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

PREFACE

These selections from Old English poetry have been translated to meet the needs of that ever-increasing body of students who cannot read the poems in their original form, but who wish nevertheless to enjoy to some extent the heritage of verse which our early English ancestors have left for us. Especially in the rapid survey of English literature given in most of our colleges, a collection of translations covering the Anglo-Saxon period and reflecting the form and spirit of the original poems should add much to a fuller appreciation of the varied and rich, though uneven, literary output of our earliest singers.

In subject-matter these Old English poems are full of the keenest interest to students of history, of customs, of legend, of folk-lore, and of art. They form a truly national literature; so that one who has read them all has learned much not only of the life of the early English, but of the feelings that inspired these folk, of their hopes, their fears, and their superstitions, of their whole outlook on life. They took their poetry seriously, as they did everything about them, and often in spite of crudity of expression, of narrow vision, and of conventionalized modes of speech, this very “high seriousness” raises an otherwise mediocre poem to the level of real literature. Whatever may be said of the limitations of Old English poetry, of its lack of humor, of the narrow range of its sentiments, of the imitativeness of many of its most representative specimens, it cannot be denied the name of real literature; for it is the direct expression of the civilization that gave it birth—a civilization that we must understand if we are to appreciate the characteristics of its more important descendants of our own time.

Although the contents of these poems can be satisfactorily studied in any translation, the effect of the peculiar meter that reinforces the stirring spirit of Old English poetry is lost unless an attempt is made to reproduce this metrical form in the modern English rendering. The possibility of retaining the original meter in an adequate translation was formerly the subject of much debate, but since Professor Gummere’s excellent version of Beowulf and the minor epic poems,^[1] and other recent successful translations of poems in the Old English meter, there can be no question of the possibility of putting Anglo-Saxon poems into readable English verse that reproduces in large measure the effect of the original. To do this for the principal Old English poems, with the exception of Beowulf, is the purpose of the present volume.

Except for the subtlest distinctions between the types of half verse, strict Old English rules for the alliterative meter have been adhered to. These rules may be stated as follows:

1. The lines are divided into two half-lines, the division being indicated by a space in the middle.

2. The half-lines consist of two accented and a varying number of unaccented syllables. Each half-line contains at least four syllables. Occasional half-lines are lengthened to three accented syllables, possibly for the purpose of producing an effect of solemnity.

3. The two half-lines are bound together by beginning-rime or alliteration; i.e., an agreement in sound between the beginning letters of any accented syllables in the line. For example, in the line

Guthhere there gave me a goodly jewel

the g’s form the alliteration. The third accent sets the alliteration for the line and is known as the “rime-giver.” With it agree the first and the second accent, or either of them. The fourth accent must not, however, agree with the rime-giver. Occasionally the first and third accents will alliterate together and the second and fourth, as,

The weary in heart against Wyrd has no help;

or the first and fourth may have the alliteration on one letter, while the second and third have it on another, as,

Then heavier grows the grief of his heart.

These two latter forms are somewhat unusual. The standard line is that given above:

Guthhere there gave me a goodly jewel,

A hundred generations; hoary and stained with red,

With rings of gold and gilded cups.

All consonants alliterate with themselves, though usually sh, sp, and st agree only with the same combination. Vowels alliterate with one another.

In the following passage the alliterating letters are indicated by italics:

Then a band of bold knights busily gathered,

Keen men at the conflict; with courage they stepped forth,

Bearing banners, brave-hearted companions,

And fared to the fight, forth in right order,

Heroes under helmets from the holy city

At the dawning of day; dinned forth their shields

A loud-voiced alarm. Now listened in joy

The lank wolf in the wood and the wan raven,

Battle-hungry bird, both knowing well

That the gallant people would give them soon

A feast on the fated; now flew on their track

The deadly devourer, the dewy-winged eagle,

Singing his war song, the swart-coated bird,

The horned of beak.

Judith, vv. 199-212.

