Cynewulf

“ The best Christian poem, called "Crist," is full of the happiness bestowed by the new religion. The verses are by a poet named Cynewulf of whom nothing is known but his name, recorded in a kind of acrostic written in the Runic alphabet. He took his matter from sermons and hymns in Latin, but [Pg 19] Cynewulf makes the poetry his own. He is joyously religious. After all the melancholy of the heathen or half-heathen minstrels, their wistful doubts about the meaning and value of our little life, the author of the "Crist" comes as one who "has seen a great light". ”

“ Brooke says (op. cit., p. 443) : "This is the last of the important poems of the eighth century. It is good, but not very good. The older part, if my conjecture be right, is the best, and its reworking by Cynewulf has so broken it up that its dignity is much damaged. The shaping is rude, but the imagination has indeed shaped it." ten Brink says (p. 53) : "Cynewulf himself has immortalized this vision in a poem, giving utterance to an irrepressible emotion, but still exhibiting the delicate lines of a beautifully designed composition." ”

“ Cynewulf was indeed probably a Northumbrian churchman, but it is unlikely that there were not many Northumbrian churchmen bearing this common name; and as the bishop is not recorded to have written anything, the identification is at best an unsupported possibility. Professor A. S. Cook has suggested that our Cynewulf may have been the “Cynulf,” priest of Dunwich, whose name is among those appended to a decree of the council of Clofesho in 803, and of whom nothing else is known. This conjecture suits the probable date of Cynewulf, but otherwise there is nothing in its favour. ”

“ THE FAITHFUL THEGNS (786) . Source.—Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. Translated by J. A. Giles. Bohn’s Library.
Anno 755.—This year Cynewulf and the West Saxon Witan deprived his kinsman Sigebert of his kingdom, except Hampshire, for his unjust doings; and that he held until he slew the ealdorman who longest abode by him. And then Cynewulf drove him into Andred, and he abode there until a swineherd stabbed him at Privets-flood, and avenged the ealdorman Cumbra. And Cynewulf fought very many battles against 55the Welsh ”

“ Jusserand, i. 75, 443. The passages of dialogue dwelt on by these writers mostly belong to the work of Cynewulf and his school. It has been suggested that some of them, e.g. the A.-S. Descent into Hell (Grein, iii. 175; cf. Anglia, xix. 137) , or the dialogue between Mary and Joseph in Cynewulf’s Christ, 163 (ed. Gollancz, p. 16) , may have been intended for liturgical use by half-choirs; but of this there is really no proof. Wülker, loc. cit., shows clearly that the notion of a dramatic representation was unfamiliar to the Anglo-Saxons. ”

“ The tidings of Cynewulf's death were soon blown abroad, and others speedily rode up to revenge the murder of their sovereign. To these Cyneheard made the same offers, and received the same reply, their only answer being the naked weapons they presented; they had come to revenge the death of their king, to demand life for life, and with but few words they fell upon Cyneheard and his followers, and slew them all, excepting one, who was severely wounded. Thus Brihtric ascended the throne of Wessex, and married the daughter of Offa,—and dark was the bridal chamber into which he entered. ”

“ Both The Incarnation and The Last Judgment contain many passages of remarkable power and beauty. It is unlikely that the author regarded the three as forming one work. The Christ is followed in the MS. by two poems on Saint Guthlac, the second of which is generally, and with much probability, assigned to Cynewulf. The first Guthlac poem is almost universally believed to be by another hand. Cynewulf’s celebration of a midland saint is the strongest of the arguments that have been urged against his Northumbrian origin ”

“ Cynewulf’s unquestioned poems show that he was a scholar, familiar with Latin and with religious literature, and they display much metrical skill and felicity in the use of traditional poetic language; but of the higher qualities of poetry they give little evidence. There are pleasing passages in Elene, but the clumsy and tasteless narration of the Latin original is faithfully reproduced, and the added descriptions of battles and voyages are strings of conventional phrases, with no real imagination. In The Ascension the genuine religious fervour imparts a higher tone to the poetry ”

