I have been working through re-translating Juliana with a colleague, and while doing so, I noticed something interesting. Whenever Eleusius or Affricanus refer to their idols, Cynewulf subtly undermines their pagan faith by causing them to indicate those gods as things, that is, in the neuter plural. For instance:

“Ic þæt geswerge þurh soð godu” (line 80) — “I swear it by the true gods”

or

“grymetade gealg-mod ond his godu tælde” (line 598) — “roaring sad-minded and cursing his gods”

The phrase “soð godu” is doubly ironic since it is purportedly avowing the truth of those gods, but still rendering them into things.