Cynewulf’s The Fates of the Apostles and Death Liturgy

The Fates of the Apostles is a Christian poem written in Anglo-Saxon England. Its artful runic signature at the end decodes into the name of Cynewulf, its likely auctor. The poet endows the epilogue of The Fates of the Apostles with his own fear of death. The Twelve are praised because of their heroic deeds and they are also invoked to guide the poet to God’s presence. The Apostles become the poet’s comfort in such a challenging time of his mortal existence. The poem can be read as Cynewulf’s final prayer before his transitus into the eternities. If one places The Fates of the Apostles into a funerary-liturgical perspective, it might provide a new and compelling reading of the poem as Cynewulf’s literary commendatio animae and cry of finit before his journey back to God.