The Kingdom (Elgar) Jesus's disciples. It depicts the community of the early church, Pentecost, and the events of the next few days. Elgar had been planning a work depicting the Apostles as ordinary men, reacting to extraordinary events, for many years. His ideas outgrew the confines of a single work: parts of "The Kingdom" were written before "The Apostles", and later Elgar considered them as the first two parts of a trilogy. "The Kingdom" is, in effect, its slow movement. In the event, the projected third part was never written. "The Kingdom" is written for a large orchestra, of typical late Romantic proportions.
The Fates of the Apostles The Fates of the Apostles "The Fates of the Apostles" (Vercelli Book, fol. 52b–54a) is the shortest of Cynewulf’s known canon at 122 lines long. It is a brief martyrology of the Twelve Apostles written in the standard alliterative verse. "The Fates" recites the key events that subsequently befell each apostle after the Ascension of Jesus. It is possible that "The Fates" was composed as a learning aid to the monasteries. Cynewulf speaks in the first-person throughout the poem, and besides explaining the fate of each disciple, he provides “advice” and “consolation” to the reader. Cynewulf’s runic signature is scrambled