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ELENE;
JUDITH;
ATHELSTAN, OR THE FIGHT AT BRUNANBURH;
BYRHTNOTH, OR THE FIGHT AT MALDON;
AND
THE DREAM OF THE ROOD:
Anglo-Saxon Poems.
TRANSLATED BY
JAMES M. GARNETT, M.A., LL.D.,
FORMERLY PROFESSOR OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE IN THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA; TRANSLATOR OF "BÉOWULF."
_THIRD EDITION._
BOSTON, U.S.A.: GINN & COMPANY, PUBLISHERS. The Athenæum Press. 1911.
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1889, by JAMES M. GARNETT, In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.
COPYRIGHT, 1900, BY JAMES M. GARNETT.
COPYRIGHT, 1911, BY JAMES M. GARNETT.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
TO PROFESSOR FRANCIS A. MARCH
CORYPHÆUS OF OLD ENGLISH STUDIES IN AMERICA
WITH SENTIMENTS OF THE HIGHEST REGARD
CONTENTS.
PAGE
PREFACE vii
INTRODUCTION ix
* * * * *
ELENE.
I. Constantine sees the vision of the rood 1
II. Constantine is victorious, the sign is explained, and he is baptized 4
III. Helena sets out on her journey in search of the cross, and arrives at Jerusalem 7
IV. Helena summons an assembly of the Jews learned in the law, and addresses them 10
V. The Jews consult apart, and Judas states the object of the Empress 13
VI. Judas gives the Jews the information derived from his father and grandfather 16
VII. The Jews at first refuse to act, but finally deliver up Judas to the Empress 19
VIII. Judas stubbornly denies all knowledge of the matter, but after imprisonment without food consents to speak 21
IX. They proceed to Calvary, and Judas offers a prayer for guidance 24
X. A smoke arises, Judas digs and finds three crosses. Test of the true cross 27
XI. The fiend laments that he is overcome. Judas replies to him 30
XII. Helena announces the discovery to Constantine, who orders a church to be built on the spot. Judas is baptized 32
XIII. Judas is ordained bishop of Jerusalem, and his name is changed to Cyriacus. Helena longs to recover the nails. Judas prays, digs, and finds them 35
XIV. The nails are made into a bit for Constantine's horse. Helena admonishes all to obey Cyriacus and returns home 38
XV. The writer reflects on his work, records his name; and refers to the future judgment 41
* * * * *
JUDITH.
IX. * * * * * * * * * * Holofernes prepares a banquet 44
X. Holofernes and his guests carouse. Judith is brought to his tent. Holofernes enters and falls on his bed in a drunken sleep. Judith prays for help, and cuts off the head of Holofernes 45
XI. Judith returns with the head of Holofernes to Bethulia. The people meet her in crowds. She exhorts the warriors to sally forth at dawn. They fall upon the Assyrians 49
XII. The Assyrians discover the death of Holofernes and become panic-stricken. The Hebrews pursue them in flight, plunder the slain, and bestow upon Judith the arms and treasure of Holofernes 53
* * * * *
ATHELSTAN, OR THE FIGHT AT BRUNANBURH.
Athelstan and Edmund, with their West-Saxons and Mercians, slaughter the Scots and Northmen. Constantine and his Scots flee to their homes in the North. Anlaf and his Northmen flee across the sea to Dublin. Athelstan and Edmund return home in triumph, and leave the corpses to the raven, the eagle, and the wolf 57
* * * * *
BYRHTNOTH, OR THE FIGHT AT MALDON.
* * * * * * * * * * * Byrhtnoth and his East-Saxons are drawn up on the bank of the Panta. The wikings' herald demands tribute. Byrhtnoth angrily offers arms for tribute. Wulfstan defends the bridge. Byrhtnoth proudly permits the wikings to cross. The fight rages. Byrhtnoth is wounded. He slays the foe. He is wounded again. He prays to God to receive his soul, and is hewn down by the heathen men. Godric flees on Byrhtnoth's horse. His brothers follow him. Ælfwine encourages the men to avenge the death of their lord. So does Offa, who curses Godric. Leofsunu will avenge his lord or perish. Dunnere also. Others follow their example. Offa is slain and many warriors. The fight still rages. The aged Byrhtwold exhorts them to be the braver as they become the fewer. So does another Godric, not he who fled. * * * * 60
* * * * *
THE DREAM OF THE ROOD.
