Cynewulf

[4] Although the Vercelli and Exeter manuscripts were primarily late West Saxon in their scribal translations, it is most probable that Cynewulf wrote in the Anglian dialect and it follows that he resided either in the province of Northumbria or Mercia.

Other than that, no certain date can be put on the author, leaving open the full range of Old English literature between the 7th and the early 10th centuries.

Any attempt to link the man with a documented historical figure has met failure or resulted in an improbable connection.

[clarification needed] However, the presence of early West Saxon forms in both manuscripts means that it is possible an Alfredian scribe initially translated Cynewulf's verse, placing him no later than the turn of the tenth century.

[8] Moreover, it has been argued that the "cult of the cross", which can find ground in Cynewulf's Elene, achieved its cultural apex in the eighth century.

[10] Given the subject matter of his poetry he was likely a man in holy orders, and the deep Christian knowledge conveyed through his verse implies that he was well learned in ecclesiastical and hagiographical literature, as well as the dogma and doctrine of the Catholic Church.

[14] In his Christ II, Cynewulf wrote: Then he who created this world ... honoured us and gave us gifts ... and also sowed and set in the mind of men many kinds of wisdom of heart.

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".

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,[21] but this view has been doubted.

Nevertheless, it seems that Christ II and Elene represent the cusp of Cynewulf's career, while Juliana and Fates of the Apostles seem to be created by a less inspired, and perhaps less mature, poet.

In Juliana and Elene, the interwoven name is spelled in the more recognizable form as Cynewulf, while in Fates and Christ II it is observed without the medial e so the runic acrostic says Cynwulf.

And this is written in Runic letters.The practice of claiming authorship over one's poems was a break from the tradition of the anonymous poet, where no composition was viewed as being owned by its creator.