The Phoenix and the Rebirth of Old English Verse

Journal article

Patterns of shared diction link several of the longer poems that open the Exeter Book. This paper suggests that The Phoenix, long associated with the signed poems of Cynewulf, also has important links with the Guthlac-poems that appear before The Phoenix in the same manuscript. In particular, the second part of The Phoenix, when it departs from its primary Latin poetic source, seems mainly to rely on echoes from Guthlac B, while the first part of the poem, drawn primarily from Latin verse, supplements that material with shared phrasing mainly from Guthlac A, and, in its opening lines, also from Guthlac B. The association of Guthlac with Christ on the one hand and The Phoenix on the other has implications for other poems in the Exeter Book, not least Cynewulf’s Juliana and The Wanderer, both of which immediately follow The Phoenix in that manuscript.

Authors: Orchard, A

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Universidad de Oviedo
• Journal: Selim
• Volume: 31
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 33-61
• Publication date: 2026-07-16
• DOI: 10.17811/selim.31.2026.33-61
• EISSN: 2792-3878
• ISSN: 1132-631X
• Language: English
• Keywords: Poetry; Phoenix; Diction; Reading (process); Old English