Kennedy’s_ Translation of the Poems of Cynewulf_.

Bede’s Ecclesiastical History of England and the Anglo-Saxon
Chronicle, I vol., translated by Giles in Bohn’s Antiquarian
Library.

Snell’s The Age of Alfred.

Pauli’s Life of Alfred (Bohn’s Antiquarian Library).

Gem’s An Anglo-Saxon Abbot:  AElfric of Eynsham.

Mabinogion (a collection of Welsh fairy tales and romances, Everyman’s Library), translated by Lady Charlotte Guest.

Pancoast and Spaeth’s Early English Poems (abbreviated reference)
("P & S.").

Cook and Tinker’s Select Translations from Old English Poetry ("C. &
T.").

Cook & Tinker’s Select Translations from Old English Prose
("C. & T. Prose").

SUGGESTED READINGS WITH QUESTIONS AND SUGGESTIONS

The student who is not familiar with the original Anglo-Saxon should read the translations specified below:—­

Scopic Poetry.[33]—­Widsieth or the Far Traveler, translated in
Morley’s English Writers, Vol.  II, 1-11, or in C. & T.,[34] 3-8.

The Wanderer, translated in P. & S., 65-68; C. & T., 50-55; Brooke, 364-367.

The Seafarer, translated in P. & S., 68-70; C. & T., 44-49; Morley, II., 21-26; Brooke, 362, 363.

The Fortunes of Men, trans. in P. & S., 79-81; Morley, II., 32-37.

Battle of Brunanburh, Tennyson’s translation.

What were the chief subjects of the songs of the scop?  How do they reveal the life of the time?  Is there any common quality running through them?  What qualities of this verse appear in modern poetry?

Beowulf.—­This important poem should be read entire in one of the following translations: 

  Child’s Beowulf (Riverside Literature Series);

  Earle’s The Deeds of Beowulf, Done into Modern Prose (Clarendon
  Press);

  Gummere’s The Oldest English Epic;

  Morris and Wyatt’s The Tale of Beowulf;

  Hall’s Beowulf, Translated into Modern Metres;

  Lumsden’s Beowulf, an Old English Poem, Translated into Modern
  Rhymes (the most readable poetic translation).

  Translations of many of the best parts of Beowulf may be found in
  P. & S. 5-29; C. & T., 9-24; Morley, I. 278-310; Brooke 26-73.

Where did the exploits celebrated in the poem take place?  Where was Heorot?  What was the probably time of the completion of Beowulf?  Describe the hero’s three exploits.  What analogy is there between the conflict of natural forces in the Norseland and Beowulf’s fight with Grendel?  What different attitude toward nature is manifest in modern poetry?  What is the moral lesson of the poem?  Show that its chief characteristics are typical of the Anglo-Saxon race.