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# The Oldest English Epic

THE OLDEST ENGLISH EPIC
BEOWULF, FINNSBURG, WALDERE, DEOR, WIDSITH, AND THE GERMAN HILDEBRAND
TRANSLATED IN THE ORIGINAL METRES WITH INTRODUCTIONS AND NOTES
BY
FRANCIS B. GUMMERE
New York
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
1909
All rights reserved
Copyright, 1909,
By THE MACMILLAN COMPANY.
Set up and electrotyped.Published April, 1909.
Norwood Press J. S. Cushing Co.—Berwick & Smith Co.
Norwood, Mass., U.S.A.
To
GEORGE LYMAN KITTREDGE
KEENEST OF CRITICS, KINDEST OF FRIENDS
PREFACE
Old English epic in the specific sense is that ancient and wholly heathen narrative poetry which Englishmen brought from their continental home and handed down by the agency of professional singers. The material thus accumulated either kept its original form of the short lay, fit for chant or recitation at a banquet, full of immediate effects, often dramatic and always vigorous, or else it was worked over into longer shape, into more leisurely considered and more leisurely appreciated poems. This second class is represented by Beowulf, the sole survivor in complete form of all the West-Germanic epic. Waldere, of which two brief fragments remain, seems also to have been an epic poem; like Beowulf, it has been adapted both in matter and in manner to the point of view of a monastery scriptorium. Finnsburg, on the other hand, so far as its brief and fragmentary form allows such a judgment, has the appearance of a lay. Its nervous, fiery verses rush on without comment or moral; and it agrees with the description of a lay which the court minstrel of Hrothgar sings before a festal throng, and of which the poet of Beowulf gives a summary. Not English at all, but closely related to English traditions of heroic verse, and the sole rescued specimen of all its kind in the old German language, is Hildebrand, evidently a lay. By adding this to the English material, one has ​the entire salvage from oldest narrative poetry of the West-Germanic peoples in mass. Finally, there are two lays or poems purporting to describe at first hand the life of these old minstrels, who either sang in permanent and well-rewarded office for their king, or else wandered from court to court and tasted the bounty of many chieftains. These two poems, moreover, contain many references to persons and stories of Germanic heroic legends that appear afterward in the second growth of epic, in the Scandinavian poems and sagas, in the cycle of the Nibelungen, Gudrun, and the rest. Such is the total rescue from oldest English epic that fate has allowed. It deserves to be read in its full extent by the modern English reader; and it is now presented to him for the first time in its bulk, and in a form which approximates as closely as possible to the original.
The translator is under great obligations to Professor Walter Morris Hart, of the University of California, not only for his generous aid in reading the proof-sheets of this book, but also for the substantial help afforded by his admirable study of Ballad and Epic.
CONTENTS
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# The Old Woman and the Wine-Jar

Perry index 493
* "The Old Woman and the Wine-jar", translated by George Fyler Townsend, in Three Hundred Æsop's Fables (1867)
* "The Old Woman and the Wine-Jar", translated by Joseph Jacobs, edited by Joseph Jacobs, illustrated by Richard Heighway, in The Fables of Æsop (1894)
* "The Old Woman and the Wine-jar", translated by Vernon Stanley Jones, illustrated by Arthur Rackham, in Æsop's fables: A New Translation (1912)
This work was published before January 1, 1929, and is in the public domain worldwide because the author died at least 100 years ago.
Public domainPublic domainfalsefalse
# The Records of the Federal Convention of 1787/Volume 3/Appendix A/CCCLXXV

​ⅭⅭⅭⅬⅩⅩⅤ. James Madison to C.J. Ingersoll.
Montpellier, February 2, 1831.
The evil which produced the prohibitory clause in the Constitution of the United States was the practice of the States in making bills of credit, and in some instances appraised property, “a legal tender.” If the notes of the State Banks, therefore, whether chartered or unchartered, be made a legal tender, they are prohibited; if not made a legal tender, they do not fall within the prohibitory clause. The No. of the “Federalist” referred to (44) was written with that view of the subject; and this, with probably other contemporary expositions, and the uninterrupted practice of the States in creating and permitting banks without making their notes a legal tender, would seem to be a bar to the question, if it were not inexpedient now to agitate it.
A virtual and incidental enforcement of the depreciated notes of the State Banks, by their crowding out a sound medium, though a great evil, was not foreseen; and if it had been apprehended, it is questionable whether the Constitution of the United States, which had many obstacles to encounter, would have ventured to guard against it by an additional obstacle.
# The Records of the Federal Convention of 1787/Volume 3/Appendix A/CCCLXXVII

