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The Project Gutenberg eBook, Old English Poems, by Various, Translated by Cosette Faust Newton and Stith Thompson

Title: Old English Poems

Translated into the Original Meter Together with Short Selections from Old English Prose

Author: Various

Release Date: February 3, 2010 [eBook #31172]

Language: English

Character set encoding: UTF-8

***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OLD ENGLISH POEMS***

E-text prepared by Carla Foust, Stephen Hutcheson,
and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team
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OLD ENGLISH POEMS

TRANSLATED INTO THE ORIGINAL METER

TOGETHER WITH
SHORT SELECTIONS FROM OLD ENGLISH PROSE

BY
COSETTE FAUST, Ph.D.
ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH IN THE SOUTHERN METHODIST UNIVERSITY
AND
STITH THOMPSON, Ph.D.
INSTRUCTOR IN ENGLISH IN THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS

SCOTT, FORESMAN AND COMPANY
CHICAGO NEW YORK

ROBERT O. LAW COMPANY
EDITION BOOK MANUFACTURERS
CHICAGO, U.S.A.

I. PAGAN POETRY
1. EPIC OR HEROIC GROUP
PAGE
Widsith 15
Deor’s Lament 26
Waldhere 29
The Fight at Finnsburg 34
2. GNOMIC GROUP
Charms: 1. Charm for Bewitched Land 38; 2. Charm for a Sudden Stitch 42
Riddles: 1. A Storm 44; 2. A Storm 45; 3. A Storm 46; 5. A Shield 48; 7. A Swan 49; 8. A Nightingale 49; 14. A Horn 50; 15. A Badger 51; 23. A Bow 52; 26. A Bible 52; 45. Dough 54; 47. A Bookworm 54; 60. A Reed 54
Exeter Gnomes 56
The Fates of Men 58
3. ELEGIAC GROUP
The Wanderer 62
The Seafarer 68
The Wife’s Lament 72
The Husband’s Message 75
The Ruin 78
II. CHRISTIAN POETRY
1. CÆDMONIAN SCHOOL.
Cædmon’s Hymn 83
Bede’s Death Song 84
Selection From Genesis—The Offering of Isaac 85
Selection From Exodus—The Crossing of the Red Sea 90
2. CYNEWULF AND HIS SCHOOL
a. Cynewulf: (1) Selections from Christ 95; 1. Hymn to Christ 96; 2. Hymn to Jerusalem 96; 3. Joseph and Mary 97; 4. Runic Passage 100; (2) Selections from Elene 103; 1. The Vision of the Cross 103; 2. The Discovery of the Cross 105
b. Anonymous Poems of the Cynewulfian School: (1) The Dream of the Rood 108; (2) Judith 116; (3) The Phœnix 132; (4) The Grave 157
III. POEMS FROM THE CHRONICLE
The Battle of Brunnanburg 159
The Battle of Maldon 163
APPENDIX—PROSE SELECTIONS