Exodus is an exceptional Old English poem, written at a time when in the age of Bede Northern England held the intellectual leadership of Europe. It offers a vernacular gateway to the study of early medieval christian poetry. Focussing in dramatic fashion on the crossing of the Red Sea enabling the Israelites to escape captivity in Egypt the poem is stylistically outstanding, showing a use of metaphor and fusion of disparate concepts (such as abstract and concrete, literal and allegorical) unparalleled in Old English poetry. The exodus, the greatest of Old Testament events, is interpreted...