“ A valuable survival of this taunting of men who broke the oath of loyalty is the cry of the sworn-brother in Bewick and Graham:—
In every town that I ride through,
They’ll say—“There rides a brotherless man!”
That is, there is one who has done to death his sworn-brother.
With these speeches of the Maldon warriors and of Wiglaf one may compare the awkward but effective prose which reports the answer of Cynewulf’s thanes to the conquering band of Cyneheard. They resist all bribes and entreaties to quit their dead master and king, and fall beside him. ”

“ Anyone dating Maldon solely by "Lichtenheld's Test" would assuredly place it much earlier than 991.
{107}
It is easy to make a false use of grammatical statistics: and this test should only be applied with the greatest caution. But the difference between Beowulf and the works of Cynewulf is too striking to be overlooked. In Beowulf, to every five examples without the article (e.g. heaðo-stēapa helm) we have one with the article (e.g. se hearda helm) : in Cynewulf to every five examples without the article we have forty with it. ”

“ If Cynewulf made use of the Latin Life of Cyriacus in the Acta Sanctorum, he expanded his source considerably and showed great skill and originality in his treatment of the subject, as may be seen by comparing the translation with the Latin text in Zupitza's third edition of the Elene (1888) , or in Professor Kent's forthcoming American edition, after Zupitza. The Old English text was discovered by a German scholar, Dr. F. Blume, at Vercelli, Italy, in 1822, and the manuscript has since become well known as the Vercelli Book (cf. Wülker's Grundriss, p. 237 ff.) . ”

“ The 'Elene,' generally considered the finest of his poems, is the story of the miraculous finding of the holy cross by St. Helena, the mother of the Emperor Constantine. The poet has lent great charm to the tradition in his treatment. The poem sounds a triumphant note throughout, till we reach the epilogue, where the poet speaks in his own person and in a sadder tone.
The quality of Cynewulf's poetry is unequal; but when he is at his best, he is a great poet and a great artist. His personality appears in direct subjective utterance more plainly than does that of any other Anglo-Saxon poet. ”

“ Mr. Kennedy says [The Poems of Cynewulf, pp. 58-59] : “In general, however, it may be said that, while the question does not submit itself to definite conclusions, the weight of critical opinion leans to the side of Cynewulf’s having written the Phœnix, and that the time of its composition would fall between the Christ and the Elene.”
The first part of the poem is among the most pleasing pieces of description in Anglo-Saxon.]
I.
I have heard that there lies a land far hence
A noble realm well-known unto men,
In the eastern kingdoms. ”

“ This year Cyneard slew King Cynewulf, and was slain himself, and eighty-four men with him. Then Bertric undertook the government of the West-Saxons, and reigned sixteen years. His body is deposited at Wareham; and his pedigree goeth in a direct line to Cerdic. At this time reigned Elmund king in Kent, the father of Egbert; and Egbert was the father of Athulf.
A.D. 785. This year died Bothwin, Abbot of Ripon, and a litigious synod was holden at Chalk-hythe; Archbishop Eanbert resigned some part of his bishopric, Hibbert was appointed bishop by King Offa, and Everth was consecrated king. ”

“ The poem is very briefly mentioned by Trautmann in his monograph on Cynewulf (1898, p. 40) . There are some very interesting questions connected with the poem which cannot be discussed here. Was it by Cynewulf? On the affirmative side we find Dietrich, Rieger, Grein, ten Brink, D'Ham, and Sweet. On the negative, Wülker, Ebert, Trautmann, Stephens, Morley, Brooke, and others. Pacius, who edited the text, with a German translation, in 1873, thinks that we know nothing about the poet. ”

“ It is impossible to give the whole tale, which appealed to the natural man as a great story of adventure in waves and war, while it introduced religion. The adventures are many, and much more startling and wild than any that survive from the Anglo-Saxon poetry of heathen times.
Dream of the Rood.
There is a singular poem "The Dream of the Rood," which with many other "masterless" poems, some critics assign to Cynewulf, on account of the style, and the deep personal feeling which we admire in the "Crist": others attribute it to Cædmon. ”

