Central to this edition was the need to rectify misinterpretations of the main theme in John the Baptist's Prayer and to question whether a name change might facilitate readings to support the poem's central focus on baptism. I have demonstrated that at its core John the Baptist's Prayer is not a poem about Christ's Descent; rather, the main theme is John the Baptist's message of redemption and salvation through baptism. For today's readers titles have become more than labels and they do often function as guides to assist in establishing the theme of a text. The previous title The Descent into Hell has led to scholarly misreadings of the poem and, thus, abetted its relegation as an inferior work within the corpus of Old English verse. Certainly the poem has its textual and interpretative problems, but a few troublesome words and phrases along with the folio damage do not obscure its interpretation as a poem about baptism. Renaming a poem is a challenging and somewhat controversial task. Thus, I have not taken this undertaking lightly. Scholarly challenges to the title are inevitable, but given the evidence that suggests that the poem's main focuses are John and baptism, I hope this book will generate critical attention to the poem with a good deal of critical agreement that a title change is necessary.

Further support for my central argument has been provided through various discussions of the didactic function of the poem, as it offered its Anglo-Saxon audience a message of hope for its afterlife. These various readings of the poem suggest that the poem functions on a liturgical level. In tenth-century Anglo-Saxon England, it was not uncommon for sermons during the paschal season to be long and complex, and the short poem that is John the Baptist’s Prayer offers a compelling and relevant message for Easter with the descensus as a background motif. The interconnection between Easter and baptism is close, and this short poem provides a concise summary text, allowing meditation supplementary to a considered sermon before the baptismal rite. What this poem offers is insight into how Christian discourse concerning salvation could be conveyed in a brief, didactic, yet imaginative way.