Höllenfahrt Christi
Kirkland enrolled at Leipzig University, where he studied "Greek, Latin, Sanskrit, and Anglo-Saxon". He received a PhD from Leipzig University in 1885. His PhD thesis was published in 1886 as a pamphlet entitled "A Study of the Anglo-Saxon Poem, the Harrowing of Hell (Grein's Hollenfahrt Christi)". It was an attempt to ascertain whether Cynewulf was the author of a poem entitled "The Harrowing of Hell". Meanwhile, Kirkland spent a semester at Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität, followed by a few months in Geneva, Switzerland, where he started learning French. He also visited Italy, Paris, and London.