Old English PoetryJohn Duncan Ernst Spaeth |
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Common terms and phrases
alliteration alliterative alliterative verse ancient Anglo-Saxon Battle of Maldon beast Beowa Beowulf body brave Cædmon cæsura called cave century Christian comrades Crist cross Cynewulf Danes dark death doom dragon earls earth Elene English Epic English Literature epic tradition Ermanric Exeter Book fell fight Finnsburg Fragment Germanic Epic gleeman glory gold Goths Grendel Guthlac hall hand hath Healfdene heart heaven helmet Heorot hero heroic age historic holy Hrothgar Hrothulf Hygelac Junian Jutes king land Latin Legends lines lord lyric mead-hall monster narrative Nibelungenlied night Norse o'er Old English poetry Old English verse old Germanic original Paradise Lost passage Phœnix poet Professor rhythm riddle Rood ruler rune saint Scyld second half-verse shield ship slain song sorrow spirit story stressed syllables sword thane thee thou translation treasure Twas Unferth vision Volsunga Saga warriors weapons Widsith Wiglaf words Wyrd þæt
Popular passages
Page 224 - And the masts and the rigging were lying over the side; But Sir Richard cried in his English pride, "We have fought such a fight for a day and a night As may never be fought again! We have won great glory, my men!
Page vi - The only true motive for putting poetry into a fresh language must be to endow a fresh nation, as far as possible, with one more possession of beauty.
Page 227 - Is this the region, this the soil, the clime," Said then the lost Archangel, " this the seat That we must change for Heaven?— this mournful gloom For that celestial light ? Be it so, since He Who now is...
Page 242 - He said that about noon, when the day was already beginning to decline, he saw with his own eyes the trophy of a cross of light in the heavens, above the sun, and bearing the inscription,
Page 236 - From the cross-bar of the spear was suspended a cloth, a royal piece, covered with a profuse embroidery of most brilliant precious stones; and which, being also richly interlaced with gold, presented an indescribable degree of beauty to the beholder. This banner was of a square form...
Page 249 - That warrior on his strong war-horse, fire flashes through his eyes; force dwells in his arm and heart; but warrior and war-horse are a vision; a revealed Force, nothing more. Stately they tread the Earth, as if it were a firm substance: fool! the Earth is but a film; it cracks in twain, and warrior and war-horse sink beyond plummet's sounding.
Page 228 - At last his sail-broad vans He spreads for flight, and in the surging smoke Uplifted spurns the ground...
Page 235 - ... he sat in the midst of them, and described to them the figure of the sign he had seen, bidding them represent it in gold and precious stones.
Page 213 - The dreadfull fish, that hath deserv'd the name Of Death, and like him lookes in dreadfull hew, The griesly wasserman, that makes his game The flying ships with...
Page 255 - The Hag. THE hag is astride This night for to ride, The devil and she together ; Through thick and through thin, Now out and then in, Though ne'er so foul be the weather. A thorn or a burr She takes for a spur ; With a lash of a bramble she rides now, Through brakes and through briars, O'er ditches and mires, She follows the spirit that guides now.