Table Of ContentOld English Poetns
of Christ and
His Saints
Edited and Translated by
MARY CLAYTON
rDUMBARTON OAKS
MEDIEVAL ~BRARY
HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS
CAM BRID (; E, MAS SAC HUSE TTS
LONDON, ENGLAND
2013
Copyright ©2013bythe President andFellowsofHarvard College
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Printed intheUnited States ofAmerica
Library ofCongress Cataloging-in- Publication Data
OldEnglishpoems ofChrist andhissaints/edited andtranslated by
MaryClayton.
pagescm.-(Dumbarton OaksMedievalLibrary; 27)
Includesbibliographical references andindex.
ISBN 978-0-674-05318-2(alk.paper)
1.Englishpoetry- OldEnglish,ca.450-1roo- Modernized
versions. 2.Christian poetry,English(Old) I.Clayton, Mary,1954-
PRI508.054620I3
829'.I-dC23 2013007292
Contents
Introduction
Vl1
ADVENT I
CHRIST IN JUDGMENT 33
GUTHLAC A 89
THE DESCENT INTO HELL 147
THE VISION OF THE CROSS 159
THE RUTHWELL CROSS
CRUCIFIXION POEM 175
THE BRUSSELS CROSS INSCRIPTION 179
ANDREAS 183
CHRIST AND SATAN 301
DISTICH ON KENELM 353
NoteontheTexts 357
NotestotheTexts 359
NotestotheTranslations 365
Bibliography 393
Index 397
Introduction
The ten anonymous Old English poems in this book were
composed in England between the eighth century and the
eleventh century. Eight are preserved in manuscripts; one is
found on a stone cross and another on a lavishly decorated
ornate cross, probably used in religious ceremonies. It is un
likely that any two are by the same author. Despite this di
versity in provenance, they share a focus on Christ and the
saints. Most take up traditional themes of salvation and re
demption, and they offer different, sometimes highly imagi
native, interpretations of scenes fundamental to Christian
history: the fall of the angels, the coming of Christ, Satan's
temptation of Christ, the Crucifixion, the harrowing of hell,
and the Last Judgment. Two long poems focus on individ
ual saints: the first deals with the apostle Andrew and his
mission to rescue his fellow-apostle Matthew, in the process
converting the cannibalistic Mermedonians, and the second
with the Anglo-Saxon hermit-saint, Guthlac. The final se
lection is a two-line poem about an Anglo-Saxon royal saint,
Kene lm.
The paucity of saints' lives in Old English poetry is strik
ing. Apart from the two lines on Kenelm, Guthlac is the
only Anglo-Saxon saint to feature in Old English poetry, and
Andrew is the only individual apostle. The works of Cyne-
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INTRODUCTION
wulf add poems on Elene (Helena), Juliana, a second poem
on Guthlac, and a short poem called The Fates oft he Apostles.
It is a strikingly small body ofw ork next to the large number
of saints' lives in Old English prose, the majority of which
were written by .!Elfric (who worked between ca. 990 and
ca. IOIO). Other lives in verse have probably been lost, but
we have a reference to only one: .!Elfric, writing in the 99os,
mentions a life of the apostle Thomas, which, he says, was
translated long ago from Latin into English on leoowison, "in
poetry."1
The poems are presented here in the order in which they
appear in the manuscripts, going from the manuscript with
the largest number, the Exeter Book, to those with the
smallest, the Junius manuscript and Cambridge, Pembroke
82, which has the Kenelm text. The Ruthwell Crucifixion
poem and the Brussels Cross inscription follow the poem to
which they are closely related, The Vision oft he Cross. The ti
tles of the poems are all editorial, the majority of them al
ready well established, but some less so.
