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the apostles; also the terror of future judgment, the horror of the pains of hell, and the delights of heaven; besides much more of the divine benefits and judgments; by all which he endeavoured to turn men from the love of vice, and to excite in them the love and practice of good actions' (Cassell's Library of English Literature, by Professor H. Morley; vol. ii., p. 4). There have been indicated some remarkable points of resemblance between Cadmon's Paraphrase and Milton's Paradise Lost.

The poem remains in a West Saxon copy of the original Northumbrian version now lost. We follow Thorpe and Grein.

THE FLOOD.

(From The Paraphrase of Scripture, Book I., Canto xxi.)

Noe hæfde,

sunu Lameches,

syx hund wintra,

tha he mid bearnum under bord gestah, gleaw mid geogothe, be Godes hæse, dugethum dyrum. Drihten sende regn from roderum, and eac rume let wille-burnan

on world thringan of ædra gehwære, egor-streamas swearte swogan: sæs up stigon ofer stæth-weallas. Strang wæs and rethe sethe wætrum weold, wreah and theahte man-fæhthu bearn middan-geardes wonnan wæge, wera ethel-land, hof hergode.

Hyge teonan wræc metod on monnum: mere swithe grap

on fæge folc.

Noah had,

son of Lamech,

six hundred winters,

$5 when he with his bairns under boards entered,

90

the sage with the youth,
by God's behest,
with the people dear.

The Lord sent

rain from the heavens, and eke pouring let well-(springs) burns1 on the world throng 95 from every vein,

the ocean streams

swart sounding burst forth : the seas up rose

over the shore-walls.

100 Strong was and fierce

he that the waters swayed,
covered and overwhelmed
the sinful bairns

of mid earth

105 with the wan wave, men's native lands,

their houses, harried.3

Their thought's wrongs wreaked 4 the Measurer5 on men:

110 the mere strongly griped

on the fated folk.

1 Brooks. 2 Darkly. Laid waste. Avenged. 5 Or Creator

6 Sea.

Feowertig daga,
nihta other swilc,
nith was rethe,
wall-grim werum:
wuldor-cyninges
ytha wræcon
arleasra feorh
of flæsc-homan.
Flod ealle wreah

hreoh under heofonum,
hea-beorgas
geond sidne grund,
and on sund ahof

earce from eorthan,

and tha æthelo mid tha segnade

selfa Drihten, scyppend usser,

tha he that scip beleac.

Siththan wide rad,
wolcnum under,
ofer holmes hrincg,
hof seleste,
for mid fearme.
Fære ne moston
wæg-lithendum

wætres brogan
hæste hrinon;
ac hie halig God
ferede and nerede.
Fiftena stod
deop ofer dunum
sæ-drence flod

monnes elna.

7 As many.

Forty days,

nights other such,7

the punishment was fierce, 115 fatally grim to men: the king of glory's waves drove

the wicked ones' lives
out of their flesh-coverings.

120 Flood all covered,

rough under the heavens,
the high bergs

over the wide ground, and a-swimming upheaved 125 the ark from the earth,

and the noble company with it that9 blessed

the Lord himself,

the shaper of us,

130 when he the ship shut up. Then wide rode,

the welkin under,

over ocean's ring,

the dwelling most excellent, 135 fared 10 with its freight. Gushing must not

the wave-wandering 11
the water's terrors
hastily touch;

140 but them the holy God

piloted and preserved.

Fifteen stood

deep over the downs

the sea-drenching flood

145 man's ells.

8 Hills, mountains. 9 Object to 'blessed,' which is pred. to 'Lord.' 10 Went, travelled. 11 Object to 'touch.'

NOTES.

84. Syx hund wintra. Note the measurement of time by winters. Compare Engl. Chron., 449 A.D.: 'rixadon vii. winter.' Shorter periods were

reckoned by 'nights' as well as by days. Hence sennight' (seven nights) and fortnight' (fourteen nights).

