65b–76a), is one of the four signed Old English poems ascribed to the mysterious poet, Cynewulf, and is an account of the martyring of St. Juliana of Nicomedia.
[1] Cynewulf's "Juliana" is presented entirely in Old English alliterative verse and is transmitted in a late West-Saxon dialect.
Africanus, upon hearing of this, becomes similarly outraged, believing his daughter has embarrassed him by refusing the hand of a man of much higher status.
Eleusias proceeds to have Juliana stripped naked, hung from a tree by her hair, whipped, and beaten with rods for over two hours.
She holds the demon and forces it to confess all of its wicked deeds several times over, ostensibly humiliating him forever in the kingdom of Hell.
The entire story as told by Cynewulf deviates little from the Latin source he likely used, with the same “progress of action” and “phraseology” observed in both texts.
[5] In the Acta Sanctorum, Eleusius is presented as an “easy-going man,” willing to accept Christianity just as long as he is not baptized: a practice that would compromise his position as a powerful senator.
[8] Although this is a recurring theme in both Latin and Old English literature, the military language does not appear in the Latin counterparts, such as the Acta Sanctorum, and so it is believed that Cynewulf probably wove it in for two possible reasons: the first being to make Juliana easier to relate to; the second, to create the metaphor that Juliana's spirit was a sort of impenetrable fortress, impervious to the attacks of Satan and his demonic henchmen.
[11] As in his Elene, the Old English tradition of placing the characters and events of the story in a heroic setting is upheld; Juliana is celebrated as a martyr who defeats the advances of the devil.
For instance, through Bede's writings we hear of such women providing the stimulus for political and religious developments in Britain.