ANSLATIONS FROM 
 OLD ENGLISH 
 POETRY 
 
 ^^?. 
 
 e^- 
 
 coc 
 
 AND 
 TINKER 
 

 CORNELL 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 GIFT OF 
 
 Coolldge Otis 
 Chapman, PhD. 
 Cornell, 1927 
 
 URIS. 
 
CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 
 
 3 1924 059 963 672 
 
 
The original of tliis book is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924059963672 
 
SELECT TRANSLATIONS FROM 
 OLD ENGLISH POETRY 
 
 EDITED 
 
 WITH PREFATORY NOTES AND INDEXES 
 
 BY 
 
 ALBERT S. cook 
 
 Professor of the English Language and Literaturh in 
 Yai.e University 
 
 AND 
 
 CHAUNCEY B. TINKER 
 
 Profhsror of English Literature in Yale University 
 
 Antiquant exquirite matrem 
 
 GINN AND COMPANY 
 
 BOSTON ■ NEW YORK • CHICAGO • LONDON 
 
 URIS LIBRARY 
 
 JUN 2 4 1991 
 
Entered at Stationers' Hall 
 
 Copyright, 1902 
 By albert S. COOK 
 
 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 
 
 Vbt gtjiengiim Uttm 
 
 GINN & COMPANY • PRO- 
 PKIETORS ■ BOSTON • U.S.A. 
 
PREFACE 
 
 This book is addressed to those intelligent students 
 of English literature, whether under tutelage or beyond 
 it, who have not been quite willing to accept the state- 
 ment that Chaucer was the father of our literature and 
 the creator of our language, and who have yet not been 
 able to gratify their curiosity as to what' might lie 
 beyond, by reason of their inability to read the tongue 
 of our pre-Chaucerian ancestors. We are persuaded 
 that there are many who are quite aware that Beowulf 
 was not the author of the poem which bears his name, 
 who yet are uncertain how that poem compares in dic- 
 tion, in imagery, in character-painting, in variety of 
 interest, and in loftiness of sentiment, with the Iliad, the 
 u^neid, or Paradise Lost. We are convinced that there 
 are those who are too well instructed to call Caedmon 
 and Cynewulf Seedmon and Sighneewolf who still have 
 no clear conception as to the relation, whether in bulk or 
 character, borne by the extant poetry of the one to that 
 of the other. We feel sure that there are those who 
 would prefer to appraise for themselves the qualities 
 of our oldest literature rather than remain in helpless 
 dependence upon the dry or rhapsodical estimates of the 
 current writers upon the subject. So long as there are 
 educated persons misled into imagining the missionaries 
 
iv PREFACE 
 
 and civilizers of Europe north of the Alps as mere 
 drunken savages or torpid churls, or into looking upon 
 them as fatalists and ascetics plunged in hopeless gloom 
 and continually occupied with images of the charnel- 
 house, so long there is need that convenient opportunity 
 be afforded to revise such opinions, and to frame juster 
 views concerning those ancient students of Latin and 
 Greek, those patriots who fought with Alfred, those 
 scholars who founded the empire of Charlemagne by 
 arts, as he by arms. 
 
 To this end their poetry should be rendered acces- 
 sible. The prose can wait, if need be ; but specimens 
 of the better Old English poetry, translated, where that 
 is possible, rather than traduced, should be drawn from 
 the cabinets of professional scholars into the light of 
 day. He who will should have some opportunity to read 
 for pleasure that which may be well written ; to admire 
 what may be spirited, pathetic, or sublime ; to realize 
 the variety of theme and treatment within the four or 
 five hundred years which the period covers ; to compare 
 poem with poem, and, if possible, century with century, 
 or even writer with writer ; to trace the relation between 
 our older literature, broadly considered, and the later ; 
 and to do this unvexed, so far as may be, by mislead- 
 ing comment, while provided with brief suggestion on 
 important matters, and especially with respect to the 
 sources of fuller information. 
 / By two things, at least, this poetry at its best is 
 characterized — by the sense of reality and the instinct of 
 reverence. The poet writes with his eye upon the 
 object, but it is with an eye that admires, that discerns 
 
PREFACE V 
 
 spiritual qualities and meanings, with the eye of the 
 soul no less than that of the body. Here is vivid appre- 
 hension, profoundly imaginative insight, worshipful awe, 
 and sometimes a masterly restraint in expression. Here 
 is respect for simple manliness, admiration for magna- 
 nimity, homage for divine tenderness and self-sacrifice. 
 The range is not small — from characterization of a life- 
 less object, like a bow, to that of the terrors of Dooms- 
 day and the music of archangels ; from the turmoil of 
 ocean, which 
 
 shouts aloud and groans in mighty pain, 
 While sounds the tramp of floods along the shore, 
 
 to the colors of an imaginary peacock, the fragrance of 
 a blossoming forest, and the splendor of sunrise over 
 the sea. To these poets heroic deeds are matters to beV 
 recounted with simplicity and sober enthusiasm, true 
 kingship is sacred, the good things_ of life are to be duly 
 enjoyed, the instinctive feelings of the breast before the 
 mystery, the might, and the glory of nature are not to 
 be restrained, while all is tempered by reflections upon 
 an endless future and the due retributions attendant 
 respectively upon evil conduct and right living. Here 
 are pictured, or reflected, men bearing their part of life's 
 burdens, doing the world's work in stoutness or humble- 
 ness of heart, not without consciousness of an infinite 
 background for the performance, and infinite rewards for 
 high service, yet with senses alert to sight, and odor, and 
 sound, to the spectacle of an old churl tangled and tripped 
 by the ancient representative of John Barleycorn, the 
 artistry of a beautiful book, the gleam of armor, or the 
 
vi PREFACE 
 
 thrill of harp-strings. They tell tales, drink the mead, 
 race horses across the plain, ply bow and spear, are 
 loyal to their lords, defiant of their foes, hungry for 
 honor ; moreover, when they see death approaching, 
 they face it with solemnity — if pagans, with fortitude 
 and calm resignation ; if Christians, with godly fear and 
 joyful hope. Not savages these, not mere drunken 
 churls, not cravens continually occupied with images of 
 the charnel-house, but men who challenge our respect, 
 and deserve it. It is of their poetry that we would fain 
 present some fragment in modern rendering as little 
 unfit as may be. 
 
 Translated, where that is possible, rather than tra- 
 duced — such has been our ideal, yet none can be more 
 conscious than we how often the corruption of manu- 
 scripts, or textual problems as yet unsolved, or avoidable 
 ignorance, or sheer incapacity and lack of literary feel- 
 ing on the part of the translators — ourselves included 
 — have obscured the qualities of the original, now by 
 deficiency and now by excess. We are tempted to ask 
 pardon of those who know ; yet, on second thoughts, we 
 ask rather for unsparing criticism in the form of better 
 renderings of the same selections, or excellent versions 
 of other pieces. 
 
 It will be seen that the book does not represent any 
 particular theory of translation to the exclusion of others. 
 Indeed, in view of the fact that opinions on the best 
 medium for the translation of poetry are so divergent, 
 the attempt has been made to exhibit a variety of media. 
 Hence the latter range from prose to ballad measures, 
 from blank verse to verse roughly imitative of the original 
 
PREFACE Vli 
 
 movement. In certain cases, as in that of Widsith, 
 the translation is nearly literal ; elsewhere, as in that of 
 The Ruined City, the rendering is decidedly paraphrastic. 
 Thus the book should be useful as an illustration of the 
 different methods of translating our older poetry, and at 
 the same time point the way to something better than 
 its own present form. 
 
 The best Old English poetry is, we believe, fairly rep- 
 resented here by specimens, while pieces like Widsith 
 and the Charms have been admitted not so much for 
 their poetic interest as for their bearing upon the history 
 of culture. It was of course impossible to do more than 
 make selections from the longer poems, but, when pos- 
 sible, an entire composition has been used. The desire 
 to present complete productions must excuse the appar- 
 ently undue prominence given to a poem like The Phoenix. 
 
 The classification of the poems is naturally unsatis- 
 factory. A chronological arrangement was manifestly 
 impossible ; an arrangement by authors was equally 
 impossible. The word 'lyric,' in the classification we 
 have adopted, must be understood in its widest signifi- 
 cation. The cross-references may in some instances aid 
 in counteracting the faults of our arrangement, in addi- 
 tion to such value as they may otherwise have. 
 
 We take pleasure in acknowledging our indebtedness 
 to various publishers, particularly to Messrs. Cassell & 
 Co. for permission to use the extracts from Morley's 
 English Writers, and to The Macmillan Co. for similar 
 permission to use Tennyson's Brunanburh; the Beowulf 
 selections are from the translation published by Newson 
 & Co. (New York, 1902), and the Christ selections from 
 
viii PREFACE 
 
 Whitman's translation (Boston, Ginn & Company, 1900). 
 The Andreas extracts are from Root's translation (Yale 
 Studies in English VII ; New York, Holt & Co., 1899), 
 and The Battle in the Elene from Lewis' Beginnings of 
 English Literature (Ginn & Company, 1899). The Battle 
 of Maldon was originally published in Macmillans Mag- 
 azine 55 371 ff. ; The Wanderer in the Academy 19 35 5 5 
 A Love-Letter in the Journal of Germanic Philology 
 3 7 fE. ; Hallam Tennyson's Song of Brunanburh in the 
 Contemporary Review 28 920 ff . The other renderings 
 appear here for the first time, and, with the exception of 
 The Dream of the Rood, have been made especially for 
 this book. 
 
 In the interest of uniformity, the editors have taken 
 minor liberties with the extracts as respects punctuation, 
 paragraph division, etc., and at times the spelling of a 
 word. They are also, in general, responsible for the 
 headings of the various sections, and even for the divi- 
 sion into sections of poems Yike. Judith and The Phoenix. 
 
 The topics of the subject-index will, we trust, prove 
 suggestive to teachers and students, and may be pro- 
 ductive of entertainment to the general reader. 
 
 Yale University, 
 July 7, 1902. 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 
 I. EPIC AND HISTORICAL PIECES 
 
 Page 
 
 WiDSITH 3 
 
 Selections from Beowulf 9 
 
 1. The Sea-Burial of King Scyld . . ... 10 
 i. The Song of the Gleeman in Heorot . . . . 11 
 
 3. The Swimming-Match ... ... 11 
 
 4. Beowulf's Fight with Grendel . . . . 14 
 
 5. Hrothgar describes the Haunt of Grendel and his Dam . 18 
 
 6. A Lament ......... 19 
 
 7. The Passing of Beowulf . ..... 20 
 
 8. The Funeral Pyre . 23 
 
 The Battle of Brunanburh 25 
 
 The Battle of Maldon 31 
 
 II. SECULAR LYRICS 
 
 The Seafarer . 44 
 
 The Wanderer 50 
 
 The Ruined City . . 56 
 
 Deor's Lament . . 58 
 
 A Love-Letter 61 
 
 The Banished Wipe's Complaint 64 
 
 Gnomic Verses . . . • 67 
 
 Riddles 70 
 
 2. The Storm-Spirit on Land .... -70 
 
 3. The Storm-Spirit in the Sea 71 
 
 8. The Swan 72 
 
 15. The Horn . 72 
 
 24. The Bow 73 
 
 27. The Bible-Codex 73 
 
 28. The Mead ......... 74 
 
 80. The Falcon 75 
 
 ix 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 
 III. RELIGIOUS LYRICS 
 
 Pagb 
 
 ' C^dmon's Hymn . . 76 
 
 'Bede's Death-Song 78 
 
 Selections from the Christ 79 
 
 1. Antiphonal Passage . 80 
 
 2. Dialog between Mary and Joseph ... .81 
 
 3. The Endowments of Mankind .... 82 
 
 4. Rune-Passage . . 83 
 
 5. Life compared to a Voyage ...... 84 
 
 6. Doomsday . . .... 85 
 
 7. The Apparition of the Rood ... . . 89 
 
 8. From the Address of the Savior at the Last Judgment . 91 
 
 9. The Joys of the Blessed . . ... 91 
 
 The Dream of the Rood 93 
 
 Ruthwell Cross Inscription 100 
 
 Brussels Cross Inscription 103 
 
 IV. BIBLICAL POEMS 
 
 Selections from the Genesis 104 
 
 Genesis A : 
 
 1. The Fall of the Angels 105 
 
 2. The Beginning of Creation 108 
 
 Genesis B: 
 
 1. The Fall of Satan . 109 
 
 2. Satan's Address to his Followers . . . . 113 
 Selections from the Exodus 117 
 
 ^ I. The Pillar of Fire 117 
 
 2. The Marching of Pharaoh's Host 118 
 
 3. The Destruction of the Egyptians 119 
 
 Judith ... 121 
 
 V. SAINTS' LEGENDS 
 
 Selections from the Andreas 133 
 
 1. St. Andrew goes down to the Sea 134 
 
 2. A Storm at Sea 134 
 
 3. Andrew tells how Christ stilled the Tempest . . -135 
 
 4. The Vision of Andrew's Disciples 136 
 
 5. St. Andrew's Miracle ; 137 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS xi 
 
 Pack 
 
 Selections from the Elene 139 
 
 -^ 1. The Battle . . . I39 
 
 z. The Voyage 140 
 
 3. Autobiographic Rune-Passage 14' 
 
 VI. RELIGIOUS MYTHOLOGY 
 
 ^^^The Phcenix 143 
 
 VIL CHARMS 
 
 Charm for Bewitched Land 164 
 
 Charm for Swarming Bees 167 
 
 Charm for a Sudden Stitch . . ... 168 
 
 Nine Herbs Charm . . 169 
 
 Charm for Regaining Lost Cattle ... • 171 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 References for Students of Old English Poetry 172 
 
 APPENDIX I 
 
 Selections from the Verse-Translations of Beowulf . 175 
 
 APPENDIX II 
 
 The Song of Brunanburh 178 
 
 APPENDIX III 
 
 Bede's Account of the Poet C^dmon 180 
 
 APPENDIX IV 
 
 Fragment I of the Old Saxon Genesis, and the Old 
 
 English Genesis 790-820 184 
 
 Index of Subjects 186 
 
 Index of Media 194 
 
 Index of Titles 195 
 
SELECT TRANSLATIONS FROM 
 OLD ENGLISH POETRY 
 
I 
 
 EPIC AND HISTORICAL PIECES 
 
 WIDSITH 
 
 Widsith, the Far-traveler, designates the wandering minstrel 
 who is here supposed to speak. The poem is of historic and 
 legendary rather than aesthetic interest, notwithstanding the poetic 
 quality of one or two passages. Ten Brink (Paul's Grundriss 
 2 538 f£.) recognizes four chief divisions of the poem: (I) 1-9; 
 (II) 10-49, 131-134; (HI) 59-63, 68-69, 75-81, 82-87(?), 88-89, 
 109-130 ; (IV) 50-58, 64-67, 70-74, 90-108, 135-143. Of these 
 I forms an introduction, II is a list of legendary kings. III is 
 called the Eormanric catalog, and IV the Ealhhild lay. Accord- 
 ing to Ten Brink, the nucleus of III may belong to the sixth 
 century, and have originated in the peninsula of Schleswig- 
 Holstein, the original home of the Angles ; IV to the end of the 
 sixth century, about which time it probably passed over to Mercia, 
 in Britain ; the union of III and IV may have fallen between 650 
 and 700 ; and the fusion of this latter combination with II may be 
 referred to the eighth century. Other scholars have held some- 
 what different views. 
 
 The catalog of names (see 18, 20, 24, 25, 27-29, 31, 33, 35, 
 45, 48, 49, 58, 60, 63, 93) contains references to some of the 
 characters in Beowulf. 
 
 Widsith unlocked hjs word-hoard; and then spake 
 He among men whose travel over earth 
 Was farthest through the tribes and through the folks ; 
 
 3 
 
4 EPIC AND HISTORICAL PIECES 
 
 Treasure to be remembered came to him 
 
 Often in hall. 
 
 Among the Myrgings, nobles gave him birth. 
 
 In his first journey he, with Ealhhild, 
 
 The pure peacemaker, sought the fierce king's home. 
 
 Eastward of Ongle, home of Eormanric, 
 
 The wrathful treaty-breaker. 
 
 Of many things then he began to speak: 
 lo • Much have I asked and learnt of men in rule 
 
 Over the peoples ; every chief must live 
 
 Following others in his country's rule 
 
 By custom, who would thrive upon his throne. 
 
 Of such was Hwala, once most prosperous ; 
 
 And Alexander, wealthiest of all 
 
 The race of man, and he throve most of those 
 
 Whom I have heard of, asking through the world. 
 ' Attila ruled the Huns ; Eormanric 
 
 The Goths ; over the Banings Becca ruled ; 
 
 Over the Burgends Gifica. The Greeks 
 20 Were under Csesar; Gaelic ruled the Finns; 
 
 Hagena the Island tribes, and Henden Gloms ; 
 
 Witta ruled Swsefs ; the Hselsings Wada ruled, 
 
 Meaca the Myrgings; the Hundings, Mearcolf. 
 
 Theodric ruled the Franks ; the Rondings Thyle, 
 
 Breoca the Brondings. Billing ruled the Warns; 
 
 Oswine the Eowas; over the Jutes Gefwulf ; 
 
 Finn, son of Folcwald, ruled the Frisian race; 
 
 Sigehere ruled longest over the Sea-Danes; 
 
 Hnaef ruled the Hocings; Helm the Wulfings ; Wald 
 30 The Woings ; Wod the Thuringians ; and Sseferth 
 
 The Scygs, and Ongentheow the Swedes ; Sceaf there 
 
WIDSITH 5 
 
 The Ymbers; Sceafa the Lombards; and Hun 
 The Hsetwers; Holen ruled over the Wrosns. 
 Hringwald the Herefaras' king was named. 
 
 ' Offa ruled Ongle ; Alewih the Danes ; 
 Of all these men he was the proudest, yet 
 He over Offa won no mastery, 
 But, earliest among men, while yet a child, 
 The greatest of the kingdoms Offa won. 
 None of his age won with his single sword 4° 
 
 More lordship ; he enlarged by Fif eldor 
 His bounds towards the Myrgings, and thenceforth 
 Angles and Swasfs were forced to be as one. 
 Hrothwulf and Hrothgar, uncle and nephew, held 
 Peace with each other longest after they 
 Cast out the race of Vikings, bowed the point 
 Of Ingeld's sword, hewed down at Heorot 
 The host of Heathobards. 
 
 ' Thus far I traveled through strange lands, and learnt 50 
 Of good and evil in the spacious world; 
 Parted from home-friends and dear kindred, far 
 The ways I followed. Therefore I can sing 
 And tell a tale, recount in the mead-hall 
 How men of high race gave rich gifts to me. 
 
 ' I was with Huns and Hreth-Goths, with the Swedes 
 And Geats, and with the South-Danes. I have seen 
 The Wenlas and the Wasrnas, and have been 
 With the Vikings. And also I have been 
 Among the Gefthas and the Winedas 60 
 
 And GefHegas ; with Angles, and with Swsef s 
 And iEnenas ; with Saxons and with Sycgs, 
 With Swordmen, with the Hrons, and with the Deans, 
 
6 EPIC AND HISTORICAL PIECES 
 
 With Heathorsems and with Thuringians, 
 
 With Throwends, with Burgundians; there I had 
 
 A circlet given to me by Guthhere, 
 
 A welcome treasure for reward of song; 
 
 That was no tardy king ! With Franks I was 
 
 And Frisians and Frumtings ; with the Rugs, 
 
 And with the Gloms, and with the Rumwealhs ; 
 
 70 So was I with Albuin in Italy; 
 He of all men was readiest of hand 
 In shaping praise, most liberal of heart 
 In sharing rings, bright collars, Eadwin's son. 
 
 'And I was with the Serkings and the Serings, 
 And I was with the Greeks and with the Finns, 
 With Caesar, master over joyous towns. 
 Wiolane I saw, and Wilna, and the realm 
 Of Wala; with the Scots I was, and Picts, 
 And with the Scrid-Finns, and the Lid- Vikings, 
 
 80 With Leons, Lombards, Hsethens, Haereths, Hundings 
 ' And I was also with the Israelites; 
 With the Ex-Syrings, Hebrews, Indians, 
 And with the Egyptians, Medes, and Persians, 
 And with the Myrgings; with the Mofdings then, 
 And once more with the Myrgings. Then I saw 
 The Amothings, East-Thuringians, and the Eols, 
 Istas, and Idumingas. 
 
 'And I was 
 With Eormanric, and all the while the king 
 Of Goths was good to me. Chief in his burgh, 
 
 90 A collar of six hundred sceats pi gold 
 
 Counted in coin, he gave me — beaten gold ; 
 Which I, home coming, in requital gave 
 
WIDSITH 
 
 To Eadgils, my protector and my friend ; 
 
 For he, Prince of the Myrgings, gave to me 
 
 The land I hold, my father's heritage. 
 
 Then Ealhhild, Eadwin's daughter, noble queen. 
 
 Gave me another. Over many lands 
 
 I have prolonged her praise, when my task was 
 
 To say in song where under Heaven I knew 
 
 The gold-wreathed queen most happy in her gifts. 
 
 'When I and Skilling for our conquering lord"^ 
 With clear voice raised the song, loud to the harp. 
 The sound was music; many a stately man. 
 Who well knew what was right, then said in words 
 That never had they heard a happier song. 
 
 ' Thence throughout all the country of the Goths 
 I traveled ; ever sought the best of ways. 
 Among the followers of Eormanric. 
 Hethca and Beadeca I sought ; and sought 
 The Herelings, Emerca, Fridla; sought 
 The East-Goth, Unwen's father, wise and good; 
 Sought Secca, Becca, Theodric, Seafola; 
 Sought Heathoric, and Sifeca, and Hlithe, 
 And Incgentheow; and Eadwin too I sought, 
 And Elsa, .^gelmund, Hun gar; and sought 
 Proud bands of the With-Myrgings ; sought Wulfhere 
 And Wyrmhere. Often was unceasing war 
 Where with hard sword the army of the Hraeds 
 About the woods of Vistula must fight 
 For home against the folk of Attila. 
 Raedhere I sought, and Rondhere, Giselhere 
 And Rumstan, Withergield and Freotheric, 
 Wudga and Hama. They were not the worst 
 
8 EPIC AND HISTORICAL PIECES 
 
 Of friends, howe'er they be the last I name. 
 Full oft flew whining from that band the shaft, 
 The shrieking spear, against the cruel horde 
 Where Wudga, Hama, chiefs adorned with gold, 
 
 130 Sought vengeance for their warriors and their wives. 
 ' So have I ever found in journeying 
 That he is to the dwellers in a land 
 The dearest, to whom God gives, while he lives 
 Here upon earth, to hold rule over men.' 
 
 Thus wandering, they who shape songs for men 
 Pass over many lands, and tell their need. 
 And speak their thanks, and ever, south or north, 
 Meet some one skilled in songs and free in gifts, 
 
 140 Who would be raised among his friends to fame. 
 And do brave deeds till light and life are gone ; 
 He who has thus wrought himself praise shall have 
 A settled glory underneath the stars. 
 
 Henry Morley 
 
SELECTIONS FROM BEOWULF 
 
 The poem Beowulf, the oldest of the Germanic epics, is the 
 most important relic of Old English literature. The handwriting 
 of the unique manuscript in which it has been preserved appears 
 to be of the tenth century, but the poem itself is certainly much 
 older. This is evident from the fact that one of the events of the 
 story (the expedition of King Hygelac against the Hetwaras) is 
 historical, and occurred about 5 12 a.d. Allowing time for the later 
 events of the story, for the growth of tradition and myth, for the 
 introduction of the Christian coloring, it seems probable that 
 the poem as we now have it is the work of the late seventh 
 century. 
 
 All the events of the story take place in Denmark and southern 
 Sweden. England is nowhere mentioned. It is therefore prob- 
 able that the materials from which the story sprang had been 
 brought together before the last migrations of the Angles to 
 England. However, the poem undoubtedly assumed its final 
 form on English soil. Regarding this gradual growth of the 
 story, there are a number of discrepant views. According to 
 some scholars, the Beowulf is of strictly popular origin, like the 
 later English ballads. But the view now generally current is that 
 the poem is the work of one man — an Englishman — who recast 
 the materials brought from the Continent. His work, however, 
 may have been no more than the arrangement and editing of 
 various well-known lays and sagas, and the addition of the Chris- 
 tian elements. 
 
 A serviceable account of the various critical opinions on the 
 Beowulf may be found in Thomas Arnold's Notes on Beowulf 
 (London, 1898). The best edition of the text is A. J. Wyatt's 
 (2d ed., Cambridge, 1898). 
 
 9 
 
lO EPIC AND HISTORICAL PIECES 
 
 The poem is commonly divided into three parts. The first nar- 
 rates the adventures of the hero Beowulf, who crosses the sea to 
 fight with Grendel, an evil monster who has been preying upon 
 the people of Hrothgar, king of the Danes. The second part 
 describes the hero's fight with Grendel's mother. The third part 
 describes how Beowulf, now king of his people, fights fifty 
 years later with a fire-dragon, who keeps watch over a vast 
 treasure-hoard. 
 
 The first of tht following selections is from a kind of prolog 
 which recounts the glories of the Danish kings, ancestors of 
 Hrothgar. Selections 2-4 are from the First Part ; 5 from the 
 Second ; the rest from the Third. 
 
 I. THE SEA-BURIAL OF KING SCYLD 
 
 When at length the fated hour was come, Scyld, the 
 vahant, departed unto the keeping of the Lord. Then 
 his dear companions bore him down to the ocean-fiood, 
 even as he himself had bidden them, while as yet the 
 
 30 friend of the Scyldings ruled them with his words and 
 long did reign over them, dear prince of the land. 
 There at the harbor stood a ship with curving prow, 
 all icy, eager to depart — meet for a prince. And in 
 the ship's bosom, hard by the mast, they laid their dear 
 lord, the giver of treasure, that famous hero./ Many \ 
 treasures were there, abundance of ornaments brought 
 from afar. Never have I heard men tell of a ship more 
 
 40 splendidly laden with battle-weapons and war-harness, , 
 with swords and coats of mail. Upon his breast lay 
 many precious things which were to go far out with him ; 
 into the realm of the waters. Verily no fewer of their"' 
 gifts and tribal treasures did this people bestow upon 
 him than they who at his birth sent him forth alone 
 
SELECTIONS FROM BEOWULF II 
 
 over the wave, babe as he was. Moreover, they set up 
 a golden banner high o'er his head, and let the sea bear 
 him away, giving him over to the deep. Sad at heart 
 were they, sorrowful in spirit. No man can truly say 50 
 — no lord of hall, or hero under heaven — into whose 
 hands that burden fell. 
 
 2. THE SONG OF THE GLEEMAN IN HEOROT 
 
 There was heard the sound of the harp, the clear 
 song of the gleeman. He spoke, who could recount 90 
 from of old the creation of men, told how the Almighty^ 
 made the earth, the fair-faced land, and the waters that ; 
 compass it about ; how, exultant in victory, He set the 
 sun and moon as lights to lighten the dwellers in the 
 land. He adorned all the regions of the earth with leaf , 
 and branch, and created life in everything that lives and ,' 
 moves. 
 
 3. THE SWIMMING-MATCH 
 
 Unferth, the son of Ecglaf, who sat at the feet of 
 the lord of the Scyldings, spoke, and stirred up a 500 
 quarrel ; the coming of Beowulf, the brave seafarer, 
 vexed him sore, for he would not that any other man 
 under heaven should ever win more glories in this world 
 than he himself. 'Art thou that Beowulf who didst 
 strive with Breca on the broad sea, and didst contend 
 with him in swimming, when ye two, foolhardy, made ' 
 trial of the waves, and for a mad boast risked your 
 lives in the deep water.' None, friend or foe, could 510 
 turn you from the sorry venture when ye two swam 
 
12 EPIC AND HISTORICAL PIECES 
 
 out upon the sea — but ye enfolded the ocean-streams 
 with your arms, measured the sea-streets, buffeted the 
 water with your hands, ghding over the deep. The 
 ocean was tossing with waves, a winter's sea. Seven 
 nights ye toiled in the power of the waters; and he 
 overcame thee in the match, for he had the greater 
 strength. Then at morning-tide the sea cast him up 
 on the coast of the Heathorsemas, whence he, beloved 
 
 520 of his people, went to his dear fatherland, the country of 
 the Brondings, and his own fair city, where he was lord 
 of a stronghold and of subjects and treasure. Verily, 
 the son of Beanstan made good all his boast against 
 thee. Wherefore, though thou hast ever been valiant 
 in the rush of battle, I look for a grim fight, yea, and a 
 worse issue for thee, if thou darest for the space of one 
 night to abide near Grendel.' 
 
 Beowulf, son of Ecgtheow, spoke : ' Well ! thou hast 
 
 530 said a deal about Breca in thy drunkenness, Unferth 
 my friend, and hast talked much of his adventure. The 
 truth now I tell, that I had more sea-strength, more 
 battling with the waves, than any man else. We talked 
 of this when boys, and boasted, being yet in the days of 
 our youth, that we would venture our lives out at sea ; 
 and we performed it even so. Naked in our hands we 
 
 540 held our hard swords as we swam, purposing to defend 
 us against the whale-fishes. He, nowise swifter on the 
 flood, could not float far from me through the waves, 
 nor would I part from him. Thus we two were in the 
 sea for the space of five nights, till the flood, the tossing 
 waves, coldest of weathers, and darkening night drove us 
 apart, and a fierce north wind beat down upon us — 
 
SELECTIONS FROM BEOWULF 13 
 
 rough were the waves. The spirit of the sea-fishes was 
 roused; then my corslet, hard and hand-wrought, was 550 
 of help to me against the foes ; my woven armor, gold- 
 adorned, lay upon my breast. An evil monster dragged 
 me to the bottom ; the grim foe held me fast in its 
 clutch; yet it was granted unto me to strike the crea- 
 ture with the point of my war-sword ; the fierce struggle 
 carried off the mighty sea-beast by my hand. 
 
 'Thus did the evil creatures often press me hard, but, 
 as was meet, I served them well with my war-sword; 560 
 they had no joyous fill by eating me, wicked destroyers, 
 sitting round their feast nigh the bottom of the sea ; but 
 in the morning, wounded by the sword, slain by the 
 dagger, they lay up along the sea-strand, so that they 
 could nevermore hinder seafarers on their course in the 
 deep channel. 
 
 ' Light came from the east, the bright beacon of the 
 Lord; the waves were stilled, and I could descry the 570 
 sea-headlands, those wind-swept walls. Wyrd often 
 saveth the warrior not doomed to die, if he be of good 
 courage. However, it was granted unto me to slay nine 
 sea-beasts with the sword. Never yet have I heard of 
 a more desperate nightly struggle under the vault of 
 heaven, nor of a man more sore beset among the ocean- 
 streams ; yet I escaped with my life from the clutch of 
 my foes, though spent with my adventure. The sea, 
 the current of the flood, bore me on unto the land of the 580 
 Finns. 
 
 'Naught have I heard of like exploits on thy part, 
 naught of the terror of thy sword. Breca never yet, nay, 
 nor either of you, hath wrought, so boldly in the play of 
 
14 EPIC AND HISTORICAL PIECES 
 
 battle with blood-stained swords — I boast not much 
 of that — though thou wast the slayer of thine own 
 brethren, thy next of kin ; for that thou shalt suffer 
 
 590 damnation in hell, good though thy wit may be. I say 
 unto thee truly, thou son of Ecglaf, that Grendel, the 
 fell monster, had never wrought so many awful deeds 
 against thy lord, this shame in Heorot, were thy mind 
 and heart as fierce in battle as thou thyself sayest. But 
 he has found that he need not greatly fear the enmity, 
 the dread attack, of thy people, the Victor-Scyldings. 
 He takes forced pledges from you, he spares none of 
 the Danish people, but he preys upon you for his pleas- 
 
 600 ure; he kills and feasts, and looks not for resistance 
 from the Spear-Danes. I, however, will show unto 
 him ere long the strength and courage of the Geats in 
 the fight. Thereafter let him who may, go proudly 
 to the mead-drinking when the morning-light of another 
 day, the sun in ether clad, shines from the south over 
 the children of men.' 
 
 4. BEOWULF'S FIGHT WITH GRENDEL 
 
 710 Then from the moorland, beneath the misty hillsides, 
 came Grendel drawing near; and God's anger was on 
 him. The deadly foe was thinking to ensnare some man 
 in that high hall. On he strode beneath the clouds 
 until he could see full well the wine-hall, the gilded 
 house of men, all bright with gold. This was not the 
 first time that he had sought out Hrothgar's home, but 
 never in all the days of his life, before or since, did he 
 encounter among hall-thanes warriors more sturdy. So 
 
SELECTIONS FROM BEOWULF 1$ 
 
 the creature, of all joys bereft, came roaming on unto 720 
 the hall. The door, though fast in fire-hardened bands, 
 sprang open straightway, soon as he touched it with his 
 hands. Thus, plotting evil, he burst open the entrance 
 to the hall, for he was swollen with rage. Quickly there- 
 after the fiend was treading upon the bright-paved floor, 
 moving on in wrathful mood. Out of his eyes started 
 a loathsome light, most like to flame. He saw in the 
 hall many warriors, a kindred band together, a group of 
 clansmen all asleep ; and he laughed in his heart. The 730 
 cursed monster thought to take the life from each body 
 ere the day broke; for the hope of a plenteous feast 
 was come to him. But it was not fated that he should 
 devour any more of the race of men after that night. 
 
 The mighty kinsman of Hygelac was watching to see 
 how the deadly foe would go about his swift attacks. 
 The monster thought not of tarrying, but suddenly, for 
 his first move, he seized upon a sleeping thane, rent him 740 
 in pieces unawares, bit into the flesh, drank the blood 
 from the veins, and swallowed him in huge pieces. In 
 a moment he had devoured the whole corpse, even the 
 hands and feet. He stepped on nearer, and seized with 
 his hands the great-hearted warrior on his bed. The 
 fiend clutched at him with his claw, but Beowulf quickly 
 grasped it with deadly purpose, fastening upon the arm. 
 Straightway that master of evils discovered that never 750 
 in this world, in all the corners of the earth, had he met 
 in any man a mightier hand-grip. But he could get 
 away never the faster for that. He was eager to be 
 gone; he wished to flee away into the darkness, to 
 rejoin the horde of devils ; he was not faring there 
 
l6 EPIC AND HISTORICAL PIECES 
 
 as in the former days. Then the good kinsman of 
 Hygelac bethought him of his speech at even ; he stood 
 
 760 upright and grappled him fast ; his fingers cracked. The 
 giant was making off. The hero followed him close. 
 The monster was minded to fling loose, if he could, and 
 flee away thence to the fen-hollows; but he knew that 
 the strength of his arm was in the grasp of an angry 
 foe. It was a dire journey that the destroyer had made 
 to Heorot. 
 
 Loud rang the lordly hall. All the Danes dwelling 
 in that city, nobles and heroes every one, were struck 
 
 770 with terror. Furious were both the maddened wrestlers. 
 The house reechoed. It was a great wonder that the 
 wine-hall withstood these battling foemen, that the fair 
 building fell not to the ground — save that all within and 
 without it was so firmly strengthened by iron bands, cun- 
 ningly forged. There, as I have heard men tell, many 
 a mead-bench, gold-adorned, started from its base where 
 the fierce ones were struggling. The wise councilors of 
 the Scyldings had thought that none among men would 
 
 780 ever be able to wreck by force this goodly house, bedecked 
 with bones, nor to destroy it by craft, unless perchance 
 the fire's embrace should swallow it in smoke. 
 
 A noise arose, oft renewed; a ghastly terror fell on 
 all the North-Danes who from the wall heard the shriek- 
 ing, heard God's enemy yelling out his horrid song, his 
 joyless chant — ■ hell's captive howling o'er his wound. 
 He held him fast who in his strength was the mightiest 
 
 790 of men in the day of this life. 
 
 The defense of heroes would by no means let the 
 murderer escape alive — he counted his life of no avail 
 
SELECTIONS FROM BEOWULF \^ 
 
 to any of the people. There many a warrior of Beowulf's 
 drew his old sword; they thought to protect the life of 
 their lord, the great prince, if so they might. They 
 knew not, those brave warriors, when they plunged into 
 the fight, thinking to hack the monster on every side 800 
 and take his life, that not the choicest blade on earth 
 nor battle-ax could graze that foul destroyer; for he had 
 banned weapons of war and every edged sword by a spell. 
 He was doomed to die a wretched death in the day of 
 this life; the outcast spirit must needs journey far away 
 into the power of fiends. There he found, that foe to 
 God, who many a time ere now in mirthful mood had 
 wrought mischief against the children of men, that his 810 
 wound-proof body availed him not, for the valiant kins- 
 man of Hygelac had got him by the hand. Hateful to 
 each was the life of the other. The evil beast endured 
 sore pain of body; upon his shoulder a gaping wound 
 appeared; the sinews sprang asunder, the flesh was rent 
 apart. The glory of the fight was given unto Beowulf. 
 Grendel, sick to death, was doomed to flee thence and 
 seek out his joyless abode beneath the fen-banks. Full S20 
 well he knew that the end of his life was come, the 
 appointed number of his days. By that deadly fight 
 the desire of all the Danes was satisfied. 
 
