In the rune passage of Christ the same method is followed. After reflections upon the necessity of repentance, in which Cynewulf, using the pronoun ic. turns directly to his reader, de, a description of the terrors of the Judgment is introduced in the rune lines (vv. 797-814). This description concluded, the poet resumes, with Forpon ic leofra gehwone laeran wille (v. 815), the exhortations which preceded the rune lines. As to the rune passage itself, Cook is undoubtedly right: "According to the most natural rendering, Cynewulf's references to himself would end with 796, and the rune passage would refer to people in general"). Trautmann, it is true, finds in vv. 805b-807a a reference to the poet's life as bishop of Lindisfarne2), but he is obliged to drag in the personal allusion by main force. Reading the U-rune as Unne, he translates it, »mein besitz<; but >mein‹ is just what Cynewulf omits to say. And Binz 3) objects very properly to Trautmann's interpretation of this line that it abruptly introduces an autobiographical reference, in eine durchaus allgemein gehaltene betrachtung und schilderung«.

We come now to the third rune passage the one in the Epilogue of the Fates of the Apostles. In this Epilogue also, it will be seen, Cynewulf follows essentially the method which he employed in the poems already considered. begins with a direct appeal to his reader:

Nu ic ponne bidde beorn, se đe lufige

þysses giddes begang, þaet he geomrum me
þone halgan heap helpe bidde,

frides ond fultomes +).

He

The poet then proceeds, as in Juliana, to speak of the need which he shall have of friends when death overtakes him (vv. 91b-95). At this point the rune sentences are introduced. The runes finished, Cynewulf turns again to his reader: Now you may know who it is that has written these verses. If the poem please you, remember to pray for me (cf. Juliana, vv. 718b-722). Then the strain of vv. 91-95 is again taken

1) Cook's Christ, p. 163.

2) Kynewulf, pp. 60-61.

3) Engl. Stud., 26 (1899), p. 392.

4) vv. 88-91 a. In references to the Fates, I follow the line-numbering in Krapp's ed., Andreas and the Fates of the Apostles, Boston 1906.

up'): I must go far hence; I know not whither; so must it be with every man. The poem then closes with an earnest exhortation. The setting of the rune lines in this poem is thus strikingly similar to that in Juliana and Christ.

The rune sentences themselves in the Fates of the Apostles are of particular importance for the understanding of the runic passage in Elene on account of the special resemblances which they present. In the first place, in the rune lines of the Fates, we find, instead of a Judgment description as in Juliana and Christ, a treatment of the very theme which forms the subject of the Elene runes the transitoriness of the things of this world. Moreover, in these two passages one may even note here and there parallel phrases. Thus:

1) The repetition in vv. 107-114 of the same strain which is found in vv. 87-94 has given trouble to some scholars. Sievers (Anglia, XIII, 21-25) finds in this fact reason for suspecting that the whole of fol. 54a (i. e. from v. 96 to the end of the poem) has no connection with the Fates, but is instead the Epilogue of some other poem torn from its proper place. Skeat (An English Miscellany, 1901, pp. 418-20) likewise refuses to believe that Cynewulf would repeat himself in this fashion, though, against Sievers, he argues that there is no reason for detaching fol. 54a from the Fates. To explain the "double ending" he brings forward an ingenious theory, suggested probably by the double prologue of the Legend of Good Women. Cynewulf, he thinks, composed two endings to this poem Epilogue A (vv. 107—22) and Epilogue B (vv. 88—106). "The author's first intention was to end with Epilogue A. But he afterwards determined to compose an epilogue containing runes, so as to give a clue to his name. Consequently he composed Epilogue B in its stead, and placed it in its right position at the end of the poem. But by some chance the scribe had access to a copy of the original Epilogue A and . . . tacked it on to the end of the poem". Nevertheless, I am disposed to agree with Krapp (Andreas and Fates, p. XLV) that "neither Skeat's nor Sievers' hypothesis seems very convincing". Nor do I feel that we need to have recourse to any such hypotheses to explain the present form of the poem. That this repetition of thought constitutes an artistic defect may be conceded though it does not impress me as so serious a blemish as Sievers considers it. But, artistic or not, this return at the end of the rune passage to the line of thought which was interrupted by its introduction is exactly what we have had occasion to note in both Juliana and Christ, though in neither of these, perhaps, is the repetition so marked as in the Fates. The epilogue of the Fates, then, as it stands, agrees with the method which Cynewulf pursues elewbere. Indeed, one might even find in the occurrence of this repetition in vv. 107-113 evidence that the lines which follow v. are not to be detached from the Fates, as Sievers suspects.

96

Dass der dichter seinen stoff mündlich überliefert erhielt, wie wir es für Kädmon voraussetzen müssen, erhellt aus solchen wendungen, wie :

V. 939 hwat, wẽ nū gehyrad

V. 2060 þā ic nēđau gefrægn under nihtscuwan hæleđ tō hilde (vgl. v. 1960, 2242),

Der dichter scheint vom stil der volkstümlichen epischen heldendichtung gelegentlich beeinflusst zu sein; daraus folgt aber noch nicht, dass er selbst etwa fahrender sänger gewesen. Die manier eines skop tritt viel weniger hervor, als zb. in der Exodus, im Andreas, in den sicheren und wahrscheinlichen dichtungen Kynewulf's; die darstellung ist im ganzen zu schlicht und zu frei von den typischen ausdrücken und kenningar der heldendichtung.

Diejenigen stellen der Genesis-dichtung, welche am meisten an den stil des heldenepos erinnern, besonders v. 1960-2095, können übrigens sehr wohl durch schilderungen zeitgenössischer kriegserlebnisse beeinflusst sein.

Schon Hönncher bemerkte (Anglia VIII, 72) mit recht: >>Höchst interessant ist an diesen kampfschilderungen... ein zug: dass der dichter an den verschiedensten stellen, und zwar durchgeführt, den kampf als einen streit der nord- und südmänner darstellt. . . . Hierin aber haben wir nichts andres zu sehen als reminiszensen des dichters an die politischen zustände seiner heimat. In der tat brauchen wir uns nur an die kämpfe zwischen Northumbriern und Merciern zu Kädmon's lebzeiten zu erinnern, um zu erkennen, woher der dichter die anschaulichkeit und lebendigkeit dieser kriegsszenen gewonnen. Vielleicht hat der dichter, wenn, wie anzunehmen, dieser abschnitt um 685-690 verfasst ist, auch der verhängnisvollen niederlage gedacht, durch welche könig Ecgfrith von Northumbrien i. j. 685 bei Nectansmere von den Pikten seines reiches und lebens beraubt wurde. Nur ein einziger mann soll entkommen sein und den untergang des northumbrischen heeres berichtet haben 1).

1) Vgl. Gen. v. 2018 Him þă secg hrađe gewāt sīđian

än gåra läf, se da güde genæs,
Abraham sẽcan: sé þæt orlegweorc
pam Ebriscan eorle gecydde,
forslegen swide Sodoma folc.

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) 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.