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CYNEWULF
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CYNEWULF , the only Old-See also:English See also:vernacular poet, known by name, of whom any undisputed writings are extant. He is, the author of four poems preserved in two See also:MSS., the See also:Exeter See also:Book and the See also:Vercelli Book, both of the See also:early r r th See also:century. An See also:epilogue to each poem contains the runic characters answering to the letters c, y, n (e),w, u, 1, f. The See also:runes are to be read as the words that served as their names; these words enter into the See also:metre of the See also:verse, and (except in one poem) are significant in their context. The poems thus signed are the following. (I) A meditation on The See also:Ascension, which stands in the Exeter Book between two similar poems on the Incarnation and the Last See also:Judgment. The three are commonly known as Cynewulf's See also:Christ, but the runic See also:signature attests only the second. (2) A version of the See also:legend of the See also:martyr St Juliana, also in the Exeter Book. (3) Elene, in the Vercelli Book, on the See also:story of the empress See also:Helena and the " Invention of the See also:Cross." (4) A See also:short poem on The Fates of the Apostles, in the same MS. The See also:page containing the signature to this poem was first discovered by See also:Professor A. S. See also:Napier in 1888, so that the piece is not included in earlier enumerations of the poet's signed See also:works. In Juliana and Elene the name is spelt Cynewulf; in The Ascension the See also:form is Cynwulf. In The Fates of the Apostles the page is defaced, but the spelling Cynwulf is almost certain, ' The See also:Music of the Most See also:Ancient Nations, fig. 7.5, p. 227. The, See also:absence of the E in The Ascension can hardly be due to a scribal omission, for the name. of this See also:letter (meaning " See also:horse ") would not suit the context; this was perhaps the See also:motive for the choice of the shorter form. The See also:orthography (authenticated as the poet's own by the nature of his See also:device) has See also:chronological significance. If the poems had been written before 740, the spelling would almost certainly have been Cyniwulf. If it were safe to See also:judge from the scanty extant See also:evidence, we, should conclude that the form Cynwulf came in about 800; and presumably. the poet would not vary his accustomed signature until the new form had become See also:common. In Elene Cynewulf speaks of himself as an old See also:man; and the presence of the runic signature in the' four works suggests that they are not far apart in date. They may therefore be referred provisionally to the beginning of the 9th century, any See also:lower date being for linguistic and metrical reasons improbable. The MSS. of the poems are in the See also:West-Saxon See also:dialect, with occasional peculiarities that indicate transcription from Northumbrian or Mercian. Professor E. Sievers's arguments for a Northumbrian See also:original have considerable See also:weight; for the Mercian theory no linguistic arguments have been adduced, but it has been advocated on grounds of See also:historical See also:probability' which seem to be of little value. Cynewulf's unquestioned poems show that he was a See also:scholar, See also:familiar with Latin and with religious literature, and they display much metrical skill and felicity in the use of traditional poetic See also:language; but of the higher qualities of See also: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 See also:imagination. In The Ascension the genuine religious fervour imparts a higher See also:tone to the poetry; the piece has real but not extraordinary merit. Of the other two poems no critic has much to say in praise. If Cynewulf is to be allowed high poetic See also:rank, it must be on the ground of his authorship of other works than those which he has signed. At one See also:time or other nearly the whole See also:body of extant Old English poetry (including See also:Beowulf) has been conjecturally assigned to him. Some of the attributed works show many striking . resemblanes in See also:style . and diction to his See also:authentic writings. But it is impossible to determine with certainty how far the similarities may be due to See also:imitation or to the following of a Common tradition. Until recently, it was commonly thought that Cynewulf's authorship of the See also:Riddles (q.v.) in the Exeter Book was beyond dispute. ' The monodramatic lyric Wulf and Eadwacer, imagined to be the first of these- Riddles, was in 18.57 interpreted by Heinrich See also:Leo as a See also:charade on the name Cynewulf. This absurd See also:fancy was for about See also:thirty years generally accepted as a fact, but is now abandoned. Some of the Riddles have been shown by Professor E. Sievers to be older than Cynewulf's time; that he may have written some of the See also:rest remains a See also:bare possibility. The similarity of tone in the three poems known as the Christ affords some presumption of common authorship, which the See also:counter arguments that have been urged seem insufficient to set aside. Both The Incarnation and The Last Judgment contain many passages of remarkable See also:power and beauty. It is unlikely that the author regarded the three as forming one See also:work. The Christ is followed in the MS. by two poems on See also: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 See also:hand. Cynewulf's celebration of a midland saint is the strongest of the arguments that have been urged against his Northumbrian origin; but this See also:consideration is insufficient to outweigh the probability derived from the linguistic evidence. Cynewulf's reputation can gain little by the attribution to him of Guthlac, which is far inferior even to Juliana. Very different would be the effect of the. See also:establishment of his much disputed claim to Andreas, a picturesque version of the legend of the Apostle See also:Andrew. The poem abounds to an astonishing extent in " Cynewulfian " phrases, but it is contended that theseare due to imitation. If the author of Andreas imitated. Elene and Juliana, he bettered his See also:model. The question whether Cynewulf may not have been the imitator has apparently never been discussed. The poem (so far agreeing with The Fates of tke Apostles) copies the style of the old heroic poetry. Cynewulf's authorship has been asserted by some scholars for The See also:Dream of the See also:Rood, the noblest example of Old English religious poetry. But an See also:extract from this poem is carved on the Ruthwell Cross; and, notwithstanding the arguments of Prof. A. S. See also:Cook, the • language of the inscription seems too early for Cynewulf's date. The similarities between the Dream and Elene are therefore probably due to Cynewulf's acquaintance with the older poem. The only remaining attribution that deserves See also:notice is that of the See also:Phoenix. The author of this See also:fine poem was, like Cynewulf, a scholar, and uses many of his turns of expression, but he was a . man of , greater See also:genius than is ,shown in Cynewulf's signed compositions. Professor M. Trautmann, following J. See also:Grimm and F. See also:Dietrich, would identify the poet with Cynewulf,, See also:bishop of Lindisfarne, who died in 783. This See also:speculation conflicts with the See also:chronology suggested in this See also:article, and is destitute of evidence. 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 See also:identification is at best an unsupported possibility. Professor A. S. Cook has suggested that our Cynewulf may have been the " Cynulf,'' See also:priest of See also:Dunwich, whose name is among those appended to a See also:decree of the See also: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.
For the older literature See also:relating to Cynewulf, see R. See also: Trautmann, Kynewulf, der Bischof and Dichter (1898), and the introductions and notes to the See also:editions of Cynewulf's Christ, by I. Gollancz (1892) and A. S. Cook (Igloo). For the arguments for Cynewulf's authorship of Andreas, see F. Ramhorst, Andreas and Cynewulf (1885). (H. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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