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Page 5
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 B�OWULF
(Cotton, Vitellius, A, xv.), and, to my mind, this poem reminds the
reader more of the vigor and fire of B�OWULF 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 W�lker
(_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 W�lker 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 W�lker'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.
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