This entry provides a brief description of manuscript and historical context for the Old English poem
The Advent Lyrics
, the first poem in the tenth‐century manuscript known as the Exeter Book; it also summarizes the contents of the poem, which celebrates the birth of Christ and the pre‐Christmas Advent season. The entry then outlines the main critical discussions about the poem: analyses of the poem's form, structure and imagery; feminist readings of the poem's presentation of the Virgin Mary; and new historicist placement of the poem in late‐tenth‐century Exeter.