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Cynewulf
Cynewulf (, ; also spelled Cynwulf or Kynewulf) is one of twelve Old English poets known by name, and one of four whose work is known to survive today. He presumably flourished in the 9th century, with possible dates extending into the late 8th and early 10th centuries. Cynewulf is a well-attested Anglo-Saxon given name derived from '' cyne'' "royal, of a king" and '' wulf'' "wolf". Known for his religious compositions, Cynewulf is regarded as one of the pre-eminent figures of Anglo-Saxon Christian poetry. Posterity knows of his name by means of runic signatures that are interwoven into the four poems which comprise his scholastically recognized corpus. These poems are: '' The Fates of the Apostles'', ''Juliana'', ''Elene'', and ''Christ II'' (also referred to as ''The Ascension''). The four signed poems of Cynewulf are vast in that they collectively comprise several thousand lines of verse. In comparison, the one work attributed to Cædmon, '' Cædmon's Hymn'', is quite ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Christ II (poem)
''Christ II'', also called ''The Ascension'', is one of Cynewulf's four signed poems that exist in the Old English vernacular. It is a five-section piece that spans lines 440–866 of the Christ triad in the '' Exeter Book'' (folios 14a-20b), and is homiletic in its subject matter in contrast to the martyrological nature of '' Juliana'', '' Elene'', and '' Fates of the Apostles''. ''Christ II'' draws upon a number of ecclesiastical sources, but it is primarily framed upon Gregory the Great’s ''Homily XXIX'' on Ascension Day. The poem is assigned to a triad of Old English religious poems in the Exeter Book, known collectively as ''Christ''. ''Christ'' comprises a total of 1664 lines and deals with Christ's Advent, Ascension and Last Judgment. It was originally thought to be one piece completed by a single author, but the poem is now broken up into three parts. Background The poem '' Christ'' was originally thought to be one piece completed by a single author. Almost all s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Elene (poem)
''Elene'' is a poem in Old English, that is sometimes known as ''Saint Helena Finds the True Cross''. It was translated from a Latin text and is the longest of Cynewulf's four signed poems. It is the last of six poems appearing in the Vercelli manuscript, which also contains '' The Fates of the Apostles'', ''Andreas'', '' Soul and Body I'', the ''Homiletic Fragment I'' and ''Dream of the Rood''. The poem is the first English account of the finding of the Holy Cross by Saint Helena, the mother of Emperor Constantine. The poem was written by Cynewulf some time between 750 and the tenth century. It is written in a West Saxon dialect, but certain Anglianisms and metrical evidence concerning false rhymes suggest it was composed in an Anglian rather than Saxon dialect. It is 1,321 lines long. Author and date Cynewulf's signature, which is always in runes, appears on '' Christ II'', ''Juliana'', '' The Fates of the Apostles'' and ''Elene''. The dialect in his poems suggests t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Juliana (poem)
"Juliana" ( Exeter Book, fol. 65b–76a), is one of the four signed Old English poems ascribed to the mysterious poet, Cynewulf, and is an account of the martyring of St. Juliana of Nicomedia. The one surviving manuscript, dated between 970 and 990,See Woolf 1955, p.1 is preserved in the Exeter Book between the poems ''The Phoenix'' and ''The Wanderer''. ''Juliana'' is one of only five Old English poetic texts that describe the lives of saints. (The others include ''Elene'', ''Andreas'', and ''Guthlac A'' and ''B''.) Juliana is Cynewulf's second longest work, totaling 731 lines. However, due to damage to the Exeter Book over time—such as staining, charring, and the loss of pages---there are two gaps in the text of Juliana, amounting to a loss of 130 to 140 lines. Through comparative analyses, it has been determined that no more than a single page worth of material could be missing from either gap, and it is therefore very likely that a single sheet, which would have been folded ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cynewulf Of Lindisfarne