In the middle of the night the writer beholds the vision of a cross decked with gold and jewels, but soiled with blood. Presently the cross speaks and tells how it was hewn and set up on a mount. Almighty God ascended it to redeem mankind. It bent not, but the nails made grievous wounds, and it was moistened with blood. All creation wept. The corse was placed in a sepulchre of brightest stone. The crosses were buried, but the thanes of the Lord raised it begirt with gold and silver, and it should receive honor from all mankind. The Lord of Glory honored it, who arose for help to men, and shall come again with His angels to judge each one of men. Then they will fear and know not what to say, but no one need fear who bears in his heart the best of beacons. The writer is ready for his journey, and directs his prayer to the rood. His friends now dwell in glory, and the rood of the Lord will bring him there where he may partake of joy with the saints. The Lord redeemed us, His Son was victorious, and with a band of spirits entered His heavenly home 71
PREFACE.
This translation of the ELENE was made while reading the poem with a post-graduate student in the session of 1887-88, Zupitza's second edition being used for the text, which does not differ materially from that in his third edition (1888). It was completed before I received a copy of Dr. Weymouth's translation (1888), from Zupitza's text; but in the revision for publication I have referred to it, although I cannot always agree with the learned scholar in his interpretation of certain passages. Grein's text was, however, used to fill _lacunæ_, and in the revision the recently published (1888) Grein-Wülker text was compared in some passages. The line-for-line form has been employed, as in my translation of BÉOWULF; for it has been approved by high authority, and is unquestionably more serviceable to the student, even if I have not been able to attain ideal correctness of rhythm. I plead guilty in advance to any _lapsus_ in that respect, but I strongly suspect that I have appreciated the difficulty more highly than my future critics. The ELENE is more suitable than the BÉOWULF for first reading in Old English poetry on account of its style and its subject, which make the interpretation considerably easier, and I concur with Körting, in his _Grundriss der Geschichte der Englischen Litteratur_ (p. 47, 1887): "Die ELENE eignet sich sowohl wegen ihres anmutigen Inhaltes, als auch, weil sie in der trefflichen Ausgabe von Zupitza leicht zugänglich ist, als erste poetische Lectüre für Anfänger im Angelsächsischen." This statement is now the stronger for English readers because Zupitza's text is in course of publication, edited with introduction, notes, and glossary by Professor Charles W. Kent, of the University of Tennessee. I have appended a few notes which explain themselves, and have occasionally inserted words in brackets.
The translations of the JUDITH and the BYRHTNOTH were made in regular course of reading with undergraduate classes, the former in 1886, and the latter in 1887, the texts in Sweet's "Anglo-Saxon Reader" being used, and compared with those in Grein and in Körner. The text of JUDITH is now accessible in Professor Cook's edition (1888).
The translation of the ATHELSTAN has been added from Körner's text, compared with Grein and Wülker, and in certain passages with Thorpe and Earle. For fuller literary information than the Introduction provides, the reader is referred to ten Brink's "Early English Literature," Kennedy's translation (1883), and to Morley's "English Writers," Vol. II. (1888).
JAMES M. GARNETT.
UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA, VA., May, 1889.
PREFACE TO EDITION OF 1900.
I have added to this reprint of my "Elene and other Anglo Saxon Poems" a translation of the DREAM OF THE ROOD, which has been on hand for several years awaiting a suitable time to see the light. A brief Introduction to the poem has been prefixed, which, doubtless, leaves much to be desired, but it is all that the translator now has time for, and I must refer to the works mentioned for fuller information and discussion. With thanks for past consideration, and the hope that this addition has made the book more acceptable, I entrust it again to indulgent readers.
JAMES M. GARNETT.
BALTIMORE, MARYLAND, October, 1900.
PREFACE TO EDITION OF 1911.
I have read over carefully these translations with a view to another reprint, which the publishers find necessary, but I have not compared them again with the texts used. I have corrected a few typographical errors of little importance.
For the bibliography I would refer to Brandl's _Sonderausgabe aus der zweiten Auflage von Paul's Grundriss der germanischen Philologie_ (Strassburg, 1908), in which I find noted Holthausen's edition of the ELENE (Heidelberg, 1905), but I have not seen it.
