Kynewulf, Cynewulf (Cynwulf)

(circa 750)

   An Anglo-Saxon poet who flourished in the eighth century and was active around 750. Further, it is thought he might be Kenulphus, abbot of Peterborough in 992 and bishop of Winchester in 1006. He appears to have been a professional minstrel, who wrote in Northumbrian dialect. In his poem "Elene" he relates that in his youth he enjoyed hunting, the bow, and the horse, was known in festive halls, and was rewarded for his song with golden gifts. As he became an old man he studied many books, and the mystery of the cross, over which he had often pondered, became clear to him. His four main works: Elene, a poem of 1,321 lines; The Fates of the Apostles, 122 lines; Christ II, a lyrical version of a homily on the Ascension written by Pope Gregory I the Great (?540-604); and Juliana, 731 lines, a retelling of a Latin prose life of St. Juliana. Some of his other poems: "A Dream of the Rood," "Guthlac," "Riddles," "The Nature of the Siren," "The Phoenix."

   Sources: A Sacrifice of Praise: An Anthology of Christian Poetry in English from Caedmon to the Mid-Twentieth Century. James H. Trott, ed. Cumberland House Publishing, 1999. An Antholog y of Catholic Poets. Shane Leslie, ed. Macmillan, 1952. An Antholog y of Old English Poetry. Charles W. Kennedy, ed. Oxford University Press, 1960. Dictionary of National Biography. Electronic Edition 1.1. Oxford University Press, 1997. Encyclopædia Britannica Ultimate Reference Suite DVD, 2006. Great Books Online (www.bartleby.com). The Anglo-Saxon World: An Anthology. Kevin Crossley-Holland, ed. Oxford University Press, 1982. The Columbia Granger's Index to Poetry. 11th ed. The Columbia Granger's World of Poetry, Columbia University Press, 2005 (http://www.columbiagrangers.org). World Poetry: An Antholog y of Verse from Antiquity to Our Time. Katharine Washburn and John S. Major, ed. Publisher, 1338, 1998.