Elene

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 last 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 composed in an Anglian rather than Saxon dialect. It is 1,321 lines long.

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 last 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 composed in an Anglian rather than Saxon dialect. It is 1,321 lines long.

Editions and translations

Elene is preserved in a single manuscript version of the late 10th century, in the Vercelli Book, fol. 121a-133b. The first edition of the text was prepared by Benjamin Thorpe in 1835, but it remained unpublished, although copies of his text circulated among scholars, and one such copy was the basis of the Jacob Grimm's edition published in 1840¹. John Mitchell Kemble partly based his 1856 Poetry of the Codex Vercellensis on Grimm's edition. A critical edition by C. W. M. Grein appeared in Bibliothek der angelsächsischen Poesie in 1858. Later editions include: 1889: Kent, Charles W. (ed.) Elene: An Old English Poem. London: Ginn & Company. 1958: Gradon, P.O.E. (ed.). Cynewulf's Elene. London: Methuen. 1932: Krapp, George Philip (ed.). Vercelli Book. ASPR. New York: Columbia University Press. 67-102. 132-152. 1991: Nelson, N. (ed. and tr.). Judith, Juliana, and Elene. Three Fighting Saints. American University Studies 4. English Language and Literature 135. New York, 114-87. 2019: Foys, Martin et al. (ed. to digital facsimile and tr.). Old English Poetry in Facsimile Project. Center for the History of Print and Digital Culture. Madison, 2019. Modern English translations: Bradley, S.A.J. (tr.). Anglo-Saxon Poetry. London: Everyman's Library, 1982. 164-197. Kennedy, Charles W. (tr.). "St. Helena Finds the True Cross." In Early English Christian Poetry. New York: Oxford University Press, 1961. 179-214. Old English Poetry in Facsimile Project Translation by Charles W. Kennedy Translation by Lucius Hudson Holt

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