E lene

Elene , the longest poem believed to be written by Cynewulf and appearing in the Vercelli Book (compiled 950–1000), is the triumphant story of the conversion of the Roman Emperor Constantine and the Invention of the True Cross through the intervention of his mother, St. Helena, the eponymous heroine of the poem. Remarkable for its powerful female protagonist, as well as its virulent antisemitism, Elene is a compelling statement about the Anglo‐Saxon imagination of Christian empire and the gendered politics of conversion. Though scholars have traditionally scrutinized the poem in terms of patristic parallels or Germanic source‐study, the story remains fertile ground for political readings and cultural critique, which represent the most recent approaches to the text.