Helena of Britain in Medieval Legend (review)

This study provides a useful addition to studies of medieval heroes and legendary figures. From the time of Nennius, the story of Helena paralleled the story of Arthur, yet Arthur has received much more attention by modern scholars, which makes this study by Antonina Harbus welcome. It offers an excellent introduction to the historiography of Helena and how work about her reflects the development of Christian Europe.

Its scale and its brevity are limitations in Harbus's study. It is a short book, covering a very long time period and, in theory at least, a wide geographical area. Harbusbegins by looking at late Roman sources and traces their development and changes from the early Middle Ages through to the late twentieth century. Despite this, it is not a true survey. The real focus is on English historiography in the Middle Ages; treatment of continental sources and later versions of the Helena tale are far less satisfactory than discussion of the medieval English varieties of the story.

The main (medieval) sections of the book offer a useful summary of current knowledge, with some interesting insights and additions. It draws heavily on studies of Arthurian material in the chronicles to delineate the treatment of Helena in various sources, including those same chronicles.

While the material covered in the chapter on modern treatments of the legend is interesting and would have been a useful base for articles or even for a separate monograph, it does not quite fit the rest of the book. The most glaring deficiency of this section is that the treatment of historiographical approaches is less sophisticated than earlier in the volume. In particular, the methods of sixteenth century writers are not discussed, but often dismissed summarily. The dismissal of 'antiquarians' and the account of Polydore Vergil are especially unsatisfying: further substantiation, a more focused treatment, and additional evidence for the cases given would have been useful.

The conclusion is a bit of a curate's egg. For instance, its initial focus on the Waugh play overestimates its importance and its role in the rest of the book. The existence of lost sources is indicated, but this issue has not been discussed in sufficient detail to warrant a major statement in the conclusion. The importance of the conclusion is, therefore, not to summarize the foregoing study, but to remind us of Helena's role in British historiography and to give us an example of one aspect of the development of medieval identities. When the analysis of Helena is added to those of Arthur and of other major British figures, she becomes an important component in the establishment of a particularly British history, which is indeed important to national identity.

Two editions of medieval texts are included at the back of the volume. These texts are important to an understanding of the argument of the volume, and thus are welcome both as editions and as a strengthening of the book's argument. But it is hard to see how untranslated Latin can be aimed at the same audience as a general introduction to the subject. The first would appear to be for specialists and the second for general readers or for classroom use.

This discrepancy could have been minimized by reducing the scope of the volume to the ancient (as background to the medieval) and to the medieval and late medieval proper. The inclusion of later material means that the analytical content of the medieval section of the book (which is theoretically the subject) is limited to about one hundred pages. This leaves less room for nuances and reflections on the subject than is desirable.

As its stands, the shift in focus from general introduction to sprawling overview to editions of texts is a hindrance and perhaps will restrict the classroom use of this book. Nevertheless the tale of Helena and the shaping of her story over time is important enough to justify overlooking the changes in direction for all other purposes.

Despite my caveats, this book...