by another hand (S.),
miccle (Go. 1 ), miccle (Go?) ; A. das i. c in miccle dariibergeschrieben wohlvon andrer
Hand. 1372 MS., Edd. aelmihtigan ; cf. Siev. (PBB. x. 460). 1373 Gr 1 fraete
(with short vowel). 1375 MS., Th. y5an (tr. 'to flow').

52 CHRIST. [PART HI.

swa he to anum sprece, ond hwaepre ealle msenefc,

firensynnig folc, Frea aelmihtig :

' Hwaet ic )>ec, mon, hondum minum
^380 merest geworhte, ond pe ondgiet sealde ;

of lame ic J?e leo}>[o] gesette, geaf ic Se lifgendne gsest ;

arode pe ofer ealle gesceafte, gedyde ic paet fu onsyn haefdest,

maegwlite, me gelicne ; geaf ic pe eac meahta sped,

welan ofer widlonda gehwylc ; nysses pu wean senigne dail,
1385 Systra, paet Jm folian sceolde. pu J?aes J>onc ne wisses.

pa ic Se swa scienne gesceapen haefde,

wynlicne geworht, ond ]>e welan forgyfen

J>aet $u mostes wealdan worulde gesceaftum,

Sa ic ]>e on pa faegran foldan gesette
1390 to neotenne neorxnawonges,

beorhtne blasdwelan, bleom scinende ;

Sa Jm lifes word laestan noldes,

ac min bibod brsece be fines bonan worde ;

fsecnum feonde furfor hyrdes,
-395 sce})fendum sceafan, ponne finum Scyppende.

Nu ic Sa ealdan race anforlsete,

hu |?u aet aerestan yfle gehogdes,

firenweorcum forlure faet ic Se to fremum sealde.

pa ic }>e goda swa fela forgiefen haefde,
:4oo ond fe on ]?am eallum eades to lyt[<?/]

mode fuhte, gif ]>u meaht[#] sped

efenmicle Gode agan ne moste,

Sa ]>u of fan gefean fremde wurde,

feondum to willan feor aworpen ;

1 37 9 MS., Edd. minum hondum. 1380 MS. salde, the e by another hand.
1381 MS., Th., Go., 1 Go? leoj>e. 1386 Th. >e. 1387 Th. ends line with J>e.
1390 MS., Th., Go., 1 Go. 2 neorxna wonges. I398b Th. >e; Th. firenum (tr.
'comfort '); Th. note frefrunge or frofre for firenum (?) ; MS. slide, the e, accord
ing to A., by another hand. 1399 Gr. 1 goda, with short o (misprint). 1400 MS.,
Edd. lyt. 1401 7"h. note r. meahta; MS., other Edd. meahte. 1403 Siev.
(PBB. x. 478} would have gefean uncontracted.

PART III.] CHRIST. 53

1405 neorxnawonges wlite nyde sceoldes
agiefan, geomormod, gsesta efel,
earg ond unrot, eallum bidaeled
dugef um ond dreamum ; ond fa bidrifen wurde
on fas feostran woruld, fair fu folades sif fan

1410 maegenearfefu micle stunde,

sar ond swar gewin ond sweartne deafc,
ond aefter [hjingonge hreosan sceoldes
hean in helle, helpendra leas.

'Da mec ongon hreowan faet min hondgeweorc

1415 on feonda geweald feran sceolde,

moncynnes tuddor mancwealm seon,

sceolde uncuSne card cunnian,

sare sifas. pa ic sylf gestag,

maga in modor, feah waes hyre maegdenhad

1420 seghwaes onwalg. WearS ic ana geboren

folcum to frofre. Mec mon folmum biwond,

bifeahte mid |>earfan waedum, ond mec fa on feostre alegde

biwundenne mid wonnum clafum, hwaet ! ic f aet for wor-

ulde gefolade !
Lytel f uhte ic leoda bearnum ; laeg ic on heardum stane,

1425 cildgeong on crybbe, mid fy ic fe wolde cwealm afyrran,
hat hellebealu ; faet f u moste halig scinan
eadig on fam ecan life, forSon ic faet earfef e worm.

' Naes me for mode, ac ic on magugeoguSe
yrmjm geaefnde, arleas llcsar,
1430 faet ic furh fa waere [f]e gelic,
ond fu meahte mmum weorfan
maegwlite gelic, mane bidaeled ;

1405 As in sjgo. 1408 Gr. 1 bedrifen. 1409 MS., Go. weoruld ; TA., Wu.
weorulde; Gr. 1 worulde. 1412 MS. ingonge. 1416 Siev. (PBB. x. 476) would
have seon uncontracted. - 1422 Gr. 1 btyeahte mec mid. 1424 Tk., Gr. 1 om. second
ic. 1425 7^., Go., 1 Go. 2 cild geong. 1426 Th., Go., 1 Go? helle bealu. 1429
Gr. 1 geaefnede 1430 MS. wege lie ; Edd. be gelic.

54 CHRIST. [PART III

ond fore monna lufan mm J>rowade

heafod hearmslege. Hleor ge|>olade ;
1435 ft ondlata arleasra spatl

of muSe onfeng manfremmendra.

Swylce hi me geblendon bittre tosomne

unswetne drync ecedes ond geallan.

Donne ic fore folce onfeng feonda genf51an ;
1440 fylgdon me mid firenum faehpe ne rohtun

ond mid sweopum slogun. Ic paet sar for 8e

}mrh eaftmedu call gefolade,

hosp ond heardcwide. pa hi hwsesne beag

ymb min heafod heardne gebygdon,
1445 ]?ream biprycton ; se waes of pornum geworht.

Da ic waes ahongen on heanne beam,

rode gefaastnad. Da hi ricene mid spere <

of minre sidan swat ut g[u]tun,

dreor to foldan, paet ])u of deofles purh J>aet

1450 nydgewalde genered wurde.

Da ic, womma leas, wlte ]>olade,
yfel earfe))u, offaet ic anne forlet
of minurn lichoman lifgendne gaist.

' Geseo^ nu J>a feorhdolg pe gefremedun aer
1455 on mlnum folmum, ond on fotum swa some,
furh )>a ic hongade, hearde gefaestnad ;
meaht her eac geseon, orgete nu gen,
on mlnre sidan swatge wunde.

1435 Th- and lata ( tr - <and l a te'), and so Gr. 1 -, Th, note late (?) ; Gr. 1 note
andlata (?) man erwartet die Bedeutung ' Backenstreiche ' oder 'Beschimpfung" 1 ; Gr.
(Sprachschatz) andlata (?) ; Go., 1 Go., 2 Wii. follow Grein's suggestion and unite the
words. 1439 Gr? Jx>ne. 1443 Th., Go., 1 Go. 2 heard cwide. 1446 MS. hean ne ,
ne by another hand; Gr. 1 heahne, but notes MS. reading. 1448 Th., Go., 1 Go. 2
end 1447 with ricene; MS., Th., Go., 1 Go. 2 gotun ; Gr. 1 guton; Wii. gutun.

1451 MS. wite corrected from wita. 1452 Th. anneforlet (tr. 'sent forth').
1454 Th., Gr. 1 gefremedon ; Gr. 2 ge fremedon ; MS. gefremedun, not as S. reads,
gefremedum (so A.). 1457 Th. r. meahte. 1458 Th. swat-gewunde (tr. 'the
gory wound').

PART III.] CHRIST. 55

1 Hu J>ser waes unefen racu unc gemiene !
1460 Ic onfeng \>~m sar, j?aet pu moste gesaelig mines

epelrices eadig neotan ;

ond pe mine deatSe deore gebohte

pset longe lif, paet pu on leohte sippan,

wlitig, womma leas, wunian moste.
1465 Laeg min flaeschoma in foldan bigrafen,

nij>re gehyded se t>e naingum scod

in byrgenne, paet pu meahte beorhte uppe

on roderum wesan, rice mid englum.
* Forhwon forlete pu lif paet scyne,
1470 )>aet ic )>e for lufan mid mine lichoman,

heanum to helpe, hold gecypte ?

Wurde \>u |?aes gewitleas paet |>u Waldende

finre alysnesse J?onc ne wisses.

Ne ascige ic nu owiht bi pam bitran
1475 deafte minum pe ic adreag fore |?e ;

ac forgield me ]?in lif, }>aes ]>e ic iu fe min

purh woruldwite weorS gesealde ;

Saes lifes ic manige pe \>u mid leahtrum hafast

ofslegen synlice, sylfum to sconde.
1480 Forhwan \>u }?aet selegescot, |>aet ic me swses on |?e

gehalgode, bus to wynne,

furh firenlustas, fule synne,

unsyfre bismite, sylfes willum?

Ge ]>u pone lichoman J>e ic alysde me
1485 feondum of faeSme, ond }>a him firene forbead,

scyldwyrcende scondum gewemdest.

Forhwon ahenge J>u mec hefgor on pinra honda rode

ponne iu hongade ? Hwaet! me peos heardra pynceS.

Nu is swserra mid mec pinra synna rod,

1460 Gr. 1 alone ends line with mines, but cf. Holthausen, AngLBeibL xii.jjj.
1464 MS., Edd. mostes. 1467 Th. ends line with beorhte. 1487 Gr. 1 me.
1488 Th. note r. heardre ; Gr. 1 heardre. 1489 Th. note r. swaerre ; Gr. 1 swaerre.

56 CHRIST. [PART in.

1490 fe ic unwillum on beom gefaestnad,
fonne seo ofer waes ]>e ic er gestag
willum minum, fa mec fin wea swifast
aet heortan gehreaw, fa ic pec from helle ateah
fair fu hit wolde sylfa sif f an gehealdan !

1495 ' Ic waes on worulde wasdla, J>aet 3u wurde welig in heof-

onum;

earm ic waes on eSle fmum, faet fu wurde eadig on mmum.

pa (5u }?aes ealles senigne J>onc

finum Nergende nysses on mode./

' Bibead ic eow, J>aet ge bropor mine
1500 in woruldrice wel aretten

of pam ashtum ]>e ic eow on eorSan geaf,

earmra hulpen. Earge ge fast laastun :

fearfum forwyrndon fast hi under eowrum faece mosten

in gebugan, ond him aeghwaes oftugon,
1505 furh heardne hyge, hraegles nacedum,

moses meteleasum. peah hy him furh minne noman,

werge, wonhale, wsetan basdan,

drynces, gedreahte, dugufa lease,

jmrste gefegede, ge him friste oftugon.
1510 Sarge ge ne sohton, ne him swaesllc word,

frofre, gespraacon,. faet hy fy freoran hyge

mode gefengen. Eall ge faet me dydan,

to hynfum Heofoncyninge. paes ge sceolon hearde adreogan

wite to widan ealdre, wraec mid deoflum gefolian.'
1515 Donne fasr ofer ealle egesllcne cwide

sylf sigora Weard, sares fulne,

ofer faet faege folc for6 forlsete5,

1490 gefaestnad in MS. from gefaestna'S. 1495 Go. weadla; Th., Gr. 1 on.

1496 MS., Th. worde. 1497 Th. Da. 1499 Th. gebroj>or. 1503 Th. ends
line with eowrum. 1504 Th., Go. 1 , Go. 2 in-gebugan. 1509 Th. note gej>regede
(?). 1511 Th. ge spraecon. 1512 Th., Gr. 1 dydon. 1513 Th. ends line with
hynjnim.

PART in.l CHRIST. 57

cwiS to para synfulra sawla fepan :

'Fara^S nu, awyrgde, willum biscyrede
1520 engla dreames, on ece fir,

}>aet waes Satane ond his gesijmm mid,

deofle gegearwad ond J>aere deorcan scole,

hat ond heorogrim ; on J>aet ge hreosan sceolan.'

Ne magon hi fonne gehynan Heofoncyninges bibod,
1525 raedum birofene ; sceolon rape feallan

on grimne grund, )>a aer wip Code wunnon.

BiS ponne rices Weard repe ond meahtig,

yrre ond egesful. Ondweard ne maeg

on pissum foldwege feond gebidan.

/ 1530 SwapeS sigemece mid faere swi[6]ran hond

J>aet on paet deope dael deofol gefeallatS,

in sweartne leg synfulra here,

under foldan sceat faege gaestas,

on wrapra wic womfulra scolu,
1535 werge to forwyrde on wltehus,

dea^sele deofles. Nales Dryhtnes gemynd

stypan gesecaS ; synne ne aspringatS,

J>aer hi leahtrum fa, lege gebundne,

swylt prowiaS. Bi$ him synwracu
1540 ondweard, undyrne ; faet is ece cwealm.

Ne maeg paet hate dael of heolotScynne

in sinnehte synne forbaernan,

to widan feore worn of paere sawle ;

ac }>aer se deopa seats dreorge fedet5,
1545 grundleas giemeS gsesta on feostre,

hy mid ]>y ealdan lige ond mid J>y egsan forste,

1526 grimne in MS. from grimme. 1530 MS. swiran. 1533 MS. scit.
1535 Th. wite hus. 1536 MS. deof oles ; Th., Gr. 1 deofoles. 1539 Th. note
or eternal vengeance [i.e. sin-wracu, as interpreted by Grein in his note}. 1 541 Th.
r. haelefl. 1542 Th., Gr. 1 sin nihte.

58 CHRIST. [PART in.

wrapum wyrmum ond mid wita fela,
frecnum feorhgomum, folcum sce[^<^]et5.

paet we magon eahtan, ond on an cwepan,
1550 soSe secgan, paet se sawle weard,

lifes wisdom, forloren haebbe,

se pe nu ne glemeS hwaeper his gaest sie

earm pe eadig, pair he ece sceal

aefter hingonge hamfaest wesan.
1555 Ne bisorgaS he synne to fremman,

wonhydig mon, ne he wihte hafaS

hreowe on mode, paet him Halig Gest

losige ]>urh leahtras on fas laanan tid.

Donne mansceaSa fore Meotude forht,
1560 deorc on )?am dome standeS, ond dea^e fah,

wommum awyrged ; bi^ se waarloga

fyres afylled, feores unwyrSe,

egsan gepread ondweard Gode ;

won ond wliteleas, hafa6 werges bleo,
1565 faceritacen feores. Donne firena beam

tear[^] geotaS fonne faes tid ne bij>,

synne cwifa^ ; ac hy to slS doft

gaestum helpe, "Sonne }>aes glman nele

weoruda Waldend, hu }>a womsceaj>an
1570 hyra ealdgestreon on ])a openan tid

sare greten. Ne bij? ]?aet sorga tid

leodum alyfed, paet pair lalcedom

findan mote se pe nu his feore nyle

hallo strynan penden her leofaS.
1575 Ne bi'5 pser aengum godum gnorn aetywed,

1548 MS. scendeiS; G'r. 1 note sceiS'Se'S (?), and so Spr. 1549 Gr., 1 Go., 1 Go?
cwe'San. 1 563 Siev. (PBB. xii. ^77) would have gejn-ead uncontracted. 1 564 Gr. 1
werges; Gr. 2 werges. 1565 Th. facen tacen ; Th. note r. fira (tr. 'children of
men ') ; Go., 1 Go. 2 tr. 'sons of men.' 1566 MS., Edd. tearum ; Th. note tearas (?).
1 567 Siev. (PBB. x. ^77) -would have dot> uncontracted.

PART III.J

CHRIST.

J>enden him peos woruld,

scinan mote,
on pas Isenan tid
ond his dagena rim,

ne naengum yflum wel ; ac paer aeghwaeper

anfealde gewyrht ondweard wigeS.
ForSon sceal onettan se }>e agan wile

lif aet Meotude, penden him [lie] ond gsest
1580 somodfaest]/] s[^]n. He his sawle wlite

georne bigonge on Codes willan,

ond [w]aer weorfce worda ond daeda,

peawa ond gefonca,

sceadum scri|>ende,
1585 faet he ne fqrleose

his dreames blaed,

ond his weorces wlite, ond \_/iis~\ wuldres lean,

}>aette heofones Cyning on ]>a halgan tid

softfaest syleS to sigorleanum,
1590 J>am |>e him on gsestum georne hyrat$.

ponne heofon ond hel haelej>a bearnum

fira feorum fylde weorj)[^z]t5.

Grundas swelgaS Codes ondsacan;

lacende leg la^wende men
1595 freaS, J>eodscea|)an, ond no J?onan lset[e]t$

on gefean faran to feorhnere ;

ac se bryne bindefc bidfaestne here,

feoft firena beam. Frecne me J>ince$

]>aet ]>as gsestberend giman nellatS,
1600 men on mode, fonne man [fremmatS],

hwaet him se Waldend to wrace gesette,

lajnim leodum. ponne lif ond deaS

1576 GrJ Wii. aengum. 1577 Th. note [for wige$] aetyweS (?). 1578
MS. on nettan (A.}. I579 b Gr> lie ; MS., other Edd. leoht. 1 580 Th. somod
faest; Th. note r. faeste; MS., Edd. seon. 1582 MS., Th., GrJ Go. 1 J>r;
Gr.? Go., 2 IVii. waer. 1 584 Th. note scrij?endum. < For man walketh in a vain
shadow.' 1592 MS., Edd. weorj>e$. 1595 MS., Th., Go., 1 Go. 2 laetaS; Gr., 1
Wu. laete'S. 1597 MS., Th. biiS faestne; Th. note bit (?) ; Gr. 1 bid-faestne.
1600 Gr. 1 bonne man [fremmaft] ; other Edd. end the line -with hwaet, and leave
MS. reading. 1601 Th. ends line with to. 1602 Schubert (p. 5-9) lig.

60 CHRIST. [PART III.

sawlum swelgaft, bio 1 susla hus

f*SVf

open ond oSeawed aftlogum ongean ;
1605 Saet sceolon fyllan firengeorne men

sweartum sawlum. ponne, synna \to\ wrac[^],

scyldigra scolu ascyred weorpeS,

heane from halgum, on hearmcwale.

Dair sceolan J?eofas ond )?eodsceaj>an,
1610 lease ond forlegene, lifes ne wenan,

ond mansworan mo[r])>orlean seon,

heard ond heorogrim. ponne hel nimeS

waarleasra weorud, ond hi Waldend giefefi

feondum in forwyrd ; fa frowiaS
1615 ealdorbealu egeslic. Earm bi5 se J?e wile

firenum gewyrcan feet he, fah, scyle

from his Scyppende ascyred weorSan

aet domdaege to dea^e ni]?er,

under helle cinn in faet hate fyr,
1620 under Hges locan ; f>aer hy leomu rsecafc

to bindenne ond to baernenne

ond to swingenne, synna to wite.

Donne Halig Gsest helle biluceS,

morferhusa maast, furh meaht Codes,
1625 fyres fulle ond feonda her[^]e[5-],

Cyninges worde. Se bi)> cwealma maest

deofla ond monna. paet is dreamleas hus.

Dser aenig ne maeg 6[w]er losian

caldan clommum. Hy braecon Cyninges word,
1630 beprht boca bibod ; forfon hy abidan sceolon

in sinnehte, sar endeleas

1606 AfS. wracu ; Th. note wrace (?). 161 1 MS. mo}>orlean. 1612 Th. heoro
grim. 1614 Frucht (/. 7^) suggests forwyrde as a possible reading. i6iSMS. dom
dsege (S.). 1621 MS. bindenne, the m, or three strokes resembling it, perhaps by
another hand. 1624 Gr. 1 morflorhusa. 1625 MS., Edd. here. 1628 MS. oj>er ;
Th. note oj>erne leosan (tr. ' other loosen ') ; Gr. 1 + ower. 1631 Th., Gr. 1 sinnihte ;
Th. ende leas.

PART III.] CHRIST. 6l

firendaedum fa forS }>r6wian,

t$a J>e her [for]hogdun heofonrices pryrn.

ponne }>a gecorenan fore Crist berafl
1635 beorhte fraetwe ; hyra blaed leofafi

aet domdaege ; agan dream mid Code

Ityes lifes, paes J>e alyfed bi)>

haligra gehwam on heofonrice.

Daet is se ej>el \>e no geendad weorpefl,
1640 ac paer symle for5 synna lease

dream weardiao", Dryhten lofiafi,

leofne lifes Weard, leohte biwundne,

sibbum biswe^ede, sorgum biwerede,

dreamum gedyrde, Dryhtne gelyfde ;
1645 awo to ealdre engla gemanan

brucat5 mid blisse, beorhte mid lisse,

freogaft folces Weard. Faeder ealra geweald

hafa$ ond healdetS haligra weorud[].

Dser is engla song, eadigra blis ;
1650 ]>se[r] is seo dyre Dryhtnes onsien

eallum }>am gesaelgum sunnan leohtra;

t5aar is leof ra luf u ; lif butan deafie ;

glaed gumena weorud; giogutS butan ylde;

heofondugutSa }>rym ; hallu butan sare ;
1655 ryhtfremmendum raest butan gewinne ;

dom eadigra ; daeg butan j^eostrum,

beorht, blaedes full; blis butan sorgum;

frit5 freondum bitweon for5 butan aefestum

gesaelgum on swegle ; sib butan ni)>e

1633 MS. hogdun ; Gr. 1 note forhogdun (?) ; Go., 1 Go.? Wii. forhogdun ; Go. 1
note evidently an error for forhogdun, or ne hogdun. 1635 Gr. 1 leofaft; Gr?
leofaft. 1636* Go. 2 ends hemistich with agan. 1645 G- 1 a wa. 1646 Th.> Gr. 1
beorht. 1647 7fc- Go., 1 Go. 2 end line with ealra. 1648 MS., Edd. weorud.
1650 MS. baes. 1651 Gr. 1 haem; Gr. 1 leohtre. 1652 MS., Edd. endedeafte ;
Schubert (p. 49) and Siev. suggest (PBB. xii. 477) that ende should be omitted.
1655 ^ r - 2 has no comma after gewinne. 1656 Th., Gr., 2 Go., 1 Go.' 2 dom-eadigra;
Gr. 1 dom eadigra.

62 CHRIST. [PART HI.

1660 halgum on gemonge. Nis pair hunger ne Jmrst,
slaip ne swar leger, ne sunnan bryne,
ne cyle ne cearo ; ac fser Cyninges gief[e]
awo brucaS eadigra gedryht,
weoruda wlitescynast, wuldres mid Dryhten.

1663 MS. gief, after which is an erasure. 1664 Th. wlite scynast

CHRIST 1665-1693.

[Thus according to some reckonings. Gollancz regards this passage as the
beginning of Guthlac, and so prints it. Cosijn considered it an independ
ent poem.]

1665 Se bi3 gefeana faegrast fonne hy aet frymo'e gemetaft

engel ond seo eadge sawl ; ofgiefef hio fas eorfan wynne,

forlseteo" fas laenan dreamas, ond hio wif fam lice gedgeleo".

Donne cwi<5 se engel hafaS yldran had

greteS gsest of erne, abeodeo" him Codes serende :
1670 4 Nu fu most feran }>ider fu fundadest

longe ond gelome ; ic fee laedan sceal.

Wegas fe sindon wefe, ond wuldres leoht

torht ontyned. Eart nu tidfara

to fam halgan ham fser nsefre hreow cymet5,
1675 edergong fore yrmfum ; ac fair bif engla dream,

sib, ond gesaelignes, ond sawla raest ;

ond fair a to feore gefeon motun,

dryman mid Dryhten, fa fe his domas her

aefnao 1 on eorfan. He him ece lean
1680 healdeS on heofonum, fser se hyhsta

ealra cyninga Cyning ceastrum wealdefc.

Daet sind fa getimbru fe no tydriafi,

ne fam fore yrmfum fe fair in wuniafc

lif aspringeo", ac him bit5 lenge hu sel ;
1685 geogufe brucaS ond Codes miltsa.

pider soSfaestra sawla motun

cuman aefter cwealme, fa fe aer Cristes se

laeraS ond laestaS, ond his lof raeraS,

oferwinnaS fa awyrgdan gsestas, bigytaS him wuldres raeste.'

64 CHRIST. [PART in.

1690 Hwider sceal paes monnes mod astigan
aer o)?J>e aefter, J>onne he his aenne her
gsest bigonge )>aet se Gode mote
womma claene in geweald cuman ?

NOTES.

PART I.

The superscriptions suggested by editors and commentators for this Part are
as follows :

Wanley : i. Poema sive Hymnus de Nativitate D. N. I. C. et de B. V. Maria.

Thorpe : To Jesus Christ.

Dietrich r Die Ankunft Christi auf Erden.

Grein : I.

Gollancz 1 : Primus Passus de Nativitate, I.

Gollancz 2 : A. The Nativity, I.

Wulker : i. Teil : Die Ankunft Christi auf Erden.

The divisions of the poem recognized by the several editors are these (the
line-number is that of the line with which the new section begins) :

Wanley : 2. Poema sive Hymnus in laudem B. V. Mariae, Earendelis Angeli
(sive Luciferi), Melchisedechi, et D. N. Jesu Christi : 71.

3. Poenta sive Hymnus maxime de B. V. Maria : 164.

4. Poema sive Hymnus ad B. V. Mariam : 275.

5. Hymnus de Deo, qui Filium suum misit in mundi redemptionem : 378.

1. Liber II, cujus Hymnus prior est de Nativitate D. N. Jesu Christi: 440.

2. Poema de die Judicii : 517.

3. Poema de mundi Creatione : 600.

4. Poema de Christi Incarnatione, etc. : 686.

5. Poema de die judicii, ex quo desumpsit Dns Hickesius illud specimen,
Litteris Runicis insignitum, quod designatur littera C, ad pag. 4. Gramm.
Islandicae : 779.

Liber III in quo habentur

1. Descriptio Poetica diei Judicii : 867.

2. Adhuc de die Judicii: 972.

3. Adhuc de die Judicii : 1081.

4. Adhuc de die Judicii : 1199.
[5.] Adhuc de die Judicii: 1327.

6. Adhuc de die Judicii, et damnatione Impiorum : 1428.

7. De supplicio Peccatorum, et gaudio beatorum in coelis : 1530.

Wanley begins the next section (i66$-Guth. 790 [818]) thus : ' Liber IV,
octo constans Capitibus, agit de Gaudiis quae paravit Deus pro iis qui ama-
venint eum et mandata ejus impleverunt; cum narratione Poetica eorum quae in
spiritu viderit in caelos raptus Guthlacus. (Vid. visiones Guthlaci Anachoretae.)'

68 NOTES. [PART i.

Conybeare agrees with Wanley, except that he entitles the second poem of
Bk. II. ' A Description of the Entrance of the Saints into the Glory of Heaven ' ;
the third, ' An Hymn of Thanksgiving for the General Mercies of God ' ; while
the fourth is described as ' the sequel of the former poem ' (p. 202).

Thorpe: [2.] To the Virgin Mary: 71.

[ 3.] On the Nativity: 164.

[ 4.] On the Nativity : 275.

[ 5.] To the Trinity : 378.

[ 6] On the Nativity: 416.

[ 7.] On the Nativity and Ascension : 440.

[ 8.] On the Ascension, and the Harrowing of Hell 1 : 517.

[ 9.] Hymn of Praise and Thanksgiving: 600.

[10.] Hymn in Continuation of the Foregoing: 686.

[n.] Poems on the Day of Judgment : I. 779; II. 867; III. 972.

[12.] On the Crucifixion : 1081.

[13.] On the Day of Judgment: I. 1199; II. 1327.

[14.] On the Crucifixion, etc. : 1428.

[15.] Of Souls after Death, etc. : I. 1530; [II. 1665.]

Ettmiiller classifies as follows (p. xvi) : ' Alterum est carmen in laudem benig-
nitatis dei, magis ornatum quidem quam Casdmonis, sed idem consuetam cleri-
corum rationem non deserens [600-778],

Tertium locum hymni merentur, quorum etiamsi unus alterve latini poematis
versio judicaretur, non nulli tamen magni sunt pretii maximeque decori, idque
poetae Saxonici curn. Sunt autem

a) Hymnus in Christum [ij.

b) Hymni duo in Christum natum [164?; 275?].

c) Hymnus in Christi ascensionem [440].

d) Hymnus in Christi resurrectionem et descensionem in infernum [517].

e) Hymnus in Trinitatem [378].

f) Hymnus in Mariam virginem salvatoris matrem [71].

g) Hymnus in laudem dei fautoris hominum [416?].

Quartum locum concedimus carmini de judicio supremo, Cynevulfo auctore
supra jam laudato. Tres habet cantus [779, 867, 972] carmen amplissimum.

Praeter hoc Cynevulfi carmen quo alia de judicio supremo poemata habemus,
quorum primum duos [1199, 1327] habet cantus. Auctores ignorantur. . . .

Denique carmen in Christum crucifixum [1081] et carmen in Christi resurrec
tionem et descensum in infernum [1428-1530] recenseri debent, utrumque medio-
cris pretii ; qui pepigerit ea, nescimus.'

The ' alterum carmen ' he prints on pp. 223-7, under the title of ' Lofsang.'
That to which he assigns the ' quartum locum ' he prints on pp. 239-246, under
the title, ' Be J?am domes daege.' It will be observed that he makes no account
of 1530 ff.

1 Thorpe added in a note : ' This poem evidently forms a continuation of the one pre
ceding.'

PART I.] NOTES. 69

Dietrich: It. 71 ; III. 164; IV. 275; V. 378; VI. 416; VII. 440; VIII. 517;
IX. 600; X. 686; XI. 1 779; XL* 867; XL 8 972 ; XII.* 1081 ; XIII. 6 1199;
XIII. 1327; XIVJ 1428; XV.s 1530; [XV.a 1665.]

