Legends of the Saxon Saints

Legends of the Saxon Saints is a collection of poems about Anglo-Saxon saints written by Aubrey de Vere for the Venerable Bede. Excerpt: «Many years ago a friend remarked to me on the strangeness of the circumstance that the greatest event in the history of a nation, its conversion to Christianity, largely as it is often recorded in national legends, has never been selected as a theme for poetry. That event may indeed not supply the materials necessary for an Epic or a Drama, yet it can hardly fail to abound in details significant and pathetic, which especially invite poetic illustration. With the primary interest of that great crisis, many others, philosophical, social, and political, generally connect themselves.»