89. Dugethum. 'Duguth (-oth, -eth),'
good, virtue; hence nobility, chiefs;
men, people. From 'dugan,' to be
good or fit for, to avail. 'How do
you do?' is 'How do you avail,
prevail, get on?"

90. Drihten (from 'driht,' company,
household), chief and director, lord.
Compare theoden' (chief, lord),
from 'theod' (people, nation).
98. Stigon, 3d plur. of stah (compare
86), past tense of 'stigan,' to rise,

mount.

101. Weold, wielded, past tense of
'wealdan,' to rule, command. Hence
'wealdend' (ruler), and ‘Alwalda
(Almighty).

102. Theahte, past tense of 'theccan,'
to cover, thatch, Scotch theek.
Cf. Ger. decken.

107. Hergode, past tense of 'hergian,' to harry. 'Hergian' is from 'here,' army, host (Goth. harjis, Ger. heer); hence to act like an army, plunder, ravage.

108. Teonan. Teona' (injury, wrong) appears much later as 'teen' (hurt, vexation).

118. Arleasra, gen. pl. of 'arleas,'

honourless, piety-less, base. The suffix 'leas' (less) is quite different from 'less,' the compar. of 'little.' 127. Segnade. Cf. Ger. segnen, to bless, and Scotch sane (sain). Dunbar, Tydingis fra the Sessioun, 41: Sum sanis the sait, and sum thame curses;' that is, 'Some sane (or sain, bless) the seat ("the Lords of the Seat "" or of Session), and some them curse.' The word is still used for bless,' and also ironically for 'curse.'

128. Selfa Drihten. 'The Lord self' would be quite in accordance with

old usage. 'Self' was an adj. =
'same.' Later it began to be taken
for a noun: hence 'the Lord's self,'
and the corruptions 'myself,' 'thy-
self,' &c.

131. Siththan = sith-than, after that,
since, then.
'Sith' (conj.) is not

very long obsolete.
137. Lithendum, dat. pl. of 'lithende,'
part. of lithan' (to go or be con-
veyed). Hence ladu, gelad: see
Beowulf, 2722.

142. Fiftena agrees with 'elna' (145). 'Fifteen ells deep stood the flood.'

ALFRED.-849-901 A.D.

In the short intervals of peace between the persistent inroads of the Danes, KING ALFRED laboured indefatigably in the cause of religion and learning. He fostered schools, and besides this he wrote diligently with his own hand.

Alfred translated into English several books: Boëthius's Consolation of Philosophy, and Pope Gregory the Great's Pastoral Rule; Bæda's History of England, and the History of Orosius, the Latin text-book of the monastery schools in universal history. With his translations he frequently incorporated matter of his own.

We follow Thorpe's text.

DESCRIPTION OF BABYLON.
(From the Translation of Orosius.)

Nembrath se ent ongan ærest1 Nimrod the giant began first timbrian 2 Babilonia, and Ninus se cyning æfter him, and Sa

to build Babylon, and Ninus the king after him, and Se

1 Ear(li)est. 2 To timber, construct of timber.

say;

50

ells

meramis his cwen hi geendade miramis his queen it ended æfter him, on middewerdum after him, in the midst of her hyre rice. Seo burh was ge- reign. The city was built timbrad on fildum lande, and on on open land, and on swithe emnum, and heo was very level (land), and it swithe fæger on to locianne, was very fair to look on, and heo is swithe rihte feower- and it is quite square: and scyte:3 and thæs wealles my. the wall's greatness and celnyss and fæstnyss5 is un- strength is unbelievable to gelyfedlic to secgenne; that is, that is, that it is that he is L. elna brad, and II. ells broad, and 200 hund elna heah, and his ymb gang is hund-seofantig mila and seofethan dæl anre mile; and he is geworht of tigelan,8 and of eorth-tyrewan;9 and ymbutan thone weall is se mæsta dic, on tham is yrnende se ungefotlicosta 10 stream; and withutan tham dice is geworht twegra elna heah weall; and bufan tham maran wealle, ofer eallne thone ymbgong, he is mid stænenum wig-husum 11 beworht.