Cynewulf of Lindisfarne was appointed as Bishop of Lindisfarne in either 737 or 740. He resigned the see in 779 or 780 and died in 782 or 783.Fryde, et al. ''Handbook of British Chronology'' p. 219 In 750 Cynewulf was imprisoned by Eadberht of NorthumbriaKirby ''Earliest English Kings'' p. 126 for giving sanctuary to Prince Offa during a dynastic clash. Some 19th-century scholars believed him to be Cynewulf, the poet only known through the runic signature appearing in several Old English poems. Besides the fact that the dialect used in these poems shows features of Northumbrian Old English Northumbrian was a dialect of Old English spoken in the Anglo-Saxons, Anglian Kingdom of Northumbria. Together with Mercian dialect, Mercian, Kentish dialect (Old English), Kentish and West Saxon dialect, West Saxon, it forms one of the sub-ca ..., there is no solid proof for this theory. Citations References * * External links * 780 deaths Bishops of Lindisfar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Fates Of The Apostles
"The Fates of the Apostles" ( Vercelli Book, fol. 52b–54a) is the shortest of Cynewulf’s known canon at 122 lines long. It is a brief martyrology of the Twelve Apostles written in the standard alliterative verse. ''The Fates'' recites the key events that subsequently befell each apostle after the Ascension of Jesus. It is possible that ''The Fates'' was composed as a learning aid to the monasteries. Cynewulf speaks in the first-person throughout the poem, and besides explaining the fate of each disciple, he provides “advice” and “consolation” to the reader. Cynewulf’s runic Runes are the letters in a set of related alphabets, known as runic rows, runic alphabets or futharks (also, see '' futhark'' vs ''runic alphabet''), native to the Germanic peoples. Runes were primarily used to represent a sound value (a ... signature is scrambled in this poem so that the meaning of the runes become a riddle with no unequivocal meaning.See Bradley 1982, p.154 :"Wealt ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anglo-Saxon Literature
Old English literature refers to poetry (alliterative verse) and prose written in Old English in early medieval England, from the 7th century to the decades after the Norman Conquest of 1066, a period often termed Anglo-Saxon England. The 7th-century work '' Cædmon's Hymn'' is often considered as the oldest surviving poem in English, as it appears in an 8th-century copy of Bede's text, the ''Ecclesiastical History of the English People''. Poetry written in the mid 12th century represents some of the latest post-Norman examples of Old English. Adherence to the grammatical rules of Old English is largely inconsistent in 12th-century work, and by the 13th century the grammar and syntax of Old English had almost completely deteriorated, giving way to the much larger Middle English corpus of literature. In descending order of quantity, Old English literature consists of: sermons and saints' lives; biblical translations; translated Latin works of the early Church Fathers; chronicle ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vercelli Book
The Vercelli Book is one of the oldest of the four Old English Poetic Codices (the others being the Junius manuscript in the Bodleian Library, the Exeter Book in Exeter Cathedral Library, and the Nowell Codex in the British Library). It is an anthology of Old English prose and verse that dates back to the late 10th century. The manuscript is housed in the Capitulary Library of Vercelli, in northern Italy. Contents The Vercelli Book consists of 135 folios, and although the manuscript was probably compiled and written in the late 10th century, not all of the texts found in the manuscript were originally written at that time. The poems ascribed to Cynewulf ('' The Fates of the Apostles'' and '' Elene'') could have been created much earlier. The Vercelli Book contains 23 prose homilies (the Vercelli Homilies) and a prose ''vita'' of Saint Guthlac, interspersed with six poems: * ''Andreas'' * '' The Fates of the Apostles'' * '' Soul and Body'' * ''Dream of the Rood'' * '' Elene'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Northumbria
Northumbria () was an early medieval Heptarchy, kingdom in what is now Northern England and Scottish Lowlands, South Scotland. The name derives from the Old English meaning "the people or province north of the Humber", as opposed to the Southumbria, people south of the Humber, Humber Estuary. What was to become Northumbria started as two kingdoms, Deira in the south and Bernicia in the north. Conflict in the first half of the seventh century ended with the murder of the last king of Deira in 651, and Northumbria was thereafter unified under Bernician kings. At its height, the kingdom extended from the Humber, Peak District and the River Mersey on the south to the Firth of Forth on the north. Northumbria ceased to be an independent kingdom in the mid-tenth century when Deira was conquered by the Danelaw, Danes and formed into the Kingdom of York. The rump Earl of Northumbria, Earldom of Bamburgh maintained control of Bernicia for a period of time; however, the area north of R ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
