OLD ENGLISH POEMS

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

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.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

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. CAEDMONIAN SCHOOL. Caedmon'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 Phoenix 132 (4) The Grave 157

III. POEMS FROM THE CHRONICLE The Battle of Brunnanburg 159 The Battle of Maldon 163

APPENDIX--PROSE SELECTIONS Account of the Poet Caedmon 179 Alfred's Preface to His Translation of Gregory's "Pastoral Care" 183 Conversion of Edwin 187 Voyages of Ohthere and Wulfstan 189

Old English Poems