“ But whether he knew of it or not, it is a striking fact that the temper of the Teutonic mind during a thousand years should have changed so little toward the choice and treatment of the subject of an epic, and that the first great poem known to have been written on English soil should in so many points have anticipated the greatest epic of the English race.
THE CYNEWULF CYCLE Cynewulf is the only great Anglo-Saxon poet who affixed his name to certain poems and thus settled the question of their authorship. We know nothing of his life except what we infer from his poetry. ”

“ A striking instance of the romantic and desperate courage to which it gave rise occurs as early as the reign of Cynewulf, king of Wessex, A.D. 784. Sigebircht, the deposed predecessor of this prince, was, in the first year of his rival's reign, found murdered in the forest of Andreswald: but left a brother, of the name of Cyneheard, who cherished for thirty-one years the secret purpose of avenging his death. At last he returned, with eighty-four retainers, into the neighbourhood of Winchester, the [Pg 71] royal residence ”

“ The ‘Dream’ is, in fact, an introduction to ‘Elene.’ These poems, —all religious narratives, —combine with their devout Christian fervour much patriotic feeling. Their poetic value varies, but the ‘Dream’ displays very realistic imagination.
Many more poems in the two manuscript books have been attributed to Cynewulf on more or less substantial grounds. If we admit his responsibility for all the lyrics and descriptive pieces that have been placed to his credit, he would be the most versatile and prolific, as well as one of the loftiest, of Old-English poets. Dr. ”

“ The national subjects themselves are not proof against the ideas of the Church; even in the fragments of Waldere they are to be found; and the poem of Beowulf has been filled, like so much of the old English poetry, with the melancholy of the preacher, and the sense of the vanity of earthly things. But the influence of fantasy and pathos could not dissolve the strength of epic beyond recovery, or not until it had done something to show [Pg 51] what it was worth. Not all the subjects are treated in the romantic manner of Cynewulf and his imitators. ”

“ His kingdom is broad over the world, while my teaching is weakened beneath the heavens. I dare not despise this cross with scoffing laugh. Lo! the Saviour hath again shut me into 920 my narrow home, smitten with woe. Once I was filled with joy by a Judas: but now, again by a Judas, am I humbled, bereft of possessions, abhorred, and friendless. But I know how to discover 925 again by my sin a way of return hereafter from the home of the damned. I shall incite against thee another king who shall persecute thee, and shall forsake thy teaching and follow my ways of 930 evil ”

“ And it is his nature to have sage answers and wisdom of soul. He shall show forth to thee before 595 the multitude with his great power the gift of wisdom, even as thy heart desireth.'
Then she let each man seek his own home in peace, and took Judas alone as hostage. And she earnestly 600 bade him tell the truth concerning the cross, which had been long buried in a secret place. Then Elene, the glorious queen, drew him aside by himself, and thus spake to the lonely man:—'Two ways 650 are ready for thee, either life or death, whichsoever thou shalt please to choose. ”

“ THE FINDING OF THE NAILS. Then again was the mind of Elene concerned about that fair mystery with regard to the nails 1065 which pierced the feet and hands of the Saviour, wherewith the King of the heavens, the mighty Prince, was bound upon the cross. The queen of the Christians began to ask concerning them. She bade Cyriacus that he, through the might of the 1070 Holy Spirit, fulfil her desire still further regarding the wondrous mystery, and that he unlock the secret by his holy grace. ”

“ And again Elene gave unto him gifts of great worth when she was ready for the journey back to her own land, and when she bade 1220 all those who glorified God in that kingdom, both men and women, to honor in their thought with heart and strength that great day on which the holy rood was found, most wondrous tree of them that 1225 have grown up from the earth, laden with leaves. ”

“ This young Cinq-Mars, my friend, will be a mere puppet. He will think of nothing but his ruff and his shoulder-knots; his handsome figure assures me of this. I know that he is gentle and weak; it was for this reason I preferred him to his elder brother. He will do whatever we wish."
"Ah, my lord," said the monk, with an expression of doubt, "I never place much reliance on people whose exterior is so calm; the hidden flame is often all the more dangerous. Recollect the Marechal d'Effiat, his father." ”