SOURCE: Stanley B. Greenfield, "The Christian Saint as Hero," in A Critical History of Old English Literature, New York University Press, 1965, pp. 102-17.

In Greenfield claims that the following essay, Cynewulf's "reflective" tone distinguishes him from other Anglo-Saxon poets of the time, such as the author of the Andreas, which depicts the struggles of a spiritual hero.

The relation between the Germanic secular hero and the Anglo-Saxon saint as the latter appears in the Old English Christian epic has for the most part been oversimplified. This Christian epic hero has been viewed as garbed in the borrowed robes, or rather armor, of his Germanic counterpart, as a warrior venturing into battle against spiritual evil and the forces of Satan even as the secular lord and his comitatus engaged the armed forces of predatory enemies. There is, of course, much truth in this picture: as we shall see in...