Anglo-Saxon religious poetry/Christian

Old English religious poetry is the direct outcome of the advent of Christianity in Britain. The pagan religion that the Anglo-saxon brought with them from their native land hardly played any influence on the poetry , poetry, extent earlier which was mainly heroic in tone . The introduction of Christianity instilled a note of morality which not only moderated the barbarism of the savage Anglo-Saxons, but also modified its literature greatly. The dominant tone  of heroism gave place to a note of subjugation to God , and the poem became much gentler in tone and temperament stood in direct antithesis to the pagan philosophy of life that upheld the transitory materialistic aspect of life.

The first renowned Christian poet is Caedmon who , as Bede records in his Ecclesiastical History, was transformed into a visionary from a mere peasant by divine intervention . The poems supposed to be written by him are Genesis , Exodus ,Daniel and Christ and Satan. Genesis , which deal with the first twenty two chapters of Old Testament, is divided in to two sections : Genesis A and Genesis B. The first book begins with a description of God and angels in Heaven, Mentions the rebellion of the Angels and their subsequent fall. The second part , which shows a remarkable handling of narrative , records the events from  the fall of Angels to the fall of man. Exodus records the escape of the Israelites through the Red sea and the drowning of the Egyptian army .Daniel, King’s ominous dream . The last one, Christ and Satan deals with the events of Christ’s life.

     Cynewulf , the only poet to head a school after Caedmon and the only Anglo-Saxon poet of sign his work, had four poems- Juliana, Elene, Christ, and The Fates of the Apostle- which are certainly his ,besides some others which are also ascribed to him . Juliana is a story of a woman who suffers inhuman torments in her effort to defend Christianity before she is beheaded .Elene , relates the story of discovery of the true cross by the empress Helena, mother of Constantine the Great. Christ , while narrating the events of Christ’s life , mainly focuses on the Advent the Ascension, and the Last judgement . The Fates of the Apostles a short poem of one hundred and twenty two lines, focuses on the lives of the twelve apostles after they dispersed to spread the Gospel. The piece is notable for its transformation of the heroic into the personal elegiac strain , as evident at the opening :

"  To , weary of wandering , sad in spirit, I made this song , gathered it from far and

Wide , of how the bright and glorious heroes showed forth their courage."

 Of the other poems ascribed to Cynewulf , the most notable is The Dream of the Rood , which is “undoubtedly the finest of all Old English religious poems in its intensity of feeling , brilliance of conception , and certainly of execution”( A History of English Literature, Edward Albert).The poem , probably the oldest surviving dream vision in the language, presents the accounts of a dreamer who saw vision of a bright cross , brilliantly adorned with genre and got inspired by it.

     Cynewulfian works are distinguished by highly intricate use of images .Cynewulf drew themes from Bible as well from the liturgy and from saint’s lives and thus became distanced from the Caedmonian school which relied on Bible as its only source:

   " With Cynewulf , Anglo-Saxon religious poetry moves beyond biblical paraphrase into the didactic, the devotional , and the mystical" .(A Critical History of English Literature , David Daiches)