 Thus he who came from far, wise and valiant in spirit, 
 had cleansed Hrothgar's hall and freed it from danger. 
 He rejoiced in the night's work, in his heroic deeds. 
 The lord of the Geats had made good his boast to the 
 East-Danes, for he had saved them out of all their aflflic- 830 
 tion, the harrowing torment, no little sorrow, which 
 they had suffered and were doomed to bear in sad 
 
l8 EPIC AND HISTORICAL PIECES 
 
 necessity. A token of the fight was seen, when, beneath 
 the spacious roof, the warrior fiung down the hand 
 and arm and shoulder — the whole limb and claw of 
 Grendel. 
 
 5. HROTHGAR DESCRIBES THE HAUNT OF 
 GRENDEL AND HIS DAM 
 
 ' I have heard the people dwelling in my land, hall- 
 rulers, say that they had often seen two such mighty 
 stalkers of the marches, spirits of otherwhere, haunting 
 
 1350 the moors. One of them, as they could know full well, 
 was like unto a woman ; the other miscreated being, in the 
 image of man — save that he was larger than any man 
 — wandered in exile, and him in olden time the people 
 named Grendel. They know not if ever he had a father 
 among the spirits of darkness. They dwell in a hidden 
 land amid wolf -haunted slopes and savage fen-paths, nigh 
 the wind-swept cliffs where the mountain-stream falleth, 
 
 1360 shrouded in the mists of the headlands, its flood flowing 
 underground. It is not far thence in measurement 
 of miles that the mere lieth. Over it hang groves in 
 hoary whiteness; a forest with fixed roots bendeth over 
 the waters. There in the night-tide is a dread wonder 
 seen — a fire on the flood ! There is none of the chil- 
 dren of men so wise that he knoweth the depths thereof. 
 Although hard pressed by hounds, the heath-ranging 
 stag, with mighty horns, may seek out that forest, driven 
 
 1370 from afar, yet sooner will he yield up life and breath 
 upon the bank than hide his head within its waters. 
 Cheerless is the place. Thence the surge riseth wan to 
 
SELECTIONS FROM BEOWULF 19 
 
 the clouds, when the winds stir up foul weather till the 
 air thicken and the heavens weep. 
 
 ' Now once again help rests with thee alone. Thou 
 knowest not yet the spot, the savage place where thou 
 mayst find the sinful creature.' 
 
 6. A LAMENT 
 
 Many olden treasures were lying in that cave of 
 earth where a certain man in days of yore had hidden 
 away the dear possessions, taking thought for the great 
 bequest of his noble kin. Death had snatched away 
 those men in times gone by, and, at the last, the one 
 who tarried longest there of all that mighty line was 
 mourning for his friends ; yet he would fain live, that he 
 might enjoy for a little time those olden treasures. 2240 
 
 There was a new mound ready on the plain, near to 
 the cliff hard by the ocean-waves, made fast by cunning 
 craft. Thither the keeper of rings bore that heavy 
 store of beaten gold, the princely treasures; and he 
 spoke a few words: 'Now do thou hold, O Earth — 
 since heroes could not hold — this princely treasure, for 
 lo ! in thee at first the good men found it. Every man 
 of my people who hath yielded up this life, dread 2250 
 slaughter, death in war, hath swept away ; — they had 
 known the pleasures of the hall ! None have I to wield 
 the sword, none to burnish the plated beaker, the prec- 
 ious drinking-cup ; — the warrior-heroes are departed 
 otherwhere. The hard helmet, decked with gold, must 
 be bereft of its adornments ; they sleep who once did 
 brighten it, they who prepared the masks of war. 
 
20 EPIC AND HISTORICAL PIECES 
 
 Likewise the coat of mail which, amid the crash of shields, 
 was proof against the bite of swords in battle, molders 
 2260 with the hero; the byrnie may no longer make far 
 journeys with the war-leader, together with heroes. 
 There is no joy of harp, no mirth of the gleewood, no 
 good hawk swinging through the hall, no swift horse 
 beating with his hoof the castle-yard. Baleful death 
 hath sent forth many mortals on their way.' Thus, 
 alone and heavy-hearted, he sorrowfully lamented for 
 them all, mournfully weeping by day and night until the 
 surge of death touched at his heart. 
 
 7. THE PASSING OF BEOWULF 
 
 But the wound which the earth-dragon had given him 
 began to burn and swell ; presently he found that poison, 
 deadly venom, was surging in his breast. Then the 
 prince, still wise in mind, moved along so that he might 
 seat him by the mound ;i he saw that work of giants, 
 saw how the rocky arches, standing firm on their pillars, 
 within upheld the earth-hall everlasting. Then the 
 
 2720 thane 2 surpassing good, taking water, with his hands 
 bathed the great king, his own dear lord all gory and 
 wearied with battle, and loosened his helmet. 
 
 Beowulf spoke and uttered words, despite his wound, 
 his piteous battle-hurt ; full well he knew that his life of 
 earthly joy was spent, that the appointed number of his 
 days was run, and death exceeding near : 'Now would 
 
 2730 1 give my war-harness unto my son, had I been granted 
 
 1 See above, A Lament, p. 19. 
 
 ' Wiglaf, who fought with Beowulf against the dragon. 
 
SELECTIONS FROM BEOWULF 21 
 
 any heir born of my body to come after me. Fifty 
 winters have I ruled this people ; yet there was never a 
 king of all the neighbor-tribes who durst attack me with 
 the sword, or oppress me with terror. In my home I 
 awaited what the times held in store for me, kept well 
 mine own, sought out no wily quarrels, swore not many a 
 false oath. In all this I can rejoice, though death-sick 2740 
 with my wounds, inasmuch as the Ruler of men can- 
 not reproach me with murder of kinsmen, when my 
 life parteth from my body. Now do thou, dear Wiglaf, 
 lightly go and view the hoard beneath the gray rock, now 
 the dragon lieth low, sleepeth sore wounded, bereft of his 
 treasure. Do thou make haste that I may behold the 
 olden treasures, that store of gold, and look upon those 
 bright and curious gems ; and thus, having seen the treas- 
 ured wealth, I may the easier quit life and the kingdom 2750 
 which long I have ruled.' 
 
 And I have heard how the son of Weohstan after 
 these words quickly obeyed his wounded lord, sick from 
 the battle; he bore his ringed mail-shirt, the woven 
 battle-sark, beneath the roof of the cave. And the brave 
 thane, exultant victor, as he went by the seat, saw many 
 precious jewels, much glistering gold lying upon the 
 ground, and wondrous treasures on the wall, and the den 
 of the dragon, the old twilight-flier; bowls lay there, 2760 
 vessels of bygone men, with none to brighten them, their 
 adornments fallen away. There was many a helmet old 
 and rusty, many an arm-ring cunningly twisted. Treas- 
 ure of gold found in the earth can easily puff with pride 
 the heart of any man, hide it who will. Likewise he 
 saw a banner all of gold standing there, high above the 
 
22 EPIC AND HISTORICAL PIECES 
 
 hoard, greatest of wonders, woven by skill of hand ; from 
 
 4770 it there shone a ray of light, so that he could see the 
 cavern-floor, and examine the fair jewels. Naught was 
 to be seen of the dragon there, for the sword had undone 
 him! 
 
 Thus I have heard how one man alone at his own free 
 will plundered the hoard within the cave, the old work 
 of the giants, how he laid in his bosom beakers and 
 dishes ; he took the banner, too, that brightest of beacons. 
 The old lord's blade, with its iron edge, had sorely injured 
 
 2780 him who long had been the owner of these treasures, 
 who at midnight had borne about the fiery terror, dread- 
 fully surging, hot before the hoard, until he died the 
 death. 
 
 The messenger was in haste, eager to return, enriched 
 with spoils. The great-hearted man was spurred with 
 longing to know whether he would find alive the lord of 
 the Weders, albeit grievously sick, in the place where he 
 had left him. And bringing the treasures, he found the 
 
 2790 great prince, his lord, bleeding, at the point of death ; he 
 began to sprinkle him again with water, until the word's 
 point broke through the treasury of his heart and Beo- 
 wulf spoke, aged and sorrowful, as he gazed upon the 
 gold : ' I utter thanks unto the Ruler of all, King of 
 glory, the everlasting Lord, for these fair things which 
 here I look upon, inasmuch as ere my death-day I have 
 been able to win them for my people. I have sold and 
 
 2800 paid mine aged life for the treasure-hoard. Fulfil ye 
 now the needs of the people. Here can I be no more. 
 Bid the brave warriors rear a splendid mound at the sea- 
 cape after my body is burned. There on Whale's Ness 
 
SELECTIONS FROM BEOWULF 23 
 
 shall it tower high as a memorial for my people, so that 
 seafarers, they who drive from far their great ships over 
 the misty floods, may in after-time call it " Beowulf's 
 Mound." ' 
 
 The great-hearted king took from his neck the ring 
 of gold ; gave to his thane, the youthful warrior, his 2810 
 helmet, gold-adorned, his ring and his byrnie, bade him 
 enjoy them well : ' Thou art the latest left of all our 
 kin, the Waegmundings. Wyrd hath swept away all my 
 kinsmen, heroes in their might, to the appointed doom. 
 I must after them.' That was the old king's last word 
 from the thoughts of his heart, ere he yielded to the 
 bale-fire, the hotly surging flames. His soul departed 
 from out his bosom unto the reward of the righteous. 2820 
 
 8. THE FUNERAL PYRE 
 
 Then the Geatish people fashioned for him a mighty 
 pile upon the ground, all hung with helms and war-shields 
 and. bright byrnies, even as he had entreated them ; and 3140 
 in the midst of it the sorrowing men laid their great 
 king, their beloved lord.^ Then the warriors began to 
 kindle the greatest of funeral fires upon the mound. 
 Uprose the wood-smoke, black above the flame ; blazing 
 fire roared, mingled with a sound of weeping when the 
 tumult of the wind was stilled, until, hot within the 
 breast, it had consumed the bony frame. Sad at heart, 
 with care-laden soul, they mourned the fall of their 
 lord.* . . . Heaven swallowed up the smoke. 
 
 1 Note the points of likeness and difference between this and the 
 sea-burial of Scyld, p. 10. ' MS. defective. 
 
24 EPIC AND HISTORICAL PIECES 
 
 Then the Weder people made a mound upon the cliff, 
 high and broad, to be seen afar of seafaring men ; and 
 
 3160 ten days they built it, the war-hero's beacon. They 
 made a wall round about the ashes of the fire, even as 
 the wisest of men could most worthily devise. Within 
 the mound they put the rings and the jewels, all the 
 adornments which the brave-hearted men had taken 
 from the hoard ; they let the earth hold the treasure 
 of heroes, hid the gold in the ground, where it still 
 remains, as useless unto men as it was of yore. 
 
 3170 Then warriors, sons of princes, twelve in all, rode 
 about the mound ; they had in mind to bewail their sor- 
 row, mourn their king, utter the dirge, and speak of their 
 hero ; they praised his courage, and greatly commended 
 his mighty deeds. Thus it is fitting that a man should 
 praise his lord in words and cherish him in heart when 
 he must forth from the fleeting body. 
 
 So the Geatish people, companions of his hearth, 
 
 3180 mourned the fall of their lord ; said that he was a mighty 
 king, the mildest and kindest of men, most gracious to 
 his people and most desirous of praise. 
 
 Chauncey B. Tinker. 
 
THE BATTLE OF BRUNANBURH 
 
 This poem is entered in the Saxon Chronicle under the year 937, 
 as a historical document. ./Ethelstan, son of Edward the Elder, 
 grandson of Alfred, was king of the West-Saxons and Mercians 
 from 925 to 940, and became overlord of all England. His alli- 
 ance with the Frankish kings, which he formed by the marriage 
 of his sisters, made his name famous on the Continent. Gardiner 
 says of him : ' yEthelstan's greatness drew upon him the jealousy 
 of the king of the Scots and of all the northern kings. In 937 
 he defeated them all in a great battle at Brunanburh, of which 
 the site is unknown.' According to another authority, this battle 
 practically established for the time the unity of England and the 
 supremacy of the West-Saxon house. 
 
 Edmund succeeded King yEthelstan in 940. Anlaf was Olaf 
 Sitricson, also known as Olaf Cuaran, who, with his father-in-law 
 Constantine, probably led the Scots ; for his connection with 
 Havelok the Dane see Billings' Guide to the Middle English 
 Metrical Romances, New York, 1901, pp. 18 ff. Constantine was 
 Constantine II, who began to reign thirty-seven years earlier. The 
 fleet from Dublin was probably under Olaf Godfreyson. For all 
 these, and Athelstan, see the Dictionary of National Biography. 
 
 Compare Tennyson's note below, and that prefixed to the Battle 
 of Maldon, p. 31 ; Hallam Tennyson's translation will be found in 
 the Appendix, p. 178. The account of the battle should be com- 
 pared with that in the Judith, from which it is evidently imitated. 
 
 Tennyson's note. Constantinus, King of the Scots, after hav- 
 ing sworn allegiance to Athelstan, allied himself with the Danes 
 of Ireland under Anlaf, and invading England, was defeated by 
 Athelstan and his brother Edmund with great slaughter at Brunan- 
 burh in the year 937. 
 
 35 
 
26 EPIC AND HISTORICAL PIECES 
 
 i.Athelstan King, 
 Lord among Earls, 
 Bracelet-bestower and 
 Baron of Barons, 
 He with his brother, 
 Edmund Atheling, 
 Gaining a lifelong 
 Glory in battle. 
 Slew with the sword-edge 
 There by Brunanburh, 
 Brake the shield-wall, 
 Hewed the linden-wood,^ 
 Hacked the battle-shield. 
 Sons of Edward with hammered brands. 
 
 II 
 Theirs was a greatness 
 Got from their grandsires — 
 Theirs that so often in 
 Strife with their enemies 
 Struck for their hoards and their hearths and their 
 homes. 
 
 Ill 
 ) Bowed the spoiler. 
 
 Bent the Scotsman, 
 Fell the ship-crews 
 Doomed to the death. 
 
 1 I have more or less availed myself of my son's prose translation of 
 this poem in the Contemporary Review (November 1876). 
 * Shields of linden-wood. 
 
THE BATTLE OF BRUNANBURH 2^ 
 
 All the field with blood of the fighters 
 
 Flowed, from when first the great 
 
 Sun-star of morning-tide, 
 
 Lamp of the Lord God 
 
 Lord everlasting, 
 Glode over earth till the glorious creature 
 
 Sank to his setting. 
 
 IV 
 
 There lay many a man 
 Marred by the javelin. 
 Men of the Northland 
 Shot over shield. 
 There was the Scotsman 
 Weary of war. 
 
 V 
 
 We the West-Saxons, 
 Long as the daylight 
 Lasted, in companies 
 Troubled the track of the host that we hated. 
 Grimly with swords that were sharp from the grind- 
 stone. 
 Fiercely we hacked at the flyers before us. 
 
 VI 
 
 Mighty the Mercian, 
 Hard was his hand-play. 
 Sparing not any of 
 Those that with Anlaf, 
 Warriors over the 
 Weltering waters 
 
28 EPIC AND HISTORICAL PIECES 
 
 Borne in the bark's-bosom, 
 Drew to this island — 
 Doomed to the death. 
 
 VII 
 
 30 Five young kings put asleep by the sword-stroke, 
 Seven strong Earls of the army of Anlaf 
 Fell on the war-field, numberless numbers, 
 Shipmen and Scotsmen. 
 
 VIII 
 
 Then the Norse leader. 
 
 Dire was his need of it. 
 
 Few were his following. 
 
 Fled to his war-ship; 
 Fleeted his vessel to sea with the king in it. 
 Saving his life on the fallow flood. 
 
 IX 
 
 Also the crafty one, 
 
 Constantinus, 
 
 Crept to his North again. 
 
 Hoar-headed hero ! 
 
 40 
 
 X 
 
 Slender warrant had 
 
 He to be proud of 
 
 The welcome of war-knives — 
 
 He that was reft of his 
 
 Folk and his friends that had 
 
 Fallen in conflict. 
 
 Leaving his son too 
 
THE BATTLE OF BRUNANBURH 29 
 
 Lost in the carnage, 
 Mangled to morsels, 
 A youngster in war ! 
 
 XI 
 
 Slender reason had 
 
 He to be glad of 
 
 The clash of the war-glaive — 
 
 Traitor and trickster 
 
 And spurner of treaties — 
 
 He nor had Anlaf 
 
 With armies so broken 
 
 A reason for bragging 
 
 That they had the better 
 
 In perils of battle 
 
 On places of slaughter — 
 
 The struggle of standards, 
 
 The rush of the javelins, 
 
 The crash of the charges,^ 50 
 
 The wielding of weapons — 
 
 The play that they played with 
 
 The children of Edward. 
 
 XII 
 
 Then with their nailed prows 
 Parted the Norsemen, a 
 Blood-reddened relic of 
 Javelins over 
 
 The jarring breaker, the deep-sea billow, 
 Shaping their way toward Dyflen ^ again, 
 Shamed in their souls. 
 1 Lit. ' the gathering of men.' * Dublin. 
 
30 EPIC AND HISTORICAL PIECES 
 
 XIII 
 Also the brethren, 
 King and AtheHng, 
 Each in his glory, 
 Went to his own in his own West-Saxonland, 
 Glad of the war. 
 
 XIV 
 
 60 Many a carcase they left to be carrion, 
 Many a livid one, many a sallow-skin — 
 Left for the white-tailed eagle to tear it, and 
 Left for the homy-nibbed raven to rend it, and 
 Gave to the garbaging war-hawk to gorge it, and 
 That gray beast, the wolf of the weald. 
 
 XV 
 
 Never had huger 
 
 Slaughter of heroes 
 
 Slain by the sword-edge — 
 
 Such as old writers 
 
 Have writ of in histories — 
 
 Hapt in this isle, since 
 
 Up from the East hither 
 
 70 Saxon and Angle from 
 
 Over the broad billow 
 
 Broke into Britain with 
 
 Haughty war-workers who 
 
 Harried the Welshman, when 
 
 Earls that were lured by the 
 
 Hunger of glory gat 
 
 Hold of the land. 
 
 Alfred Tennyson. 
 
THE BATTLE OF MALDON 
 
 In the Saxon Chronicle, under the year 991, we are told : ' This 
 year came Unlaf [Olaf Tryggvason] with ninety-three ships to 
 Staines, and laid waste all around ; and thence he went to Sand- 
 wich, and thence to Ipswich, and harried it all, and so to Maiden, 
 and there Byrhtnoth the earl and his force came against him and 
 fought with him ; and there they slew the earl and kept the battle- 
 field. And in that year they decided to pay tribute for the first 
 time to the Danes, on account of the great terror which they 
 wrought on the sea-coast ; this tribute was at first ten thousand 
 pounds.' 
 
 The scene of the poem is Maldon in Essex, or rather the vil- 
 lage of Heybridge near by, where a bridge still crosses the Pant 
 (or Creek); the ford must have been somewhere above the bridge 
 where the direction of the stream is northerly. The Viking ships 
 lay in the stream beneath the town of Maldon (Lumsden). Olaf, 
 the favorite hero of Norse history, is the same that is celebrated 
 in Longfellow's Saga of King Olaf. ^thelred is King .tEthelred 
 the Unready (968!'-ioi6). Of the warriors of the poem, except 
 Byrhtnoth, nothing is certainly known. 
 
 Useful hints concerning the batde may be found in Lumsden's 
 article in Macmillan's Magazine 55 371, and in Freeman, Nor- 
 man Conquest, Vol. i . Other discussions of value are by Abegg, 
 Zur Entwicklung der Historischen Dichtung bei den Angelsach- 
 sen, Strassburg, 1894, and by Liebermann, in Herrig'sArchiv 101 
 I S-29. According to the latter, this battle took place on August 11, 
 991. Byrhtnoth was Earl (ealdorman') of the East-Saxons, and 
 his force was the East-Saxon militia. On the whole subject of 
 early attempts at epic writing, see Myers' A Study in Epic 
 Development, New York, 1902. 
 
 31 
 
32 EPIC AND HISTORICAL PIECES 
 
 He bade each youth turn loose his horse and drive it 
 
 far away, 
 And onward go with steadfast heart to mingle in the fray. 
 When Offa's kinsman saw the Earl no cowardice would 
 brook, 
 Off from his wrist to woodland wide his falcon dear he 
 
 shook ; 
 He joined the ranks, and straightway then might all men 
 clearly know 
 10 Never the knight would shrink from fight when armed 
 against the foe. 
 Beside his liege lord Eadric, too, in battle sought 
 to be ; 
 Forth to the war he bore his spear — a dauntless heart 
 
 had he — 
 The while he with his hands could grasp the buckler and 
 
 broad sword ; 
 Right well he kept the vow he pledged to fight before 
 his lord. 
 There Byrhtnoth ^ then arrayed his men and taught 
 them how to stand, 
 20 To keep their ranks, and fearless grasp the buckler in 
 the hand. 
 And when they were in order set, he lighted from his 
 
 steed 
 Among his own loved household-men whom he knew 
 good at need. 
 The herald of the Vikings stood beside the river shore, 
 
 1 Changed throughout from the ' Brihtnoth ' of Lumsden. — Eds. 
 
THE BATTLE OF MALDON 33 
 
 And the sea-rover's haughty words before the Earl he 
 
 bore : 
 ' From seamen bold I come : they bid that thou shalt 3° 
 
 straightway send 
 Treasure for ransom ; better 'twill be for you in the end 
 To buy with gifts our onslaught off than with us war to 
 
 hold. 
 No need to fight if ye agree — we'll make a peace for 
 
 gold: 
 If so thou orderest it, who here among the rest art chief, 
 That thou wilt set thy people free, then- bid for their 
 
 relief, 
 That they shall to the seatnen give as seamen shall decree 
 Treasure for peace ; then take ye peace, and we will put 
 
 to sea 
 With booty-laden ships, and peace henceforth between 4° 
 
 us be ! ' 
 Then Byrhtnoth lifted up his voice — his shield he 
 brandished high. 
 And shook his slender ashen shaft — and thus he made 
 
 reply. 
 Wrathful and resolute he spake : ' O thou sea-robber, 
 
 hear 
 What saith this folk ! To you they give no tribute but 
 
 the spear, 
 The venomed point, the old keen edge, and all the 
 
 battle-gear 
 That works no good for you in fight ! Go, seamen's 
 
 herald, say 
 This message of yet deeper hate: that here, an Earl, 50 
 
 I stay 
 
34 EPIC AND HISTORICAL PIECES 
 
 Undaunted with my men to guard the kingdom, folk, 
 
 and land 
 Of ^thelred my lord. In war the heathen shall not stand ! 
 That ye should with our spoil go hence unfought, since 
 
 thus ye came 
 So far into this land of ours, too great meseems the 
 
 shame ! 
 Nor think ye to win gold with ease — rather shall grim 
 __ war-play 
 
 60 And sword and spear our compact make ere we will 
 
 tribute pay!' 
 With that he bade his men go forth ; their bucklers 
 then they bore 
 Till at the landing-place they stood beside the river-shore. 
 Neither could reach the other there — between them 
 
 flowed the tide ; 
 For after ebb the flood rolled up, it filled the channel wide. 
 And till their spears together clashed too long the time 
 
 did seem 
 To Vikings and East- Saxon ranks arrayed by Panta's 
 
 stream, 
 70 For neither could the other hurt save by the arrows' 
 
 flight 
 Till ebb of tide. Then ready there and burning for the 
 
 fight 
 The Vikings stood, the seamen host. But Wulfstan — 
 
 warrior old. 
 The son of Ceola — with his kin by Byrhtnoth sent to 
 
 hold 
 The bridge against them, with the lance the foremost 
 
 Viking slew 
 
THE BATTLE OF MALDON 35 
 
 Who Stepped, foolhardy, on the bridge. With Wulfstan 
 
 heroes two, 
 .(Elfhere and Maccus, firmly stood, no passage would 80 
 
 they yield, 
 But bravely fought against the foe while they could 
 
 weapons wield. 
 Now when the hated strangers saw the bridge-wards 
 there so stout, 
 They changed their ground, and to the ford they led 
 
 their forces out. 
 Then for the heathen host the Earl made way, and overbold 90 
 Men heard the son of Byrhthelm shout across the waters 
 
 cold : 
 ' Lo ! here is room for you ! Come on, come warriors to 
 
 the fray ! 
 God only knows which of us twain shall hold the field 
 
 to-day.' 
 Then onward came the wolves of war, they recked not 
 
 of the flood ; 
 Westward o'er Panta's gleaming waves they bore their 
 
 shields and stood 
 Upon the bank. There 'gainst their foes were Byrht- 100 
 
 noth's men arrayed. 
 And at his word they held their ground and buckler- 
 wall they made. 
 Now drew the time of glorious deeds, the tide of battle 
 nigh; 
 And now the fatal hour was come when death-doomed 
 
 men must die! 
 Now loud uprose the battle-cry, and, greedy for their 
 
 prey, 
 
36 EPIC AND HISTORICAL PIECES 
 
 The ravens wheeled, the eagles screamed. On earth 
 was noise of fray ! 
 From hand was hurled the sharp-filed spear, the 
 whetted arrow flew, 
 no The bow was busy, shield met spear, and fierce the 
 combat grew. 
 
 On either side brave soldiers fell. There Byrhtnoth's 
 kinsman died, 
 
 Wulfmser, his sister's son, all hewn with sword-wounds 
 deep and wide. 
 
 But to the Vikings recompense was fully paid ; I know 
 
 That Eadward smote one with his sword, nor did the 
 stroke forego 
 I20 Till at his feet the doomed foe lay. For this his lord 
 gave thanks 
 
 To his bower-thane in season due. Thus stoutly in the 
 ranks 
 
 The warriors fought with weapons sharp, and each one 
 strove to be 
 
 The first whose spear might reach the life of death- 
 doomed enemy. 
 
 On earth was slaughter ! Firm they stood ; and Byrht- 
 noth's words of flame 
 
 Stirred every heart to bide the brunt and win a glorious 
 name. 
 130 Forth went the hero old in war, he raised his shelter- 
 ing shield 
 
 And shook his spear, and onward went into the battle- 
 field. 
 
 Thus of one mind went earl to churl — alike their fell 
 intent. 
 
THE BATTLE OF MALDON 37 
 
 A southern lance the warrior's lord now pierced, by 
 
 Viking sent ; 
 But with his shield he thrust at it, the shaft to splinters 
 
 broke, 
 And bent the head till out it sprang; then fierce his 
 
 wrath awoke, 
 And at the foe who dealt . the wound he hurled his 
 
 deadly spear. 
 Skilled was the leader of the host — he sent the javelin 140 
 
 sheer 
 Through the youth's neck ; his guiding hand that Viking 
 
 sought to slay; 
 And then another swift he shot, through corslet it made 
 
 way, 
 And in the heart through rings of mail the venomed 
 
 lance-head stood. 
 •The blither was the Earl for that — he laughed, the 
 
 bold of mood, 
 And for the day's work rendered thanks that God to 
 
 him had given. 
 But from a warrior's clenched hand a dart was fiercely 150 
 driven. 
 Too sure it went, and pierced the noble thane of .^Ethelred. 
 Besides him stood a beardless youth — a boy in battle 
 
 dread — 
 Young Wulfmaer, son of Wulfstan ; he swift from the 
 
 hero drew 
 The bloody dart and hurled it back ; the hardened spear- 
 head flew. 
 And on the earth the Viking lay who thus had reached 
 
 his lord. 
 
38 EPIC AND HISTORICAL PIECES 
 
 Then rushed a warrior armed to seize the goodly graven 
 
 sword, 
 i6o Bracelets, and corslet of the Earl, but Byrhtnoth drew 
 
 his blade, 
 Brown-edged and broad, and fierce the strokes he on his 
 
 corslet laid. 
 Too soon another smote his arm and hindered him. 
 
 Then rolled 
 On earth the yellow-hilted sword, nor longer could he hold 
 Keen blade, nor weapon wield ; but still the gray-haired 
 
 leader bade 
 170 His men keep heart and onward press, good comrades 
 
 undismayed. 
 No longer could he stand upright, his eyes to heaven 
 he bent : 
 ' Ruler of nations ! I give thanks for all that Thou hast 
 
 lent 
 Of joys in this world. Now have I, O gracious Lord ! 
 
 most need 
 That Thou show favor to my soul, that it to Thee may 
 
 speed, 
 And to Thy kingdom. Lord of angels! pass in peace. 
 
 I pray 
 180 That hell-foes do me no despite.' 
 
 They hewed him as he lay — 
 The heathen dogs ! — and two with him, .^Elfnoth and 
 
 Wulfmser ; there 
 Beside their lord they gave their lives. Then those who 
 
 did not dare 
 To bide the battle turned away, and foremost in the 
 
 flight 
 
THE BATTLE OF MALDON 39 
 
 Were Odda's sons : Godric forsook his leader and the 
 
 fight; 
 On his lord's horse he basely leaped— he who from that 190 
 
 kind man 
 Had many a horse received — and with him both his 
 
 brothers ran. 
 Godrinc and Godwy turned and fled, they cared not for 
 
 the strife, 
 But sought the fastness of the wood and saved their 
 
 coward life ! 
 And many more ran with them than beseemed if they 
 
 had thought 
 Of all the good in happier times the Earl for them had 
 
 wrought, 
 So in the mead-hall at the moot had Offa said one day, 
 That many there spoke boldly who at need would fall 200 
 
 away. 
 Thus fell the leader of the host, the Earl of ^thelred, 
 And all his hearth-companions saw that there their lord 
 
 lay dead. 
 But hotly thither came proud thanes and dauntless 
 men drew nigh ; 
 One thing alone they all desired — to take revenge or die! 
 Young yElfwine, .(Elfric's son was he, thus boldly spake 210 
 
 to all 
 And cheered them on : ' O think how oft we've sat — 
 
 brave men in hall ! — 
 And on the benches o'er the mead made boast of deeds 
 
 in fight ! 
 Now let the truly brave be seen! I will in all men's 
 
 sight 
 
40 EPIC AND HISTORICAL PIECES 
 
 Uphold my ancestry ; I come of noble Mercian race, 
 Ealhelm my grandsire was — a ruler wise and high in 
 
 place ; 
 220 And never shall my people's thanes reproach me that 
 
 I fled 
 To seek my native land, and left my leader lying dead — 
 To me the worst of ills, for he my kinsman was and lord ! ' 
 Then forward burning for revenge he rushed, and with 
 
 his sword 
 He smote a seaman 'mong the foe (on earth the heathen 
 
 lay 
 Hewn with the weapon) and he cheered his comrades to 
 
 the fray. 
 230 '.(Elf wine, well said!' cried Off a then, and shook his 
 
 ashen spear, 
 ' Full surely it behoves us all, when slain our lord lies here. 
 To cheer each other on to fight while we can weapons 
 
 wield. 
 Good sword, hard brand, or lance ! Nigh lost to us hath 
 
 been the field 
 Through Godric, Odda's dastard son ; when on the noble 
 
 steed 
 240 He rode away, too many deemed it was our lord indeed, 
 And thus the folk were all dismayed — broken the 
 
 buckler-wall ; 
 On his foul deed that wrought such flight my curses 
 
 ever fall ! ' 
 Leofsunu to the warriors spake and raised his linden 
 shield : 
 'A vow I've made that one foot's length here will I 
 
 never yield, 
 
THE BATTLE OF MALDON 41 
 
 But to revenge my dear loved lord right onward will I 
 
 fare! 
 Round Stourmere never shall they say — the sturdy 
 
 fighters there — 
 The scornful words that, now my lord is fallen, I turned 250 
 
 from fray 
 And went home lordless ! No ! me rather spear and 
 
 sword shall slay ! ' 
 Wrathful he rushed, he scorned to flee, but fought with 
 
 steadfast heart. 
 Dunhere (an aged churl was he) then spoke and shook 
 his dart ; 
 Each warrior to revenge the earl he bade, and loud o'er 
 
 all, 
 'Let him,' he cried, 'who on the foe would wreak his 
 
 leader's fall 
 Brook no delay, nor care for life ! ' And onward went 260 
 
 they then — 
 Regardless of their lives they went. Fiercely the house- 
 hold men. 
 The grim spear-bearers fought ; to God they prayed that 
 
 they might take 
 Full vengeance on their enemies for their loved leader's 
 
 sake. 
 The hostage .^scferth, Ecglaf 's son, now helped them 
 readily, 
 (Of stout Northumbrian race he came) ; never at all 
 
 paused he 
 In war-play, but continually he let his arrows go ; 
 Sometimes with them he struck a shield, and sometimes 270 
 
 pierced a foe ; 
 
42 EPIC AND HISTORICAL PIECES 
 
 With every shot he dealt a wound while he could weapons 
 
 wield. 
 
 Eager and fierce tall Eadward stood, the foremost in 
 
 the field, 
 
 Never a foot length would he flee, thus haughtily he spoke. 
 
 Nor turn his back on his dead lord ! The buckler-wall 
 
 he broke. 
 And fought the foe till, ere he died, full vengeance he 
 
 had wrought. 
 For his wealth-giver, on the Danes. And fiercely like- 
 wise fought 
 280 His noble comrade Sigbyrht's brother ^Etheric, brave 
 and true. 
 And many more ; the keelM shields they clove, they 
 
 sternly slew. 
 All broken was the buckler's edge — dreadful the cors- 
 lets' song! 
 Now Off a struck and felled to earth a seaman 'mid 
 the throng. 
 But there Gadd's kinsman bit the dust — too soon was 
 Offa slain ! 
 290 Yet he fulfilled the vow he pledged his lord that both 
 again 
 Should ride safe homeward to the burgh, or wounded in 
 
 the fray 
 Die on the battle-field. Thane-like, beside his lord, he 
 lay! 
 Loud clashed the shields ! Oft went the spear through 
 doomed man's house of life 1 
 The Vikings, burning for the war, came on. Then to 
 the strife 
 
THE BATTLE OF MALDON 43 
 
 Wigstan the son of Thurstan rushed, and in the crowd 
 
 slew three 
 Ere he lay dead. 'Twas fiercest moot ! The warriors 3°° 
 
 steadfastly 
 In battle stood and wounded fell. On earth was slaughter 
 
 dire ! 
 Oswald and Ealdwold all the while still kept the ranks 
 
 entire, 
 And both the brothers with fit words besought their 
 
 kinsmen dear 
 Unflinchingly to bide the brunt and wield the sword and 
 
 spear. 
 Then Byrhtwold the old comrade spoke ; he shook his 310 
 ashen dart 
 And grasped his shield and proudly cried : ' The bolder 
 
 be each heart. 
 Each spirit sterner, valor more, now that our strength 
 
 is less ! 
 Here our good leader lies on earth; may he who now 
 
 from stress 
 Of war-play turns, for ever rue ! Full old of years am I — 
 Hence will I never, but beside my lord I hope to lie, 
 The man beloved ! ' 
 
 So Godric, too, the son of ^thelgar, 320 
 Cheered on the warriors to the fight. Oft flew his spear 
 
 afar — 
 His deadly spear — and Vikings smote : then rushing on 
 
 the foe 
 Foremost of all he cut and hewed till battle laid him low. 
 Not that same Godric he who turned from fight. . . 
 
 H. W. LUMSDEN. 
 
II 
 
 SECULAR LYRICS 
 
 THE SEAFARER 
 
 Date and author unknown. The German scholar Rieger sug- 
 gested that the poem was a dialog between an old mariner and 
 a young man who longed to go to sea, the parts being thus 
 distributed (0 = old, Y = young): .0. 1-33 (^graiti); Y. 33-38 
 O. ■y)-\T, Y. 48-52 {tides) \, O. 53-57 (exile); Y. 58-71 (depart) 
 O. 71-124. Kluge recognizes only two dramatic speeches 
 O. 1-33 ; Y. 33-64 (or 66), regarding what follows as by another 
 author, who unskilfully combines homiletical and gnomic sentences 
 with a bit of elegy (8ot'-g3, The days — earth), certain lines (69, 
 72-74, I lo-i 1 5) being wholly or partially unintelligible. Ebert, 
 on the other hand, believes the whole a monolog by a single hand. 
 
 The earlier part reminds one of Tennyson's Ulysses : 
 
 My purpose holds 
 To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths 
 Of all the western stars, until I die. 
 