Besides the distinctive meter in which the Old English poems are written, there are several qualities of style for which they are peculiar. No one can read a page of these poems without being struck by the parallel structure that permeates the whole body of Old English verse. Expressions are changed slightly and repeated from a new point of view, sometimes with a good effect but quite as often to the detriment of the lines. These parallelisms have been retained in the translation in so far as it has been possible, but sometimes the lack of inflectional endings in English has prevented their literal translation.

Accompanying these parallelisms, and often a part of them, are the frequent synonyms so characteristic of Old English poetry. These synonymous expressions are known as “kennings.” They are not to be thought of as occasional metaphors employed at the whim of the poet; they had, in most cases, already received a conventional meaning. Thus the king was always spoken of as “ring giver,” “protector of earls,” or “bracelet bestower.” The queen was the “weaver of peace”; the sea the “ship road,” or “whale path,” or “gannet’s bath.”

Old English poetry is conventionalized to a remarkable degree. Even those aspects of nature that the poets evidently enjoyed are often described in the most conventional of words and phrases. More than half of so fine a poem as The Battle of Brunnanburg is taken bodily from other poems. No description of a battle was complete without a picture of the birds of prey hovering over the field. Heroes were always assembling for banquets and receiving rewards of rings at the hand of the king. These conventional phrases and situations, added to a thorough knowledge of a large number of old Germanic myths, constituted a great part of the equipment of the typical Old English minstrel or scop, such as one finds described in Widsith or Deor’s Lament.

It would be a mistake, however, to conclude that the poems are convention and nothing more. A sympathetic reading will undoubtedly show many high poetic qualities. Serious and grave these poems always are, but they do express certain of the darker moods with a sincerity and power that is far from commonplace. At times they give vivid glimpses of the spirit of man under the blighting influence of the “dark ages.” After reading these poems, we come to understand better the pessimistic mood of the author of The Wanderer when he says,

All on earth is irksome to man.

And we see how the winsome meadows of the land of the Phoenix must by their contrast have delighted the souls of men who were harassed on every side as our ancestors were.

All of these distinguishing features of Old English poetry—the regular alliterative meter, the frequent parallelisms, the “kennings,” and the general dark outlook on life will be found illustrated in the poems selected in this book. They cover the entire period of Old English literature and embrace every “school.”

The order in which the poems are printed is in no sense original, but is that followed in most standard textbooks. Naturally such artificial divisions as “Pagan” and “Christian” are inexact. The “pagan” poems are only largely pagan; the “Christian” predominatingly Christian. On the whole, the grouping is perhaps accurate enough for practical purposes, and the conformity to existing textbooks makes the volume convenient for those who wish to use it to supplement these books.

In addition to the poems, four short prose passages referred to by most historians of the literature have been included so as to add to the usefulness of the volume.

In the translation of the poems the original meaning and word-order has been kept as nearly as modern English idiom and the exigencies of the meter would allow. Nowhere, we believe, has the possibility of an attractive alliteration caused violence to be done to the sense of the poem.

The best diction to be used in such a translation is difficult to determine. The temptation is ever present to use the modern English descendant of the Anglo-Saxon word, even when it is very archaic in flavor. This tendency has been resisted, for it was desired to reproduce the effect of the original; and, though Old English poetry was conventional, it was probably not archaic: it was not out of date at the time it was written. Since the diction of these poems was usually very simple, it has been the policy of the translators to exclude all sophisticated expressions, and to retain words of Germanic origin or simple words of Latin derivation that do not suggest subtleties foreign to the mind of the Old English poet.

The texts used as a standard for translation are indicated in the introductory notes to the different poems. Whenever a good critical edition of a poem has been available, it has been followed. Variations from the readings used in these texts are usually indicated where they are of any importance. In the punctuation and paragraphing of the poems, the varying usage of the different editors has been disregarded and a uniform practice adopted throughout.

Following these principles, the translators have attempted to reproduce for modern English readers the meaning and movement of the Old English originals. It is their earnest hope that something of the fine spirit that breathes through much of this poetry will be found to remain in the translation.

Cosette Faust.
Stith Thompson.

March, 1918.

^[1]The Oldest English Epic, New York, 1909.

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