Elene (poem)

Elene is a poem in Old English, that is sometimes known as Saint Helena Finds the True Cross. It was translated from a Latin text and is the longest of Cynewulf's four signed poems. It is the fifth of six poems appearing in the Vercelli manuscript, which also contains The Fates of the Apostles, Andreas, Soul and Body I, the Homiletic Fragment I and Dream of the Rood. The poem is the first English account of the finding of the Holy Cross by Saint Helena, the mother of Emperor Constantine. The poem was written by Cynewulf some time between 750 and the tenth century. It is written in a West Saxon dialect, but certain Anglianisms and metrical evidence concerning false rhymes suggest it was written in an Anglian rather than Saxon dialect. It is 1,321 lines long.

Cynewulf’s signature, which is always in runes, appears on Christ II, Juliana, The Fates of the Apostles and Elene. The dialect in his poems suggests that he was either Mercian or Northumbrian. He was probably most active around the late 8th and early 9th centuries, though there is other research to support that he was active between the late 9th and late 10th centuries.

Cynewulf’s true identity is still unknown, but there have been efforts to narrow down the list of possible poets. The four most favored candidates are Cynewulf, who was the bishop of Lindisfarne in Northumbria in around 783; Cynulf, a priest (ca. 803); Cynewulf, the father of Bishop Cyuneweard of Wells, who died in 975; and Cenwulf, an abbot of Peterborough Abbey in around 1006). There is not enough evidence to support any of these claims.

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