 PART I 
 
 (yi can sing of myself a true song, of my voyages telling, 
 How oft through laborious days, through the wearisome 
 
 hours 
 I have suffered ; have borne tribulations ; explored in 
 my ship, 
 
 44 
 
THE SEAFARER 45 
 
 Mid the terrible rolling of waves, habitations of sorrow. 
 Benumbed by the cold, oft the comfortless night-watch 
 
 hath held me 
 At the prow of my craft as it tossed about under the 
 
 cliffs. 
 My feet were imprisoned with frost, were fettered with 
 
 ice-chains, 
 Yet hotly were wailing the querulous sighs round my lo 
 
 heart; 
 And hunger within me, sea-wearied, made havoc of 
 
 courage. 
 This he, whose lot happily chances on land, doth not 
 know; 
 Nor how I on the ice-cold sea passed the winter in exile, 
 In wretchedness, robbed of my kinsmen, with icicles 
 
 hung. 
 The hail flew in showers about me; and there I heard 
 
 only 
 The roar of the sea, ice-cold waves, and the song of the 
 
 swan ; 
 For pastime the gannets' cry served me ; the kittiwakes' 20 
 
 chatter 
 For laughter of men; and for mead-drink the call of the 
 
 sea-mews. 
 When storms on the rocky cliffs beat, then the terns, 
 
 icy-feathered. 
 Made answer ; full oft the sea-eagle forebodingly 
 
 screamed, 
 The eagle with pinions wave-wet. There none of my 
 
 kinsmen 
 Might gladden my desolate soul ; of this little he knows 
 
46 SECULAR LYRICS 
 
 Who possesses the pleasures of life, who has felt in the 
 
 city 
 Some hardship, some trifling adversity, proud and wine- 
 flushed. 
 30 How weary I oft had to tarry upon the sea-way ! 
 The shadows of night became darker, it snowed from 
 
 the north ; 
 The world was enchained by the frost ; hail fell upon 
 
 earth ; 
 'Twas the coldest of grain. Yet the thoughts of my 
 
 heart now are throbbing 
 To test the high streams, the salt waves in tumultuous 
 
 play. 
 Desire in my heart ever urges my spirit to wander 
 To seek out the home of the stranger in lands afar off. 
 There is no one that dwells upon earth, so exalted in 
 mind, 
 40 So large in his bounty, nor yet of such vigorous youth. 
 Nor so daring in deeds, nor to whom his liege lord is so 
 -^ kind, 
 
 But that he has always a longing, a sea-faring passion 
 I For what the Lord God shall bestow, be it honor or 
 
 death. 
 No heart for the harp has he, nor for acceptance of 
 
 treasure. 
 No pleasure has he in a wife, no delight in the world, 
 Nor in aught save the roll of the billows ; but always a 
 
 longing, 
 A yearning uneasiness, hastens him on to the sea. 
 ■-1 The woodlands are captured by blossoms, the hamlets 
 '' grow fair, 
 
THE SEAFARER 47 
 
 Broad meadows are beautiful, earth again bursts into 
 
 life, 
 And all stir the heart of the wanderer eager to journey, 5° 
 So he meditates going afar on the pathway of tides. 
 Q The cuckoo, moreover, gives warning with sorrowful 
 
 note. 
 Summer's harbinger sings, and forebodes to the heart 
 
 bitter sorrow. 
 The nobleman comprehends not, the luxurious man. 
 What some must endure, who travel the farthest in exile. 
 A^- Now my spirit uneasily turns in the heart's narrow 
 chamber, 
 Now wanders forth over the tide, o'er the home of the 60 
 
 whale. 
 To -the ends of the earth — and comes back to me. 
 
 Eager and greedy. 
 The lone wanderer screams, and resistlessly drives my 
 
 soul onward. 
 Over thejwhale-path, over the tracts of the sea. 
 
 PART II 
 
 The delights of the Lord are far dearer to me than this 
 
 dead. 
 Fleeting life upon earth, for I can not believe that earth's 
 
 riches 
 For ever endure. Each one of three things, ere its time 
 
 comes. 
 Is always uncertain : violence, age, and disease 70 
 
 Wrench the soul away, doomed to depart, ^his is praise 
 
 from the living, 
 
48 SECULAR LYRICS 
 
 From those who speak afterwards, this the best fame 
 
 after death — 
 That ere he departed he labored, and wrought daring 
 
 deeds 
 'Gainst the malice of fiends, and the devil ; so men shall 
 
 extol him, 
 His praise among angels shall live, ever, world without 
 
 end, 
 80 His the blessing of life everlasting, and joy mid the hosts. 
 The days have departed, all pomps of earth's kingdom 
 have vanished ; 
 There now are no kings, no emperors now, no gold- 
 givers 
 As of yore, when they wrought in their midst the most 
 
 glorious deeds, 
 And lived in the lordliest power. This glory has fallen, 
 Delights have all vanished away ; the weak ones remain, 
 And these govern the world, obtaining their pleasure 
 
 with effort. 
 Power has declined, earth's glory grows aged and sear, 
 90 Like every man now in the world ; old age overtakes him. 
 His countenance loses its color, gray-haired he laments ; 
 He has seen his old friends, sons of princes, consigned 
 
 to the earth. 
 This garment of flesh has no power, when the spirit 
 escapes. 
 To drink in the sweet nor to taste of the bitter ; it then 
 Has no power to stretch forth the hands or to think with 
 
 the mind. 
 Though the grave should be covered with gold by the 
 
 nearest of kin, 
 
THE SEAFARER 49 
 
 Be buried along with the dead in masses of treasure, 
 Still that will not go with them. Gold can no substitute 
 
 be 
 For the fear of the Lord, to the soul which is laden with loo 
 
 sin, 
 Which aforetime, so long as it lived, kept that treasure 
 concealed. 
 Great is the fear of the Lord; the earth trembles ^ 
 before it ; 
 He established the unmovable earth, the world and the 
 
 heavens. 
 Foolish is he who stands not in awe of the Lord — 
 Unexpectedly death comes upon him ; but happy is he 
 Who lives humble in mind, to him cometh honor from 
 
 heaven ; 
 God doth establish the soul that believes in His might. I 
 One should check a strong will, and should govern it 
 firmly. 
 Be true unto men, and be clean in his manner of life. ... no 
 Fate, God the Cl^tQi") is stronger than any man's will. 
 Come, let us reflect where our home is, consider the 
 way 
 By which we go thither ; then let us each strive to press 
 
 forward 
 To joy everlasting, where life has its source in God's love, 120 
 Where is heavenly hope. Then to Him who is holy be 
 
 thanks, 1 
 
 Because He hath honored us; thanks to the Ruler of 
 
 Heaven, 
 The Lord everlasting, throughout all the ages ! Amen. 
 
 LaMotte Iddings. 
 
THE WANDERER 
 
 Date and author unknown. The theme of the poem — the 
 cruelty of Wyrd, goddess of Fate — seems to suggest that the work 
 may have been written before the Christianization of the English. 
 Lines i and 2 must then be regarded as the interpolation of some 
 later bard or scribe. All this, however, is mere conjecture. The 
 theme of the passing of earth's joy and loveliness is not uncom- 
 mon in Old English literature. Compare especially The Ruined 
 City (p. 56) and Beowulf {A Lament, p. 19). 
 
 The same subject of the lost lord is differentiy treated in Dear's 
 Lament (p. 58). 
 
 'Still the lone one and desolate waits for his Maker's 
 
 ruth — 
 God's good mercy, albeit so long it tarry, in sooth. 
 Careworn and sad of heart, on the watery ways must he 
 Plow with the hand-grasped oar — how long ? — the 
 
 rime-cold sea. 
 Tread thy paths of exile, O Fate, who art cruelty.' 
 Thus did a wanderer speak, being heart-full of woe, 
 and all 
 Thoughts of the cruel slayings, and pleasant comrades' 
 
 fall: 
 ' Morn by morn I, alone, am fain to utter my woe ; 
 Now is there none of the living to whom I dare to show 
 Plainly the thought of my heart ; in very sooth I know 
 Excellent is it in man that his breast he straightly bind, 
 
 5° 
 
THE WANDERER 5 1 
 
 Shut fast his thinkings in silence, whatever he have in 
 
 his mind. 
 The man that is weary in heart, he never can fate with- 
 stand ; 
 The man that grieves in his spirit, he finds not the 
 
 helper's hand. 
 Therefore the glory-grasper full heavy of soul may be. 
 So, far from my fatherland, and mine own good kinsmen 20 
 
 free, 
 I must bind my heart in fetters, for long, ah ! long ago, 
 The earth's cold darkness covered my giver of gold 
 
 brought low ; 
 And I, sore stricken and humbled, and winter-saddened, 
 
 went 
 Far over the frost-bound waves to seek for the dear 
 
 content 
 Of the hall of the giver of rings ; but far nor near could 
 
 I find 
 Who felt the love of the mead-hall, or who with comforts 
 
 kind 
 Would comfort me, the friendless. 'T is he alone will 
 
 know. 
 Who knows, being desolate too, how evil a ferejs woe ; 30 
 For him the path of the exile, and not the twisted gold ; 
 For him the frost in his bosom, and not earth-riches old. 
 'O, well he remembers the hall-men, the treasure 
 bestowed in the hall ; 
 The feast that his gold-giver made him, the joy at its 
 
 highth, at its fall ; 
 He knows who must be forlorn for his dear lord's 
 
 counsels gone. 
 
52 SECULAR LYRICS 
 
 40 Where sleep and sorrow together are binding the lonely 
 
 one ; 
 When himthinks he clasps and kisses his leader of men, 
 
 and lays 
 His hands and head on his knee, as when, in the good 
 
 yore-days, 
 He sat on the throne of his might, in the strength that 
 
 wins and saves. 
 But the friendless man awakes, and he sees the yellow 
 
 waves, 
 And the sea-birds dip to the sea, and broaden their wings 
 
 to the gale. 
 And he sees the dreary rime, and the snow commingled 
 
 with hail. 
 50 O, then are the wounds of his heart the sorer much 
 
 for this, 
 The grief for the loved and lost made new by the dream 
 
 of old bliss. 
 His kinsmen's memory comes to him as he lies asleep. 
 And he greets it with joy, with joy, and the heart in his 
 
 breast doth leap ; 
 But out of his ken the shapes of his warrior-comrades 
 
 swim 
 To the land whence seafarers bring no dear old saws for 
 
 him ; 
 Then fresh grows sorrow and new to him whose bitter 
 
 part 
 Is to send o'er the frost-bound waves full often his weary 
 
 heart. 
 For this do I look around this world, and cannot see 
 Wherefore or why my heart should not grow dark in me. 
 
THE WANDERER 53 
 
 When I think of the lives of the leaders, the clansmen 60 
 
 mighty in mood ; 
 When I think how sudden and swift they yielded the 
 
 place where they stood. 
 So droops this mid-earth and falls, and never a man is 
 
 found 
 Wise ere a many winters have girt his life around. 
 Full patient the sage must be, and he that would counsel 
 
 teach — 
 Not over-hot in his heart, nor over-swift in his speech ; 
 Nor faint of soul nor secure, nor fain for the fight nor 
 
 afraid ; 
 Nor ready to boast before he know himself well arrayed. 
 The proud-souled man must bide when he utters his 70 
 
 vaunt, until 
 He know of the thoughts of the heart, and whitherward 
 
 turn they will. 
 The prudent must understand how terror and awe 
 
 shall be. 
 When the glory and weal of the world lie waste, as now 
 
 men see 
 On our mid-earth, many a where, the wind-swept walls 
 
 arise. 
 And the ruined dwellings and void, and the rime that on 
 
 them lies.i 
 The wine-halls crumble, bereft of joy the warriors lie. 
 The flower of the doughty fallen, the proud ones fair to 
 
 the eye. 
 War took off some in death, and one did a strong bird 80 
 
 bear 
 
 1 Cf. The Ruined City, p. 56. 
 
S4 SECULAR LYRICS 
 
 Over the deep ; and one — his bones did the gray wolf 
 share ; 
 
 And one was hid in a cave by a comrade sorrowful- 
 faced. 
 
 O, thus the Shaper of men hath laid the earth all 
 waste, 
 
 Till the works of the city-dwellers, the works of the 
 giants of earth, 
 
 Stood empty and lorn of the burst of the mighty revelers' 
 mirth. 
 ' Who wisely hath mused on this wallstead, and 
 ponders this dark life well, 
 90 In his heart he hath often bethought him of slayings 
 many and fell, 
 
 And these be the words he taketh, the thoughts of his 
 heart to tell : 
 
 " Where is the horse and the rider.' ^ Where is the giver 
 of gold .' 
 
 Where be the seats at the banquet ? Where be the hall- 
 joys of old .'' 
 
 Alas for the burnished cup, for the byrnied chief to-day ! 
 
 Alas for the strength of the prince ! for the time hath 
 passed away — 
 
 Is hid 'neath the shadow of night, as it never had been 
 at all. 
 
 Behind the dear and doughty there standeth now a wall, 
 
 A wall that is wondrous high, and with wondrous snake- 
 work wrought. 
 
 The strength of the spears hath fordone the earls and 
 hath made them naught, 
 
 iCf. Beowulf 24$5S. 
 
THE WANDERER 55 
 
 The weapons greedy of slaughter, and she, the mighty loo 
 
 Wyrd ; 
 And the tempests beat on the rocks, and the storm-wind 
 
 that maketh afeard — 
 The terrible storm that fetters the earth, the winter- 
 bale. 
 When the shadow of night falls wan, and wild is the 
 
 rush of the hail, 
 The cruel rush from the north, which maketh men, to 
 
 quail. 
 Hardship-full is the earth, o'ertumed when the stark 
 
 Wyrds say : 
 Here is the passing of riches, here friends are passing 
 
 away; 
 And men and kinsfolk pass, and nothing and none may 
 
 stay; 
 And all this earth-stead here shall be empty and void no 
 
 one day." , .' 
 
 Emily H. Hickey. 
 
THE RUINED CITY 
 
 A fragmentary poem of forty-eight lines, whose date and author 
 are unknown. References to hot springs (11. 39, 41) and possible 
 Roman architecture have led to the conjecture that the ruined city 
 was Bath. Bath may have been plundered by the Saxons ; in 
 the Chronicle under date 577 we read, 'This year Cuthwine and 
 Ceawlin fought against the Britons . . . and took three cities from 
 them, Gloucester, and Cirencester, and Bath.' Moreover we have 
 the testimony of a geologist (Mr. C. Moore) to the effect that the 
 topography of Bath gives evidence of a period following the 
 Roman occupation when the city was deserted, and became con- 
 verted into a swamp. All this, however, seems to argue an earlier 
 date than we can possibly assign to the poem. For a discussion 
 of the poem see Earle's An Ancient Saxon Poem of a City in 
 Ruins, Bath, 1872, and Wiilker's Grundriss zur Geschichte der 
 Angelsdchsischen Litteratur. The close of The Wanderer (see 
 p. 54) reads almost like a portion of this poem. 
 
 Wondrously wrought and fair its wall of stone, 
 Shattered by Fate ! The castles rend asunder, 
 The work of giants moldereth away, 
 Its roofs are breaking and falling ; its towers crumble 
 In ruin. Plundered those walls with grated doors — 
 Their mortar white with frost. Its battered ramparts 
 Are shorn away and ruined, all undermined 
 By eating age. The mighty men that built it. 
 Departed hence, undone by death, are held 
 Fast in the earth's embrace. Tight is the clutch 
 
 56 
 
THE RUINED CITY 57 
 
 Of the grave, while overhead for living men 
 A hundred generations pass away. 
 
 Long this red wall, now mossy gray, withstood, lo 
 While kingdom followed kingdom in the land. 
 Unshaken 'neath the storms of heaven — yet now 
 Its towering gate hath fallen. . . . 
 
 Radiant the mead-halls in that city bright, 
 Yea, many were its baths. High rose its wealth 
 Of hornM pinnacles, while loud within 
 Was heard the joyous revelry of men — 
 Till mighty Fate came with her sudden change ! aj 
 
 ■Wide- wasting was the battle where they fell. 
 Plague-laden days upon the city came ; 
 Death snatched away that mighty host of men.^. . . 
 
 There in the olden time full many a thane. 
 Shining with gold, all gloriously adorned. 
 Haughty in heart, rejoiced when hot with wine ; 
 Upon him gleamed his armor, and he gazed 
 On gold and silver and all precious gems ; 
 On riches and on wealth and treasured jewels, 
 A radiant city in a kingdom wide. 
 
 There stood the courts of stone. Hotly within. 
 The stream flowed with its mighty surge. The wall 40 
 Surrounded all with its bright bosom ; there 
 The baths stood, hot within its heart. . . . 
 
 Chauncey B. Tinker. 
 
 1 Several exceedingly obscure lines are omitted at this point. 
 
DEOR'S LAMENT 
 
 Date and author unknown. This is the only poem in Old 
 English in strophic form, with a refrain. 
 
 Other references to the life of the minstrel may be found in 
 Widsith (p. 3) and The Wanderer (p. 50). 
 
 For the Weland myth referred to in the first two stanzas, see 
 Vigfusson and Powell's Corpus Poeticum Boreale i 168 ff. For 
 the other myths, consult G. Binz's Zeugnisse zur Germanischen 
 Sage in England, in Paul and Braune's Beitrdge 20 141 ff. 
 
 (A free paraphrase.) 
 
 Weland, the constant-hearted, knew well what sorrow 
 
 meant, 
 When woman's vengeance laid him low and woke his 
 
 long lament. 
 Grief was his life-long comrade ; he felt her cold 
 
 caress 
 When Nithhad lamed his limbs and on him laid that 
 
 long distress. 
 Yet he strove on, and overcame ; nor shall my strength 
 be less. 
 
 And on the breast of Beadohild her brothers' murder 
 lay 
 10 Less heavy than her own soul's grief, when on that 
 hateful day 
 
 S8 
 
DEOR'S LAMENT 59 
 
 Her heart first knew what burden her outraged body 
 
 bore, 
 Awaking from that hideous dream, her woe for ever- 
 more. 
 Yet she strove on, and overcame ; shall I my griefs 
 deplore ? 
 
 All know Hild's shameful fortune and that god's 
 
 unfathomed sorrow 
 Who through love's wakeful years of night watched 
 
 weeping for the morrow ; 
 All know how King Theodoric, by that accursed spell. 
 Kept, motionless, for thirty years, the Maerings' 
 citadel. 
 Yet these strove on, and overcame ; I can endure as zo 
 well. 
 
 And all have heard of Eormanric, king of the wolfish 
 
 heart, 
 Who scourged the Gothic kingdoms, and made his 
 
 subjects smart ; 
 And many a man of sorrows, ■p'ith sudden woe oppressed, 
 Cried bitterly for vengeance as he beat his stricken 
 breast. 
 Yet these strove on, and overcame ; shall I not stand 
 the test .? 
 
 (Outcast, and sorrowing in his soul, 
 
 The aged harper chants his dole. 
 
 And, o'er the strings his gray head bending, 
 
 Sees in his heart but woe unending. 30 
 
6o SECULAR LYRICS 
 
 Let him remember, and take cheer ; 
 The good Lord God of heaven draws near, 
 Who for our sowing gives just reaping. 
 And makes an end of this world's weeping.) 
 
 I, Deor of the Heodenings, was dear to my good lord, 
 And did long minstrel service, nor missed my due 
 reward ; 
 40 Till now this mightier minstrel thrusts my lord and 
 me apart, 
 And wins my lands and living with the wiles of his 
 high art. 
 He has his day ; he overcame ; but peace ! break not, 
 my heart ! 
 
 Charlton M. Lewis. 
 
A LOVE-LETTER 
 
 The poem falls into two parts, lines 1-17 and lines 18-70. 
 The first of these is a description by the letter itself — i.e. the 
 slip of bark or wood on which the message is carved — of its 
 former life and its transformation into its present guise; the 
 second part contains the message of the lover. Throughout it is 
 the letter, not the lover, that speaks. This relation has not been 
 generally recognized. The parts were formerly designated respec- 
 tively as Riddle 61 and The Husband^s Message. The present 
 arrangement was suggested by Professor F. A. Blackburn in the 
 Journal of Germanic Philology, 3 i ff., where the present trans- 
 lation is found. His argument and his edition of the original text 
 may be consulted there. 
 
 The runes at lines 66, 67 are supposed to be a cipher or pass- 
 word sent to the lady. 
 
 My home was on the beach near the sea-shore ; 
 Beside the ocean's brim I dwelt, fast fixed 
 In my first abode. Few of mankind there were 
 That there beheld my home in the solitude, 
 But every morn the brown wave encircled me 
 With its watery embrace. Little weened I then 
 That I should ever, earlier or later. 
 Though mouthless, speak among the mead-drinkers 
 And utter words. A great marvel it is. 
 Strange in the mind that knoweth it not. 
 How the point of the knife and the right hand. 
 The thought of a man, and his blade therewith, 
 61 
 
62 SECULAR LYRICS 
 
 Shaped me with skill, that boldly I might 
 
 So deliver a message to thee 
 
 In the presence of us two alone, 
 
 That to other men our talk 
 
 May not make it more widely known. 
 
 Now to thee will I tell apart 
 That I sprang from the stock of the tree-race. 
 
 zo In other lands the skill of man is wont 
 
 To set on me cunning characters. 
 Then in a vessel I traverse the salt waves ; 
 Oft in the prison of a ship have I visited lands, 
 Where my lord has sent me. 
 And lofty castles. Now am I come hither 
 In the keeled vessel, and now shalt thou know 
 How thou mayest think in thy heart 
 Of the love of my lord. I dare maintain 
 That there thou wilt find true loyalty. 
 
 30 Lo ! he that carved this stave bade me 
 
 Pray thee, O jewel-decked, to remember 
 In thy heart the word-pledges, 
 Which in days of yore ye two oft spake. 
 While in the mead-castles ye were permitted 
 To have a home, to dwell in the same land. 
 To practice friendship. Force drove him 
 Out of the land. Now hath he bidden me 
 Earnestly to urge thee to sail the sea 
 When thou hast heard on the brow of the hill 
 
 40 The mournful cuckoo call in the wood. 
 
 Then let no living man keep thee 
 From the journey or hinder thy going. 
 Betake thee to the sea, the honie of the mew ; 
 
A LOVE-LETTER 63 
 
 Seat thee in the boat, that southward from here 
 
 Beyond the road of the sea thou mayest find the man 
 
 Where waits thy prince in hope of thee. 
 
 No joy of the world can be greater for him 
 
 In his thoughts, as he hath told me, 
 
 Than that the all-ruling God should grant you 
 
 That ye together should hereafter 5° 
 
 Give out treasure to men and comrades, 
 
 Golden rings. Enough he hath 
 
 Of beaten gold, of wealth and treasure, 
 
 Since among strangers he hath a home, 
 
 A fair abode ; there obey him many 
 
 Noble warriors, though here my banished lord. 
 
 Driven by necessity, pushed out his boat 
 
 And on the path of the waves was forced to run, 
 
 To journey on the water-way, eager for escape, 
 
 To stir the waves. Now hath the man 60 
 
 Overcome his trouble; he hath no lack of pleasures. 
 
 Of steeds or of jewels, or of mead-joys, 
 
 Or of any treasure on earth, 
 
 O prince's daughter, if he have thee 
 
 In spite of the old threat against you both. 
 
 I put together S R 
 EA W and M(D.?), to assure thee with an oath 
 That while he lives he will fulfill 
 The pledge and the love-troth 
 
 That in days of old ye often spake. 70 
 
 Francis A. Blackburn. 
 
THE BANISHED WIFE'S COMPLAINT 
 
 Date and author unknown. Trautmann {Anglia i6 207 ff.) 
 suggests that The Wife's Complaint and The Husband'' s Message 
 (see above, p. 61 : A Love-Letter) are only fragments of one long 
 narrative. The poem is, however, quite comprehensible in its 
 present form, and the dramatic monolog is not uncommon in Old 
 English literature (of. Dear's Lament, p. 58 ; The Wanderer, 
 p. 50 ; and the so-called Riddle i.) 
 
 In solitude I sing this lonely song 
 About my fate ; and truly can I say 
 That of the ills encountered since my youth, 
 Ills new and old, most grievous far is this — 
 Sorrows of endless exile I endure! 
 
 Erstwhile my lord departed from the people 
 Over the billows' strife. Dawn after dawn 
 I tossed in anguish, asking in myself : 
 'Where lies the land to which my lord has gone V 
 Deeper grew my distress, until at length, 
 A friendless fugitive, I took my way. 
 Troubled beyond relief, to seek for him. 
 The kindred of that man through cunning thought 
 Baseless dissension built betwixt us two, 
 That hatefully divided we should dwell 
 Within the world ; and woe untold was mine. 
 
 By my lord's mandate here I made my home. 
 Few loving ones I had in this landstead, 
 64 
 
THE BANISHED WIFE'S COMPLAINT 65 
 
 Few gracious friends. Wherefore is my great grief, 
 
 That him, most fitting of all men for me, 
 
 False-hearted I have found and treacherous ; 20 
 
 With loving smile devising deadly sin. 
 
 Often we promised faithfully that love 
 
 Should last with life, that separation naught 
 
 But death alone should bring - — how different now 1 
 
 Our friendship is as it had never been. 
 
 Must I, wrongly condemned, for evermore 
 
 Endure the hate of him I wholly love ? 
 
 He ordered me within the forest-grove 
 To dwell, in the earth-cave underneath the oak. 
 Ancient the earth-hall is, and, exiled here, 
 A longing unfulfilled consumes my life. 
 Dark are the valleys dim, and high the hills, 30 
 
 Bleak are my cavern-walls o'ergrown with briars. 
 Abode unblessed. Alas, that e'er befell 
 My lord's far-faring ! The world holds many friends 
 Living in love, keeping the marriage-bed, 
 WhUe at day-dawning all alone I go 
 In the earth-cavern underneath the oak ! 
 I sit there through the lingering summer day, 
 There I beweep my wretched banishment. 
 The many miseries, sorrows of mind, 
 The yearnings vain this life has yielded me. 
 Haunting desires, from which I may not rest. 40 
 
 Ever may that man, young in years, be sad ; 
 May his false smile belie his wretchedness ; 
 May his hard heart have cause of constant grief, 
 The torment of unrest ; may all his joy of life 
 Be shrunk within himself, be exiled there 
 
66 SECULAR LYRICS 
 
 In that far folk-land where now sits my friend 
 Under the cliffs of rock berimed with storm, 
 In dwelling drear, compassed with waters deep, 
 50 My heavy-hearted lover ! Wretched is he ; 
 His troubled mind recalls in thought too oft 
 A happier home. Alas, what woe js hers 
 Who waits with hopeless longing her beloved ! 
 
 AuRELiA 1. Henry. 
 
GNOMIC VERSES 
 
 There are two sets of Gnomic Verses j sixty-six lines are 
 preserved in the Cottonian manuscript, and two hundred and six 
 lines in the Exeter Book. 
 
 The gnomes consist of proverbs, didactic and moral sentences, 
 and simple reflections drawn from the observation of natural 
 occurrences. This kind of composition was of a strictly popular 
 nature, and in its origin doubtless of great antiquity. In the 
 course of their history, therefore, the verses naturally suffered 
 considerable revision and interpolation. 
 
 The best works on the Gnomic Verses are Hugo Miiller's disser- 
 tation, Ueber die Angelsdchsischen Versus Gnomici (J&x\3., 1893), 
 and Strobl's Zur Spruchdichtung bei den Angelsachsen {Zeit- 
 schrift fUr Deutsche Philologie 31 54 £f.) ; cf. also Koegel's 
 Geschichte der Deutschen Litteratur I 66 fE. The verses should be 
 compared with the didactic poems, such as The Father's Instruc- 
 tion, with Solomon and Saturn, Beowulf (20 H., 1002 £f., 1060 ff., 
 1384 ff., 2275 ff., 2764 ff.), and The Seafarer, Part II, p. 47. 
 
 (From the Cottonian MS.) 
 
 The sword shall lodge in the bosom, that noble iron. 25 
 The dragon shall dwell on the mound, old, and proud of 
 
 his treasure. 
 The fish in the water shall bring forth his kind. 
 The king in his hall shall deal out gifts. . . . 
 
 Good striveth with evil ; youth with age ; 50 
 
 Life striveth with death ; light with darkness ; 
 
 67 
 
68 SECULAR LYRICS 
 
 Army fighteth with army. Foe with foe 
 Throughout the land shall ever urge conflict. 
 Ever the wise man ponders the strife of this world. 
 
 The outlaw shall hang, justly pay for his crimes against 
 man. 
 
 Knoweth the Maker alone whither the soul shall fare — 
 All the spirits of men who fare to the Lord at the death- 
 day,i 
 60 And await, in the Father's keeping, their doom. 
 Dark and secret the future ! 
 God alone knows it, our Father the Savior. 
 None shall come hither beneath these roofs 
 Who can riddle to men the Lord's creation — 
 The seats of the nations, the place of God's dwelling. 
 
 (From the Exeter Book.) 
 
 72 Frost shall freeze, fire melt wood. 
 The earth shall bloom. 
 
 Ice shall bridge the stream, a helm shall the water wear. 
 Wondrously spring the seeds of the earth. 
 One shall unbind the fetters of frost, e'en the Father 
 
 Almighty. 
 Winter shall wend away, fair weathers come again. 
 Summer be hot with its sun ; and restless be the sea. . . . 
 
 With beakers and armlets shall the king buy his queen ; 
 Both from the first shall be gracious with gifts. 
 
 I Of. Bede's Death-Song, p. 78. 
 
GNOMIC VERSES 69 
 
 War-craft shall wax in the hero ; the wife shall thrive, 
 Dear to her people. Blithe of mood shall she be, 
 Yet a keeper of secrets ; full generous too 
 In the giving of treasure and horses, in bestowing mead 
 
 on the heroes. 
 Always, wherever it be, she greets the lord of the 90 
 
 nobles. 
 Straightway bearing the first of the cups to the hand of 
 
 her master. 
 They two who hold that house shall take counsel together. 
 
 The ship shall be nailed ; the shield shall be bound, 
 That light buckler of linden. 
 
 Dear to the Frisian wife is the one whom she welcomes. 
 When the vessel reaches the haven — his ship is at 
 
 hand. 
 Her lord is come to his home, he who provideth for her. 
 And she summons him in ; she washes his sea-stained 
 
 garments 
 And giveth him raiment new. Full pleasant is it for 100 
 
 him 
 Whose belovM wife waiteth for him ashore ! 
 
 Chauncey B. Tinker. 
 
RIDDLES 
 
 Nearly a hundred riddles, varying in length from one line to one 
 hundred and seven lines, have been preserved, almost all of them 
 being in the Exeter Book. They have frequently been ascribed to 
 Cynewulf, and have formed the basis for much speculation on that 
 poet's life and character. The conjecture that they are by Cynewulf 
 rests on the interpretation of the so-called Riddle i as embodying a 
 cryptic form of the word ' Cynewulf,' a theory adopted as late as 
 December, 1910, by Professor Frederick Tupper (in Modem Lan- 
 guage Notes), after having, in his edition of the riddles, distinctly 
 repudiated Cynewulfian authorship. The best editions are that by 
 Tupper (Ginn and Company, 1910) and the much more compendious 
 one published by A. J. Wyatt in 191 2 (D. C. Heath & Co.). 
 
 ' Their place as literary compositions ... in one collection, and 
 their homogeneous artistry, which finds abundant vindication in a 
 hundred common traits, argue strongly for a single author, though 
 a small group of problems brings convincing evidence against com- 
 plete unity ' (Tupper). Aside from their evident literary value, the 
 riddles are exceptionally interesting as documents for the cultural 
 history of the Anglo-Saxons. 
 
 2. THE STORM-SPIRIT ON LAND 
 
 What hero's wit so dexterous and keen 
 Can tell who drives me onward in my course, 
 When in the terror of my strength I rise 
 Mid intermittent peals of thunder, hurtling, 
 Sweep over earth and smite with fire the buildings 
 
 70 
 
RIDDLES 71 
 
 Of nations, ravaging their halls ? The smoke 
 Tawny ascends above the roofs, and tumult 
 Is in the land, and men's death-agony. 
 Then I assail the woods, fair-fruited glades, 
 And fell the trees — I, canopied with water. 
 By powers sublime commissioned from afar 
 To drive in hurrying career. I wear 
 Upon my back that which enshrouded once 
 The habitants of earth of every kind. 
 Bodies and souls, within one common tomb. 
 Tell, now, what mighty power can compass me, 
 Or what I'm called, that can uplift this burden. 
 
 3. THE STORM-SPIRIT IN THE SEA 
 
 The billows crash above me while I move. 
 
 No man knows whither, searching out the earth 
 
 In the vast caverns of the sea. Then stirs 
 
 The ocean, and impels the watery mass 
 
 To burst in foam. Fiercely the whale-mere rises 
 
 And shouts aloud and groans in mighty pain. 
 
 While sounds the tramp of floods along the shore. 
 
 Against precipitous cliffs incessantly 
 
 Rocks, sand, and heaving waves and weeds are hurled. 
 
 Yet toiling, robed with the strength of many waters, 
 
 I stir the soil of ocean's ample grounds, 
 
 Nor can I 'scape the whelming tide, till he 
 
 That is my guide allows. O man of wisdom, 
 
 Tell who may wrest me from the encircling grasp 
 
 Of water, when the streams again are stilled, 
 
 And waves that covered me beat harmony. 
 
72 SECULAR LYRICS 
 
 8. THE SWAN 
 
 My robe is noiseless while I tread the earth, 
 Or tarry 'neath the banks, or stir the shallows ; 
 But when these shining wings, this depth of air. 
 Bear me aloft above the bending shores 
 Where men abide, and far the welkin's strength 
 Over the multitudes conveys me, then 
 With rushing whir and clear melodious sound 
 My raiment sings. And like a wandering spirit 
 I float unweariedly o"er flood and field. 
 
 15. THE HORN 
 
 I was an arm^d warrior, but now 
 
 The youthful courtier covers ray proud neck 
 
 With twisted filigree of gold and silver. 
 
 Sometimes I 'm kissed by heroes, and again 
 
 I woo to battle with my melody 
 
 Comrades in full accord. At times the courser 
 
 Bears me across the border, and again 
 
 Over the floods the stallion of the sea 
 
 Conveys me radiant with ornaments. 
 
 Sometimes a maiden, garlanded with jewels, 
 
 Brims full my winding bosom, and again 
 
 Perforce I lie — hard, headless, solitary 
 
 Upon the board. Sometimes, set off with trappings. 
 
 In comely guise upon the wall I hang 
 
 Where heroes drink. Again, horsed warriors 
 
 On forays wear me, glorious apparel ; 
 
 Then, dappled with gold, I must inspire the wind 
 
RIDDLES 73 
 
 From some one's bosom. Whilom stately men 
 I summon to banquetings and wine ; sometimes 
 My voice resounds with freedom to the captive, 
 Flight to the foe. Now find out what I 'm called. 
 
 24. THE BOW 
 
 My name is AGOB, with the letters changed. 
 
 I am a wondrous creature shaped for strife ; 
 
 When I am bent, and from my bosom darts 
 
 The venomous sting, with dexterous speed I send 
 
 Far and away the quivering stroke of death. 
 
 Soon as my guide who fashioned me for torture 
 
 Lets loose my pliant limbs, in agony 
 
 I stretch, until I vomit forth the broth 
 
 Of fatal, piercing poison that erewhile 
 
 I swallowed. Never a man I then bespeak 
 
 Shall easily depart, once he is grazed 
 
 By that which takes its flight from out my vitals. 
 
 He makes dear purchase of the treacherous draught. 
 
 The full, stern cup which robs him of his life ! 
 
 Except when fettered fast no use I serve ; 
 
 Unbound I fail. Now tell what I am called. 
 
 27. THE BIBLE-CODEX 
 
 An enemy deprived me of my life, 
 
 Stripped me of worldly strength, immersed me then 
 
 In water, whence again he took me dripping, 
 
 Planted me in the sun, and there I lost 
 
 My nap of hair. The knife's keen edge then dressed me, 
 
74 SECULAR LYRICS 
 
 Sharpened with pumice. Fingers folded me, 
 And next the joyous quill traced eagerly 
 Across my burnished surface, scattering 
 The fluent drops along. Again it drank 
 
 10 Of the tinctured stream, again stepped over me 
 
 With blackening print. The craftsman bound me then 
 
 In leathern covers locked with golden clasps, 
 
 The wondrous work of artists. Thus adorned 
 
 With scarlet dyes resplendent, lo ! in me 
 
 The glorious abodes afar renowned, 
 
 The Shield of nations, and good will toward men ! 
 
 And if the children of this world will use me, 
 The happier, the surer of success 
 
 20 They '11 be, the keener-hearted, and in thought • 
 The kinder, and more fraught with wisdom. Then 
 More friends they '11 have — their own, familiar friends, 
 So good and true, and capable, and trusty — 
 Who will prolong their fame and happiness 
 And hedge them round with graceful gifts, and fast 
 In bonds of love within their bosoms fold them. 
 Find out what I am called for men's advantage 1 
 Famous in sacred story is my name. 
 Renowned 'mongst heroes, and itself divine. 
 
