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Anglo-Saxon and Norse Poems Cambridge University Press Vy ANGLO-SAXON AND NORSE POEMS CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS C. F. CLAY, Manager LONDON : FETTER LANE, E.G. 4 NEW YORK : THE MACMTLLAN CD. BOMBAY \ CALCUTTA I MACMILLAN AND CO., Ltd. MADRAS ) TORONTO : THE MACMILLAN fco. OF CANADA, Ltd. TOKYO : MARUZEN-KABUSHIKI-KAISHA ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ANGLO-SAXON AND NORSE POEMS EDITED AND TRANSLATED BY N. KERSHAW CAMBRIDGE AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS 1922 mI ^ <A^ TO THE MEMORY OF ALEXANDER LAWSON, D.D. Professor of English in the University of St Andrews PREFACE IT is generally agreed that the first six pieces included in this book are among the most interesting examples of Anglo-Saxon poetry which have come down to us; yet with one or two exceptions they have received comparatively little attention from English scholars. The Norse pieces which follow, are still less known in this country. They have all been translated into English before—one of them {the Darra^arlj6^) as far back as 1768; but most of these translations are in verse. Prose translations and commentaries are few in number, and are now practically inaccessible to the majority of students. Almost all the poems, both English and Norse, may be, and frequently are, described as 'lyrics,' though this de- scription is not strictly appropriate to their metrical form, except perhaps in the case of parts of Nos. VII, IX, and X. The general resemblance between the poems on the battle of Brunanburh (No. VI) and the battle of Hafsfjord (No. VIII) is obvious. But on the whole the reader will probably be struck by the absence of resemblance between the two sets of poems. It is a singular fact that the first five pieces contain no proper names, whereas an Index Nominum for the Norse poems would make a considerable list. And this is not due to any arbitrary method of selection. Poems of the abstract character seen in Nos. I—V are not to be found in early Norse literature, while no true Anglo-Saxon parallels are to be found for Nos. IX—XII. This is due in part, no doubt, to the difference of faith, for most of the Norse poems date from heathen times. But another and perhaps more important reason lies in the fact that the Norse poems are concerned with specific events, whereas the subjects of the Anglo-Saxon poems are detached from any such associations. The last piece (No. XIII) is of a somewhat different cha- racter from the rest. It belongs to the same category as the heroic poems of the Edda, especially the Atlakvi(Sa, and is viii PREFACE related more distantly to the Anglo-Saxon fragments which deal with the stories of Finn and Waldhere. My reason for including it in this collection is that it is not contained in any of the editions of the Edda. I think that it will appeal to students of heroic poetry. My thanks are due to the Rev, Canon McLaren, Librarian of the Cathedral Library at Exeter, for the trouble which he has taken on several occasions in allowing me to consult the MS. of the Exeter Book, and to both him and Mrs McLaren for much kindness which I have received from them while in Exeter ; to Sir Geoffrey Butler, Librarian of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, for the facilities which he has afforded me for consulting the Parker MS. of the Saxon Chronicle and other Mss. ; to Mr E. J. Thomas of Emmanuel College and of the University Library, Cambridge, and to Miss C. H. Wedg- wood of Newnham College, Cambridge, who have kindly read the proofs for me and made many helpful suggestions. I wish further to thank the Syndics of the University Press for undertaking the publication of the book, and the staffs of the University Press and of the University Library for their unfailing courtesy while the work was in progress. Above all I have to thank Professor Chadwick who has unreservedly placed the results of his own labours at my disposal, both in the translation and in the commentary, and to whom I am heavily indebted for criticism and help throughout the work. N. K. February, 1922. TABLE OF CONTENTS PART I. ANGLO SAXON POEMS ABBREVIATIONS Vigfusson, Diet.—An Icelandic-English Dictionary, by R. Cleasby and G. Vigfusson. Oxford, 1874. Fritzner, Diet.—Ordbog over det gamle norske Sprog. Christiania, 1886—1896. F. Jonsson, Diet. —Revised edition of Sveinbjom Egilsson's Lexicon Poeticum Antiqiiae Linguae Septentrionalis. Copenhagen, 1916. B. and T., Diet. —Bosworth and Toller, Anglo-Saxon Dictionary. Oxford, 1882—1898. B. and T., Suppl.