THE ExETER BooK
Exeter Cathedral Library 3501 has been preserved in Exeter
Cathedral Library since the eleventh century, when it was
donated to the library by Leofric, bishop of Exeter, who
died in 1072. It was written by a single hand in the second
half of the tenth century (probably in the middle of that
half-century) somewhere in the south of England and is ac
curately described in an inventory of Leofric's donatioqs
as .i. mice! englisc boc be gehwilcum pingum on leoowisan ge-
;
i
viii
INTRODUCTION
worht, "one large English book about various things made in
verse."2 The contents of the manuscript were very deliber
ately ordered, beginning with three poems on Christ, then
two poems on Guthlac, followed by the Old Testament
poemAzarias, The Phoenix, Cynewulf's Juliana, a sequence of
short poems (including some of the best-known Old English
poems, such as The Wanderer, The Seafarer, and The Wt'fts La
ment), two collections of riddles, the Old English Physiologus,
and more religious texts, including The Descent into Hell The
first folio of the manuscript and some other folios have been
lost, so Christ I lacks its beginning. The second of the three
Christ poems and Juliana, each bearing the runic signature
of Cynewulf, along with the second of the two Guthlac po
ems, have been edited separately in the Dumbarton Oaks
Medieval Library, volume 23, The Old English Poems of Cyne
wulf, translated by Robert E. Bjork. Still other poems in the
Exeter Book miscellany not concerning Christ and his saints
appear in other DOML volumes.3 All of the poems edited
here from the Exeter Book are likely to be monastic both in
origin and in intended audience.
ADVENT
Advent, also known as Christ I or the Advent Lyrics, is a poem
based on Latin 0 antiphons (so called because they all begin
with "0") sung as part of the Advent and Christmas liturgy
in the Office, the daily round of prayers which those in reli
gious life were obliged to recite. The beginning of the poem
ha.; been lost, but what we have consists of a series of expan
sion}~ antiphons sung at Vespers. Twelve antiphons were
"'-,\,.
ix
INTRODUCTION
used as sources for the poem; the first folio of the manu
script is missing, however, and this would have contained
approximately seventy lines of text, perhaps based on three
more antiphons. The first ten antiphons used as sources be
long to the Advent liturgy; the eleventh is most likely an an
tiphon to the Trinity, and the final one is part of the liturgy
for the Octave of Christmas.
Each of the twelve parts of the Old English poem begins
with Eala, corresponding to the opening word of a Latin 0
antiphon, but the text is also organized into five manuscript
sections; we do not know how section one began, but the
second, third, and fourth begin with the Virgin Mary and
Christ's human parentage, before moving into Christ's di
vinity and the incomprehensibility of this for human under
standing. The five-part division may well go back to the
poet.Advent is a poem of meditation and of urgent entreaty,
the authorial voice repeatedly breaking into prayer and peti
tion. It grows out of a profound understanding of the liturgy
for the season, with its mixture of expectant joy and intense
need, its Old Testament prophecies fulfilled in Christ, its
imagery of light and darkness, of imprisonment and libera
tion, its architectural metaphors, and its focus on the Vir
gin Mary; for the poet, as for the congregation of which he
imagines himself a part, Christ's advent is repeated annually,
and in this poem their longing for his corning merges with
that of the souls in hell waiting for Christ to rescue them
after the crucifixion. The "sons and daughters of Salem"
(Jerusalem) and Joseph function as the uncomprehending
voices of humanity, expressing bafflement in the face of the ,
mystery of the Incarnation. As the poem progresses, we
move toward the accomplished Advent, with the final two
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INTRODUCTION
parts (11. 378-429) drawing on Christmas themes and being
full of exultation and joy.
There seems to be a growing consensus that Advent may
have been composed during the Benedictine Reform pe
riod, i.e., the second half of the tenth century, very close
to the date of the Exeter Book itself;4 this dating; how
ever, raises problems concerning the antiphonal sources, as
the repertory of 0 antiphons available to the poet is not
matched in Benedictine Reform manuscripts. Advent is
almost certainly the work of a monk who saw the Bible
through the lens of the liturgy and of patristic exegesis and
who had deep experience of the liturgy.