 28. THE MEAD 
 
 On every hand I 'm found and prized by men, 
 Borne from the fertile glades and castled heights 
 And vales and hills. Daily the wings of bees 
 Carried me through the air, and with deft motion 
 Stored me beneath the low-crowned, sheltering roof. 
 
RIDDLES 75 
 
 Then in a cask men cherished me. But now 
 
 The old churl I tangle, and trip, at last o'erthrow 
 
 Flat on the ground. He that encounters me 
 
 And sets his will 'gainst my subduing might 
 
 Forthwith shall visit the earth upon his back ! 
 
 If from his course so ill-advised he fails 
 
 To abstain, deprived of strength, yet strong in speech, 
 
 He 's reft of all his power o'er hand or foot. 
 
 His mind dethroned. Now find out what I 'm called, 
 
 Who bind again the freeman to the soil, 
 
 Stupid from many a fall, in broad daylight ! 
 
 80. THE FALCON 
 
 I 'm bosom-friend to one of noble blood. 
 The soldier's comrade, minion of my lord. 
 And courtier to the king. Sometimes on me 
 A fair-haired, stately woman lays her hand. 
 The queenliest daughter of a nobleman. 
 The bloom of the trees I wear upon my breast ! 
 At times I ride perched on a fiery steed, 
 Leading the troop. My tongue is dry and hard. 
 Oft when a seer sings his prophetic song, 
 I furnish fit reward. Fine is my fashion. 
 And I am dark of hue. Tell what I 'm called. 
 
 Herbert B. Brougham. 
 
Ill 
 
 RELIGIOUS LYRICS 
 
 C^DMON'S HYMN 
 
 These verses probably form the first piece of extant English 
 literature composed on English soil, or at least they are the first 
 that can be approximately dated. They are found at the end of 
 the Moore manuscript of Bede's Ecclesiastical History in the 
 University Library of Cambridge, England, and were probably 
 copied there in or about the year 737. A facsimile of this inscrip- 
 tion is in the Palasographical Society's Facsimiles of Ancient 
 Manuscripts, Part IX, plate 140. 
 
 Caedmoh's poetical activity falls within the abbacy of Hilda of 
 Whitby (658-680) ; this is all that we can know concerning the 
 date, which may therefore fall not far from 665 or 670. The 
 theme is praise to God as the Maker of heaven and earth for 
 men, at once emphasizing the power, the eternity, and the benefi- 
 cence of the Creator, together with the fact that aU the marvels 
 with which the universe is filled have proceeded from His hand. 
 The substitution of the Hebraic cosmogony, and of this concep- 
 tion of divinity, for the pagan ones then current, of course wrought 
 a profound change in the sentiments of the makers of English 
 literature, and hence in the literature itself. How great was the 
 influence of the new theory of creation may be gathered from the 
 fact that it forms the theme of the minstrel's song in Hrothgar's 
 hall (see p. 11), where the circumstances seem decidedly incon- 
 gruous with it. 
 
 For the story of Caedmon, see Appendix, p. 180. 
 76 
 
C^DMON'S HYMN ^^ 
 
 Now must we hymn the Master of heaven, 
 
 The might of the Maker, the deeds of the Father, 
 
 The thought of His heart. He, Lord everlasting. 
 
 Established of old the source of all wonders : 
 
 Creator all-holy. He hung the bright heaven, 
 
 A roof high upreared, o'er the children of men ; 
 
 The King of mankind then created for mortals 
 
 The world in its beauty, the earth spread beneath them, 
 
 He, Lord everlasting, omnipotent God. 
 
 Albert S. Cook. 
 
BEDE'S DEATH-SONG 
 
 The letter in which these lines occur was written by one of 
 Bede's pupils, Cuthbert, to a fellow-student, Cuthwin, residing in 
 a distant monastery, and describes the last hours of Bede's life. 
 It is to be found in Mayor and Lumby's admirable edition of 
 Books III and IV of the Ecclesiastical History, pp. 175-179, and 
 in Plummer's edition of the Ecclesiastical History, i clx-clxiv. 
 There are translations by Plummer, i Ixxii-lxxviii, and by Tinker, 
 in our Select Translations from Old English Prose, pp. 255-260. 
 In the sentence introducing the lines, Bede is called ' learned in 
 our songs.' 
 
 Before the dread journey which needs must be taken 
 No man is more mindful than meet is and right 
 To ponder, ere hence he departs, what his spirit 
 Shall, after the death-day, receive as its portion 
 Of good or of evil, by mandate of doom. 
 
 Albert S. Cook. 
 
 78 
 
SELECTIONS FROM THE CHRIST 
 
 The Christ is one of the latest of the signed poems of Cyne- 
 wulf, and can not well have been written before 800. There are 
 four poems in which Cynewulf has inserted his name in runic 
 characters — Juliana, Elene, Christ, and Fates of the Apostles. 
 The earliest form of the name would have been Cyniwulf, but 
 Cyni- was supplanted by Cyne- about 750 A.D., as Sievers has 
 shown, and this by Cyn- about 800. Now the Juliana and the 
 Elene have Cyne-, and can therefore hardly be dated much later 
 than 800, while the Christ has Cyn-, a form belonging to the ninth 
 century. For a more extended discussion see "Cook's edition of 
 the Christ, pp. Ixviii-Ixx, though the statement that the Elene is 
 dependent upon a treatise of Alcuin, and is thus posterior to 800, 
 has since been proved untenable. 
 
 The sources of, the Christ are different for the three parts. 
 For the First Part, The Advent (1-439), t'^^y consist of (i) the 
 Greater Antiphons of Advent, sometimes called the O's ; (2) four 
 Antiphons included by certain mediaeval churches among the 
 Greater Antiphons, or associated with them ; (3) two of the 
 Antiphons for Lauds on Trinity Sunday according to the Sarum 
 Use. For the Second Part, The Ascension (440-866), they consist 
 of the close of Gregory the Great's homily on the Ascension, as con- 
 tained in the Breviary under that season, and probably also of an 
 Ascension hymn written by Bede. For the Third Part, Doomsday 
 (867-1664), they consist (i) of the hymn ■ Apparebit repentina,' 
 etc., quoted by Bede, (2) of extracts from a sermon by Caesarius 
 of Aries (469-542), (3) of extracts from at least one sermon by 
 Gregory the Great, besides minor passages from other works 
 of that Father, and (4) probably of the account of Constantine's 
 vision of the Cross, as related by Eusebius. For the discussion 
 
 79 
 
8o RELIGIOUS LYRICS 
 
 of these matters, and of Cynewulf as man and poet, see Cook's 
 edition. 
 
 Selections i and 2 are from The Advent j 3-j from The Ascen- 
 sion; the rest from Doomsday. 
 
 I. ANTIPHONAL PASSAGE 
 
 The suggestion for this passage is derived from the Antiphon 
 of the Magnificat for December 21. This is, in the Latin : 
 
 ' O Oriens, Splendor lucis aeternas, et Sol justitiae : veni, et 
 illumina sedentes in tenebris et umbra mortis ; ' 
 in the translation by Cardinal Newman : 
 
 'O Rising Brightness of the everlasting light and Sun of right- 
 eousness : come Thou and enlighten those who sit in darkness and 
 in the shadow of death.' 
 
 Lo ! Thou Splendor of the dayspring, fairest of angels 
 sent to men upon earth, Thou Radiance of the Sun 
 of righteousness, bright beyond the stars. Thou of Thy 
 very self dost illumine all the tides of time ! Even as 
 Thou, God begotten of God, Son of the true Father, 
 
 no didst ever dwell without beginning in the glory of 
 heaven, so Thine own handiwork in its present need 
 imploreth Thee with confidence that Thou send us the 
 bright sun, and come in Thy very person to enlighten 
 those who have long been covered with murky cloud, 
 and sitting here in darkness and eternal night, shrouded 
 in sins, have been forced to endure the shadow of death. 
 Now in the fulness of hope we believe in the salvation 
 
 120 brought to men through the Word of God, who was in 
 the beginning co-eternal with God the Father almighty, 
 and afterward became flesh without blemish, being bom 
 of the virgin as a help for the afflicted. God appeared 
 
SELECTIONS FROM THE CHRIST 8l 
 
 among us without sin ; the mighty Son of God and the 
 Son of Man dwelt together in harmony among mankind. 
 Wherefore it is right that we should ever give thanks by 
 our deeds unto the Lord of victory, for that He was 
 willing to send Himself unto us. 
 
 2. DIALOG BETWEEN MARY AND JOSEPH 
 
 This selection is especially interesting because of its dramatic 
 character. Some scholars have even thought to find here the 
 origin of the English drama. 
 
 [Mary]. 'Alas my Joseph, son of Jacob, descendant 
 of the great king David, art thou bound to break off thy 
 firm troth and forsake my love ? ' 
 
 [Joseph]. ' I am full deeply troubled, bereft of my 
 good name ; on thy account I have heard many words, 
 boundless causes of grief, taunts and contumely ; they 170 
 utter insults and many reproaches against me. Sad in 
 spirit I must needs pour out my tears. God alone can 
 easily heal the sorrow of my heart and comfort me in 
 my misery. Alas young damsel, maiden Mary ! ' 
 
 [Mary]. ' Why grievest thou and criest out in sorrow .■• 
 Never have I found in thee any fault, or cause for sus- 
 picion that thou hast wrought evil ; and yet thou speakest 
 these words as if thou thyself wert filled with every sin 180 
 and iniquity.' 
 
 [Joseph]. '1 have endured too much misery because 
 of this child-bearing. How can I refute their hateful 
 words, or find any answer to my enemies .■' It is known 
 far and wide that from the glorious temple of the Lord 
 I willingly received a pure maiden free from sin, and now 
 
82 RELIGIOUS LYRICS 
 
 all is changed by I know not what. Neither speech nor 
 190 silence avails me aught. If I declare the truth, then 
 must the daughter of David perish, slain with stones. 
 Yet is it harder for me to conceal crime ; as a perjurer 
 I should be forced to live thenceforth, hated of all peoples, 
 despised among the tribes of men.' 
 
 Then the maid unraveled the mystery, and thus she 
 spake : ' I swear truly by the Son of God, the Savior of 
 souls, that I have never yet had intercourse with any 
 200 man on earth ; but it was granted unto me, while yet 
 young in my home, that Gabriel, heaven's archangel, 
 bade me hail, and said in truth that the heavenly Spirit 
 would shine upon me with His splendor, and that I should 
 bear the Glory of life, an illustrious Child, the great Son 
 of God, the bright King of glory. Now without guilt 
 have I been made His temple ; the Spirit of comfort 
 hath dwelt within me. Do thou henceforth forego all 
 grievous care. Give eternal thanks unto God's great 
 Son that I have become His mother, though still a 
 210 maiden, and that thou art reputed His earthly father 
 in the thoughts of men ; thus was prophecy to be truly 
 fulfilled in Himself.' 
 
 3. THE ENDOWMENTS OF MANKIND 
 
 This selection should be compared with the poem, The Gifts of 
 Men. Reference should also be made to The Fates of Men (trans- 
 lated in Morley's English Writers 2 32 ff.). 
 
 Then He who created the earth, God's Spirit-son, 
 
 660 honored us and granted us gifts, eternal seats amid the 
 
 angels on high ; moreover He sowed manifold wisdom-, 
 
SELECTIONS FROM THE CHRIST 83 
 
 and planted it within the souls of men. Unto the mind 
 of one, through the Spirit of His mouth, He sendeth 
 wise eloquence and noble understanding ; such a one 
 can sing and speak many things ; unto his soul is com- 
 mitted the power of wisdom. One can awaken the harp 
 before warriors, touching it full loudly with his fingers. 670 
 One can set forth aright the law divine. One can tell 
 the course of the stars, the expanse of creation. One 
 can skilfully write the spoken word. To one He giveth 
 victory in war, when bowmen send the storm of darts, 
 the winged arrows, over their shields. One can boldly 
 urge forward his bark over the salt sea, and stir the 
 raging deep. One can climb the steep and lofty tree. 
 One can fashion the sword, the well-tempered weapon. 
 One knoweth the compass of the plains, the far-reaching 680 
 ways. So to us the Ruler, the Son of God, doth dis- 
 pense His gifts on earth. But to no man will He give 
 all wisdom of soul, lest, exalted above others by his own 
 power, his pride work him evil. 
 
 4. RUNE-PASSAGE 
 
 The large type denotes the runes of the original, which in suc- 
 cession spell the name of Cynewulf (in this poem, Cynwulf). These 
 renderings (following Gollancz in the main) are partly conjectural; 
 exactness, where that was possible, has been sacrificed in favor of 
 the proper initials. It would be more correct to substitute boldior 
 courageous, misery iax yearning, joy for winsomeness, sea for lake- 
 Jloods, wealth for fortune. Cosijn regards the letters C, Y, and 
 N as forming cyn = ' mankind.' A similar rune-passage contain- 
 ing the poet's name will be found among the extracts from the 
 Elene (p. 141). Cynewulf has used the same device in his/uliana 
 and .Fates of the Apostles. 
 
84 RELIGIOUS LYRICS 
 
 Then shall the courageous tremble ; he shall hear 
 the King, the Ruler of heaven, speak stern words unto 
 those who in time past ill obeyed Him on earth, while 
 
 800 as yet they could easily find comfort for their yearning 
 and their need. There in that place shall many a one, 
 weary and sore afraid, await what dire punishment He 
 will mete out to them for their deeds. Gone is the 
 wiNSOMENESs of earth's adornments. Long ago the 
 portion of life's joys granted us was compassed about 
 by LAKE-FLOODS, our FORTUNE On the earth. Then 
 shall our treasures burn in fire ; bright and swift shall 
 the red flame rage; fiercely shall it rush through the 
 
 810 wide world. Plains shall perish, citadels fall. The fire 
 shall be all astir ; pitilessly shall that greediest of spirits 
 waste the ancient treasure which men held of old, whilst 
 pride abode with them upon the earth. 
 
 5. LIFE COMPARED TO A VOYAGE 
 
 850 Now is it as though we fared in ships out upon the 
 ocean, over the waters cold, and urged our barks, our 
 sea-steeds, across the broad flood. A perilous stream it 
 is, endless waves and wind-swept seas, on which we toss 
 throughout this fleeting world, over the fathomless reaches. 
 Hard was our life ere we sailed to land over the stormy 
 
 860 main. Then came our help : God's Spirit-son guided us 
 to the haven of safety, and gave us grace to see, over the 
 vessel's side, where with firm-set anchor we should moor 
 our sea-steeds, those ocean-stallions old. O let us fix our 
 hope in that holy haven above, which the Lord celestial 
 prepared for us when He ascended into the heavens ! 
 
SELECTIONS FROM THE CHRIST 85 
 
 6. DOOMSDAY 
 
 A favorite theme in Old English religious poetry. This extract 
 is from the beginning of Part III. The beginning (stanzas A and 
 C) of the alphabetical Latin hymn upon which it is based is thus 
 translated by Calverley : 
 
 As a thief who falls at midnight on his unsuspecting prey 
 When we think not shall o'ertake us the Almighty's Judgment Day. 
 
 Clanging over Earth's four quarters shall' the sudden trumpet-call 
 Summon unto Christ's tribunal dead or living, one and all. 
 
 Lo ! at midnight, unawares, the great day of the 
 Lord omnipotent shall mightily overtake the dwellers on 
 earth, the bright creation ; as oft a daring robber, a crafty 87a 
 thief, prowling about in darkness, in the murky night, 
 suddenly comes upon careless men bound in sleep, and 
 sorely assails them unprepared. 
 
 Then together unto Mount Zion shall ascend a great 
 multitude, radiant and joyful, the faithful of the Lord ; 
 glory shall be theirs. Thereupon from the four corners 
 of the world, from the uttermost regions of earth, angels 
 all-shining shall with one accord blow their crashing 880 
 trumpets ; the earth shall tremble under men. Glorious 
 and steadfast they shall sound together over against the 
 course of the stars, chanting in harmony and making 
 melody from south and from north, from east and from 
 west, throughout the whole creation ; all mankind shall 
 they wake from the dead unto the last judgment ; they 
 shall rouse the sons of men all aghast from the ancient 
 earth, bidding them straightway arise from their deep 
 sleep. 
 
S6 RELIGIOUS LYRICS 
 
 There one may hear a sorrowing people, sad of heart 
 
 890 and greatly disquieted, sorely afraid and pitifully bewail- 
 ing the deeds done in the body. This shall be the 
 greatest forewarning ever shown unto men before or 
 since. There all the hosts of angels and of devils shall 
 mingle, the fair and the swart ; there shall be a coming 
 of both the white and the black, according as an abode 
 is prepared all unlike for saints and sinners. 
 
 Then suddenly upon Mount Zion a blaze of the sun, 
 
 900 shining clear from the southeast, shall come forth from 
 the Creator, gleaming more brightly than the mind of 
 man can conceive, when the Son of God shall appear 
 hither through the vault of heaven. All glorious from 
 the eastern skies shall come the presence of Christ, the 
 aspect of the noble King, gentle in spirit toward His 
 own, bitter toward the wicked, wondrously varied, diverse 
 
 910 to the blessed and the forlorn. Unto the good, the host 
 of the holy. He shall be joyful of countenance, radiant, 
 winsome, loving, gracious, and fair. Sweet and pleasant 
 shall it be for His loved ones, for those who in days of 
 old pleased Him well by their words and deeds, to gaze 
 upon that shining face, winningly benign, upon the 
 advent of the King, the Lord of might. But unto the 
 evil and wicked, unto those who shall come to Him 
 undone by sin. He shall be terrible and awful to 
 
 920 behold. 
 
 That may be a prophetic intimation to him who is 
 wise of thought, that he shall have no cause whatever 
 to be afraid; he shall not be dismayed in soul at the 
 terror of the Presence, when he beholdeth the Lord of 
 all creation approaching with mighty wonders to the 
 
SELECTIONS FROM THE CHRIST 87 
 
 doom of many, while on all sides press round Him a 
 band of angels, a shining host, legions of the saints in 
 great multitudes. 
 
 The vast creation shall resound, and the fiercest of 93° 
 raging fires shall sweep over the whole earth before the 
 Lord ; the fiery flame shall hurtle ; the heavens shall 
 burst asunder ; all the firm-set flashing stars shall fall. 
 The sun itself, which shone so brightly above the former 
 world for the sons of men, shall be turned dark, even to 
 the hue of blood ; the moon, also, which of old gave light 
 for mortals in the night season, shall fall headlong ; and 
 the stars shall be hurled from heaven by the fury of the 
 storm-vexed air. 940 
 
 Now shall the Almighty, the glorious Prince, Creator 
 of great kings, come into the assembly with His angel 
 band. An exultant host of His retainers shall be there 
 also. The souls of the blest shall journey with their 
 Lord, when the Protector of men shall visit the nations 
 of earth with dread punishment. Then throughout the 
 broad earth shall be heard the piercing blast of the 
 heavenly ■ trump ; from seven quarters the winds shall 
 rush, blowing and roaring with awful crash, rousing and 950 
 blighting the world with storm, filling with terror the 
 whole creation. There shall be heard a deafening uproar, 
 loud and violent, heavy and appalling, terrible unto mor- 
 tals, of all tumults the mightiest. . . . 
 
 Thus shall the all-devouring spirit, the ravaging fire, 
 overrun the earth and its lofty structures ; the hot and 
 greedy blast, famed afar, shall, over the earth's plain, fill 
 the whole world with the terror of fire. The city-walls 
 shall fall in ruins. Mountains shall melt away, along 
 
88 RELIGIOUS LYRICS 
 
 with the headlands which erstwhile firm and steadfast 
 980 stoutly shielded the earth from ocean-floods, bulwarks 
 against the waves and heaving waters. Then shall the 
 death-fire seize on every creature, both bird and beast ; 
 the murky flame, a raging warrior, shall stride over the 
 earth. Wheresoever the waters once flowed, the hurry- 
 ing floods, there the fishes of the deep, cut off from 
 ocean, shall be consumed in a bath of fire ; every sea- 
 monster exhausted shall die ; water shall burn like wax. 
 There shall be more wonders than mind of man can 
 
 990 conceive — how whirlwind, and tempest, and raging 
 blast shall rend the broad creation. Men shall wail ; 
 they shall weep and lament with mournful voices, down- 
 cast and wretched, overwhelmed with sorrow. The 
 swart flame shall blaze on those fordone by sin ; the 
 fire shall consume the golden ornaments, all the ancient 
 treasure of the kings of the nations. There amid the 
 sounds from heaven an outcry shall be heard, wailing 
 and lamentation, the strife of the living, loud weeping, 
 
 1000 and the sad plaint of men. Herefrom no man guilty of 
 crime can win refuge, or anywhere escape from the 
 flame, but that fire shall seize on all things throughout 
 the earth ; it shall fiercely delve and eagerly explore the 
 regions of the world within and without, until the glow- 
 ing flame hath wholly purged away by its billowing the 
 stain of earthly sin. 
 
 Then in great majesty shall God almighty come to 
 that dread mount ; the holy King of heavenly angels, 
 
 loiothe Lord omnipotent, shall shine resplendent upon the 
 multitudes ; round about Him shall brightly gleam a 
 most goodly throng, holy bands, the blessed company of 
 
SELECTIONS FROM THE CHRIST 89 
 
 angels ; with terror of the Father shall they tremble, 
 dismayed in their inmost thoughts. Wherefore it is no 
 marvel that the unclean race of men should greatly fear 
 and pitifully lament, since even the holy race, the white 
 host of archangels, heaven-bright, are sore affrighted 
 before that Presence, what time the radiant beings await 102a 
 with trembling the judgment of the Lord. Most terrible 
 of all days shall that be in the world when the King of 
 glory shall chasten all peoples by His might, and bid 
 speech-uttering men, tribe after tribe, arise from their 
 graves and come every one unto the assembly. 
 
 7. THE APPARITION OF THE ROOD 
 
 A large part of the Old English poetry on the Cross has been 
 gathered in the pages following (93-103). 
 
 There shall sinful men, sad at heart, behold the greatest 
 affliction. Not for their behoof shall the cross of our 
 Lord, brightest of beacons, stand before all nations, wet 
 with the pure blood of heaven's King, stained with His 
 gore, shining brightly over the vast creation. Shadows 
 shall be put to flight when the resplendent cross shall 
 blaze upon all peoples. But this shall be for an affliction 1090 
 and a punishment to men, to those malefactors who knew 
 no gjatitude to God, that He, the King, was crucified 
 on the holy rood for the sins of mankind, on that day 
 when He whose body knew no sin nor base iniquity 
 lovingly purchased life for men with the price with which 
 He ransomed us. For all this will He rigorously exact uoo 
 recompense when the red rood shall shine brightly over 
 all in the sun's stead. 
 
90 RELIGIOUS LYRICS 
 
 Fearfully and sorrowfully shall they look thereon, 
 those black workers of iniquity, fordone by sin ; they 
 shall behold to their bale that which would have been 
 their greatest weal, had they been willing to apprehend 
 it as their good. With sad hearts shall they behold the 
 ancient gashes and open wounds upon their Lord, where 
 
 mo His foes pierced with naUs the white hands and the holy 
 feet, and let forth gore from His side ; blood and water 
 gushed forth together before the eyes of all the people, 
 when He was on the cross. All this they themselves shall 
 then be able to see, open and manifest, how He suffered 
 many things for the love of sinners. The sons of men 
 shall clearly behold how the false-hearted denied Him, 
 
 II20 mocked Him with blasphemies, spat their spittle in His 
 face, and spake insults against Him ; how hell-doomed 
 men, blind of thought, foolish and erring, struck that 
 blessed countenance with their hands, with their out- 
 stretched palms, with their very fists, and round His 
 head entwined a cruel crown of thorns. 
 
 They saw that the dumb creation — verdant earth and 
 high heaven — shudderingly felt the sufferings of their 
 
 "3° Lord ; and though they had not life, yet moaned in 
 sorrow when wicked men seized on their Savior with 
 impious hands. The sun became darkened, obscured by 
 misery. . . . 
 
 Trees likewise many, and by no means few, declared 
 
 1170 who had shaped them with their branches, when almighty 
 God ascended one of them and suffered pain for men's 
 weal, loathsome death for the help of mankind. Then 
 was many a tree suffused with bloody tears beneath its 
 bark, red and frequent ; the sap turned to gore. 
 
SELECTIONS FROM THE CHRIST 91 
 
 8. FROM THE ADDRESS OF THE SAVIOR AT T-HE 
 LAST JUDGMENT 
 
 ' How unequal was the reckoning betwixt us two ! I 
 bore thy pain that thou, happy and blessed, mightst 1460 
 possess my kingdom ; and by my death I dearly bought 
 long life for thee, that thenceforth thou mightst dwell in 
 light, radiant and free from sin. My body, which had 
 harmed no man, lay buried in the earth, hidden beneath 
 in the tomb, that thou mightst dwell in splendor in the 
 skies above, mighty amid the angels.' 
 
 9. THE JOYS OF THE BLESSED 
 
 But the elect shall bring before Christ bright treas- 
 ures ; their glory shall live at the judgment day; they 
 shall possess the joy of a tranquil life with God, such as 
 is granted unto every saint in the kingdom of heaven. 
 That is the home which shall have no end; and there 
 for evermore the sinless shall possess their joy, and, 164c 
 clothed with light, enfolded in peace, shielded from 
 sorrows, honored by joys, endeared to the Savior, shall 
 praise the Lord, the beloved Protector of life ; radiant 
 with grace fhey shall enjoy in bliss the fellowship of 
 angels, and worship the Guardian of men for ever and 
 ever. The Father of all shall have and hold dominion 
 over the hosts of the sanctified. 
 
 There is song of angels, joy of the blest ; there is the 
 dear presence of the Lord, brighter than the sun unto 1650 
 the blessed ; there is the love of dear ones ; life without 
 death ; a joyous multitude of men ; youth without age ; 
 
92 RELIGIOUS LYRICS 
 
 the glory of the heavenly hosts ; health without pain ; 
 rest without toil for the workers of righteousness ; bliss 
 of the happy ; day without darkness, bright and glad- 
 Some ; happiness without sorrow ; harmony without strife 
 'twixt friends rejoicing in heaven ; peace without enmity 
 1660 in the congregation of the saints. No hunger shall be 
 there, nor thirst, nor sleep, nor sore disease, nor scorch- 
 ing of the sun, nor cold, nor care ; but there the com- 
 pany of the blest, most radiant of hosts, shall for ay 
 enjoy the grace of their King and glory with their 
 Lord. 
 
 Charles H. Whitman. 
 
THE DREAM OF THE ROOD 
 
 The date and authorship of this poem are unknown. It prob- 
 ably belongs to a period at least as late as that of Cynewulf, and 
 may possibly be from his hand. Special interest attaches to it 
 because of its relation to the runic inscription on the Ruthwell 
 Cross, for which see p. loo. 
 
 The cross of the opening lines was probably suggested by the 
 vision of Constantine, while Helena's Invention of the Cross is 
 reflected in lines 75 fif., which recall Cynewulf's Elene. The latter 
 half of the poem has several points of contact with the Christ. 
 
 The last paragraph seems like an inartistic addition. 
 
 For a discussion of the poem in various aspects, see Cook's 
 edition (Oxford and New York, 1905). 
 
 Hark ! of a matchless vision would I speak, 
 Which once I dreamed at midnight, when mankind 
 At rest were dwelling. Then methought I saw 
 A wondrous cross extending up on high, 
 With light encircled, tree of trees most bright. 
 That beacon all was overlaid with gold ; 
 And near the earth stood precious stones ablaze. 
 While five more sparkled on the shoulder-beam. 
 Gazing on it were angels of the Lord, 
 From their first being's dawn all beautiful. 
 No cross was that of wickedness and shame, i 
 
 But holy spirits, men on earth, and all 
 The glorious creation on it gazed. 
 93 
 
94 RELIGIOUS LYRICS 
 
 Sublime the tree victorious ; while I, 
 Stained with iniquity, was galled with sins. 
 There, clothed as with a garment, I beheld 
 That tree of glory shining joyfully, 
 Adorned with gold, enriched with precious stones, 
 Which covered worthily the Ruler's cross. 
 However, through the gold I could perceive 
 That wretched ones had battled there of old ; 
 For on the right side once it had been bleeding. 
 20 Then all my spirit was with sorrow stirred ; 
 Fearful was I before that radiant sight. 
 There I beheld that beacon, quick to change, 
 Alter in vesture and in coloring ; 
 
 Now dewed with moisture, soiled with streaming blood. 
 And now with gold and glittering gems adorned. 
 
 A long time lying there I sadly looked 
 Upon the Savior's cross, until I heard 
 Resounding thence a voice. That wood divine 
 Then spake these words : 
 
 ' It was long, long ago — 
 Yet I recall — when, at the forest's edge, 
 I was hewn down, and from my stem removed. 
 30 Resistless were the foes that seized me there. 
 They fashioned for themselves a spectacle. 
 Commanded me to bear their criminals ; 
 And on men's shoulders carried me away 
 Until they set me down upon a hill. 
 And stayed me fast ; mine enemies indeed ! 
 
 ' Then I beheld the Master of mankind 
 Approach with lordly courage as if He 
 Would mount upon me, and I dared not bow 
 
THE DREAM OF THE ROOD 95 
 
 Nor break, opposing the command of God, 
 Although I saw earth tremble ; all my foes 
 I might have beaten down, yet I stood fast. 
 
 ' Then the young Hero laid His garments by, 
 He that was God almighty, strong and brave ; 
 And boldly in the sight of all He mounted 40 
 
 The lofty cross, for He would free mankind. 
 Then, as the Man divine clasped me, I shook ; 
 Yet dared I not bow to the earth nor fall 
 Upon the ground, but I must needs stand fast. 
 
 ' A cross upraised, I lifted a great King, 
 Lifted the Lord of heaven ; and dared not bow. 
 
 ' They pierced me with dark nails, and visible 
 Upon me still are scars, wide wounds of malice, 
 Yet might I injure none among them all. 
 They mocked us both together ; then was I 
 All wet with blood, which streamed from this Man's side 
 When He at length had breathed His spirit out. 
 
 ' Many a vile deed I suffered on that mount ; 50 
 
 The God of hosts I saw harshly outstretched, 
 And darkness hid the body of the King, 
 With clouds enshrouded its effulgent light ; 
 Forth went a shadow, black beneath the clouds ; 
 And all creation wept, lamented long — 
 Their King had fallen, Christ was on the cross. 
 
 ' Yet eagerly some hastened from afar 
 To Him who was their Prince ; all this I saw. 
 Ah, then with sorrow was I deeply stirred ; 
 Yet to the hand of men I bowed me down, 
 Humbly, with ardent zeal. They took Him then, 60 
 
 Lifted from His dire pain almighty God. 
 
96 RELIGIOUS LYRICS 
 
 The warriors left me standing, swathed in blood, 
 And with sharp arrows wounded sore was I. 
 Him they laid gently down, weary of limb. 
 And stood beside His body at the head. 
 Gazing upon the Lord of heaven ; while He 
 Rested a while, with His great labor spent. 
 Then in the slayers' sight men there began 
 To build a sepulchre, from marble hewn ; 
 And laid therein the Lord of victories. 
 A song of sorrow then for Him they sang. 
 The desolate at eventide, when they, 
 O'erwearied, would depart from their great King. 
 And so companionless He rested. 
 
 'We, 
 
 70 After the warriors' cry uprose, yet stood 
 
 A long while there, on our foundations dripping. 
 The corpse, fair dwelling of the soul, grew cold. 
 
 ' Then one began to fell us to the earth — 
 A fearful fate ! and in the entombing mold 
 Deep buried us. Yet, undismayed, for me 
 The friends and followers of the Lord made search - 
 And when from out the earth they lifted me. 
 With silver they adorned me, and with gold. 
 
 ' Now mayest thou know, O hero mine, beloved ! 
 Unutterable sorrows I endured, 
 
 80 Base felons' work. But now hath come the time 
 When, far and wide, men on the earth, and all 
 The glorious universe doth honor me. 
 And to this beacon bow themselves in prayer. 
 On me a while suffered the Son of God ; 
 Therefore now full of majesty I tower 
 
THE DREAM OF THE ROOD 97 
 
 High under heaven ; and I have power to heal 
 All those who do me reverence. 
 
 ' Of old 
 Was I a punishment, the crudest, 
 The most abhorred by men, ere I for man 
 Had opened the true way of life. Lo, then 
 The Prince of glory, Guardian of heaven, 90 
 
 Above all other trees exalted me. 
 As He, almighty God, in Sight of men 
 His mother honored, blessed among women, 
 Mary herself. 
 
 ' Now, hero mine, beloved, 
 I bid thee tell this vision unto men. 
 Reveal with words that 'tis the glory-tree 
 On which almighty God suffered for sin, 
 The many sins of man, and Adam's deeds 
 Done long ago. There once He tasted death ; 100 
 
 But afterwards the Lord from death arose 
 By His own mighty power, a help for men. 
 To heaven He then ascended, whence shall come 
 Once more upon the earth to seek mankind 
 At the last judgment day, the Lord himself. 
 Almighty God, surrounded by His angels. 
 And there shall He, who hath the power of doom, 
 Adjudge to every one the just reward 
 Which he on earth, in this short life, hath earned. 
 Then unabashed and bold can no one be no 
 
 Before the word which He, the Ruler, speaks : 
 " Where is the man," He asks the multitude, 
 " Who for the Lord would taste of bitter death 
 As He Himself once did upon the cross ? " 
 
98 RELIGIOUS LYRICS 
 
 Then are they fearful, little can devise 
 What they shall say to Christ. But need is none 
 That any at that time should be afraid 
 Who beareth in his heart this sacred sign ; 
 For through the cross alone must every soul ' 
 120 Seek out the Kingdom from the earthly way, 
 Who hopes hereafter with the King to dwell.' 
 
 Happy in mind I prayed then to the rood 
 With great devotion, where I was alone 
 Without companionship ; my soul within 
 Was quickened to depart, so many years 
 Of utter weariness had I delayed. 
 And now my life's great happiness is this, 
 That to the cross victorious I may come 
 Alone, above the wont of other men. 
 To worship worthily. Desire for this 
 
 130 Is great within my heart, and all my help 
 
 Must reach me from the rood. Of powerful friends 
 
 Not many do I own on earth, for hence 
 
 Have they departed, from the world's delights ; 
 
 They followed after Him, their glorious King, 
 
 And with the Father now in heaven they live, 
 
 Dwelling in bliss. Each day I longing ask : 
 
 'When will the cross of Christ, which formerly 
 
 I here on earth beheld, call me away 
 
 From this my transient life, and bring me hence 
 
 To all delight, the joyous harmonies 
 
 140 Of heaven, where sit at feast the folk of God, 
 And gladness knows no end — so placing me 
 Where with the saints in glory I may dwell, 
 
THE DREAM OF THE ROOD 99 
 
 Enjoying greatly their glad minstrelsy? ' 
 Be gracious unto me, O Lord, who once 
 For sins of men suffered upon the cross. 
 He freed us, gave us life, and home in heaven. 
 
 Hope was restored with blessedness and joy 
 To those who had erewhile endured the fire. 
 Triumphant in this journey was the 5on, 150 
 
 Mighty and prosperous, when He advanced 
 Into God's kingdom with a multitude, 
 A host of souls ; when to His angels came 
 The almighty Master for their joy, to those 
 The holy ones in heaven, who from the first 
 Had dwelt in glory; when their Ruler came. 
 Almighty God, into His fatherland. 
 
 LaMotte Iddings. 
 
RUTHWELL CROSS INSCRIPTION 
 
 The following description is slightly condensed from Anderson, 
 Scotland in Early Times, Second Series, pp. 232 ff . : 'At Ruth- 
 well, in Annandale, within eight miles of Dumfries, there stands 
 a very remarkable monument. Its form is that of a tall free- 
 standing cross. As it stands at present, the cross is reconstructed. 
 The whole height of the cross is about seventeen and a half feet, 
 the shaft being two feet in breadth at the base, and fifteen inches 
 in thickness. The material is sandstone. It stood in the old 
 church of Ruthwell till 1642, when the General Assembly which 
 met at St. Andrews on 27th July of that year issued an order for 
 its destruction as a monument of idolatry. The transverse arms 
 are still wanting, those now on the monument having been sup- 
 plied in 1823. The monument is sculptured with figure-subjects 
 on the broad faces, and on its sides with scroll-work. The figure- 
 subjects on the broad faces of the cross are arranged in panels 
 surrounded with flat borders, on which are incised the inscrip- 
 tions which give to this monument its special interest. They are 
 in two languages and two alphabets, one set being carved in 
 Roman capitals, the other in runes. The runes are on the raised 
 borders enclosing the two panels of scroll-work, and are arranged 
 in vertical columns, extending from top to bottom, with the excep- 
 tion of the first line, which runs horizontally across the top of the 
 panel. Consequently it reads from left to right across the first 
 line, in the usual way, then continues in a vertical line down the 
 whole of the right-hand border, returning to the top of the left- 
 hand border, and reading vertically again to the base. As the 
 lower part of the cross is more wasted than the upper, there are 
 places where the reading fails toward the bottom of each border, 
 thus making four gaps in the continuity of the inscription.' 
 