—Supplement to the above, by J. N. Toller, Parts I—III. Oxford, 1908—1921. Saxo, Dan. Hist. — Saxo Grammaticus, Gesta Danorum, ed. Holder, Strassburg, 1886. In Books I —IX the references are to the pages of O. Elton's translation. London, 1894. INTRODUCTION THE MANUSCRIPT SOURCES OF EARLY NORSE AND ENGLISH POETRY The history of the texts contained in this volume presents some curious contrasts. The Norse pieces were composed at various times between the ninth and eleventh centuries, but they were probably not committed to writing before the thirteenth century—or at earliest before the last decades of the twelfth—when they were incorporated in prose works. During the next two hundred years these works appear to have been frequently copied. Then came a period during which the early literature fell into neglect everywhere. The revival of interest began in Scandinavian lands about 1630, and the Mss. which survived—chiefly in Iceland—were eagerly sought and copied. Unfortunately the largest collection of MSS., belonging to the University Library at Copenhagen, was almost entirely destroyed by fire in 1728. So many copies however had been made during the previous century that as a general rule there is little doubt as to the readings of the lost MSS. The history of the English texts contained in this volume presents a curious contrast to that of the Norse (cf. p. 72 ff. below). Anglo-Saxon literature was apparently forgotten almost everyAvhere by the middle of the twelfth century, a time when ^\Titten Norse literature was still in its infancy. Its rediscovery took place in the sixteenth century, about a hundred years earlier than the revival of Norse literature. But only a comparatively small amount of Anglo-Saxon poetry was preserved in prose works, and of the purely poetical texts few were copied or published before the beginning of the nineteenth century—the chief exception being Junius's Bib- lical poems in 1655. Four MS. volumes, one of which is in Italy, contain nearly all that is left of Anglo-Saxon poetry. ; xii MANUSCRIPT SOURCES The first five of the pieces given below are taken from the Codex Exoniensis, the fullest and most important of the surviving mss. This book was presented to the Library of Exeter Cathedral by Bishop Leofric, who held the see between the years 1050 and 1072, and it is still preserved there. A list of the bishop's donations to the Cathedral and the Library was drawn up about the same time, and a copy of this, in a hand almost contemporary with that of the Exeter Book, has been bound in the same volume, along with some late charters and documents referring to the Cathedral. This list is printed in an Appendix on p. 206 f. below, and in it will be found a notice of a mycel Englisc hoc which no doubt refers to our MS. The Codex ^ is a fine vellum, beautifully written in a clear large hand, though the little decoration which it contains is cruder It is generally believed to date from about three- quarters of a century before Leofric's time^ Much of the concluding part of the book has been rendered illegible by some object, possibly a piece of burning wood, having been dropped on the last leaves and allowed to smoulder there for some time. This accounts for the lacunae in the Husband's Message and the Ruin. The earliest known copy of the Exeter Pook is a facsimile which was made by one R. Chambers for the British Museum in 1831 (mss. Add. 9067). Apparently it was then possible to read rather more of the MS. than is now legible, and the copy has proved to be of some use—though rather as a check upon proposed restorations of mutilated passages than as a means of supplying lacunae \ Few close parallels to the five pieces from this Codex can be found in Anglo-Saxon literature. Analogies may be looked for in certain passages in Beowulf, and in the latter part of Hymn IV (Grein, Bihl. ii, p. 217). But most of the poetry which has come down to us is essentially religious in character. 1 For details of the Exeter Book and its contents see Wiilcker, Grundriss zur Geschichte der angeUdchsischen Litteratur (Leipzig, 1885), p. 218 ff. - Cf. p. 37 below. 3 Cf., however, A. S. Cook, The Christ of Cyneividf {Boston, 1909), p. xvi. •• For some account of Chambers's copy cf. Tupper, TIte Eiddles of the Exeter Book (Boston, etc., 1910), p. xcvii f. ; Anscombe, Aiujlia, xxxiv, p. 526 Chambers, Anglia, xxxv, p. 393 f. ; and Tupper, Anglia, sxxvi, p. 285 f. ; MANUSCRIPT SOURCES xiii Yet it is difficult to see how such poems as these with which we are dealing could have come into existence unless there was a considerable body of secular poetry current at the time when they were composed. The explanation is doubtless to be found in the facts pointed out above. It is probable that no English libraries survived the period of the Norman Conquest, except those which belonged to religious houses and in these, naturally enough, secular poems would be far less popular than religious works.
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