My robe is noiseless while I tread the earth,
Or tarry 'neath the banks, or stir the shallows;
But when these shining wings, this depth of air,
Bear me aloft above the bending shores
Where men abide, and far the welkin's strength
Over the multitudes conveys me, then
With rushing whir and clear melodious sound
My raiment sings. And like a wandering spirit
I float unweariedly o'er flood and field.
(Brougham's version, in Transl. from Old Eng. Poetry.)
[34.] The source of Andreas is an early Greek legend of St. Andrew that found its way to England and was probably known to Cynewulf in some brief Latin form, now lost.
[35.] Our two chief sources are the famous Exeter Book, in Exeter Cathedral, a collection of Anglo-Saxon poems presented by Bishop Leofric (c. 1050), and the Vercelli Book, discovered in the monastery of Vercelli, Italy, in 1822. The only known manuscript of Beowulf was discovered c. 1600, and is now in the Cotton Library of the British Museum. All these are fragmentary copies, and show the marks of fire and of hard usage. The Exeter Book contains the Christ, Guthlac, the Phoenix, Juliana, Widsith, The Seafarer, Deor's Lament, The Wife's Complaint, The Lover's Message, ninety-five Riddles, and many short hymns and fragments,--an astonishing variety for a single manuscript.
[36.] From Alfred's Boethius.
[37.] It is not certain that the translation of Bede is the work of Alfred.
[38.] See Translations from Old English Poetry. Only a brief account of the fight is given in the Chronicle. The song known as "The Battle of Maldon," or "Byrhtnoth's Death," is recorded in another manuscript.
[39.] This is an admirable little book, containing the cream of Anglo-Saxon poetry, in free translations, with notes. Translations from Old English Prose is a companion volume.
[40.] For full titles and publishers of general reference books, and for a list of inexpensive texts and helps, see General Bibliography at the end of this book.