Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume I.djvu/537

ANGLO-SAXONS (LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE) 505 him sing. "I cannot sing," said he; "I have left the feast and come here because I cannot sing." " Sing for me though," said the vision; " sing the creation." And he sang the famous verses which were to usher in a new era of song : Nu scylun liergan hefaenricaes uard, metudses maecti end his modgidanc, lierc nuldur fadur; sue be uundra gihuaes eci dryctin or astelidae. He aerist scop aelda barnum heben til hrofe, haleg scepen : tha middungeard moncynnaes uard ed dryctin, eefter tiadee, f irum ibldan, f rea allmectig. "Now must we glorify the guardian of heaven's kingdom, the maker's might, and his mind's thought, the work of the worshipped when of Ms wonders each father one, the ever living lord ordered the origin, He erst created for earth's children lieaven as a high roof, the holy creator : then this mid world did man's guardian the ever living lord afterward prepare, for men a mansion, the master almighty ." (Hadley's translation.) Next morning he told his story and repeated the verses. The abbess Hild and her learned men proved him, and found that he could turn into noble poetry passages from the Bible which they read to him. They recognized the gift as divine, and received him into the mon- astery. There he led a holy life, humble and lovely, and composed many Christian poems. Hosts of imitators followed. The "H&liand," a poem of some 6,000 lines in Old Saxon, cele- brating the acts of the Saviour, is thought by many to be a translation from Caedmon. But none equalled him till Milton. A single man- uscript remains, containing Genesis (2, 935 lines), Exodus (589), Daniel (765), Christ and Satan (733). All that is known of it is that it be- longed to Archbishop Usher, who gave it to Junius, who printed it at Amsterdam in 1635, and who bequeathed it to the Bodleian library. There is no external evidence to prove these poems Caadmon's, but they have been accepted provisionally by most students as a rewriting of his originals in another dialect. The Gen- esis gives the story of man's first disobedience and his fall, beginning with the fallen angels. The description of Satan, his first speech, some striking expressions in the description of his fall, of heaven, hell, Adam and Eve, strongly sug- gest that Milton borrowed from Caedmon, but they may be accounted for by their using com- mon sources. Editions are by Thorpe, for the society of antiquaries (London, 1832 ; Illumina- tions, 1833), Grein (Gottingen, 1857, transla- tion, 1857), and Bouterwek (text, translation, copious introductory essays, notes, and lexicon, Gutersloh, 1854). Among the many valuable articles upon it may be mentioned Dietrich's in Haupt's Zeitschrift, X., 310-367. With these works of Caedmon may be classed a frag- ment of Judith (350 lines), Cynewulf 's " Christ " (1,694), "The Harrowing of Hell" (137), and some other fragments, all to be found in Grein's BibliotheJc der Angehachsischen Poesie (Got- tingen, 1857), and translations in his Dichtun- gen der Angelsachsen (1857). 3. Ecclesiastic narratives- the lives of saints, and versified chronicles, without the epic exaltation of the former classes. Such are "Andreas" (1,724 lines), "Elene" (1,321), "Juliana" (731), and "Guthlac" (1,353). 4. Psalms and hymns translations of Hebrew psalms and a few Chris- tian hymns and prayers. The version of the Psalms has been attributed to Bishop Aldhelm, (656-709). The manuscript is in the royal library at Paris. Editions have been published by Thorpe and Grein ; Essays by Dietrich in Haupt's Zeitschrift (IX., 214-222). 5. Secular lyrics. A few, mostly elegiac, are found in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, celebrating kings and heroes. They are also to be found in Grein's BibliotheTc. 6. Allegories, gnomic verses, riddles. This was a favorite style of composition with the later Anglo-Saxons. We have in Grein's Bibliothek "The Phoenix," a translation from Lactantius, much expanded (677 lines) ; " The Panther " (74) ; "The Whale " (89) ; also gnomic verses which are still inter- esting, and riddles in considerable numbers, and hard enough to guess. 7. Didactic ethical. The "Meters of Bo6thius" are versifications of passages in Boethius De Consolatione Phi- losophice, attributed to King Alfred. They were transcribed by Junius from a manuscript since lost. Editions are by Rawlinson (Oxford, 1698); Fox, with translation (London, 1835); Grein (1858) ; and Fox, (2d ed., with metrical rendering by Martin Farquhar Tupper (Lon- don, 1864). The Anglo-Saxon prose is of com- paratively little literary value. It affords abun- dant material for the study of the language and the people, but consists mostly of transla- tions from the Latin. They have been classified as follows: 1. Theological translations of the Bible. Portions of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, and Judges, called the Heptateuch, together with an out- line of Job, the Gospel of Nicodemus, and a fragment of Judith, were published by Thwaites (Oxford, 1698). The Psalms are spoken of above. We have several manuscripts of the Gospeh. Editions have been published in Eng- land by Parker (1571), Marshall (1665), Thorpe (1842), and Bosworth (with the Gothic, Wyck- liffe, and Tyndale versions in parallel columns, London, 1865). Kemble began an edition with the old Latin and four Anglo-Saxon texts printed together, and various readings from four others. Matthew has been printed in this form, and the work is going on at the Univer- sity press, Cambridge. A large number of homilies are still to be found. A set by ^Elfric, 80 in number, compiled or translated from Latin works, about A. D. 990, for the un- learned, were printed by Thorpe for the JSlfric society (1844-' 6). More are promised by the early English text society. 2. Philosophy. In this department we have only Alfred's transla- tion of Boethius, mentioned above. 3. His- tory. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle extends from the invasion of Julius Cassar to Henry II., 1154. As far as the history of Beda extends, it is