The Baptismal Flood in the Old English ‘Andreas’: Liturgical and Typological Depths

Studies of medieval literature have evinced a growing concern with the effect of an exegetical milieu on imaginative writing. Although the Middle English period provides an extensive field for allegorical and typological excursions, Old English poetry forms a smaller corpus and makes less conspicuous use of scriptural and patristic allusions. Readers are, therefore, not always alert to the deftness with which an Anglo-Saxon poet has utilized typology. Poems likeAndreas, however, are as deeply rooted in typological traditions as in the more obvious traditions of the Germanic epic and can be fully appreciated only if their typological echoes are heard.