Write a note on Anglo Saxon Christian poems

The earlier Anglo Saxon literature was Pagan in origin. Those works were secular. In 597 A.D St
Augustine came to England and his monks spread Christianity gradually. Significantly a sea change was
noticed in Anglo Saxon poetry which belonged to Heathen Germanic tradition. . The Anglo-Saxon poetry
marks a new development in the early history of English literature. It stood as a close antithesis to the
Heroic Poetry. It explored the moral and ethical ideals of human life. The Christianity brought
metamorphoses of life and philosophy. Paganism is essentially a belief or creed to worship nature as
goodness. Now pure lyricism was blended perfectly with the lofty principles of Christianity. It produced a
wonderful garland of religious poetry and major practitioners were Caedmon and Cynewulf.
The history of the evolution of Caedmon can be found in The Ecclesiastical History of the English Race
of Venerable Bede. Bede refers to Caedmon as an illiterate shepherded .He was gifted by God to compose
the song of creation in a dream. It is a nine-lined Hymn or Paraphrase that Caedmon sang about the
history of the creation of the universe, heaven and hell along with mankind. Later Milton was to use the
same theme for his Paradise Lost. There are four Caedmon’s poems existing. The first three are based on
Old Testament story. Genesis A is based on St. Jerome’s Latin translation the Bible (known as the
Vulgate text). Genesis – A begins with the description of God and Angels in Heaven, rebellion of the
angels and their fall, creation of Earth and man, the garden of Eden, the story of Cain and Able, the
Deluge and its end with the story of Isaac and Ram. The versification is excellent.
The poet of Genesis-B shows a remarkable narrative power. It deals with a second account of the fall of
angles, their condition in hell, their parleys, their design upon man, their temptation of man and the fall
of man. We find great style in characterization and narration. Exodus deals with the crossing of the Red-
Sea by the Israelites and drawing the Egyptian. The poem has an epic grandeur.
Daniel consists of two separate poems Daniel-A and Daniel-B and they date from the 9th century. A third
poem known as Azariah stands in close similarity with Daniel – B. The poem depicts the reign of
Nebuchandnezar and Daniel’s interpretation of king’s ominous dreams. It continues with the story of
three young men in the furnace. The poem has a didactic tone.
Christ and Satan is mainly based upon the biblical sources. It has three parts-- lament of the fallen angels,
Christ’s Harrowing of Hell, Satan’s temptation of Christ in the wilderness. Here we find a picture of
Satan in a disobeying mood. The poem shows lyrical, ethical and dramatic virtues.

Cynewulf was a cultured Anglican cleric of the late 8th and early 9th century. Cynewulf was identified, not
certainly, but probably, with a Cynewulf who was Bishop of Lindisfarne and lived in the middle of the
eighth century. He was a wandering singer or poet who lived a gay and secular life. The accuracy of some
of his battle scenes and seascapes showed that he had fought on land and sailed the seas. Finally, after a
dream in which he had a vision of the Holy Rood, he changed his life, became a religious poet, sang of
Christ, the apostles, and the saints. His work represents an advance in culture upon the more primitive
Caedmonian poems. The poems of Cynewulf are generally
divided into ‘Signed’ and ‘Unsigned’ poems. The signed poems are The Fates of Apostles, The Ascension
(Christ – II), Juliana and Elene. They all bear Cynewulf’s runic signature.

The Fates of Apostles is a poem of 112 lines and it deals with life, works and manners of death of 12
apostles. There is lyrical intensity along with strain. The Ascension (Christ – II) is a successful reworking
of a homily on the Ascension of Christ. Here Christ is often presented as a glorious bird and elsewhere
symbolized as a series of 6 leaps – Incarnation, Nativity, Baptism, Crucifixion, Burial and Resurrection.

The poet of Juliana depicts how Juliana survives all the inhuman torments and how she is ultimately
beheaded. A Teutonic spirit pervades the poem. Elena narrates a story of the discovery of the true cross
.The poem has excellent narrative skill. There are adventurous moments like Elena crossing the sea.
Apart from these poems another famous work is The Dream of the Rood. It is one of the earliest Christian
poems in the corpus of Anglo-Saxon literature and an intriguing example of the genre of dream poetry.
Like all Old English poetry, it is written in alliterative verse. Rood is from the Old English rod "pole",
specifically "crucifix". Preserved in the 10th century Vercelli Book, the poem may be considerably older,
even one of the oldest works of Old English literature.