Wahrscheinlich wurde bald danach von diesem verhängnisvollen kampfe gesagt und gesungen und so mag auch der geistliche dichter für die schilderung alttestamentarischer kämpfe düstere, aus der unmittelbaren gegenwart entnommene farben gewonnen haben.

Endlich möchte ich noch auf einen umstand aufmerksam machen. Der dichter der Genesis schildert oder erwähnt mit besonderer vorliebe (abweichend von seiner quelle) die lichtwirkung, welche der sonnenaufgang oder der gestirnte nachthimmel durch den widerschein auf den meeresfluten hervorbringt (Gen. 117 ff., 2190, 2875). Der schluss liegt nahe, dass ihm ein derartiges naturschauspiel besonders vertraut war, also dass er an der ostküste Englands lebte. Auch das trifft auf den dichter von Strconeshealh zu.

Aus allem geht mit grosser wahrscheinlichkeit die schlussfolgerung hervor, dass die ältere Genesis, welche um die zeit Kädmon's in Northumbrien gedichtet sein muss, welche ganz dem charakter, der bildung, lebensanschauung Kädmon's entspricht, wirklich, wie Beda berichtet, im wesentlichen von Kädmon selbst herrührt, wenngleich sie sicher nicht von diesem dichter niedergeschrieben wurde und möglicherweise bei späteren abschriften noch umgestaltungen und interpolationen erfuhr.

Breslau,

Gregor Sarrazin.

THE AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL ELEMENT IN THE CYNEWULFIAN RUNE PASSAGES.

Holthausen, in his recent edition of Elene), summing up what is known concerning the life of Cynewulf, states it as an established fact, dass er in seiner jugend ein gefeierter, fahrender sänger war und im alter fromm geworden, geistliche dichtungen verfasste. In this statement Holthausen is repeating a tradition which was started just half a century ago by Leo in his memorable essay, Quae de se ipso Cynewulfus tradiderit. Since the publication of Leo's monograph the legend of Cyne. wulf's early life as a minstrel has found a recognized place in the literary histories, and until recent years has been accepted without question by scholars generally. Of late, however, this minstrel tradition has not fared so well. In 1898 it was vehemently attacked by Trautmann 2), and since then it has been dismissed as untenable by Cook 3) in 1900, and by Strunk 4) in 1904.

The authority for the view that Cynewulf at one time followed the life of the wandering minstrel is, of course, the well-known passage in the epilogue of Elene, where the poet — supposedly alluding to himself— mentions the receiving of appled gold in the mead-hall 5). It is by no means certain, however, that Cynewulf is here referring specifically to minstrel rewards. As Trautmann remarks, »ringe und gold teilte der altgermanische fürst allen die ihm dienten, sei es mit rat, sei es mit dem schwerte, sei es als gaugrafen oder boten oder

1) Cynewulf's Elene, Ed. F. Holthausen, Heidelberg 1905, p. XII.

2) Kynewulf, der bischof und dichter, pp. 92 ff.

3) The Christ of Cynewulf, p. LXXXIII.

4) Juliana, Ed. Wm. Strunk, Boston 1904, p. XIII.

5) Elene, vv. 1259-60.

sänger 1). On what ground, then, can it be assumed that we have to do here with a minstrel? Indeed, Trautmann might well have added, in the only other passage in which Cynewulf mentions the giving of appled gold the phrase is used with reference to warriors, not gleemen. Of the thirty-four thanes of Eleusius, whose souls had been borne to hell, he says: Let them not think:

paet hy in winsele

ofer beorse[t]le beagas pegon,
aepplede gold 2).

It would be reasonable, surely, to suppose that the very similar phrases in Elene are used in the same sense, and consequently that here also the warrior rather than the minstrel was in the poet's mind.

But this is not all. To suppose that Cynewulf practised minstrelsy before his conversion seems in direct contradiction. to the poet's own statement a few lines earlier in the Elene epilogue. For Cynewulf, no less than Caedmon, regarded the poetic gift which he enjoyed as a matter of divine inspiration. This he affirms explicitly:

gife unseoce

maegencyning amaet ond on gemynd begaet,
torht ontynde, tidum gerymde,

bancofan onband, breostlocan onwand,

leoducraeft onleac, paes ic lustum breac
willum in wor[u]lde 3).

Ten Brink) supposes that by leoducraeft onleac the poet refers merely to »eine neue, in den augen des redenden einzig richtige und würdige tätigkeit«. But this explanation evidently proceeds from a desire to harmonize Cynewulf's statement with the accepted theory that he had been a minstrel. Taken as they stand, these words seem to refer clearly enough to the origin of his poetic activity, not to its renewal after his conversion. I cannot think that Cynewulf would have expressed himself thus if after his conversion he had merely turned his poetic talents fram wordly to Christian themes.