​ⅭⅭⅭⅬⅩⅩⅦ. James Madison to James Robertson.
March 27, 1831.
The journals of the State Legislatures, with the journal and debates of the State Conventions, and the journal and other printed accounts of the proceedings of the Federal Convention of 1787, are, of course, the primary sources of information. Some sketches of what passed in that Convention have found their way to the public, particularly those of Judge Yates and of Mr. Luther Martin. But the Judge, though a highly respectable man, was a zealous partizan, and has committed gross errors in his desultory notes. He left the Convention also before it had reached the stages of its deliberations in which the character of the body and the views of individuals were sufficiently developed. Mr. Martin, who was also present but a part of the time, betrays, in his communication to the Legislature of Maryland, feelings which had a discolouring effect on his statements. As it has become known that I was at much pains to preserve an account of what passed in the Convention, I ought perhaps to observe, that I have thought it becoming, in several views, that a publication of it should be at least of a posthumous date.
# The Records of the Federal Convention of 1787/Volume 3/Appendix A/CCCLXXIV

​ⅭⅭⅭⅬⅩⅩⅣ. James Madison to Reynolds Chapman.
January 6, 1831.
Perhaps I ought not to omit the remark, that although I concur in the defect of powers in Congress on the subject of internal improvements, my abstract opinion has been, that, in the case of canals particularly, the power would have been properly vested in ​Congress. It was more than once proposed in the Convention of 1787, and rejected from an apprehension, chiefly, that it might prove an obstacle to the adoption of the Constitution. Such an addition to the Federal powers was thought to be strongly recommended by several considerations: 1. As Congress would possess, exclusively, the sources of revenue most productive and least unpopular, that body ought to provide and apply the means for the greatest and most costly works. 2. There would be cases where canals would be highly important in a national view, and not so in a local view. 3. Cases where, though highly important in a national view, they might violate the interest, real or supposed, of the State through which they would pass, of which an example might now be cited in the Chesapeake and Delaware canal, known to have been viewed in an unfavourable light by the State of Delaware. 4. There might be cases where canals, or a chain of canals, would pass through sundry States, and create a channel and outlet for their foreign commerce, forming at the same time a ligament for the Union, and extending the profitable intercourse of its members, and yet be of hopeless attainment if left to the limited faculties and joint exertions of the States possessing the authority.
# The Records of the Federal Convention of 1787/Volume 3/Appendix A/CCCLXXVI

​ⅭⅭⅭⅬⅩⅩⅥ. James Madison to Theodore Sedgewick, Jr.
Montpr. Feb. 12, 1831
You ask whether Mr Livingston (formerly Governor of N. Jersey) took an active part in the debates (of the Fedl Convention of 1787) and whether he was considered as having a leaning towards the federal Party and principles; adding that you will be obliged by any further information it may be in my power to give you.
Mr Livingston did not take his seat in the Convention till some progress had been made in the task committed to it, and he did not take an active part in its debates; but he was placed on important Committees, where it may be presumed he had an agency and a due influence. He was personally unknown to many, perhaps most of the members, but there was a predisposition in all to manifest the respect due to the celebrity of his name.
I am at a loss for a precise answer to the question whether he had a leaning to the federal party and principles. Presuming that by the party alluded to, is meant those in the Convention who favored a more enlarged, in contradistinction to those who favored a more restricted grant of powers to the Fedl Govt, I can only refer to the recorded votes which are now before the public; and these being by States not by heads, the individual opinions are not disclosed by them. The votes of N. Jersey corresponded generally with the Plan offered by Mr. Patterson; but the main object of that being to secure to the smaller States an equality with the larger in the structure of the Govt, in opposition to the outline previously introduced, which had reversed the object, it is difficult to say what was the degree of power to which there might be an abstract leaning. The two subjects, the structure of the Govt and the question of power entrusted to it were more or less inseparable in the minds of all, as depending a good deal, the one on the other, after the compromise wch gave the small States an equality in one branch of the Legislature, and the large States an inequality in the other branch, the abstract leaning of opinions would better appear. With those however who did not enter with debate, and whose votes could not be distinguished from those of their State colleagues, their opinions could only be known among themselves, or to their particular friends.
I know not Sir that I can give you any of the further information you wish, that is not attainable with more authenticity and particularity from other sources. My acquaintance with Gov Livingston was limited to an exchange of the common civilities, and these to the period of the Convention.
# The Records of the Federal Convention of 1787/Volume 3/Appendix A/CCCLXXIII

