English Literature Part 46

Footnote 9: From Morley's version, ll. 1357-1376.

Footnote 10: _Beowulf_, ll. 2417-2423, a free rendering.

Footnote 11: Lines 2729-2740, a free rendering.

Footnote 12: Morley's version, ll. 2799-2816.

Footnote 13: Lines 3156-3182 (Morley's version).

Footnote 14: Probably to the fourth century, though some parts of the poem must have been added later. Thus the poet says (II. 88-102) that he visited Eormanric, who died _cir_. 375, and Queen Ealhhild whose father, Eadwin, died _cir_. 561. The difficulty of fixing a date to the poem is apparent. It contains several references to scenes and characters in _Beowulf_.

Footnote 15: Lines 135-143 (Morley's version).

Footnote 16: A lyric is a short poem reflecting some personal emotion, like love or grief. Two other Anglo-Saxon poems, "The Wife's Complaint" and "The Husband's Message," belong to this cla.s.s.

Footnote 17: First strophe of Brooke's version, _History of Early English Literature_

Footnote 18: _Seafarer_, Part I, Iddings' version, in _Translations from Old English Poetry._

Footnote 19: It is an open question whether this poem celebrates the fight at which Hnaef, the Danish leader, fell, or a later fight led by Hengist, to avenge Hnaef's death.

Footnote 20: Brooke's translation, _History of Early English Literature_, For another early battle-song see Tennyson's "Battle of Brunanburh."

Footnote 21: William Camden (1551-1623), one of England's earliest and greatest antiquarians. His first work, _Britannia_, a Latin history of England, has been called "the common sun whereat our modern writers have all kindled their little torches."

Footnote 22: From Iddings' version of _The Seafarer_.

Footnote 23: From _Andreas_, ll. 511 ff., a free translation. The whole poem thrills with the Old Saxon love of the sea and of ships.

Footnote 24: From _Beowulf_, ll. 1063 ff., a free translation.

Footnote 25: Translated from _The Husband's Message_, written on a piece of bark. With wonderful poetic insight the bark itself is represented as telling its story to the wife, from the time when the birch tree grew beside the sea until the exiled man found it and stripped the bark and carved on its surface a message to the woman he loved. This first of all English love songs deserves to rank with Valentine's description of Silvia:

Why, man, she is mine own, And I as rich in having such a jewel As twenty seas, if all their sand were pearl, The water nectar and the rocks pure gold.

_Two Gentlemen of Verona_, II, 4.

Footnote 26: From the _Anglo-Saxon Chronicle_, record of the year 457.

Footnote 27: According to Sweet the original home of the Aryans is placed in central or northern Europe, rather than in Asia, as was once a.s.sumed.

See _The History of Language_, p. 103.

Footnote 28: "Caedmon's Hymn," Cook's version, in _Translations from Old English Poetry_.

Footnote 29: _Ecclesiastical History_, IV, xxiv.

Footnote 30: Genesis, 112-131 (Morley).

Footnote 31: Exodus, 155 ff. (Brooke).

Footnote 32: Runes were primitive letters of the old northern alphabet.

In a few pa.s.sages Cynewulf uses each rune to represent not only a letter but a word beginning with that letter. Thus the rune-equivalent of C stands for _cene_ (keen, courageous), Y for _yfel_ (evil, in the sense of wretched), N for _nyd_ (need), W for _ivyn_ (joy), U for _ur_ (our), L for _lagu_ (lake), F for _feoh_ (fee, wealth). Using the runes equivalent to these seven letters, Cynewulf hides and at the same time reveals his name in certain verses of _The Christ_, for instance:

Then the _Courage-hearted_ quakes, when the King (Lord) he hears Speak to those who once on earth but obeyed Him weakly, While as yet their _Yearning fain_ and their _Need_ most easily Comfort might discover.... Gone is then the _Winsomeness_ Of the earth's adornments! What to _Us_ as men belonged Of the joys of life was locked, long ago, in _Lake-flood_.

All the _Fee_ on earth.

See Brooke's _History of Early English Literature_, pp. 377-379, or _The Christ of Cynewulf_, ed. by Cook, also by Gollancz.