 100 
 
RUTHWELL CROSS INSCRIPTION lOI 
 
 Nos. I and II below represent respectively the right- and the 
 left-hand inscriptions of the one face; III and IV the right- and 
 the left-hand ones of the opposite face. The three words, ' Christ 
 was on,' represent the horizontal line referred to above. All, it 
 should be said, are below the transverse arms of the cross. It 
 has often been affirmed, but, as now appears, without any suf- 
 ficient reason, that Caedmon recorded his name upon the cross 
 as the maker, and hence that he is to be credited with the 
 authorship of the poem whose fragments are translated below 
 — fragments whose striking correspondence with portions of the 
 Dream of the Rood was first pointed out by Kemble in 1843. 
 By many scholars it has been supposed that the inscription on 
 the cross belongs to the seventh or eighth century, but there 
 are good grounds for believing that it is rather to be dated 
 about the year 1 1 50, and that it was erected at the command 
 or under the influence of David I of Scotland, who ruled over 
 Scottish Cumbria, the region including Ruthwell, from 1107 to 
 1 153, who founded various monasteries, and who was in a posi- 
 tion to command the services of accomplished architects and 
 sculptors. For the history of opinion on the subject, reasons 
 for favoring the later date, and photographs of this and the Bew- 
 castle Cross, see Cook, The Date of the Ruthwell and Bewcastle 
 Crosses (191 2). 
 
 The inscription should be compared with Dream of the Rood 
 38 if. 
 
 (Un)clothed Himself God almighty virhen He would 
 mount the cross, courageous in the sight of all men ; 
 bow .... 
 
 II 
 
 I the povsrerful King, the Lord of heaven ; I 
 durst not bend. Men mocked us both together. I was 
 bedewed with blood, shed from .... 
 
I02 RELIGIOUS LYRICS 
 
 III 
 
 Christ was on the rood. But hastening thither came 
 noble ones from afar to the One {or, to the solitary One); 
 all that I beheld. Grievously was I afflicted with sor- 
 rows ; bowed .... 
 
 IV 
 
 . . . wounded with arrows. They laid Him down, 
 weary of limb, stood at His body's head; beheld Hiro 
 there heaven .... 
 
 Albert S. Cook. 
 
BRUSSELS CROSS INSCRIPTION 
 
 • 
 
 This inscription is found upon a reliquary said to contain frag- 
 ments of the true cross, preserved in the Cathedral of Brussels. 
 According to Logeman, who first published and correctly trans- 
 lated the inscription, it dates from about the year i loo, as nearly 
 as he can judge. Besides the verses, it has this statement : ' JEthel- 
 maer and Athelwold his brother caused this cross to be made to 
 the glory of Christ, for the soul of ^Elfric their brother. Drah- 
 mal wrought me. Agnus Dei.' Of the persons mentioned nothing 
 is known. The lines translated below are closely related to 11. 42, 
 44, 48 of the Dream of the Rood, and are probably adapted from 
 that poem, like those on the Ruthwell Cross (see p. 100). Full 
 details concerning the reliquary may be found in Logeman's 
 brochure, V Inscription Anglo-Saxonne du Reliquaire de la Vraie 
 Croix, Ghent and Leipzig, 1891. 
 
 Rood is my name. Once long ago I bore 
 Trembling, bedewed with blood, the mighty King. 
 
 Chauncey B. Tinker. 
 
 103 
 
IV 
 BIBLICAL POEMS 
 
 SELECTIONS FROM THE GENESIS 
 
 Genesis, Exodus, Daniel, and Christ and Satan, the so-called 
 Casdmonian poems, were first published by Franciscus Junius at 
 Amsterdam in 1655. By reason of the resemblance which their 
 subjects bore to those of the poems described by Bede (see 
 Appendix, p. 180), Junius conjectured that the entire series was the 
 work of Caedmon. Modern scholarship has, however, concluded 
 that no part of the poems can safely be attributed to Caedmon. 
 Discrepancies of language, metre, and style seem to make impos- 
 sible the attribution of the series to any one man. Wiilker, for 
 example, assigns the Exodus, the Daniel, and the older part of 
 the Genesis to the first half of the eighth century {Geschichte der 
 Englischen Litteratur, p. 35), and the Christ and Satan to the 
 tenth, while C^dmon of course belonged to the seventh century. 
 
 The Genesis falls into two parts, Genesis A and Genesis B. 
 The latter comprises vv. 235-851, and probably belongs to the 
 latter half of the ninth century ; the former includes the rest of 
 the poem. Up to 1875 the whole was supposed to be the work of 
 the same author, but in that year Sievers (Der Heliand und die 
 Angelsdchsische Genesis, Halle, 1875) made the brilliant discovery 
 that lines 235-851 were an insertion, and that they were a transla- 
 tion from Old Saxon. In 1894 this hypothesis, which had been 
 generally accepted on the basis of the internal evidence adduced 
 by Sievers, was strikingly confirmed by the discovery in a Vatican 
 manuscript of certain fragments of an Old Saxon Genesis, 
 
 104 
 
SELECTIONS FROM THE GENESIS lOS 
 
 twenty-six lines of wliich correspond with a part of Genesis B (cf. 
 Zangemeister and Braune, Bruchstiicke der Altsdchsischen Bibel- 
 dichtung, Heidelberg, 1894; Piper, Die Altsdchsische Bibeldich- 
 tung\, Stuttgart, 1897). Sievers at first supposed that the original of 
 Genesis B was by the author of the Old Saxon Heliand (about 830) ; 
 he now believes {Zeitschrift fiir Deutsche Philologie 27 538) that 
 the fragments are the work of a pupil and successor of the Heliand 
 poet, while Kogel {Geschichte der Deutschen Litteratur i 288 1.) 
 and Braune {Bruchstiicke 35), for example, believe that the same 
 poet first wrote the Heliand, and afterward the Genesis, as Sievers 
 had already suspected in 1878 {Heliand, p. xxxiv). The rela- 
 tion between the Old Saxon original and the Old English is 
 exhibited in the Appendix (pp. 184-185), where the only extant 
 fragment of the original which corresponds to a passage of Genesis 
 B is printed side by side with this passage. In some parts of 
 Genesis B the adaptation of the Old Saxon original by the Old 
 English poet is undoubtedly characterized by greater freedom 
 than is shown in the passage just referred to. 
 
 The selections which follow are of especial interest because of 
 their similarity to certain parts of Paradise Lost. The following 
 parallels are especially noteworthy : Gen. 32 and P. L. $. 688-689 i 
 Gen. 337 and P. L. I. 84 ff. ; Gen. 356 ff. and P. L. i. 242 ff. ; 
 Gen. 395 ff. and P. L.\. 650 ff., 2. 345-376 ; Gen. 449 and P.L. i. 
 222-224. It is not impossible that Milton may have been 
 acquainted with the Genesis; Masson {Life of Milton 6557, note) 
 regards it as possible, but Wiilker {Anglia 4 401 ff.) regards it as 
 unlikely ; cf. Cook, ' Milton and Csedmon,' Academy 34 420. 
 
 After the present selections, the Biblical paraphrase is continued 
 as far as the Sacrifice of Isaac. 
 
 GENESIS A 
 
 I. The Fall of the Angels 
 
 Most right it is that we praise with our words, 
 Love in our minds, the Warden of the skies. 
 
I06 BIBLICAL POEMS 
 
 Glorious King of all the hosts of men ; 
 
 He speeds the strong, and is the Head of all 
 
 His high creation, the almighty Lord. 
 
 None formed Him, no first was nor last shall be 
 
 Of the eternal Ruler, but His sway 
 
 Is everlasting over thrones in heaven. 
 
 With powers on high, soothfast and steadfast. He 
 
 10 Ruled the wide home of heaven's bosom spread 
 By God's might for the guardians of souls, 
 The sons of glory. Hosts of angels shone. 
 Glad with their Maker ; bright their bliss, and rich 
 The fruitage of their lives ; their glory sure. 
 They served and praised their King, with joy gave praise 
 To Him, their Life-lord, in whose aiding care 
 They judged themselves most blessM. 
 
 Sin unknown, 
 
 20 Offense unformed, still with their Parent- Lord 
 They lived in peace, raising aloft in heaven 
 Right and truth only, ere the angel-chief 
 Through pride divided them and led astray. 
 Their own well-being they would bear no more, 
 But cast themselves out of the love of God. 
 Great in presumption against the Most High, 
 They would divide the radiant throng far spread, 
 , The resting-place of glory. Even there 
 Pain came to them ; envy and pride began 
 
 30 There first to weave ill counsel, and to stir 
 The minds of angels. Then, athirst for strife. 
 He said that northward he would own in heaven 
 A home and a high throne. Then God was wroth, 
 And for the host He had made glorious, 
 
SELECTIONS FROM THE GENESIS 107 
 
 For those pledge-breakers, our souls' guardians, 
 
 The Lord made anguish a reward, a home 
 
 In banishment, hell-groans, hard pain, and bade 
 
 That torture-house abide their joyless fall. 4° 
 
 When with eternal night and sulphur-pains. 
 
 Fulness of fire, dread cold, reek and red flames. 
 
 He knew it filled, then through that hopeless home 
 
 He bade the woeful horror to increase. 
 
 Banded in blameful counsel against God, 
 
 Their wrath had wrath for wages. In fierce mood 
 
 They said they would, and might with ease, possess 
 
 The kingdom. Him that lying hope betrayed, 
 
 After the Lord of might, high King of heaven, 5° 
 
 Highest, upraised His hand against that host. 
 
 False and devoid of counsel, they might not 
 
 Share strength against their Maker. He in wrath 
 
 Clave their bold mood, bowed utterly their boast. 
 
 Struck from the sinful scathers kingdom, power. 
 
 Glory, and gladness : from the opposers took 
 
 His joy. His peace, their bright supremacy. 
 
 And, with sure march, by His own might poured down 
 
 Avenging anger on His enemies. 60 
 
 Stern in displeasure, with consuming wrath, 
 
 By hostile grasp He crushed them in His arms ; 
 
 Ireful He from their home, their glory-seats 
 
 Banished His foes ; and that proud angel-tribe, 
 
 Malicious host of spirits bowed with care, 
 
 He, the Creator, Lord of all might, sent 
 
 Far journeying, with bruised pride and broken threat, 
 
 Strength bent, and beauty blotted. They, exiled, 70 
 
 Were bound on their swart ways. Loud laugh no more 
 
Io8 BIBLICAL POEMS 
 
 Was theirs, but in hell-pain they wailed accursed, 
 Knowing sore sorrow and the sulphur-throes, 
 Roofed in with darkness : the full recompense 
 Of those advancing battle against God. 
 
 2. The Beginning of Creation 
 
 But after as before was peace in Heaven, 
 Fair rule of love; dear unto all the Lord 
 
 80 Of lords, the King of hosts, to all His own. 
 And glories of the good who possessed joy 
 In heaven the almighty Father still increased. 
 Then peace was among dwellers in the sky. 
 Blaming and lawless malice were gone out, 
 And angels feared no more, since plotting foes 
 Who cast off heaven were bereft of light. 
 Their glory-seats behind them in God's realm, 
 Enlarged with gifts, stood happy, bright with bloom, 
 
 90 But ownerless since the cursed spirits went 
 Wretched to exile within bars of hell. 
 
 Then thought within His mind the Lord of hosts 
 How He again might fix within His rule 
 The great creation, thrones of heavenly light 
 High in the heavens for a better band. 
 Since the proud scathers had relinquished them. 
 The holy God, therefore, in His great might 
 Willed that there should be set beneath heaven's span 
 
 100 Earth, firmament, wide waves, created world. 
 Replacing foes cast headlong from their home. 
 Here yet was naught save darkness of the cave, 
 The broad abyss, whereon the steadfast King 
 
SELECTIONS FROM THE GENESIS 109 
 
 Looked with His eyes and saw that space of gloom, 
 
 Saw the dark cloud lower in lasting night, 
 
 Was deep and dim, vain, useless, strange to God, 
 
 Black under heiven, wan, waste, till through His word no 
 
 The King of glory had created life. 
 
 Here first the eternal Father, guard of all, 
 Of heaven and earth, raised up the firmament, 
 The almighty Lord set firm by His strong power 
 This roomy land ; grass greened not yet the plain, 
 Ocean far spread hid the wan ways in gloom. 
 Then was the Spirit gloriously bright 
 Of heaven's Keeper borne over the deep 120 
 
 Swiftly. The Life-giver, the angel's Lord, 
 Over the ample ground bade come forth light. 
 Quickly the high King's bidding was obeyed, 
 Over the waste there shone light's holy ray. 
 Then parted He, Lord of triumphant might, 
 Shadow from shining, darkness from the light. 
 Light, by the word of God, was first named, day. 130 
 
 GENESIS B 
 
 I. The Fall of Satan 
 
 The Almighty had disposed ten angel-tribes. 
 
 The holy Father by His strength of hand, 
 
 That they whom He well "trusted should serve Him 
 
 And work His will. For that the holy God 250 
 
 Gave intellect, and shaped them with His hands. 
 
 In happiness He placed them, and to one 
 
 He added prevalence and might of thought, 
 
no BIBLICAL POEMS 
 
 Sway over much, next highest to Himself 
 In heaven's realm. Him He had wrought so bright 
 That pure as starlight was in heaven the form 
 Which God the Lord of hosts had given him. 
 Praise to the Lord his work, and cherishing 
 Of heavenly joy, and thankfulness to God 
 For his share of that gift of light, which then 
 Had long been his. But he perverted it. 
 Against heaven's highest Lord he lifted war, 
 
 260 Against the Most High in His sanctuary. 
 Dear was he to our Lord, but was not hid 
 From Him that in His angel pride arose. 
 He raised himself against his Maker, sought 
 Speech full of hate and bold presuming boast. 
 Refused God suit, said that his own form beamed 
 With radiance of light, shone bright of hue. 
 And in his mind he found not service due 
 To the Lord God, for to himself he seemed 
 
 270 In force and skill greater than all God's host. 
 Much spake the angel of presumption, thought 
 Through his own craft to make a stronger throne 
 Higher in heaven. His mind urged him, he said. 
 That north and south he should begin to work, 
 Found buildings ; said he questioned whether he 
 Would serve God. 'Wherefore,' he said, 'shall I toil? 
 No need have I of master. I can work 
 
 280 With my own hands great marvels, and have power 
 To build a throne more worthy of a God, 
 Higher in heaven. Why shall I for His smile 
 Serve Him, bend to Him thus in vassalage? 
 I may be God as He. 
 
SELECTIONS FROM THE GENESIS III 
 
 Stand by me, strong supporters firm in strife. 
 
 Hard-mooded heroes, famous warriors, 
 
 Have chosen me for chief ; one may take thought 
 
 With such for counsel, and with such secure 
 
 Large following. My friends in earnest they, 
 
 Faithful in all the shaping of their minds ; 
 
 I am their master, and may rule this realm. 
 
 Therefore it seems not right that I should cringe 290 
 
 To God for any good, and I will be 
 
 No more His servant.' 
 
 When the Almighty heard 
 With how great pride His angel raised himself 
 Against his Lord, foolishly spake high words 
 Against the supreme Father, he that deed 
 Must expiate, and in the work of strife 
 Receive his portion, take for punishment 
 Utmost perdition. So doth every man 
 Who sets himself in battle against God, 
 In sinful strife against the Lord most high. 
 Then was the Mighty wroth, heaven's highest Lord 3CM 
 Cast him from his high seat, for he had brought 
 His Master's hate on him. His favor lost. 
 The Good was angered against him, and he 
 Must therefore seek the depth of hell's fierce pains, 
 Because he strove against heaven's highest Lord, 
 Who shook him from His favor, cast him down 
 To th'; deep dales of hell, where he became 
 Devil. The fiend with all his comrades fell 
 From heaven, angels, for three nights and days, 
 From heaven to hell, where the Lord changed them all 
 To devils, because they His deed and word 
 
112 BIBLICAL POEMS 
 
 310 Refused to worship. Therefore in worse Hght 
 Under the earth beneath, almighty God 
 Had placed them triumphless in the swart hell. 
 
 There evening, immeasurably long. 
 Brings to each fiend renewal of the fire ; 
 Then comes, at dawn, the east wind keen with frost ; 
 Its dart, or fire continual, torment sharp. 
 The punishment wrought for them, they must bear. 
 Their world was changed, and those first times filled 
 hell 
 
 320 With the deniers. Still the angels held, 
 
 They who fulfilled God's pleasure, heaven's heights ; 
 Those others, hostile, who such strife had raised 
 Against their Lord, lie in the fire, bear pangs, 
 Fierce burning heat in midst of hell, broad flames. 
 Fire and therewith also the bitter reek 
 Of smoke and darkness ; for they paid no heed 
 To service of their God ; their wantonness 
 Of angel's pride deceived them, who refused 
 To worship the almighty Word. Their pain 
 
 330 Was great, then were they fallen to the depth 
 Of fire in the hot hell for their loose thought 
 And pride unmeasured, sought another land 
 That was without light and was full of flame, 
 Terror immense of fire. Then the fiends felt 
 That they unnumbered pains had in return. 
 Through might of God, for their great violence, 
 But most for pride. 
 
SELECTIONS FROM THE GENESIS II3 
 
 2. Satan's Address to his Followers 
 
 Then spoke the haughty king, 
 Once brightest among angels, in the heavens 
 Whitest, and to his Master dear beloved 
 Of God until they lightly went astray, 34° 
 
 And for that madness the almighty God 
 Was wroth with him and into ruin cast 
 Him down to his new bed, and shaped him then 
 A name, said that the highest should be called 
 '^ Satan thenceforth, and o'er hell's swart abyss 
 Bade him have rule and avoid strife with God. 
 Satan discoursed, he who henceforth ruled hell 
 Spake sorrowing. 
 
 God's angel erst, he had shone white in heaven, 350 
 
 Till his soul urged, and most of all its pride. 
 That of the Lord of hosts he should no more 
 Bend to the Word. About his heart his soul 
 Tumultuously heaved, hot pains of wrath 
 Without him. 
 
 Then said he : ' Most unlike this narrow place 
 To that which once we knew, high in heaven's realm, 
 Which my Lord gave me, though therein no more 
 For the Almighty we hold royalties. 360 
 
 Yet right hath He not done in striking us 
 Down to the fiery bottom of hot hell. 
 Banished from heaven's kingdom, with decree 
 That He will set in it the race of man. 
 Worst of my sorrows this, that, wrought of earth, 
 Adam shall sit in bliss on my strong throne. 
 Whilst we these pangs endure, this grief in hell. 
 
114 BIBLICAL POEMS 
 
 Woe ! Woe ! had I the power of my hands, 
 And for a season, for one winter's space, 
 
 370 Might be without ; then with this host I — 
 Bui iron binds me round ; this coU of chains 
 Rides me ; I rule no more ; close bonds of hell 
 Hem me their prisoner. Above, below. 
 Here is vast fire, and never have I seen 
 More loathly landscape ; never fade the flames. 
 Hot over hell. Rings clasp me, smooth hard bands 
 Mar motion, stay my wandering — feet bound, 
 
 380 Hands fastened, and the ways of these hell-gates 
 Accursed so that I cannot free my limbs ; 
 Great lattice-bars, hard iron hammered hot, 
 Lie round me, wherewith God hath bound me down 
 Fast by the neck. 
 
 ' So know I that He knew 
 My mind, and that the Lord of hosts perceived 
 That if between us two by Adam came 
 Evil towards that royalty of heaven, 
 I having power of my hands — 
 But now we suffer throes in hell, gloom, heat, 
 
 390 Grim, bottomless ; us God Himself hath swept 
 Into these mists of darkness, wherefore sin 
 Can He not lay against us that we planned 
 Evil against Him in the land. Of light 
 He hath shorn us, cast us into utmost pain. 
 May we not then plan vengeance, pay Him back 
 With any hurt, since shorn by Him of light ? 
 Now He hath set the bounds of a mid-earth 
 Where after His own image He hath wrought 
 Man, by whom He will people once again 
 
SELECTIONS FROM THE GENESIS 1 15 
 
 Heaven's kingdom with pure souls. Therefore intent 
 Must be our thought that, if we ever may, 
 On Adam and his offspring we may wreak 
 Revenge, and, if we can devise a way, 4°° 
 
 Pervert His will. I trust no more the light 
 Which he thinks long to enjoy with angel-power. 
 Bliss we obtain no more, nor can attain 
 To weaken God's strong will ; but let us now 
 Turn from the race of man that heavenly realm 
 Which may no more be ours, contrive that they 
 Forfeit His favor, undo what His word 
 ■Ordained ; then wroth of mind He from His grace 
 Will cast them, then shall they too seek this hell 
 And these grim depths. Then may we for ourselves 
 Have them in this strong durance, sons of men 
 For servants. Of the warfare let us now 
 Begin to take thought. If of old I gave 
 To any thane, while we in that good realm 410 
 
 Sat happy and had power of our thrones, 
 Gifts of a prince, then at no dearer time 
 Could he reward my gift, if any now 
 Among my followers would be my friend, 
 That he might pass forth upward from these bounds. 
 Had power with him that, winged, he might fly, 
 Borne on the clouds, to where stand Adam and Eve 
 Wrought on earth's kingdom, girt with happiness, 420 
 While we are cast down into this deep dale. 
 Now these are worthier to the Lord, may own 
 The blessing rightly ours in heaven's realm, 
 This the design apportioned to mankind. 
 Sore is my mind and rue is in my thought 
 
Il6 BIBLICAL POEMS 
 
 That ever henceforth they should possess heaven. 
 If ever any of you in any way 
 May turn them from the teaching of God's word. 
 They shall be evil to Him, and if they 
 
 430 Break His commandment, then will He be wroth 
 Against them, then will be withdrawn from them 
 Their happiness, and punishment prepared. 
 Some grievous share of harm. Think all of this. 
 How to deceive them. In these fetters then 
 I can take rest, if they that kingdom lose. 
 He who shall do this hath prompt recompense 
 Henceforth for ever of what may be won 
 Of gain within these fires. I let him sit 
 Beside myself.' . . . 
 
 Then God's antagonist arrayed himself 
 Swift in rich arms. He had a guileful mind. 
 The hero set the helmet on his head 
 And bound it fast, fixed it with clasps. He knew 
 Many a speech deceitful ; turned him thence. 
 Hardy of mind, departed through hell's doors, 
 Striking the flames in two with a fiend's power ; 
 
 450 Would secretly deceive with wicked deed 
 
 Men, the Lord's subjects, that misled, forlorn. 
 
 To God they became evil. So he fared. 
 
 Through his fiend's power, till on earth he found 
 
 Adam, God's handiwork, with him his wife. 
 
 The fairest woman. 
 
 Henry Morlkv 
 
SELECTIONS FROM THE EXODUS 
 
 The Exodus, a poem of 589 lines, was one of the series 
 forraeriy ascribed to Casdmon (see p. 104). Its date and author 
 are unknown ; and it has probably suffered from interpolation. 
 The poem gives an account of the departure of the children of 
 Israel from Egypt, beginning with the death of the first-bom, and 
 closing with the rejoicing of the Israelites at the destruction of 
 Pharaoh's host. 
 
 I. THE PILLAR OF FIRE 
 
 Then I have heard that the brave of heart 
 Blew in the morn a glorious blast 
 With the blare of trumpets. The troop arose, 
 The force of the brave, the folk of the Lord, 
 The eager army, as Moses commanded, 
 The famous captain of kindred hosts. 
 Ahead they beheld the leader of life ^ 
 Measure the way of the air ; the cloud 
 Guided their journey as soon as the seamen^ 
 Fared on their way to the sea. The folk 
 Were joyful, loud was the cry of the host. 
 
 Arose at evening a heavenly beacon, 
 A second wonder ; after the sunset 
 They saw the marvel above the people 
 
 1 The pillar of cloud. 2 The Israelites. 
 
 117 
 
Il8 BIBLICAL POEMS 
 
 Shining with flame, a burning pillar. 
 Above the bowmen the white rays glittered, 
 The shield-walls shone, the shades departed. 
 The sloping night-shadows could not cover 
 Their place of concealment. The candle of heaven 
 Burned ; a new warden by night was appointed 
 O'er the army to dwell, lest by fear of the desert, 
 By sudden seizure, by ocean-like tempests. 
 The hoary heath should distract their hearts. 
 120 Had the foregoer locks of fire. 
 
 Radiant beams ; with terror of burning, 
 With heat of flame he threatened the throng 
 That he should destroy in the desert the host, 
 Unless they listened, the swift of spirit, 
 To Moses' voice. The host shone bright, 
 Glistened the shields ; the warriors saw, 
 Ready to guide them forth on their way, 
 The ensign pointing the path direct. 
 Until, at the edge of the land, the sea 
 Like a bulwark barred the way of the host. 
 
 C. H. A. Wager. 
 
 2. THE MARCHING OF PHARAOH'S HOST 
 
 Then the heroes' hearts every one grew hopeless, 
 For afar they saw, on the southern ways, 
 The war-array of Pharaoh forward faring. 
 Sparkled his battle-line, bucklers they were bearing ; 
 Already whirred the arrows, onward moved the war, 
 Shields were brightly shining, and the trumpets sang ; 
 i6o There the banners waved, where the war-troop trod. 
 
SELECTIONS FROM THE EXODUS II9 
 
 In circles soared above them the vultures, slaughter- 
 seekers, 
 Hungry for the fighting ; [above them flew the raven,] 
 Dusky carrion-lover, on his dewy wing. 
 Over those dead warriors. There the wolves howled 
 A direful even-song, deeming their food was nigh. 
 
 3. THE DESTRUCTION OF THE EGYPTIANS 
 
 Then with blood-clots was the blue sky blotted ; 
 Then the resounding ocean, that road of seamen. 
 Threatened bloody horror, till by Moses' hand 
 The great lord of fate freed the mad waters. 
 Wide the sea drove, swept with its death-grip, 480 
 
 Foamed all the deluge, the doomed ones yielded. 
 Seas fell on that track, all the sky was troubled. 
 Fell those steadfast ramparts, down crashed the floods. 
 Melted were those sea-towers, when the mighty One, 
 Lord of heaven's realm, smote with holy hand 
 Those heroes strong as pines, that people proud. . . . 
 The yawning sea was mad, 
 
 Up it drew, down swirled ; dread stood about them, 490 
 
 Forth welled the sea-wounds. On those war-troops fell. 
 As from the heaven high, that handiwork of God. 
 Thus swept He down the sea-wall, foamy-billowed. 
 The sea that never shelters, struck by His ancient sword, 
 Till, by its dint of death, slept the doughty ones ; 
 An army of sinners, fast surrounded there. 
 The sea-pale, sodden warriors their souls up yielded. 
 Then the dark upweltering, of haughty waves the 
 greatest, 
 
I20 BIBLICAL POEMS 
 
 Over them spread ; all the host sank deep. 
 
 500 And thus were drowned the doughtiest of Egypt, 
 
 Pharaoh with his folk. That foe to God, 
 
 Full soon he saw, yea, e'en as he sank, 
 
 That mightier than he was the Master of the waters, 
 
 With His death-grip, determined to end the battle, 
 
 Angered and awful. 
 
 Henry S. Canby. 
 
JUDITH 
 
 The Judith, whose author is unknown, has been conjecturally 
 assigned to two different dates, approximately — the years 856 and 
 915 ; for the respective arguments see Cook's edition and Foster's 
 Judith: Studies in Metre, Language, and Style. Authorities agree 
 that it has Cynewulfian peculiarities, and therefore was probably 
 written by some admirer of that poet, and that it was certainly 
 composed before 937, since it is imitated in the Battle of Brunan- 
 burh (see p. 25), which bears that date. Its source is found in 
 various passages of the apocryphal book of Judith, between 
 7. 33 and 16. I. The art and vigor of the poem are equally 
 remarkable; though apparently only a fragment, one scarcely 
 misses the part which is lost. According to Sweet, it combines 
 the ' highest dramatic aijd constructive power with the utmost 
 brilliance of language and metre.' 
 
 I. THE FEAST 
 
 She doubted not the glorious Maker's gifts 
 
 In this wide earth ; from the great Lord to find 
 
 Ready protection when she needed most 
 
 Grace from the highest Judge ; that He, whose power 
 
 Is over all beginnings, with His peace 
 
 Would strengthen her against the highest terror. 
 
 Therefore the Heavenly Father, bright of mood, 
 
 Gave her her wish, because she ever had 
 
 Firm faith in. the Almighty. 
 
122 BIBLICAL POEMS 
 
 Then heard I Holofernes bade prepare 
 Wine quickly, with all wonders gloriously 
 Prepare a feast, to which the chief of men 
 
 lo Bade all his foremost thanes, and with great haste 
 Shield-warriors obeyed, came journeying 
 To the rich lord, the leader of the people. 
 That was the fourth day after Judith, shrewd 
 Of thought, with elfin beauty, sought him first. 
 Then to the feast they went to sit in pride 
 At the wine-drinking, all his warriors 
 Bold in their war-shirts, comrades in his woe. 
 There were deep bowls oft to the benches borne, 
 Cups and full jugs to those who sat in hall. 
 The famed shield-warriors shared the feast, death-doomed, 
 
 20 Though that the chief, dread lord of earls, knew not. 
 Then Holofernes, the gold-friend of man. 
 Joyed in the pouring out, laughed, talked aloud. 
 Roared and uproared, that men from far might hear 
 How the stern-minded stormed and yelled in mirth, 
 Much bidding the bench-sitters bear their part 
 Well in the feasting. So the wicked one 
 Through the day drenched his followers with wine, 
 
 30 The haughty gift-lord, till they lay in swoon ; 
 His nobles all o'erdrenched as they were struck 
 To death, and every good poured out of them. 
 
 2. THE SLAYING OF HOLOFERNES 
 
 So bade the lord of men serve those in hall 
 Till the dark night drew near the sons of men. 
 Then bade the malice-blind to fetch with speed 
 
JUDITH 123 
 
 The blessed maid, ring-wreathed, to his bed-rest. 
 
 The attendants quickly did as bade their lord. 
 
 Head of mailed warriors, in a twinkling went 
 
 To the guest-chamber, where they Judith found 40 
 
 Prudent in soul, and then shield-warriors 
 
 Began to lead the pious, the bright maid 
 
 To the tent, the high one, where within at night 
 
 The chief at all times rested, Holofernes, 
 
 Hateful to God the Savior. There was hung 
 
 All golden a fair fly-net round the bed 
 
 Of the folk-leader, that the baleful one. 
 
 The chief of warriors, might look through on each 
 
 Child of the brave who came therein, and none 50 
 
 Might look on him of mankind, save 't were one 
 
 Of his own ill-famed warriors whom the proud one 
 
 Bade to draw near, gone in for secret council. 
 
 Then they brought quickly to his place of rest 
 
 The woman wise of wit ; went rugged men 
 
 To make known to their lord that there was brought 
 
 The holy woman to his bower tent. 
 
 Then was the famed one blithe of mood, the chief 
 Of cities thought the bright maid to defile 
 With filth and stain, but that the glorious Judge 
 Would not allow, who kept the flock of fame ; 
 The Lord, who guides the good, stayed him in that. 60 
 Then went the devilish one, with crowd of men, 
 Baleful, to seek his bed, where he should lose 
 His prosperous life, at once, within a night ; 
 There had he to await his end, on earth 
 A bitter one, such as he in old time 
 Wrought for himself, while he, bold chief of men, 
 
124 BIBLICAL POEMS 
 
 Dwelt on this earth under the roof of clouds. 
 
 So drunken then with wine the king fell down 
 
 In the midst of his bed, that counsel he knew none 
 
 Within the chamber of his thought. Out from within 
 
 70 Marched with all haste the warriors steeped in wine, 
 Who led the faithless, hated chief to bed 
 For the last time. The Savior's handmaid then 
 Gloried, intently mindful how she might 
 Take from the hateful one most easily 
 His life before the drunkard woke to shame. 
 
 Then she of braided locks, the Maker's maid, 
 Took a sharp sword, hard from the grinding, drew it 
 With strong palm from the sheath, and then by name 
 
 80 Began to name heaven's Warden, Savior 
 
 Of all who dwell on earth, and spake these words : 
 
 ' God, first Creator, Spirit of comfort. Son 
 
 Of the Almighty, glorious Trinity, 
 
 I will pray for Thy mercy upon me 
 
 Who need it. Strongly is my heart now stirred. 
 
 Distressed the mind sorely disturbed with care ; 
 
 Give to me. Lord of heaven, victory 
 
 And true belief, that with this sword I may 
 
 90 Hew at this giver of death. Grant me success. 
 Strong Lord of men ; never had I more need 
 Of Thy compassion ; now, O mighty Lord, 
 Bright-minded giver of renown, avenge 
 What stirs my mood to anger, mind to hate.' 
 He then, the highest Judge, encouraged her 
 At once with strength ; so doth He to each one 
 Of those here dwelling who seek Him for help 
 With reason and with true belief. Her mood 
 
JUDITH 125 
 
 Then became unoppressed, and renovate 
 With holy hope ; she took the heathen then 
 Fast by his hair, and drew him with her hands 
 Shamefully towards her, and laid with skill 
 The hateful man where she most easily 
 Might have the wicked one within her power. 
 She, braided-locked, then struck the scather-foe 
 With glittering sword, him in whose thought was hate, 
 That she cut half his neck through, and he lay 
 In swoon, drunk, with a death-wound, but not yet 
 Was dead, his soul all fled ; the woman then. 
 Famous for strength, with vigor struck again 
 The heathen dog, so that his head went forth 
 Upon the floor. Then the foul carcase lay 
 Empty behind, while the soul went elsewhere 
 Under the abyss, and there it was condemned. 
 Tied down to torment ever after, wound 
 About with serpents, fixed to punishment. 
 Chained in hell's burning after it went hence. 
 Nor must he hope at all, in darkness whelmed. 
 That he can come thence from the serpent's hall, 
 But there shall dwell ever and ever more 
 Forth without end in the dark cavern-home, 
 Deprived for ever of the joys of light. 
 
 3. THE RETURN TO BETHULIA 
 
 Great glory Judith then had gained in strife. 
 As God, the Lord of Heaven, granted her. 
 Who gave her victory. The clear- witted maid 
 Then quickly brought the leader's bleeding head 
 
126 BIBLICAL POEMS 
 
 Into the bag that her attendant maid, 
 A pale-faced woman, trained to noble ways, 
 Had carried thither with the food of both. 
 And Judith, thoughtful-minded, gave it then, 
 
 130 So gory, to her maid to carry home. 
 
 Then both the women went directly thence 
 Bold in their strength, exulting in success. 
 Out from that host, till they might clearly see 
 The glittering walls of fair Bethulia. 
 
 They then, adorned with bracelets, sped on foot 
 
 140 Forth until, glad of mood, they had gone on 
 To the wall-gate. Sat warriors, men on watch. 
 Kept guard within the fortress, as before 
 Judith had bidden them in their distress. 
 The snare-devising maid, famed for her strength. 
 When she went forth upon her path of war. 
 Then she was come again, dear to her folk. 
 And then forthwith the prudent woman bade 
 Some of the men of the wide burgh go forth 
 
 150 To meet h^er, and to let her quickly in 
 
 Through the wall's gate, and to the victor folk 
 Spake thus : ' I now can tell you of a thing 
 Worth thanks, that ye no longer need to mourn. 
 Blithe to you is the Creator, Glory of kings ; 
 Throughout the wide world that has been made known, 
 That glorious prosperity now shines 
 Brightly upon you, glory now is given 
 For all the evils that ye long have borne.' 
 
 160 Then were the burghers blithe when they had heard 
 Over the high wall how the holy maid 
 Spake to them. In the army there was joy ; 
 
JUDITH 127 
 
 The people hastened to the fortress-gate, 
 
 Women and men together crush and crowd, 
 
 In bands, in bodies, thronged and ran, old, young, 
 
 Towards the handmaid of the Lord by thousands. 
 
 Within that festive city every man 
 
 Was gladdened in his spirit when they knew 
 
 That it was Judith come back to her home. 
 