​ⅭⅭⅭⅬⅩⅩⅢ. James Madison to J.K. Teft.
December 3d, 1830.
In the year 1828 I received from J.V. Bevan sundry numbers of the “Savannah Georgian,” containing continuations of the notes of Major Pierce in the Federal Convention of 1787. They were probably sent on account of a marginal suggestion of inconsistency between language held by me in the Convention with regard to the Executive veto, and the use made of the power by myself, when in the Executive Administration. The inconsistency is done away by the distinction, not adverted to, between an absolute veto, to which the language was applied, and the qualified veto which was exercised.
* ↑ Letters and other Writings of James Madison, Ⅳ, 139–140.
* ↑ The marginal note in the Savannah Georgian reads: “This same Mr. Madison did so when President. Eds. Geo.” (American Historical Review, Ⅲ, p. 322 note 4).
# The Records of the Federal Convention of 1787/Volume 3/Appendix A/CCCVII

​ⅭⅭⅭⅦ. Jonathan Dayton in the United States Senate.
March 19, 1804.
The provision of the Constitution had arisen from an experience of the necessity of establishing a permanent seat for the Government. To avert the evils arising from a perpetual state of mutation, and from the agitation of the public mind whenever it is discussed, the Constitution had wisely provided for the establishment of a permanent seat, vesting in Congress exclusive legislation over it.
# The Overland Monthly/Volume 12

IA
# The Overland Monthly/Volume 1/Longing

LONGING.
# The Overland Monthly/Volume 13

IA
# The Overland Monthly/Volume 1/San Francisco

SAN FRANCISCO.
FROM THE SEA.
# The Pilgrims' March/Prof. T. L. Vaswani

PROF. VASWANI'S APPEAL.
The Khilafat and Congress workers are trying their best to maintain peace and order. Appeal to the people to face the situation with the strength of nonviolence and faith in the value of suffering. "A mighty unconquerable moment, will come if in thousands and tens of thousands we will, with love in our hearts, practise passive resistance and fill the jails with truth and honour, and we shall stand in the presence of Liberty."
# The Pilgrims' March/Pandit Motilal Nehru

PANDIT MOTILAL NEHRU.
ONWARD TO THE TEMPLE OF LIBERTY.
To my comrades and countrymen:
Having served you to the best of my ability while working amongst you, it is now my high privilege to serve the Motherland by going to jail with my only son. What shall I say of him to you, who know him so well? I am fully ​confident that we shall meet again at no distant date as free men. I have only one parting word to say. Continue non-violent non-co-operation without a break until Swaraj is attained, and enlist as volunteers in your tens of thousands and hundreds of thousands. Let the march of pilgrims to the only Temple of Liberty now existing in India which has escaped sacrilege at the hands of the bureaucracy, viz. the jail, be kept up in an uninterrupted stream, swelling in strength and volume as each day passes. Adieu!
# The Pilgrims' March/Sir P. C. Ray