Footnote 33: 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 sh.o.r.es Where men abide, and far the welkin's strength Over the mult.i.tudes 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.

(Brougham's version, in _Transl. from Old Eng. Poetry_.)

Footnote 34: The source of _Andreas_ is an early Greek legend of St.

Andrew that found its way to England and was probably known to Cynewulf in some brief Latin form, now lost.

Footnote 35: Our two chief sources are the famous Exeter Book, in Exeter Cathedral, a collection of Anglo-Saxon poems presented by Bishop Leofric (_c_. 1050), and the Vercelli Book, discovered in the monastery of Vercelli, Italy, in 1822. The only known ma.n.u.script of _Beowulf_ was discovered _c_. 1600, and is now in the Cotton Library of the British Museum. All these are fragmentary copies, and show the marks of fire and of hard usage. The Exeter Book contains _the Christ, Guthlac, the Phoenix, Juliana, Widsith, The Seafarer, Deor's Lament, The Wife's Complaint, The Lover's Message_, ninety-five Riddles, and many short hymns and fragments,--an astonishing variety for a single ma.n.u.script.

Footnote 36: From Alfred's _Boethius_.

Footnote 37: It is not certain that the translation of Bede is the work of Alfred.

Footnote 38: See _Translations from Old English Poetry_. Only a brief account of the fight is given in the _Chronicle_. The song known as "The Battle of Maldon," or "Byrhtnoth's Death," is recorded in another ma.n.u.script.

Footnote 39: This is an admirable little book, containing the cream of Anglo-Saxon poetry, in free translations, with notes. Translations from _Old English Prose_ is a companion volume.

Footnote 40: For full t.i.tles and publishers of general reference books, and for a list of inexpensive texts and helps, see General Bibliography at the end of this book.

Footnote 41: The chief object of these questions is not to serve as a review, or to prepare for examination, but rather to set the student thinking for himself about what he has read. A few questions of an advanced nature are inserted which call for special study and research in interesting fields.

Footnote 42: A Romance language is one whose basis is Latin,--not the cla.s.sic language of literature, but a vulgar or popular Latin spoken in the military camps and provinces. Thus Italian, Spanish, and French were originally different dialects of the vulgar Latin, slightly modified by the mingling of the Roman soldiers with the natives of the conquered provinces.

Footnote 43: See p. 51.

Footnote 44: It is interesting to note that all the chroniclers of the period, whether of English or Norman birth, unite in admiration of the great figures of English history, as it was then understood. Brutus, Arthur, Hengist, Horsa, Edward the Confessor, and William of Normandy are all alike set down as English heroes. In a French poem of the thirteenth century, for instance, we read that "there is no land in the world where so many good kings and saints have lived as in the isle of the English ...

such as the strong and brave Arthur, Edmund, and c.n.u.t." This national poem, celebrating the English Edward, was written in French by a Norman monk of Westminster Abbey, and its first heroes are a Celt, a Saxon, and a Dane.

(See Jusserand, _Literary History of the English People_, I, 112 ff.)

Footnote 45: _English Literature from the Norman Conquest to Chaucer_.

Footnote 46: Anselm was an Italian by birth, but wrote his famous work while holding the see of Canterbury.

Footnote 47: During the Roman occupancy of Britain occurred a curious mingling of Celtic and Roman traditions. The Welsh began to a.s.sociate their national hero Arthur with Roman ancestors; hence the story of Brutus, great-grandson of Aeneas, the first king of Britain, as related by Geoffrey and Layamon.

Footnote 48: Probably a Latin copy of Bede.

Footnote 49: Wace's translation of Geoffrey.

Footnote 50: Only one word in about three hundred and fifty is of French origin. A century later Robert Mannyng uses one French word in eighty, while Chaucer has one in six or seven. This includes repet.i.tions, and is a fair estimate rather than an exact computation.

Footnote 51: The matter of Britain refers strictly to the Arthurian, i.e.

the Welsh romances; and so another division, the matter of England, may be noted. This includes tales of popular English heroes, like Bevis of Hampton, Guy of Warwick, Horn Child, etc.