It will be seen that Wanley, Thorpe, and Dietrich divide at the same places,
except that Wanley does not recognize the division at 416.
Dietrich has :

[2.] Seine Himmelfahrt [v. 440].

[3.] Seine Wiederkunft zum Gericht [v. 779].

Grein: II. 50; III. 71; IV. 104; V. 130; VI. 164; VII. 214; VIII. 275; IX.
348; X. 378; XI. 416; XII. 440; XIII. 558; XIV. 586; XV. 691; XVI. 779;
XVII. 867; XVIII. 1007; XIX. 1216; XX. 1336; XXL 1362; XXII. 1549.

Rieger is curiously eclectic in his procedure. While his text is based upon
Thorpe's, his ' Parts ' are those of Dietrich, and his ' Songs ' follow the divisions
of Grein, except that in one case he reverts to Thorpe. Accordingly, his ' Sechster
gesang des ersten teiles ' (p. 116) is vv. 164-213; his ' Dritter gesang des zweiten
teiles ' (p. 118) is vv. 586-685 (not 690, with Grein) ; and his ' Erster gesang des
dritten teiles' (p. 121) is vv. 779-866.

Korner (pp. 136-138) gives Grein's No. VI as ' Gesprach zwischen Maria und
Joseph ' ; and the latter part of Grein's No. XV (vv. 659-690), as ' Lobgesang
auf die Weisheit des Schopfers ' (pp. 138-140).

Sievers (PBB. 12. 455-6) begins Part III with v. 779, and believes that the
three parts were not conceived as divisions of one whole.

Cremer (Untersuchung, pp. 47-48) divides into Christ A (1-778) and Christ B
(779-end).

Gollancz 1 : II. 71 ; III. 164; IV. 275; V. 378.

Secundus Passus de Ascensione : I. 440; II. 517 ; III. 600; IV. 686; V. 779.
Tertius Passus de Die Judicii : I. 867 ; II. 972 ; III. 1081 ; IV. 1 199; V. 1327 ;
VI. 1428; VII. 1530.

Gollancz 2 : Like Gollancz J , except :

B. The Ascension.

C. The Day of Judgment.

Trautmann (Anglia 18. 382-8) recognizes the divisions 1-439, 440-866, 867-
end, but assumes that they constitute three separate poems.

Blackburn (Anglia 19. 89-98) recognizes the divisions 1-439, 440-866, 867-
1664, and subdivides as follows:

Part I. i. a: 1-32 ; b: 33-49 ; c: 50-70; 2. a: 71-103; b: 104-163 ; 3. a : 164-213 ;
b: 214-274; 4. a: 275-347; b: 348-377; 5^:378-402; b: 43~439-

Part II. i: 440-546; 2: 547~743 5 3 : 744-7?8; 4= 779~ 866 -

Part II I.

Wiilker : Like Grein, except :

2. Teil : Christi Himmelfahrt [v. 440].

3. Teil : Christi Wiederkunft zum jiingsten Gericht [v. 779].

/O NOTES. [PART i.

The following general table will show at a glance the divisions recognized by
those who have dealt with the poem as a whole.

Wanley Thorpe Grein Cook

Gollancz

18
5
7*
104
130

164 164 164 ...... 164

214

275 2 75 2 75 2 75

348

378 378 378 378

416

44 44 44 44

517

Thorpe
Dietrich

Grein
Wiilker

-Q

I 7O

164.

l64 ......

. . . 214

27?

148 .

-,78

*78

416

44O

440

<?s8 .

;86 .

686

. 6qi

779

. . . 779

867

867 . . . .

1007

1081

1216

I ^27

i^^6

. 1 162

. 1428 .

I e -?O

. i<UQ .

6oo
686

601

779

867 867 867 867

972

1081
1199

T -507

1362

1428

'53

The manuscript evidence for divisions is as follows (after Gollancz 2 , and
Assmann, in Wiilker) :

Three-line space : [1665].

Two-line space : 440, 867.

One-line space: 71, 164, 378, 517, 600, 972, 1530.

Half-line space : 779, 1327, 1428.

About a third of a line space : 275, 1 199.

Part of line blank (only one word in line): 686, 1081.

Other indications are the Amen at 440, the : 7 at 71, 164, 275, 378, 440, 517,
600, 686, 779, 972, 1081, 1199, 1428, 1530, 1*664; the : at 1327 ; the : 7 : 7 : 7 at
867 (after Gollancz 2 ); and the whole line of capitals at the beginning of 867, and
of [1665].

PART I.] . NOTES. /I

Accordingly, the divisions in any way indicated in the manuscript are those
of Wanley-Gollancz, which are evidently insufficient, since they do not take
account of all the Antiphons. My omission of subdivisions (I indicate those of
other editors) in Parts II and III has reference merely to what I can discern of
the structure of these parts ; in other words, the manuscript divisions are not, in
my opinion, structurally inevitable, as they are in I.

Part I consists, to a large extent, of variations on a series of antiphons. These
comprise

(a) The Greater Antiphons of Advent, sometimes called the O's ;

(b) Four Antiphons included by certain mediaeval churches among the Greater
Antiphons, or associated with them ;

For convenience of reference, these twelve antiphons are subjoined, in the
order just given. The Greater Antiphons follow the order in which they are
sung at vespers from Dec. 17 to Dec. 23 inclusive, and all, except the last, follow
the order in which they are found in the St. Gallen MS. edited by Tommasi
(Thomasius) in his Opera Omnia 4. 182-3 ( c ^- Gueranger, The Liturgical Year,
Advent, pp. 515, 529, 531). The last consists of the two for Trinity Sunday.
After the eighth, ' O Virgin of Virgins,' there occurs in the St. Gallen MS. another,
4 O Gabriel,' which is here omitted.

To each is prefixed a number, indicating the order in which it is used in Part I ;
the numbers added in parentheses are those of the lines based on the respective
antiphons. The translations of the first seven are by Cardinal Newman ( Tracts
for the Times, No. 75 (Vol. 3), pp. 183, 206-7) ? those of the next two from the
English translation of Gueranger ; of the next by myself, the penultimate from
Gueranger, and the last by myself.

(9) O eternal Wisdom, which proceedest from the mouth of the Most High,
reaching from one end of creation unto the other, mightily and harmoniously dis
posing all things : come Thou to teach us the way of understanding. (239-240 ?)

(i ?) O Lord, and Ruler of the House of Israel, who appearedst unto Moses
in the flame of a burning bush, and gavest to him the Law in Sinai : come to
redeem us with a stretched out arm. (Possibly preceding the present beginning.)

(n ?) O Root of Jesse, who art placed for a sign of the people, before whom
kings shall shut their mouths, whom the Gentiles shall supplicate : come Thou
to deliver us, do not tarry. (348-377 ?)

(3) O Key of David and Sceptre of the house of Israel, who openest and none
shutteth, who shuttest and none openeth : come Thou, and bring forth the cap
tive from the house of bondage, who sitteth in darkness and in the shadow of
death. (18-49.)

(6) O Rising Brightness of the Everlasting Light and Sun of Righteousness :
come Thou and enlighten those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death.
-129.)

O King and the Desire of all nations, and chief Corner-stone, who makest two
one : come Thou and save man whom Thou formedst from the clay. (1-17.)

72 NOTES. [PART i.

(7) O Emmanuel, our King and Lawgiver, the gatherer of the people and their
Saviour: come Thou to save us, O Lord our God. (130-163.)

(5) ' Virgin of Virgins, how shall this be ? for never was there one like thee,
nor will there ever be.' ' Ye daughters of Jerusalem, why look ye wondering at
me? What ye behold is a divine mystery.' (71-103.)

(8) O King of peace, that wast born before all ages : come by the golden gate,
visit them whom thou hast redeemed, and lead them back to the place whence
they fell by sin. (214-274; cf. (9).)

(10) O mistress of the world, sprung of royal seed : from thy womb did Christ
go forth as a bridegroom from his chamber ; here he who ruleth the stars lieth
in a manger. (275 ff.)

(4) O Jerusalem, city of the great God : lift up thine eyes round about, and
see thy Lord, for he is coming to loose thee from thy chains. (50-70.)

(12) O holy, blessed, and glorious Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit:
Thee do all thy creatures rightly praise, adore, and glorify, O blessed Trinity.

(378 ff .)

The correspondence of the seven Antiphons with the sevenfold gifts of the
Holy Spirit (Isa. n. 2, 3), and of the twelve Antiphons with the twelve prophets
who foretold Christ's coming, is mystically pointed out by Honorius of Autun,
Gemma Animae, lib. 3. cap. 5 (Migne 172. 644): Septem O admirando potius
quam vocando cantantur, in quibus septem dona Spiritus sancti notantur, per
quae haec administratur incarnatio, et per quae Christus ab Ecclesia invita-
tur. Ipse quippe est sapientia, in qua Pater fecit omnia, qui venit. in spiritum
sapientiae, docere nos viam prudentiae. Ipse Adonai, quod nomen Moysi indi-
cavit, cui legem in Sina dedit, qui venit per spiritum intelligentiae nos redimere.
Ipse radix Jesse, qui in signum populorum stetit, dum per signum crucis ubique
adorari voluit ; qui in spiritu consilii nos liberare venit. Ipse clavis David, qui
caelum justis aperuit, infernum clausit, et per spiritum fortitudinis vinctos de
domo carceris educere venit. Ipse Oriens et Sol justitiae, qui venit nos illuminare
spiritu scientiae. Ipse Rex gentium et lapis angularis, qui venit salvare hominem
per spiritum pietatis. Ipse est Emmanuel veniens ad nos per Israel, qui venit
ad salvandum nos per spiritum timoris, dans cunctis charismata amoris.

' Si duodecim O cantantur, tune duodecim prophetae exprimuntur, qui Christi
adventum praedicasse leguntur.' On this last point, cf. Durandus, Rationale
Divinorum Officiorum, lib. 4. cap. n.

See also infra, on 71-103, p. 84.

Perhaps the last portion, preceding the first lines of the present poem, may
have been based upon the Antiphon of the Magnificat for December 18 :

O ADONAI, ET DUX DOMUS ISRAEL, QUI MOYSI IN IGNE FLAMMAE RUBI APJ'N
RUISTI, ET El IN SINA LEGEM DEDISTI : VENI AD REDIMENDUM NOSj'lN
BRACK 10 EXTENTO.

PART I.] NOTES. 73

It is conceivable, too, that the early part of the poem may have contained a
variation upon the Gabriel antiphon mentioned above :

O GABRIEL, NUNTIUS CAELORUM, QUI JANUIS CLAUSIS AD ME INTRASTI, ET VER-
BUM NUNTIASTI: CONCIPIES, ET PARIES; EMMANUEL VOCABITUR.'

There being such slight traces discernible in the poem of the Antiphon No. 3
in our list, it might even be thought that this had been treated in the missing
portion, though such an assumption would be fully as doubtful as the preceding
conjecture.

1-17. Based upon the Antiphon of the Magnificat for December 22 :

O REX GENTIUM, ET DESIDERATUS EARUM, LAPISQUE ANGULARIS, QUI FACIS
UTRAQUE UNUM: VENI, ET SALVA HOMINEM, QUEM DE LIMO FORMASTI.

The first source of the Antiphon is Jer. 10. 7: 'Quis non timebit te, O Rex
gentium?' 1 Then Hag. 2. 7 (Vulg. 8): ' Et veniet desideratus cunctis gentibus ' ;
Eph. 2. 20 : ' . . . ipso summo angulari lapide Christo Jesu ' ; Eph. 2. 14:
'. . . qui fecit utraque unum '; Gen. 2. 7: ' Formavit igitur Dominus Deus homi-
nem de limo terrae '; Tob. 8. 8 : ' Tu fecisti Adam de limo terrae.'

1. Cyniiige. With two exceptions, 165 and 732, cyning always denotes God
or Christ. Here the reference must be to the ' Rex ' of the Antiphon. What is
lost in this paragraph must cover the ' O Rex gentium, et desideratus earum ' of
the Antiphon, and can scarcely have exceeded a dozen lines, at most. Cf. the
length of the other divisions which severally correspond to the Antiphons.

Go. 1 says of Cyninge : ' I have purposely omitted it, so as to give the appear
ance of completeness to the poem.' [!]

2. weallstan. On the use of stone in church architecture among the Eng
lish, cf. Bede on Benedict Biscop, Hist. Abb. 5 (the date being ca. 676) : ' Nee
plusquam unius anni spatio post fundatum monasterium interjecto, Benedictus
oceano transmisso Gallias petens, caementarios qui lapideam sibi ecclesiam juxta
Romanorum quern semper amabat morem facerent, postulavit, accepit, attulit.'
In 710 Naiton, king of the Picts, sends to Ceolfrift for architects capable of
building a stone church (Hist. Eccl. 5. 21). Cf. Mayor and Lumby's Bede,
p. 222 ; Traill, Social England, i. 197-8 ; and especially the articles by C. C. Hodges
in The Illustrated Archaologist for March, 1894, and The Reliquary for January,
April, and July, 1893, and January, April, and October, 1894.

For the high estimate placed upon stone buildings in Germany, see Heliand

5577-8 :

that hoha bus hebankuninges,

stenwerko mest.

For German contemporary building in stone, cf. Lauffer, Das Landschaftsbild
Deutschlands im Zeitalter der Karolinger (Gottingen, 1896), pp. 3-4. Cf. El. 1020.

3. wiSwurpon. The reference is to Ps. 118. 22: 'Lapidem, quern reproba-
verunt aedificantes, hie factus est in caput anguli.' Cf. also Mt. 21. 42; Mk. 12.
10 ; Lk. 20. 17; Acts 4. n ; i Pet. 2. 7. ^Elfric has (Horn. 2. 580) : 'Crist is se
lybbenda stan bone awurpon fta ungeleaffullan ludei.' Cf . Jul. 654.

74 NOTES. [PART r.

4. heafod. A Hebraism. See caput, above. The N. T. Greek is
ywvlas ; similarly \idos aKpoywviaios, Lat. lapis (summus) angularis, Eph. 2. 20 ;
i Pet. 2. 6; from Isa. 28. 16.

healle. The word must here virtually signify ' temple.'

5. side. Is reference made to the dimensions of the symbolical temple, such
as are indicated in Ezek. 40 ff. (cf. Rev. 11. i ; 21. 10, 15, 16) ? The living temple
may be expected to cover the whole earth.

6. faeste gefoge. Cf. the 'fitly framed together 'of Eph. 2. 21, \j&\..constructa,
Gr. trvvapfj.o\oyovfji^vij. The same Greek word is found Eph. 4. 16, referring to
the body, .where the Latin is compactum.

flint unbraJcne. The hardness of flint is referred to in 1188; cf. Ezek. 3. 9.
The adamantine indestructibility of this divine temple seems to be the notion
which the poet is seeking to convey.

7. eor'db[yri]g. None of the readings is satisfactory. Wundrien needs a
subject, and a different sort of subject might be looked for than eall, in the sense
of 'all things'; one would rather expect ealle (see the references in Glossary). If
call is adverbial, we lack a subject for the verb, unless, with Grein, we take gesihj>e
as nom. plur. ; but the plur. is not elsewhere found in the poetry, and one would
hardly expect the ' sights of the eyes ' to wonder. Thorpe's emendation would
seem probable, in the light of 422, 1278, were it not for the MS.^-, and the fact
that geond needs an object. Eorfrburg is not found in the poetry; in its two
prose instances, it seems to render Lat. agger. Go. 2 translates earth's cities.

eagna gesih]?e. Cf . 1 1 1 3.

8. to worlde. Perhaps we should read to worttlde, the forms with u far out
numbering the syncopated ones. The phrase clearly means 'for ever '; cf. 101,
' a t5 worulde for 5.' So the Vulgate in saecuhim, Exod. 21. 6, etc.

wuldres Ealdor. Cf. 158, 463, 493, 527, 565, 740, 1197. For the sense, see
Ps. 24. 7; i Cor. 2. 8; Jas. 2. i. Thayer (N. T. Lexicon) interprets 56a in the
last two instances as ' the absolutely perfect inward or personal excellence of
Christ.' Otherwise one would be inclined to think of Mk. 10. 37 ('majestic
state') ; Lk. 24. 26 (' exalted condition '), etc. The exact meaning is very difficult
to fix.

The edd. construe Ealdor as vocative. It is quite as likely that it is accusative
after wundrien ; cf. Ph, 331 ; Gu. 1205. Wundrian is usually construed with the
gen., but even in prose with the ace.; cf. Wulfing, Syntax I. 262. Gr. finds no
other instance of its absolute use. Then, too, a vocative is not so likely to be
found at the end of a paragraph as at the beginning, after eald. For these rea
sons I prefer to regard Ealdor as ace.

Brooke translates wuldres Ealdor as ' Master of Magnificence,' and connects it
with the following.

10. socJfaest, sigorbeorht. Brooke translates ' true-fast and triumphant-
clear ' whatever that may mean.

forlset. Gr. assumes ellipsis of a dependent infinitive, and so in 30, mi; he
translates (Dichtungen) by lass . . . steigen ; Th., Go. 2 by leave ; Go. 1 by leave . . .
erect. Thorpe's rendering is probably the best, understanding leave as leave
remaining, leave standing, like a<j>eivai, relinquere, in Matt. 24. 2; Mk. 13. 2; Lk.
19. 44; 21. 6. In all these instances, Lind. and Rush. 2 have forleta, while the WS.

PART I.] NOTES. 75

Gospels and Rush. 1 have lafan, Wycliffe leeve. ^Elfric has forlatan, Lk. 19. 44
(see my Biblical Quotations, p. 204). Goth, goes with Lind.: I'etand, Lk. 19. 44.

11. weall wi<5 wealle. According to Gregory, the two walls signify (i) the
Jews and the Gentiles, (2) the church on earth and the angels in heaven. Thus
in his Moralia, commenting on Job 38. 6 (Migne 76. 458) : ' Jam per divinam
gratiam omnibus liquet, quern Scriptura sacra angularem lapidem vocet, ilium
profecto qui, dum in se hinc Judaicum illinc gentilem populum suscipit, in una
Ecclesiae fabrica quasi duos parietes jungit, ilium de quo scriptum est: Fecit
utraque unum (Ephes. 2. 14). Qui angularem se lapidem non solum in inferiori-
bus, sed et in supernis exhibuit, quia et in terra plebi Israeliticae nationes gen
tium et utram que simul angelis in caelo sociavit. Eo quippe nato clamaverunt
angel i : In terra pax hominibus bonae voluntatis (Luc. 2. 14). In ortu enim
Regis nequaquam pro magno offerrent hominibus pacis gaudia, si discordiam
non haberent.' This is interesting : If reconciliation between angels and men
had not been needed, the former would never have sung peace on earth, for that
song implied that there had been, if not antagonism, at least variance. Cf. also
Migne 79. 617 ; ./Elfric, Horn. i. 38.

Jerome likewise recognizes the twofold interpretation. He says (Migne 26.
476) that, according to the second of these, Christ ' caelestia jungat atque
terrena.' Amalarius (Migne 105. 1269) gives only the first interpretation.

^Elfric on Ps. 118. 22 (Horn. i. 106) follows Gregory's first interpretation:
' SoSlice se sealmsceop awrat be Criste )>aet he is se hyrnstan he gefegS J>a twegen
weallas togaedere, forSanSe he gebeodde his gecorenan of ludeiscum folce and
ba geleaffullan of haeSenum, swilce twegen wagas t5 anre gelaSunge. ... J?a
ludeiscan '5e on Crist gelyfdon wieron him gehendor stSwlice, and eac '5urh
cy35e bare ealdan ae : we wairon swlft'e fyrlyne, aegSer ge stowlice ge Surh uncyfiSe ;
ac he us gegaderode mid anum geleafan to '5am healicum hyrnstane, baet is, to
annysse his gela'Sunge.' In Horn. 2. 578-580, ./Elfric adopts Gregory's second
interpretation: * He (Salomon) haefde getacnunge ures Hielendes Cristes, se'Se
forSi astah of heofenum to "Sisum middanearde, >aet he wolde mancynn gesibbian
and geftwierlJEcan to bam heofenlicum werode, swa swa Paulus, "Seoda lareow,
cwaeS : " Ipse est pax nostra, qui fecit utraque unum Se is ure sib, se'Se dyde
a?gSer t5 anum "; baet is, engla werod and mancynn to anum werode.'

weorce. Rather as in 3 than as in 9; almost = cause.

12. Craeftga. The figure does not dominate the thought ; Christ throughout
is represented as a person, notwithstanding the use of metaphors. Cf. 14^

13. gebrosnad. Cf. the OE. poem, The Ruin. Dietrich refers to Amos 9. 1 1 ;
Acts 15. 1 6.

14. hus. ^Ifric recognizes hus, as a metaphor, in two senses : (a) The one
church universal ; (b) the individual Christian. Both are touched upon in the
following passage (Horn. 2. 580): ' Se gesibsuma Salomon arierde baet msere hus
of eorSlicum antimbre Gode to wur'Smynte, and se gesibsuma Crist getimbrode
fta gastlican cyrcan, na mid deadum stanum, ac mid lybbendum sawlum. . . . Ealle
Codes cyrcan sind getealde t5 anre cyrcan, and seo is gehaten " gela^ung," iSa
getacnode baet an tempel "Se Salomon araerde on iSaere ealdan ae. Nu sind we
cristene menn Codes hus gehatene, swa swa se apostol Paulus cwae'S, " Templum
Dei sanctum est, quod estis uos " ; bast is, " Godes tempel is halig, baet ge sind."

76 NOTES. [PART I.

. . . Fram 'SSre tide vires fulluhtes wunaft se Halga Gast on us, and ealle englas
and ealle rihtwise men sindon his tempel ; forfti sceolon cristene men \>a. fulan
leahtras forseon J?e se swicola deofol taecft, baet hi m5ton beon wufSe \>xs Hal-
gan Gastes onwununge. . . . Fela sind nu Godes hus, ac swa-fteah an, for "Ssere
annysse J?aes softan geleafan fte hi ealle andettaft. Fela fieoda sind be mid mis-
licum gereordum God heriaS, ac swa-fteah hi habbaft ealle aenne geleafan, and
aenne softne God wurftiaft, beah-Se heora gereord and gebedhus manega sind.' Cf.
also i. 368.

bra. Not to be identified with hits ; we have now passed to the second half
of the Antiphon.

15. laimena. On the retention of the middle vowel see Sievers, PBB. 10.
461.

Lilffrea. An appropriate title in this place ; cf, Acts 3. 1 5. For metrical
reasons, Sievers (PBB. 10. 479) would read Liffriga.

16. heap. Seems to mean mankind (cf. the Antiphon) ; but the transition
from the sing, hrd is abrupt. Dietrich refers to Lk. 1.71.

17. swa he oft dyde. So Gen. 2586; Beow. 444; cf. 455; Beow. 1238.

18-49. Based upon the Antiphon of the Magnificat for December 20:

O CLAVIS DAVID, ET SCEPTRUM DOMUS ISRAEL ; QUI APERIS, ET NEMO CLAUDIT,
CLAUDIS, ET NEMO APERIT : VENI, ET EDUC VINCTUM DE DOMO CARCERIS,
SEDENTEM IN TENEBRIS ET UMBRA MORTIS.

From Isa. 22. 22 : ' Et dabo clavem domus David super humerum ejus ; et
aperiet, et nemo erit qui claudat ; et claudet, et non erit qui aperiat ' ; Rev. 3. 7 :
' . . . qui habet clavem David ; qui aperit, et nemo claudit ; claudit, et nemo
aperit* \ Gen. 49. 10 : 'Non auferetur sceptrum de Juda ' ; Isa. 42. 7: ' Ut . . .
educeres de conclusione vinctum, de domo carceris sedentes in tenebris?

This Antiphon was a favorite with Alcuin, who frequently recited it in the
closing days of his life. Cf. Alcuini Vita, cap. xiv, in Migne 100. 104-5: 'Jam
ergo Albinus corpore dissolvi cupiens et cum Christo esse desiderans, exorabat
eum ut die quo in linguis igneis Spiritus sanctus super apostolos venisse visus
est et eorurri corda replevit, si fieri posset, migraret e mundo. Vespertinum siqui-
dem pro se officium in loco quo elegerat post obitum quiescere, juxta videlicet
ecclesiam sancti Martini, hymnum sanctae Mariae evangelicum cum hac antiphona
decantabat. . . . Tertia tandem antequam migraret die, solitam exsultationis voce
decantavit antiphonam, O clavis David? Cf. Bede, Works 8. 162-3.

18. Eala. Translating O. In the Surtees Hymns frequently found to denote
the vocative, even where O is lacking in the original, in the combination O eald
t>u; thus 3. 16 ; 6. i; 7. 7, etc. The liturgiologist Amalarius, early in the ninth
century, thus comments on the O (Migne 105. 1265) : ' Per illud O voluit cantor
intimare verba sequentia pertinere ad aliquam mirabilem visionem, quae plus per-
tinet ad mentis ruminationem quam ad concionatoris narrationem. Et quoniam
per conceptionem et partum sanctae Mariae facta est haec admiratio, amplius con-
gruunt memoratae antiphonae hymno sanctae Mariae quam Zachariae.' Yet these
antiphons were sometimes used for the Benedictus, instead of the Magnificat ; cf .

PART I.] NOTES. 77

Tommasi, Opera 4. 27. That the O was a cry of admiration rather than a sum
mons, seems to be borne out by the Gabriel Antiphon above, which contains no
verb in the imperative With the line cf. Rid. 4i 8 .

19. locan. Grein (Dicktungen) has ' die Schliissel,' Kemble's emendation in
Solomon and Saturn 184-5 would apparently equate cagan with locan, and the
Antiphon shows that the word must stand for clavis ; besides, how could locks
or bars be held? It is doubtful whether locan is sing, or plur., probably the
former. Riddle 87 is interpreted as ' key '; see Dietrich in Haupfs Zs. n. 486.

21. wllsipes. Th. leaves untranslated; Gr. ' wolergehen ' ; Go. 'career.' The
general sense is determined by the apposition with siges (sigores).

23-26. Gr. translates :

beschworen mutbekiimmert den, der den Menschen schuf,
dass er nicht eile mit Hass das Urteil zu sprechen
der Kummervollen, die wir im Kerker hier
sitzen voller Sorgen wahrend der Sonne Lustfahrt.

Go. 1 has :

Him who created man we supplicate,
that He elect not to declare in hate
the doom of us who sad in prison here
sit yearning for the sun's propitious course.

Similarly Go. 2

23. Go.'s emendation, gemarsigiafri will not admit of his translation, ' suppli
cate,' ' beseech.'

24. I can make nothing of this line. Hete as hete, opt. pret. 3 sing, of
hdtan, can hardly follow a verb in the present, to which -gia5 points ; besides,
the form would be hehte (cf. 294). For hete as inst. sing, of the noun there is no
parallel in the poetry ; in Gen. 757 the word is preceded by mid; besides, hete,
with a short syllable, would not scan.

As for ceose, if we retain it, it is an opt. pres., and therefore inconsistent with
hete, if we suppose this to be an opt. pret. ; it cannot have a simple infinitive
dependent on it ; and there is no alliteration. The metre, too, would be very
exceptional (cf. PBB. 10. 231).

With regard to heofe, whether as verb or noun, it is difficult to see how it is to
be construed with the rest of the line, even if the MS. favored the conjecture.

25. ]?ing. Gr. (Spr.) renders by Versammlung,' 'Gerichtsversammlung';
under heof by ' coetum,' ' multitudinem '; in D. by 'Urteil'; Go. by 'doom.'
The sense of ' doom ' derives some support from 926, though it verges on the
inadmissible.

]?e we. Perhaps to be understood as we />e, in which case we would be ana-
coluthic after cearfulra.

carcerne. Cf. Wulfstan, Horn. 3. 14 ff.: ' Daet is bonne Hem gelicost, be we
nu on carcerne syn betynede on Jnsse worulde ; and eft, bonne se gast wyr5 ut of
"5am llchoman aljed, be he nu mid befangen is, bonne br$ us gesawen baet us air
geszed waes, beah-be we hit nu geortrywan, forSy we hit geseon ne magon.'

26. sorgende. Go. translates ' yearning for,' and is followed by Brooke. This
is perhaps correct, though I know of no instance where sorgian governs the

78 NOTES. [PART i.

ace., and ' yearn for ' is an unusual extension of the ordinary senses of the word.
Sievers (PBB 10. 482) notes that the form is for -iende, Cosijn assumes the loss
of a line, which, adducing 147, he would make something like : btdafr in bendum
+ hemistich.

wilsiS. Th. Gr. 1 take this as an ace. of extent of time. Gr. (Spr.) translates,
'wahrend des Laufes der Sonne, den ganzen Tag lang'; (D.} ' W ah rend der
Sonne Lustfahrt.' Examples of this ace. occur 439, 542, 1322, 1410. There
must be an allusion to the period of Advent, conceived as one of expectation,
with transference to any period of solicitous waiting for spiritual aid.

27. hwonne. So 147, 1347. This use, found elsewhere in the poetry, occurs
also in prose. A typical instance is Lk. 12. 36: 'abldaS hwaenne he sy fram
gyftum gecyrred,' where the Latin has : ' expectantibus . . . quando revertatur a
nuptiis '; in this case the Greek has 7r6re, for birbre (cf. Buttmann, Grammar of N.
T. Greek, p. 251). Other instances are Bede (ed. Miller) 178. 22 ; 186. 23 ; 440. 16 ;
Cura Past. 120. 12; Bl. Horn. 97. 25; 109. 32; Oros. 88. 14; Wulfstan 236. ii;
Boeth. (ed. Fox) 26. 13; 212. 2; Homilies (ed. Assmann) 157. 130; 202. 228.

