The Phoenix (Old English Poem) - Critical Assessment

Critical Assessment

The subject mostly approached by scholars when giving critical assessment on The Phoenix is the absence of pagan names and details. J. E. Cross comments on O. F. Emerson's theory about the poet omitting many of the classical allusions to change the original phoenix myth into a Christian poem. Cross disagrees by saying, "The Old English poet cannot do other than omit the names in transferring the ideas to a different poetic idiom, especially such a clearly didactic poem, which assumes an audience less knowledgeable than the author".

In one incident, the poet stops short in using an offensive statement dealing with the rites of the Egyptian sun cult; although the basics are there. A careful read by a person educated in mythology will be able to recognize most of the altered mythical classics.

Scholars also identify sexuality, or lack thereof, as a central theme in "The Phoenix". Bugge states that “elite Christians, who choose a regimen of the strict sexual purity… emulate the apparent sexlessness of the Phoenix” the depicted in the poem.

The pronouns used in the original Old English were arbitrary, and could have been interpreted to mean him, her, or it, and most translators chose to translate such pronouns as “it.”