I take advantage of this opportunity to say that my translation of BÉOWULF, of which the last reprint was issued in 1910, is not in _prose_, as some have misconceived it, but it is in the same metrical form as the translations in the present volume,--an accentual metre in rough imitation of the original. I agree with Professor Gummere and others that this is a better form for the translation of Old English poetry than plain prose. It was approved by the late Professor Child nearly _thirty_ years ago, as noted in the Preface to the second edition of my translation of BÉOWULF, January, 1885.
JAMES M. GARNETT.
BALTIMORE, MARYLAND, February, 1911.
INTRODUCTION.
In presenting to the public the following translations of the Old English (Anglo-Saxon) poems, ELENE, JUDITH, ATHELSTAN, BYRHTNOTH, and THE DREAM OF THE ROOD, it is desirable to prefix a brief account of them for the information of the general reader.
I. The ELENE, or Helena, is a poem on the expedition of the Empress Helena, mother of Constantine the Great, the first Christian emperor, to Palestine in search of the true cross, and its successful issue. The mediæval legend of the Finding of the Cross is given in the _Acta Sanctorum_ under date of May 4, assigned by the Church to the commemoration of St. Helena's marvellous discovery. The Latin work is the Life of St. Quiriacus, or Cyriacus, Bishop of Jerusalem, that is, the Judas of the poem. It has been usually thought that the Old English poet used this Life as his source; but Glöde, in a recent volume of _Anglia_ (IX. 271 ff.), has given reasons for thinking that the poet used some other Latin text. He rejects ten Brink's conjecture that the legend of Elene had come to England in a Greek form. As to the author of the poem, we know his name, but very little else about him. He has left us his name, imbedded in runic letters as an acrostic, in the last canto of the poem, q.v. These letters spell the word CYNEWULF; but who was Cynewulf? The question is hard to answer, and has given rise to much discussion, which cannot be gone into here. A good summary of it will be found in Wülker's _Grundriss zur Geschichte der Angelsächsischen Litteratur_ (p. 147 ff., 1885), an indispensable work for students of Old English literature. The old view, propounded in the infancy of Anglo-Saxon studies, and held by Kemble, Thorpe, and, doubtfully, Wright, that he was the Abbot of Peterborough and Bishop of Winchester (992-1008), has been abandoned by all scholars, so far as I know, except Professor Earle of Oxford (see his "Anglo-Saxon Literature," p. 228). The later view of Leo, Dietrich, Grein and Rieger, our chief authorities, that he was a Northumbrian, and of Dietrich and Grein, that he was Bishop of Lindisfarne (737-780), has more to be said for it. Sweet and ten Brink also hold that he was a Northumbrian of the eighth century, but not the Bishop of Lindisfarne, while Wülker regards him as a West-Saxon. Professor Henry Morley, in the current edition of his "English Writers," has devoted a chapter (Vol. II. Chap. IX., 1888) to Cynewulf, and virtually concludes that we know nothing about him except that he was a poet and probably lived in the eighth century. We shall not go far wrong in regarding him as a Northumbrian poet of the eighth century, possibly the Bishop of Lindisfarne, even though his works remain to us only in the West-Saxon dialect. As in the ELENE, so in the CHRIST and the JULIANA, Cynewulf has left us his name, hence all agree in ascribing to him these poems at least. To these some of the RIDDLES, if not all, are usually added, but this is now contested. Other poems, as the GUTHLAC, PHOENIX, CHRIST'S DESCENT INTO HELL, ANDREAS, DREAM OF THE ROOD, and several other shorter poems, have been ascribed to him with more or less probability, and very recently Sarrazin (in _Anglia_, IX. 515 ff.) would credit him with the authorship of even the BÉOWULF(!). We might as well assign to him, as has been suggested, all the poems in the two great manuscripts, the Exeter Book and the Vercelli Book, and be done with it. It is desirable that his authorship of the DREAM OF THE ROOD, which ten Brink and Sweet assign to him, but Wülker rejects, should be proved or disproved; for with this is connected the question of his Northumbrian origin, and some lines from this poem have been inscribed in the Northumbrian dialect on the Ruthwell Cross in Dumfriesshire.
