many of the Riddles. The Ruin, The Wanderer, The Seafarer, The Wife's Complaint, and The Husband's Message are elegies of this kind: there is nothing Christian in them except two or three additions to the Wanderer and the Seafarer, and there is much of the pagan Fate and of pagan love of wild nature. The Riddles, which some claim to be by Cynewulf, describe the natural scenes and the activities of the daily life of those times-war, hunting, feasting, and the like.

Narrative.—“ The Ruin" is a lament on the departed glories of some ruined buildings or a ruined city. "The Wanderer" (115 lines) tells of a man wandering lonely over the sea; he dreams of his former happy life. "The Seafarer" shows a man musing upon the hard times he has passed on the sea in winter; but no home pleasures avail against the strong attraction the seaman's life has for him. "The Wife's Complaint" and "The Husband's Message are probably connected. The wife complains of separation from her husband, who has gone beyond the sea. "The Husband's (or perhaps Lover's) Message" seems to be sent to the woman on a runic staff; he wants her to sail to him across the sea when spring comes.

(2.352)

20

CHAPTER 3. CHRISTIAN POETRY

Northumbrian Culture-The two Schools of Christian Poetry-Cadmon and the
Cadmonian Poems-Cynewulf and his School-Minor Poems and Fragments-Poetry
after Alfred

Literary culture in England began in Northumbria. Columba founded the monastery of Iona in 563, bringing thither the learning and literature of Ireland ; and after the flight of the Roman bishop Paulinus in 633 it was Celtic missionaries from Iona who carried on the conversion of Northumbria to Christianity. Here, as throughout England, Christianity and heathenism existed side by side, and so it came about that in many respects Christianity did not so much destroy the heathen ideas in English literature as change them. To take two examples: Christianity modified the deep melancholy of Old English elegiac poetry, adding to it the note of hope; but the ancient Teutonic fury colours the Old Testament battle stories. The heroes are those of the Bible stories and of the legends of the saints, but treated as if they were kings or chiefs and thegns of the pagan English, though with a subjective and more spiritual tone due to the influence of Celtic Christianity.

The Two Schools. This Christian poetry is of two periods. That of the school of Cadmon includes the end of the 7th century and the beginning of the 8th. The other group is that of the school of Cynewulf, who wrote at the end of the 8th century. In both these cycles the poetry varies from the strictly religious tone-often reflecting the monkish attitude-in which pagan sentiments are rigidly repressed, to the freer and more pagan feeling and expression of the earlier age. The difference between them is seen in the more lyrical work of Cynewulf, whether song or description of nature, and in the greater influence of foreign literature, as, for instance, in the Riddles, the Phonix, and the Crist, where the writer seems more conscious of his art.

CÆDMON AND THE CADMONIAN POEMS

The Christian poetry begins with Cadmon, about the year 660. He was a lay brother in the abbey of Streoneshalh (later known by its Danish name of Whitby), whose foundation was due to the missionaries from Iona, and on the Celtic model. Bede, his contemporary, tells how he received the divine gift of poetry late in life. in consequence of a dream. He had never been able to take his turn in playing or singing at the banquet, and used to withdraw when he saw the harp approaching him. On one such occasion he had gone out to the stables, and falling asleep he dreamed that a man stood by him who said, "Cædmon, sing me something." And

when he told the visitant that he had come out because he could not sing he received the answer, "Yet you could sing!" "What shall I sing?" he returned. "Sing to me the beginning of all things." Finding that he had the true poetic power, the Abbess Hild persuaded him to become a monk, and in the abbey he spent the rest of his life, telling in verse the Scripture history, the Judgment Day, and the kingdom of Heaven.

Between Cædmon's death in 680 and Bede's in 735, followers of Cædmon continued his work, but, says Bede, "none could compare with him." The Cadmonian poems were for long, on the authority of the first editor, Franciscus Junius, attributed to Cædmon. The Hymn in praise of God, the builder of the world, which he sang to the heavenly visitant, the oldest piece of Christian song we have left, has been preserved in Northumbrian and in West-Saxon. It is generally admitted to be Cadmon's own composition. The other poems of the group are Genesis, Exodus, Daniel, Crist and Satan, and, as some think, Judith, though the last is probably a work of the 9th or the early 10th century.

Saxon paraphrase of the Old Testament by the author of the "Heliand," and was probably known to Milton. The rest ("Genesis A") may be based on Cadmon, and the date is uncertain.

"Exodus" opens with a reference to the laws of Moses, his leadership against Pharaoh, and God's revelation to him about the creation. It paraphrases the

story from the tenth plague to the overwhelming of the Egyptians, Moses' song of victory, and the division of the spoil.

"Daniel.”—A short historical introduction connects the story with “ Exodus," and then follows a paraphrase of the Book of Daniel down to Belshazzar's feast, with some moralizing on certain virtues.

