Cynewulf is one of twelve[citation needed] Anglo-Saxon poets known by name, and one of four whose work survives today.

He presumably flourished in the 9th century, with possible dates extending into the late 8th and early 10th centuries. He is famous for his religious compositions, and is regarded as one of the pre-eminent figures of Christian Old English 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 Caedmon, Caedmon's Hymn, is quite succinct at nine lines.

Works
Following the studies of S.K. Das and Claes Schaar,[year needed] mainstream scholarship tends to limit Cynewulfs canon to the four poems which bear his acrostic mark:[11] the Exeter Book holds Cynewulfs Juliana and Christ II (The Ascension) and the Vercelli Book his Elene and Fates of the Apostles. Early scholars for a long while assigned a plethora of Old English pieces to Cynewulf on the basis that these pieces somewhat resembled the style of his signed poems.[12] It was at one time plausible to believe that Cynewulf was author of the Riddles of the Exeter Book, the Phoenix, the Andreas, and the Guthlac; even famous unassigned poems such as the Dream of the Rood, the Harrowing of Hell, and the Physiologus have at one time been ascribed to him. The four poems, like a substantial portion of Anglo-Saxon poetry, are sculpted in alliterative verse. All four poems draw upon Latin sources such as homilies and hagiographies (the lives of saints) for their content, and this is to be particularly contrasted to other Old English poems, e.g. Genesis, Exodus, and Daniel, which are drawn directly from the Bible as opposed to secondary accounts. In terms of length, Elene is by far the longest poem of Cynewulfs corpus at 1,321 lines. It is followed by Juliana, at 731 lines, Christ II, at 427 lines, and The Fates of the Apostles, at a brisk 122 lines. Three of the poems are martyrolical, in that the central character(s) in each die/suffer for their religious values. In Elene, Saint Helena endures her quest to find the Holy Cross and spread Christianity; in Juliana, the title character dies after she refuses to marry a pagan man, thus retaining her Christian integrity; in Fates of the Apostles, the speaker creates a song that meditates on the deaths of the apostles which they joyously faced.[13] Elene and Juliana fit in the category of poems that depict the lives of saints. These two poems along with Andreas and Guthlac (parts A and B) constitute the only versified saints' legends in the Old English vernacular. The Ascension (Christ II) is outside the umbrella of the other three works, and is a vehement description of a devotional subject.

The exact chronology of the poems is not known. One argument asserts that Elene is likely the last of the poems because the "autobiographical" epilogue implies that Cynewulf is old at the time of composition,[14] but this view has been doubted. Nevertheless, it seems that Christ II and Elene represent the cusp of Cynewulfs career, while Juliana and Fates of the Apostles seem to be created by a less inspired, and perhaps less mature, poet.[15]

Justification as a Poet
Cynewulfs justification as a poet stems from the idea that "poetry" was "associated with wisdom." [18] In his Christ II, Cynewulf writes the following:

Then he who created this worldhonoured us and gave us giftsand also sowed and set in the mind of men many kinds of wisdom of heart. One he allows to remember wise poems, sends him a noble understanding, through the spirit of his mouth. The man whose mind has been given the art of wisdom can say and sing all kinds of things.

By looking at Cynewulfs autobiographical reflection in the epilogue of Elene, it is evident that he believes his own skill in poetry comes directly from God, who "unlocked the art of poesy" within him.[19]

Cynewulf and Tolkien

Further information: Earendel Cynewulf's poem Christ II, and also Elene, use the Old English word for the known world, middangeard (translated as "Middle-earth") and was a source used by J.R.R. Tolkien for his legendarium, specifically the Erendil legend.

Eala Earendel engla beorhtast Ofer middangeard monnum sended Hail Earendel brightest of angels Above Middle-earth sent unto men

Tolkien wrote "There was something very remote and strange and beautiful behind those words, if I could grasp it, far beyond ancient English."[