high, and its circuit is 70 miles and the seventh part of a mile; and it is constructed of bricks and of bitumen; and about the wall is the greatest ditch, in which is running the most impassable stream; and without the ditch is constructed a two ells high wall; above the greater wall, all the circuit, it is stone towers

and

over

with

passed.

encom

5 Fastness. 6 About10 Unfootablest. 11 War-houses.

3 Very rightly (exactly) four-angled. 4 Mickleness. going. 7 Wrought. 8 Tiles. 9 Earth-tar.

NOTES.

Cyning. The shortened form 'cyng'
is seen in Engl. Chron., 1087 A.D.:
'se cyng
Willelm.' In many para-
graphs of the Chron., the two forms
occur side by side. The derivation
of 'king' (cyng, cyning) from 'can-
ning,' as the man that can do such
and such (great) things, is utterly
wrong; for at this period the parti-
ciple ended, not in -ing, but in
-ende (cf. Cadm. Par., I. xxi. 137-
'lithendum'). Max Müller would
trace it back to a form signifying
'father.'

Cwen, lit. mother, woman; hence the foremost woman in the nation, 'queen.'

To locianne, dat. infin., or gerund, of 'locian' (look, see). Cf. (below) 'to secgenne' from 'secgan' (say). Feowerscyte, four-angled. Cf. Revelation, xxi. 16: 'the city lieth foursquare.'

Stænenum, abl. pl. neut. of adj.

'stænen " (made of stone). We have no adj. for this meaning now: we use the noun stone' as an adj. -a common condensation.

THE ENGLISH CHRONICLE.

THE 10TH, 11TH, AND 12TH CENTURIES.

The ANGLO-SAXON or ENGLISH CHRONICLE records events, year by year, from Cæsar's invasion of Britain down to the accession of Henry II. on the death of Stephen, in 1154 A.D.

Some critics would like to ascribe the origin of it to Alfred; others tell us that he was the writer that 'edited it from various sources, added largely to it from Bæda, and raised it to the dignity of a national history' (S. Brooke): at anyrate, about Alfred's time it begins to narrate events in much greater detail. For two centuries and a half onwards, the annals of the country are set down by contemporary monks, chiefly of Winchester, Peterborough, and Canterbury. On a few occasions, the Chronicler bursts into song; more frequently he mixes comments and reflections with his facts. Towards the end of the record, there are not wanting many marks of carelessness or ignorance on the part of the writers.

We follow generally Thorpe's edition for the Rolls series.

THE COMING OF THE ENGLISH.

An. CCCC.XLIX.-Her Martianus and Ualentinus onfengon rice, and rixadon VII. winter. And on heora dagum gelathode Wyrtgeorn Angelcin hider, and hi tha comon on thrim ceolum hider to Brytene, on tham stede Heopwines fleot. Se cyning Wyrtgeorn gef heom land on suthan eastan thissum lande, with than the hi sceoldon feohton with Pyhtas. Heo tha fuhton with Pyhtas, and heofdon sige swa hwer swa heo comon. Hy tha sendon to Angle, heton sendon mara fultum, and heton heom secgan Brytwalana nahtscipe and thes landes cysta. Hy tha sona sendon hider mare weored tham othrum to fultume. Tha comon tha men of thrim megthum Germanie: of

449 A.D.-In this year Martianus and Valentinus undertook the government, and governed seven winters. And in their days invited Wyrtgeorn the Angle race hither, and they then came in three keels hither to Britain, at the place Heopwines-fleet. The king Wyrtgeorn gave them land in the south-east of this land, on condition that they should fight against the Picts. They then fought against the Picts, and had victory wheresoever they came. They then sent to Angel, bade send greater help, and bade to them say the Brito-Welsh's nothingness and the land's excellencies. They then soon sent hither a greater host to the others for help. Then came men from three tribes of Germany: from the

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