As you learned on the Prereading page for "The Wife's Lament," Anglo-Saxon literature survives in manuscripts that monks hand-copied for posterity. Many manuscripts were destroyed during the two waves of Viking invasions during the Anglo-Saxon period. Many more were lost centuries later when Henry VIII of England broke with the Church of Rome and ordered the destruction of monasteries throughout England. Manuscripts were also lost or destroyed in other ways as the centuries passed. The Exeter Book, which contains "The Wife's Lament" (see page 102), is one of the most important surviving manuscripts of Old English verse. In addition to more traditional Anglo-Saxon poems, the Exeter Book contains ninety-five riddles. At one time people thought that a poet named Cynewulf wrote the riddles because he is the only named poet in the Exeter Book. Now it is generally believed that the riddles are the works of anonymous writers.