Shapeshifting is manifestly ingrained in Old English culture, both visually and textually. Lines and patterns, as well as words and meanings, appear to be not only in motion, but they also seem to blend and morph into one another and into other forms and senses. Geometric shapes of numerous Old English carvings, filigree, and manuscript illuminations weave themselves into phyto-, zoo- and anthropomorphic figures in which it is impossible to state where precisely one shape or outline becomes another. The elusiveness and fluidity of the designs present in Old English visual culture on the one hand, and the distinct fascination with the interlace art on the other have been noted to resemble structural patterns of Old English poetry, at least since John Leyerle's 1967 essay on the interlace structure of Beowulf, and critical discussions of the visual aesthetics as reflected in Old English literature continue to be penned and continue to offer varied angles on Old English poetics. Notably, however, the surviving Old English literature lacks the kind of shapeshifting which may be found for instance in Old Norse texts, that is it possesses few examples of the literal shapeshifting occurring in narrative poetry. Partly responsible for it may be the fact that its themes are overwhelmingly Christian and therefore we will not find among them any of the shapeshifting figures familiar from, for instance, Eddic poetry, or, say, the draugar familiar from the sagas.