hteous. Then the heavens shall rock,
And the measureless ends of the mighty earth
Shall tremble in terror. The triumphant King
Shall avenge their vain and vicious lives,
Their loathsome wickedness. Long shall they wallow
830 With heavy hearts in the heat of the fire bath,
Suffer for their sins in its surging flame.

779. The passage following contains the runes from which we obtain the
name Cynewulf. The runes are at once a word and a letter, in the same
way that our letter _I_ is also the symbol for the first personal
pronoun. In the places where the meaning fits, Cynewulf has written
the runes that spell his name.

804. In this passage the runes omit the _e_ of the poet's name, although
it is found in the other runic passages.

SELECTIONS FROM THE ELENE

[Critical edition: Holthausen, _Kynewulf's Elene_, Heidelberg, 1905.

Translation: Kennedy, _The Poems of Cynewulf_, pp. 87 ff.; Kemble, _The
Poetry of the Codex Vercelliensis_, with an English translation, London,
1856.

Source: _Acta Sanctorum_ for May 4.

The first passage describes the vision of the cross by the Emperor
Constantine, the second the finding of the true cross by his mother,
Helena, in Old English, "Elene."

The poem is usually regarded as Cynewulf's masterpiece.]

1. The Vision of the Cross

. . . . . . . . Heart-care oppressed
The Roman ruler; of his realm he despaired;
He was lacking in fighters; too few were his warriors,
His close comrades to conquer in battle
65 Their eager enemy. The army encamped,
Earls about their aetheling, at the edge of the stream,
Where they spread their tents for the space of the
night,
After first they had found their foes approach.
To Caesar himself in his sleep there came
70 A dream as he lay with his doughty men,
To the valiant king a vision appeared:
It seemed that he saw a soldier bright,
Glorious and gleaming in the guise of a man
More fair of form than before or after
75 He had seen under the skies. From his sleep he awoke,
Hastily donned his helmet. The herald straightway,
The resplendent messenger spoke unto him,
Named him by name --the night vanished away:
"O Constantine,