extended simile comparing human life to a sea voy-
age. Whereas Gregory answers the question about the
angels’ white robes directly, Cynewulf does not. They
were appropriate at the Ascension, he implies, because
Christ, angels, and human beings are all exalted through
Christ’s gifts and leaps.
Juliana, a 731-line poem about the early-4th-century
St. Juliana of Nicomedia, vies with The Fates of the
Apostles for being deemed Cynewulf’s worst—and
therefore either his fi rst or last—work. Whatever early
scholars’ estimation of its quality, the poem has the
distinction of being the earliest extant vernacular ver-
sion of this saint’s life, and recent studies show that it
does have artistic merit. Cynewulf’s source for the poem
is probably a Latin prose life close to one contained
in the Acta sanctorum for 16 February, in which is
told the simple story of Juliana, daughter of the pagan
Africanus, who promises her in marriage to the pagan
prefect Heliseus. She refuses to marry Heliseus unless
he converts to Christianity. He refuses, and she is im-
prisoned, tortured, tempted at length by a demon, and
ultimately beheaded. Cynewulf polarizes the saint and
her persecutors much more emphatically than does his
source, and he amplifi es dialogue considerably to em-
phasize Juliana’s verbal power and spiritual resilience.
Cynewulf’s dislocated signature (CYN, EWU, LF), like
that in The Fates of the Apostles, probably refl ects the
dislocation he feels, this time at the separation his soul
must experience from his body in death.
Elene, Cynewulf’s 1321-line poem about the discov-
ery of the Cross by St. Helena, mother of Constantine,
is uniformly considered his best. Its source probably
closely resembles the Acta Cyriaci (Acta sanctorum,
4 May). After defeating the Goths by the sign of the
Cross, which was revealed to him in a dream, Constan-
tine is converted to Christianity and sends his mother
to Jerusalem to locate the actual Cross. Elene confronts
the Jews about its location through their chosen repre-
sentative, Judas, who refuses to help her and whom she
confi nes to a pit without food. Judas quickly relents and
is himself converted. His prayer brings a sign indicating
where the Cross lies buried, and a church, by order of
Constantine, is later erected there. After being baptized,
Judas becomes Cyriacus, bishop of Jerusalem, and prays
for another sign to show where the nails of the Cross
might be. He receives that sign, and the nails are made
into a bit for Constantine’s horse. The poem ends with
Cynewulf’s signature and a passage on the Last Judg-
ment. The poet’s major themes concern revelation and
conversion (of Constantine, Judas, and Cynewulf), and
he skillfully manipulates style and structure to develop
those themes. The speeches in the narrative—con-
siderable elaborations, as in Juliana, of their Latin
source—play a crucial role in Cynewulf’s affi rming the
Cross’s transforming power.
See also CædmonFurther ReadingPrimary Sources
ASPR 2:51–54 [Fates], 66–102 [Elene]; 3:15–27 [Christ II],
113–33 [Juliana].
Brooks, Kenneth R., ed. Andreas and The Fates of the Apostles.
Oxford: Clarendon, 1961.
Gradon, P.O.E., ed. Elene. London: Methuen, 1958. Repr. Exeter:
University of Exeter, 1977.
Woolf, Rosemary, ed. Juliana. London: Methuen, 1955. Repr.
Exeter: University of Exeter, 1977.
Secondary Sources
Anderson, Earl R. Cynewulf: Structure, Style, and Theme in His
Poetry. London: Associated University Presses, 1983.
Bjork, Robert E. The Old English Ve r s e Saints’Lives: A Study in
Direct Discourse and the Iconography of Style. Toronto: Uni-
versity of Toronto Press, 1985 [chapters on Elene, Juliana].
Bjork, Robert E,, ed. Cynewulf Basic Headings. New York:
Garland, 1996 [with reprints of Brown, Clemoes, Diamond,
and Frese articles cited below].
Bridges, Margaret Enid. Generic Contrast in Old English Ha-
giogmphical Poetry. Copenhagen: Rosenkilde & Bagger, 1984
[chapters on Elene, Juliana].
Brown, George H. “The Descent-Ascent Motif in Christ II of
Cynewulf.” JEGP 73 (1974): 1–12.
Butler, S.E. “The Cynewulf Question Revived.” NM 83 (1982):
15–23.
Calder, Daniel G. Cynewulf. Boston: Twayne, 1981.
Clemoes, Peter. “Cynewulf’s Image of the Ascension.” In Eng-
land before the Conquest, ed. Peter Clemoes and Kathleen
Hughes. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1971, pp.
293–304.
Das, S.K. Cynewulf and the Cynewulf Canon. Calcutta: University
of Calcutta Press, 1942.
Diamond, Robert E. “The Diction of the Signed Poems of
Cynewulf.” PQ38 (1959): 228–41.
Frese, Dolores Warwick. “The Art of Cynewulf’s Runic Signa-
tures.” In Anglo-Saxon Poetry: Essays in Appreciation, ed.
Lewis E. Nicholson and Dolores Warwick Frese. Notre Dame:
University of Notre Dame Press, 1975, pp. 312–34.
Hermann, John P. Allegories of Wa r: Language and Violence in
Old English Poetry. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press,
1989 [chapters on Elene, Juliana].
Olsen, Alexandra Hennessey. Speech, Song, and Poetic Craft: The
Artistry of the Cynewulf Canon. New York: Lang, 1984.
Rice, Robert C. “The Penitential Motif in Cynewulf’s Fa t e s of the
Apostles and in His Epilogues.” ASE 6 (1977): 105–20.
Schaar, Claes. Critical Studies in the Cynewulf Group. Lund:
Gleerup, 1949. Repr. New York: Haskell House, 1967.
Robert E. BjorkCYNEWULF