Semantics and functions of runic signs in the author’s “signatures” of the old English poet Cynewulf

The runic signs that the Old English poet Cynewulf used in order to include his name in the endings of the four alliterative poems (“Elene”, “The Fates of the Apostles”, “Juliana”, “Christ”) are analyzed in connection with the functional orientation and generic specificity of the texts that convey the poet’s lyrical and didactic reflections on the transience of the world, the Last Judgment and his own fate. Runes perform a dual function in these texts: ideographic (replace the words required by content) and phonemic (formed into the name of the poet). However, the use of a function word as a rune name suggests that the connection between the signified and the signifier becomes arbitrary, which leads to a strengthening of the principle of asymmetric dualism of the runic sign, that is, the emergence of homonymy, polysemy and synonymy. This is consistent with both the possibility of one rune appearing in different meanings and the possibility of semantic variation of one concept in different contexts. The runes appear in Cynewulf’s poems not just as sacred signs inherited from pagan cults, whose sound and meaning are predetermined by the tradition of ritual use, but as elements of poetic language, whose functions and semantics are determined by the unfolding of the epic theme. The name Cynewulf, together with its constituent rune names, acts as a “microtext”, as a synopsis of a “gnomic” text, or even a lyrical monologue that reveals one of the axioms of the Christian worldview - a sense of the transience of earthly life. At the same time, the poet’s appeal to the audience and divine powers brings the analyzed fragments closer to the so-called “actual” poetry that can change the situation. The poet’s name, recorded with the runic signs, is a necessary condition for the actualization of his prayer, whose power is also connected with the influence his poetic art could have upon the audience.