a. CYNEWULF
SELECTIONS FROM THE CHRIST
[Critical edition: Cook, The Christ of Cynewulf, Boston, 1900. Text and translation: Gollancz, Cynewulf’s Christ, London, 1892. Translation: Kennedy, The Poems of Cynewulf, pp. 153, ff. The poem consists of three parts:
1. Advent, largely from the Roman breviary. 2. Ascension, taken from an Ascension sermon of Pope Gregory. 3. Second coming of Christ, taken from an alphabetical Latin hymn on the Last Judgment, quoted by Bede.
Is there enough unity to make us consider it one work? Cook thinks we can. The differences in the language and meter are not so striking as to make it unlikely. The great objection to it is that the runes occur at the end of the second part, which is not far from the middle of the entire poem. In the three other poems signed by Cynewulf the runes occur near the end.]
1. Hymn to Christ
. . . . . . . . . . . to the King.
Thou art the wall-stone that the workmen of old
Rejected from the work. Well it befits thee
To become the head of the kingly hall,