Evangelicalism as the Informing Principle of Cynewulf's ‘Elene’

Abstract

Although more and more readers have come to recognize the literary sophistication of some Old English poems, only a very few have discussed Cynewulf's Elene in terms of this sophistication. A few studies have appeared in recent years which argue, in one way or another, for the complexity and richness of the poem, but many assumptions on which the older criticism is based remain to be challenged. Although the earlier commentators usually protested that the poem is no mere versification of its source, the Invention of the Cross-legend, they almost always discussed Cynewulf's achievement in terms of departure from or amplification of his source, and ultimately dismissed the poem as an extremely good versification of the legend.