The Implied Author in the Old English Poems of the ‘School of Caedmon’ and the ‘School of Cynewulf’
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17072/2073-6681-2024-3-179-186Keywords:
‘school of Caedmon’; ‘school of Cynewulf’; Old English Christian epic; Junius Manuscript; implied author.Abstract
The article deals with the problem of identifying the author’s self-manifestation in Old English poetry. The problem of author and authorship is relevant for medieval literature and for Old English epic as well. The author of the article compares the main cases of the use of first-person narration in Old English poems attributed to Caedmon or the so-called ‘school of Caedmon’ (Genesis, Exodus, Daniel, Christ and Satan) and Cynewulf or the so-called ‘school of Cynewulf’ (Elene, The Fates of the Apostles, Juliana, etc.). As the borders between these ‘schools’ have not yet been distinctly determined, the article attempts at comparing the poems of both groups. The author of the article sheds fresh light on the widely used comparison of the contents of these poems with a detailed analysis of the episodes with first-person narration. The study of these passages shows the use of traditional oral epic reference to the authority of an oral singer (the ‘I heard’ formula) and that of the written sources (‘as the books say’ formula) in the poems attributed to Caedmon. It is concluded that the so-called Caedmonian poems (poems of the ‘school of Caedmon’) do not possess the fully articulated figure of the narrator. Their implied author does not exactly express his own point of view or present his personality, but mainly gives the narrative thread to the characters. The use of the collective ‘we’ in the epilogue of the poem Exodus is viewed as a rhetorical device of a direct appeal to the audience that is highly characteristic of the Caedmonian poems. The epilogues of the poems attributed to Cynewulf (or the ‘school of Cynewulf’) mainly contain first-person reflections and contemplations. The article proposes that the pronounced presence of the author (i.e., an implied author) in them should be viewed as a marker of the ‘school of Cynewulf’.References
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