 Quickly with reverence they then let her in. 170 
 
 The prudent one, adorned with gold, then bade 
 Her servant, grateful-minded, to unwrap 
 The head of the war-chieftain, and to the eyes 
 Of the burghers show it, bloody, as a sign 
 How she had sped in the contest. Then to all 
 The people spake the noble woman : ' Here, 
 Men famed for victory, the people's leaders, 
 Here ye may plainly gaze upon the head 
 Of the most hated heathen warrior, 
 
 The lifeless Holofernes, of all men 180 
 
 He who for us most shaped sore care and death. 
 And worse would add, but God denied to him 
 A longer life to afflict us with his feuds. 
 Through help of God I forced his life from him. 
 Now my will is to bid each man of you, 
 Burghers, shield-warriors, that you instantly 
 Be ready for the fight. When from the east 
 God the Creator, holy King, has sent 19c 
 
 A ray of light, bear forth your shields on breast. 
 Fire-hardened corslets, and bright helms among 
 The horde of scathers, with your glittering swords 
 To slay the death-doomed leaders of the folk. 
 The fated chiefs. Your foes are doomed to death. 
 
128 BIBLICAL POEMS 
 
 And ye have power and glory in the fight, 
 As through my hand the mighty Lord hath shown 
 you.' 
 
 4. THE BATTLE 
 
 Then a bold host was suddenly prepared 
 200 Of men keen for the conflict. Famed for courage 
 Soldiers and nobles marched, bore flags, straight forth 
 Helmeted men went from the holy burgh, 
 At the first reddening of dawn, to fight ; 
 Loud stormed the din of shields. 
 For that rejoiced the lank wolf in the wood. 
 And the black raven, slaughter-greedy bird ; 
 Both knew that men of the land thought to achieve 
 A slaughter of the fated ones. Then flew 
 210 The eagle, dewy-feathered, on their track, 
 Eager for prey ; the sallow-coated bird 
 Sang with its horny beak the song of war. 
 Warriors, brave men, marched to the battle, 
 They who not long before suffered reproach 
 From the foreigners, shame from the heathen. But all 
 That was hard was repaid at the play of the spears 
 To Assyria, when under their war-flags came 
 220 The Hebrews to the tents. Then boldly they 
 Let fly the showers of arrows, snakes of war. 
 From the horned bows the arrows firm in place. 
 Loud stormed the angry warriors, spears were sent 
 Amidst the throng of bold ones, men were wroth. 
 Men of the land against the hated race, 
 Marched stern of mood, rugged of mind, to take 
 Hard vengeance on old foes weary with mead. 
 
JUDITH 129 
 
 The soldiers drew with hands their clear-marked swords, 230 
 Proved edges, slew the Assyrian warriors 
 Attempting evil, slew with zeal, spared none 
 Of all the army, whether wretch or rich. 
 Of living men whom they could overtake. 
 
 5. THE SEEKING OF HOLOFERNES 
 
 So all the morning-time the kinsman-troops 
 
 Pursued the stranger on their native soil. 
 
 Till the chief watchmen of the host, in wrath. 
 
 Saw that the Hebrews strongly showed to them • 240 
 
 The swing of swords. They went to make that known 
 
 In words to the chief thanes. They roused the highest. 
 
 And fearfully told him, mead-weary man. 
 
 The dreadful tale, the morning's quick alarm. 
 
 The cruel edge-play. Suddenly, I heard. 
 
 The hero doomed to slaughter leapt from sleep, 
 
 And hosts of men sought the pavilion 
 
 Of baleful Holofernes, thronged in crowds ; 
 
 They only thought to offer him their help, 250 
 
 Their lord, before the terror came on him. 
 
 The power of the Hebrews. All supposed 
 
 The lord of men and the bright maid together 
 
 Were in the shining tent, the noble Judith 
 
 And he, the lustful, loathsome, terrible. 
 
 None was there of the earls who dared to wake, 
 
 Or learn how it had been to the great chief 
 
 With the holy woman the handmaid of God. 26a 
 
 Nearer the people of the Hebrews drew, 
 
 Fought stiffly with war-weapons, hilts, bright swords, 
 
I30 BIBLICAL POEMS 
 
 Requited old assaults, all grievances. 
 
 In that day's work Assyria was subdued, 
 
 Its pride was bowed. Men stood about the tent 
 
 Of the chief, much stirred, and gloom was in their minds 
 
 Then all together they cried noisily, 
 
 270 Began to clamor loudly, gnash their teeth, 
 Void of all good, setting their teeth in wrath ; 
 Then was their glory, ease, power, at its end. 
 The earls thought so to waken their dear Lord, 
 But not a whit succeeded. Then was found 
 One of the warriors so resolute 
 That, hard in hate, within the bower-tent 
 He ventured, as need urged him ; on the bed 
 Found his gold-giver lying pale, soul gone, 
 
 280 Deprived of life. Forthwith he, shuddering. 
 Fell to the ground, in fierce mood, tore his hair 
 And his robe too, and to the warriors 
 Who were outside there, joyless, thus he spake : 
 ' Here we may plainly see our fate foreshown, 
 Sign given us the time presses near with ills. 
 When we shall perish all, destroyed in battle ; 
 Here our support, hewn with the sword, lies headless.' 
 
 290 They then in bitter mood threw down their arms. 
 Turned themselves, faint of heart, to haste away 
 In flight. 
 
 .^---"' 6. THE PURSUIT 
 
 Upon their track the folk enlarged in might 
 Fought till the most part of the army lay 
 In battle sacrificed, upon the field 
 Of victory, sword-hewn to please the wolves 
 
JUDITH 131 
 
 And to content the birds that crave for slaughter. 
 
 They who yet Hved fled from the foemen's arms, 
 
 The band of Hebrews followed on their track, 
 
 Honored with victory, enriched with fame. 
 
 The Lord God, the Almighty, graciously 3°= 
 
 Gave them His help. They labored piously. 
 
 The famous heroes, with bright swords to cut 
 
 A war-path through the press of evil ones. 
 
 Hewed shields, cut the defense through ; grim in fight 
 
 The Hebrew men were shooting, with desire 
 
 Strong in the thanes towards the strife of spears. 
 
 Here fell in dust the greatest part of all 
 The number of the nobles of Assyria, 310 
 
 Race of the enemy ; few came alive 
 To their own country. Warriors renowned. 
 Within the place of slaughter, as they fled. 
 Turned them to reeking corpses. Room was there 
 For dwellers on the land to take red spoil 
 From their most hated foes, now dead — shields fair 
 Adorned, broad swords, brown helms, and costly cups. 
 The country's guardians, on the people's land. 
 Had gloriously overcome the foe, 320 
 
 And silenced old oppressions with their swords ; 
 They rested on the path who, when alive. 
 Of living men were their worst enemies. 
 
 7. THE SPOIL 
 
 Then for a month's space all men of the tribe, 
 Greatest of peoples, proud, with plaited locks, 
 Bore, drew to the bright town, Bethulia, 
 
132 BIBLICAL POEMS 
 
 Helms, hip-knives, corslets, the war-dress of men 
 330 Gold-fretted, treasure more than cunning man 
 Can tell. All this the people of the land 
 Won with their strength in fight, bold under banners, 
 Through Judith's prudent teaching, noble maid. 
 They, the brave earls, brought from the raid for her. 
 As her own meed, the sword and bloody helm 
 Of Holofernes, his breast-armor broad 
 And ornamented with red gold ; and all 
 340 Of treasure that the haughty chief possessed. 
 His heritage of circlets and bright gems, 
 They gave to the bright woman prompt of thought. 
 
 8. THE PRAISE 
 
 For all this Judith gave to God the praise. 
 The glorious Lord of men, who gave her honor. 
 Glory in earth's kingdom and reward in heaven. 
 In the bright skies reward of victory ; 
 Because she had a true belief in God 
 Almighty, and at the end had not a doubt 
 Of the reward for which she long had yearned. 
 
 For this to latest ages evermore 
 Be glory unto the dear Lord who made 
 The wind and air, the heavens and wide earth, 
 And also the wild streams He made, and He 
 350 Through His own mercy made the joys of heaven. 
 
 Hbnry Morley. 
 
SAINTS' LEGENDS 
 
 SELECTIONS FROM THE ANDREAS 
 
 The Andreas, a poem of 1722 lines, has been ascribed by many- 
 scholars to Cynewulf, but the evidence presented is by no means 
 conclusive. The principal argument rests on the assumption that 
 the Fates of the Apostles, one of Cynewulf's ' signed poems,' is 
 but a kind of epilog to the Andreas. The poem has many Cyne- 
 wulfian peculiarities, and, if not by that poet himself, would seem 
 to have been written by an admirer of his works. For a discussion 
 of the problems at issue see Cook's edition of the Christ, and 
 Trautmann's Kynewulf (fioan, 1898). 
 
 The date is unknown, the poem containing practically no allu- 
 sions to contemporary occurrences. 
 
 The ultimate source is in a Greek legend, Ilpa^as 'AvSpeov mi 
 Mardaiov (ed. Tischendorf, Acta Apostolorum Apocrypha, Leipzig, 
 185 1 ; a selection is printed, with a translation, in Cook's First 
 Book in Old English, y^. 247-249). The author, however, prob- 
 ably took the material from a mediate source, now lost. Much 
 in the poem must have been original, or expanded from a mere 
 suggestion in the source. 
 
 The poem narrates the adventures of St. Andrew, who crosses 
 the sea to the Mermedonians, a race of cannibals, in order to 
 rescue St. Matthew, whom they are holding captive. Christ, in 
 the guise of a young shipmaster, carries him to his destination. 
 Matthew is set free ; Andrew performs a miracle, and converts 
 the people. 
 
 133 
 
134 SAINTS' LEGENDS 
 
 I. ST. ANDREW GOES DOWN TO THE SEA 
 
 So at the dawning, when the day first broke, 
 He gat him o'er the sand-downs to the sea. 
 Valiant in heart, and with him went his thanes 
 To walk upon the shingle, where the waves 
 Loud thundered, and the streams of ocean beat 
 Against the shore. Full glad was that brave saint 
 
 240 To see upon the sands a galley fair 
 
 Wide-bosomed. Then, behold, resplendent dawn. 
 Brightest of beacons, came upon her way. 
 Hasting from out the murky gloom of night, 
 And heaven's candle shone across the floods. 
 Three seamen saw he there, a glorious band, 
 Courageous men, upon their ocean-bark 
 Sitting all ready to depart, like men 
 Just come across the deep. The Lord Himself 
 It was, the everlasting Lord of hosts, 
 Almighty, with His holy angels twain. 
 
 250 In raiment they werp like seafaring men, 
 
 These heroes, like to wanderers on the waves, 
 When in the flood's embrace they sail with ships 
 Upon the waters cold to distant lands. 
 
 2. A STORM AT SEA 
 
 Then was the ocean stirred 
 370 And deeply troubled, then the horn-fish played, 
 Shot through the raging deep ; the sea-gull gray, 
 Greedy for slaughter, flew in circling flight. 
 The candle of the sky grew straightway dark, 
 
SELECTIONS FROM THE ANDREAS 1 35 
 
 The winds waxed strong, the waves whirled, and the surge 
 
 Leapt high, the ropes creaked, dripping with the waves ; 
 
 The Terror of the waters rose, and stood 
 
 Above them with the might of multitudes. 
 
 The thanes were sore afraid ; not one of them 
 
 Dared hope that he would ever reach the land, 
 
 Of those who by the sea had sought a ship 
 
 With Andrew, for as yet they did not know 380 
 
 Who pointed out the course for that sea-bark. 
 
 3. ANDREW TELLS HOW CHRIST STILLED THE 
 TEMPEST 
 
 I know 
 Myself that there is One who shieldeth us, 
 The Maker of the angels, Lord of hosts. 
 Rebuked and bridled by the King of might. 
 The Terror of the waters shall grow calm. 
 The leaping sea. So once in days of yore 
 Within a bark upon the struggling waves 
 We tried the waters, riding on the surge. 
 And very fearful seemed the sad sea-roads. 440 
 
 The ocean-floods beat fierce against the shores ; 
 Oft wave would answer wave ; and whiles upstood 
 From out the ocean's bosom, o'er our ship, 
 A Terror on the breast of our sea-boat. 
 There on that ocean-courser bode His time 
 The glorious God, Creator of mankind. 
 Almighty One. The men were filled with fear. 
 They sought protection, mercy from the Lord, 
 And when that company began to call, 
 
136 SAINTS' LEGENDS 
 
 450 The King straightway arose, and stilled the waves, 
 The seething of the waters — He who gives 
 Bliss to the angels ; He rebuked the winds ; 
 The sea subsided, and the boundaries 
 Of ocean-stream grew calm. Then laughed our soul, 
 When under heaven's course our eyes beheld 
 The winds and waves and Terror of the deep 
 Affrighted by the Terror of the Lord. 
 
 4. THE VISION OF ANDREW'S DISCIPLES 
 
 His noble followers answered him again. 
 Giving reply from out their inmost souls : — 
 ' Our journey, Andrew, will we tell to thee, 
 
 860 That wisely thou mayst understand in heart : — 
 A sleep came o'er us weary of the sea, 
 And eagles came across the struggling waves 
 In flight, exulting in their mighty wings. 
 And while we slept they took our souls away ; 
 With joy they bore us flying through the air. 
 Gracious and bright, rejoicing in their speed ; 
 And gently they caressed us, while they hymned 
 Continual praise ; there was unceasing song 
 
 870 Throughout the sky ; a beauteous host was there, 
 A glorious multitude. The angels stood 
 About the Prince, the thanes about their Lord, 
 In thousands ; in the highest they gave praise 
 With holy voice unto the Lord of lords ; 
 The angel-band rejoiced. We there beheld 
 The holy patriarchs and a mighty troop 
 Of martyrs ; to the Lord victorious 
 
SELECTIONS FROM THE ANDREAS 1 37 
 
 That righteous throng sang never-ending prais,e ; 
 
 And David too was with them, Jesse's son, 
 
 The King of Israel, blessed warrior, 880 
 
 Come to Christ's throne. Likewise we saw you twelve 
 
 All standing there before the Son of God, 
 
 Full glorious men of great nobility ; 
 
 Archangels holy throned in majesty 
 
 Did serve you ; happy is it for the man 
 
 Who may enjoy that bliss. High joy was there, 
 
 Glory of warriors, an exalted life ; 
 
 Nor was there sorrow there for any man. 
 
 Drear exile, open torment, is the lot 
 
 Of him who must be stranger to those joys. 
 
 And wander wretched when he goes from hence.' 890 
 
 5. ST. ANDREW'S MIRACLE 
 
 Then was there no delay ; straightway the stone 
 
 Split open, and a stream came rushing out 
 
 And flowed along the ground ; at early dawn 
 
 The foaming billows covered up the earth ; 
 
 The ocean-flood waxed great ; mead was outpoured 
 
 After that day of feasting ! Mail-clad men 
 
 Shook off their slumbers ; water deeply stirred 
 
 Seized on the earth ; the host was sore dismayed 
 
 At terror of the flood ; the youths were doomed, 1530 
 
 And perished in the deep ; the rush of war 
 
 Snatched them away with tumult of the sea. 
 
 That was a grievous trouble, bitter beer ; 
 
 The ready cup-bearers did not delay ; 
 
 From daybreak on each man had drink to spare. 
 
138 SAINTS' LEGENDS 
 
 The might of waters waxed, the men wailed loud, 
 Old bearers of the spear ; they strove to flee 
 The fallow stream ; they fain would save their lives 
 And seek a refuge in the mountain caves, 
 1540 Firm earth's support. An angel drove them back. 
 Compassing all the town with gleaming fire, 
 With savage flames. Wild beat the sea within ; 
 No troop of men could scape from out the walls. 
 The waves waxed, and the waters thundered loud ; 
 The firebrands flew ; the flood welled up in streams. 
 
 Robert K. Root, 
 
SELECTIONS FROM THE ELENE 
 
 The Elene is certainly by Cynewulf, since it contains his name rN 
 in runes (see p. 141). For a discussion of its date, see p. 79. ^' 
 The source of the poem is a legend of the Invention of the Cross 
 similar to, but not identical with, that contained in the Acta 
 Sanctorum for May 4. 
 
 The poem tells how Constantine, on the eve of a battle with 
 the Huns, had a vision of the cross. The ultimate source of this 
 vision is the account in Eusebius' Life of Constantine, a trans- 
 lation of which may be found in Cook's edition of the Christ, 
 pp. 190-191 ; see also the note on line 4 in his edition of the 
 Drea7n of the Rood. Constantine, being victorious in the battle, 
 sends his mother, Helena, to the Holy Land, to seek the true 
 original of the sacred emblem. She finds three crosses, and, by 
 means of a miracle, is enabled to determine the one on which 
 Christ was crucified. 
 
 I. THE BATTLE 
 
 Trumpets resounded before the troop. no 
 
 The raven was watching and waiting joyfully, 
 The dewy-winged eagle saw from the distance, 
 And the wolf from his haunt in the desolate wood 
 Howled at the terror of death and hate. 
 Arrows rained on them as they rushed together ; 
 Shields were broken, javelins shattered. 
 And the sword that swayed with the swinging arm 
 Came crashing down on the death-doomed foe. 
 They pressed on resolutely, pushing with effort. 
 Thrusting with swords and swinging battle-axes, 
 139 
 
I40 SAINTS' LEGENDS 
 
 And ever their banner was borne forward 
 
 With shouts of triumph that were loud and shrill, 
 
 As the heathen fell joyless on that field. 
 
 Hastily the host of Huns fled away 
 
 When the Roman king, the fighter unconquerable. 
 
 The fierce leader, lifted the cross. 
 
 Wide was the ruin that was wrought on the heathen. 
 
 Some perished there in that place of death. 
 
 Some fled half alive to rocky fastnesses. 
 
 And won their way back to Danube's banks ; 
 
 And some found death in the depths of the lake-stream 
 
 But the proud victors chased the vanquished 
 
 From the day's dawning till night came down. 
 
 And with ash-darts and arrows (fierce battle-adders) 
 
 They destroyed the hateful host of the enemy. 
 
 Charlton M. Lewis. 
 
 2. THE VOYAGE 
 
 Over the billows where rolled the monsters of the deep 
 they let the towering sea-racers rush on in foam ; often 
 did the ship's side receive above the watery tumult the 
 240 buffets of the waves ; the music of ocean resounded. 
 Never before nor since have I heard that a woman con- 
 ducted a fairer force over the ocean-stream, the highway 
 of the sea. There he who beheld their course could see 
 the timbered ship bound over the bath-way, fleet under 
 the swelling sails, could see the ocean-courser play, the 
 wave-floater glide. Joyful were the spirited warriors, 
 and the queen delighted in the voyage, when once the 
 ring-prowed vessels had traversed the stronghold of the 
 
SELECTIONS FROM THE ELENE 141 
 
 main, and arrived at their haven in the land of the Greeks. 250 
 They let their barks, the old sea-dwellings, await at the 
 shore, fast at their anchors, buffeted with sand, the 
 council of heroes, what time the warlike queen should 
 again repair to them over the eastern ways with a multi- 
 tude of men. 
 
 3. AUTOBIOGRAPHIC RUNE-PASSAGE 
 
 This passage is of much importance for the biography of 
 Cynewulf, but it is difficult, and in some places obscure. The 
 words in small capitals represent the runes of the original. See 
 Cook's The Christ of Cynewulf, pp. Ixvi ff., 151 ff. A similar 
 rune-passage from the Christ will be found above (p. 83). 
 
 Thus I, old and ready to depart by reason of the 
 treacherous house, have woven wordcraft and wondrously 
 gathered, have now and again pondered and sifted my 
 thought in the prison of the night. I knew not all con- 
 cerning the right . . . ^ before wisdom, through the noble 1240 
 power, revealed a larger view into the cogitation of my 
 heart. I was guilty of misdeeds, fettered by sins, tor- 
 mented with anxieties, bound with bitternesses, beset 
 with tribulations, before he bestowed inspiration through 
 the bright order ^ as a help to the aged man. The 
 mighty King granted me His blameless grace and shed 
 it into my mind, revealed it as glorious, and in course 
 of time dilated it ; He set my body free, unlocked my 1250 
 heart, and released the power of song, which I have 
 since joyfully made use of in the world. Not once 
 
 1 Perhaps something lost. 
 
 2 Or, gloriously. 
 
142 SAINTS' LEGENDS 
 
 alone, but many times, I reflected on the tree of glory, 
 before I had the miracle disclosed concerning the glorious 
 tree, as in the course of events I found related in books, 
 in writings, concerning the sign of victory. Until that 
 the man ^ had always been buffeted by billows of sorrow, 
 was an expiring torch, though he in the mead-hall had 
 
 1260 received treasures, appled gold, y (.-') lamented ; the 
 FORCED companion suffered affliction, an oppressive 
 secret, though ^ before him the steed measured the 
 mile-paths and proudly ran, decked with wires.^ Joy 
 has waned, pleasure has decreased with the years ; youth 
 has fled, the former pride, u (?) was of old the splendor 
 of youth ; now, after the allotted time, are the days 
 departed, the joys of life have vanished, as water glides 
 
 1270 away, the hurrying floods. Every one's wealth is tran- 
 sitory under the sky ; the ornaments of the field pass 
 away under the clouds like the wind when it rises loud 
 before men, roams among the clouds, rushes along in 
 rage, and again on a sudden grows still, close locked 
 within its prison, held down by force. 
 
 Albert S. Cook. 
 
 1 Emending j^r to sec^. 
 " Emending ^^?' to J>eah. 
 ' i.e. metal ornaments. 
 
VI 
 RELIGIOUS MYTHOLOGY 
 
 THE PHOENIX 
 
 Author and date are unknown, but the poem may not improb- 
 ably have been written by Cynewulf ; cf. Coolc, The Christ of 
 Cynewulf, pp. Ixiii ff. 
 
 The poem is based upon the Carinen de Phcenice of Lactantius, 
 the ' Christian Cicero,' who flourished about 300 a.d., a work which 
 is conceived in tlie Christian spirit (cf. Manitius, Geschichte der 
 Christlich-Lateinischen Poesie, pp. 44 £f.). This Latin poem 
 consists of only 170 lines, as against the 677 of the Old English, 
 and corresponds to vv. 1-380 of the latter. The rest of the Old 
 English poem seems to be original, with the exception of certain 
 hints derived from Ambrose, Hexaemeron 5. 23. 79, 80, and Bede's 
 commentary on Job 2. 12 (see Gabler, in Anglia 3517 £f.). The 
 first eight lines of the Latin, which follow, correspond to the first 
 thirty-two lines of the Old English : 
 
 Est locus in primo felix oriente remotus 
 
 Qua patet seterni maxima porta poli, 
 Nee tamen sestivos hiemisve propinquus ad ortus, 
 
 Sed qua sol verno fundit ab axe diem. 
 Illic planities tractus diffundit apertos, 
 
 Nee tumulus crescit, nee cava vallis Mat ; 
 Sed nostros monies, quorum juga celsa putantur, 
 
 Per bis sex ulnas eminet ille locus. 
 
 Among the Biblical passages which may be referred to in the 
 original Latin poem are the following: Gen. 2. 8, 10; 7. 19, 20; 
 Ezek. 47. 7-12 ; John 4. 10, 14 ; Rom. 6. 5, 8-10 (cf. Ph. 368-370) ; 
 
 143 
 
144 RELIGIOUS MYTHOLOGY 
 
 Rev. 20. 2-7 ; 22. i, 2. The converse of Virg. ^n. 6. 273 ff. has 
 been found in our poem, w. 50 £E. ; the reflection of a verse of 
 Ennius, ' Mi soli caeli maxima porta patet,' in vv. II, 12 (cf. Lact. 
 Inst. I. 18. II) ; Ovid, Am. 2. 6. 54 in v. 87 ; Met. 15. 392 ff. in 
 various parts. 
 
 Correspondences within the poem are such as i ff. with 393 ff., 
 .611 ff.; 50 ff. with 611 ff.; 153 ff. with 411 fi., 426 ff., 437 ff.; 
 163 ff., 337 ff., with 539 ff., 590 ff.; 188 ff. with 451 ff., 526 ff., 
 650 ff.; 222 ff. with 646 ff.; 265 ff. with 575 ff. 
 
 The descriptions are noticeable, particularly those of the Phoenix, 
 of the Paradisal grove, of the sunrise, and of music. 
 
 I. THE PARADISE OF THE PHCENIX 
 
 Far away to the East there lies, so I have heard, the 
 noblest of lands, famous among men. This region is 
 not accessible to many rulers in the world, but is removed 
 by the power of God from the workers of evil. Beaute- 
 ous is that plain, gladdened with joys, with the sweetest 
 odors of earth. Peerless is the island, noble the Creator, 
 
 10 high-hearted and abounding in power, who established 
 that land. Before the blessed ones heaven's door 
 often stands open, and the transport of its melodies is 
 revealed. Winsome is that champaign, with green 
 forests stretching wide beneath the skies. There neither 
 rain, nor snow, nor breath of frost, nor blaze of fire, nor 
 downpour of hail, nor fall of hoar-frost, nor heat of sun, 
 nor ever-during cold, nor warm weather, nor winter 
 shower, works aught of harm ; but unscathed and 
 
 20 flourishing the plain ever abides. That noble land is 
 blowing with blossoms. There neither hills nor moun- 
 tains stand steep, nor do crags tower high, as here with 
 us ; there slope no glens nor dales, no mountain-caves, 
 
THE PHCENIX 14S 
 
 nor mounds, nor banks, nor aught that is rugged; but 
 the noble field flourishes beneath the clouds, burgeon- 
 ing with delights. 
 
 That glorious land, as sages reveal to us in their 
 writings, is twelve cubits higher than any mountain 30 
 which here with us towers brightly beneath the stars of 
 heaven. Serene is that field of victory ; there gleams 
 the sunny grove, the fair forest ; the bright fruitage 
 falls not, but the trees stand ever green, as God com- 
 manded them. Winter and summer alike the forest is 
 hung with fruits. The leaves wither not beneath the 
 sky, nor will fire ever injure them until the final change 40 
 shall pass upon the world. As, long ago, when the 
 onset of waters, the flood of ocean, covered the whole 
 world, the face of the earth, this noble plain stood 
 scathless and shielded against the rush of angry billows, 
 happy and inviolate through the grace of God, so shall 
 it abide blooming until the Lord's judgment shall come 
 with flame, what time the halls of death, the dark abodes 
 of men, shall open to the day. 
 
 In that land there is no enemy, neither weeping nor 50 
 misery, no sign of woe, nor age, nor sorrow, nor pinch- 
 ing death, nor loss of life, nor coming of harm, neither 
 sin, nor strife, nor tribulation, nor struggle of poverty, 
 nor lack of wealth, nor anxiety, nor sleep, nor sore 
 disease. Neither do winter's missiles, nor fierce change 
 of weather beneath the sky, nor the hard frost with its 
 chill icicles, smite any one. 
 
 There neither hail nor hoar-frost nor windy cloud 60 
 descends to the earth, nor does water fall smitten by the 
 wind, but wondrous streams spring up as wells, and the 
 
146 RELIGIOUS MYTHOLOGY 
 
 winsome waters from the middle of the wood irrigate 
 the soil with their fair flowing. Ev^ry month they 
 burst sea-cold from the greensward, and in their seasons 
 traverse gloriously the grove ; for so is the Lord's 
 behest that twelve times the best of floods shall gush 
 
 70 through that noble land. 
 
 The groves are hung with lovely fruits ; the holy 
 ornaments of the wood never wane beneath the heavens, 
 nor do the blossoms, the beauty of the trees, fall to 
 earth ; but there on the trees the laden branches, with 
 fruit ever-new, stand splendidly on that meadow, for ever 
 green. Gayly decked by the might of the holy One, 
 
 80 that bright forest knows no interruption of its beauty, 
 and holy fragrance floats throughout that blissful land. 
 Never shall aught of change befall it until He who in the 
 beginning established the masterly creation shall bring 
 it to an end. 
 
 2. THE ATTENDANT OF THE SUN 
 
 A bird wondrously beautiful, strong of pinion, called 
 Phoenix, inhabits this forest ; there the dauntless soli- 
 tary keeps his dwelling and passes his life. Never 
 shall death injure him in that delightful plain whUe the 
 world endures. 
 90 Men say that there he observes the course of the 
 sun, ready to meet the candle of God, the flashing 
 jewel ; eagerly he watches for the time when that 
 noblest star, the Father's primal work, the refulgent 
 sign of God, shall rise radiant from the east over the 
 billowy ocean, glowing in its splendor. The stars are 
 
THE PHCENIX 147 
 
 hid, gone beneath the western waves or lost in the \ 
 dawn, and black night is passing away ; then the bird, I 
 proud of pinion, strong in flight, gazes intently upon the 100 
 stream of ocean, over the flood beneath the sky, look- 
 ing eagerly for the light of heaven to rise over the 
 broad sea, gliding from the east. Thus the noble bird, 
 changeless in his beauty, dwells near the fountain beside 
 the welling streams ; there, before heaven's candle 
 appears, the glorious one bathes twelve times in the 
 outflow, and at each bath tastes the sea-cold water from 
 those delicious well-springs. Then, after his watery no 
 play, the mettlesome bird flies aloft to a tree so high 
 that thence he can most easily observe the advance over 
 the eastern ways, what time heaven's taper, the efful- 
 gence of light, shall shine clear over the turmoil of 
 the sea. The land is embellished, the world is beautified, 
 as soon as the jewel of glory, the noblest of stars, 
 illumines the earth from beyond the expanse of ocean. 
 
 The moment that the sun mounts high over the salt 120 
 streams, the gray bird courses radiant from that forest- 
 tree ; swift of wing he flies through the air, singing and 
 making melody toward the sun. Then is the bird's 
 behavior winning ; with spirit elate, exultant in his joy, 
 he varies his song of clear note more wonderfully than 
 any son of man ever heard beneath the sky since the 
 supreme King, Maker of glory, established the world, 130 
 the heaven and the earth. The notes of his lay are 
 sweeter and lovelier than musical art can render, more 
 tunable than aught we know of song. Never was trump,\ 
 nor horn, nor thrill of harp, nor any voice of man on 
 earth, nor organ, nor strain of melody, nor wing of 
 
148 RELIGIOUS MYTHOLOGY 
 
 swan,^ nor any of the harmonies which God hath created 
 for the cheer of men in this sad world, like unto that 
 140 descant .2 Thus he warbles and carols, transported with 
 delight, until the sun descends in the southern sky ; then, 
 silent and attentive, but bold and sagacious, he lifts his 
 head, thrice claps his swift pinions, and then is still. 
 So ever, twelve times by day and by night, he marks 
 the hours. 
 
 3. THE FLIGHT AND THE NEW BIRTH 
 
 Thus it is appointed to the inhabitant of the wood 
 that he may enjoy the plain to the full, reveling in pro- 
 
 t,;o fusion — in life, and joy, and the adornments of earth, 
 until the keeper of the grove attains a thousand years 
 of this life. Then the gray-plumed one, ancient and 
 stricken in years, grows burdened. The choicest of 
 birds flies from the green and blossoming region, and 
 1 visits a spacious realm of the world, where none abide, 
 ' as his dwelling-place and home. There, eminent in 
 power, he gains lordship over the nation of birds, 
 
 160 advanced among them, and for a season dwells in the 
 wilderness. Then, strong in flight, though weighed 
 down with years, he departs westward, flying on swift 
 pinions. All about their noble leader throng the birds, 
 every one desiring to be minister and attendant to the 
 illustrious chief, until he gains the land of the Syrians ) 
 with a countless retinue. Here the pure one thrusts 
 them abruptly away, so that he tenants a desolate and 
 
 ' Cf. The Swan, p. 72. 
 
 2 Cf. Tennyson, The Holy Grail 113-5. 
 
THE PHCENIX 149 
 
 shadowy spot in a grove, sequestered and hidden from 17° 
 the throng of men. There he occupies in the forest a 
 lofty tree, firmly rooted beneath the cope of heaven, 
 a tree which men on earth call Phoenix, from the name 
 of the bird. The illustrious King, Lord of mankind, 
 hath granted to this tree, so I have heard, that of all 
 trees growing high over the earth it shall blossom bright 
 beyond the rest ; nothing mischievous can wickedly harm 
 it, but it remains ever defended and scathless while the 180 
 world endures. 
 
 When the wind is at rest, the weather is fair, the holy 
 jewel of heaven shines clear, the clouds are dispersed, 
 the raging waters stand still, every storm beneath the 
 sky is calmed, and warm from the south shines the 
 candle of the sky, giving light to multitudes, then he 
 begins to build upon the boughs and make ready his 
 nest. Great is then his longing swiftly to convert, by 190 
 the activity of his mind, old age to life, and thus renew 
 his youth. From far and near he gathers the sweetest 
 and most delightful plants and the leafage of the forest, 
 assembling them at his dwelling-place ; nay, more, the 
 perfume of every delightsome plant which the King of 
 glory, the Father of all beginnings, fashioned throughout 
 the earth as a blessing to mankind, even the sweetest 
 odors beneath the sky. These bright treasures he con- 
 veys by himself to the interior of the tree, and there in 200 
 the wilderness the wild bird builds his beauteous and 
 winsome house on its lofty top. There he dwells in his 
 upper chamber, encompassing in the leafy shade his 
 body and plumage with holy spices and the noblest 
 shoots of the earth. 
 
150 RELIGIOUS MYTHOLOGY 
 
 While the sun, the jewel of heaven, shines hottest 
 above the shadow in the summer time, he sits, ready for 
 
 210 departure, surveying the world and enduring his fate. 
 I Suddenly his house becomes ignited by reason of the 
 radiant sun ; the spices glow, and the pleasant hall fumes 
 with the sweet odors ; the bird and his nest burn together 
 in that fierce heat, laid hold of by the fire. The pyre is 
 kindled ; fire enfolds the disconsolate creature's house ; 
 fiercely devouring, the yellow flame hastens ; the Phoe- 
 nix, old with long-past years, is consumed, when once 
 the fire has seized upon his perishing body ; his life, the 
 
 220 doomed one's soul, escapes, when the flame of the funeral 
 pile sears flesh and bone. 
 
 Yet in due season new life returns to him, when 
 once the ashes begin, after the fire's violence, to knit 
 together, cohering to a ball. When that bright nest, 
 the brave bird's abode, is clean demolished by the blaze, 
 the corpse grows cold, the body is in pieces, and the 
 
 230 flames subside. Then from the ashes of the pyre the like- 
 ness of an apple is afterwards found ; out of this grows 
 a wondrously beautiful worm, as if it had been hatched 
 from an egg, bright from the shell. It grows in the 
 shade, becoming first like the young of an eagle, a fair 
 nestling ; then thrives joyfully until it resembles in 
 size an old eagle ; and afterward is decked with plumage, 
 
 240 brightly blooming as at the first. His flesh is then all 
 renewed, born again, sundered from sin. It is as 
 when one brings home for food at harvest, at reaping- 
 time, the fruits of the earth, pleasant nourishment, 
 before the coming on of winter, lest the rain-storm 
 should spoil them beneath the skies ; and so men find 
 
THE PHCENIX 151 
 
 support, the delights of sustenance, when frost and 
 snow shall with excessive might deck the earth in the 
 garments of winter. From these fruits shall the riches 25° 
 of men again arise, by reason of the nature of grain, 
 which is sown at the first as a pure seed, but when in 
 spring the sun's rays, the sign of life, waken the 
 wealth of the world, the fruits, the garniture of earth, 
 are again brought forth by their own nature. So in 
 like manner the bird, old in years, grows once more 
 young, wrought round with flesh. He toucheth no 
 earthly food, save that he tastes of the honey-dew which 260 
 oft descends at midnight ; with this the noble bird sup- 
 ports his life until he again visits his own dwelling- 
 place, his ancient home. 
 
 4. THE RETURN 
 
 When the bird, proud of pinion, hath arisen from the 
 midst of the spicery, his life renewed, young and full of 
 endowments, he collects from the dust the active body 
 which fire had snatched away, the leavings of flame ; 
 after the rush of flame he deftly gathers the ruinous 270 
 bones, assembling both bones and embers, the relics of 
 the pyre, and covers the booty of death with herbage, 
 splendidly adorning it. He is now eager to revisit his 
 own haunts, so he grasps with his feet, seizes with his 
 talons, the leavings of flame, and joyously directs his 
 flight toward his home, his sun-bright seat, his blessed 
 fatherland. He is wholly restored in life and plumage 
 as he was in the beginning, when victorious God first 280 
 set him in that noble plain. There with the ashes he 
 
152 RELIGIOUS MYTHOLOGY 
 
 brings his own bones, which the fury of fire had wrapped 
 in flame on the mound ; these the warhke one buries in 
 that isle, bones and embers together. Renewed in him- 
 self is the ministrant of the sun, what time the lumi- 
 nary of heaven, the most flashing of jewels, the chief of 
 290 noble stars, rises over ocean in splendor from the east. 
 