28. to. This use of to is common in the Christ ; Rose gives a list, pp. 28-9.
There are 6 in Part I, 8 in Part II, and 17 in Part III.

29. Th. ' and the weak understanding surround with honor ' ; Gr. ' und den
zaghaften Sinn mit Zierglanz uns bewinde ' ; Go. 1 ' and wreathe the feeble mind
with radiant grace' (Go. 2 'splendor').

tydre gewitt. Cf. tydran mode, 371.

30-32. Professor Bright would translate : ' Make us worthy of this (what has
preceded), us, whom he hath [denied] shut out from glory, when we were doomed
in wretchedness, deprived of our home (heaven), to sojourn in this narrow world
(earth)'.

Thorpe had rendered : ' Make us thus worthy, whom he to glory hath admitted,
those who humbly must return to this narrow land, deprived of country.'

Gr. translated:

und uns des wiirdig mache, die er erwahlte zur Glorie,
da wir wehvoll erniedrigt uns wenden sollten
des Erbsitzes bar zu diesem engen Lande.

Go. 1 thus :

May he glorify us thus, His favored ones,
when we must needs depart in abject plight
unto this narrow land, bereft of home.

Go. 2 renders v. 30:

May he make us thus worthy, whom he hath admitted unto glory.

Brooke translates vv. 31-2 : ' who must turn us to the narrow shore, cut off
from our Fatherland.' Dietrich's condensed paraphrase should also be men
tioned: ' Er selbst moge die in Finsternis sitzenden (Luc. i. 79) und der Heimat
beraubten, der Zulassung seiner Herrlichkeit werth machen.' Of these render
ings, Grein's seems most defensible, though 'admit,' rather than 'choose,' is the
sense of the verb.

PART I.] NOTES. 79

The whole passage (25 ff.) must, I believe, be regarded as containing a motive
from the Harrowing of Hell, a motive which may be represented by the following
passage from the OE. Evangelium Nicodemi, chap. 24 (p. 129 of Bright's Reader),
which is a rendering of a portion of chap. 2 of the Descensus Christi ad Inferos,
as found in Tischendorf's Evangelia Apocrypha, pp. 391-2 (cf. Cowper's Apocry
phal Gospels, p. 349) : ' Efne, ba we wasron myd eallum urum faederum on ) sere
hellican deopnysse, Jaer becom seo beorhtnys on biere beostra dymnysse, baet we
ealle geondlyhte and geblyssigende wseron. paer waes fseringa geworden on
ansyne swylce balir gylden sunna onaeled waere, and ofer us ealle geondlyhte. And
Satanas ba, and call bast rebe werod, waeron afyrhte, and pus cwaedon : " Hwaet
ys bys leoht \>xt her ofer us swa fserlice scyne'5 ? " pa waes s5na call \>xt men-
nisce cynn geblyssigende ure faeder Adam myd eallum heahfaederum, and myd
eallum wytegum for J^asre myclan beorhtnysse ; and hig bus cwaedon : " ys
leoht ys ealdor baes ecan leohtes, call swa us Dryhten behet haet he us baet ece
leoht onsendan wolde." pa clypode Ysaias se wytega and cwaeb: " pys ys baet
faederlice leoht, and hyt ys Codes Sunu, call swa ic foressede ba ic on eor"5an
waes, ba ic cwaet? and forewltegode bast ftaet Zabulon, and baet land Neptalim, wyb
ba ea lordanen, and baet folc baet on bam bystrum saet sceoldon maere leoht geseon,
and ba 'Se on dymmum ryce wunedon ic witegode baet hig leoht sceoldon onfon ;
and nu hyt ys tocumen, and us onlyht ba "5e gefyrn on deaftes dymnysse sseton.
Ac uton ealle geblyssian baes leohtes." '

I find this suggestion borne out by an Advent hymn quoted in Mone i. 51, of
which the first four and the last stanzas are :

Veni, veni, rex gloriae,
educque nos de carcere
mordentis conscientiae,
dimisso cuncto crimine.

Quamvis vero instruxeris,
emeris, liberaveris,
quid prodest ni eduxeris
nos de squalore carceris ?

Est career multum horridus,
tenebrosus ac foetidus,
impurus omnis animus
criminis sibi conscius.

Hie multam fert miseriam,
panis vitae carentiam,
aquae vivae penuriam,
verae lucis inopiam.

Ei, educ hunc de tenebris
hujus foetentis carceris,
ut te in regno luminis
semper laudet cum angelis.

According to Mone, career is here used in a twofold sense, partly as in i Pet.
3. 19: 'By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison' ; and

8O NOTES. [PART i.

partly as in Ps. 142. 7: 'Bring my soul out of prison, that I may praise thy
name.' The hymn assumes a parallel, according to Mone, ' between the patri
archs and prophets, who yearned in their limbo for the birth of Christ, and such
as implore the coming of the kingdom of Christ after the end of this sinful
world, this prison of the body.' He quotes Gregory, Moral, n. 9. 12: ' Omnis
homo, per id quod male agit, quid sibi aliud quam conscientiae suae carcerem
facit, ut hanc animi reatus premat, etiamsi nemo exterius accuset ? ' and Augus
tine, Ep. 165. 16: ' animae, quae ignorantiae tenebris velut careers clauduntur.'
Cf. the Advent hymn in Mone i . 47 (st. 2) :

Adesto nunc propitius
et parce supplicantibus,
tu dele nostra crimina,
tu tenebras illumina.

The imagery would therefore be based upon the condition of the patriarchs in
the underworld just before the advent of Christ, but would picture the longing of
the soul for any of the comings of the Savior, especially for his spiritual entrance
into the believer.

For the recurrence of the motives drawn from the Harrowing of Hell, see
145 ff., 558 ff., 730 ff., iiSQff.

30. J>e he to wuldre forlet. Go. 'whom he hath admitted to glory.' With
to wuldre forlet Professor Bright compares wifrwurpon to weorce, 3, and thence
infers fo\ for Ice tan the sense 'reject,' 'exclude,' ' deny.' See above.

This view is confirmed by yElfric, Horn. i. 154 : ' pes an blinda man getacnode
call mancynn, J?e weaf$ ablend J>urh Adames gylt, and asceofen of myrhfte
neorxenawanges, and gebr5ht to ftisum life, >e is wtfSmeten cwearterne. Nu sind
we ute belocene fram 'Sam heofenlican leohte, and we ne magon on ftissum life
J>aes ecan leohtes brucan ; ne we his na mare ne cunnon buton swa micel swa we
fturh Cristes lare on b5cum raidaft. peos woruld, J?eah-'Se heo myrige hwiltidum
geftuht sy, nis heo hwae'Sere fte geliccre ftiere ecan worulde, J?e is sum cweartern
leohtum dasge. Eal mancyn waes, swa we ser cwiedon, ablend mid geleaflieste
and gedwylde ; ac J>urh Cristes tdcyme we wurdon abrodene of urum gedwyldum,
and onllhte )?urh geleafan. Nu haebbe we )?aet leoht on urum mode, )>aet is
Cristes geleafa ; and we habba'S J>one hiht J?aes ecan lifes myrh'Se, Jjeah-'Se we gyt
lichamlice on urum cwearterne wunian.'

31. h\veorfan sceoldan. Cf. Sat. 419: ' J>a wit in HS hate scraef hweorfan
s ceo I don.'

32. J?is enge lond. Gr. renders (Spr.}: 'hunc mundum anxietatis plenum.'
But cf. also what has been said above concerning the limbus Patrum, and Sat.
1 06 : 'helle, engestan eftelrices.'

bescyrede. Note the number of words expressive of deprivation ; cf . Gen. 63.

33. se <5e so9 spriceft. Cf. 190.

35. frumcyn. Perhaps both (a) original race, and (b) race, i.e. (a) the patri
archs and prophets, (b) mankind. Frumcyn has not been taken in the former
sense, but the context seems to favor this as one interpretation.

38. gebyrd. Here, and in 298 (cf. 76), one can only understand ' birth ' by
taking J>iirh in the sense of 'with reference to,' 'in anticipation of,' 'in order to.'

PART I.] NOTES. 8 1

An argument in favor of the latter alternative is that the former renders the line
somewhat tautological.

39. Nsenig. Modifies geeacnung.

40. worlde. See note on 8. geeacnung. Cosijn adduces 75, and BL
Horn. 143. 24, as arguments for reading geeacnung, with Grein.

41. degol. Anglian vowel (Gr. 159. 3); cf. 640. The adjective belongs in
the predicate, modifying geryne.

42. giofu. For the variations in spelling, see the Glossary, s. v, giefu.
geondspreot. For -spreat. Anglian confusion of ea and eo (Gram. 150. 3).

Cosijn compares Netherl. spruiten, and postulates the inf. geondspr titan.

43 ff. The fulfilment of prophecy is meant.

45. hofimaii. The word occurs only once elsewhere, Beow. 2458 : ' swefafl
haslet) in hofrman? where it = ' the grave.' Grein refers to Dietrich's etymology
in Haupfs Zs. 5. 219.

47. Cf. 2 Thess. 3. i.

48. tfara. Dependent on gehwaes ; the logical order is : ' ryne reorda gehwaes
Sara t>e willaft.'

49. Jnirh horscne had. Cf. 444, J>urh cliZnne had.

50-70. Based upon an occasional Antiphon of the Magnificat :

O HIERUSALEM, CIVITAS DEI SUMMI : LEVA IN CIRCUITU OCULOS TUOS, ET VIDE
DOMINUM TUUM, QUIA JAM VENIET SOLVERE TE A VINCULIS.

Among the sources of the Antiphon may be reckoned Ps. 48. 2 : ' mons Sion,
. . . civitas Regis magni ' ; Isa. 49. 18 : 'Leva in circuitu oculos tuos, et vide ' (so
Isa. 60. 4); Isa. 52. 2 : 'Solve vincula colli tui, captiva filia Sion.'

The conception seems to fluctuate between the following :

(a) The earthly Jerusalem ;

(b) The church on earth ;

(c) The heavenly Jerusalem, the abode of the blessed, partly conceived as the
bride, the Lamb's wife (Rev. 21. 9 ff .) ; cf. Gregory, in Migne 76. 938 ;

(d) The Virgin Mary (see my article in the Festgabe fur Eduard Sievers,
Halle, 1896).

It is impossible to distinguish these several meanings with authority and accu
racy, but 50-54* may primarily refer to (c) ; 54 b ~58 to (t) or (d) ; 59-66* to (a)
or (d) ; 66b-7o to (b).

On the specific reference to Jerusalem in the Second Sunday of Advent cf.
Honorius of Autun, Gemma Aninuz, lib. 3, cap. 2 (Migne 172. 643): ' Secunda
Dominica praedicatio prophetarum de Christi adventu ad Hierusalem denotatur,
ubi cantatur, Hierusalem cito veniet, et Civitas Hierusalem, et Hierusalem, surge?

The Biblical passages on which the mediaeval Church founded the symbolical
interpretation of Jerusalem as the Virgin Mary are such as Ps. 46. 5; 87. 3; 132.
13, 14; Cant. 6. 3; Isa. 12. 6 ; 60. 3. Cf. Livius, pp. 79 ff . ; Salzer, p. 118, n. 3,
and p. 377.

50. sibbe gesihff . Translating the Lat. pacts visio, by which the word ' Jeru
salem ' was generally interpreted in the Middle Ages. This interpretation is
found as early as Origen (Horn. 9. 2), and is illustrated in the opening line of a

82 NOTES. [PART i.

well-known Latin hymn (Mone i. 319; Daniel i. 239): 'Urbs beata Jerusalem.,
dicta pacis visio.' Cf. also Athan. In Psalm 64. 2 ; Greg. Magn., Horn, in
Ezech. i. 12. 23; Mone 2. 184 (Hymn 470. 1-3). Mone says (i. 320-1): 'Pads
visio ist die Uebersetzung des Namens Jerusalem, . . . und bedeutet die sichtbare
christliche Kirche, deren irdisches Vorbild das geschichtliche Jerusalem und
deren Vollendung das zukiinftige himmlische Jerusalem ist. .. . Die Benennung
pax fiir die Kirche ist biblisch, denn in ihr ist Gottes Frieden.' vElfric has.
(Horn. 2. 66) : ' Hierusalem is gecweden visio pacis, }>aet is, sibbe gesihfr ' ; and
again (i. 210): ' Sion is an dun, and heo is gecweden, Sceawungstow ; and Hieru
salem, Sibbe gesihfr. Siones dohtor is seo gelaftung geleaffulra manna, j?e belimp'S
t5 ^sere heofenlican Hierusalem, on t'aere is symle sibbe gesihft, butan aelcere
sace, t5 ftsere us gebrincft se Haelend, gif we him gelsesta'oV See Sweet's Cura.
Past. 161. 16, and cf. Gu. 783-790 (811-18) :

Him Jjaet ne hreoweS aefter hingonge,
ftonne hy hweorfaft in \ja. halgan burg,
gongaiS gegnunga to Hierusalem,
}>aer hi to worulde wynnum motun
Codes onsyne georne bihealdan,
sibbe and gesihfre, j?aer heo so 5 wuna'S,
wlitig, wuldorfasst, ealne widan ferh,
on lifgendra londes wynne.

One of the clearest explanations is by Greg., Horn, in Ezech. i. 8 (Migne 76. 857),
In the glosses on Aldhelm's De Laudibus Virginitatis, published by Bouterwek in
Haupfs Zs., there occur, as a gloss on ' [per portas] coelestis Hierosolymae '
(p. 24, 1. 9. ed. Giles) the words (9. 447) : '^eere heofonlicra sibgesyhfte.' Grein
refers to this. Cf. note on 53.

saneta. Cf. 88.

52-53. Anacoluthon. Th. ' native seat of angels ! and alone in thee the
souls of the just ever rest ' ; Gr. ' der Engel Erbsitz und derer, die allein in dir
immer selig ruhen '; Go. ' the native seat of angels and of the just, the souls of
whom alone rest in thee ever '; Br. ' Native seat of angels, of the soothfast souls
that for ever sit, they alone, at rest in thee.'

53. saule soSfaestra simie gerestacJ. Cf. Bl. Horn., pp. 79, 81 : 'He hie
gelaide]? on sibbe gesyh>e ; forj^on ) aire burge nama J>e is nemned Gerusalem is
gereht sibbe gesyhk, for>on >e halige saula hser resta)?.'

54. wuldrum hremge. Brooke renders : ' In their splendors, singing joy ' [!].
54^-58. Perhaps based on Eph. 5. 27 : ' That he might present it to himself

a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it
should be holy and without blemish ' ; cf. Cant. 4. 7.

56. firina. Note the rare -ina for -ena.

57. to wulclre. The translators render by ' gloriously '; the construction is
peculiar, but this may be the sense.

58 b . swa ]ni gehaten eart. Possibly referring to Ps. 87. 3.

59-6ia. Leva in circuitu oculus tuos.' Th. See now thyself over this wide
creation, as also heaven's height, widely look o'er, around each side ' ; Gr.
4 Nimm du nun wahr, wie diese weite Schopfung und das Dach des Himmels in

PART I.] NOTES. 8*5

dir umher allenthalben schauen '; Go. 2 < See now thyself how the wide creation
and heaven's roof surveyeth thee all about on every side ' ; Br. < The wide crea
tion and the roof of heaven look on it from every side.' Michelsen, in Ham-
merich : ' Hebe dein Auge : die weite Welt, das Gewolbe des Himmels, siehe, sie
achten rings auf dich.' Cf. Baruch 4. 36; 5. 5.

None of the translations agrees with the Antiphon. The interpretation, if it
is to conform in any sense to the Antiphon, must take geond with e, as Grein
recommends (rendering Kara ere), and Frucht (p. 65) scans, and translate these
two words by ' about thee.' The real difficulty is hi the verb geondwlltan, for
which one would like to substitute geondwlit, parallel with sioh. Then, instead
of construing gesceaft as the subject of geondwlltan, it would be the object of
sioh, as hrof would be the object of geondwlit (cf. Sat. 9; Beow. 2771; J 3 /i. 211 ;
Jul. 399). We should then have complete parallelism, for 6i a would be the
equivalent of J>e geond. According to the Antiphon, it is not the creation that
gazes ; nor is it easy to make sense out of the passage with gesceaft as subject
accusative. It would be possible, however, to regard it as the object of geond, in
which case sylfa J>e would = ' thyself.' With reference to this construction, cf.
Gen. 1564, him selfa ; An. 1350, fre sylfa; Wulfing, i. 355; Kellner, Hist. Out
lines of Engl. Syntax, pp. 184-5; Matzner i. 318. Wulfing quotes, e.g. from
Boeth. 266. 16: ' pu miht ft'e self ongitan )>aet,' etc.; Oros. 164. 3 : ' Romane him
self hyllic writon.' Dr. F. H. Chase makes geond. adv. = 'round about.'

Professor Bright would construe sioh . . .geondwlltan as formed upon the analogy
of expressions like gd gesittan, cum neosian, etc. (cf. Wulfing 2. 193-4), where a
verb of motion is more specifically defined by a following verb in the inf. He
would then translate : ' Lift up thine eyes (sioh) to look widely (rume gcondwlitan)
over the broad creation,' etc. This conjecture seems to me quite too venture
some, as the construction is otherwise found only with gdn (gangan) and cuman.

59. sylfa. This form is elsewhere used as nsf. : Gen. 2648 (nsn.?) ; Rid. 82 ;
even as nsn. : Sat'. 355.

sidan gesceaft. Cf. 239, 356, 672, 1087 ; Gen. 675 ; Men. 227.

60. rodores hrof. Cf. 518, 904.

63. nimeS card in ]?e. Cf. Ps. 68. 16; 132. 13, 14.

65. to frofre. Cf. 722, 758, 1421, and ;lfric, Horn. 2. 14 : Ezechiel wltegode
be "Saere byrig Hierusalem and be Criste, ftus cweftende, " pin Cyning cymfl to
fte eadmod, and geedstaSelaft )?e." '

66. cymen. See Gram. 378.

67. The following passages from ^Elfric's Homilies will illustrate Cynewulf's
probable meaning :

Horn. i. 522 : ' Hit is Jms awriten on bsere ealdan x : " Lufa ftinne freond, and
hata "Sinne feond." pus waes alyfed >am ealdum mannum }>aet hi moston Codes
wifterwinnan and heora agene fynd mid stranglicere mihte ofsittan, and mid
wiepne acwellan. Ac se ylca God be has leafe sealde Jmrh Moyses gesetnysse ier
his tocyme, se ylca eft, fta-fta he Jmrh menniscnysse t5 middangearde com, awende
flone cwyde, bus cweftende : " Ic bebeode eow, Lufia^S eowre fynd," ' etc.

Horn. i. 186: We ne magon nu ealle J>a fif bee areccan, ac we secgaft eow
baet God sylf hi dihte, and Moyses hi awrat, to steore and t5 lare ^am ealdan
folce Israhel, and eac us on gastlicum andgite. pa bee wseron awritene be

4 NOTES. [PART I.

well
, v Criste, ac frxt gastlice andgit waes )>am folce digle, oft J?aet Crist sylf c5m to man-

,. num, and geopenede fyxra. boca digelnysse aefter gastlicum andgite.'

Horn. 2. 56 : ' Et 'Sam giftum ascortode win, forftan 'Se seo ealde gecyftnys
ateorode on Crlstes andwerdnysse fram flsesclicum weorcum, and wear's awend
to gastlicum 'Seawum. Swa micclum swa win is deorwurftre bonne waeter, swa
micclum is Crlstes lar, J?e he Jmrh his andwerdnysse his apostolum taehte, deor-
wurftre ftonne waere seo ealde gesetnys "Se he Jmrh Moysen gedihte ; forftan fte
Moyses ae waes flsesclic, and Crlstes gesetnys is gastlic. Seo ealde je waes swilce
scadu and getacnung; Crlstes bodung is sS'Sfaestnys, and gefylft gastlice swa
hwaet swa seo ealde gecySnys mid mislicum gesetnyssum getacnode.'

68. benda onlyseS. ' Veniet solvere te a vinculis.'

69. nijmm genetfde, nearofearfe conn. Th. tr. the first two words as
' hostilely subdued,' leaving the others untranslated ; Gr. '(Fesselbande) gekniipft
fiir die Menschen ; er kennt die Note '; Go. ' He hath adventured him for men ;
He knoweth their (Go. 2 dire) need.' In the 6^r., s. v. mfr, Gr. hesitates between
nifr and mfr, genefrde and genedde, though he had already admitted the last form
under genedan, 'force,' 'compel.' Hertel (p. 47) reads nifrum genedde, and
renders genedan by ' binden,' ' bezwingen.' Professor Bright would read nij>um
genedde, and render, imposed by sin (iniquities}. Cosijn calls genefrde nonsense,
and would read genedde.

Genedan cannot = ' gekniipft,' were we to make the change of a letter ; but
neither can nij>um genefrde mean ' adventured (him) for men,' if analogy is to be
considered, since genefran with the inst. means 'risk (life),' An. 1353, Beow. 1469,
2133, and an intransitive genefran with dat. of interest is unknown. In sheer
desperation, one is tempted to read nij>um genehivafr (genea-waft), basing the
emendation upon the use of this Northumbrian verb in Lind. Mt. 19. 5; Lk. 15.
15 ; 16. 13; and especially Mt. 10. 7. The verb means 'cleave,' 'hold to,' 'join
oneself,' ' draw nigh,' Lat. adhaerere, appropinquare. This would suit the metre
as well ; it does not interrupt the sequence of present tenses by a verb in the
preterit ; the verb continues the general sense of cymen and bringefr, and provides
a motive for nearoj>earfe conn he draws nigh to men, because he knows their
need, how they have been looking for sympathy and succor.

nearojjearfe conn. Cf. Beow. 422, nearofrearfe dreah ; EL 1261 (in the
Rune passage), nearusorge dreah.

70. se earma. In a generalized sense. Cf. Matt. 15. 14: ' If the blind lead
the blind, both shall fall into the ditch '; in OE. (Cura Past. 28. 8), ' Gif se blinda
"Sone blindan laedeft, hi feallaft begen on aenne pytt.' See Wulfing i. 291-2.

sceal. Must needs.

71-103. Based upon the Antiphon of the Magnificat for December 24 :

1 O VIRGO VIRGINUM, QUOMODO FIET ISTUD ? QUIA NEC PRIMAM SIMILEM VISA
ES, NEC HABERE SEQUENTEM.' ' FILIAE HIERUSALEM, QUID ME ADMIRA-
MINI? DIVINUM EST MYSTERIUM HOC QUOD CERNITIS.'

This Antiphon is not so directly based upon Scripture as the preceding, but at
least two phrases are Biblical. Lk. i. 34 : '. . . Quomodo fiet istud? . . .' Cant. i.
5, etc.: '. . . Filiae Jerusalem. . . .* The Antiphon is found in the Liber Responsalis,

PART I.] NOTES. 85

or Antiphonarius, attributed to Gregory the Great (Migne 78. 733), and is the
only one there found besides the seven Greater Antiphons, if we except the one
immediately following it, which runs : ' Orietur sicut sol Salvator mundi, et
descendet in utero Virginis sicut imber super gramen. Alleluia.' Tommasi
(Opera 4. 28) is not willing to allow the last to be an Antiphon, but rather a
1 Declinatory.' On the propriety of ascribing to Gregory this Antiphonary, see
Baumer, Geschichte des Breviers, pp. 203 ff. Amalarius knows our Antiphon
(Migne 105. 1269), and thus comments on it : ' Haec antiphona monstrat ilium
hominem qui ex Maria carnem assumpsit solum et perfectum esse inter caeteros
homines, quia in ipso solo habitat septiformis Spiritus, qui superius memoratus
est. De qua re scribit sanctus Augustinus in libro primo de sermone Domini in
monte. Septum sunt ergo quae perficiunt, nam octava clarificat et quod per
fectum est demonstrat.' With Amalarius, this Antiphon is the eighth and last.
It is likewise contained in the Vatican Antiphonary (Tommasi 4. 28). Martene
(De Antiquis Ecclesiae Ritibus, lib. iv, cap. 10) says of it : Octavam . . . addit
ordinarium Cabilonense.'

As bearing upon the connection between Parts I and II, with special refer
ence to vv. 660 ff., I quote the following from Amalarius on the correspondence
between the seven Greater Antiphons and the sevenfold gift of the Holy Spirit
(cf. Honorius of Autun, supra, p. 72) : Et disponis illis omnia dona Spiritus
sancti in uno eodemque spiritu suaviter. Quoniam praesentes antiphonae dulce-
dine sua decorant septem ferias vel octo in quibus recolitur septiformis Spiritus,
qui in Christo homine semper habitavit ex quo coepit homo esse, et Verbum caro
factus est ut habitaret in nobis, fas est ut demonstrem, in quantum possum, quam
consonantem habeant singulae cum singulis gradibus Spiritus sancti. Licet alter
ordo scriptus inveniatur praesentium antiphonarum in Romano Antiphonario et
in Metensi.' Amalarius then proceeds to show the correspondence in detail.
His order is: (i) O sapientia, (2) O clavis, (3) O Emmanuel, (4) O radix, (5) O
oriens, (6) O Adonai, (7) O rex, (8) O Virgo ; that is, if the order given above
(p. 71), which is that of the Roman Breviary and of the Sarum Use, be repre
sented by the letters A, B, C, D, E, F, G, that in Amalarius will be A, D, G, C,
E, B, F ; the 8th, which would correspond to H, occupies the same place in the
St. Gallen MS., Amalarius, and the Sarum Use. It is perhaps worth noting here
that yElfric was acquainted with Amalarius (see his Horn. 2. 84, and Forster,
in Anglia 16. 48).

According to Gregory {Horn, in Ezech. 2. 7), the ascending order of these
gifts is here reversed (Migne 76. 1016) : ' Quos gradus, de caelestibus loquens,
descendendo magis quam ascendendo numeravit. ... Et cum scriptum est,
Initium sapientiae tint or Domini (Prov. 9. 10), constat procul dubio quia a timore
ad sapientiam ascenditur. . . . Propheta ergo, quia de caelestibus ad ima loque-
batur, coepit magis a sapientia, et descendit ad timorem.'

Wiilker, speaking of dramatic dialogue in OE. poetry, says (Grundriss, p. 385) :
'Aus dem Crist fiihrt man gewohnlich VI an, das Gesprach zwischen Maria und
Joseph, doch ist dies nicht die einzige Stelle dieser Art.

* Crist III, v. 71-873, ist den Bewohnern von Jerusalem in den Mund zu legen
Dies beweist v. 87^, 88, und ferner v. 91.'

86 NOTES. [PART i.

Thorpe and Grein had already shown, by their use of quotation marks, that
they fully appreciated this fact.

71. wifa wynn. So Mary is called in Hymn 3 26 , ealra fizmnena wyn : cf. a
similar use of cefrelinga wyn, An. 1225; Guth. 1081 ; Jul. 730; Harr. of Hell 121;
other phrases of the sort are common in the poetry. The expression comes from
the Latin (and no doubt originally from the Greek) hymns. Thus gaudium sanc
torum angelorum, Mone 2. 514. n (cf. ib. 21); angelorum gaudium, Dreves IX.
57. i. b; V. p. 342; mundi gaudium, Mone 2. 328. I; 369. i; coeli gaudium,
Mone 2. 398. 2; 400. 5; Dreves VI. 25. 33; laetitia beatorum, Mone 2. 527. n;
laetitia angelorum, Dreves VIII. 91. 2. a; sanctorum laetitia, Mone 2. 511. 7;
Dreves II. Anh. b. 6. I ; sanctorum angelorum exsultatis, Dreves I. i. 3; etc. So
in MUG. : aller engel wunne, Ausw. Geistl. Dicht. VII. 13; see the examples in
Salzer, pp. 419 ff.

wuldres )?rym. Not as in 83, 740; here probably = heavenly glory, heaven.
In other words, the line is an address to Mary in heaven, 'in aula caelica,' 'super
caelos sublimata,' ' ob immensem fulgorem atque splendorem inaccessa' (Salzer,
pp. 421, 422). Brooke's ' In the glorious glory, hail ! ' is not very felicitous either
as poetry or as translation. Cf. Gu. 1338.

73. J70es Je. As far as. sundbuend. Cf. Met. 8 13 , 24 21 , 26 48 . Brooke trans
lates by 'ocean-rovers.' Cosijn compares 616, 1172, 1371, and thinks the form
was coined to vary the uniformity of eorfr-, fold-, grund-, landbuend, and to provide
an alliterative word. He rejects Grein's rendering, maris accolae, and says it has
nothing to do with Netherl. de zee bouwen.

74. geryne. Cf. 41, 95.

76. gebyrde. Cf. 38.

77. mot. I reproduce part of a note in the Journal of Germanic Philology i.
247-8 : ' Gebedscipe is of course the object of cufres, and monwisan of the prepo
sition cefter. Hence, if the manuscript reading is retained, mod is apparently in
apposition with gebedscipe. But this makes no sense. Thorpe proposed to read
mode, ' in mind ' ; but this is far from convincing. Grein suggested mot, in the
sense of ' Begegnung,' ' Zusammensein,' appositional with gebedscipe ; but there
is no such OE. word, and the two meanings would not be synonymous, if there
were. Gollancz interprets mod, in a note, as ' desire,' but leaves it untranslated
in his version. Wtilker (Bibliothek 3. 4) reads mot, but without an ex
planation.

