The Cursor Mundi (or ‘Over-runner of the World’) is an early 14th-century religious poem written in Northumbrian Middle English that presents an extensive retelling of the history of Christianity from the creation to the doomsday. The poem is long, composed of almost 30,000 lines, but shows considerable artistic skill. In spite of the immense mass of material with which it deals, it is well proportioned, and the narrative is lucid and easy. The Cursor Mundi is more or less completely unknown outside of medievalist and lexicographical circles. Yet, the poem is one of the texts that provides the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) with over 1,000 new words, i.e. words that were unknown before they appeared for the first time in the Cursor Mundi. The poem has also provided over 11,000 quotations for the published Dictionary, making it the second most heavily quoted work in OED1/2 after the Bible and the fifth most quoted source altogether. The first modern edition of the Cursor Mundi was published in six volumes by the Reverend Richard Morris between 1874 and 1892 in the Early English Text Society series. About the Cursor Mundi The Cursor Mundi (or ‘Over-runner of the World’) is an early 14th century religious poem written in Northumbrian Middle English that presents an extensive retelling of Christian history from the Creation to Doomsday. A number of manuscripts of the poem are extant, but none of them is the original composition attributed to an unknown author from the north of England. According to the philologist James Murray, the poem originated near Durham, about 1275–1300. The author of the Cursor Mundi brings all his events under seven periods or “Seven ages of the world”: Creation to the time of Noah; Flood to the confusion of tongues; Time of Abraham to the death of Saul; Reign of David to the Captivity of Judah; Parentage of the Virgin Mary to the time of John the Baptist; Baptism of Jesus to the Finding of the Cross. This is called "the time of Grace." Day of Doom and the state of the world after Doomsday. Special prominence is given throughout the work to the history of the Cross. This may be because St. Helena, the mother of Constantine, was reputed to have been of British birth and was exceptionally popular in England. The Cursor Mundi occupies a unique place, because of its length, its scope, and its author's