Welcome to SPACE, our adult continuing education program which offers interactive monthly courses for personal enrichment! Learn more here.
A Module in Advanced Old English Series:
Readings in Poetry and Prose
• Non-Sequential Series
Discussion-based
•
Medium intensity
(February)
Next Module →
This class needs more votes by December 1 to get confirmed.
This module is a standing candidate which means it will be ready to launch as soon as it gets enough interest. Token holders can set aside a Token to reserve their seat for this candidate and help it get confirmed.
For this month's module we will explore Cynewulf's Elena. In Early Medieval English literature, there are only two poets writing in Old English whose names we know: (1) Caedmon (technically he didn't know how to write, others wrote for him copying his oral compositions---almost all of which is now lost to us); and (2) Cynewulf.
Little is known of Cynewulf other than he had monastic training and was likely a monk. It is debated as to whether he was an eighth, ninth, or tenth century writer. Previously we had a module that worked with his poem known as "Christ II" by modern scholars and with "Fates of the Apostles".
This particular module will work with his translation and adaptation of an early Christian saint's life, The Life of St Helena, the mother of Emperor Constantine the Great. A lot of great stuff occurs in this tale -- come join us!
Little is known of Cynewulf other than he had monastic training and was likely a monk. It is debated as to whether he was an eighth, ninth, or tenth century writer. Previously we had a module that worked with his poem known as "Christ II" by modern scholars and with "Fates of the Apostles".
This particular module will work with his translation and adaptation of an early Christian saint's life, The Life of St Helena, the mother of Emperor Constantine the Great. A lot of great stuff occurs in this tale -- come join us!
Required Texts
The Old English Poems of Cynewulf, edited by and translated by Robert E. Bjork.
Check out Current and Upcoming offerings from:
Days and Times
As soon as we obtain enough interest in this class we will be in touch to work out a meeting time that works for the group. Thank you for keeping your January 2026 availability up to date!