9th Century In Poetry
Years link to corresponding " earin poetry" articles. Arabic world Works * The Book of One Thousand and One Nights is compiled in Baghdad Poets Births of Arabic world poets * 742 – Ibrahim Al-Mausili (died 804) * c. 805 – Abu Tammam (died 845) * 820 – al-Buhturi (died 897) * 861 – Abdullah ibn al-Mu'tazz (died 908) * 897 – Abu al-Faraj al-Isfahani (died 967) Deaths of Arabic world poets * 809 – Abbas Ibn al-Ahnaf (born 750) (عباس بن الأحنف) * 813 – Abu Nuwas (born 750) * 828 – Abu-l-'Atahiya (born 748) * 837 – Ibn Duraid * 845 – Abu Tammam (born c. 805) * 896 – Ibn al-Rumi * 897 – al-Buhturi (born 820) Turkic world * Possible early date for the oral development of the Book of Dede Korkut Persia Persian poets * Rudaki (رودکی) * Mansur Al-Hallaj (منصور حلاج) * Shahid Balkhi * Firuz Mashreqi * Hanzala Badghisi * Basam Kurd * Wasif Sagzi German ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anglo-Saxon Given Name
Germanic given names are traditionally dithematic; that is, they are formed from two elements ( stems), by joining a prefix and a suffix. For example, King Æþelred's name was derived from ', meaning "noble", and ', meaning "counsel". The individual elements in dithematic names do not necessarily have any semantic relationship to each other and the combination does not usually carry a compound meaning. Dithematic names are found in a variety of Indo-European languages and are thought to derive from formulaic epithets of heroic praise. There are also names dating from an early time which seem to be monothematic, consisting only of a single element. These are sometimes explained as hypocorisms, short forms of originally dithematic names, but in many cases the etymology of the supposed original name cannot be recovered. The oldest known Germanic names date to the Roman Empire period, such as those of ''Arminius'' and his wife '' Thusnelda'' in the 1st century CE, and in greater ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cædmon
Cædmon (; fl. c. 657–684) is the earliest English poet whose name is known. A Northumbrian cowherd who cared for the animals at the double monastery of Streonæshalch (now known as Whitby Abbey) during the abbacy of St. Hilda, he was originally ignorant of "the art of song" but learned to compose one night in the course of a dream, according to the 8th-century Christian historian and saint Bede. He later became a zealous monk and an accomplished and inspirational Christian poet. He is venerated as a saint in the Eastern Orthodox Church, Roman Catholicism and Anglicanism, with a feast day on 11 February. Cædmon is one of twelve Anglo-Saxon poets identified in mediaeval sources, and one of three of these for whom both roughly contemporary biographical information and examples of literary output have survived. His story is related in the ''Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum'' ("Ecclesiastical History of the English People") by Bede, who wrote, " ere was in the Monastery ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wulf
''Wulf'' (Common Germanic "wolf") was one of the most prolific elements in early Germanic names. It could figure as the first element in dithematic names, as in '' Wulfstan'', but especially as second element, in the form ''-ulf, -olf'' as in ''Cynewulf'', '' Rudolph'', '' Ludolf'', ''Adolf'' etc., it was extremely common. Förstemann explains this as originally motivated by the wolf as an animal sacred to Wodanaz, but notes that the large number of names indicates that the element had become a meaningless suffix of male names at an early time (and was therefore not anymore considered a "pagan" element at the time of Christianisation. Some early missionaries among Germanic folk still used it, like bishop Wulfilas however his family had been adopted earlier by the Goths. By the tenth century, there was clearly no "pagan" connotation left with such names, and saints and bishops bore names such as Wulfstan or Wolfgang). Förstemann counts 381 names in ''-ulf, -olf'', among whi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
