Two original essays and 16 published since 1950 offer a comprehensive view of Cynewulf, his language, and his poetry. The collection contains important new statements on dates, provenance, and canon by R.D. Fulk and Patrick W. Conner, four influential essays that thoroughly explore Cynewulf's runic signature and poetic style, and major contributions to our understanding of the four signed poems of Cynewulf, "Fates of the Apostles, Christ II, Juliana, and Elene." Three essays are devoted to each of these poems, and the essays themselves exemplify a broad range of approaches to this highly elusive Anglo-Saxon poet. Representative essays include J.E. Cross, "Cynewulf's Traditions about the Apostles in The Fates of the Apostles," George Hardin Brown, "The Descent-Ascent Motif in "Christ II" of Cynewulf," Donald G. Bzdyl, "Juliana: Cynewulf's Dispeller of Delusion," Catharine A. Regan, "Evangelicism as the Informing Principle of Cynewulf's "Elene,"" and Dolores Warwick Frese, "The Art of Cynewulf's Runic Signatures." The volume complements existing book-length treatments of the subject and will be welcome to scholars and students who need the foundations of Cynewulf scholarship at their fingertips. Index.

Other than his name, we have no biographical details of Cynewulf, not even where or when he lived. Yet his Old English poems attest to a powerfully inventive imagination, deeply learned in Christian doctrine and traditional verse-craft. He reveals an expert control of structure and a flair for extended similes and dramatic dialogue.