I would suggest mot, in the sense of ' mote,' ' atom,' and make mot ne cufres
parallel to the iviht ne cuke of 41 9 b ; the wiht ne logon of Beow. 862^; him wiht
ne speow Beow. 28 54^; no he wiht fram me, Beow. 54i b ; cf. Beow. 1083, 2857.
Or it might be taken in the dat. inst. as mote ; cf. Christ 1048, and Beow. 186,

Mot was known in both North, and WS. as a translation of the Biblical festuca,
and was employed in ME. in the sense which I would attribute to it here, as
strengthening a negation. The ME. examples, collected by Hein (Anglia 15.
101), are from (i) Gawayne and the Green Knight, v. 2209 ; (2) Patience, vv. 455-
6 ; (3) Chaucer, Tr. and Cr. 3. 1603; to which he adds (4) Occleve, DC Regim-
ine Principum, str. 135, These are :

PART I.] NOTES. S/

(1) Hit helppes me not a mote.

(2) ba3 no schafte myst

)>e mount[n]aunce of a lyttel mote,
vpon )?at man schyne.

(3) It mighte nought a mote in that suffyse.

(4) Not wold I rekke as muche as a mote.'

78-82 a . ' Nee primam similem visa es, nee habere sequentem.'

80. swylce. Referring to eacnunge. befenge. Apparently identical with
onfenge, 75.

81. wenan. Cf. 1610.

82. toweard. Cf. 137.

83. wuldres prym. So 740; cf. 204,423. This sense of J>rym, almost =
Lord, is found only in Elene, Juliana, Guthlac, and Phoenix, besides Hymn 7 43>
As bearing on the unity of authorship, note the identical phrase here and in 740.

84. bosme. A euphemism. So Harr. of Hell \ 10; Hy. io 19 . Cf. BL Horn.,
pp. 5, 105, 165.

86. Cf. Gal. 6. 7 (8) : ' Quae enim seminaverit homo, hoc et metet.'

87. cenna<$ to cwealme. Cf. Rom. 7. 5. miSg. Frucht (p. 30) would delete.

89. ' Quid me admiramini ? '

wafiaft. Elsewhere occurs as tr. of Lat. obstupescere, as vudfung of stupor.
Not stare,' as Brooke renders.

90. gehj?uin miciiaft. Afanan is combined with the inst. sing, of gehfru in
Jul. 391, An. 1550, 1667, Beow. 2267.

The line seems inappropriate to the context.

91. sunn. Evidently an addition. Solimae. Greek occasionally has 26Xu/xa
(Pausanias, Josephus, etc.) and Latin Solyma (Martial, etc.) as a variant of
Jerusalem. Cf. Pope's ' Ye nymphs of Solyma, begin the song.'

93. in iiiul. Dietrich (Haupfs Zs. 7. 184-5) not on ^y recognizes an ON.
mundr, ' sum paid for a bride,' and a mund, ' hand,' but also an old neut. mund,
especially in the derivatives mundang, found only in compounds and in the adjec
tive and adverbs derived from it. This mundang means ' moderation '; thus
mundangsmafrr, ' just, moderate man ' ; mundangleikr, ' moderation '; mundanga,
' in due measure.' To this neut. mund Dietrich attributes the sense ' modera
tion,' ' temperance,' ' modesty ' (Germ. ' masshaltigkeit,' ' massigung,' ' bescheid-
enheit '), and finds it reflected in the Lapp word muddo, ' temperantia,' ' modus,'
which he considers as an early borrowing from the Norse. Thus allied, our
word would here have a meaning like 'continence,' and hence ' chastity,' a sense
which admirably harmonizes with fizmnanhad and with the general context.
Gollancz's etymology in his note must accordingly be rejected.

94 a . The adjective must agree with Suna, which is genitive ; that miere should
be fern, seems to be precluded by 210 and 589, as well as by its own position.

95. geryne. ' Divinum est mysterium hoc quod cernitis.' The sense is ' a
hidden or secret thing, not obvious to the understanding' ; cf. I Cor. 13. 2.

96. Dauides. Cf. Dautdes dohtor, 191. Edersheim has (Jesus the Messiah
I. 149): 'There can be no question that both Joseph and Mary were of the royal
lineage of David. Most probably the two were nearly related.' In a footnote

88 NOTES. [PART i.

he adds : ' The Davidic descent of the Virgin-Mother which is questioned by
some even among orthodox interpreters seems implied in the Gospel (St. Luke
i. 27, 32, 69; 2. 4), and an almost necessary inference from such passages as
Rom. i. 3; 2 Tim. 2. 8; Hebr. 7. 14.' So he says: 'This' the theory that
Joseph and Mary were nearly related ' is the general view of antiquity.' Con
cerning the assumption that the genealogies given by Matthew and Luke are
those of both Joseph and Mary, he says : ' The best defense of this view is that
by Wieseler, Beitr. zur Wurdig. d. Evang,, pp. 133, etc. It is also virtually
adopted by Weiss (Leben Jesu, vol. i. 1882).'
Joseph's descent from David is noted in 165.

97. J>aet. Perhaps the preceding line should logically be introduced between
J7aet and is. forpynded. Cosijn refers to PBB. 1 1. 351, and BL Horn. 7. 14.

Kuan. Mary is thought of as the second Eve, and undoing the evil wrought
by the first Eve, as early as Justin (A.D. 120-165). See the numerous quotations in
Livius, pp. 35-59,67-74, znApassim. Also B I. Horn., p. 3 ; JE\fr\c, ffom . 1.194; 2.22.

98. waergffo. The nom. is required, and o or u is the ending in this poem ; cf. 57,
1271.

gewuldrad. Cf. Proclus (A.D. 434-46), as quoted in Livius, pp. 73-4:
' Through Mary all women are blessed. For no longer is the female sex cursed
and under execration; since it has achieved whereby it can surpass in glory even
the angels. Now Eve is cured, the Egyptian woman (Agar) reduced to silence,
Dalila entombed, Jezebel whelmed in everlasting oblivion, Herodias, too, is lost
to memory ; and now the roll of women is held in admiration.'

99. se heanra had. Grein interprets (Spr.} sexus humilior. Cf. i Pet. 3. 7:
' . . . quasi infirmiori vasculo impartientes honorem.'

100. bletsung. Since we find bletsung twice associated with bliss, as though
they were synonymous (Gen. 1761, 2331), we may, in the light of 102-3, perhaps
here think of Ps. 16. 11: ' Adimplebis me laetitia cum vultu tuo; delectationes
in dextera tua usque in fidem.' Bletsung would then mean 'joy,' 'happiness,' in
this instance.

101. werum ond wifum. Cf. Augustine, Sermo 51. 2, 3, quoted in Livius,
pp. 237-8 : ' What he showed us is this, that human creatures were not to
despair of themselves in any sex, seeing that both males and females belong to a
human sex. If then, being a man, as He must needs have been, He were not to be
born of a woman, women might despair of themselves, recollecting that the first
sin was theirs, because the first man was deceived by a woman, and would fancy
that they had no hope in Christ themselves whatever. He came then a man, to
choose first the male sex ; and being born of a woman, to console the female sex.'

Brooke paraphrases inadequately: ' Hope is won that men may dwell with the
Father of truth for ever.'

102. engla dreame. See, in Part III, 1342, 1520.

103. Softfaeder. Hardly 'true king* (Gr., D. ' mit dem wahren Vater ') ; cf.
Sofrcyning, 1228 ; on the other hand, cf. no.

104-129. Based upon the Antiphon of the Magnificat for December 21 :

O ORIENS, SPLENDOR LUCIS AETERNAE, ET SOL JUSTITIAE : VENI, ET ILLUMINA
SEDENTES IN TENEBRIS ET UMBRA MORTIS.

PART I.] NOTES. 89

Not ' oriens splendor,' but, as punctuated above, ' oriens, splendor ' ; the for
mer use is unexampled in the Vulgate, whereas the latter manifestly reposes upon
Lk. i. 78 : 'in quibus visitavit nos oriens ex alto.' With this are to be con
joined, as sources of the Antiphon, Heb. I. 3: ' Qui cum sit splendor gloriae, et
figura substantiae ejus '; Wisd. 7. 26 : ' Candor est enim lucis aeternae, et speculum
sine macula Dei majestatis, et imago bonitatis illius ' ; Mai. 4. 2 : ' Et oruturvobis
timentibus nomen meum sol JMstitiae'' ; Lk. i. 79 : 'illuminare his qui in tenebris
et in umbra mortis sedent? The latter reposes in turn upon Ps. 107. 10: ' sedentes
in tenebris et umbra mortis, vinctos in mendicitate et ferro * ; Isa. 42. 6, 7 : ' . . .
in lucem gentium, ut aperires oculos caecorum, et educeres de conclusione vine-
turn, de domo carceris sedentes in tenebris ' ; Isa. 9. 2 : ' Populus, qui ambulabat in
tenebris vidit lucem magnam ; habitantibus in regione umbrae mortis, lux orta
est eis.'

104. earendel. The first impulse is to translate the word by ' dawn,' partly
because, in the form eorendel, it glosses Aurora in the two hymns ' Splendor
paternae gloriae ' and 'Aurora jam spargit polum' (Latin Hymns of the Anglo-
Saxon Church, called, for brevity, Surtees Hymns, from their publication by the
Surtees Society), 16. 18 ; 30. i. This view might be supported by the general tenor
of the former of these hymns, of which the first and the last stanza are :

Splendor paternae gloriae,
De luce lucem proferens,
Lux lucis et fons luminis,
Dies dierum inluminans.

Aurora cursus provehit,
Aurora tota prodeat
In Patre totus Filius,
Et totus in Verbo Pater.

Finally, one might argue in favor of ' dawn ' from the ' dayspring' of Lk. i. 78,
a word which, first used in this place by Tyndale, has been retained even in the
R. V. The sense of ' dayspring ' is sufficiently ascertained by the quotation in
NED. from Eden (i 555), Decades 264 : ' The day sprynge or dawnynge of the daye
gyueth a certeyne lyght before the rysinge of the soonne.'

Again, one might advocate the rendering ' morning star,' or ' day star,' referring
to 2 Pet. 1.19, and making use of Gregory the Great's interpretation in his Moralia,
in the comment on Job 38. 32 (Migne, Patr. Lat. 76. 520) : ' Pater quippe in tern-
pore suo luciferum produxit, quia, sicut scriptum est : Cum venit plenitudo tern-
ports, misit Deus Filittm suum, natum ex muliere, factum sub lege, ut eos qui sub
lege erant, redimeret (Gal. 4. 4). Qui natus ex Virgine, velut lucifer inter tenebras
nostrae noctis apparuit, quia fugata obscuritate peccati, aeternum nobis mane nun-
tiavit, Luciferum vero se innotuit, quia diluculo ex morte surrexit, et fulgore sui
luminis mortalitatis nostrae terram caliginem pressit. Cui bene per Joannem
dicitur : Stella splendida et matutina (Apoc. 22. 1 6). Vivus quippe apparens post
mortem, matutina nobis stella factus est, quia dum in semetipso exemplum nobis
resurrectionis praebuit, quae lux sequatur indicavit.' With this, too, may be com
pared Gregory's words at the opening of the Moralia (Migne 75. 524): '. . .

9O NOTES, [PART I.

quousque verus lucifer surgeret, qui aeternum nobis mane nuntians, stellis caeteris
clarius ex divinitate radiaret.' Of this mind is Brooke, p. 394 : ' Cynewulf used
it to signify Christ, and as he is here speaking of Jesus as descended from David,
I have no doubt he was thinking of the text in Rev. xxii, where Jesus says " I
am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star." '
Something like this may have been in Wanley's mind, when he wrote ' Earendelis
Angeii (sive Luciferi),' supra, p. 67, though it is difficult to see just what his con
ception was.

As against these interpretations, it must be noted that in the Blickling Homilies,
p. 163, we have: ' se niwa eorendel Sanctus Johannes; and nu nu se leoma
bsere so, an sunnan, God selfa, cuman wille,' according to which John the Baptist
was the dawn or the day star preceding Jesus Christ, conceived of as the sun.
This is the evident meaning, though the passage seems corrupt. Again, if we
regard earendel in our text as the translation of ' oriens ' in the Antiphon, then
it is important to ascertain the sense in which ' oriens ' is to be taken, or rather
the noun, dvaroXr], of which it is a translation. On this cf. the latest authoritative
commentator, Plummer (St. Luke, p. 43) : dvaTo\7j e| v\f/ovs. " Rising from on
high." The word is used of the rising of the sun (Rev. 7. 2 ; 16. 12 ; Horn. Od.
xii. 4) and of stars (^isch. P. V. 457 ; Eur. Pkcen. 504). Here the rising of the
heavenly body is put for the heavenly body itself. Comp. the use of dvareXXu} in
Is. 60. i and Mai. 4. 2.' If the rising of the heavenly body is put for the heavenly
body itself, then the heavenly body is here apparently to be interpreted as ' the
sun.' But what evidence is there that Cynewulf so understood it ? First, that the
Antiphon seems to equate the three expressions, ' oriens,' ' splendor lucis aeternae,'
and 'sol justitiae,' and that the dawn or the day star would hardly be invoked to
'come and enlighten those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death.'
Secondly, that Cynewulf calls the earendel the ' softfaesta sunnan leoma.' And
thirdly, that, after addressing the earendel, he goes on to say, 'Thou, of thy very
self, dost constantly enlighten every season.' This would be said of the sun, used
figuratively, but hardly of the dawn or the day star. Considering, then, that if
earendel meant ' dawn ' or ' day star ' it would be at least as admissible to under
stand John the Baptist; that the 'oriens' of Lk. i. 78 connotes the sun; and
that both the Antiphon and Cynewulf immediately go on to name the sun, and
attribute to it supreme illuminative power, it would seem that neither ' dayspring *
nor ' day star,' though both most poetical expressions, denotes the full radiance
that is suggested.

Since Bede would have been good authority for Cynewulf, we may compare his
note on Lk. i. 78 (Comm. in Lucam}: ' Et prophetade Domino loquens, Ecce vir,
inquit, Oriens nomen ejus [Zech. 6. 12]. Qui ideo recte Oriens vocatur qui nobis
ortum verae lucis aperiens, filios noctis et tenebrarum lucis effecit filios.'

Amalarius (Migne 105. 1268) thus comments on the Antiphon: ' Quinta nempe
miratur inauditum orientem, qui non more vicissitudinem temporum mutatur de
die in diem, sed est aeternus ; cujus sol non solum corporis oculos illuminat, sed
etiam mentis. Justitia enim ad aspectum mentis pertinet.'

Gollancz's note on this word is as follows :

' earendel, it is difficult to translate the word adequately ; some bright star is
evidently meant, probably the same as Orvandels-td, " Orwendel's toe," mentioned

PART I.] NOTES. QI

in the Edda. Thor carried Orwendel from Jotunheim in a basket on his back;
Orwendel's toe stuck out of the basket, and got frozen ; Thor broke it off, and
flung it at the sky, and made a star of it, which is called Orvandels-td (v.
Grimm's Deutsche Myth.}. That the story of Orwendel was Christianized in
mediaeval times is attested by the German story of Orendel in the Heldenbuch,
where the hero wins " the seamless coat " of his master. " Earendel " does not
occur elsewhere in A. S. poetry as a poetical designation of Christ ; the word is
interpreted in the Epinal glossary by "jubar."

' The spelling in the Erfurt Gloss " oerendil" is noteworthy. It seems probable
that " Earendel " = " Orion," the constellation brightest at winter-time, and
" Orvandels-td " = " Rigel," the chief star of the constellation.

4 Cp. the opening lines of Paradise Lost, Book iii. :

Hail, holy light, offspring of Heaven first-born !
Of of the Eternal co-eternal beam, etc.

4 Cf. John i. 4, 9.'

engla beorhtast. So in Satan 586, Christ is called ' halig encgel.' For the
Biblical identification of God or Christ with an angel, compare Gen. 22. 1 1 with
v. 12; Ex. 3, 2 with v. 6; Acts 23. 11 with 27. 23. Christ here surpasses the
(other) angels in brightness as the sun surpasses the stars. One might think of
4 engla beorhtast ' as having been suggested by such a phrase as ' decus angelorum,'
in the opening line of a hymn attributed to Rabanus Maurus (Surtees Hymns, p.
1 16) : ' Christe sanctorum decus angelorum' ; the phrase is there glossed as 4 wlite
aengla.'

106. soflfaesta sunnan leoma. Cf. sol justitiae. See 696, and Ph. 587. yElfric
has {Horn. i. 36) : 'Crist is se s5$a daeg, se $e todraefde mid his tocyme ealle nyt-
ennysse bsere ealdan nihte, and ealne middangeard mid his gife onlihte.'

107. torht ofer tunglas. Cf. 235, 968. Tungol as masc. is extremely
irregular ; cf. 933. Perhaps we should assume that this form is LWS., and
restore tungol.

gehwane. LWS. for -hwone (Gram? 341, N. 2); Sievers no longer explains it
by analogy with the dat. -hwdm.

1 08. sylfum ]?e. The position of the pronoun is unusual (but cf. Gen. 2713).
Is this for emphasis ' thy very self ' or for metrical reasons ?

inlihtes. The ending earlier than -est (Gram. 356; cf. 202. 6).

109. God of Gode. This can only come from the Nicene Creed, which reads :
4 Et in unum dominum Jesum Christum, Filium Dei unigenitum, et ex Patre natum
ante omnia saecula, Deum de Deo, Lumen de Lumine, Deum verum de Deo vero,
genitum non factum, consubtantialem Patri, per quern omnia facta sunt. Qui
propter nos homines et propter nostram salutem descendit de caelis, et incarnatus
est de Spiritu Sancto ex Maria virgine, et homo factus est.' See Blunt, Annotated
Book of Common Prayer, p. 375, and >Elfric, Horn. i. 198, 258, 494; 2. 596.

gearo. The context seems rather to require geara ; cf. Ps. 74 (73). 12: 4 geara
bu worhtest, jer woruld wiEre, wise hjelu.'

no. soj>an Faeder. Apparently from Deo vero of the Creed; see above.

swegles . . . wuldre. So Jud. 345.

in. See the Creed. The Athanasian Creed has 4 increatus Filius.'

92 NOTES. [PART i.

112. for Jjearfum. Cf. 22.

J?m agen geweorc. Cf. 266, 1414. So, in the Genesis, Eve is God's work
(822), and both Adam and Eve his handiwork (241, 494, 628, 703).

113. Jmrh. Cf. 92, 359, 1442. byldo. Not ' Muhseligkeit,' as Grein con
jectures s. v. ; nor 'Dran[g]salen' (Dichtungen) ; nor even Thorpe's 'constancy.'
It no doubt corresponds to the irappTj<Tla,Jiducia, i.e. 'free and fearless confidence,'
'cheerful courage,' of 2 Cor. 7. 4; Eph. 3. 12 ; Phil. I. 20, etc.; cf. especially
Heb. 4. 1 6.

114. summit. For the association of Christmas with the winter solstice (the
Menologium has 'on midne winter'; see ^Elfric, Horn. i. 200, 346), cf. Diet.
Christ. Antiqq. I. 357-8.

pe sylf. For the dat. (ace. ?) with the nom. sylf, cf. 59.

115. inleohte. But inllht-, 43, 108. Within Part I is a leohtian, 234. Cf.
-lyht-, 204 (I); lyht-, 938 (III).

116. J>eostrum. Cf. (Ill) 1247, 1385.

117. sinneahtes. Cf. sinnehte (sb.), 1542, 1631 ; Rossger calls this (p. 34) a
local genitive. synnum bifealdne. So synnum gesizled, 736. Cf. vElfric,
Horn. i. 208 : ' Eal mancyn waes mid synnum bebunden, swa-swa se witega cwaeft:
"Anra gehwilc manna is gewriften mid rapum his synna" [Prov. 5. 22]'; cf.
PP .2i2, 234,332.

118. deorc deajjes sceadu. This, like brosme and J>eostrum, must no doubt
be interpreted figuratively, as referring to the spiritual condition of those who
cry; H7 b would seem to indicate this.

120-1. Gregory quotes Jn. I. I, 2 (Horn, in Evang. 25. 6: Migne 76. 1193):
' Joannes quoque Redemptorem nostrum manu fidei tetigit, qui ait: In principio
erat Verbum, et Verbum erat apud Deum, et Deus erat Verbum. Hoc erat in prin
cipio apud Deum. . . . Tangit ergo Dominum, qui eum Patri aeternitate substan-
tiae aequalem credit.'

120. brungen. Modifies hselo, not, as with Th., word.

121- 2. Faeder selmihtgum efenece. Cf. Gregory, Ib.\ ' Ille ergo Jesum
veraciter tangit, qui Patri Filium coaeternum credit.' Cf. (in Part II) 465:
' efenece Beam agnum Faeder' ; see also 216 ff.

So ^Ifric, Horn. i. 278: ' Hwaet is se Faeder? ^Imihtig Scyppend, na
geworht ne acenned, ac he sylf gestrynde Beam him sylfum efenece. Hwaet is se
Sunu ? He is "Saes Faeder Wisdom, and his Word, and his Miht, Jnirh ftone se
Faeder gesceop ealle "Sing and gefadode. Nis se Sunu na geworht ne gesceapen,
ac he is acenned. Acenned he is, and ^eah-hwae^ere he is efeneald and efenece
his Feeder: Cf. i. 198.

Cf . A. V. G. Allen, Christian Institutions, pp. 307-8 : ' The teaching of Arius,
as preserved by Athanasius in quotations from the writings of Arius, known as
the Thalia, is as follows: "God was not always a Father; once God was alone
and not yet a Father, but afterwards He became a Father. The Son was not
always ; He was made out of nothing ; once He was not ; He was not before His
origination; He had an origin of creation. For God was alone, and the Word
as yet was not, nor the Wisdom. Then wishing to form us, thereupon He
made a certain one, and named Him Word and Wisdom and Son, that He might
form us by means of Him. The Word is not the very God ; though He is called

PART i.] NOTES. 93

God, yet He is not very God ; by participation of grace, He, as others, is God
only in name. The Word is alien and unlike in all things to the Father's essence
and propriety. Even to the Son the Father is invisible ; the Word cannot per
fectly either see or know His own Father. He knows not His own essence ; the
essences of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost are separate in nature
and estranged and disconnected and alien and without participation of each
other; utterly unlike from each other in essence and glory unto infinity" (Orat.
I., c. 2).' Cf. ^Elfric, Horn. i. 290.

Allen remarks, pp. 307-9 : ' The doctrine of the Trinity, or of the coequality of
the Son with the Father, was incompatible with the spirit of empire resting on
force for its sanction ; it promoted individual liberty and national freedom, but it
meant the ultimate destruction of an imperial despotism. The Arian conception
of Deity was identical with the thought of God upon which imperialism rests for
its sanction. The God whom Arius proclaimed was not the constitutional sover
eign of the universe, whose will was in harmony with truth, and goodness, and
justice, as men could read those qualities in human experience, but was rather
the arbitrary absolute will, unconditioned and without relationship, incomprehen
sible to man ; a will which no insight could penetrate, which called for absolute
unhesitating submission. . . .

' The writings of Athanasius and of the Greek Fathers who carried on his work
bear witness in a striking way to the significance of the doctrine of the coequality
of the Son with the Father, which had been set forth at Nicaea, as if therein
were involved the principle of human freedom, in every form, whether national or
individual, the eternal ground and sanction of the dignity of man. . . . Only at a
moment of exalted enthusiasm, before the inevitable decline which overtakes all
human movements, could words like those of Athanasius have been coined. . . . :
" He has become man that He might deify us in Himself." ... " He first
sanctified Himself that He might sanctify us all. The Spirit as a precious oint
ment is poured forth from Him over all humanity."' On p. 314 he adds : ' The
Arian formula stood to the barbarian peoples of the West for the rude convic^
tion that Deity is primarily in its essence omnipotent power and absolute will ; as
the same formula had also stood in the Roman world for an act of submission to
the imperial will of the Roman Emperor. The purpose of the barbarians to sub
stitute another empire, based on the power of conquest, was defeated; and in
the obscure history of the time it is evident that the watchword of freedom was
the Nicene faith. . . . The dark scenes in which the Ostrogothic kingdom ex
pired in Italy indicated that there was a fatal weakness at the sources of its
power which no skill or wisdom or good intentions could overcome.'

121. on frymo'e. ' In principle.'

122. mid God. ' Apud Deum.'

122-3. ond n *i eft gewearS flaesc. Jn i. 14: 'Et verbum caro factum
est.'.

124. geomrum to geoce. Cf. 414, 427, 632, 722, 1196, 1421. God waes
mid us. Cf. I35 a , Mt. i. 23, and my Biblical Quotations, p. 137.

125. hiitun syiiiuiiii. Cf. Heb. 4. 15 : ' absque peccato.'

126. So Greg., Moral. 33. 16 (Migne 76. 693): ' Ita vero, ut unus idemque
Dei atque hominis filius ipse sit qui inhabitat.'

94 NOTES. [PART I.

127. on J?eode. May this not possibly mean 'in association,' ' conjunction '?
Cf. the senses of freodan, friedan, and of gefreod (Hall's second meaning) and its
derivatives. See also 377.

128. secgan. So 209, (II) 601, 612; but franc cunnan, witan (nytan), 1091,
1212, 1385, 1473, 1497 (III).

Sigedryhtne. Cf. 520, 1060; 1530. bi gewyrhtum. Cf. 1219, 1367.

130-163. Based upon the Antiphon of the Magnificat for December 23 :

O EMMANUEL, REX ET LEGIFER NOSTER, EXPECTATIO GENTIUM, ET SALVATOR
EARUM : VENI AD SALVANDUM NOS, DOMINE DEUS NOSTER.

From Isa. 7. 14 ; 8. 8 ; Mt. i. 23 : ' Emmamtel* ; Isa. 33. 22 : ' Dominus legifer
noster, Dominus rex noster ' ; ipse salvabit nos; Gen. 49. 10: 'ipse erit expectatio
gentium ; Isa. 37. 20 (?) : ' Dontine Deus noster?

Among the Antiphons for Lauds on Thursday of the third week in Advent is
Isa. 33. 22, slightly changed (so in the Sarum Use): 'Dominus legifer noster,
Dominus rex noster; ipse veniet et salvabit nos.'

130. gsesta God. Cf. 198.

134. rume. Cf. Jul. 314 for this sense. Th. renders the hemistich, ' by
mysteries of runes,' adopting his own conjecture, riina. Th. ends the sentence
with gerynum.

rodera Weard. Cf. 222.

135. God sylfa mid us. Cf. ^Elfric, Horn. 2. 14.
gomele. The prophets.

136. ealra cyninga Cyning. i Tim. 6. 15; Rev. 17. 14; 19. 16. The ealra
is inserted in ^Elfric's version of i Tim. 6. 15 (see my Bibl. Quot. p. -251) ; cf. his
Horn. i. 198; 2. 14. So 215; Jul. 289; Gu. 16-17 (Chr. 1681-2) ; An. 980; Hy.
3 22 ; Sat. 205. On the idiom, see note on 580.

137. Sacerd. Ps. no. 4 (Heb. 5. 6) : 'Tu es sacerdos in aeternum, secundum
ordinem Melchisedech.' The Roman Breviary adapts this for one of the Responds
after the Second Lesson on Thursday of the Third Week in Advent. Cf. Heb. 7.
i, 3: ' Hie enim Melchisedech, rex Salem, sacerdos Dei summi, . . . assimilatus
autem Filio Dei, manet sacerdos in perpetuum.'

138. Melchisedech. Cf. Gen. 14. 18 (also OE.), and the OE. poetical Gen.
2100-2123. The two OE. versions agree in the application to him of the epithet
se mizra.

139. godj?rym onwrah. ' The relation between Melchizedek and Christ as
type and antitype is made in the Ep. to the Hebrews to consist in the following
particulars. Each was a priest, (i) not of the Levitical tribe ; (2) superior to
Abraham; (3) whose beginning and end are unknown ; (4) who is not only a
priest, but also a king of righteousness and peace ' (Smith's Diet, of the Bible}.

140. eces Alwaldan. Cf. ece Alwtilda, Exod. n.

Se. Christ. ai bringend. ' Legifer.' The Spelman Psalter has ail&dend as
a gloss on legislator (Ps. 9. 21). One would incline to write this as a compound,
were it not for Idra ladend.

141. lara leedend. For the gen. dependent on a participial noun, cf. Apollo-
nius of Tyre, ed. Thorpe, p. 18 : Idre lufigend. Here Idr must signify ' precept,'
as equated with <z. Cf. An. 778.

PART I.] NOTES. 95

142. hyhtan hldercyme. See note on 154, end. gehaten. Cf. 315 ff.

144. gefSelsian. Perhaps as in 320. foldan msegfle. Cf. eorfran mag^e,
(II) 523, (III) 946.

145. gruiidas. Cf. 265, 562, 1526, 1593. Here we pass to the motive drawn
from the Harrowing of Hell; cf. 25 ff., (II) 558 ff., 730 ff., (Ill) 1159 ff.

