The Northern Homily Cycle is a Middle English poem written c. 1315. The poem consists of approximately 20,000 rhyming, octosyllabic lines. [1] [2] It features a Middle English retelling of the Gospel in verse form, alongside stories to illustrate the points of the verses and messages. [3] Many of these illustrative stories use familiar, agricultural examples, calling to mind Chaucer's tales. [2] [3]
The work is anonymous, however the text suggests that the author "wrote in his native dialect and was well versed in the lore of the north country." [1]
A good copy of it can be found in Oxford Bodleian Eng. Poet. a.1, a 14th-century manuscript.[ citation needed ]
A Cambridge manuscript of the poem has been edited by Saara Nevanlinna.[ citation needed ]