1) Kynewulf, p. 92.

2) Juliana, vv. 686-88.

3) Elene, vv. 1247-52.

4) Ztschr. für d. Alt., XXIII, 1879, Anzeiger, p. 64.

Furthermore, an examination of the context in which this reference to the gifts of the mead-hall stands raises a still more important question: What ground have we for assuming that in the rune passage the poet is referring to himself at all? With the beginning of the rune lines, it will be noted, Cynewulf turns abruptly from the first person, which he has used uninterruptedly from the beginning of the Epilogue; nor does he speak again in the first person during the remainder of the poem. Nevertheless, from the discovery of the Elene runes by Kemble 1) to the present time, scholars have taken it for granted that in the rune passage Cynewulf continues to speak of himself. Even those who do not hold to the minstrel theory draw from the poet's statements in these sentences a large portion of the material for their sketches of Cynewulf's life 2). It is my purpose in the following pages to re-examine these lines in Elene (vv. 1257-77) in order to ascertain what ground there may be for making them bear an autobiographical interpretation.

I.

Inasmuch as the problem of the rune lines in Elene is closely related to that presented by the other Cynewulfian rune passages, we shall find it useful to glance first at the method which the poet employs in weaving his signature into Juliana, Christ, and the Fates of the Apostles.

In these poems, as in Elene, the rune-bearing lines immediately follow passages in which Cynewulf gives utterance to his own reflections, speaking directly in the first person. Also, in each of these three poems, though not in Elene, the poet, at the end of the lines in which the runes are embedded, resumes his use of the first person. But how is it with the rune lines themselves? Does Cynewulf introduce into them any references to personal experience?

We turn first to Juliana. Having finished the story of St. Juliana, the poet begins his Epilogue with the statement that he shall stand in great need of the assistance of this saint when the hour comes in which his soul must quit the body.

1) "On Anglo-Saxon Runes", 1840, Archaeologia, XXVIII, p. 360. 2) Trautmann, Kvnewulf, p. 100; Cook, Christ, p. lxxxiii; Strunk, Juliana, p. xii.

This leads naturally to the description of the Last Judgment, which follows in the rune sentences. The runes in this poem, instead of being woven into the verse, are introduced in blocks a comparatively simple but clumsy method of signing his name, which in his other poems Cynewulf abandoned. As a result, the rune passage in Fuliana is much briefer than the others. But, though extremely condensed, the Judgment description in vv. 703b-709a is quite similar in character to the longer one in Christ. As to the runes themselves, Trautmann's reading of the first two groups — CYN= »das geschlecht«, EWU = »die schafe« 1) - is thoroughly satisfactory. I am not so sure, however, that we are to take LF as lic-faet. The L-Rune in the other poems is clearly to be read lagu the meaning given to it also in the Runic Poem. Moreover, in the Christ runes the L-Rune is found compounded with flodum. I should prefer, therefore, to read LF, laguflod. The verb beofian is frequently used in describing the agitation of the elements at the day of doom 2). And laguflod beofat, seomad sorgcearig might easily have been suggested by Ps. 77: 16: Viderunt te aquae Deus, viderunt te aquae: et timuerunt, et turbatae sunt abyssi3). In view of the fact that with the following sar eal gemon the construction suddenly changes to the first person, it would seem more natural after sorgcearig to place a period than the comma usually printed by the editors 4). With sar eal gemon the poet again takes up the reflections upon his own sinfulness and his need of help at the day of Judgment, in which he indulged from v. 695b to 703a, and continues in this strain to the end of the poem. In striking contrast, however, to the personal tone of these reflections, stands the rune section itself (vv. 703b-709a). In these lines we have merely a Judgment picture, in which the personal element is wholly lacking.

1) Kynewulf, p. 49. This solution has been accepted by Strunk, Juliana, p. 60.

2) Cf. middangeard b., Chri. 827, 881; eorđe b., Chri. 1144; wongas b., Last Judg. 112 (Grein-Wülk. III, 174).

3) Cf. also Ps. 45, 4: Sonuerunt et turbatae sunt aquae eorum: conturbati sunt montes in fortitudinis ejus; and Ambrose, Enarratio in Ps. XLV, Migne, Vol. XIV, col. 1193.

4) It is punctuated with a comma in Grein-Wülker's Bibliothek, and by Strunk, and Holthausen (Elene, p. 52).