Cynewulf

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Cynewulf was a Christian religious poet who probably lived in the English kingdom of Northumbria or Mercia in the early 9th century . Although nothing is known otherwise as good about him, he can because of its runes - signature attributed to four Old English religious poems. Among other things, he wrote a biography of Saint Guthlac in verse.

Works

One of these poems, the Christian , takes up the Advent O-antiphons in Sections 1 to 6 as well as 8 and 9 VIII . While the invocations "O Sapientia", "O Adonai" and "O Radix Jesse" are missing in Christ , the remaining of the original twelve invocations have been preserved. For the English writer JRR Tolkien at the beginning of the 20th century, two lines from the 4th section of Christ became the trigger for the development of his mythology of Middle-earth .

The poems in modern English translation by Charles W. Kennedy on the pages of the University of York in Toronto, Canada:

  • Christian. ( online , PDF file; 111 kB)
  • Juliana. ( online , PDF file; 74 kB)
  • The Fates of the Apostles. ( online , PDF file; 48 kB)
  • Elene. ( online , PDF file; 100 kB)

literature

  • Michael Hageböck,  To the Cynewulf reception at Tolkien - Does Middle-earth found in the O-Antiphon of the winter solstice? , in: Quarber Merkur 116, Verlag Lindenstruth 2015,  ISBN 978-3-934273-95-5

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Cynewulf
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Christian religious poet
DATE OF BIRTH 9th century
PLACE OF BIRTH English Kingdom of Northumbria or Mercia
DATE OF DEATH 9th century
Place of death English Kingdom of Northumbria or Mercia