Memory, sight and love in Cynewulf's Elene

Journal article

It is conventionally assumed that Cynewulf is not interested in depicting any psychological realism in his characters, only figural truths, and that Elene is structured around a binary opposition such as that between the letter and the spirit. In fact, Cynewulf does create characters whose actions are psychologically plausible on a literal level, if we accept that psychology is influenced by culture. Cynewulf does not depict a spiritual development that is oppositional, or which adheres to ideas of hierarchies of cognition, but one which is holistic and tripartite, and which resembles Augustine’s trinity of the soul. Each character encounters the Cross through learning, experience and the grace of rewarded receptivity. They can gain each of these three modes of understanding in any order, but it is only when they have united all three that they receive affective wisdom from the Holy Ghost.

Authors: Bailey, HM

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Routledge
• Journal: English Studies
• Volume: 97
• Issue: 6
• Pages: 577-593
• Publication date: 2016-06-13
• DOI: 10.1080/0013838x.2016.1183928
• EISSN: 1744-4217
• ISSN: 0013-838X
• Language: English
• Keywords: Gregory; Augustine; mind; psychology; Old English; Elene; cross; poetry; Cynewulf