Grund sometimes denotes the bed of the sea, or its deepest part, as in 1164.
Cf. Greg. Moral. 29. 12 ^Migne 76. 489, 490), commenting on Job 38. 16: ' Pro-
fundum maris Dominus petiit, cum inferni novissima, electorum suorum animas
erepturos, intravit. Unde et per prophetam dicitur: Posuisti profundum maris
viam, ut transirent liberati (Isai. 51. 10). Hoc namque profundum maris ante
Redemptoris adventum non via, sed career fuit, quia in se etiam bonorum animas,
quamvis non in locis poenalibus, clausit. Quod tamen profundum viam Domi
nus posuit, quia illuc veniens, electos suos a claustris inferni ad caelestia transire
concessit. . . . Deambulasse in inferno Dominus dicitur, ut electis animabus in
locis singulis per divinitatis potentiam praesens fuisse monstraretur.'

Gaestes maegne. Cf. 319; Sat. 550; Lk. 4. 14 (Corpus).

147. bidon In bendum. Cf. Sat. 49; Harr. Hell 61, 88. According to
Gregory, only the righteous were rescued from hell by the descent of Christ; so
Horn, in Evang. 2. 22 (Migne 76. 1177): 'Per hanc electi, qui quamvis in tran-
quillitatis sinu, tamen apud inferni claustra tenebantur, ad paradisi amoena
reducti sunt. . . . De electis suis apud inferos nullum reliquit. . . . Neque
etenim infideles quosque, et pro suis criminibus aeternis suppliciis deditos, ad
veniam Dominus resurgendo reparavit; sed illos ex inferni claustris rapuit, quos
suos in fide et actibus recognovit. . . . Quia vero ex inferno partem abstulit, et
partem reliquit, non occidit funditus, sed momordit infernum.' Thus likewise in
Epist. 7. indict. 15. ep. 15 (Migne 77. 870): ' Descendens ad inferos Dominus
illos solummodo ab inferni claustris eripuit quos viventes in carne per suam
gratiam in fide et bona operatione servavit.' Cf. Moral. 12. n (Migne 75.
993-4), and Honorius of Autun, Gemma Animae, lib. iii, cap. i (Migne 172.
641-2) : ' In hoc tempore, Gloria in excelsis et Te Deum laudamus non cantan-
tur, quia justi ante Christi adventum in tristitia inferni tenebantur.'

150. haelolif. See the other unique compounds with halo-, 374, (II) 586, 754.

152-3. Is ... aiiuiti. Cf. 365; less close are Hy. 4 109 ; Beow. 1376.

153. aefter. Cosijn prefers Sievers'/br, parenthesizing 15215-153*.

154. Haeftas hygegeomre. These two words are associated Beow. 2408.
For the thought, cf. 360.

gesece. In favor of Grein's conjecture, gesohtest, is the following passage
from the Blickling Homilies (p. 87): ' pa sona instaepes seo unarimedlice menigo
haligra saula, >e ser gehaeftnede waEron, to J>aem Hselende onluton, and mid
wependre halsunga hine biedon, and J>us cwsedon : " pu come to us, middan-
geardes Alysend, )>u come to us, heofonwara Hyht and eor>wara, and eac ure
Hyht, forj>on us geara aer witgan >e toweardne saegdon, and we t5 Jnnum hider-
cyme hopodan and hyhtan. pu sealdest on eor)>an mannum synna forgifnessa;
ales us nu of deofles onwalde and of helle hasftnede. Nu }>u for us astige on helle
grund, ne f orlast >u us nu on witum wunian, J>onne Jni t5 J>mum uplican rice cyrre." '

The preterit, come, bears out Grein's surmise; but against it is the cum of 149.
The latter, however, is probably from the Antiphon, and there is very likely con-

96 NOTES. L PART r

tamination with another original. The general correspondences with the prose
passage are striking, and extend even to verbal similarities ; cf. for example,
menigo, hceft (-), onwdld, grund, J>onne .../># cyrre. So ne forlizt frii us is no
bad confirmation of [ne laf} J>e behindan. With hyhtan hidercyme, 142, cf. we to
J>inum hidercyme hopodan and hyhtan ; and see 367.
157. gecyff. With miltse. An. 289; Exod. 292.

159. Laef. In the poetry, only Gen. 1179, 1195, 1214; Beow. 1178, 2470.
gefean. Cf. Bl. Horn. 85 : ' Heora Hf he haefj? to gefean gecyrred.'

1 60. paet. In order that.

164-214. The dramatic character of this section was first noted by J. J. Cony-
beare, successively Professor of Anglo-Saxon and of Poetry in the University of
Oxford. His brother, W. D. Conybeare, who edited the Illustrations , remarks
concerning this part (p. 201) :

' The following account of it is extracted from the Lectures delivered by the
late author of this work as Anglo-Saxon Professor in the University of Oxford:
" It is in fact a dialogue between the Virgin Mary and Joseph, imitated probably
from some of those apocryphal writings current in the Middle Ages under the
titles of the Life, or the Gospel, of the Virgin. The dialogue commences with an
address of the Virgin to Joseph, expressing her fears lest she should be subjected
by the rigor of the Jewish law to the punishment of an adulteress ; and the
answer of Joseph is occupied, partly by the assurance of his steady belief in her
purity, and other expressions calculated to remove her distress ; and partly by
prayer and thanksgiving to the power which had so signally favored himself and
his lineage. It will be readily agreed that this subject, from its sacred and myste
rious nature, is ill adapted to the purposes of poetry. The general absence of
taste and refinement which characterized the age in which the poem was originally
written, may fairly be pleaded in defense of its author; but in the present day no
such excuse could well be discovered for a translator. Indeed, I should have felt
disposed to have passed over the poem without notice, had not the dramatic form
in which it is written rendered it an object of some curiosity. Dialogues of this
kind were probably in our own country, as in Greece, the earliest and rudest
species of the drama ; and that here preserved is unquestionably by many years
the most ancient specimen of this kind of poetry existing in our native language." '
To which W. D. Conybeare adds: 'The reader, however, is desired to remember
the remarks of the editor on the dramatic form of parts of the Junian Caedmon.'

Wiilker, in a chapter, entitled ' Dramatische Bestrebungen der Angelsachsen '
(Grundriss, p. 385), remarks that one might easily assume that these hymns,, con
stituting Part I, were sung in church on certain festival occasions, that vv. 71-103
were presented by a choir of inhabitants of Jerusalem holding converse with
Mary, and that our present section introduced Mary and Joseph before the eyes
of the congregation. On that supposition, he continues, we should here have the
beginning of the mystery play. But as there is no further approach to the mystery
play before the Norman Conquest, he concludes that this assumption would be
unfounded, and supports his view by reference to the meagre vocabulary of
theatrical terms found in the OE. glosses.

Ebert (3. 46-7) says concerning this Part: 'Sie [die Darstellung] erinnert an
die mit dem Gottesdienst verbundenen altesten Mysterien: die zwei Dialoge

PART I.] NOTES. 97

der Maria mit den Juden, und derselben mit Josef, worin das Geheimniss der
Empfangniss der Gegenstand 1st, das wichtigste Moment bei der Geburt Christi,
bilden den dramatischen Kern ; der Dichter erscheint als der erklarende und
betrachtende Prediger, und vertritt zugleich den Chor der Gemeinde in den lob-
preisenden, hymnenartigen Stellen : eine hochst merkwiirdige Mischung der
Didaktik, Lyrik, und Dramatik. Dieser Theil ist gewiss auf Grund einer lateini-
schen Homilie geschrieben, wie dies vom zweiten selbst nachgewiesen ist.' He
adds in a note : ' Dafiir spricht wohl auch die theologische Gelehrsamkeit, die sich
in manchen einzelnen Ziigen kundgibt, und eine solche ist, wie wir sie Cynewulf
nicht zutrauen konnen.'

Gollancz's remarks on the passage are included in those on the sources of
Part I (Cynewulf 's Christ, p. xxi): 'Long and patient search has failed to dis
cover the source of Passus i. ; this failure is especially to be deplored as one
would much wish to know from what original the poet evolved the earliest dra
matic scene in English literature. What a contrast an Anglo-Saxon religious drama
would have presented to the homely miracles and mysteries of later centuries !
The original of the greater part of Passus i. must, I think, have been a Latin
hymn-cycle, the ' Joseph and Mary ' section being derived from an undiscovered
hymn arranged for recital by half-choirs.'

In his text, Brooke thinks we may here have the very beginning of the English
drama, and proceeds to elaborate his view (pp. 392-4), but, in a note, thus retracts
it all : ' Since I first wrote this passage I have seen Wiilker's note in his Grundriss
on the " Dramatische Bestrebungen " of the Anglo-Saxon poems, and though I do
not feel inclined to give up the idea that these hymns were sung in parts in the
church which he himself conceives possible I think that all notion of their
being represented on a stage, or dramatized in any true sense of the term, must be
given up.'

This section is found in Hammerich, Rieger, and Korner, in the first and last
with accompanying translation.

Thorpe divides at 167* (Joseph), 176^ (Mary), i8i b (Joseph), and this has been
generally accepted by the writers on the subject. Cosijn('Anglosaxonica IV) takes
issue squarely with the tradition. His words are : ' Die Einteilung des Dialogs
ist nicht in Ordnung. Erst mit eald fizmne geong, v. 175, fangt Josephs Rede (bis
v. 195) an, und darum ist v. 169 for J>e in for f>y, und v. 175 feasceaftne in fea-
sceafte zu bessern. Auch lese man, v. 169, mit Thorpe, ivorda. Ein Schluss eald
famne geong, m<egfr Maria ist unmoglich, und gerade dies eald weist uns hier den
Weg.'

At first sight this is plausible. Against it may be urged the following consid
erations :

(1) It would then be natural to interpret nu, 166, as 'since,' and to punctuate
with a comma after mine ; we should, accordingly, have two reasons assigned
for the grief one introduced by nit, and one \>y forfron, 169.

(2) If we read, with Cosijn, for J>y for for J>e, we shall have two causal words
in the same \\r\e, forfron and for fry (for fry); besides, for fry is not found in the
Christ.

(3) Hitherto, vv. 169 ff. have been parallel to 183 ff., and both appropriate in
the mouth of Joseph. If the latter be still assigned to him, is the former appro-

98 NOTES. [PART i.

priate in the mouth of Mary? And would Mary be so likely to hear derisive
gossip as Joseph?

(4) The change of feasceaftne to feasceafte is rather bold, unless for convincing
reasons.

(5) i?7 b -i8oa express a charming na'ivete on the part of Mary as they stand ;
she does not understand what Joseph is talking about, and imagines he is charg
ing himself with wrongdoing. Such a misunderstanding would be less likely
on the part of the more experienced Joseph.

(6) Urged to explain himself, Joseph, in uttering the word byrdscypes, 182, re
solves the suspense, and at the same time gives the key to the rest of his speech.
The sentence containing byrdscypes would seem unmotived, were it to follow the
preceding one in the mouth of Joseph, and therefore pointless.

(7) While it must be conceded that Eald is extremely rare, if not unexampled,
at the close of a speech, this fact can hardly outweigh the objections on the other
side. The traditional interpretation of this sentence is decidedly effective.

One consideration in favor of Cosijn's proposed change remains to be adduced.
The other dialogues of Part I consist of only one remark and one reply; by
retaining the usual division, we should here have Joseph speaking twice, and
Mary thrice. But we are not bound to believe that the predominant structure is
imperative in all cases.

164. lacobes bearn. Brooke tr. 'child of Jacob (old)'; but the reference is
not to the patriarch ; cf. Mt. i. 16.

165. mseg Dauides. Cf. note on 96, and Mt. i. 20.

166. freode. Ct.freogan, 'love,' from which freond ; Gen. 1026 has lufan and
freode.

faeste. CLfeestefyrhfrlufan, An. 83. gedselan. An unusual sense.

167. lungre. The ordinary rendering, 'straightway,' 'at once' (Br. 'this in
stant ') may be right. Against it are : (i) Not all the poetical passages require
this meaning; (2) OS. lungar does not mean 'swift,' but 'strong' (Hel. 987,
5300, 5829) ; (3) Grimm says (Andreas u. Elene, p. 1 10 ; on An. 518) : ' Hier nicht
subito, sondern acriter, fortiter, wie auch das ahd. lunkar ' strenuus ' ausdruckt ;
vgl. A. 1472 '; (4) the word seems here to be equated with deope.

169. for. Possibly miswritten for from, in the sense of 'concerning'; cf. Beovu.
581, 875. worda. So Cosijn also would read.

170. sorga. Korner : ' Dinge, die gewaltige Sorge bereiten.' See Zte^. 149.

171. hearmes. Cf. 1120. In this sense Gen. 579, 661 ; Beow. 1892; An. 671.
sprecaft. Sudden change of subject..

175. afrefran feasceaftne. Cf. An. 367.

176. Hwset. Like Lat. quid; almost = 'why.'

177. culpan. This may yet serve to identify the Latin original.

179. womma geworhtra. Th. 'for perpetrated sins'; Gr. 'kein Werk der
Schande'; K. ' wegen begangener Freveltaten ' ; Go. 'for evil done.' But on
what word is the gen. dependent ? hardly on incan ? Perhaps on an understood
eenigne, repeated from the preceding line.

ond. Almost = ' yet.'

180. swa. So 850, 1377.

181. gefylled. Br. 'thronged' [!]. to fela. So (III) 1263, 1268.

PART i.] NOTES. 99

183. ladigan. Cosijn would read, J>e Iddigan. Th. 'avoid'; Gr. ' mich erledi-
gen der leidvollen Reden ' ; K. ' mich entschuldigen (gegeniiber) ' ; Go. ' escape.'
In prose, Iddigan takes gen. and ace. (Wiilfing 1.43), so that if we accept Cosijn's
emendation, laj>an spraice would be gen. ; Grein (Spr.) makes it ace., and cites
Ps. Th. 8 8 .

186 ff. See the apocryphal Gospel of James, chaps. 7-13. Cf. Cowper, Apoc.
Gospels, p. 1 5 : 'I received her a virgin from the temple of the Lord, and have not
kept her. Who hath circumvented me? Who hath done this evil in my house,
and denied the virgin ? ' (chap. 1.3). See also the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew, chap.
5 ff. ; the Gospel of the Nativity of Mary, chap. 6 ff. ; the History of Joseph the
Carpenter, chap. 3 ff . da; no, vvomma leas. Cf. Doomsday 93-4.

188. Note the irregular alliteration w: h-w. Cf. Sievers, Altgermanische
Metrik, p. 37, note.

189. Cosijn would supply scyld or some similar word after ndthwylces ; see the
variants. K. says that ndthwylc is formed upon the Lat. nescio quis.

190 ff. Cf. Cowper, Apoc. Gospels, p. 15 (chap. 14): 'And Joseph said, "If I
hide her fault, I find myself fighting with the law of the Lord ; and if I expose
her to the children of Israel, I fear lest ... I shall be betraying innocent blood to
the sentence of death." '

190. swige. Rather noun than verb in the opt. ; the latter advocated by Koch,
Gram. 2. 42; Korner, p. 263.

191. Dauides dohtor. So Hel. 255. Cf. .^Llfric 2. 12 : 'Of Abrahames cynne
com se mjera cyning Dauid, and of "Sam cynecynne com seo halige Maria, and of
Marian Crist wead5 acenned.'

192. .stanuiii. Apparently based upon Deut. 22. 13-21 ; -but the Gospel nar
rative (Mt. i. 19) refers rather to Deut. 24. i. Cf. ^Elfric, Horn. i. 196: ' paet
ludeisce folc heold Godes x on )>am tlman ; seo 5i tsehte }>aet man sceolde jelcne
wimtnan \>e cild haefde butan rihtre zewe stsenan. Nu tfonne, gif Maria unbewed-
dod ware, and cild haefde, bonne wolde baet ludeisce folc, asfter Godes a5, mid
stanum hi oftorfian.'

astyrfed. Causative of dsteorfan ; ci.dstejfed, Rush. Mt. 15. 13. The Heliand
mentions the punishment of death, but not the mode.

193. mor]?or. In this sense Gu. 833 ; El. 428 ; An. 19, etc.

194. lifgan. Note the preponderating use of -gan, -gende, where a choice is
possible : lifgan, not libban ; nergan, not nerian, etc.

197. purh SUIMI Meotudes. An oath.

199. monnes. The only instance of cunnan with a gen. ; perhaps on the
analogy of verbs of enjoying, like brucan, neotan.

200. eaden. So Hy. 4 46 ; Met. 31*. Cf. Hel. 276-7 : ' thanan skal thi kind
odan wer'San.'

201. geongre in geardum. Similarly Ph. 355, 647; Beow. 13.

202. Cf. Men. 50; from Lk. i. 28. With heag- cf. 1018, and Gram. 223, N. i.
204. leoman onlyhte. So Met. 2I 36 . The reference is to Lk. i. 35. Plum-

mer, St. Luke, p. 24: 'It is the idea of the Shechinah which is suggested here

(Exod. 40. 38)' ; cf. Mt. 17. 5. So the Heliand has (278-9) : " skal thi skadowan

mid skim on ' (radiance), and Bl. Horn. 7.35: ' paes Hehstan maegen )>e ymbscmejv

206. nu ic his teinpel earn. 'This reposes upon texts like 2 Chron. 3. 5-7.

IOO NOTES. [PARTI.

Among those who employed this figure may be mentioned Origen (Livius, 123),
Ambrose (52, 105, 130, 132, 260), (Pseudo-) Chrysostom (120), Ephraem (90, 99,
116), Gregory Nazianzen (81), (Pseudo-) Epiphanius (128), Maximus (224), For-
tunatus (82), Cyril of Alexandria (220), and Hesychius (99 1 ). See also Salzer,
p. 119, n. 2, Lehner, p. 219' (Festgabe fur Eduard Stivers). Cf. also Bl. Horn.
5. 19; 149. 3; 153. 7 ; 155. 32; 163. n ; yElfric, Horn. I. 546.

207. frofre Gaist. So 728. The Comforter or Paraclete, Gr. Trapd/cXT/ros, of
Jn. 14. 1 6, 26 ; 15. 26 ; 16. 7 ; rendered in the WS. Gospels by Frefriend, except
14. 26: se hdlga frofre Gdst ; ^ilfric renders by Froforgdst, Jn. 15. 26 (Bibl. Quot.
p. 221) ; Lind. Rush, have riimmod. yElfric says (Horn. i. 322) : ' He is gehaten
on Greciscum gereorde " Paraclitus," J?aet is, " Froforgast," for'Si 'Se he frefraft
J>a dreorian, j?e heora synna behreowsiaft, and syl'S him forgyfenysse hiht, and
heora unrdtan mod gelrSegaft.'

209. sorgceare. Cf. Gu. 939. ]?onc. Cf. 1497-8.

211. fSemne. Cf. 141913-14203, and Bl. Horn. 7. 36 ff. yElfric has (Horn.
1.42): 'He . . . forlet hi mseden na gewemmed. . . . Heo . . . JmrhwunaiS on
maegfthade.' se-peah. Through weakening of stress from swa-freak ; it occurs
eleven times more in the poetry.

21 1-12. ond . . . wene. ' And thou reputed his earthly father ' ' his father,
according to supposition '; not 'I ween' (Go. 1 ), nor 'according to the hope' (Go. 2 ).
^Elfric has, Horn. i. 42 : * pa wees gefriiht "Sam ludeiscum swilce Joseph )>ass cildes
faeder was re, ac he naes ' ; i. 196 : ' Gehwa wende >aet he iSaes cildes fasder wasre, ac
he na2s.'

212. witedom. Cf. ^Elfric, Horn. \. 194: ' pa witegunga be Crlstes acenned-
riysse and be 'Saire eadigan Marian masg^hade sindon swfSe menigfealdlice on
Ssere ealdan x. gesette, and se ^e hi asmeagan wile, hser he hi afint mid micelre
genihtsumnysse.' Cf. Horn. 2. 12 ff., 20.

214-274. Based in part upon an occasional Antiphon of the Magnificat for
Advent :

O REX PACIFICE, TU ANTE SAECULA NATE: PER AUREAM EGREDERE PORTAM,
REDEMPTOS TUOS VISITA, ET EOS ILLUC REVOCA UNDE RUERUNT PER
CULPAM.

This Antiphon seems but slightly dependent upon Biblical phraseology. The
Nicene Creed has : ' Ex Patre natum ante omnia saecula' (cf. i Cor. 2. 7).

The section falls into two parts: 214-243*, 2431^-274. The first is occupied
with the mystery of the eternal generation of the Son.

214. sibsuma. 'Pacifice.' Cf. yElfric, in note on 14, and i Chron. 22.9:
'Pacificus vocabitur.' So BL Horn. n. 21 : ' Se gesibsuma Cyning, ure Drihten
HaHend Crist.'

2i6-7 b . Th. 'how thou wast of old become for all the world's multitudes' ;
Gr. (>.) 'wie warst du eher denn Alle von Anfang an vor aller Welten Schaaren
geworden ' ; Go. ' how wast thou . . . (Go. 1 aye) existent before all the worlds
estates ! '

217. mid Jnnne Wuldorf seder. Cf. ^Ifric, Horn. i. 32 : 'se fle mid him waes
jifre buton anginne'; i. 150: 'He waes aefre God of >am Faeder acenned, and

PART I.] NOTES. 101

wunigende mid pam Faeder and mid pam Halgan Gaste.' Wuldorfaeder. Only
Men. 147.

219. Ms *nig. So 241.

222. mid ryhte. So 278, 381.

225. set fruman. In the next ten lines Cynewulf briefly rehearses the account
of Creation, in order, with allusion to Jn. i. 1-4, to emphasize that Christ was
then already in existence.

226. under wolcnum. So 588 (II).

227. Hfes Ordfruma. Acts 3. 15: auctorem . . . vitae.

228. gedaelde. Gen. i. 4.
230-35. Gen. i. 3. Cf. Gen. 121-5:

Metod engla heht,
Hfes Brytta, leoht forS cuman
ofer rumne grund. Rape waes gefylled
Heahcininges haes : him waes halig leoht
ofer westenne, swa se Wyrhta behead.

231. gefea. Professor Bright would, for the sake of metre, omit this word,
comparing 234*; but cf. 743, and especially 585 (II).

235. torht mid tunglum. Cf. 968.

237. efeneardigende. Cf. 122.

239-240. Possibly with some reference to the Antiphon of the Magnificat for
December 17 :

O SAPIENTIA, QUAE EX ORE ALTISSIMI PRODIISTI, ATTINGENS A FINE USQUE AD
FINEM, FORTITER SUAVITERQUE DISPONENS OMNIA : VENI AD DOCENDUM
NOS VIAM PRUDENTIAE.

Based upon Ecclus. 24. 5 : ' Ego ex ore Altissimi prodivi ' ; Wisd. 8. i : ' Attingit
ergo a fine usque ad finem fortiter, et disponit omnia suaviler ' ; Isa. 40. 14 :' ...
viam prudentiae?

The connection, if it exists, is here very slight, and is suggested only by the
existence of these Antiphons in one series. It is just possible that the section
based upon this Antiphon is in the part destroyed. See pp. 72, 73.

For the feast given between Martinmas and Christmas, during the later Middle
Ages, by the Master of the Common House, or Calefactory, at Durham Monas
tery, and called O Sapientia, see Rites of Durham (Surtees Soc. Pub. 15 (1842),

PP-75 8 5)-

239. Snyttro. Cf. Greg. Moral, lib. xi. cap. 8 (Migne 75. 958) : Christum Dei
virtutem et Dei sapientiam (i Cor. i. 24) ; qui apud ipsum semper est, quia In
principio erat Verbum, et Verbum erat apud Deum, et Deus erat Verbum (Jn. i. i) ?
Cf. ^Elfric, Horn i. 40: 'Word biiS wisdomes geswutelung ; and paet Word, paet
is se Wisd5m, is acenned of ftam ^Imihtigum Faeder, butan anginne ; forSan fie
he woes Jefre God of Gode, Wisdom of fiam wisan Fseder'; Horn. i. 258: 'His
Wisdom, pe he mid ealle gesceafta geworhte, se is his Sunu, se is eefre of Sam
Faeder, and mid pam Faeder.' Cf. i. 248, 500; 2. 42. See also Prov. 3. 19;
8. 22, 23; Ps. 104. 24; 136. 5; and cf. Lk. n. 49 with Mt. 23. 34.

241. Cosijn compares Rid. 2 1 .

102 NOTES. [PART i.

242. fira bearnum. A Biblical phrase ; cf. my The Bible and English Prose
Style, p. ix.

243-274. Translated by Morley, English Writers, 2. 227-8.

243. From here to the end of the section is a variation upon the second half
of the Antiphon, the petition.

245. ywe. LWS. form; see variants. neod. Not to be confounded with
nyd.

246. motaii. Uncertain whether ind. or opt.

247. ryhtgeryno. Cf. 196.

250. hercyme. Cf . hidercyme. hailende. Pres. part. ; so Ph. 590 ; Ps.
1 08^; Ps. C. 50.

251. gyldnan geatu. Plur. for the sing. : auream portam. The reference is
undoubtedly to the physical birth of Christ. This is shown by the Responds of
the last week in Advent, and the Vigil of Christmas, as given in Gregory's Liber
Responsalis (Migne 78. 731, 734). The first has: ' Ingressus est per splendidam
regionem, aurem Virginis, visitare palatium uteri ; et regressus est per auream
Virginis portam.' The other has : ' Introivit per aurem Virginis in regionem
nostram, indutus stolam purpuream ; et exivit per auream portam lux et decus
universae fabricae mundi.' Cf. 318. Dietrich thinks the reference here (but not
in 318) is to 'das Thor des Himmelreichs oder des Paradieses' (Haupfs Zs.
9. 199). Cf. Sat. 649.

252. Cf. 308 ff.

253. heofona Heahfrea. Cf. 424.

254. gesece. 'Visita.' Grein interprets as opt.; but cf. Gram. 410, N. 4.
The parallelism with h at seems to be decisive in favor of the imp.

]mrh J>m sylfes gong. Brooke translates : ' through thy very self a-coming '[!].

256. wulf. With allusion to Jn. 10. 12. Cf. Greg. Horn, in Evang. lib. i,
hom. 14 (Migne 76. 1128) : ' Sed est alius lupus qui sine cessatione quotidie non
corpora, sed mentes dilaniat, malignus videlicet spiritus, qui cautas fidelium insi-
dians circuit, et mortes animarum quaerit.'

See ^Ifric, Hom. i. 36: ' pam lareowe gedafenaft haet he symle wacol sy ofer
Godes eowode, bast se ungesewenlica wulf Godes seep ne tostence.' Similarly
i. 238-240 : ' vElc bisceop and ailc lareow is to hyrde gesett Godes folce, j?aet hi
sceolon }>aet folc wr$ ftone wulf gescyldan. Se wulf is deofol, J?e syrwft ymbe
Godes gelaftunge, and cepft hu he mage cristenra manna sawla mid leahtrum
fordon.' See Bugge, Home of the Eddie Poems, pp. Ivii, Ixxiii ff.

257. deorc dea'Sscua. This is the obvious reading ; cf. Beow. 160. It is the
personified Shadow of Death, a sublime conception. Cf. deafres scila, Ps. 87,
io6 9 ' 13 ; Sat. 455. Imagine Milton's description of Death, P. L. 2. 666-673,
applied to Satan. Brooke translates : ' beast that works in darkness.'

259. blode gebohtes. Cf. Rev. 5. 9.

261. iissa. We should probably read thus, to agree with nioda. moda. Th.
tr. needs ; Gr. (Spr.) Herzen (as if moda}. The reading of the text is sufficiently
confirmed by SouVs Address 48 (Exon. J>inra neoda lust; Verc. meda, evidently
for nieda]. The whole phrase = against our -will.

264. wreccan. -an for -um (Gram. 237, N. 6). wites. Possibly we should
read wittes, as Grein (Spr.} and Cosijn suggest, the latter equating it with the

PART I.] NOTES. IO3

gdstbona of Beow. 177 ; but cf. suslbonan, Sat. 640, which furnishes a fairly good
parallel to this, and see PBB. 10. 456.

265. Perhaps alluding to Lk. 10. 18, of which Plummer says: ' It refers to the
success of the disciples regarded as a symbol and earnest of the complete over
throw of Satan. Jesus had been contemplating evil as a power overthrown.'

266. hondgeweorc. 801414(11!). haeleJ?aScy|7j7end. So An. 396; Hy. S 34 ,

267. on ryht. Cf. Ph. 664; Rid. 41*; Beow. 1555.
269-274. Morley's translation is as follows :

Through love of sin he drew us, that bereft of Heaven's light

We suffer endless miseries, betrayed for evermore,
Unless Thou come to save us from the slayer, Lord of Might!

Shelter of Man! O Living God! come soon, our need is sore!

269. Jxman. Unde.' Jmrh synlust. 'Perculpam.'

270. fortyhte. This emendation of Cosijn's seems to deserve the preference
over the MS. reading. It would be strange if, side by side with a well-knownyfrr-
tyhtan, there should be ^fortyllan with precisely the same meaning, from a tyllan
of which nothing could be made. tires vvoiie. Cf. tirleas, Beow. 843.

271. a biitan ende. So 415. ermjm. Elsewhere in the poem, yrmj>u.

272. ofostllcor. Where we should use the positive.

273. lifgende God. 80755(1!).

274. Helm alwihta. Cf. 410.

275 ff. Based upon an occasional Antiphon of the Magnificat for Advent :

O MUNDI DOMINA, REGIO EX SEMINE ORTA : EX TUO JAM CHRISTUS PROCESSIT
ALVO, TANQUAM SPONSU8 DE THALAMO ; IIIC JACET IN I'RAESEPIO QUI ET
SIDERA REGIT.

