Anglo Saxon religious literature

Religious literature:

• St. Augustain was sent to England by Pope Gregory to Christianize the English people. He started from the North, and by the 8^th c all northern England had converted.
• Earlier, poetry of OE was about heroic deeds but now the style was changed. Interest changed from knights to Christ and apostles and Gospels.
• The literature changed from epic to lyrical.
• The literature changed from objective to subjective.

Poetry:

1.     Aldhelm: (640-709)

Aldhelm (Old English: Ealdhelm) (c. 639 – 25 May 709), Abbot of Malmesbury Abbey, Bishop of Sherborne, Latin poet and scholar of Anglo-Saxon literature, was born before the middle of the 7th century. He is said to have been the son of Kenten, who was of the royal house of Wessex. He was the first poet whose works survive at all. He is the monastic founder of Malmesbury, and the star of pupil of Hardian’s school at Canterbury and became bishop of sherbone. He wrote sermons in verse and a treatise in verse for a convent of nuns on virginity.

• Carmen de virginitate (the poetic De Virginitate). Aldhelm wrote a shorter, poetic version of De Laude Virginitatis, which closes with a battle of the virtues against the vices, the De octo principalibus vitiis (first printed by Delrio, Mainz, 1601). The two works are what is sometimes called an opus geminatum or "twin work".
• Carmen rhythmicum, rhythmic poem which describes a travel through western England and the way a wooden church was affected by a storm.
• Carmina ecclesiastica (modern title), i.e. a number of Latin tituli designed for inscription on a church or altar.
• Enigmata, 100 (hexa)metrical riddles, included in the Epistola ad Acircium for purposes of illustration (see above). For these riddles, Aldhelm's model was the collection known as Symposii Aenigmata ("The Riddles of Symphosius").

2.     Bede:

Bede also spelled Baeda or Beda   (born 672/673, traditionally Monkton in Jarrow, Northumbria—died May 25, 735, Jarrow; canonized 1899; feast day May 25), Anglo-Saxon theologian, historian, and chronologist, best known today for his Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum (“Ecclesiastical History of the English People”), a source vital to the history of the conversion to Christianity of the Anglo-Saxon tribes. During his lifetime and throughout the Middle Ages Bede’s reputation was based mainly on his scriptural commentaries, copies of which found their way to many of the monastic libraries of western Europe. His works survive in scripts across Europe and Russia. He was the founder of the way of dating years A.D. Annodomini. Hw has written almost ninety latin works. Only five lines of which survived which he wrote on his death bed. He composed his own death song and when he finished with that song he died at the very same day.

His important works are Ecclesiastical works, Translation of st.johns gospel, composed his death song.

3.   Cædmon:

Cædmon is one of twelve Anglo-Saxon poets identified in medieval sources, and one of only three for whom both roughly contemporary biographical information and examples of literary output have survived.^[1] His story is related in the Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum ("Ecclesiastical History of the English People") by Bede who wrote, "[t]here was in the Monastery of this Abbess a certain brother particularly remarkable for the Grace of God, who was wont to make religious verses, so that whatever was interpreted to him out of scripture, he soon after put the same into poetical expressions of much sweetness and humility in English, which was his native language. By his verse the minds of many were often excited to despise the world, and to aspire to heaven."

Cædmon's only known surviving work is Cædmon's Hymn, the nine-line alliterative vernacular praise poem in honour of God which he supposedly learned to sing in his initial dream. The poem is one of the earliest attested examples of Old English and is, with the runic Ruthwell Cross and Franks Casket inscriptions, one of three candidates for the earliest attested example of Old English poetry. It is also one of the earliest recorded examples of sustained poetry in a Germanic language.

Works:

·        Genesis : in parts A&B of about 300 lines.

·        Exodus: departure of Israelites and the drowning of Egyptians.

·        Incarnation, Ascension, Pentecost: these are songs from the chapters of the Bible.

·        Daniel

·        Christ and Satan.

4.   Cynewulf:

One of twelve Anglo-Saxon poets known by name today, and one of four whose work survives today. He is famous for his religious compositions, and is regarded as one of the pre-eminent figures of Old English Christian poetry.

Works:

·        The Christ:

It is a trilogy divide into 3 parts. (a) Advent (about Christ’s birth)  (b)Ascension (about Christ’s crucifixion and ascension)

·        Juliana: It is an account of martyring of st. Juliana of Nicomedia, it consists of 731 lines. Juliana is presented entirely in Old English alliterative verse and is transmitted in a late West-Saxon dialect.

·        Elene: The poem is the first English account of the finding of the Holy Cross by Saint Helena. It is 1321 lines long consisting 14 stanzas.

·        Andreas: It is an old English poem, which tells the story of st. Andrew the Apostle. The poem itself is a 1722 line poem that tells the story of st Andrew, as he rescues st. Matthew. St Andrew defies the hardships that he faces, such as turbulent sea and other types of torture and captivity, which mirror the pain and suffering that Christ experienced.

5.    Dream of the Rood:

The Dream of the Rood is one of the earliest Christian poems in the corpus of Old English literature and an example of the genre of dream poetry. Like most 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.

      There are sections from “The Dream of the Rood” that are found on the Ruthwell Cross that dates back to the 8th century. It was an 18 foot, free standing, Anglo-Saxon Cross, perhaps intended as a "conversion tool". To this day the authorship of Dream of the Rood remains unknown; however with the Ruthwell Cross giving the poem a rough time period in which it could have been written, scholars have been able to make educated suggestions on possible authors. Two of the most heavily argued, for probable authorship, are the Anglo-Saxon Christian poets Caedmon and Cynewulf.

The poem is set up with the narrator having a dream. In this dream or vision he is speaking to the Cross on which Jesus was crucified. The poem itself is divided up into three separate sections. In section one, the narrator has a vision of the Cross. In section two, the Cross shares its account of Jesus’ death. In section three, the author gives his reflections about this vision. The vision ends, and the man is left with his thoughts. He gives praise to God for what he has seen and is filled with hope for eternal life and his desire to once again be near the glorious Cross.