"Then was sorely troubled, Sorely wrought the whale-mere. Wallowed there the Horn-fish, Glode the great deep through; and the gray-backed gull Slaughter-greedy wheeled. Dark the storm-sun grew, Waxed the winds up, grinded waves; Stirred the surges, groaned the cordage, Wet with breaking sea."[21] Cynewulf is also the probable author of the _Phoenix_, which is in part an adaptation of an old Latin poem. The _Phoenix_ is the only Saxon poem that gives us the rich scenery of the South, in place of the stern northern landscape. He thus describes the land where this fabulous bird dwells:-- "Calm and fair this glorious field, flashes there the sunny grove; Happy is the holt of trees, never withers fruitage there. Bright are there the blossoms... In that home the hating foe houses not at all, * * * * * Neither sleep nor sadness, nor the sick man's weary bed, Nor the winter-whirling snow... ...but the liquid streamlets, Wonderfully beautiful, from their wells upspringing, Softly lap the land with their lovely floods."[22] GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF ANGLO-SAXON POETRY Martial Spirit.--The love of war is very marked in Anglo-Saxon poetry. This characteristic might have been expected in the songs of a race that had withstood the well-nigh all-conquering arm of the vast Roman Empire. Our study of _Beowulf_ has already shown the intensity of the martial spirit in heathen times. These lines from the _Fight at Finnsburg_, dating from about the same time as _Beowulf_, have only the flash of the sword to lighten their gloom. They introduce the raven, for whom the Saxon felt it his duty to provide food on the battlefield:-- "...hraefen wandrode sweart and sealo-br=un; swurd-l=eoma st=od swylce eal Finns-buruh f=yrenu w=aere." ...the raven wandered Swart and sallow-brown; the sword-flash stood As if all Finnsburg were afire. The love of war is almost as marked in the Christian poetry. There are vivid pictures of battle against the heathen and the enemies of God, as shown by the following selection from one of the poems of the Caedmonian cycle:-- "Helmeted men went from the holy burgh, At the first reddening of dawn, to fight: Loud stormed the din of shields. For that rejoiced the lank wolf in the wood, And the black raven, slaughter-greedy bird."[23] _Judith_, a fragment of a religious poem, is aflame with the spirit of war. One of its lines tells how a bird of prey-- "Sang with its horny beak the song of war." This very line aptly characterizes one of the emphatic qualities of Anglo-Saxon poetry. The poems often describe battle as if it were an enjoyable game. They mention the "Play of the spear" and speak of "putting to sleep with the sword," as if the din of war were in their ears a slumber melody.