1 Notes on Social, Cultural & Literary History

Q: Write a note on Anglo-Saxon Christian Poetry with special reference to Caedmon and Cynewulf.
Ans: The vast bulk of Old English Poetry falls, by and large, into two categories: one is ostensibly
Christian and the other pagan. The Christianizing of the Anglo-Saxon had far-reaching effects on
their literature. Caedmon and Cynewulf are much known Christian poets, while such poems as
Beowulf or The Seafarer merely embody Christian elements. Though critics sometimes attempt to
interpret Beowulf as a Christian epic, whose hero fights against the evil, the poem contains much
that is pagan in origin. But the second part of The Seafarer is undoubtedly Christian. However,
one can easily trace the tension between the paganism and the Christianity in the mind of the
poet who conceives The Seafarer.

The year 597 is famous in the British History as it witnessed the Anglo-Saxon people into
Christianity when Pope Gregory employed St. Augustine for massive conversion in England. A
century elapsed to convert the Anglo-Saxon people into Christianity. England became the austere
home of Christianity. For the first time, it produced a new kind of poetry known to us as Anglo-
Saxon Christian poetry. To meet the cravings of the people, the old epic models were discarded.
With the changed spirit of the age, the new models were sought for.

In his book “The Ecclesiastical History of the English People”, Bede tells us of an untutored
peasant who had the inspiration to employ the diction and the metre of native verse for Christian
themes. That Caedmon was a tongue-tied herdsman. One day he had fallen asleep in the cattle.
He saw a man in his vision who told him to sing of the Creation. The lines which he composed in
his sleep and repeated next morning constituted the earliest datable English poetry. The poem is
known as Caedmon’s Hymn. Caedmon Sang of the creation of the world, of the origin of man, the
departure of the Israelites from Egypt, their entrance into the promised land, of the Incarnation,
passion and ascension of Christ and many more. A group of four poems is ascribed to Caedmon.
These are Genesis, Exodus, Daniel and Christ and Satan.

Apart from these Caedmonian poems, most of the religious poetry has at one time or
another been ascribed to a poet, or to his school, named Cynewulf. His poems appear to be the
true followers of Caedmonian poems. They suggest a natural development; they are much more
artistic. However, little is known about Cynewulf. It is accepted that he was a clerk, possibly of
high rank, who lived about 8th century. Four poems contain Cynewulf’s signature in runic letters.
These are (i) Juliana, (ii) Elene, (iii) Christ and (iv) The Fates of the Apostles. There are few other
poems which are attributed to him; these are Andreas, The Phoenix, The Dream of the Rood and
Guthlic. All these poems are fine pieces of description and a delicate feeling for external nature
combined with an ascetic tone, both curious and arresting. All of them have a fine ending that can
be found only in Beowulf, or in some of the Old English Elegies.