CHRIST IN JuDGMENT
Christ in Judgment gives a striking and vivid account of the
second coming of Christ on Judgment Day. While Advent
stands in intimate relationship to the liturgical use of the
Bible, Christ in Judgment relies more directly on the Bible
and on sermon literature. Its extensive description includes
the sudden approach of Christ from the East; the rising of
the dead; the dual appearance of Christ, benign to the good
and frightening to the wicked; the signs ofJ udgment Day;
the wailing and lamenting; Christ's judgment, when every
thing about people's thoughts, words, and deeds will be re
vealed; the cross standing before the multitudes; Christ's
wounds; how all creation apart from mankind acknowl
edged Christ's divinity at the Creation; how the chosen will
be on Christ's right, and the damned on his left; the signs of
glory for the just, and of damnatior for the unjust; how it
would have been better for the damned to have suffered the
xi
INTRODUCTION
shame of confessing their sins to a single man on earth than
having to endure eternal shame; the necessity for every
one to examine their conscience now to ensure salvation;
Christ's address to the multitude with his praise of the good
and accusations to the evil; his account of his suffering and
his demand that he be repaid for the lives of sinners which
he had purchased with his own life; his judgment of the evil
and their fall into hell and the joys of heaven, which the
good will enjoy for all eternity. The poem is full of uncom
promising moral didacticism, with admonitions to readers
to ensure their own eternal salvation, and is clearly designed
to produce strong emotions of repentance and fear.
Christ in Judgment draws on an impressive range of
sources, from the biblical accounts of judgment to church
fathers, such as Caesarius of Aries, Gregory the Great, and
Augustine, to the apocryphal4 Ezra 5:5, which is the ulti
mate source of the detail of the trees' sap turning to blood.
The poet also seems to have been familiar with vernacular
sermons. The language is noteworthy especially for its strik
ing visual images, such as that of fire like a seething war
rior or the mountains and cliffs melting away, its imagery of
light and dark, the vision of cosmic upheaval that it pre
sents, and its relentless hammering home of the message to
repent while there is still time. The ultimate source of much
of its description is probably Ephraem Syrus, whose work
was very influential for medieval eschatology. Parts of this
poem, in particular lines 219-64a, are similar to parts of The
Vision oft he Cross, a poem also concerned with judgment.
As is often the case, we do not know when this poem was
written. Its similarities to Old English prose sermons may
xii
INTRODUCTION
suggest a date rather late in the Anglo-Saxon period; the
motif of confessing to one man rather than being shamed at
the Last Judgment occurs in manuscripts from ca. 975 on
ward. However, it has also been argued that this is an early
poem.
GuTHLAC A
Immediately following Christ in Judgment in the Exeter
Book are two Guthlac poems; recent critical opinion attrib
utes the second, Guth!ac B, to Cynewulf, and so it has been
edited in the Cynewulf volume in this series. Guthlac, who
lived ca. 674 to 714, was an Anglo-Saxon warrior of royal de
scent who spent nine years fighting in Mercia before be
coming a monk in Repton at the age of twenty-four and
then, two years later, a hermit in the fens at Croyland (Lin
colnshire). A Latin life was written in the first half of the
eighth century by the monk Felix, but it is not clear whether
Felix's life was known to the author of Guth!ac A (although
Felix served as the source for Guth!ac B); there is also an Old
English prose life of Guthlac. Important aspects of the nar
rative of Guth!ac A are also in Felix's Life: Guthlac's youth as
a time when, as stated in Felix and implied in the poem, he
was a member of a band of fighting outcasts, his turning
to God, his dwelling in the wilderness and temptations
by fiends, his journey to the entrance of hell and Bartholo
mew's rescue of him. Guth!acA is the only Old English poem
on a saint to have no known direct source, though the poet
must have been familiar with Latin hagiography and with
texts dealing with the soul leaving the body to journey to
"
xiii
