Close readings, with special consideration of doctrinal and poetic context, form an increasingly important part of the methodology of this and the final case study. The following chapter examines the theme of the fall of the angels in the accounts of Genesis A, Genesis B, and Christ and Satan and explores how such a theme influences the choice of designations for God. It is primarily based upon the findings of my database of designations for God in Old English poetry. The first study is an analysis of the field of rulership/authority among the designations. The analysis is approached from different perspectives within three case studies. This thesis analyses the usage of these designations. Designations for God in Old English poetry inhabit a position at the meeting point of Christian theological thought and Old English poetic diction. However, the Christian God can be comprehended through his manifestations in this world and thus potentially bears all names. In the case of God, that quality transcends our understanding and the true name therefore cannot be known. A name – for Cynewulf – expresses the quality of that which is named.

Cynewulf knew that for mankind, the name of the Redeemer is inexpressible and unfathomable. This 2006 PhD thesis studies designations for the Christian God as part of Old English poetic diction. To understand blood’s significance in Anglo-Saxon culture, this thesis uses case studies from a range of genres, including poetry, homilies, hagiography, and leechbooks or medicinal texts. Through close critical reading of Old English and Latin texts and analysis of the semantic fields of key words, this thesis explores the symbolism of blood from an Anglo-Saxon perspective and discusses where in Anglo-Saxon literature blood is actually described or articulated rather than where it is assumed or is implied to be.

As the first detailed analysis of the meaning of blood in Anglo-Saxon literature, this thesis fills a critical gap in our knowledge of the early Middle Ages, contributing to the study of the historical semantics of the word ‘blood’ as well as the study of its meanings in religious, medical, and poetic discourses. This thesis explores two critical issues: first, it redresses the lack of research into discourses of blood in Old English literature, and second, it explores whether or not this discourse has the same cultural meanings and symbolization as that of later periods of the Middle Ages.

550-1150), if considered at all in these studies, is thought of as a precursor to the more developed and significant symbolism of blood in the thirteenth to fifteenth centuries, to which it contributes nothing but the underdeveloped seeds of the ideas of later times. 1200-1500), and the mass is argued to be the most important cultural function of blood in medieval times. Much has been written on the feast of Corpus Christi and the worship of the Holy Blood in the later Middle Ages (c. The topic of blood in the later Middle Ages has acquired considerable critical attention over the last twenty years, but this literature consistently glosses over or completely ignores the Anglo-Saxon period.

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