However it may be, a poet named Cynewulf wrote the ELENE, and thereby left us one of the finest Old English poems that time has preserved, on a subject that was of great interest to Christian Europe. A collection of "Legends of the Holy Rood" has been issued by the Early English Text Society (ed. Morris, 1871), from the Anglo-Saxon period to Caxton's translation of the _Legenda Aurea_; but they are arranged without system, and no study has been made of the date and relation of the several forms of the story. If Cynewulf made use of the Latin Life of Cyriacus in the _Acta Sanctorum_, he expanded his source considerably and showed great skill and originality in his treatment of the subject, as may be seen by comparing the translation with the Latin text in Zupitza's third edition of the ELENE (1888), or in Professor Kent's forthcoming American edition, after Zupitza. The Old English text was discovered by a German scholar, Dr. F. Blume, at Vercelli, Italy, in 1822, and the manuscript has since become well known as the Vercelli Book (cf. Wülker's _Grundriss_, p. 237 ff.). A reasonable conjecture as to how this MS. reached Vercelli may be found in Professor Cook's pamphlet, "Cardinal Guala and the Vercelli Book." A Bibliography of the ELENE will be found in Wülker, Zupitza, and Kent. English translations have been made by Kemble, in his edition of the Codex Vercellensis (1856), and very recently by Dr. R.F. Weymouth, Acton, England, after Zupitza's text (privately printed, 1888). A German translation will be found in Grein's _Dichtungen der Angelsachsen_ (II. 104 ff., 1859), and of lines 1-275 in Körner's _Einleitung in das Studium des Angelsächsischen_ (p. 147 ff., 1880). A good summary of the poem is given in Earle's "Anglo-Saxon Literature" (p. 234 ff., 1884), and a briefer one in Morley's "English Writers" (II. 196 ff.).
The ELENE is conceded to be Cynewulf's best poem, and ten Brink remarks of the ANDREAS and the ELENE: "In these Cynewulf appears, perhaps, at the summit of his art" (p. 58, Kennedy's translation). The last canto is a personal epilogue, of a sad and reflective character, evidently appended after the poem proper was concluded. This may be the last work of the poet, and there is good reason for ten Brink's view (p. 59) that "not until the writing of the ELENE had Cynewulf entirely fulfilled the task he had set himself in consequence of his vision of the cross. Hence he recalls, at the close of the poem, the greatest moment of his life, and praises the divine grace that gave him deeper knowledge, and revealed to him the art of song."
II. The JUDITH is a fragment, but a very torso of Hercules. The first nine cantos, nearly three-fourths of the poem, are irretrievably lost, so that we have left but the last three cantos with a few lines of the ninth. The story is from the apocryphal book of Judith, and the part remaining corresponds to chapters XII. 10 to XVI. 1, but the poet has failed to translate the grand thanksgiving of Judith in the sixteenth chapter. The story of Judith and Holofernes is too well known to need narration. The poet, doubtless, followed the Latin Vulgate, as we have no reason to think that a knowledge of Greek was a common possession among Old English poets; but, as Professor Cook says, "the order of events is not that of the original narrative. Many transpositions have been made in the interest of condensation and for the purpose of enhancing the dramatic liveliness of the story."
The Old English text is found in the same manuscript with the BÉOWULF (Cotton, Vitellius, A, xv.), and, to my mind, this poem reminds the reader more of the vigor and fire of BÉOWULF than does any other Old English poem; but its author is unknown. It has been assigned by some scholars to the tenth century, which is rather late for it; but Professor Cook has given reasons for thinking that it may have been written in the second half of the ninth century in honor of Judith, the step-mother of King Alfred. It was first printed as prose by Thwaites at the close of his "Heptateuch, Book of Job, and Gospel of Nicodemus" (1698), and has been often reprinted, its shortness and excellence making it a popular piece for inclusion in Anglo-Saxon Readers. A most complete edition has been recently (1888) issued by Professor Albert S. Cook, with an excellent introduction, a translation, and a glossary. A Bibliography is given by Professor Cook (pp. 71-73), and by Wülker (_Grundriss_, p. 140 ff.). To the translations therein enumerated may be added the one in Morley's "English Writers" (II. 180 ff.). Professor Cook has also given (pp. lxix-lxxii) the testimonies of scholars to the worth of this poem. To these the attention of the reader is especially called. The JUDITH has been treated by both ten Brink and Wülker as belonging to the Caedmon circle, but the former well says (p. 47): "This fragment produces an impression more like that of the national epos than is the case with any other religious poetry of that epoch;" and Sweet (Reader, p. 157) regards it as belonging "to the culminating point of the Old Northumbrian literature, combining as it does the highest dramatic and constructive power with the utmost brilliance of language and metre."
