Maxims (Old English Poems) - Maxims II

Stanley Greenfield and Richard Evert, in their article "Maxims II: Gnome and Poem" characterize the poem Maxims II as possessing “a rambling style which covers a great deal of ground, yet never reaches any particular goal”. Some view Maxims II as being similar to how a compilation of poetry is written and edited. For example, Henk Aertsen and Rolf Bremmer, in their Companion to Old English Poetry, state, "lack of unity characterizes these lines". Still other critics disagree. A.P.M. Orchard in Medieval England: an Encyclopedia comments, "It can be argued that each maxim is implicitly linked to its neighbor and that, far from being a haphazard list of commonplaces, Maxims II (like Maxims I) has a coherent organic structure”.

It is widely believed that Maxims II was influenced by the monks who copied it, since it contains gnomes of a religious nature. Maxims II states, "The shape of the future is obscure and unknowable; the Lord alone knows it, the Redeeming Father". Compared with the Old Testament proverb, "Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring forth" (Proverbs 27:1, Old Testament, NIV), one can readily see the influence of Christianity on the poem. When reading Maxims II, the organisation and themes of the poem are not readily visible. For example, Paul Cavill writes that the argument of the apparent disjointedness of the poem is important because the poet pits Christ and Fate against each other, thus illustrating the traditional nature and remains of pagan belief in the poetry. Cavill cites the gnomes in Maxims II, "... the powers of Christ are great, fate is strongest". However, most experts believe that the pagan material in the poems has been thoroughly worked over by their Christian redactors.