Only one phrase is Biblical, from Ps. 19. 5 (18. 6) : ' In sole posuit tabernaculum
suum, et ipse tanquam sponsus procedens de thalamo suo.' For the application to
Christ, cf. Pseudo-Jerome in Livius, p. 78, and Augustine, Sedulius, and others,
quoted in Salzer, p. 115, N. 4. The hymn of Ambrose, ' Veni, Redemptor gen
tium,' has :

Procedit e thalamo suo,
Pudoris aula regia.

See Neale and Littledale, i. 265.

275. maera. Gollancz comments : ' Th. suggested that the word was due to
an error of the scribe, and should properly be maria ; there is no evidence for
this view, but it is probable that the poet used mcera because of its likeness to
maria, the sort of popular etymology that the old homilists delighted in.'
There is no evidence for this view ; but cf. 446. Mare is used alone as a voc. in
Ps. 1 1 8182.

276. claeneste. Cf. 187, 331.

cwen. 'Domina'; cf. 1198. Mary is thus celebrated by Athanasius (Livius,
79, 80, 213), Ephraem (96, 296, 298), Methodius (153), Chrysippus (81), Fortu-
natus (368), Hesychius (81), and Sophronius (335). See also Salzer, pp. 420-3,
and cf. /Elfric, Horn. 2. 22: 'Uton beon eac gemyndige hu micelre ge'SincSe sy
baet halige mseden Maria, Cristes moder ; heo is gebletsod ofer eallum wlf hades

IO4 NOTES. [PART i.

mannum ; heo is seo heofenlice cwen, and ealra cristenra manna frofer and f ultum.'
So Bl. Horn. 105. 17 : ealra fiimnena cwen.'

277. to \vidan feore. So 1343, 1543 (HI).

278. Cf. 381.

280. bryd. Cf. such Biblical passages as Cant. 4. 8-12; 5. i. The figure is
used by Ephraem (Livius, 99, 383, 386, 419), Ambrose (270), Jerome (97),
(Pseudo-) Augustine (276), Prudentius (450), Proclus (98), Cyril of Alexandria
(277), Chrysologus (137), and Isidore of Seville (277). Salzer (pp. 99-100) quotes
from the hymns such expressions as sponsa Christi, sponsa summi Regis, cara
sponsa Dei, sponsa Creatoris, sponsa Patris aeterni.

282-3. J?a hyhstan . . . J?egnas. Grein (Spr.) interprets as 'archangels'; cf.
An. 726; Gen. 15; Hy. 7 53 .

284. halgum meahtum. 801189(11!).

285-6. These lines suggest a reminiscence of the triple Hecate, as in Servius
on Aen. 4. 511 : 'Cum super terras est, creditur esse Luna ; cum in terris, Diana;
cum sub terris, Proserpina.' Cf. Chaucer, where, in the Prologue of the Second
Nun's Tale, he is speaking of Mary's Son

That of the tryne compas lord and gyde is
Whom erthe and see and heven, out of relees,
Ay herien.

This resembles the lines of the Hymn (for Ascension Day), ' Aeterne Rex altis-

sime ':

Ut trium rerum machina,

Caelestium, terrestrium,

Et inferorum condita,

Flectat genu jam subdita.
And see Phil. 2. 10.

288. Jmsthycgende. Only Gn. Ex. 50.

289. brohtes. Cf. Gram. 356. We should expect the opt. ; cf. Prollius,
45-6; 44. 13. For the thought one might adduce Augustine's statement, as
quoted by Livius, p. 199: ' She consecrated her virginity to God.'

292. beaga hroden. Cf. beaghroden, Beow. 623; Jud. 138; Rid. 15; and
see 330. Elsewhere hreodan takes the inst. : Beow. 304, 1151 ; Ph. 79 ; Rid. 8i 17 ;
fud. 37 ; An. 1451 ; Whole 74. Perhaps we should read beagum. lac. Offering,
oblation.

293. heofonhame. Cf. Ps. IO2 18 , I22 1 , 137, 148*. hlutre mode. So
Met. 29 2 ; cf. Gu. 77.

295 ff. Cf . 200 ff.

296. meahta sped. Cf. (II) 488, 652, (III) 1383.

300. Cf. 84, 211.

unwemme. Cf. Chaucer, Prologue to Second Nun's Tale:

Thou, virgin wemmelees,
Bar of thy body, and dweltest mayden pure,
The creatour of every creature.

303. Esaias. Rather, Ezekiel. In the service for Wednesday of the first
week of Advent, according to the Roman Breviary, we read, as the Response to

PART I.] NOTES. 105

the Second Lesson, the following : ' Ante multum tempus prophetavit Ezechiel :
Vidi portam clausam; ecce, Deus ante saecula ex ea procedebat pro salute mundi;
et erat iterum clausa, demonstrans Virginem, quia post partum permansit virgo.
Porta quam vidisti, Dominus solus transibit per illam.' Cf. Newman, Tracts for
the Times 3. 186-7. The passage of Ezekiel is 44. 1-2. The confusion between
Isaiah and Ezekiel may have arisen, because the Lesson immediately preceding is
from Isaiah, chap. 3.

306 ff. Note Cynewulf's highly poetical expansion. Thus the geond J>eodland
suggests the descrying of the gate from afar, as in The Holy Grail:

And eastward fronts the statue, and the crown
And both the wings are made of gold, and flame
At sunrise till the people in far fields,
Wasted so often by the heathen hordes,
Behold it, crying, ' We have still a King.'

308. aejjelic ingong. Brooke translates : ' Glorious an Ingang ! '

310. bewrijjen. Cf. Tennyson, Lance/at and JS/aine 808 : 'His \>a.\.\\z-writhen

arms and mighty hands.'

312. forescyttelsas. Both scyt(t)el and scyt(t)els are found in the prose ; cf.

Bosworth-Toller.

314. cluster. Cf. Chaucer, as above :

Within the doistre blisful of thy sydes
Took mannes shap the eternal love and pees.

315. Godes engel. Cf. Ezek. 40. 3.

316. onwrah. Also (II) 463.

ond pact word acwsefi. Also (II) 474, 714.

318. gyldnan gatu. Cf. 251.

320. gefaelsian. I quote from my note in \hz Journal of Germanic Philology -, i.
334-6 : ' Thorpe translates it by " make pure " ; Grein (Dichtungeri), by " verher-
lichen"; Gollancz, by "glorify" (Cynewulf's Christ) and "make resplendent"
(Exeter Book}. In the Sprachschatz, Grein assigns to gefizlsian the meanings
" lustrare, expiare, mundare, purificare, clarificare."

' Professor Bright proposes to waAgefaslnian f or gefizlsian. He says : " Gefcest-
nian, taken vi\\h. fastan of the next line, reflects in a striking way the special
emphasis of the original passage : ' This gate shall be shut . . . therefore it shall
be shut'; cf. also 11. 251-2, which shows that the closed gates were particularly
in mind."

' I propose to retain gefizlsian, and to translate it by " pass through."

* That Grein is correct in assigning to gefizlsian (and also to/<ztsian) the meaning
" lustrare " is shown by a comparison with the Wright- Wulcker Vocabularies,
where (438 23) we have: "lustrans, faelsende." This, however, does not determine
the meaning of fSlsende, since lustrare has various definitions. Of these, the
commonest in the Vulgate is "pass through," " go through." Thus, too, in the
Vocabularies (4343) : "lustrata, geondhworfen," and (438 39 ) : " lustraturus, geond-
ferende." Since it has been shown that the well-known Latin meaning of " lus
trare" as "traverse," "pass through," must have been familiar to OE. scholars

IO6 NOTES. [PART r.

through the Vulgate, and is unmistakably recognized in OE. itself; and since,
as we have seen, fatfsian is used in OE. as an equivalent of lustrare^ we need not
hesitate to assign to the OE. verb in our line the meaning of "traverse," "pass
through," if the context appears to demand it.

'That the context does demand it is, I think, evident : v. 321 is the gloss on
gefiSlsian ; " Sas gyldnan gatu . . . God . . . wile . . . gefaelsian " is thus corrobo
rated, explained, and expanded by " Jmrh \>a fasstan locu foldan neosan."

' So far as action is concerned, there is no question anywhere of the shutting of
the gate ; the gate is conceived as already shut, and attention is directed to the
passage through (cf. the "faerft inn" and "fit fserft" of ^Elfric). That this is true
may be seen from the comment of Ambrose (Ef. I. 7) : ' Quae est ilia porta sanc-
tuarii, porta ilia exterior ad orientem, quae manet clausa, et nemo, inquit, per -tran-
sibit per earn, nisi solus Deus Israel ? Nonne haec porta Maria est, per quam in
hunc mundum Redemptor intravit?' Professor Bright's proposed change to
gefastnian, so far from giving a better sense, would merely weaken the fcestan of
the next line : the gate which has just been fastened has not, to the imagination,
the same character of impermeability as that which has long been locked (cf. the
"ful longe ser" of v. 252, if that passage is to be connected with this). And why
should the " Father Almighty" fasten the gates in order that immediately, in the
next line, he may pass through them? This is neither Scripture nor poetry.' Cf.

145-

328. Du eart fast wealldor. Cf. the last note. The same view is repre
sented by yElfric, Horn. i. 194 : ' " pis geat ne bift nanum menu geopenod, ac se
Hlaford ana faerft inn |?urh baet geat, and eft fit fasrS, and hit bift belocen on
ecnysse." paet beclysede geat on Codes huse getacnode bone halgan maeigfthad
baire eadigan Marian. Se Hlaford, ealra hlaforda Hlaford, baet is Crist, becom
on hire innoft, and fiurh hi on menniscnysse wear's acenned, and J?aet geat bi'S
belocen on ecnysse ; baet is, }>aet Maria wass mseden aer Sasre cenninge, and maeden
on ftaire cenninge, and maiden aefter "Sasre cenninge.'

But the interpretation is much earlier, being found in Gregory Thaumaturgus
(Livius, 123), Ephraem (116, 297, 412, 423), Gregory of Nyssa (115), Ambrose
(114, 115), Jerome (97, 104, 114 ; cf. Lehner, p. 137), Theodoret (115), Sedulius
(444), Proclus (115), Chrysippus (223), Ennodius (454), Julianus Pomerius (116),
Arator (454), Fortunatus (459), Hesychius (227), Rufinus (Lehner, p. 141). See
also Salzer, p. 117, n. 7, and the whole of the eighth chapter of Ambrose's De
Institutione Virginis (Migne 16. 319).

wealldor. Cf. weallgeat, Jud. 141 ; An. 1205.

331. gecorene. In the Fathers, Mary is often called electa. Ci.Jttl. 613.

334. lioJ7uctegan bileac. Cf. Ambrose, De Inst. Virginis^ cap. 9 (Migne 16.
321) : 'Porta clausa es, virgo; nemo aperiat januam tuam, quam semel clausit
Sanctus et Verus, qui habet clavim David, qui aperit et nemo claudit, claudit et
nemo aperit.' This carries us back to 19.

lifes Brytta. Cf. Liffrea, 15. So An. 823; Gen. 122.

336. Cf. 201, 295. Godes spelboda. So Dan. 533, 743; Ph. 571.

341. 'Now that we look upon the child (lying) on thy breast' (taking on and
foran as separate prepositions). Note the tenderness of the poet, and cf. the
close of Milton's Hymn on the Morning of Chris fs Nativity. Professor Bright,

PART I.] NOTES.

following Thorpe, regards br'eostum stariafr, however, as ' view or look upon with
our inmost thoughts,' and interprets the whole sentence : * Then shall we be able,
. . . now that we with our inmost thoughts look on the child before us (foran}S

breostum. Cf. Sweet's note on Cura Past. 101. 16 (p. 480), with reference to
the dual or plural, and see Gram. 274, N. 2.

342. Gejjinga. Observe the intercessory character attributed to the Virgin ;
cf. Lingard, Anglo-Saxon Church 2. 75-8, and ^Ifric, Horn. i. 204 : 'Uton biddan
nu bset eadige and b^t gesalige mxden Marian baet heo us geftingige to hyre
agenum Suna and to hire Scyppende, Hiilende Crist.'

344. gedwolan. This dread of heresy and false doctrine is very significant.
Cf. Allen, Christian Institutions, pp. 354-5 : ' The largest and most inclusive
answer to the problem [of the Atonement], which the church of the Catholic
creeds was practically unanimous in rendering, set forth the ignorance of man as
the source of the evils in which he was engulfed and out of which he vainly
sought to escape, his ignorance of the true nature of God and of His relation to
the world ; ignorance of the true constitution of man and of his high destiny.
Christ came as the enlightener, the light which came forth from the eternal light,
to recreate or to rejuvenate humanity, to disclose to men their true relationship
to God. In ways which could not be defined, He broke the power of sin and
overcame its deadly fascination. It was assumed that the soul was made for God,
and that when light was revealed, man by the inner law of his being would
respond to light. To know the truth was to be set free ; the knowledge which
acted through the mind upon the conscience and the heart, involved obedience :
This is life eternal ; to know God and Jesus Christ whom He has sent. In this way
the world was reconciled unto God and God unto the world.' Cf. 106, and note.

347. wunigan. Except in this word, the *', ig of such verbs is usually repre
sented in this poem

348-377. Perhaps based upon the Antiphon of the Magnificat for December 19 :

O RADIX JESSE, QUI STAS IN SIGNUM POPULORUM, SUPER QUEM CONTINEBUNT
REGES OS SUUM, QUEM GENTES DEPRECABUNTUR : VEN1 AD LIBERANDUM
NOS, JAM NOLI TARDARE.

The Biblical sources are : Isa. 1 1. 10 : 'In die ilia radix Jesse, qui stat in signum
popiilarum, ipsunt gentes deprecabuntur . . .'; Isa. 52. 15: '. . . super ipsum con-
tinebunt reges os suum . . . ' ; Heb. 10. 37 : ' . . . qui venturus veniet, et non tardabit?

A great part of this section has no obvious relation to the Antiphon ; but cer
tain lines seem to point to it. There may be ' contamination ' with the next, as
well as with some of the preceding.

349-357. Cf. 109-111, 121-2, 216-240.

350. efenwesende. Cf. efeneardigende, 237 ; cf. ^Elfric, Horn. I. 282 : 'Codes
Sunn is iefre of ftam Faeder acenned, and jiefre mid him wunigende.' ham. Cf.

35> 647-

355. mid Jxme ecan Frean. Cf. mid J>inne engan Frean, 237.

356. J?as sidan gesceaft. Cf. 239^

357-8. Bairn . . . hleofsest. Here, in the introduction of the Holy Spirit, is
the first suggestion of the Trinity, which is to be the theme of the next section.

IO8 NOTES. [PART i.

gemaene. Cf. the Nicene Creed : ' qui ex Patre Filioque procedit.' See Blunt,
p. 375: 'The words "et Filio " or "Filioque" of the Procession of the Holy
Ghost have, as is well known, never been admitted into the Creed by the Eastern
Church. They were first introduced, probably, as an additional protest against
the Arian denial of the full Godhead of the Son, by the Spanish Church, at the
great Council of Toledo in 589; or, according to Bingham, at the still earlier
Council of Bracara in 411. Some, however, think that they cannot be traced
with certainty higher than the Toledan Council of 633. The addition first became
of importance towards the end of the eighth century, when the doctrine of the
procession of the Holy Ghost from the Son was wielded as a theological weapon
against the adoptionist heresy of the Spanish Bishops, Felix and Elipandus. It
was then generally adopted through Gaul and Germany, chiefly through the
influence of Charlemagne.'

It should not be forgotten that Alcuin, whom I have elsewhere (Anglia 15.
9-19) shown to be the author of a conception of purgatorial fire adopted by Cyne-
wulf in his Elene, wrote controversial tracts directed against the heresy of Felix
and Elipandus, a treatise on the Procession of the Holy Spirit, and another on
the Trinity. Chap. 5, Bk. I of the last-named is entitled, Quod Spiritus sanctus
communis est Patris et Filii Spiritus. Now the word communis is precisely the
one which would be translated by gemaine, and this is the very treatise with the
teaching of which, as I showed in the article cited above, Cynewulf must have
been familiar. These coincidences, therefore, are not without significance.

358-372. Cf. I49-I54-

359. Jmrh ea<5medu. So 1442 (III); Gu. 74.

360. hsefta. Cf. 154.

361. medjnowa. Cf. witefreowum, 151.

364. hetelan. Cosijn refers to Bosworth-Toller, and adds Beda-Wheloc,
p. 309, and Saints 3. 406.

365. gebunden bealorapum. Cf. 117, and note. gelong. Cf. 152.
367-377. Cf. 249-274. See especially help, 366 : helpe, 263 ; hidercyme, 366 :

hercyme, 250 ; firena lust, 369 : synlust, 269 ; yrmfra, 370 : ermj>a, 271 ; ne lata to
lange, 373: hr<zdlice, 263; us is lissa J>earf, 373; us is J>inra drna J>earf, 255;
dhredde, 374 ; hreddan, 274.

368. afrefre leasceafte. Cf. 175.

371-2. tydran . . . heanlice. Cf. 29-31. tydran mode. Cf. Gu. 729.

372. Cym. But cum, 149, 243.

373. ne lata to lange. ' Jam noli tardare.'

374. ' Ad liberandum nos.' hselogiefe. Cf. halollf, 150.

377. onpeode. Cf. 127. Jnnne willan. Cf. 1236, 1261 (III).

378-415. Based upon two of the Antiphons for Lauds on Trinity Sunday,
according to the Sarum Use :

O BEATA ET BENEDICTA ET GLORIOSA TRINITAS, PATER ET FILIUS ET SPIRITUS

SANCTUS.
TE JURE LAUDANT, TE ADORANT, TE GLORIFICANT OMNES CREATURAE TUAE, O

BEATA TRINITAS.

FART I.] NOTES. IO9

The former of these has been adopted as the invocation of the Trinity near the
beginning of the Litany; see Blunt, p. 225.

379. halig. These adjectives do not strictly render the three of the first Anti-
phon, though this may stand for benedicta, and wlitige for gloriosa.

Jjrynes. Cf. iElfric, Horn. i. 10 : ' Deos Jryrmys is an God : )>aet is, se Faeder ;
and his Wisdom, of him sylfum aHre acenned ; and heora begra Willa, t>aet is se
Halga Cast ; he nis na acenned, ac he gje$ of )>am Faeder and of J>am Suna gellce.
Das >ry hadas sindon an ^Elmihtig God.' Cf. i. 228, 248, 276-8, 498-500; 2. 42,
56, 362. For other occurrences of the word in the poetry, see 599; El. 177;
//. 726; An. 1687; Gu. 618 ; Jud. 86 ; Hy. 8*.

On the comparatively late date of the Feast of Trinity, cf. Burbidge, Liturgies
and Offices of the Church, pp. 262-3 : * Tne importance given to the Festival of the
Trinity through the numbering of the Sundays for the rest of the year as Sundays
after Trinity, is another English custom shared from ancient times with the Gal-
lican Church, but not adopted by the Roman. The observance of Trinity Sun
day began in France about the eighth century, being mentioned in a letter to the
Emperor Charlemagne. Its observance is also provided for in an ancient MS. of
the monastery of S. Denys, and in another belonging to Tours, circa A.D. 900. It
seems also to be referred to in the Pontifical of Egbert, Archbishop of York,
A.D. 732-766. The Festival was not generally admitted into the Roman Service
Books until the fifteenth century.'

On the general significance of the doctrine, cf. Allen, Christian Institutions,
p. 301 : ' If the course of Christian history discloses the enduring tendency to
distinguish between the revelation of the Father in creation, and in the order of
the visible world, the revelation of the Son in the redemption of humanity as a
process revealed in history, or the revelation of the Holy Spirit in the inward life
of the individual soul, as though either of these might constitute a religion with
out the others, so also does the history of the church reveal the threefold con
sciousness and will and purpose in unity, as if no one of the three were to be
excluded, or subordinated to the others. These three agree in one. Beneath the
diversity there is an underlying unity which, if it be not denied, still asserts its
claim, and at least keeps the problem for ever real. When unity is sought for by
the customary methods of suppression, the higher unity is reasserted by division
and schism. In the ancient church also, when the effort was made to overcome
the nature-religions, as by the first Christian apologists, who failed, however, at
the same time to do justice to the divine life as revealed in nature, the principle
inherent in those old religions came back, and, entering the church in unsuspected
ways, revolutionized its cultus. When in the ancient church there was a tend
ency toward the suppression of the inner personal life by external authority,
when prophetism was discouraged and finally banished, there arose in monas-
ticism a protest in behalf of the inner life of the Spirit and its coequal importance
when compared with the interests of historic religion, such a protest as the
world has not witnessed before or since. Thus the conflicts of the church and its
inner revolutions attest the coequality of the three distinctions in the one divine
essence. Natural religion or the Fatherhood of God, historical Christianity or
the worship of the Son, the inward experience wrought by the Holy Spirit, these
three also agree in one. But no one of them is complete without the others.'

IIO NOTES. [PARTI.

381. mid ryhte. 'Jure.'

382. ealle maegene. So Beow. 2667 ; cf. Ps. IO5 23 .

386. seraphinnes cynn. Cf . the description in Elene 739-749 :

para on hade sint
in sindreame syx genemned,
J?a ymbsealde synt mid syxum eac
frSrum, gefraetwad, faegere scTnaK
para sint .1111., he on flihte a
J?a ^egnunge J?rymme beweotigaj?
fore onsyne eces Deman,
singallice singaj? in wuldre
haedrum stefnum Heofoncininges lof,
wofta wlitegaste, ond }<as word cweftaj?
claenum stefnum : ^am is Ceruphin nama.

Ceruphin is here ' cherubim,' not ' seraphim ' ; the mistake is derived from the
Latin original.

^Elfric says concerning the seraphim (Horn. I. 344): ' Seraphim sind gecwedene
byrnende, oftSe onaelende ; hi sind swa miccle swifter byrnende on Codes lufe,
swa micclum swa hi sind to him gefteodde ; forftan fte nane oftre englas ne sind
betweonan him and ftam ^Imihtigan Gode. Hi sind byrnende, na on fyres wisan,
ac mid micelre lufe baes wealdendan Cyninges.' This seems to repose on Gregory,
Horn in Evang. 34. 10 (Migne 76. 1252): 'Seraphim etiam vocantur ilia spiri-
tuum sanctorum agmina quae ex singular! propinquitate Conditoris sui incompa-
rabili ardent amore. Seraphim namque ardentes vel incendentes vocantur. Quae,
quia ita Deo conjuncta sint ut inter haec et Deum nulli alii spiritus intersint,
tanto magis ardent quanto hunc vicinius vident. Quorum profecto flamma amor
est, quia, quo subtilius claritatem divinitatis ejus aspiciunt, eo validius in ejus
amore flammescunt.'

387. bremende. Cf. 483; Dan. 406; Men. 94.

388. unapreoteiidum. Cf. the verb dfrr'eotan. Jjrymmuin. Not 'num
bers' (Thorpe, Gollancz 2 ), nor 'notes' (Gollancz 1 ).

391. cyst. Cf. the quotation from yElfric under 386; they are closest to God.

392. Cf., under 386, EL 745: 'fore onsyne eces Deman,' and An. 719-724:

Cheruphim and Seraphim,
>a on swegeldreamum syndon nemned ;
fore onsyne ecan Dryhtnes
standaft sti'Sferh'5e ? stefnum heriga'S,
halgum hleoftrum, Heofoncyninges Jnym,
Meotudes mundbyrd.

setwiste. Not 'essence ' (Thorpe), nor ' being ' (Gollancz).
393-9. Here Brooke's translation is better than usual, though it is marred
by the last hemistich :

Ever and forever all adorned with the sky,
Far and wide they worship God the wielder of the world,
And with winged plumes watch around the Presence
Of the Lord Almighty, of the Lord Eternal !

PART I.] NOTES. 1 1 1

All around the throne of God, thronging they are eager,
Which of them the closest may to Christ the Saviour
Flashing play in flight, in the garths of peacefulness !

393. swegle gehyrste. Th., 'these ornaments of heaven'; Go. 1 , 'wreathed
with celestial light ' ; Go. 2 , ' wrapt in bright harmony ' ; and see Brooke. Grein
(Spr.) assumes an adv. swegle here, 1102, Gn. Ex. 78; Met. 28 61 ; this is borne
out by the adj. swegle (OS. suigli), Beow. 2749, Ap. 32. On the other hand, see
the compounds sweglbefdlden, Sat. 588 (cf. Haupfs Zs. 10. 365) ; sweglbeorht, Gu.
1187; swegltorht, Gen. 28, 95, Gn. Ex. 41; An. 1250; Met. 29**; sweglwered,
Beow. 606. Grein does not recognize a simple inst. swegle, except in swegle benum-
ene, Gu. 597.

395. fijjrum. Cf. Exod. 25. 20; 37. 9; I Sam. 4. 4; Ps. 80. i ; 99. i. The
cherubim and seraphim were confused, as we have seen ; then the images of
the cherubim were confounded with the living angels. But see also Isa. 6. i, 2.

399. lacan. Cf. Ph. 316; Fates of Men 23; Met. 2^.

403-415. This is a paraphrase of the hymn variously called the Sanctus, Ter-
sanctus, Triumphal Hymn, Angelic Hymn, or Seraphic Hymn. It is composed
of a modification of the hymn of the Seraphim in Isa. 6. 3, and of Mt. 21.9 (based
upon Ps. 118. 26). These are:

' Sanctus, sanctus, sanctus, Dominus Deus exercituum, plena est omnis terra
gloria ejus.'

' Hosanna filio David ; benedictus qui venit in nomine Domini ; hosanna in
altissimis.'

The Hymn is regularly found in all Liturgies in the same place, viz. at the con
clusion of the Preface, and just before the Consecration (Hammond, Liturgies
Eastern and Western, p. 381). In the Gregorian Sacramentary it is thus introduced
(Migne 78. 25):

' Per quern Majestatem tuam laudant angeli, adorant dominationes, tremunt
potestates : caeli, caelorumque virtutes, ac beati seraphim socia exsultatione con-
celebrant. Cum quibus et nostras voces, ut admitti jubeas, deprecamur, supplici
confessione dicentes :

SANCTUS, SANCTUS, SANCTUS, Dominus Deus Sabaoth. Pleni sunt caeli et
terra gloria tua. Osanna in excelsis. Benedictus qui venit in nomine Domini.
Osanna in excelsis.'

In the Sarum Use it is prefaced as follows (Blunt, p. 387) : 'Et ideo cum angelis
et archangelis, cum thronis et dominationibus, cumque omni militia caelestis
exercitus, hymnum gloriae Tuae canimus, sine fine dicentes' [the Hymn as above].

In the English Prayer Book we read :

' Therefore with angels and archangels, and with all the company of heaven, we
laud and magnify thy glorious name, evermore praising thee, and saying : Holy,
holy, holy, Lord God of hosts, heaven and earth are full of thy glory ; glory be
to thee, O Lord most high.'

Blunt comments (p. 386) : ' St. Cyril [315-386] speaks of its long Preface . . .
\Catech. Lect. xxiii], and then goes on to say: "We make mention also of the
Seraphim, whom Isaiah, by the Holy Ghost, beheld encircling the throne of God
[cf. Christ, v. 395], and with two of their wings veiling their countenances, and
with two their feet, and with two flying, who cried : ' Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God

1 1 2 NOTES. [PART r.

of Sabaoth.' For this cause, therefore, we rehearse this confession of God, deliv
ered down to us from the Seraphim, that we may join in hymns with the host of
the world above."'

The portion from Isaiah is adapted in the Te Deum : ' Tibi Cherubim et Sera
phim incessabili voce [cf. undj>reotendum J>rymmum, 388, and the 'sine fine
dicentes' of the Sarum Use; Prayer Book, 'continually do cry'] proclamant :
Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus, Dominus Deus Sabaoth ; pleni sunt caeli et terra
majestatis gloriae Tuae' (Blunt, p. 189). Referring to the words of Isa. 6. 3,
' clamabant alter ad alterum,' the Mirror of our Lady says : ' And therefore,
according to the angels, ye sing quire to quire, one Sanctus on the one side, and
another on the other side, and so forth of other verses.'

In Elene 750-3 is a much shorter form of the Hymn :

Halig is se halga heahengla God,
weoroda Wealdend ! Is baes wuldres ful
heofun ond eorfte, ond eall heahmaegen
tire getacnod !

^Ifric, On the New Testament (Grein, Bibl. der Ags. Prosa, p. 19), thus intro
duces the verse of Isaiah : ' pa synd J?a twa gecyftnyssa be Cristes menniscnysse
and be Jjjere halgan Jninnysse on sdftre annysse, swa Isaias geseah on his gastlican
gesihfte hu God sylf gesaet, and him sungon abutan duo seraphin, }>aet sind twa
engla werod : Sanctus, sanctus, sanctus, Dominus Deus Sabaoth, J?aet ys on Englisc :
" Halig, halig, halig,' Drihten weroda God ; mid his wuldre ys afylled eall eorftan
bradnisse." '

403-412*. Brooke translates this (p. 395).