III. The ATHELSTAN, or Fight at Brunanburh, is found in four manuscripts of the "Anglo-Saxon Chronicle" and in Wheloc's edition (1643), printed from a MS. that was burnt in the unfortunate fire among the Cottonian manuscripts (1731). It is entered under the year 937 in all but one MS., where it occurs under 938. The poem gives a brief, but graphic, description of the fight between King Athelstan and his brother Edmund on the one side, and Constantine and his Scots aided by Anlaf and his Danes, or Northmen, on the other, in which fight the Saxons were completely victorious. The poem will be found in all editions of the "Anglo-Saxon Chronicle" from Wheloc to Earle (1865), and has been repeatedly reprinted, its brevity causing it to be often included as a specimen of Old English, but it is omitted in Sweet's Reader. A Bibliography will be found in Wülker's _Grundriss_ (p. 339 ff.). To the English translations there mentioned,--which include a poetical one by Lord Tennyson, after a prose translation by his son in the Contemporary Review for November, 1876,--may be added the prose translation by Kennedy in ten Brink (p. 91) and the rhythmical one by Professor Morley in his "English Writers" (II. 316-17). ten Brink thinks that the poem was not written by an eye-witness, and says (p. 92): "The poem lacks the epic perception and direct power of the folk-song as well as invention. The patriotic enthusiasm, however, upon which it is borne, the lyrical strain which pervades it, yield their true effect. The rich resources derived from the national epos are here happily utilised, and the pure versification and brilliant style of the whole stir our admiration." It well serves to diversify and enliven the usually dry annals of the "Anglo-Saxon Chronicle," and cannot be spared in the great dearth of poetry of this period.
IV. The BYRHTNOTH, or Fight at Maldon, relates in vigorous verse the contest between the Saxons, led by the Ealdorman Byrhtnoth, and the Danes at the river Panta, near Maldon in Essex, in which the Danes were victorious and Byrhtnoth was slain. The incident is mentioned in four manuscripts of the "Anglo-Saxon Chronicle" under the year 991, but one gives it under 993. The MS. in which the poem was contained was unfortunately burnt in the great fire above-mentioned (1731); but Thomas Hearne, the antiquary, had fortunately printed it, as prose, in his edition, of the Chronicle of John of Glastonbury (1726); hence this is now our sole authority for the text, which is defective at both the beginning and the end. The poem has been highly esteemed by scholars, and is a very valuable relic of late tenth century literature. It has been often reprinted, and translated several times in whole or in part. Grein does not translate either the ATHELSTAN or the BYRHTNOTH. Körner translates it in full, and so does Zernial in his Program "Das Lied von Byrhtnoth's Fall" (1882). This monograph contains the fullest study of the poem that has been made. It is translated into English, with some omissions, by Kennedy in ten Brink (pp. 93-96); it is barely mentioned by Earle (p. 147), and a summary of it is given by Morley in "English Writers" (II. 319-320). A Bibliography will be found in Wülker's _Grundriss_ (pp. 344-5). An edition of both ATHELSTAN and BYRHTNOTH has been long announced in the "Library of Anglo-Saxon Poetry," but it has not yet appeared.[1] Sweet says of the BYRHTNOTH (Reader, p. 138): "Although the poem does not show the high technical finish of the older works, it is full of dramatic power and warm feeling"; and ten Brink, with more enthusiasm, calls it (p. 96) "one of the pearls of Old English poetry, full, as it is, of dramatic life, and fidelity of an eye-witness. Its deep feeling throbs in the clear and powerful portrayal." He recognizes, however, "the tokens of metrical decline, of the dissolution of ancient art-forms."
[1] Crow's "Maldon and Brunnanburh," 1897.