Elene; Judith; Athelstan, or the Fight at Brunanburh; Byrhtnoth, or the Fight at Maldon; and the Dr | Page 5

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.
V. The DREAM OF THE ROOD is found in the Vercelli manuscript.
Wülker's Grundriss gives the literature of the subject to the time of its
publication (1885).