List of medieval Catholic epic poems til 1,100 a.d.

August 16, 2026

300s

The Crowns of Martyrdom	Prudentius	~3,700 lines
Psychomachia	Prudentius	~1,000 lines
The Paraphrased Heptateuch	Cyprianus Gallus	~5,500 lines
The Metrical Jonah	Anonymous	~100 lines survive (the original probably covered the entire book)
The Homeric Centos	Empress Eudocia	~2,400 lines
The Martyrdom of St. Cyprian of Antioch	Empress Eudocia	~800 lines survive (the original was probably ~1,800 lines)
Joseph the Beautiful	Pseudo Ephrem	~800 lines
The Song of Easter	Sedulius	~1,700 lines
The Tragedy of Orestes	Dracontius	~1,000 lines
The Abduction of Helen	Dracontius	~700 lines
Medea	Dracontius	~600 lines
The Praise of God	Dracontius	~2,300 lines
The Praise or Emperor Avitus	Sidonius	~600 lines
The Praise of Emperor Majorian	Sidonius	~600 lines
The Praise of Emperor Anthemius	Sidonius	~500 lines
The Praise of Emperor Consentius	Sidonius	~500 lines
The Metabole	Nonnus of Panopolis	~3,600 lines
The Dionysiaca	Nonnus of Panopolis	~21,000 lines
The Alethia	Claudius Victor	~2,000 lines
The Natalicia	St. Paulinus of Nola	~5,100 lines
The Metrical Life of St. Martin	Paulinus of Perigueux	~3,600 lines

The Abduction of Helen [separate from the one by Dracontius]	Collothus of Lycopolis	~400 lines
The Paraphrased Acts	Arator	~2,300 lines
Spiritual History	St. Avitus of Vienne	~2,600 lines
The Metrical Life of St. Martin [separate from the one by Paulinus, and more popular]	Venantius Fortunatus	~2,200 lines
Hero and Leander	Musaeus Grammaticus	~300 lines
Joseph the Beautiful (latin version)	Anonymous	~800 lines
The Hymns of the Resurrection	Romanos the Melodist	~1,900 lines
The Johannis	Flavius Corippus	~4,700 lines

The Heraclian Trilogy	George of Pisidia	~2,200 lines
The Hexaemeron	George of Pisidia	~1,800 lines
The Hexaemeron (this was mostly an adaptation of book 1 of Dracontius’s poem The Praise of God, with revisions and expansions)	Eugenius II of Toledo	~600 lines
Beowulf	Anonymous	~3,200 lines
In Praise of the Virgins	St. Aldhelm	~2,900 lines

The Metrical Life of St. Cuthbert	St. Bede the Venerable	~1,000 lines
St. Guthlac A	Anonymous	~800 lines
St. Guthlac B	Anonymous	~500 lines
The Fathers of York	Bl. Alcuin of York	~1,700 lines
The Metrical Life of St. Willibrord	Bl. Alcuin of York	~500 lines
The Great Canon of Repentance	St. Andrew of Crete	~1,400 lines
Verses on Jacob and Joseph	Paulinus II of Aquileia	~400 lines
The Old English Genesis A	Anonymous	~2,300 lines survive (the original was probably ~6,000 lines)
The Old English Exodus	Anonymous	~600 lines survive (the original was probably ~800 lines)

The Martyrology of Oengus	St. Oengus of Tallaght	~2,400 lines
The Old English Daniel	Anonymous	~800 lines
The Old Saxon Genesis	Anonymous	~300 lines survive (the original was probably ~5,500 lines)
St. Elene	Cynewulf	~1,300 lines
St. Juliana	Cynewulf	~700 lines
The Exeter Christ Book	Cynewulf and others	~1,700 lines
The Arabic Psalter	Hafs ibn Albar al Quti	~5,500 lines
The Heliand	Anonymous	~6,000 lines
The Gospel Book	St. Otfrid	~7,100 lines
Walter of Acquitaine	Gerald of Bavaria	~1,500 lines
The Life of St. Germain	Heiric of Auxerre	~3,500 lines
Metrical Passion of St. Denis	Hilduin of St. Denis	~2,000 lines
The Vision of Wetti	Walafrid Strabo	~900 lines
Life of St. Amandus	Milo of Saint-Amand	~1,800 lines
The Paderborn Epic	St. Angilbert (probably)	~500 lines survive (the original was probably ~2,500 lines)
Wars of the City of Paris	Abbo Cernuus	~1,300 lines
The Deeds of Charlemagne	Poeta Saxo	~2,700 lines
The Praise of Louis the Pious	Ermold the Black	~2,600 lines
The Metrical Life of Abbot Eigil of Fulda	Candidus of Fulda	~1,800 lines

Digenes Akritas	Anonymous	~1,900 lines
The Old English Genesis B	Anonymous	~600 lines survive (the original was probably ~5,500 lines – it was a translation of the Old Saxon Genesis)
The Triumphs of Christ	Flodoard of Rheims	~20,000 lines
The Old English Judith	Anonymous	~350 lines survive (the original was probably ~1,200 lines)
The Life of St. Pantaleon	John Geometres	~1,000 lines
Maria	Roswitha of Gandersheim	~1,000 lines
The Deeds of Otto	Roswitha of Gandersheim	~800 lines (the original was ~1,500 lines)
The Martyrdom of St. Pelagius	Roswitha of Gandersheim	~400 lines
The Capture of Crete	Theodosios the Deacon	~1,000 lines
The Psalter of Quatrains	Airbertach mac Cosse	~8,400 lines

The Ruodlieb	Anonymous	~2,300 lines survive (the original was probably ~4,000 lines)
The Ecbasis Captivi [The Escape of a Captive]	Anonymous	~1,200 lines
The Passion of the Theban Saints	Sigebert of Gembloux	~2,900 lines
The Metrical Life of St. Lucy	Sigebert of Gembloux	~1,400 lines
Both	Fulcoius of Beauvais	~4,700 lines
Neither	Fulcoius of Beauvais	~3,500 lines
The Song of Roland	Turoldus	~4,000 lines
Synopsis of the Holy Scriptures	Michael Psellos	~1,400 lines
Gormond and Isembart	Anonymous	~700 lines survive (the original was probably ~2,000 lines)
The Life of St. Alexi	Anonymous	~1,000 lines
The Vienna Genesis	Anonymous (Old High German)	~1,200 lines
The Deeds of Robert Guiscard	William of Apulia	~2,200 lines