Judgement Day I

This poem, which is part of the Exeter Book Corpus, has often been called inferior to other Judgement Day poems, such as Judgement Day II or Christ III. It is criticised, for example, for its homiletic tone, its lack of significant structure, its repetitiveness or for drawing rather on a general apocalyptic view than direct sources.

Graham D. Caie believes that the poem is worth a closer look because '...it contains many clues as to how the early medieval English poets interpreted and made use of the traditional, eschatological material.

Thomas Hugh Keenan believes that the poem has 'several remarkable features', such as a threefold telling of the same incident with a continually shifting focus.
In short, even though the poem is not one of the greatest of the Anglo-Saxon period, it is still worth considering in the apocalyptic context.

Old English Version

Modern English Version

This poem, which is part of the Exeter Book Corpus, has often been called inferior to other Judgement Day poems, such as Judgement Day II or Christ III. It is criticised, for example, for its homiletic tone, its lack of significant structure, its repetitiveness or for drawing rather on a general apocalyptic view than direct sources.

Graham D. Caie believes that the poem is worth a closer look because '...it contains many clues as to how the early medieval English poets interpreted and made use of the traditional, eschatological material.