Page:The Dream of the Rood - ed. Cook - 1905.djvu/22

Rh of arguments in support of his theory. Some of these, such as the presence of lyric passages in a narrative poem, are applicable to other Old English poems as well, and therefore have lost what cogency they may once have seemed to possess, but the rest are still worthy of attention.

As at least two of these arguments depend upon Cynewulf's statements concerning himself in the rune-passages of the Christ, the Juliana, the Fates of the Apostles, and the Elene, I adduce the relevant parts. The Christ has (789-801): 'Alas! I expect, yea, and fear a sterner doom when the Prince of angels cometh again, since I have ill kept those things which the Saviour bade me in the Scriptures. For this, as I account truth, I shall behold terror, the punishment of sin, when many shall be led into the assembly before the presence of the eternal Judge. Then shall the tremble; he shall hear the King, the Ruler of heaven, speak stern words unto those who in time past ill obeyed Him on earth, while as yet they could easily find comfort for their  and their .'

The Juliana has (695 ff.): ' Greatly do I need that the saint afford me succor when the dearest of all things shall forsake me, when the two consorts shall dissolve their union, when my soul shall leave the body and go on a journey, whither I know not, to an alien abode. C, Y, and N shall depart in sadness. The King will be wroth, the Bestower of victories, when E, W, and U, stained with sins, awaits with trembling what sentence Rh