The Phoenix (Old English poem)

The Phoenix is an anonymous Old English poem. It is composed of 677 lines and is for the most part a translation and adaptation of the Latin poem De Ave Phoenice attributed to Lactantius.

The composition of The Phoenix dates from the ninth century. Although the text is complete, it has been edited and translated many times. It is a part of the Exeter Book contained within "folios 55b-65b", and is a story based on three main sources: Carmen de ave phoenice by Lactantius (4thCentury), the Bible, and Hexaemeron by Ambrose. The first part of the poem is based solely on Lactantius' piece; the second part of the poem is based on scripture, mostly from Job, especially 29:18 (with references from the New Testament, Revelation, and Genesis), and Ambrose's piece. The story of the Phoenix resembles the resurrection of Christ. The first 380 lines paraphrase the Latin version De Carmen de ave phoenice with many of the pagan elements removed from the original Phoenix story. The last 297 lines are an allegorical application of Christiantiy, and applied to the story of the phoenix. Within the last eleven lines, the poem concludes by combining Old English and Latin. Some possibilities have been suggested, including a passage from the Hexaemeron of Saint Ambrose, and a commentary on the book of Job that had once been attributed to Bede, but has been determined “most certainly” to not have been authored by him. To put the piece in context, in terms of contemporary scholarship, Heffernan labels the time period in which The Phoenix was written, generally “homiletic,” which means the literature during that period was generally written in the style of a sermon. As mentioned previously, the authorship of The Phoenix is up for debate, but may have been the work of Cynewulf, as there are verbal and stylistic similarities between his literary works and The Phoenix.

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