The "Crist and Satan" (probably late 9th-century work) consists of a complete poem on the "Fall of the Rebel Angels," and two fragments dealing with the "Harrowing of Hell," the "Resurrection,' Ascension," and Second Coming," and with the “Temptation.”

"Judith" consists of fourteen lines of Book IX. and the whole of Books X. to XII.; of an original twelve books narrating the story of the Book of Judith in the Apocrypha. The fragment contains the climax of the story —the assassination of Holofernes by Judith, and the rout of the Assyrians. The narrative is clear, vigorous, and dramatic. The poem has been variously assigned to the 8th, the 9th, and the 10th centuries; to the schools of Cadmon and of Cynewulf, and to the later patriotic group.

CYNEWULF AND HIS SCHOOL

The poetry of the Cynewulfian school is more artistic, more self-conscious, and more subjective; and in contrast to the poems of the Cadmonian school we find legends of saints and martyrs, and accounts of heavenly visions, Christ presented as the Saviour of men, and the atmosphere of the New Testament. Celtic influence is giving place to Roman. Cynewulf himself has real poetic imagination.

Cynewulf. Cynewulf was a Northumbrian or a Mercian, but we have the poems in a West-Saxon transcript. The titles of four of his poems-Crist, Juliana, The Fates of the Apostles, Elene-spell his own name in runic letters. If the Riddles are his it may be conjectured that he was the Scop of a great chief, a lover of nature, especially the sea and sea-coast, a student of the life of this world. The Juliana shows him as one who has suffered sorrows and has repented of sin; the Crist, one who has felt divine forgiveness and is at peace, and the last canto of the Elene confirms this conjecture.

The Crist is in three parts-Advent, Ascension, Second Coming-and critics argue that only the second (signed) is by Cynewulf. They are based on Latin sermons and hymns; but the author has made a new work of his own, with lyrical expression of deep religious feeling and sublime description.

The Juliana is a version of the Latin story of St. Juliana, a virgin martyr of the time of Maximian, a story following the usual lines of this type.

The Fates of the Apostles may be an introduction to the Andreas. It describes the apostles as "æthelings going forth to war," and is a summary of their work.

The Elene is Cynewulf's masterpiece. In the first fourteen cantos, the narrative, which is full of life and colour, tells in simple and dramatic style the search for and discovery of the True Cross by Helena, mother of Constantine. The fifteenth canto tells how God had revealed to the author the mystery of the holy Cross.

The Dream of the Rood may have been based on an older poem of the Rood, parts of which (in 7th-century language) are carved in runes on the Ruthwell Cross in Dumfriesshire. It is the only English dream-poem we possess before the Conquest.

The poet dreams he sees the Tree gloriously bedight with gold and gems, and anon running with blood. At the sight he gazes long with heavy heart, till at last the Tree speaks. It narrates its origin, the passion and burial of Christ, its own burial and later discovery. It bids the sleeper tell the dream. He who bears the Cross in his heart need have no fear of the Judgment to come. The poet now recalls how glad he had been after the dream, how eager to depart this life, but how he had lived on till now his friends have gone before and he is awaiting the call. He remembers how Christ had ascended gloriously into the heavens with the saints from Hades.

Guthlac and the Phoenix.-Two other works of importance are claimed for Cynewulf a life of the Mercian saint, Guthlac, and The Phoenix. Guthlac is an unfinished poem. Describing the triumphant death of the saint, he uses the old heroic style; the nature myths help the description of scenery; the fight with Death and Satan is in the spirit and language of heathen war.

In the same heroic strain is the fragment of a Descent into Hell: Christ welcomed at the gate of Hell by John the Baptist and the other "spirits in prison" is the Old English chieftain acclaimed after victory by his thegns.

The Phonix follows, for 380 lines, a Latin poem by Lactantius Firmianus (4th century), and describes the fair land of the Phoenix, the wondrous life of the bird there for a thousand years, its flight to Syria, its fiery death, the rebirth and return to its land for another thousand years. The remaining 297 lines are allegory-the immortality of Christian souls and the resurrection of Christ. In this poem we have imagination and joy in nature as well as conscious artistic effort, under the influence of Latin literature..

Andreas. The Andreas, a poem of 1,724 lines, is based on the Latin version (lost) of a Greek MS. in Paris. It is the story of the voyage of Andrew to free Matthew from the cannibal Mermedonians in the Crimea, or, as the English poet seems to think, in Ethiopia. Christ appears to Andrew, and with two angels accompanies him in a boat. Andrew lands, rescues Matthew, is himself captured and tortured, is delivered, and converts the Mermedonians by a miracle. The voyage is the great work of the poem. Here and throughout it is the Old English life and spiritAndrew is a Viking, Christ is his chief, the Mermedonians are the enemy.