403. Cf. Hy. 7 i3 :

Halig eart J>u, halig, heofonengla Cyning.

halig. Gregory assumed that the threefold repetition of Sanctus indicated the
Trinity. So Horn, in Ezech. 2. . 4 (Migne 76. 977): ' Spiritales quippe illi patres
omnipotentem Deum Trinitatem ita esse crediderunt, sicut eamdem Trinitatem
novi patres aperte locuti sunt. Isaias namque audivit angelica agmina in coelo
clamantia : Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus, Dominus Deus sabaoth. Ut enim perso-
narum trinitas monstraretur, tertio Sanctus dicitur ; sed ut una esse substantia
Trinitatis appareat, non Domini Sabaoth, sed Dominus Sabaoth esse perhibetur.'

404-5. Cf. An. 541-2 : 'a J>m d5m lyfaft; ... is Jnn nama halig.'

405. dom. Brooke translates, ' dominion.'

407. weoroda God. So 631 (II), ' Deus Sabaoth.'

408. gefyldest. Cf. ' pleni.'

409. wuldres J>mes. Apparently from the Mass, rather than the Te Deum
(see above). Cf. Ph. 626-9.

411. ece hselo. ' Hosanna.' Halo is the translation of ' hosanna' in yElfric,
Horn. i. 214 (cf. my Biblical Quotations, p. 164) ; see also Bl. Horn., p. 81. Brooke
translates by ' everlasting welfare '[!].

ond . . . beornum. Here it would appear as if the poet had added part of the
Gloria in excelsis (Lk. 2. 14) : ' et in terra pax (though this is not lof) hominibus.'

414. to hro)?re. Cf. 567.

PART I.] NOTES. 1 1 3

416-439. The last section appears to constitute a sort of climax. It is not a
celebration of Trinity Sunday, but the idea, derived from that source, is intro
duced to round off the treatment of the Advent theme. This general conception
has been expressed by Blunt (p. 303) : ' The significance of the festival, as the
end of the cycle of days by which our Blessed Lord and His work are commemo
rated, is very great. . . . On Whitsunday, therefore, we see the crowning point of
the work of redemption ; and the feast of Trinity, on the Octave of Pentecost,
commemorates the consummation of God's saving work, and the perfect revela
tion in the Church of the Three Persons in One God, as the sole objects of ado
ration. ... In the festival of Trinity all these solemn subjects of belief are
gathered into one act of worship, as the Church Militant looks upward through
the door that is opened in Heaven, and bows down in adoration with the Church
Triumphant, saying, " Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty, Which was, and is,
and is to come." '

In another sense, the present section is not so much climactic as resumptive.
The thought runs thus : Great is the mystery of the Incarnation (416-424*) ; it
was to succor mankind that Christ came, and now he ever liveth to forgive and
help (42413-428) ; therefore let us every one adore him (429-433), and so have a
right to the endless joys of heaven (434-9). We shall hardly look for a specific
source of these reflections. They are dictated by what has preceded.

Brooke's insight at this point is strangely crossed and rendered ineffective by
vagrant fancies. He says : ' And now this first part of the poem is closed by a
prayer [!] that, with some feeling for art, refers back to the wonder of the Incar
nation with which it began, but which itself is nothing but the same pious
thoughts we have so often had before. This repetition is so frequent in the
Christ that I am more and more inclined to think that these tails at the end of the
narrative or dialogue passages were sung by full choirs in church [!], by the lis
teners in the monastery halls, or perhaps by the whole band of some mission
expedition in town or village, when the chief singers had first sung the narrative
and dialogue.'

416. wraeclic. This should probably be ivraitlic. I suspect that all the
instances of wraclic in this sense are miswritings, due to the resemblance, in the
manuscripts, of c and /.

wrixl. Probably points forward to 424 ff.

418. Cf. 123.

419. friga. Possibly ace., in which case wiht would be adverbial. For the
thought, cf. 37; //. 103; El. 341.

420. sigores Agend. So 513 (II); Sat. 678.

421. mar a. Cf. argff.

424. heofona Heahfrea. Cf. 253. helpe gefremede. Cf. 263.

425. monna cynne. Cf. 353, 124*.
427. helpe. Cf. 424.

429. dsedum ond wordum. So Gen. 2249, Sat. 552 (?), but esp. Chr. 1367,
1582.

432. inlocast. The -loc- due to lack of stress; this would seem to point to
a short * before the change, and so to -lie- in the next line ; cf. Trautmann, Kyne-
wulf, p. 78.

114 NOTES.

434. Cf. 268, 345-7. lisse. Points back to hergen and weorj>ige. lean.
Cf. 846.

436. he. Such a man.

437-Q. Cf. Gu. 788-790 :

paer heo soft wunaS
wlitig, wuldorfaest, ealne widan ferh,
on lifgendra londes wynne.

437. lifgendra londes. Cf. Ps. 27. 13; 142. 5; Ps. I4i 5 ; Ps. C. 157.
londes wynne. So Gu. no; Isa. 24. n. For the line see Gu. 790.

Dietrich thus closes his consideration of this Part (p. 200) : ' Dass sich Nr. V
und VI als zweigliedriger Abschluss zu dem bisherigen Ganzen verhalte ist unver-
kennbar ; ebenso dass, indem zuletzt der Blick auf die wahrend des Erdenlebens
von Christus noch nicht betretene Heimat hingerichtet wird, das folgende Gedicht
von seiner Riickkehr in die himmlische Heimat, von der aus er den Menschen
Gaben giebt, vorbereitet wird.'

PART II.

As Dietrich pointed out in 1853 {Haupfs Zs. 9. 204), the chief source of this
Part is the close of Gregory the Great's homily on the Ascension, being No. 29
of his Homilies on the Gospels (Migne 76. 1218-9). What Dietrich did not
observe, but what is of singular interest and importance, these extracts are taken
from the Breviary, under the season of Ascension. The relevant portions will be
given in their appropriate places, as well as the supplementary sources.

If we follow Gregory somewhat closely, we shall recognize an eightfold divi
sion, as follows :

A. The significance of the white robes of the angels who appeared at the
Ascension (440-599).

B. (a) Our human nature, our very flesh, rose to heaven in the person of
Christ ; (h) and this fact Job expressed under the symbol of a bird's flight
(600-658).

C. Not only did Christ thus ennoble our humanity, but he, by his Spirit, gave
gifts unto men (659-690).

D. Christ's Ascension strengthened and emboldened his Church (691-711).

E. The Church, by the mouth of Solomon, figures the Ascension as the last of
five leaps or bounds made by the Savior : (i) to the Virgin ; (2) into the manger ;
(3) to the cross; (4) into the tomb; (5) to heaven. To these Cynewulf makes
an original addition, the Descent into Hell ; this is inserted before (5), making six
in all (712-743).

F. We ought to follow Christ whither he has ascended (744-778, or 782*).

G. We ought the rather to heed Christ's words, since he who was gentle at his
Ascension will be terrible when he comes to the Judgment (78215-849).

H. But let hope, as an anchor of the soul, fixed within the heavenly country,
whither Jesus as our forerunner is entered, hold us steadfast amidst the fluctua
tions of this mortal life (850-866).

With the interpolations which Cynewulf has introduced, the foregoing scheme
requires subdivision and amplification. With these, it will stand somewhat as
follows :

ANALYSIS.

1. =A (440-455).

2. The Ascension described, following the Scripture, with some legendary
and poetical additions (456-532).

3. The return of the disciples to Jerusalem, according to Scripture (533-
545 a )-

4. = A, resumed (545 b ~S57)-

5. The Harrowing of Hell (558-585).

6. Lyrical reflections on the preceding (586^599).

7. God's gifts of nature and providence, perhaps as prefiguring the gifts of
his Spirit (600-612).

Il6 NOTES. [PART II.

8. The redemption and glorification of our fallen humanity = Ba (613-632).

9. The figure of a bird, by which Job expressed this thought = Bb (633-658).

10. Christ gave the gifts of his Spirit unto men = C (659-690).

11. =D (691-711).

12. =E (712-743).

13- = F (744-755)-

14. Angel guards, watching, and prayer must shield us against the fiery darts
of our adversaries (756-782*).

15. = G, with personal application (782^5-796).

1 6. Rune passage (797-807*).

17. The terrors of the Judgment = G (807^-849).

1 8. = H (850-866).

So much light is thrown upon this Part by an Ascension hymn ascribed to
Bede that it seems desirable to print it in its entirety. The text is from Migne
94. 624-6 ; Giles, Misc. Works of Venerable Bede i. 83-86. As the whole is too
long for use in the Church Service, extracts, sometimes considerably modified,
from the complete text, have been made for this purpose (see Julian's Diet, of
Hymnology, p. 554). Such a hymn, with interlinear gloss to certain stanzas, is
found in the Surtees Hymns, p. 87, with the title, Ymnus in Ascensione Domini
ad Vesperam. This contains vv. 1-8, 53-68, 117-124, together with four adapted
lines introduced before 117, and six and a half different lines at the end. That
in Daniel (i. 208) consists of vv. 1-4, 53-6, 61-4, 121-4, tne adapted and added
lines being the same as in the Surtees Hymns. In the latter, the stanzas which
are not glossed correspond to those which are omitted by Daniel. The variants
from the complete poem are also the same in both.

As illustrating the phraseology of the Christ, we may note: the frequent occur
rence of gloria, I, 5, 56, 76, 79, 84, 91, 95, 100, 101, 104, 113; triumphus, 5, 50,
64; histrans, ii; Auctor aetheris, 44 (cf. swegles Bryttan, 281; sivegles Agend,
543) ; Auctor virtutum, 98 (cf. meahta Wdldend, 822) ; consempiternus Filius,
112 (cf. efenece Beam, 465). Then this is a lyric, with long descriptive and
dramatic passages, among the latter being the adaptation of Psalm 24 (75 ff.; cf.
Chr. 575b ff.); it introduces the Harrowing of Hell (7, 9, 28, 106), followed
immediately by the account of Christ's Ascension with the attendant hosts (29-
36, 49-52, 69-72) ; the address of the two angels (62 ff.) ; the connection with the
Last Judgment (67-8, 113-6); and the aspiration in 121-4, compared with Chr.
751^-755 ; to which may be added the allusion to the Nativity, 55.

The complete poem is as follows :

Hymnum canamus gloriae, 1 Nam diri leti limina,

hymni novi nunc personent ; caecas et umbras infer! 10

Christus novo cum tramite lustrans sua potentia,

ad Patris ascendit thronum. leti ligarat principem ;

Transit triumpho gloriae 5 et quos suos in actibus

poll potenter culmina fideque lectos noverat,

qui morte mortem absumpserat, omnes Averni faucibus 15

derisus a mortalibus. salvavit a ferocibus ;

1 Surtees, Domino.

PART II.]

NOTES.

117

laetamque vitae januam

pandit Redemptor omnibus

quos lex amara corporis

vita pios privaverat. 20

mira rerum claritas !
miranda Salvatoris est
virtus gemella gratiae
quae regna leti destruit ;

nam plurimos ab inferi 25

portis reduxit spiritu,

multos et ipso corpore

de fauce mortis eruit,

surgentis ut de mortuis

Christi sonarent gaudia 30

binos * chores paschalia

vita nova laetantium,

binae cohortes aethera

Christum secutae ascenderent,

sedesque caelo perpetes 35

inter tenerent angelos.

Hunc ergo cuncti consonis

diem feramus laudibus

victor petit quo fulgidi

Jesus Olympi januas ; 40

quo nobis ipse apud Patrem

toros beatos 2 praevius

ac mansiones plurimas

paravit Auctor aetheris ;

quo tota praecedentium 45

a saeculo fidelium

caterva caeli regiam

pandente Christo subiit.

Erant in admirabili

Regis triumpho altithroni 50

coetus simul caelestium

polum petentes agminum

apostoli turn 8 mystico

in monte stantes chrismatis

cum matre claram 4 virgine 55

Jesu videbant gloriam

ac, prosecuti lumine

laeto petentem sidera,

laetis per auras cordibus

duxere Regem saeculi. 60

Quos alloquentes angeli :

1 Quid astra stantes cernitis ?
Salvator hie est,' inquiunt,

' Jesus triumpho nobilis, 6

1 bini chori ?

1 Mtgne, Giles, beatus.

8 Surtees, tune.

* Surtees, clara.

a vobis ad caelestia 65

qui regna nunc assumptus est,

venturus inde saeculi

in fine Judex omnium.'

Haec dixerant, et non mora

juncti choris felicibus, 70

cum Rege regum lucidi

portis Olympi approximant.

Emissa tune vox angeli :

' Portas,' ait, ' nunc pandite,

et introibit perpetis 75

Dux pacis et Rex gloriae.'

Respondit haec ab intimis

vox urbis almae moenibus :

' Quis iste Rex est gloriae

intret poli qui januas ? 80

nos semper in caelestibus

Christum solemus cernere,

et ejus una cum Patre

pari beamur gloria.'

At praeco magni Judicis: 85

' Dominus potens et fortis est,

qui stravit atrum in praelio

mundi triumphans principem ;

quapropter elevamini

portae perennes aetheris, 90

introeat Rex gloriae,

virtutis atque gratiae.'

Mirata adhuc caelestium

requirit aula civium:

' Quis,' inquit, ' est Rex gloriae, 95

Rex iste tam laudabilis ? '

Herilis at mox buccina

respondit : ' Auctor omnium

altissimus virtutum, et is

Rex ipse fulget gloria.' 100

Dictis quibus, Rex gloriae,

cum glorioso milite,

ingressus est in aethere

sublime regnum gloriae.

Qua mansiones singulis 105

quos de profundis inferi

abduxerat, pro congruis

donavit almus actibus.

Ac 6 ipse cuncta transiens

caeli micantis culmina, no

ad dexteram sedit Patris

consempiternus Filius,

8 Surtees, nobili.

6 Surtees apparently adapts the next five lines,
changing and condensing them to four.

Il8 NOTES. [PART ii.

venturus inde in gloria da nobis illuc sedula

vivos simul cum mortuis . '!' devotione tendere

dijudicare pro actibus, 115 qua 3 te sedere cum Patre

justo potens examine. in arce regni credimus ;

Quo nos precamur tempore, nostris ibi turn cordibus 125

Jesu, Redemptor unice, tuo repleti 4 Spiritu

inter tuos in aethere l ostende Patrem, et sufncit

servos benignus 2 aggrega ; 120 haec nobis una visio.

We may remember that Bede died on Ascension eve, probably May 9, 742 (see
the learned note in Mayor and Lumby's Bede, pp. 401-2), and that he used on
his deathbed to sing Antiphons, the one for the Second Vespers of Ascension
Day being apparently his favorite. As there is no accurate translation of Cuth-
bert's letter on Bede's death (both that in Lingard's Anglo-Saxon Church 2. 177-
182, and that in Stevenson's Bede, i. Ixxix-lxxxiii, reposing on an inferior text
and being inaccurately translated, and that in Montalembert's Monks of the West
5. 90-93 being incomplete), I transcribe the most important passages from the St.
Gallen MS. of the ninth century, the oldest known, as printed by Mayor and
Lumby, pp. 176 ff. : ' Postea letus et gaudens graciasque agens omnipotent! Deo
omni die et nocte, immo horis omnibus usque ad diem Ascensionis Dominicae, id
est vii id. Mai vitam ducebat. . . . Cantabat etiam antiphonas ob nostram conso-
lationem et suam, quarum una est : " O Rex gloriae, Domine virtutum, qui tri-
umphator hodie super omnes caelos ascendisti, ne derelinquas nos orphanos,"
usque " veritatis. Alleluia." Cum venisset autem ad illud verbum, " Ne dere
linquas nos orphanos," prorupit in lacrimas et multum flebat. Et post horam
cepit repetere quae incoaverat. Et sic tota die faciebat. ... In tali leticia quin-
quagesimales dies usque ad diem praefatum deduximus. ... In letitia diem ulti-
mum usque ad vesperum duxit.' The words omitted from the Antiphon are .
'sed mitte promissum Patris in nos Spiritum [veritatis].'

440-455. See Analysis, i (p. 115).

As the source of this section (and 545 b ~557), cf. Gregory, Horn, in Evang.
29. 9 : ' Hoc autem nobis primum quaerendum est, quidnam sit quod nato
Domino apparuerunt angeli, et tamen non leguntur in albis vestibus apparuisse ;
ascendente autem Domino, missi angeli in albis leguntur vestibus apparuisse.
Sic etenim scriptum est : Videntibus illis elevatus est, et nubes suscepit eum ab
oculis eorum. Cumque inttierentur in caelum euntem ilium, ecce duo viri steterunt
juxta illos in vestibus albis (Act. i. 9). In albis autem vestibus gaudium et
solemnitas mentis ostenditur. Quid est ergo quod, nato Domino, non in albis
vestibus, ascendente autem Domino, in albis vestibus angeli apparent, nisi quod
tune magna solemnitas angelis facta est, cum caelum Deus homo penetravit ?
Quia, nascente Domino, videbatur divinitas humiliata ; ascendente vero Domino,
est humanitas exaltata. Albae etenim vestes exaltation! magis congruunt quam
humiliationi. In Assumptione (Breviary, Ascensione) ergo ejus angeli in albis
vestibus videri debuerunt, quia qui in Nativitate sua apparuit Deus humilis, in
Ascensione sua ostensus est homo sublimis.' Tr. by /Elfric, i. 298.

1 Surtees, aethera. 3 Surtees, quo.

2 So Surtees ; Migne, Giles, benignos. 4 repletis?

PART II.] NOTES. I IQ

This is from the Lesson for the Third Nocturn of Wednesday in the Octave of
Ascension (Feria Quarta infra Octavum Ascensionis). The homily is continued
at the Third Nocturn of the Octave, ending with the word praerogavit (see note
on 78315-796).

440. gsestgerynum. So 713; An. 860; EL 189, 1148; Gu. 1086. In
another sense Gu, 219.

441. moil se imura. If we could but know whom Cynewulf is here address
ing, what light might be thrown upon the circumstances of his life ! It may per
haps have been an ecclesiastic, though such a person might be presumed to have
reflected upon these matters as deeply as Cynewulf. It may have been a king,
or perhaps a nobleman ; cf. ^Elfric's relations with laymen eminent for their
virtue (chaps. 3 and 4 of Dr. Caroline L. White's ^Elfric, a New Study of his Life
and Writings, Boston, 1898).

For mare as employed in the voc. by itself, see 275, and Ps. ii8 132 ; with se
preceding, Beow. 1474.

444. Cf. 298 (I). Jmrh clivnne had. Th. 'through state of purity'; Gr.
(Z>.) 'durch reine Geburt '; (Spr.) ' a virgine ' ; Go. ' in purity.'

445. Marian. Gen., not ace.

446. mundheals. Sanctuary, shelter; cf. mundbora, 28, and hals, 587.
Gollancz mentions this interpretation, though he adds : ' but cp. mund, 1. 92, and
the special use of heals in such compounds as healsmagefr, Gen. 2155; healsge-
bedda, Beow. 63; mundheals may have had a similar meaning, "beloved
maiden."' geceas. Cf. 36.

447. gewerede. Cf. 552 ; El. 263 ; Gen. 462.

449. Beorn. Possibly we should read Beam ; cf. El. 391.

450. hleoj?orcwide. Cf. Dan. 155; An. 820. hyrdum. Cf. Lk. 2. 8 ff.
453. cwifl. For this impersonal use, cf. 701.

456-532. See Analysis, 2 (p. 115).
456. Bethania. Cf. Lk. 24. 50.

459. wildaege. So wilboda, Gu. 1220; wilgcest, Mod. 7; wilgedryht, An. 916;
Ph. 342; wilgesifr, Beow. 23, Gen. 2003; wilhrefrig, El. 1117; etc.

460. gearwe. For the construction with to, see El. 23; An. 1371; here
there seems to be an ellipsis of a verb of motion.

462. tacna. In this sense Dan. 447 ; El. 319, 854 ; etc. The reference is
to Lk. 24. 27, 44-48.

464. up stige. Not as in 651, 711 ; cf. the parallel expression, 544.

465. efenece. So 122 (I); cf. Bl. Horn. 20^, in 8 . agnum Faeder. So
532. With the whole line cf. Hy. 8 21 : efeneadig Beam agenum Faeder.' On
the thought, cf. Allen, Christian Institutions, p. 296 : ' It can be shown that the
faith in Christ as the incarnate and coequal Son of God has never lost its hold
upon the Christian consciousness, that it has been the antecedent of the changes
which have modified, if not created, our modern civilization.'

Faeder. Here, and in 211, 532, 773, Trautmann (Kynewulf, p. 77) would read
Fcedder.

466. feowertig. Cf. Acts i. 3.

468-469. The word-order is indicated in Gollancz' translation : ' Then had
He fulfilled the prophets' words, as they had sung before throughout the world.'

I2O NOTES. [PART n.

Not as in Grein (D.) : ' Er hatte da erfiillet, wie zuvor gesungen der Wahrsager
Worte durch die Weltbehausung,' where he makes Worte nom., instead of ace.

468. gefylled. Cf. 213, 326.

469. geond . . . in nan. This must be interpreted in the light of on innan,
sometimes found in this form, and sometimes separated by the governed word.
The simple innan is either adv., or prep, with dat. or ace., the ace. occurring only
once (with variant inne). The combination on (in) innan is rather numerous. For
analogues to our phrase, cf. Dan. 238: ' engel in >one ofn innan becwom'; Gen.
839: ' uton gan on J?ysne weald innan'; Ph. 200: ' biere^ in )>aet treow innan
torhte fraetwe ' ; where the combination is sufficiently rendered by into. Geond
. . . innan is found Gu. 855 : ' msere wurdon his wundra geweorc . . . geond
Bryten innan '; Panther 4: 'wide sind geond world innan fugla and deora . . .
wornas ' ; in both of these, throughout expresses the whole sense, and so, I
believe, in our passage.

470. Jjrowinga. Cf. 1129, 1179 (HI).

471. See Hy. 8 3 : ' lufian leofwendum lifes Agend.' Hence Cosijn's emenda
tion, leofwendne (comparing 400) is unnecessary. Cosijn adds : ' Die Verwech-
selung von loftan und lufian kommt auch sonst vor, z. B. Beda-Miller 212. 7
var. ; v. 504 steht rich tig heredun, lofedun ' ; but cf. Az. 100 ; Ps. J7 35 .

476-490. Cf. Mt. 28. 19, 20 ; Mk. 1 6. 15 ff. ; Mt. 10. 7 ff. ; Lk. 9. 2 ff.
476. Gefeoft. Based upon Jn. 16. 22, according to Dietrich. ferfte. Cf.
Gram. 222. i. Ferh& is common in the poetry : Beow. 1166; El. 1037; etc.

478. mid wunige. So 488.

479. awo to ealdre. So 1645 (m)> Gu. 758. Awa to ealdre occurs five
times more.

480. onsien. The word ojisien, -syn, meaning ' countenance,' is common in
OE. Thorpe, when he had reached this point (Cod. Exon. 30. 16), did not sus-.
pect any other sense, and so rendered by ' God's countenance,' adding in a note:
' Here two or more lines are obviously wanting.' In Gu. 800 (Cod. Exon. 151.
24) he rendered by 'madness ' ; Ph. 55 (201. 13), ' desire'; but Ph. 398 (225. 32)
he discerned the true sense, and rendered ' lack.' Dietrich called attention to
these facts (^Haupfs Zs. 9. 211), and added that neither alliteration nor context
requires the assumption of a gap.

481 ff. A parallel to this is An. 332-9 :

nu geond ealle eor-gan sceatas
emne swa wide swa waeter bebuge'S
o'S'Se stedewangas strsete gelicgaft.
Bodiaft aefter burgum beorhtne geleafan
ofer foldan fae^m ; ic eow freo'So healde.
Ne J?urfan ge on )?a fore frsetwe laedan,
gold ne seolfor ; ic eow go da gehwaes
on eowerne agenne dom est ahwette.'

Cf. the OS. Heliand 1837-1914.

481. ealne yrmenne grund. So Jul. 10; cf. eormengrund, Beow. 859. Cf.
the OS. irmin-, in Hel. 340, etc., and the ON. mythical names Jormungandr,
Jormunrekr, J6rmunJ?rj5tr, but especially Jormundgmnd, in Grimnismal 20. See

PART II.] NOTES. 121

also Grimm, Teut. Myth., pp. 1 1 5-9 ; Miillenhoff, in Haupfs Zs. 23. i ff . ; and cf.
the references in Golther, Handbuch der Germ. Mythologie, p. 207, note.

482. geond widwegas. So Beow. 840, 1704; Ps. I44 20 .

483. Cf. An. 335 beorhtne geleafan. So Gu. 770.

484. folc under roderum. So 526.

485. hergas. Grein defines hearg as fanum, delubrum, idolum. Grimm
(Teut. Mytti.,p.68) says that the OHG. haruc stands for fanum, dehibrum, lucus,
and nemus. ' It includes,' he continues, ' on the one hand the notion of templum,
fanum, and on the other that of wood, grove, lucus. 1 Cf. Bede, Ecd. Hist., Bk. 2,
chaps. 13, 15. In the Cura Past., hearg is once used for idolum, and once for
simulacrum (Bibl. Quot., pp. 28, 52). On ON. horgr, cf. the Cleasby-Vigfusson
Dictionary, though perhaps their conclusions are not to be affirmed of OE.
hearg: ' Distinction is to be made between hof (temple) and horg; the hof was a
house of timber, whereas the horg was an altar of stone erected on high places,
or a sacrificial cairn, built in open air, and without images, for the horg itself was
to be stained with the blood of the sacrifice ; hence such phrases as, to " break "
the horgs, but " burn " the temples. The horg worship reminds one of the wor
ship in high places of the Bible. ... In provincial Norse a dome-shaped moun
tain is called horg. The worship on horgs seems to be older than that in temples,
but was in after times retained along with temple worship. . . . Many of the old
cairns and hows are no doubt horgs or high places of worship of the heathen
age.' Under hof, horgr is defined as, 'an altar, holy circle, or any roojless place of
worship." 1 Golther has (Handbuch der Germ. Myth., p. 591): ' Im Nordischen
bedeutet hqrgr urspriinglich Steinhaufen, vielleicht geschichteter Steinaltar oder
Steinkreis als Hag urn den Opferplatz, wie solche noch in England und Skandina-
vien zu sehen sind. Zugleich aber nimmt hpjg die allgemeine Bedeutung " Hei-
ligtum," die besondere "kleinere Tempel " an.'

breota]?. ON. brjota is used in the same sense.

486. fyllat? ond feoga'fl. Brooke's rendering is vigorous : ' overthrow them,
abhor them.'

487. sawaft. For the verb with an abstract noun as object, see Ps. 97. n ;
Prov. 6. 14, 19; n. 18; 16. 28; 22.8; Mk. 4. 14. Prov. 6. 14 is translated in
the Cura Past, (see my Bibl. Quot., p. 19); for other examples of sdwan in a
figurative sense, see Bosworth-Toller, II, and Chr. 86, 663.

488. meahta sped. So (I) 296, (III) 1383, 1401; cf. 652, and mihta sped,
Gen. 1696; Dan. 335; El. 366. ic eow mid wunige. Cf. An. 99.

489. fortf on frofre. So 1360 (III).

frifte healde. So An. 336, 917, 1434, Gu. 281 ; cf. Gen. 2528.

490. Cf. An. 121.

492. hlud gehyred. So Gu. 1289. heofonengla J?reat. So 927 (III).

493. weorud wlitescyne. So 554. wuldres aras. So El. 738.

494. cwomun. This is not in the New Testament, and must be sought in
the Fathers and the hymns. Cf., for example, the passages mentioned above
(p. 116), and Mone's Hymn No. 176:

Officiis te angeli
atque nubes stipant
ad Patrem reversurum.

122 NOTES. [PART n.

Alban Butler (The Movable Feasts, Fasts, etc., p. 319) thinks the cloud itself
denotes the presence of angels, comparing Lev. 16. 2 with Exod. 25. 22. Accord
ing to Neale and Littledale, Commentary on the Psalms . i. 336, this attendance
of angels is recognized by Basil, Theodoret, Cyril of Alexandria, Tertullian,
and Cyprian. I have found it in none but Theodoret (on Ezek. n. 22, 23 : Patr.
Gr. Si. 902). In the Latin translation it runs: ' His ita dictis, inquit, recesserunt
de civitate cherubim gloriam Dei insidentem vehentia, steterunt super montem e
regione Hierosolymae. Est autem hie mons qui vocatur Olivarum, unde etiam
secundum carnem facta est in caelum Ascensio Salvatoris nostri. ... In montem
ilium cum discipulis profectus, ab intelligentibus et quae cerni nequeunt potesta-
tibus latus in caelos assumptus est.' We have it, however, in Gregory of Nyssa,
Orat. de Ascens. Dom. (Lesson 4 of the Second Nocturn for Wednesday of the
Octave of Ascension, according to the Roman Breviary) : ' Cum in caelum rede-
untem Dominum ipsae [caelestes potestates] comitantes angelis . . . imperant ad
hunc modum ; Tollite portasj etc. . . . (Lesson 6) : ' Itaque rursus comites ejus . . .
interrogantur : Quis est iste Rex glorias . ? ' As Bede recognized it in the Hymn
quoted above, it is interesting to compare a passage from his Horn, in Ascensione
(Migne 94. 180) : ' Elevatus est, etsi non angelico fultus auxilio, angelico tamen
comitatus obsequio, vereque assumptus est in caelum.' Cf. Ps. 18. 10 ; 47.5
(used as Antiphon, and as Versicle and Response on Ascension Day). See also
Adam of St. Victor's Sequence on the Ascension :

Postquam hostem et inferna
Spoliavit, ad superna

Christus redit gaudia,
Angelorum ascendent!,
Sicut olim descendenti,

Parantur obsequia.