 5. THE ASPECT OF THE PHCENIX 
 
 In front the bird is gay of hue, with play of bright 
 colors about the breast; the back of his head is green, 
 curiously shot with crimson ; his tail is splendidly diver- 
 sified, now dusky, now crimson, now cunningly splotched 
 with silver. The tips of the wings are white, the neck 
 green below and above ; the beak shines like glass or 
 
 300 gems, so lustrous are the jaws within and without. 
 His eye is piercing, and likest in color to a gleaming 
 precious stone, set in gold by the art of the goldsmith. 
 About his neck is the brightest of collars, woven of 
 feathers, like the orb of the sun. Marvelous is his 
 body beneath, wondrous beautiful, comely and resplen- 
 dent ; the shield over the bird's back is exquisitely fitted 
 
 310 together ; his legs and tawny feet are overgrown with 
 scales. In appearance the bird is every way most like, 
 as books relate, to a peacock, happy in its rearing. Not 
 dull is he nor sluggish, not heavy nor torpid, like some 
 birds that slowly wing their flight through the air ; but 
 he is nimble and swift and full light, beauteous and 
 charming, and gloriously marked. Eternal is the 
 Sovran who grants him blessedness. 
 
THE PHCENIX 153 
 
 6. THE RETINUE OF BIRDS 
 
 Then he departs from this country to visit the fields, 320 
 his ancient dwelling-place. The bird flies, manifest to 
 the peoples, to many men throughout the world ; they 
 assemble in troops from south and from north, from east 
 and from west ; they journey in hosts from far and near to 
 the spot where they behold in the bird the fair display of 
 the Creator's grace, even as the King of victory assigned 
 him in the beginning a peculiar nature, attractions above 330 
 the race of birds. Then men upon earth wonder at his 
 comeliness and form ; books tell, and they designate with 
 their hands in marble, when the day and the hour are to 
 manifest to the multitudes the perfections of the swift flyer. 
 
 Then the nation of birds press in on every side in 
 throngs, coming from distant ways. They praise and 
 celebrate in song, in words of power, that noble one ; 
 they surround the holy creature with a ring in that 
 flight through the air ; in the midst is the Phoenix, 340 
 encircled by multitudes. The people gaze, wondering 
 how the devoted retinue honors the bird, one band after 
 another making loud proclamation and extolling as their 
 king the beloved leader of their people. They joyfully 
 lead the noble prince to his land, until the solitary one 
 outstrips them by the speed of his pinions, so that the 
 flock of rejoicing ones can no longer follow him, when 
 the delight of the flying hosts is winging his way from 
 these regions to his native country. 
 
 Thus the blessed one revisits his former home, the 350 
 lovely land, after the hour of his death. The birds leave 
 their valiant chief and return sorrowful to their own 
 
154 RELIGIOUS MYTHOLOGY 
 
 country, when the prince is young at home. God alone 
 knows, the King almighty, what his sex is, whether 
 male or female ; no man knows, but only the Creator, 
 what are the wonderful contrivances, the ancient decree, 
 360 concerning the bird's nature. 
 
 7. DEATH NOT DREADED 
 
 There the happy one may enjoy his home and the 
 fountain-streams in the forests, dwelling on the plain 
 until a thousand years are past ; then life ends, and the 
 pjnre covers him with kindled flame; yet once more he 
 returns to life, strangely awakened. Therefore, even 
 when nearing his end, he dreads not the dire agony of 
 370 death, since he is ever assured of new life after the fury 
 of flame, of revival after dissolution, being speedily 
 restored from his ashes in the form of nestling, and 
 growing young again under the canopy of heaven. 
 
 He is his own son, his kindly father, and again the 
 
 heir to his ancient inheritance. The mighty Lord of 
 
 mankind granted him to undergo a wondrous change 
 
 into that which he had been erewhile, to be encompassed 
 
 380 with feathers, though fire snatch him away. 
 
 In like manner every blessed soul will choose for him- 
 self to enter into everlasting life through death's dark 
 portal when the present misery is overpast, so that after 
 his days on earth he may in ever-during jubilee enjoy 
 the gifts of his Lord, dwelling eternally in that world 
 as the recompense of his deeds. Much of a similar sort 
 does this bird's nature shadow forth concerning Christ's 
 chosen followers — how in this perilous time they may 
 
THE PHCENIX 1 55 
 
 possess pure happiness beneath the heavens through the 390 
 Father's aid, and secure exalted bliss in the home on 
 high. 
 
 8. THE LOSS OF EDEN 
 
 We have learned that the Almighty created man and 
 woman by the plenitude of his marvelous power, and 
 placed them in the fairest spot of earth, which the chil- 
 dren of men call Paradise, where was no lack of bliss so 
 long as they would keep the word of the Eternal, heark- 
 ening to the commandment of the Holy One in that 
 new-created joy. There malice, the envy of the ancient 400 
 foe, plagued them ; he offered them as food the fruit of 
 the tree, so that they both unwarily took of the apple 
 against the will of God, and tasted of that which was 
 forbidden. Then was bitter woe theirs after that repast, 
 and likewise was it a grievous banquet to their posterity, 
 their sons and daughters ; . . . ^ they bore God's wrath, 
 bitter anguish ; their offspring were yet to requite it with 
 sorrow that they took of that fare against the word of 
 the Eternal. Hence it came that they must relinquish 410 
 in grief the joy of their home by reason of the serpent's 
 malice ; he, in those far-off days, grievously beguiled our 
 first parents with his crafty mind, so that they sought 
 out a life far from thence in this vale of death, a sorrow- 
 ful abode. The better life was hidden from them in 
 seclusion, and the holy plain fast locked against them 
 for many winters, until the King of glory, the Joy of 420 
 mankind, the Comfort of the dejected, the only Hope, 
 once more opened it to the saints. 
 
 1 A line and a half unintelligible. 
 
IS6 RELIGIOUS MYTHOLOGY 
 
 9. THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE NEST 
 
 Most like is the journey, of this bird, as wise men dis- 
 course in words and reveal in books. When, grown old, 
 worn down with years, he forsakes his home and father- 
 land, weary in soul* he departs until he finds the lofty 
 
 430 shelter of the forest, in which he constructs a new 
 habitation with the noblest twigs and plants, a nest in the 
 grove ; he longs, once more grown youthful, to regain, 
 by the blaze of fire, life after death, to become rejuve- 
 nated, and, after his bath of flame, to visit again his 
 ancient abode, his sun-bright dwelling. 
 
 So our forefathers, our first parents, forsook the beau- 
 
 440 teous plain, the lovely seat of glory, and made a long 
 journey into the hand of fiends, where the haters, the 
 wretched monsters, ofttimes molested them. Yet there 
 were many who with holy practices, with glorious deeds, 
 obeyed God, so that the Lord, the Emperor of heaven, 
 was gracious in spirit unto them. That is now the high 
 tree in which the righteous dwell, where none of the 
 ancient foes can in any wise injure them with venom, 
 
 450 with any sign of evil, in the perilous time. 
 
 The soldier of the Lord makes himself a nest against 
 every attack when he distributes alms to the poor and 
 needy ; when he calls to his aid the Lord, the Father ; 
 when he hastens forward, extinguishing the transgressions 
 of this fleeting life, and blotting out dark deeds of evil. 
 He keeps the law of God steadfastly in mind ; he follows 
 after prayer with pure meditations, and devoutly bows 
 
 460 his knee to earth ; he flees all evil, ravening sin, in the 
 fear of God ; he longs with glad heart to accomplish 
 
THE PHCENIX 157 
 
 every good deed he may ; at all times his shield is God, 
 the King of victory, the Lord of hosts. These are the 
 plants, these the fruit-branches, which the wild bird 
 gathers from far and near beneath the sky unto his 
 dwelling, where he builds a nest wondrously proof 
 against every attack. In this manner do the soldiers 
 of God now perform His will in their abodes with mind 47« 
 and main, striving after glory ; for this the Eternal, the 
 Almighty, will recompense them with a blessed guerdon. 
 From those plants there shall be established for them a 
 mansion in the city of glory, as the recompense of their 
 deeds — because they kept the sacred lore fervently in 
 their souls, and day and night love the Lord with hearts 
 aglow ; with fair faith choose the Beloved above all , 
 worldly possessions ; not for them is there hope of joy 480 • 
 in clinging to this transient life. Thus the righteous 
 man wins through lifelong effort unending joy, a home 
 in heaven with the King of kings. Then death, the 
 murderous warrior, embattled in arms, snatches away 
 the hfe of every one, and straightway dispatches the 
 perishing bodies, bereft of their souls, into the lap of 
 earth, where long they shall rest, wrapped in the mold, 
 until the coming of fire. 490 
 
 10. THE LAST JUDGMENT 1 
 
 Then shall many of human kind be led into the 
 
 assembly ; there the Father of angels, the righteous 
 
 King of victory, the Lord of hosts, will hold a council, 
 
 and judge with equity. Then shall all men on earth be 
 
 1cf.pp.85ff., 136. 
 
158 RELIGIOUS MYTHOLOGY 
 
 raised again, as the mighty King, the Prince of angels, 
 the Savior of souls, shall proclaim by sound of trumpet 
 over the wide world ; for the righteous black death shall 
 
 500 be done away with, by the power of the Lord ; the just 
 shall be active, congregating in crowds, when this sinful 
 world shall burn in shame, kindled with fire. Every 
 one shall be dismayed in soul when the fire rends 
 asunder the perishable riches of the world, when the flame 
 lays hold of all the treasures of earth, rapaciously seiz- 
 ing the appled gold, and greedily swallowing the beau- 
 ties of the field. At that all-revealing time, the fair 
 
 510 and agreeable interpretation of this bird shall become 
 clear to men, when the King shall raise up all that are 
 in the graves, gathering the bones, assembling limbs 
 and body with the spirit of life before the knee of 
 Christ. From His throne the King, the beauteous 
 Jewel of glory, shall shine in His majesty upon His 
 saints. Well shall it be for him who at that sorrowful 
 time shall be pleasing to God ! 
 
 There the bodies which are free from iniquity shall 
 go glad of soul, and the spirits shall resort to their bony 
 
 520 tenements, when the conflagration mounts to the skies. 
 The dreadful flame shall be hot for many a one, when, 
 sorely afraid, every soul, righteous or sinful, shall with 
 its body go from its grave in the earth unto the judg- 
 ment of God. The fire shall be astir, and shall con- 
 sume iniquities. 
 
 There the righteous, after their period of exile, shall 
 be enringed with their own deeds, the works they have 
 wrought ; these are the noble and winsome plants with 
 
 530 which the wild bird surrounds his own nest, so that it 
 
THE PHCENIX 159 
 
 suddenly vanishes in flame, shrivels under the sun, and 
 himself with it, thence receiving life anew after the 
 burning is overpast. In like manner every one of 
 human kind invested with flesh shall be once more 
 young and comely, if so be he bring it to pass of his 
 own choice that the mighty King of glory is gracious 
 unto him in that assembly. Then those holy spirits shall 
 chant aloud ; the righteous souls, pure and elect, shall 540 
 raise a song, voice after voice lauding the majesty of 
 their King ; they shall mount to glory with the rich 
 incense of their good deeds. The spirits of men shall 
 be cleansed, brightly purified by the burning of fire. 
 
 II. THE TESTIMONY OF JOB 
 
 Let no one of mankind imagine that I compose my 
 song of lying words, writing it with poetic skill. Hear 
 a prophecy, the utterances of Job. Inspired in heart 
 by the Spirit, gloriously distinguished, he discoursed 550 
 boldly, and spake these words ^ : 
 
 ' I scorn not in the thoughts of my heart, as a man 
 weary in body, to choose my deathbed in my nest, to 
 go hence on my long journey abject, overlaid with dust, 
 lamenting my former deeds, into the lap of earth ; for, ' 
 like the Phoenix, I shall after death, through the Lord's 
 grace, have new life after the resurrection, shall possess 
 joys with the Lord, where the illustrious band praise 560 
 the Beloved. Never need I expect an end to that life, 
 that light, and those joys. Though my body decay in 
 its earthy dwelling, a prey to worms, yet the God of 
 
 1 Job 29. 18 ; 19. 25, 26. 
 
l6o RELIGIOUS MYTHOLOGY 
 
 hosts will redeem my soul after the period of dissolu- 
 tion, and awaken it to glory ; hope of this is never lack- 
 ing in my heart, for I have abiding and settled joy in 
 the Lord of angels.' 
 570 Thus the wise man, discerning of soul, the prophet 
 of God, sang in ancient days of his resurrection to life 
 eternal, that we might the better understand the glorious 
 sense which the famous bird signifies by his burning. 
 
 12. THE REUNION OF SOUL AND BODY 
 
 The bird gathers up the residue of the bones after the 
 fire, the ashes and embers, and carries them with his 
 feet toward the sun, to the courts of the Lord ; there, 
 580 with youth wholly renewed, restored in growth, he lives 
 for many years, in the land where none can threaten 
 with injury. In this manner, by the power of the Lord, 
 shall souls journey with their bodies after death, like to 
 that bird, and, richly garnished with precious spicery, 
 shall pass to that blessedness where, fair above the hosts 
 in the City of glory, shines the Sun of righteousness. 
 
 13. THE JOYS OF THE BLESSED ^ 
 
 590 When, high above all heights, Christ the Savior shines 
 upon the righteous souls, there follow Him brilliant birds, 
 splendidly regenerated, spirits elect unto all eternity, 
 blissful exulting in that joyous home. There the mali- 
 cious, hostile fiend cannot harm them with his wiles, but 
 they live appareled with light in the peace of God, 
 1 Cf. pp. 91-2, 136-7. 
 
THE PHCENIX l6l 
 
 beauteous in glory, like unto the Phoenix. Each one's 
 work shines bright in that joyous home before the 
 face of the eternal Lord, in bliss unending, like to 600 
 the sun. 
 
 There the beaming crown of each blessed one, won- 
 drously set with precious stones, towers above his head ; 
 their brows gleam, invested with splendor ; the rare dia- 
 dem of their Lord adorns every saint with light in 
 that life where there is never abatement of the enduring 
 joy, eternal and ever young ; they live in beauty, glori- 
 ously arrayed in fair adornments, with the Father of 
 the angels. 610 
 
 In that abode there is no grief for thefn-^ — neither 
 misfortune, nor poverty, nor days of toil, nor consuming 
 hunger, nor fierce thirst, nor misery, nor age ; the noble 
 King bestows upon them every good. There the throng 
 of spirits magnify the Savior and celebrate the might of 
 heaven's King, singing praises to God. That band of 
 kinsfolk makes melody sweet and clear about God's holy 
 throne. With one voice of gladness saints and angels 620 
 adore the peerless King : 
 
 ' Peace, and wisdom, and blessing for these thy gifts, 
 and for every good, be unto Thee, the true God, throned 
 in majesty. Infinite, high, and holy is the power of thy 
 might. The heavens, on high with the angels, are full 
 of the glory, O Father almighty, Lord of all lords, and 
 the earth also. Defend us. Author of creation. Thou 630 
 art the Father almighty in the highest, the Lord of 
 heaven.^ ' 
 
 1 Cf. Rev. 7. 12; Te Deum (Isa. 6. 3); Mt. 21. 9 (?); and Cook's notes 
 on Chr. 401 &. 
 
l62 RELIGIOUS MYTHOLOGY 
 
 Thus the workers of righteousness, purified from evil, 
 cry aloud in the glorious City, and proclaim His 
 majesty. The multitude of the righteous chant in 
 heaven their Emperor's praise : 
 
 ' To Him alone is honor without end. Never was there 
 a beginning of Him, an origin to His bliss. Though He 
 
 640 was born as a child into the world, yet the fulness of His 
 holy power. His imperishable glory, still dwelt high above 
 the heavens. Though He was to suffer the agony of 
 death, a terrible torture, upon the rood-tree, yet the third 
 day after the destruction of His body He regained his life 
 by the Father's aid. So the Phoenix, young in his home, 
 typifies the power of the Divine Child when he rises 
 again from his ashes into the life of life, perfect in his 
 
 650 limbs. Just as the Savior brought us succor, life with- 
 out end, by the death of His body, so this bird fills his 
 two wings with sweet and delicious herbs, the beautiful 
 produce of the earth, when he is ready to depart.' 
 
 14. EPILOG 
 
 These are the words (as books tell us), the utterances 
 
 of saints whose soul is intent upon heaven, the gentle 
 
 God, the joy of joys ; there they bring, as a gift to God 
 
 the Lord, the ravishing fragrance of their words and 
 
 660 vyorks into that glorious existence, into that radiant life. 
 
 - Blessing, and glory, and honor, and power be to Him 
 
 ever, world without end, in the kingdom of heaven above !^ 
 
 He is rightful King of the world and of the heavenly 
 
 host, invested with glory in the City beautiful. 
 
 1 Cf. Rev. 5. 13. 
 
THE PHCENIX 163 
 
 The Author of Ught has granted to us that we may 
 
 here obtain by our good deeds the joys of heaven. There 
 
 we may visit the chiefest of kingdoms and sit on lofty 670 
 
 thrones, Hve. in an ecstasy of Mght and peace, possess 
 
 abodes of bountiful gladness, enjoy days of prosperity, 
 
 behold eternally the benign and gracious Lord of victory, 
 
 and, blessM with the angels, hymn His praise in songs 
 
 that never end. Alleluia. 
 
 Albert S. Cook. 
 
VII 
 
 CHARMS 
 
 The Charms are among the oldest extant specimens of English 
 prose and verse, and in their first form were undoubtedly of 
 heathen origin. They are full of early Germanic mythology. 
 Magic lore lived in the mouth of the people, and was handed 
 down from generation to generation. The spells were therefore 
 constantly undergoing revision and amplification. The supersti- 
 tions which attached to certain features of the Christian religion 
 easily explain the Christian coloring evident in some of the fol- 
 lowing specimens. 
 
 The standard collection of charms, spells, and similar lore is 
 Cockayne's Leechdoms, Wortcunning, and Starcraft of Early 
 England (^London, 1866). For a discussion of the entire subject 
 of Germanic magic, divination, etc. see Grimm's Teutonic Mythol- 
 ogy (tr. Stallybrass, London, 1883), chapters 33-37, together 
 with the additions in Vol. 4 of that work. A short discussion 
 of certain features of the Charms may be found in Gummere's 
 excellent Germanic Origins (New York, 1892). 
 
 The following charms are all contained in the Grein-Wulker 
 Bibliothek der A ngelsdchsischen Poesie i 3 1 2 ff . 
 
 CHARM FOR BEWITCHED LAND 
 
 Here is the remedy with which thou canst improve 
 thy fields if they will not bring forth, or if any evil thing 
 is done to them through sorcery or witchcraft. 
 
 164 
 
CHARMS 165 
 
 At night, before daybreak, take four sods from the 
 four comers of the land, and mark how they had stood. 
 Next take oil, honey, and yeast, and milk of every sort 
 of cattle that is on that land, and a piece of every kind 
 of tree that is grown on that land except hard wood, 
 and a piece of every kind of herb whose name is known, 
 excepting only burdock. Put holy water on these, and 
 then drip of it thrice on the base of the turfs, and say 10 
 these words : Crescite, grow, et multiplicamini, and 
 multiply, et replete, and fill, terram, this earth, in 
 nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti sint benedicti ; 
 and Paternoster 2iS often as the o^hsx forrmda. 
 
 After this take the sods to church, and let the priest 
 chant four masses over them, and have them turned with 
 the green side toward the altar. Then bring them back 
 before sunset to where they were formerly. Next make 
 four crosses of aspen, and write on each end Matheus 
 and Marcus and Lucas and Johannes. Place a cross on 
 the bottom of each hole, and say : Crux Matheus, crux 
 Marcus, crux Lucas, crux sanctus Johannes. Then take 20 
 the sods and lay them on top, and say the Crescite nine 
 times, and Pater noster as often. Turn thyself then 
 toward the east, bow humbly, and say these words : 
 
 I stand towards the east, for blessing I pray, 
 
 I pray the God of glory, I pray the great Lord, 
 
 I pray the holy Ruler of the realm of heaven, 
 
 The earth I pray and heaven above, 
 
 The true saint Mary, 
 
 And the power of heaven and its high hall, jo 
 
 That with the grace of God I may disclose 
 
 This spell with my teeth ; that with steadfast thought 
 
 / may generate the harvests for our temporal benefit, 
 
1 66 CHARMS 
 
 Fill these fields with firm belief 
 
 And glorify these meadow-turfs ; for the prophet said 
 
 That he had grace in earthly kingdom 
 
 Who wisely gave alms according to the will of the Lord. 
 
 Then turn thrice following the course of the sun, stretch 
 thyself prostrate, and count there the litanies. Say also 
 40 the Tersanctus to the end, and then chant Benedicite with 
 outstretched arms, and Magnificat and Pater Noster 
 thrice, and commend thy prayer lo the praise and glory of 
 Christ, and St. Mary, and the Holy Rood, the angel that 
 guards the land, and all those that are subject to him. 
 When all that has been done, get some unknown seed 
 from beggars, and give them twice as much as thou takest 
 from them. Then gather all thy plowing tackle together, 
 bore a hole in the beam, and put therein incense, and 
 fennel, and consecrated soap, and consecrated salt. Take 
 the seed, and put it on the body of the plow, and then say: 
 
 Erce, Erce, Erce, mother of Earth, 
 50 May the Almighty, the eternal Lord, grant thee 
 
 Fields fertile and flourishing, 
 
 Fruitful and full of vigor, 
 
 . . . bright harvests, 
 
 And the harvests of the broad barley, 
 
 Harvests of the white wheat, 
 
 And all the harvests of the earth. 
 
 O Eternal Lord, and His saints that are in heaven. 
 
 Grant to the owner 
 
 That his field be kept from every foe, 
 60 And defended against all harm, 
 
 From sorceries sown throughout the land. 
 
 Now I pray the King who created this world 
 
 That no garrulous woman or crafty man 
 
 Be able to pervert words thus spoken. 
 
CHARMS 167 
 
 Then drive forth the plow, and cut the first furrow, 
 and say : 
 
 Well be it with tliee, Earth the mother of men! 
 Fruitful mayest thou be in the embrace of God, 
 Filled with food for the service of men. 
 
 Then take meal of every sort, and bake a loaf as 7c 
 broad as will lie on the two hands, kneadmg it with milk 
 and with holy water, and lay it under the first furrow. 
 Say then : 
 
 Full be the field with food for mankind, 
 
 Bright in its blossoming ; blessed be thou 
 
 By the holy name of Him who shaped this heaven 
 
 And this earth in which we live ; 
 
 May the God who made these grounds grant us growing gifts, 
 
 That every kernel may come to use. 
 
 Then say thrice, Crescite . . . in nomine Patris . . . 
 sint benedicti, Amen; and Pater noster thrice. 80 
 
 CHARM FOR SWARMING BEES 
 
 Take earth, throw it up with thy right hand from 
 under thy right foot, and say : 
 
 I take under foot, I have found it. 
 Verily earth avails against every creature. 
 And against mischief and mindlessness. 
 And against the great tongue of man. 
 
 Throw dust over them when they swarm, and say : 
 
 Sit ye, victor-dames, sink to earth, 
 Never to fly wild to the wood ! 
 Be as mindful of my good 
 As every man is of food and estate. 
 
l68 CHARMS 
 
 CHARM FOR A SUDDEN STITCH 
 
 Feverfew, and the red nettle that grows in through 
 the house, and plantain ; seethe in butter. 
 
 Loud were they, lo loud, when over the hill they rode, 
 Resolute were they when over the land they rode ; 
 Now shield thyself, that thou mayest survive this malice ! 
 Out, little spear, if herein it be ! 
 
 I stood under linden, under the light shield, 
 Where the mighty women mustered their force. 
 And whizzing spears they sent ; 
 I will send them back another, 
 A flying dart directly against them. 
 Out, little spear, if herein it be ! 
 
 The smith sat, he forged a little knife. 
 Smitten with the ^ iron heavily, 
 Out, little spear, if herein it be 1 
 
 Six smiths sat, war-spears they wrought. 
 Out, spear, not in, spear ! 
 
 If herein there be a bit of iron. 
 The work of witches, it shall melt! 
 If thou wert shot in the skin, or wert shot in the flesh. 
 Or wert shot in the blood. 
 
 Or wert shot in the limb, never may thy life be harmed ! 
 If it were a shot of gods, or if it were a shot of elves, 
 Or if it were a shot of witches, now will I help thee. 
 This to thee as a remedy for the shot of gods, this to thee as a 
 
 remedy for the shot of elves, 
 This to thee as a remedy for the shot of witches ; I will help 
 
 thee. 
 Flee to the mountain-head ! ' 
 Be thou whole, the Lord help thee ! 
 
 Then take the knife, and put it into the liquid. 
 • MS. corrupt. 
 
CHARMS 169 
 
 NINE HERBS CHARM 
 
 Remember, Wormwood, what thou didst reveal. 
 What thou didst prepare at the great proclamation. 
 ' Una ' thou art named, the eldest of herbs ; 
 Thou art strong against three and against thirty. 
 Thou art strong against venom and against infection, 
 Thou art strong against the Evil Thing that goes throughout the 
 land. 
 
 And thou, Plantain, mother of herbs, 
 Open from the east, mighty within. 
 Over thee carts creaked, queens rode over thee, 
 Over thee brides made cries, bulls gnashed over thee. 10 
 
 All those thou didst withstand, and dashed against them ; 
 So mayst thou withstand venom and infection 
 And the Evil Thing that goes throughout the land. 
 
 Water-cress is this herb named ; it grew on stone. 
 It stands against venom, it fights against pain. 
 
 Nettle is this called ; it dashes against venom. 
 It drives away cruel things, it casts out venom. 
 This is the herb that fought with the snake ; 
 This is strong against venom, this is strong against infection, 
 This is strong against the Evil Thing that goes throughout the 20 
 land. 
 
 Fly now, Betonica, the less from the greater, 
 The greater from the less, till there be to them a cure for both. 
 
 Remember, Camomile, what thou didst make known, 
 What thou didst bring to pass at Alorford, 
 That for the flying ill he never yielded up his life 
 After one prepared Camomile for him to eat. 
 
 This is the herb that is called Wild-Apple. 
 The seal sent this over the back of the sea. 
 To heal the hurt of other venom. 
 
 These nine attacked nine venoms. ,0 
 
 A serpent came sneaking ; he slew a man. 
 Then took Woden nine glory-twigs, 
 
lyo CHARMS 
 
 Smote the serpent then so that it flew in nine pieces ; 
 There the apple ended it and its venom, 
 So that it never would enter house again. 
 
 Thyme and Fennel, two exceeding mighty ones, 
 These herbs the wise Lord made. 
 Holy in the heavens ; He let them down, 
 40 Placed them, and sent them into the seven worlds 
 As a cure for all, the poor and the rich. 
 It stands against pain, it dashes against venom. 
 It is strong against three and against thirty. 
 
 Against the hand of an enemy and against the hand of the cursed, 
 . . . And against the bewitching of my creatures. 
 
 Now these nine herbs are strong against nine cursM 
 things, against nine venoms and against nine infections : 
 against the red venom, against the gray venom, against 
 the white venom, against the blue venom, against the 
 50 yellow venom, against the green venom, against the black 
 venom, against the brown venom, against the purple 
 venom ; against snake-blister, against water-blister, against 
 thorn-blister, against thistle-blister, against ice-blister, 
 against poison-blister ; if any venom come flying from 
 the east, or if any come from the north, or any from the 
 west over the people. 
 
 Christ stood over venom of every kind. I alone know 
 running water, and the nine serpents behold it. All 
 grasses may spring up with herbs, the sea vanish away, 
 all the salt water, when I blow this venom from thee. 
 
CHARMS 171 
 
 CHARM FOR REGAINING LOST CATTLE 
 
 As soon as one says that thy cattle are lost, say first 
 before thou say anything else : 
 
 Bethlehem was named the town where Christ was born ; 
 It is renowned through all the world ; 
 So may this deed become famed among men 
 Through the Holy Rood of Christ. Amen. 
 
 Then pray thrice toward the east, and say thrice : 
 Crux Christi ab oriente reducat; then pray thrice toward 
 the west, and say thrice : Crux Christi ab occidente redu- 
 cat; then pray thrice toward the south, and say thrice : 
 Crux Christi ab austro reducat; then pray thrice toward 
 the north, and say thrice : Crux Christi ab aquilone 
 reducat. Crux Christi abscondita est et inventa est. The 
 Jews crucified Christ, they did the worst of deeds, they 10 
 hid that which they could not hide, so may this deed in 
 no wise be hidden, through the Holy Rood of Christ. 
 
 Amen. • „r ^^ ^ 
 
 William O. Stevens. 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 REFERENCES FOR STUDENTS OF OLD ENGLISH 
 POETRY 
 
 Note. — So great has been the progress of Old English scholarship 
 in the past few years that none of the following books presents the 
 latest and most reliable views on such points as date, source, author- 
 ship, etc. Discussion of these topics must be sought in critical editions 
 of the poems and in the scholarly joamals. The editors have tried to 
 supply references to these in the prefatory notes. A fuller bibliography 
 of important works will be found in Cook's First Book in Old English, 
 Boston (Ginn). 
 
 Brother Azarias, The Development of Old English Thought, 
 3d ed., New York (Appleton), 1890. 
 
 The Christian literature is unduly stressed. 
 Bernhard Ten Brink, Early English Literature, trans- 
 lated by H. M. Kennedy, New York (Holt), 1883, pp. 
 1-115. 
 The best general account. 
 
 Stopford Brooke, The History of Early English Literature, 
 New York (Macmillan), 1892. 
 
 English Literature from the Beginning to the 
 
 Norman Conquest, New York (Macmillan), 1898. 
 
 Often fanciful, and in general not authoritative. The earlier 
 volume is fuller, but the later contains some material not in 
 the first. 
 John Earle, Anglo-Saxon Literature, London, 1884. 
 Readable, but by no means exhaustive. 
 172 
 
REFERENCES FOR STUDENTS 173 
 
 J. J. JussERAND, A Literary History of the English People, 
 fromthe Origins to the Renaissance, New York (Putnam), 
 189s. 
 A lively, but often quite unsympathetic account. 
 GusTAV KORTING, Grundriss der Geschichte der Englischen Lit- 
 teratur, 3te Auflage, Miinster, 1899, PP- 9~T°- 
 Bibliographical references. 
 C. M. Lewis, The Beginnings of English Literature, Boston 
 (Ginn), 1900. 
 
 Chapter III contains discussions of Widsith, Beowulf, 
 Elene, and fudith for the elementary student. 
 Henry Morley, English Writers, New York (Cassell), 1887. 
 Vols. I and II cover the Old English period. Often lacks 
 independence. 
 Henry Sweet, Sketch of the History of Anglo-Saxon Poetry in 
 Hazlitt's edition of Warton's History of English Poetry, 
 London (Reeves and Turner), 1871. 
 
 Gives in a few pages an excellent notion of the scope of 
 Old English literature. 
 H. A. Taine, History of English Literature, translated by H. 
 van Laun, New York, 1872. 
 
 A brief and very inadequate account. 
 R. P. WtJLKER, Grundriss zur Geschichte der Angelsdchsischen 
 Litteratur, Leipzig, 1885. 
 
 Full bibliographical references. It should be supplemented 
 by the use of Korting's Grundriss (see above). 
 
APPENDIX I 
 
 SELECTIONS FROM THE VERSE-TRANSLATIONS OF 
 BEOWULF 
 
 The following selections are gathered here in order to facilitate com- 
 parison of the various media which have been used in translating Old 
 English. 
 
 A critical account of all existing translations of Beowulf, together 
 with extracts, may be found in Tinker's bibliography, The Translations 
 of Beowulf, New York (Holt), 1902, Yale Studies in English XVI. 
 
 \The Death of Beowulf , w. 2813-2820] 
 
 WackerbarWs Translation 
 
 " Thou art the last remaining Stay 
 
 Of our Wasgmunding Stem, 
 My Sons hath Fate swept all away. 
 Earls in their Might, to Death's dark Sway ; 
 
 And I must after them." 
 This ere the Pyre the old Man chose. 
 The Battle-wave that furious glows, 
 
 His bosom's latest Word. 
 
 And from his Breast his Spirit goes 
 
 To seek the blessed Doom of those 
 
 Who ne'er from Truth have err'd. .„ 
 
 1849. 
 
 J. Lesslie HalVs Translation 
 
 " Thou art latest left of the line of our kindred, 
 Of Waegmunding people : Weird hath offcarried 
 All of my kinsmen to the Creator's glory, 
 I7S 
 
176 APPENDIX I 
 
 Earls in their vigor: I shall after them fare." 
 
 ' Twas the agfed liegelord's last-spoken word in 
 
 His musings of spirit, ere he mounted the fire, 
 
 The battle-waves burning: from his bosom departed 
 
 His soul to seek the sainted ones' glory. 
 
 1892. 
 
 LutnsderC s Translation 
 
 " Alone thou'rt left, the last 
 Of all our Waegmund race ; my kinsmen, earls of might, have 
 
 passed, 
 Weird-driv'n, to doom ; and thither too I go." 
 
 Of his heart's thought 
 ' Twas the last word the old man spake er.e he the bale-iire 
 
 sought, — • 
 The hotly raging waves of flame ; and from its dwelling fared 
 His spirit forth to seek the doom for righteous men prepared. 
 
 1881. 
 
 Garnetfs Translation 
 
 " Thou art the last left of our own kindred 
 
 Of the Waegmundings. Weird carried away all 
 
 Of mine own kinsmen at the time appointed, 
 
 Earls in their strength : I shall go after them." 
 
 That was to the agdd the very last word 
 
 In his breast-thoughts, ere the pyre he chosB; 
 
 The hot fiery waves : from his breast went 
 
 His soul to seek the doom of the saints. 
 
 1882. 
 
 Morris and Wyatfs Translation 
 
 Thou art the end-leaving of all of our kindred, 
 The Waegmundings ; Weird now hath swept all away 
 Of my kinsmen, and unto the Doom of the Maker 
 The earls in their might; now after them shall I. 
 
 That was to the aged lord youngest of words 
 
VERSE-TRANSLATIONS OF BEOWULF 177 
 
 Of his breast-thoughts, ere ever he chose him the bale, 
 
 The hot battle-wellings ; from his heart now departed 
 
 His soul, to seek out the doom of the soothfast. 
 
 1895. 
 
 Longfellow translated a few extracts in his Poets and Poetry of 
 Europe, of which the following may serve as a specimen : 
 
 \Beowuips Sea-Voyage, vv. 217-224 a] 
 
 Then went over the sea-waves. 
 
 Hurried by the wind. 
 
 The ship with foamy neck. 
 
 Most like a sea-fowl. 
 
 Till about one hour 
 
 Of the second day 
 
 The curved prow 
 
 Had passed onward 
 
 So that the sailors 
 
 The land saw. 
 
 The shore-cliffs shining. 
 
 Mountains steep. 
 
 And broad sea-noses. 
 
 Then was the sea-saihng 
 
 Of the Earl at an end. ,0,0 
 
APPENDIX II 
 
 THE SONG OF BRUNANBURH 
 
 For this translation see Tennyson's note on p. 25. A comparison of 
 this version with the poetical one will be instructive. 
 
 Athelstan King, lord of earls, giver of costly gifts among barons, 
 and his brother Edmund Atheling — lifelong glory they gain'd in 
 the strife by Brunanburh with the edges of their swords. They clove 
 the wall of shields ; they hew'd the battle-shields of lindenwood ; 
 with hammer'd brands they hew'd them — these sons of Edward. 
 
 This was their nobleness from those that went before them, 
 that they, so often, in combat against every foeman, should guard 
 their land, their hoards, and their homes. 
 
 The spoilers cringed; the Scottishmen crouch'd; and the ship- 
 crews fell : they were doom'd to the death ; the field flow'd with 
 blood of warriors, from when the sun on high, the mighty star in the 
 morning-tide, the bright lamp of God the everlasting Lord, glided 
 over earth, even until this noble creature sank to his setting. 
 
 There lay stricken down by the spear many warrior-men of the 
 North, — shot over the shield ; many a Scotsman also, full-wearied 
 with war. All day long the West Saxons, — their chosen men in 
 companies, — follow'd on the track the race of their loathing; 
 quickly they hack'd at the fliers from behind — with swords 
 sharpen'd by the grindstone. The Mercians stinted not their 
 hard hand-play among those heroes, that along with Anlaf, over 
 the weltering waves, in the bark's bosom, had made for the land. 
 In fight they were doom'd to the death. There lay five young 
 kings, sword-silenced on the war-field : there lay seven earls of 
 Anlaf — and ravagers innumerable — sea-men and Scotsmen. 
 
 178 
 
THE SONG OF BRUNANBURH 179 
 
 The Norse leader was hunted away ; needs must he fly to the 
 stem of his ship, — few of his own were with him : the keel drave 
 afloat ; the king fled forth ; on the fallow flood he saved his life. 
 There came likewise in flight to his kith in the North the wary 
 Constantinus, the hoary warrior. 
 
 No need had he to boast of the welcome of swords ; he was 
 forlorn of his kin, he was forlorn of his friends, they were feU'd 
 on that throng'd field, slain in the strife ; and he left his son upon 
 the place of slaughter, wounds had gash'd him into pieces, he 
 was yet young in war. 
 
