THE ANGLO-SAXON WORLDVIEW AND CHRISTIANITY IN CYNEWULF’S "JULIANA"

Abstract

The article presents an analysis of the linguistic material of the Old English poem "Juliana" by Cynewulf. It aims at identifying the evolution of the Anglo-Saxon worldview fragment which
is reflected in the poem. The text contains numerous lexical units denoting war, fight, weapon, warriors, as well as the values of the heroic worldview (a blood feud, fighting for glory, distribution of treasure and
gold by the king). At the same time the poem contains lexical units reflecting the Christian worldview.
Particularly noteworthy are the compound names of God which can denote not only Christian ideas, but
represent a fusion of both Anglo-Saxon heroic and Christian ideas. Narrating the story about the Christian
saint the author relies on the values typical for the Anglo-Saxon heroic worldview which means that the
ideals and values of the previous era were gradually included in the new Christian context.