And add, from Bede's Hymn, De Universis Dei Operibus (Migne 94. 622), the

lines :

Vitaeque prima Sabbati
Surgendo pandit januam,
Suisque congaudentibus
Ascendit ad thronum Patris.

But perhaps the finest passage on this theme is that from Giles Fletcher, quoted
in the note on 576 ; see also Wesley's hymn, ' Our Lord is risen from the dead.'

Cf. the account of the Ascension in Sat. 563-9.

495. Jmrh Jaes temples hrof. The difficulty which this occasions was solved
by Professor Bright in Modern Language Notes for January, 1898. He says
(p. 14) : ' The poet, as it would appear, was familiar with the first traveller's
account of the Holy Land brought to England, in which the place of the Ascen
sion is thus described: "The Mount of Olives is five miles distant from Jeru
salem, and is equal in height to Mount Sion, but exceeds it in breadth and length ;
it bears few trees besides vines and olive-trees, and is fruitful in wheat and bar
ley, for the nature of that soil is not calculated for bearing things of large or
heavy growth, but grass and flowers. On the very top of it, where our Lord
ascended into heaven, is a large round church, having about it three vaulted

PART II.] NOTES. 123

porches. For the inner house could not be vaulted and covered, because of the
passage of our Lord's body; but it has an altar on the east side, covered with a
narrow roof. In the midst of it are to be seen the last prints of our Lord's feet,
and the sky appearing open above where he ascended ; and though the earth is
daily carried away by believers, yet still it remains as before, and retains the same
impression of the feet." This is extracted (in Giles's translation) from an
abridged treatise entitled De Locis Sanctis attributed to Bede (Giles, vol. iv,
p. 416). The passage is also reproduced in Bede's Red, Hist., lib. v. cap. 17,
where it is preceded by an account of the composition of the original work by
Adamnan, at the dictation of Arculf (cap. 15). These chapters (15-17) are
omitted by the West Saxon translator of the History, whether for the reason
assigned by Wheloc, or for that assigned by Schmidt (Untersuchurigen iiber K.
sEl/red's Bedaiibersetzung}, or for neither.'

The account is given in Old English, though not in the translation of the
Eccl. Hist. I subjoin the passage from Cockayne's Shrine, pp. 80-82 :

' On iSone fiftan daeg }>aes mon'Ses [i.e. May] bi'S se daeg he ure Dryhten t5
heofonum astag. Dy daege hine gesegon nyhst his begnas on Oliuetes dune, 1
ftier he bletsade hi, ond fta gewat mid by llchoman on heofonum. f)y dcege code
seo eor'Se on heofon, 'Saet is, se mon ofer engla ftrym. Ond on Oliuetes dune
syndon nu gyt tfa swaebe Drihtnes fotlasta. Ymb ba Drihtnes fotlastas timbredon
cristne men seonewalte cirican wunderlice. Ne mihte seo his swaftu nasfre mid
naenigre o5re wlsan beon }>aem oSrum flSrum geonlicod ond gelice gehiwad. Gif
bier mon hwaet maennisces on asette, "Sonne seo eorSe him on ufan scealde ;
Seah hit waere marmanstanas, fta waeron aswengde on 'Sara onsyn be bier
onsaeton. 2

' Daet dust "Saet God "Sasr ontraed, ond \>a. his swa'Sa fie j asr onbricced sendon, fta
syndon monnum t5 ecre lare. Ond daeghwamlice geleaffulle men nimaS "Saet
sand, ond \>xr hwaeSre ne bi k S nSnig wonung on frxm sande "Ssere Drihtnes 3
fotswafta. Sanctus Arculfus ssede J?ast Her ne mihte naenig hr5f on beon on '5a5re
cirican on ftaere stowe 'Se ure Drihten on stod ba he to heofonum astag, ac baet se
weg '5aer ware a t5 heofonum open, bara monna eagum J?e him \>&r geba^dan on
"Siere ylcan stowe. Ond he saede baet ba Drihtnes f5tlastas waeron beworht mid
aerne hweole, ond \>xs heanes waere oft monnes swyran; ond >aer wJEre. ftyrel on
middum baern hweole, fturh bast mihton men ufan beorhtlice sceawian Drihtnes
fota swafte ; ond baet hi mihton mid heora handum rsecean ond niman baes halgan
dustes djel. Ond Sanctus Arculfus saede^baet J^r hangade ubmaste leohtfaet ond
"Swaere byrnende daeges and nihtes ofer bara Drihtnes fota swafta. Ond he sasde
baet aeghwelce geare, fty daege aet Cristes uppastignesse, on middes daeges tide,
aefter-bon-be maessesangas waeron geendode on b*re ylcan cirican, bast bair t5

1 Cockayne, 'done' (misprint).

2 Quoted expressly from Arculf, in whose account, as given by Adamnan, they occur ;
but partly a citation from an earlier author. Illud mirum, quod locus ille, in quo postre-
mum institerant divina vestigia, cum in caelum Dominus nube sublatus est, continuari
pavimento cum reliqua stratorum parte non potuit: siquidem quaecunque applicabantur,
insolens humana suscipere terra respueret, excussis in ora apponentium saepe marmoribus.
Sulpicius Severus, Sacr. Hist. II. 61 and more. (Cockayne's note.)

8 MS. drihtne.

124 NOTES. [PART 11.

come haes strongestan windes yste, ond J>aet se swa stronglice hrure on fya. circan
haet }>er ne mihte nalnig mon senge gemete on ftasre circean o'S'Se on hire neah-
stowe gestandan o)?be gesittan,. ac J?aet ealle ba men fte J>iEr )>onne wasron lagon
al'aenede on baire eorftan mid ofdunehealdum ondwleotan oh-baet seo ondrysnlice 1
yst for'5 geleoreft. Se ondrysnlica wind J?aet deft, J?aet se diel ftaere ciricean ne
magg habban ftone hrof ftier J?aes Haelendes f5tlastas syndon under. Sanctus
Arculfus saade }>aet he self ftier wsere ondweard aet Here ylcan cyricean, "Sy dasge
act Cristes uppastignesse fta se stranga ond se forhtlica wind J>3er onraesde.'

Other accounts are by Eusebius, Vit. Const. 3. 42 (Pair. Gr. 20. 1102); Pauli-
nus of Nola, Epist. 31. 4 (Migne 61. 328) ; John of Wiirzburg (A.D. 1165), quoted
in T. Tobler, Descriptiones Terras Sanctae, Leipzig, 1874, p. 156; Maundrell, in
Wright, Early Travels in Palestine, pp. 470-1 ; and especially Willibald (A.D.
723-6), quoted in Tobler, p. 33. The passage from Willibald is perhaps quite as
likely to have been in Cynewulf 's mind as that from Bede. Cf. Bl. Horn., pp. 1 25-9.

496. last weardedun. We have seen how, for ages, his 'footsteps' were
* watched,' by the passages quoted above.

497. Jriiigstede. ^o An. uoo.

498. Cf. Lk. 24. 51 ; Acts i. 9.

499. Godbearn of grundum. Cf. 702; also 682 ; An. 640.

Him waes geomor sefa. So Beow. 49, 2419; El. 627; cf. Beow. 2632;
Hy. 4 94 .

500. hat set heortan. So 539 ; An. 1711 ; Gu. 1182, 1310; El. 628.

505. One is reminded of Homer, //. 5. 4-7 : ' She [Pallas Athene] kindled
flame unwearied from his helmet and shield, like to the star of summer that
above all others glittereth bright after he hath bathed in the ocean stream. In
such wise kindled she flame from his head and shoulders.'

Possibly there may be a reference here to the passage from the Evangelium
Nicodemi, of which the OE. translation is given in the note on 30-32.

506-526. Acts i. 10, n. For the prose account by ./Elfric, see Bibl. Quot.,
p. 227.

507. ymb ]7aet Frumbearn. This, like of keahj>u, 508, and the whole of
49915-505, 516-522, is poetical embellishment, though perhaps not original with
Cynewulf.

508. Wuldor. Matthew Arnold calls Sophocles (To a Friend) ' The mellow
glory of the Attic stage.'

510. beorhtan reorde. Cf. An. 96, but especially Ph. 128.

511. on hwearfte. Th. 'about'; Gr. 'da'; Go. 'about.' Cosijn would
read hwearfe, = Create. It is true that hwearfte is not altogether satisfactory.
Grein (Spr.) renders hwearft by 'ambitus,' 'circuitus,' adduces Az. 38, 41, Rid.
4 1 38 , and interprets our passage by 'quid circumstantes exspectatis ? ' Sweet
renders hwearft by ' circuit,' ' expanse,' ' lapse of time.' Hwearf, ' caterva,' ' con-
gregatio ' (Grein), ' crowd ' (Sweet), Gu. 234, Jud. 249, is perhaps justified by
such expressions as ^Elfric, Horn. i. 28 : ' Drihten . . . astah td heofenum aetforan
heora ealra gesihfte '; Bl. Horn. 91. 3 : ' On manigra manna gesyh]?e he astag on
heofenas.'

515. aej>elinga Ord. So 741, 845. mid pas engla gedryht. Cf. 519.

1 Cockayne, ' ondrynslice ' (misprint).

PART II.] NOTES. 125

517-8. Gollancz says : ' I take these lines to be the reply of Galileans ; another
interesting instance of the dramatic bent of Cynewulf's genius. Grein takes
11. 509-525 as one long speech. The MS. is in favor of my view of the passage,
as a new section begins with 1. 516.' The Galileans, then, if grammar is to be
heeded, must have been provided with wings ! Brooke, misled, as on some other
occasions, by his guide, renders :

O how fain would we in this fashion, with this band.
With this cheerful company, o'er the cover of the Heaven,
To the brightening Burg, bring the Lord along.

As against this, cf. the use of ivillan, 514, 523, 571, 577, 941, 1073, IO 99> etc -
A wish is expressed by the opt. pret., as in EL 1080 : ' wolde ic \>xt \>u funde,'or as
in Chr. 410, 414, 598, 777. Even Conybeare had a clearer perception of the truth,
as appears from his thus introducing his translation (p. 215): 'It commences
thus abruptly with what I should apprehend to be a song of the attendant angels :

Thus in glad triumph o'er the aetherial vault

To Zion's holy towers, with this fair pomp

Of Heaven's all-glorious sons we bear our Lord.'

However, he immediately adds : ' The poet now appears to return to his narra
tive.' Dietrich is right in saying : ' Offenbar nicht Worte des Dichters an die
Leser (Thorpe), sondern weitere Rede der beiden Engel an die Jiinger.'; but he
apparently makes the mistake of following Thorpe, who begins a new sentence
with 520, and regards seleste as nom. Grein considers seleste as ace. ; in favor of
this view it is scarcely necessary to do more than adduce the parallelism of
fratwutn blican, 507, 522, as applied to the angels, not to Christ (note gesegon^
506; geseofr, 522).

518. heofona gehlidu. Cf. 904 ; Gen. 584.

519. gedryht. It is not perfectly clear whether this band consists wholly of
angels, or includes the Old Testament saints delivered from hell ; the latter is
more probable. Neale and Littledale (2. 389) thus interpret Ps. 68. 25, referring
to Jerome : ' If we take the words of the triumphal Ascension of Christ, then the
Princes will be the Angels who formed His court, the minstrels the train of
ransomed Fathers.'

520*. Conybeare ends the sentence here, so that sigebearna designates the
angels. 52o b . Con. renders/^/ by ilium, and translates 52o b -525- Note how
Cynewulf occasionally introduces parenthetical passages which break the sense;
fxzt of course = Hlaford. Cf. 1097-8, 1316-26.

52ib. So 570; cf. Beow. 2796.

522. fraetwum blican. So 507. Con. ends the sentence here.

523-4. eorftan maigfte sylfa gesecan. Hear the admirable echo, 946-7
(III). Con. renders gesecan by convocare, and side herge by immensam (latam)
coronam [!].

524. side herge. Cf. 2 Thess. 1.7; Beow. 2347 has sidan herge.

525. Cf.8o 3 .

527-532. Conybeare says : ' The next paragraph affording a good example of
the peculiar construction of the Anglo-Saxon poetical sentence, I have rendered
it line for line into a Latin dimeter iambic :

126 NOTES. [PART n.

Sedebat illic Filius
Tremente caeli fornice,
Rex angelorum altissimus
Supra aetheris fastigium,
Tutela devotae gregis,
Tune aucta spes fidelium,
In urbe sancta gaudium
Praesente tandem Filio.'

527. wolcnum. Acts i. 9.

52Q b -53O a . Cf. Gu, 927, but especially Dream of the Rood 148-156:

Hiht waes genlwad

mid bledum ond mid blisse, J am \>Q J.aer bryne J?olodan.
Se Sunu waes sigorfaest on bam siftfate,
mihtig ond spedig, J?a he mid manigeo com,
gasta weorode on Codes rice,
Anwealda aelmihtig, englum to blisse
ond eallum iSam halgum, )>am )>e on heofonum asr
wunedon on wuldre, \>a. heora Wealdend cwom,
aelmihtig God, haer his eSel waes.

531. Mk. 1 6. 19. Cf. Hy. 8 30 .

533-54 a - See Analysis, 3 (p. 115). Conybeare renders all but the last line
(pp. 216-7).

534. haeleft hygerofe. So Gen. 1550, 1709; Jud. 303; An. 1056. Con.
renders : ' heals every sorrow.'

537 b ~54 b - Conybeare translates :

The crowd of mourners there forgot their pain,
And love glow'd quickening at their inmost soul
Responsive to their master's.

537. wopes bring. This difficult phrase must be interpreted in the light of
its four occurrences. The other three are :

An. 1280 :

pa cwom wopes hring
Jmrh J>aes beornes breost blat ut faran,
weoll waftuman stream.
EL 1132:

pa W32S wopes hring,
hat heafodwylm, ofer hleor goten,
nalles for torne ; tearas feollon.
Gu. 1313:

Him )>aes -wopes hring,
torne gemonade ; teagor yftum weoll,
hate hleordropan, and on hreftre waeg
micle modceare.

Grimm, on the passage of Andreas, says that it does not mean coetus flentium,
but rather fletus intensissimus, quasi circulation erumpens ; and this is approved
by Bosworth-Toller, 'though the connection with hring is not very evident.'
Conybeare translates by ' lamentationis circulus.' Grein renders hring by

PART II.] NOTES. 127

' sonus,' and Zupitza (Glossary to Elene) by ' geton, schall, laut.' Kent (Glossary
to Elene) renders by ' ring, sound,' and wopes hring by ' sound of weeping,' which
is the expression adopted by Garnett in his translation.

What are the equivalents of wopes hring and of what verbs is it the direct
or indirect subject ? It appears to be synonymous with stream (An.) ; with
hdt heafodwylm and tearas {El.) ; and with teagor and hate hleordropan (Gu.).
It comes issuing through the breast as a welling stream (An.); is shed over
the face, and falls as tears (El.) ; and gushes, as tears and hot face-drops, in
waves (Gtt.). In so rendering, use is of course made of the synonymous ken-
nings. Thus the notion of sound or noise seems to be excluded, or at all events
is not prominent. If, then, wopes hring signifies tears, represented as issuing
from the troubled bosom, and gushing from the eyes, why might not the succes
sion of drops be thought of as pearls upon a string, or as beads in a necklace or
rosary? As for wop, though in the poetry it generally means 'wailing,' 'loud
lament,' yet wdpdropa and wopig indicate tears, to which may be added the
woplic(e) of prose.

It is no argument to say that such a rendering is far-fetched ; any rendering of
the phrase must be somewhat far-fetched, and not of this phrase only in the
poetry. The kennings of Norse poetry, as is well known, go much further in this
direction, like the phraseology of such writers as Nonnus and Lycophron in the
Greek decadence. Indeed, one need not look further than Shelley and Tennyson
for instances. Of Tennyson take this {Princess III. 112):

Up went the hushed amaze of hand and eye ;

or this {ib. VII. 201-2) :

Azure pillars of the hearth
Arise to thee ;

or this {Audley Court \ 5) :

The pillared dusk of sounding sycamores ;
or where he speaks of a moon (Audley Court 80-81) that

Dimly rained about the leaf
Twilights of airy silver.

Here is a conceit which the ancients would probably have called ' frigid ' {In
Mem. IV) :

Break, thou deep vase of chilling tears

That grief hath shaken into frost.

As a suggestive parallel to the rendering proposed above, cf. Shelley, Adonais

XI. 4-5 :

An anadem
Which frozen tears, instead of pearls, begem.

Remoter, but somewhat to the purpose, is Browning's (By the Fireside 149-150)

Break the rosary in a pearly rain,
And gather what we let fall.

Perhaps the idea of wopes hring might be suggested to the modern reader by
' circling fountain of tears.'

128 NOTES. [PART n.

539. hrefter innan weoll. So Beow. 2113; . 952; cf . Beow. 2593. Con.
renders hrefrer by ' velocius.'

540. beorn. Wyatt is evidently wrong in saying, on Beow. 1880: ' Beorn is
an unexampled form of the pret. of beornan (Grammar 386, N. 2).' Con. ren
ders by ' filii ' !

541. J>eodnes gehata. Con. renders by 'Domini electorum,' 'of those
whom God hath called.'

542 a . byrig. Here, and in 569, Trautmann (Kynewulf, p. 82) would read
byrg; cf. 461, 519.

542 b . Con. writes: Tyr riht fragen, and renders: 'Dei justi ministri,' 'the
servants of his justice.' He evidently understands fragen as fregen, i.e. fregnas,
and Tyr as Tlw (in ON. Tyr), the god Mars, whose name is preserved in Tues
day (cf. Grimm, Tetit. Myth., pp. 193-208 ; Golther, Germ. Myth., pp. 200 ff.).

For the time, cf. Acts i. 3 and 2. i.

545. on heofona gehyld. Th. 'in heaven's vault' [evidently his suggested
gehlyd = gehlid] ; Gr. ' zu der Himmel Hohen ' ; Go. ' to heaven's keeping.' Gr.
(Spr.) separates gehyld, ' keeping,' ' protection,' from gehyld, (?) ' recessus,' ' res
abditae,' 'arcanum,' for which he doubtfully adduces Beow.Tptfi, and the gloss
on Ps. i6 13 , ' on gehyldum in abditis (cf. Bosworth-Toller s. v. gehild. B.-T.
does not distinguish two words, and doubtfully renders by ' protection ' in our
passage). Sweet has five meanings under (ge) hie^ld : (i) watching; (2) observance
(of festival) ; (3) protection ; (4) guardian ; (5) secret place. Gehlid(u} is, of
course, out of the question here; 518 and 904 are not parallel to this: the ofer
a.ndur/i are intelligible with gehlid(u), but not on. One might think of Ps. 91. i :
' Qui habitat in adjutorio Altissimi, in protectione Dei caeli commorabitur.'

545 b -557- See Analysis 4 (p. 115).

545^. Hwite. One hardly knows whether to think of 447, 454, or of 506.

546. Eadgiefan. Cf. An. 74, 451.
548-9. Cf. 928-9 (III).

548. aelbeorhte englas. So 506.

549*. See 632!}, 7393.

551. Wei J>aet gedafena<5. Cf. Blickling Homilies, pp. 121, 123: paet
waHron Drihtnes englas ; }>a hwitan hraegl J>ara engla getacniab >one gefean engla
and manna, }>e \>a. geworden waes ; forj>on J>er J?aet aefre wsere }?aet englas on heo-
fenum maran gefean and maran blisse haefdon )?onne hie ealne weg ser haefdon,
}>onne wsere baet on J^as halgan tid geworden J?a hie J^one heora Scyppend gesegon,
and bone so>an Cyning aelmihtigne God ealra gesceafta mid )>aere menniscan
gecynd t5 >5m faederlican setle ahafenne, j?onon he nsefre ne gewat J?urh his }>a.
ecean godcundnesse. And him J?a wass eac heora gefea and heora blis geeced J?a
hie wiston J>aet heora e>el }>ser on heofenum sceolde eft gebuen and geseted
weor^an mid halgum sawlum, and J>a halgan setl eft gefylde mid )>aire menniscan
gecynde, \>e deofol ier for his oforhygdum of aworpen waes. Hwaet, we witon
J>aet asghwylcum men bi> leofre swa he haebbe holdra freonda ma.'

556. folca Feorhgiefan. Cf. Gu. 1213.

fraetwum ealles waldend. Against Sievers' suggestion we may adduce
ealles Waldend, 544, 577, while frcetwum is demanded by the alliteration-
besides, Fratwan ?

PART II.] NOTES. 129

557. So PA. 66 5 ;>/. 154-

558-585. See Analysis, 5 (p. 115). Wanley, Thorpe, Dietrich, and Gollancz
recognize no break here (see p. 70). Dietrich even connects this intimately with
the preceding : ' Darum mussten weissgekleidete Engel ihn abholen, da dass
grosste der Feste gekommen war, denn es hatte der Heilige, der Siegesfrohlock-
ende, die Holle alles Tributs beraubt.' Grein (Dichtungen, p. 164, note) has:
' Hier redet wol der Dichter im Geiste die bei der Himmelfahrt im Himmel
gebliebenen Engel an ; denn wegen v. 574-581 kann man es nicht fiiglich als
Anrede an die Leser auffassen.' Wiilker (Grundriss, p. 186) remarks : ' So
einfach als es nach Dietrich scheinen konnte ist das Sachverhaltniss nicht. XIII
ist jedenfalls auch eine Rede (der Engel vielleicht, oder der erlosten Altvater
und Weissagen, welche mil Christus in den Himmel einziehen). V. 570, 573 ff.
Dass v. 570 an die " Horer " vom Sanger gerichtet sei [see note on 570] kann ich
nicht glauben. Und wie erklarten sich alsdann v. 575 und 576?' Cf. Grundriss,

P- 385-

Speaking of the Harrowing of Hell, Grein said {Kurzgefasste Ags. Gram., p.
12):' Vielleicht bildete dies Lied urspriinglich einen integrierendqn Teil des
Crist (vor v. 558).' On this Wiilker remarks (Grundriss, p. 186) : ' Dies scheint
mir unglaublich. Jetzt finden wir eine eigentliche Beschreibung der Hollenfahrt
Christi in dem Crist nicht, denn v. 558-586 kann man nicht als ein solches
Gedicht bezeichnen. Die Situation ist hier nicht ganz klar, wahrscheinlich aber,
wenn iiberhaupt XIII nicht wo anders im Crist zu stehen hat, miissen wir diesen
Abschnitt als Rede auffassen. Darin soil kurz die Hollenfahrt Christi und sein
Sieg liber die Holle erwahnt werden, um die Freude im Himmel zu begriinden ;
ganz unpassend aber ware an dieser Stelle eine so ausgefiihrte Schilderung, wie
sie die Hollenfahrt Christi giebt. Auch passte die Einleitung, Hollenfahrt 1-20,
gar nicht in den Crist an dieser Stelle herein.' Dietrich had already said (Haupfs
Zs. 9. 214) : ' . . .da der gute Verband dieser drei Lieder keine Stelle zeigt wo
es gleich anfangs hatte eingereiht sein konnen.'

Grein is of course wrong about the possibility of regarding the Harrowing of
Hell as a part of the Christ. Surely a given literature may contain more than
one poem on the same subject. Nor can this speech be one by the patriarchs
and prophets, as Wiilker would admit ; it is most natural in the mouth of the
angels who have already spoken.

Ebert's view is as follows (3. 47) : ' Die Engel aber ziehen im Himmel Christus
entgegen, indem sie ihn durch ein Loblied als Besieger der Holle bewillkommnen,
und zur Feier dieses hochsten Festes erscheinen sie in weissen Gewandern. . . .
Christus aber, der siegreiche Held, fiihrt die dem Teufel entrissenen Seelen in
seinem Gefolge.' He adds in a footnote: 'Die Verse 558-585 sind der v. 554
angezeigte wtlcuman, wie v. 570 und 573 klar zeigen. Der Sanger selbst spricht
sie nicht, wie Dietrich annimmt.'

Morley has (2. 228) : ' The next part celebrates the higher festival at which the
angels, all arrayed in white, go forth to meet the Saviour of Man as He ascends
to Heaven, bringing with Him the great company of the redeemed whom He has
saved from death and hell.'

Brooke remarks (p. 396), but without producing conviction : 'The order of the
poem now becomes confused. An episode is introduced which concerns the

130 NOTES. [PART II.

Harrowing of Hell, an event which the legend always places after the Resurrec
tion, and not after the Ascension. I conjecture that Cynewulf had these lines
by him (11. 558-585), and that they belonged to another poem, of which the
Descent into Hell, in the Exeter Book, may be a fragment. When he was refitting
the Christ into a whole, he inserted these lines which are full of imagination, and
took no particular pains to fit them properly into their place ; or he thought,
perhaps, that they might represent a hymn sung in heaven after the Ascension.
The hymn would then describe the event, also an ascension, which had taken
place forty days before, when Christ brought up to Paradise the souls from
Hades. Even if that be the case, the passage is most unhappily built together.
The episode is really a choric hymn supposed to be sung by the host of angels
who come forth from the gates of heaven on the day of the Resurrectipn to
meet and welcome the Old Testament saints as, rising from Hades, they mount
the sky with Christ. The scene is laid in mid-space. The angels from heaven
have met the ascending bands, and when Cynewulf sees this mighty meeting in
his vision, the warrior wakens in him, and the speech the angelic leader makes to
his followers is such as a heathen chief might have made to his Lord returning
from war with the spoils of victory.' But cf. Bede's hymn, above.

With reference to earlier accounts of the Harrowing of Hell, I refer to Kirk-
land, pp. 16-20, from whom I here draw certain statements and quotations.
Ittigius (De Evangelic Mortuis annunciate, Lipsiae, 1699, p. 14) says: 'Haec
enim sententia in scriptis Patrum tarn frequens est ut Isidorus Hispalensis
[d. 636] inter haereticos numeraverit qui in Christi ad inferos descensu anima-
rum liberationem factam negant.' Most of the opinions expressed are based
upon such passages as Eph. 4. 8-9 ; i Pet. 3. 19; 4. 6, and not till several centu
ries have elapsed do we find a circumstantial narrative such as is contained in
the Evangelism Nicodemi. In Eusebius (whether of Emesa or of Alexandria
has not been decided) a well-developed story meets us almost as soon as in the
Evangelium Nicodemi, and some of the details are even more fully described. In
the works of Epiphanius, who flourished toward the close of the fourth century,
we find the Descensus treated : ' Oratio in Christi sepulturam et Domini in
inferum descensum.' The version here given agrees in many points with the
Evangelium Nicodemi, though there is also much divergence. The Descent is
alluded to in Prudentius, Cathemerinon 9. 70 ; Proba Faltonia, Centones Virgiliani
(Migne 19.815-6); Sedulius, Paschale Carmen 5. 427 ff. (Migne 19. 751), and
Hymn to Christ 86 ff. (19. 769); Aldhelm, De Laudibus Virg. (Migne 89. 246) ;
Joannes Scotus Erigena, Christi Descensus ad Inferos et Resurrectio. For Bede,
see above.

Besides the quotations from Gregory in the notes on 145, 147, cf. his Moral.
4. 29 (Migne 75. 666); 12. 10 (75. 994); 13. 43, 44 (75. 1038); Horn, in Evang.
i. 19 (76. 1156); Ps. Poen. 6. 6 (79. 637).

Hammerich says (p. 84) : ' Dieses ist aber ein Lieblingsthema geworden fiir
alle germanischen Sanger, und das eben darum, weil in diesem Kampfe mit den
hollischen Machten der mannhafte, starkmuthige Siegeskonig ihnen in seiner
ganzen Starke und Herrlichkeit erschien. Daher begegnen wir Bearbeitungen
desselben Gegenstandes uberall in England, in Deutschland, und im Norden.'
He might have added, in Celtic, French, Proven5al, Italian, and Spanish ; see

PART II.] NOTES. 131

Wiilker, Das Evangelium Nicodemi in der Abendlandischen Literatur, Pader-
born, 1872.

Allusions to the Harrowing of Hell are found Gu. 1076; El. 181 ; Rid. 56 5 .
The subject is treated at considerable length in the Bl. Horn., pp. 85-9; cf.
^Elfric, Horn. i. 28, 216, 480; 2. 6.

My own view on the interpretation of 558-585 is about as follows. This pas
sage would seem to belong immediately after 526, and sliould be transferred to
that place, were it not that strict chronological order is hardly to be expected in
lyrico-dramatic writing; of this, Bede's hymn is a more than sufficient illustration.
That the two speeches are allied in substance, spirit, and general form is evident
on comparison. The two angels deliver the earlier speech ; and no one can be
conceived more proper than they to deliver this one. Both refer to a J>reat as
present (517, 570), employ the words, />e ge her on stariafr (521, 570), mention
the throne to which the journey tends (516, 572), and specifically designate a
present time (nil, 512 ; 558, 561, 571, 573, 575).

The first part of the discourse (558-574) is apparently addressed to the apostles
on the Mount of Olives, and does not form part of a choric hymn sung in mid-
space by a host of angels who come forth from heaven to meet Christ (Brooke).
On the latter supposition there is no point in the repeated ge, 570 and 573 : it
cannot be addressed to the rescued saints, nor to angels conceived as forming the
retinue of Christ. Besides, whether we regard ontynafr as ind. or imp., it can