The Edgar Panegyrics in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle

The Edgar poems and the poetics of failure in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle

“…13 Mercedes Salvador-Bello in turn has argued that the two poems should 'be read as interrelated eulogistic pieces' which were 'created to propagandize reformist ideas'. 14 Salvador-Bello situates the Edgar poems within the cultural milieu of the Benedictine reform, locating a number of topoi which the poems share with other texts associated with monastic reform. Carroll and Salvador-Bello both read the Edgar poems as twin texts which share a common perspective and purpose within the Chronicle.…”

“…93 The problems begin with the departure of Bishop Cyneweard from England: ' 7 90 For the succession dispute, see S. Keynes him tirfaest haeleþ .x. nihtum aer / of Brytene gewat, bisceop se goda, / þurh gecyndne craeft, þam waes Cyneweard nama' (13)(14)(15). 94 Cyneweard was made abbot at Milton Abbas after the expulsion of clerks from the Old and New Minsters and later appointed bishop at Wells, 95 and Salvador-Bello suggests that he thus provides 'a representative victim of the anti-monastic revolt' after Edgar's death.…”