This article is about Cynewulf, the Anglo-Saxon poet. See Cynewulf of Wessex for the king of the same name.
Cynewulf, an Anglo-Saxon poet who lived in Northumbria or Mercia, flourished circa 750. Four poems can be definitely ascribed to him on the basis of runic 'signatures' in the text of the poems, making him one of only twelve Anglo-Saxon poets (most almost certainly spurious) named in medieval sources. Unlike Alfred, Bede, or Cædmon, no contemporary biographical information about Cynewulf survives.
The four poems, all Christian narratives, are Elene, Crist, Juliana and The Fates of the Apostles. Other Christian Anglo-Saxon poems have also been attributed to him on the basis of subject matter and stylistic similarities, including Guthlac, Andreas, The Phoenix and even, despite the evidence of an earlier date from the Ruthwell Cross inscription, The Dream of the Rood. These attributions are now largely discounted.
His poem "Crist" contains a reference to a "Middle-earth" and affected the development of J.R.R. Tolkien's legendarium, specifically the Eärendil legend.