 No need had he to vaunt of the carnage of axes, that white- 
 hair'd Baron ! that aged Traitor ! — nor had he, nor any more 
 had Anlaf, with the iruin of their armies, aught of reason for 
 laughter, as though they were better in the works of war, in the 
 struggle of standards on the battle-ground, in the meeting of men 
 at the gathering of spears, in the wrestling of weapons, where- 
 withal they had play'd on the field of slaughter against the sons 
 of Edward. 
 
 Then past forth a red remnant of the javelins, the Northmen 
 in their nailed barks, on the sounding sea, over the deep water, to 
 make for Dyflen, for Ireland again — they were shamed in their 
 souls. But the brothers, the king, and the Atheling, both together, 
 sought their kith in the land of the West Saxon, rejoicing in 
 battle. 
 
 Many a carcase they left behind them, many a sallow skin for 
 the swarthy raven with horny beak to tear ; the livid corpse they 
 left behind them for the ern with white tail to gorge as carrion, 
 for the greedy war-hawk, and for that gray beast, the wolf of the 
 weald. 
 
 Never before in this island was a huger slaughter of men fell'd 
 by the sword-edge (among those of which the books tell us, the 
 ancient chroniclers) — never before — since the Angles and Saxons 
 came up hither from the East, and over the broad brine sought 
 Britain ; when haughty war-smiths overcame the Welsh-men, and 
 earls full of the lust of glory gat hold of the land. 
 
 Hallam Tennyson. 
 
APPENDIX III 
 
 BEDE'S ACCOUNT OF THE POET C^EDMON 
 
 This account, taken from Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English 
 People, Book 4, chapter 24, is absolutely everything that we know of 
 Caedmon, save for the original text of the verses paraphrased below and 
 known as Caedmon's Hymn (see p. 76). Forthe name, Casdmon, see 
 Cook's article in Publications of the Modern Language Association of 
 America 6 9-28, and Wiilker's criticism in Anglia, Beiblatt 2 215 ff. 
 
 There was in the monastery of this abbess a certain brother 
 especially distinguished by the grace of God, since he was wont 
 to make poems breathing of piety and religion. Whatever he 
 learned of Sacred Scripture by the mouth of interpreters, he in a 
 little time gave forth in poetical language composed with the 
 greatest sweetness and depth of feeling, in English, his native 
 tongue ; and the effect of his poems was ever and anon to incite 
 the souls of many to despise the world and long for the heavenly 
 life. Not but that there were others after him among the people 
 of the Angles who sought to compose religious poetry; but none 
 there was who could equal him, for he did not learn the art of song 
 from men, nor through the means of any man; rather did he 
 receive it as a free gift from God. Hence it came to pass that he 
 never was able to compose poetry of a frivolous or idle sort ; none 
 but such as pertain to religion suited a tongue so religious as his. 
 Living always the life of a layman until well advanced in years, he 
 had never learned the least thing about poetry. In fact, so little 
 did he understand of it that when at a feast it would be ruled that 
 every one present should, for the entertainment of the others, sing 
 in turn, he would, as soon as he saw the harp coming anj-where 
 near him, jump up from the table in the midst of the banqueting, 
 leave the place, and make the best of his way home. 
 
 180 
 
BEDE'S ACCOUNT OF THE POET C^DMON i8l 
 
 This he had done at a certain time, and, leaving the house where 
 the feast was in progress, had gone out to the stable where the 
 care of the cattle had been assigned to him for that night. There, 
 when it was time to go to sleep, he had lain down for that purpose. 
 But while he slept some one stood by him in a dream, greeted him, 
 called him by name, and said, ' Caedmon, sing me something.' To 
 this he replied, ' I know not how to sing, and that is the very reason 
 why I left a feast and came here, because I could not sing.' But 
 the one who was talking with him answered, ' No matter, you are to 
 sing for me.' ' Well, then,' said he, ' what is it that I must sing ? ' 
 ' Sing,' said the other, ' the beginning of created things.' At this 
 reply he immediately began to sing verses in praise of God the 
 Creator, verses that he had never heard, and whose meaning is 
 as follows : ' Now should we praise the Keeper of the heavenly 
 kingdom, the might of the Creator and His counsel, the works of 
 the Father of glory ; how He, though God eternal, became the 
 Author of all marvels. He, the almighty Guardian of mankind, 
 first created for the sons of men heaven as a roof, and afterwards 
 the earth.' This is the meaning, but not the precise order, of the 
 words which he sang in his sleep ; for no songs, however well 
 they may be composed, can be rendered from one language into 
 another without loss of grace and dignity. When he rose from 
 sleep, he remembered all that he had sung while in that state, and 
 shortly after added, in the same strain, many more words of a 
 hymn befitting the majesty of God. 
 
 In the morning he went to the steward who was set over him, 
 and showed him what gift he had acquired. Being led to the 
 abbess, he was bidden to make known his dream and repeat his 
 poem to the many learned men who were present, that they all 
 might give their judgment concerning the thing which he related, 
 and whence it was ; and they were unanimously of the opinion 
 that heavenly grace had been bestowed upon him by the Lord. 
 They then set about expounding to him a piece of sacred history 
 or teaching, bidding him, if he could, to turn it into the rhythm of 
 poetry. This he undertook to do, and departed. In the morning 
 he returned and delivered the passage assigned to him, converted 
 
l82 APPENDIX III 
 
 into an excellent poem. The abbess, honoring the grace of God 
 as displayed in the man, shortly afterward instructed him to for- 
 sake the condition of a layman and take upon himself the vows of 
 a monk. She thereupon received him into the monastery with 
 his whole family, and made him one of the company of the 
 brethren, commanding that he should be taught the whole course 
 and succession of Biblical history. He, in turn, calling to mind 
 what he was able to learn by the hearing of the ear, and, as it 
 were, like a clean animal, chewing upon it as a cud, transformed 
 it all into most agreeable poetry ; and, by echoing it back in a 
 more harmonious form, made his teachers in turn listen to him. 
 Thus he rehearsed the creation of the world, the origin of man, 
 and all the story of Genesis ; the departure of Israel from 
 Egypt and their entry into the Promised Land, together with 
 many other histories from Holy Writ ; the incarnation of our 
 Lord, his passion, resurrection, and ascension into heaven ; the 
 coming of the Holy Ghost and the teaching of the Aposdes ; 
 moreover, he made many poems about the terror of the future 
 judgment, the awfulness of the pains of hell, and the joy of the 
 heavenly kingdom, besides a great number about the mercies and 
 judgments of God. In all these he exerted himself to allure men 
 from the love of wickedness, and to impel them to the love and 
 practice of righteous living ; for he was a very devout man, humbly 
 submissive to the monastic rule, but full of consuming zeal against 
 those who were disposed to act otherwise. 
 
 Hence it came to pass that he ended his life with a fair death. 
 For when the hour of his departure drew nigh, he was afflicted 
 for the space of a fortnight with a bodily weakness which seemed 
 to prepare the way ; yet it was so far from severe that he was able 
 during the whole of that time to walk about and converse. Near 
 at hand there was a cottage, to which those who were sick and 
 appeared nigh unto death were usually taken. At the approach 
 of evening on the same night when he was to leave the world, he 
 desired his attendant to make ready a place there for him to take 
 his rest. The attendant did so, though he could not help wonder- 
 ing at the request, since he did not seem in the least like a person 
 
BEDE'S ACCOUNT OF THE POET CEDMON 183 
 
 about to die. When he was placed in the infirmary, he was some- 
 how full of good humor, and kept talking and joking with those 
 who had already been brought there. Some time after midnight 
 he asked whether they had the Eucharist at hand. ' What do 
 you need of the Eucharist ? ' they answered, ' you are n't going to 
 die yet, for you are just as full of fun in talking with us as if 
 nothing were the matter with you.' ' Never mind,' said he, ' bring 
 me the Eucharist.' Taking it in his hand, he asked, ' Are you all 
 at peace with me, and free from any grudge or ill-will .' ' ' Yes,' 
 they all responded, ' we are perfectly at peace with you, and 
 cherish no grievance whatever.' ' But are you,' said they, ' entirely 
 at peace with us ? ' ' Yes, my dear children,' he answered without 
 hesitation, ' I am at peace with all the servants of God.' And 
 thus saying, he made ready for his entrance into the other life 
 by partaking of the heavenly journey-bread. Not long after he 
 inquired, ' How near is it to the hour when the brethren are 
 wakened for lauds ? ' ' But a litde while,' was the reply. ' Well 
 then,' said he, ' let us wait for that hour,' and, making over himself 
 the sign of the cross, he laid his head on the pillow, and falling into 
 a light slumber, ended his life in silence. And so it came to pass 
 that, as he had served the Lord in simplicity and purity of mind, 
 and with serene attachment and loyalty, so by a serene death he 
 left the world, and went to look upon His face. And meet in truth 
 it was that the tongue which had indited so many helpful words 
 in praise of the Creator, should frame its very last words in His 
 praise, while in the act of signing himself with the cross, and of 
 commending his spirit into His hands. And that he foresaw his 
 death is apparent from what has here been related. 
 
 Albert S. Cook. 
 
APPENDIX IV 
 
 FRAGMENT I OF THE OLD SAXON GENESIS 1 
 (Cf. note on pp. 104-5) 
 
 ' Uuela that thu nu, Eua, habas,' quad AlSain, ' ubilo gimarakot 
 
 unkaro selbaro silS ! Nu maht thu seaii thia suarton hell 
 
 ginon gradaga ; nu thu sia grimman maht 
 
 hinana glhorean ; nis heBanriki 
 
 gellhc sulicaro lognun ; thit uuas alloro lando sconiust, 
 
 that uuit hier thuruh unkas Herran thank hebbian muostun, 
 
 thar thu them ni hordis thie unk thesan haram giried, 
 
 that uuit Uualdandas uuord farbrakun, 
 
 Hebankuningas. Nu uuit hriuuig mugun 
 10 sorogon for them si^a, uuand he hunk selt)o gibood 
 
 that uuit hunk sulic uuiti uuardon scoldin 
 
 haramo mestan. Nu thuingit mi giu hungar endi thurst, 
 
 bitter balouuerk,' thero uuaron uuit er be'Sero tuom. 
 
 Ha sculun uuit nu libbian, efto hu sculan uuit an thesum liahta ° uuesan, 
 
 nu hier huuilum uuind kumit uuestan efto ostan, 
 
 silvan efto nordan, gisuuerek upp drlblt. 
 
 Kumit haglas skion himile bitengi, 
 
 feritS ford an gimang, that is firinum kald ; 
 
 huilum thanne fan himile heto skinit, 
 30 blikit thiu berahto sunna ; uuit hier thus bara standat, 
 
 unuuerid mitS giuuadi. Nis unk hier uuiht biuoran 
 
 ni te skadoua ni* te sciira; unk nis hier scattas uuiht 
 
 te meti gimarcot ; uuit hebbiat unk giduan mahtigna God, 
 
 Uualdand, uure'San. Te hui sculun uuit uuer^an nu ? 
 
 Nu mag mi that hreuuan, that ik is io bad hetanrlkean God, 
 
 Uualdand al . . . 
 
 1 From Piper, Die Altsdchsische Bibeldichtung^ pp. ^yj~^ 
 
 2 MS. balouuerek. a MS. liatha. 
 ^ The beginning of this line uncertain in the MS. 
 
 184 
 
OLD ENGLISH GENESIS 790-820 185 
 
 OLD ENGLISH GENESIS 790-820 
 
 Adam gemxlde and t5 Euan sprsec : 790 
 
 ' Hwaet, Jiu, Eue, haefst yfele gemearcod 
 
 uncer sylfra sTS. Gesyhst )3U nu i>a sweartan helle, 
 
 grSdige and gifre ? Nu m hie grimman meaht 
 
 heonane gehyran. Nis heofenrice 
 
 gellc Jjam lige, ac )>is is landa betst, 
 
 Jjaet wit Jjurh uncres Hearran ' Jianc habban moston, 
 
 J>ser t>u |jam ne hierde jpe unc Hsne hearra gerSd, 
 
 Jjaet wit Waldendes word forbraecon, 
 
 Heofoncyninges. Nu wit hreowige magon 
 
 sorgian for Jjis stSe, forjjon he unc self bebead 800 
 
 )jaet wit unc wite warian sceolden, 
 
 hearma mSstne. Nu slit me hunger and burst 
 
 bitre on breostum, bses wit begra aer 
 
 wSron orsorge on ealle tid. 
 
 Hu sculon wit nu libban, o'SSe on Jiys lande wesan, 
 
 gif her wind cymS westan otSISe eastan, 
 
 suSan o'S^e norSan, gesweorc upf aere^ ? 
 
 CymeU hsegles scur hefone getenge, 
 
 faerelSforst ongemang, se by^ fyrnum ceald; 
 
 hwilum of heofnum hate seined, 810 
 
 bliCS Jieos beorhte sunne, and wit her bam standa^, 
 
 unwered wSdo. Nys unc wuht beforan 
 
 to scursceade, ne sceattes wiht 
 
 to mete gemearcod, ac unc is mihtig God, 
 
 Waldend, wraUmod. To hwon sculon wit weortSan nu ? 
 
 Nu me maeg hreowan Jiaet ic basd heofnes God, 
 
 Waldend [bone gSdan, J>aet he i>e her worhte to me 
 
 of li'Sum minum, nu i>u me forlSred haefst 
 
 on mines Herran hete ; swa me nu hreowan maeg 
 
 Sfre to aldre, baet ic t>e mInum eagum geseah.'] 820 
 
 1 Kluge thinks {Eiymologische Worterbuch der Deutschen Sprache^ s.v. Herr) 
 that the Low German word (see the Old Saxon form) probably entered England 
 in the ninth century as kearra (see also line 819), and later reached Scandinavia. 
 
INDEX OF SUBJECTS 
 
 abbess (Hilda), i8o 
 
 Adam, 97, 113-116, 184-185 
 
 -sin of, 155 
 
 Albuin, 6 
 
 altar, 165 
 
 anchor, 84 
 
 Andrew, St., 133-138 
 
 angels, 87, 89, 93, 106, 109, 136, 
 
 138, 160-162 
 
 fall of the rebel, 105-114 
 
 of the Lord, 134 
 
 Angles, 5, 30 
 Anglia (continental), 4, 5 
 Anlaf (Olaf), 26, 27-29 
 antiphon, 80 
 
 armor, 10, 13, 19, 20, 21, 23, 26- 
 3°' 31-43' 69; 83, 118, 127, 131, 
 
 139, 168 
 
 army, march of an, 117, 118, 128 
 aspen, 165 
 Assyrians, 128-132 
 astronomy, see starcraft 
 Athelstan, 26 
 Attila, 4, 7 
 
 B 
 
 banishment, 63, 64-66 
 banner, see standard 
 barter, 68 
 baths, 57 
 
 battle, 20, 26-30, 3:-43, 57, 128- 
 i3i> 133' i39-'40 
 
 186 
 
 battle of Bninanburh, 26 
 
 cry, 35 
 
 of Maldon, 31 
 
 battlements, 57, 126 
 
 battle-rank, 32, 43 
 
 Beadohild, 58 
 
 beauty, passing of, 47-48, 56-57, 
 
 84, 142 
 sense of, 11, 14, 15, 19, 20- 
 
 23' 56-57' 74' 77, 93' 145-146 
 bed, 123 
 beehive, 74 
 bees, 74, 167 
 beggar, 166 
 Benedicite, 166 
 Beowulf (bay'o-wolf), 10-24 
 Bethlehem, 171 
 Bethulia, 126-132 
 betonica, 169 
 Bible, 74, 180, 182 
 Bible-codex, 73-74 
 blisters, 170 
 boasting, 12-14, I7. 21, 29, 33, 39, 
 
 iio-iii, 126 
 book, 142, 162 
 bookbinding, 74 
 book-making, 73-74 
 booty, 33-34, 131-132 
 bread, 167 
 Breca, 11, 13 
 brewing, 75 
 brides, 169 
 
INDEX OF SUBJECTS 
 
 187 
 
 Britain, 30 
 
 Brunanburh, 26 ' 
 
 Brussels Cross, 103 
 
 Burgundians, 4, 6 
 
 burial-mound, 22, 23, 152 
 
 butter, 168 
 
 Byrhtnoth (bircht'nothe), 32-38 
 
 Casdmon (kad'mon), 180-183 
 
 his hymn, 77, 181 
 
 Caesar, 4, 6 
 
 camomile, 169 
 
 cattle, loss of, 171 
 
 cave, 20, 54, 65, 138 
 
 charity, 156 
 
 charms, 164-171 
 
 Christ, 80-81, 86-87, 90-91. 94-99. 
 101-102, 103, 134-137. 158-163, 
 166, 1 70-1 7 1 
 
 ■ his address to the doomed, 91 
 
 appearance of, at Doomsday, 
 
 86-90, 97 
 
 co-etemity with God, 80 
 
 conception of, 82 
 
 city-wall, 56-57, 126 
 
 climbing, skill in, 83 
 
 cloud, the pillar of, 117 
 
 collar, 6, 23 
 
 comitatus, see vassalage 
 
 Constantine, 140 
 
 Constantinus, 28 
 
 cowardice, 38-39 
 
 creation, 11, 77, 108 
 
 destruction of, at Doomsday, 
 
 87-89 
 
 cross, 93-99, 100-103,140,142, 162, 
 165-166, 171, 183 
 
 appearance of, at Dooms- 
 day, 89 
 
 cross as battle-standard, 140 
 
 Brussels, inscription, 103 
 
 hiding of, 96 
 
 invention of, 96 
 
 as object of worship, 97 
 
 • Ruthwell, inscription, loi 
 
 sign of, 98, 183 
 
 ■ vision of, 93-99 
 
 words of, spoken to the poet, 
 
 94-98 
 crucifixion, go, 94-99, 101-103, 
 
 162, 171 
 cuckoo, 47, 62 
 curse, 40, 65 
 
 Cynewulf (kin'e-wolf), 84, 141 
 - — — runes, 84, 141 
 
 Danes, 4, 5, 10, 14, 16 
 
 Danube, 140 
 
 David, 82, 137 
 
 death, 19, 20, 23, 28-30, 37, 38, 43, 
 
 48-50, 56, 78, 119, 125, 131, 157, 
 
 182-183 
 
 by the arrow, 73 
 
 by drowning, 119, 137 
 
 deluge, the, 71, 145 
 
 of the Mermedoniaris, 137 
 
 of the Red Sea, 119 
 
 Deor, 60 
 
 devils, 86, in 
 
 dialog, 81 
 
 disciples, of St. Andrew, 136-137 
 
 the twelve, 137 
 
 Doomsday, 78, 84, 85-92, 97, 145, 
 
 157-160, 181 
 
 fire of, 84, 87-88, 158 
 
 trumpet of, 85, 87, 158 
 
 dragon, 20, 21, 67 
 drama, anticipation of, 81 
 
i88 
 
 INDEX OF SUBJECTS 
 
 dream, 51-52, 93, 136-137, 181 
 drunkenness, 12, 75, 122-124 
 Dyflen (i.e. Dublin), 29 
 
 Eadgils (ay'ad-gils), 7 
 
 Eadric, 32 
 
 Eadwin, 6, 7 
 
 eagle, 30, 36, 45, 128, 136, 139 
 
 Ealhhild, 4, 7 
 
 East-Saxons, 34 
 
 Eden, 155 
 
 Edmund, 26 
 
 Egyptians, 6, 11 8-1 20 
 
 Elene {i.c. Helena), St., 140 
 
 eloquence, 83 
 
 endowments of men, 82-83 
 
 English language, use of the, 180 
 
 envy, 106 
 
 Eormanric (i.e. Hermanric), 4, 6, 
 
 7. 59 
 Erce, 166 
 Eucharist, 183 
 eulogy, 24 
 
 Eve, 115, 116, 184-185 
 exodus (of Israel from Egypt), 
 
 118, 182 
 
 F 
 
 faithlessness, 65 
 
 falcon, 20, 30, 32, 75 
 
 Fate, see Wyrd 
 
 feast, 1 21-122 
 
 fennel, 170 
 
 feverfew, 168 
 
 fiend, 14-19, 107-108, 110-116 
 
 Finn, 4 
 
 Finns, 4, 6, 13 
 
 fire, 71, 138 
 
 of Doomsday, see Doomsday 
 
 of hell, 107, 112-116, 125 
 
 fire, the pillar of, 117 
 fish, 67, 88 
 flag, 128 
 
 flood, 71, 119, 137 
 flowers, 146 
 fly-net, 123 
 fountain, 145-147 
 Franks, 4, 6 
 Frisians, 4, 6 
 fruits, 145 
 
 funeral-pyre, 23-24, 150 
 funeral-song, 24 
 
 G 
 
 Gabriel, 82 
 
 gannet, 45 
 
 Geats, 5, 14 
 
 generosity, see giving of treasure 
 
 giants' work, 20, 22, 56 
 
 giving of treasure, 5-8, 23, 51—52, 
 
 63, 67, 68, 82-83, 1 1 5 
 gloom, sense of, 18-19 
 glory, passing of, 48, 53-55, 57 
 gnomic verses, 53, 67-69 
 God as Creator, 11, 49, 68, 77, 
 
 106, 108-109, 181 
 — — as Judge, 68, 78, 88-91, 158 
 goldsmith, 152 
 Goths, 4, 5, 7, 59 
 grave, 48, 56, 157, 159; see also 
 
 burial-mound 
 Greeks, 4, 6, 141 
 Grendel, 10, 12, 14-18 
 Guthhere, 6 
 
 hall, 14-18, 20 
 
 Hama, 7, 8 
 
 hanging, death by, 68 
 
 harp, 7, II, 20, 46, 59, 83, 147, 180 
 
INDEX OF SUBJECTS 
 
 189 
 
 harvest, 150, 165-167 
 
 hawk, see falcon 
 
 heath, see moor 
 
 Heathobards, 5 
 
 Heathor^emas, 6, 12 
 
 heaven, 48, 49, 74, 91-92, 98, 136, 
 
 159-163 
 Hebrews, 6, 117-118, 128-132, 171 
 hell, creation of, 107 
 description of, 107, 112, 114, 
 
 125. 137 
 
 harrowing of (?), 99 
 
 Heorot (heh'o-rot), 5, 11, 14-18 
 
 herald, 32 
 
 history, chronicles of English, 
 
 mentioned, 30 
 Holof ernes, 1 21-132 
 
 discovery of his death, 130 
 
 holy water, 165, 167 
 
 honey, 75, 165 
 
 horn, 72, 147 ; see also trumpet 
 
 horse, 20, 32, 39-40, 142 
 
 hostage, 41 
 
 hot springs, 57 
 
 hounds, 18 
 
 Hrothgar, 5, 10, 14 
 
 Hrothwulf, 5 
 
 Huns, 4, 5, 140 
 
 hunting, 18 
 
 Hygelac, 9, 15 
 
 hymn, 77, 78, 181 
 
 immortality, 91, 159 
 Indians, 6 
 infirmary, 182-183 
 Ingeld, 5 
 inscription 
 
 cross, 103 
 
 monumental, 100, 153 
 
 ink, 74 
 
 inspiration, 83 
 Italy, 6 
 
 J 
 jewels, 63, 68, 72, 93, 126, 132 
 
 art of setting, 1 52 
 
 Jews, see Hebrews 
 
 Job, 159 
 
 John, St., 165 
 
 Joseph, St., 81 
 
 joy, of heaven, 91-92, 136-137, 
 
 160-163 
 passing of, 20, 45, 48, 57, 58- 
 
 60, 142 
 
 see also revelry 
 
 Judith, 121-132 
 
 kingship, 4-8, 10, 21,67-68 
 kittiwake, 45 
 knife, 61, 73, 168 
 
 lafneness, 58 
 
 lament, 19-20, 54-55, 58-60, 64-66, 
 
 113-114, 130 
 letter (message), 61-63 
 light, creation of, 109 
 litany, 166 
 Lombards, 5, 6 
 loneliness, 44-49, 64-66 
 love, 62-66 
 lover, 61-63 
 loyalty, see vassalage 
 Luke, St., 165 
 
 Magnificat, 166 
 
 Maldon, 31 
 
 man, creation of, 114 
 
1 90 
 
 INDEX OF SUBJECTS 
 
 manuscript, illumination of, 74 
 
 marble, 153 
 
 Mark, St., 165 
 
 marriage, 63, 65, 69 
 
 martyrs, 136 
 
 Mary, Virgin, 81, 97, 165-166 
 
 mass, 165 
 
 Matthew, St., 165 
 
 maxims, 53 
 
 mead, 45.74-75' 122, 137 
 
 mead-drinking, 39, 69, 72, 121-122 
 
 mead-hall, 5, 51, 54, 57, 62 
 
 meal, 167 
 
 Medes, 6 
 
 memory, pleasures of, 51—52 
 
 Mercian, 27 
 
 mew, 62 
 
 milk, 165, 167 
 
 minstrelsy, 3-8, 11, 58-60, 75, 99 
 
 miracle, Christ's on Sea of Galilee, 
 
 135-136 
 
 St. Andrew's, 137 
 
 monastery, 180-183 
 
 monolog, 50-55, 58-60, 61-63, 
 
 64-66 
 moon, 87 
 moor, 14, 118 
 Moses, 1 1 7-1 1 8 
 mountains, 87, 144 
 murder, 14, 15, 58, 125 
 music, 7, II, 85, 98-99, 137, 144, 
 
 147-148, 161-162 
 
 '■ skill in, 83 
 
 Myrgings, 4-7 
 
 N 
 nature, descriptions of, 18, 46-47, 
 65, 144-146 
 
 mystery of, 68 
 
 strife of, 67-68 
 
 naval force, 26, 28, 33 
 nettle, 168, 169 
 Nithhad, 58 
 Norse, 28 
 Northumbrian, 41 
 
 
 
 ocean, see sea 
 Offa, 5 
 oil, 165 
 
 Olaf, see Anlaf 
 old age, 47, 48, 53 
 Ongentheow, 4 
 organ, 147 
 outlaw, 68 
 
 Paradise (Eden), 155-156 
 
 (heaven), 91-92, 160-163 
 
 (of the Phoenix), 144-146 
 
 parchment, preparation of, 73-74 
 
 password, 63 
 
 Paternoster, 166-167 
 
 patriarchs, 136 
 
 patriotism, 26 
 
 peacock, 152 
 
 pen, 74 
 
 perjury, see treachery 
 
 Persians, 6 
 
 Pharaoh, 118, 120 
 
 Phoenix, 144-163 
 
 abode of, 144-146 
 
 aspect of, 1 52 
 
 as attendant of the sun, 
 
 146-148 
 
 burning of, 150 
 
 description of, 152 
 
 • flight of, 148-154 
 
 immortality of, 154 
 
 nest of, 149-151 
 
INDEX OF SUBJECTS 
 
 191 
 
 Phoenix, new birth of, 150-151 
 
 retinue of, 148-151, 153 
 
 tree of the (palm), 149, 156 
 
 Picts, 6 
 
 plantain, 169 
 
 pledge (of love), 62, 63, 65 
 
 plow, 166-167 
 
 poetry, art of, 83, 141, 159, 180- 
 
 183 
 poison, see venom 
 prayer, 38, 80, 124, 165-167 
 pride, 21, 83, 106-107, no-116 
 priest, 165 
 prudence, 53 
 pumice, 74 
 pyre, 23-24, 150 
 
 queen, duty of, 68-69 
 
 R 
 
 ransom, 33 
 
 raven, 30, 36, 119, 128, 139 
 Red Sea, 1 18-120 
 resurrection, 85, 158-160 
 
 Christ's, 97, 162 
 
 revelry, 122, 127 
 riddles, 61-62, 70-75 
 Romans, 140 
 rood, see cross 
 ruined city, 56-57 
 ruins, 53, 56-57 
 rule, monastic, 182 
 runes, 63, 84, 141 
 
 saints, 92, 98, 136, 162 
 
 legends of, 133-142 
 
 salt, 166 
 
 Satan, 106, 109-116, 155 
 
 Satan, his departure from hell, 
 
 116 
 savior, Beowulf as, 17, 
 Saxons, 30, 34 
 Scots, 5, 26-28 
 Scriptures, see Bible 
 Scyld (shild), 10 
 Scyldings («>. Danes), 10, 14 
 sea, 10, II, 23, \^-i,~l, 50-52, 61- 
 
 63, 69, 70-71, 84, II 9-1 20, 134- 
 
 136, 138, 140-141, 147 
 coldness of, 45, 50-52, 84, 
 
 134. 147 
 sea-birds, 45, 52, 62, 134 
 sea-burial, 10 
 seafaring, 23, 44-47, 50-51, 62, 69, 
 
 83. 84, 134, 140-141 
 sea-monsters, 12, 13 
 sea-storm, 45, 55, 71, 134-136 
 sea-weed, 71 
 sepulchre, 96 
 serpent, see snake 
 shield- wall, 26, 35, 40, 118, 131 
 ship, 10, 32-33, 44-47, 62, 69, 72, 
 
 134-138. 140-141 
 similes, 84, 88, 150 
 sin, origin of, 115, 155 
 Skilling, 7 
 slaughter, 27-30, 34-43. 129-131, 
 
 140 
 smith, 83, 168 
 snake, 125, 169, 170 
 soap, 166 
 social life, 69, 121-122 
 
 loss of, 19-20, 45, 51-52 
 
 sods, 165 
 
 song, 5, 7, II, 78, 96, 180-182 
 
 of the redeemed, 91, 159, 
 
 161-162 
 sorcery, 59, 1 64-171 
 
192 
 
 INDEX OF SUBJECTS 
 
 speU, 59, 164-171 
 
 spices, 149-151, 169-170 
 
 Spirit, Holy, 82, 83, 124, 165 
 
 spoil, see booty 
 
 spring, 46-47, 68 
 
 springs, see fountain and hot 
 
 springs 
 stag, 18 
 
 standard, II, 21, 22, 29, 118, 128 
 starcraft, 83 
 stars, 87 
 
 stoning, death by, 82 
 summer, 68 
 
 sun, 27, 68, 86-87, 90, 149-150 
 sunrise, 13, 14, 27, 134, 146, 147, 
 
 152 
 supplication, see prayer 
 swan, 45, 72, 148 
 Swedes, 4, 5 
 swimming-match, 11— 14 
 Syrians, 148 
 
 tanning, 73 
 
 tempest, see sea-storm 
 
 tent, 123 
 
 tern, 45 
 
 Tersanctus, 166 
 
 thanksgiving, 22, 132 
 
 Theodoric, 4, 7, 59 
 
 theology, 83 
 
 Thuringians, 4, 6 
 
 thyme, 170 
 
 translation, 181 
 
 travel, 3-8, 20, 50-51, 61-63, 134 
 
 treachery, 4, 29, 39-40, 58, 64 
 
 treasure, 4-6, 19, 21-24, 38, 49, 
 
 57. 63, 67, 69, 93-94, 131-132 ; 
 
 see also giving of treasure 
 trees, 61, 83, 90, 145-146 
 
 trees, bleeding of, at the crucifixion, 
 go 
 
 see also Phojnix, tree of the 
 
 tribute, 33 
 
 Trinity, 124, 165 
 
 trumpet, 85, 87, 117, 139, 147, 158 
 
 Unferth, II 
 
 vassalage, 6, 7, 10, 20-23, 24i 32, 
 39, 40-42, 50-52, 60, 83, 106- 
 107, iio-iii, 113-114, X29-130, 
 
 '35. 136, 153 
 vengeance, 38-42 
 venom, 20, 33, 73, 169-170 
 viaticum, 183 
 Vikings, 31-43 
 vision, see dream 
 Vistula, 7 
 vulture, 119 
 
 W 
 
 wanderer, 50-55 
 
 water-cress, 169 
 
 wax, 88 
 
 wealth, see treasure 
 
 weapons, 10, 13, 17, 19, 20, 26-43. 
 
 67. 73. 83, 118, 124, 127-132. 
 
 139-140, 168 
 
 art of making, 83 
 
 Weland (i.e. Wayland), 58 
 Welshman, 30 
 West-Saxons, 27, 30 
 whales, 12, 47 
 whirlwind, 142 
 Widsith (weed'seethe), 3-8 
 wife, duties of, 69 
 wild-apple, 169 
 
INDEX OF SUBJECTS 
 
 193 
 
 winter, 145 
 
 witchcraft, see sorcery 
 Woden, 169 
 
 wolf, 30, 54, iig, 128, 139 
 wood-carving, 61-62 
 works, merit of, 1 56 
 wormwood, 169 
 
 worship, 156 
 
 writing, skill in, 62, 83 
 
 Wudga, 7, 8 
 
 Wyrd {i.e. Fate), 13, 23, 49-55, 57 
 
 yeast, 165 
 
INDEX OF MEDIA 
 
 Prose 
 
 Selections from Beowulf, 9 
 Selections from the Christ, 79 
 Ruthwell Cross Inscription, 100 
 Elene, The Voyage, 140 
 Elena, the Rune-Passage, 141 
 The Phcenix, 143 
 Charms, 164 
 The Song of Brunanburh (tr. 
 
 Hallam Tennyson), 178 
 Bede's Account of the Poet 
 Caedmon, 180 
 
 Blank Verse 
 Widsith, 3 
 The Ruined City, 56 
 The Banished Wife's Complaint, 
 
 64 
 Riddles, 70 ^ 
 
 The Dream of the Rood, 93 
 Brussels Cross Inscription, 103 
 Selections from the Genesis, 104 
 Judith, 121 
 Selections from the Andreas, 1 33 
 
 Ballad Measures , 
 
 The Battle of Maldon, 31 
 The Seafarer, 44 
 
 Ballad Measures (continued) 
 
 The Wanderer, 50 
 
 Deer's Lament, 58 
 
 Selection from Wackerbarth's 
 translation of Beowulf, 175 
 
 Selection from Lumsden's trans- 
 lation of Beowulf, 176 
 
 Imitative Measures 
 
 The Battle of Brunanburh, 25 
 
 Caedmon's Hymn, 76 
 
 Bede's Death-Song, 78 
 
 Selections from the Exodus, 117 
 
 Elene, the Battle, 139 
 
 Selection from J. L. Hall's trans- 
 lation of Beowulf, 175 
 
 Selection from Garnett's trans- 
 lation of Beowulf, 176 
 
 Selection from Morris and 
 Wyatt's translation of Beo- 
 wulf, 176 
 
 Selection from Longfellow's 
 extract of Beowulf, 177 
 
 Irregular Verse 
 A Love-Letter, 6i 
 Gnomic Verses, 67 
 Charms, 164 
 
 194 
 
INDEX OF TITLES 
 
 Andreas, Selections from the, 133 
 Athelstan, see Brunanburh, The 
 
 Battle of 
 Banished Wife's Complaint, The, 
 
 64 
 Bede's Death-Song, 78 
 Beowulf, Selections from, 9 
 Beowulf, Selections from the Verse- 
 Translations of, 175 
 Bible-Codex, The, 73 
 Bow, The, 73 
 Brunanburh, The Battle of (tr. 
 
 Alfred Tennyson), 25 
 Brunanburh, The Song of (tr. 
 
 Hallam Tennyson), 178 
 Brussels Cross Inscription, 103 
 Byrhtnoth, The Death of, see Mal- 
 
 don, The Battle of 
 Casdmon, Bede's Account of the 
 
 -Poet, 180 
 Csedmon's Hymn, 76 
 Charm for a Sudden Stitch, 168 
 Charm for Bewitched Land, 164 
 Charm for Regaining Lost Cattle, 
 
 171 
 Charm for Swarming Bees, 167 
 Charm, Nine Herbs, 169 
 Christ, Selections from the, 79 
 Deor's Lament, 58 
 Dream of the Rood, The, 93 
 
 Elene, Selections from the, 139 
 
 Exodus, Selections from the, 117 
 
 Falcon, The, 75 
 
 Genesis, Selections from the, 104 
 
 Genesis, Lines 790-820, and Frag- 
 ment I of the Old Saxon Gen- 
 esis, 184 
 
 Gnomic Verses, 67 
 
 Horn, The, 72 
 
 Husband's Message, The, see Love- 
 Letter, A 
 
 Judith, 121 
 
 Love-Letter, A, 61 
 
 Maldon, The Battle of, 31 
 
 Mead, The, 74 
 
 Nine Herbs Charm, see Charm, 
 Nine Herbs 
 
 Phosnix, The, 143 
 
 Riddles, 70 " 
 
 Ruined City, The, 56 
 
 Ruthwell Cross Inscription, 100 
 
 Seafarer, The, 44 
 
 Storm-Spirit in the Sea, The, 71 
 
 Storm-Spirit on Land, The, 70 
 
 Swan, The, 72 
 
 Wanderer, The, 50 
 
 Widsith, 3 
 
 Wife's Complaint, The, see Ban- 
 ished Wife's Complaint, The 
 
 19s