SIR. P. C. RAYS' LETTER
My Dear Sister, I am so much choked up with feelings that I can scarcely give vent to them. Ever since his historic defence of Sjt. Aurobindo Ghosh, which will always rank as one of the classics in state trials, your husband has loomed large before the public. His abundant charity, his lofty patriotism, his high idealism, his heroic and chivalrous defence of the weak, have always evoked our admiration.
Though I do not see eye to eye with him in some matters, I have always felt attracted to him and I do not at all wonder that his striking personality should capture the imagination of young Bengal or for the matter of that of young India. Even those who differ from him in political matters cannot withhold their admiration for the unparalleled self-sacrifice he has made. Our hearts go out to Chittaranjan in this hour of trial. I know the limitations of the expert and from my position of isolation and detachment, I am afraid, I fail to realise the full significance of his life's mission. Has not the poet said—
“The man of science is fond of glory and vain.
An eye well practised in nature is but a spirit bounded and poor.”
​Possibly exclusive lifelong devotion to my favourite subject has blurred my vision and my spirit has become circumscribed. I can assure you, however, dear sister, in serving my favourite science I have only one idea in my mind, namely, that, through her, I should serve my country. Our aspirations are the same. God knows I have no other object in my life. Cheerfully and heroically you have been bearing your tribulations and set an example to modern Bengal and woman-hood which has been rarely met with since the days of Rajput Glory.
"I sincerely hope that the dark clouds which have overshadowed our dear motherland will soon be dispelled and your husband restored to us."
# The Pilgrims' March/Pandit Jawaharlal

PANDIT JAWAHARLAL TO HIS COLLEAGUES.
To my Colleagues of the U. P. Congress Committee:—Some days ago, you did me the high honour of appointing me General Secretary of the Committee. I have not been able to serve you in that capacity for long. To-day, a higher honour and a greater service await me; and I welcome them with the conviction that you will carry on the work of the Committee more vigorously and successfully than my co-secretaries and myself were able to do. It has pleased Providence to give this Province a chance of leading the fight for Liberty. May you, the representatives of the people, prove worthy of this high trust. The work of the Provincial ​Committee must on no account suffer. Workers from the districts must come to the headquarters and keep the flag flying at the citadel. I trust that there will be a full attendance of members at the General meeting on the 13th in Allahabad.
Theirs will be a great responsibility. May God guide their deliberations and give them strength and wisdom. One thing I would have you remember. There can be no compromise or parleying. This struggle must and can only end in complete victory for the people. Any weakening, any giving up of the principles, will be a betrayal of the thousands who have given of their best for the cause. "An revoir." We meet again, I hope, as free men.
PANDIT JAWAHARLAL TO THE
CITIZENS OF ALLAHABAD
Friends,
I go to jail with the greatest pleasure and with the fullest conviction that therein lies the achievement of our goal. Forget not that there is a complete hartal on the 12th inst. and that it is the, duty of every man to enlist as a volunteer. The most important thing is to preserve complete peace and an atmosphere of non-violence. In your hands is the honour of ​Allahabad and I hope it is quite safe therein. I trust you will always be in the firing line in the battle of Swaraj and make the name of our city immortal in our annals.
I am your friend,
JAWAHARLAL NEHRU.
PANDIT MOHANLAL
"CHOKE UP THE JAILS."
In a short Urdu message to the citizens of Allahabad the Pandit says:—
I go to jail with the greatest pleasure. The only answer to repression is to choke up the jails. It is your duty to make the hartal of the 12th an unprecedented success. Fail not. No gari should be plying on hire; no shop should be open.
# The Pilgrims' March/Mrs. Motilal Nehru

BRAVE MOTHER OF A BRAVE SON
"Enlist in your Hundreds of Thousands"
Mrs. Motilal Nehru's Message
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
I rejoice in the great privilege that has been vouchsafed to me of sending my dear husband and my only son to jail. I will not pretend that my heart is entirely free from the wrench of separation from my dear ones. My heart is full of it because love is a trying thing after all. The knowledge that theirs is not a ​life which can stand the hardships of jail makes my heart weep. And yet my Atma whispers to me that I should rejoice with my husband and my son over their arrest. I will not disgrace them by sorrowing over the very happenings they had set their hearts upon.
I have seen it in my life that those who sleep on feather beds hardly ever know true happiness. Suffering and penance have a joy and happiness all their own. My heart trembles to think of the life of hardships that Jawaharlal has been leading, but my soul rejoices in the fact that that great capacity to lead a life of suffering is a fortune which rarely falls to the lot of the greatest of men.
That is the ancient way. Ramchandraji, Nalaraja and others found happiness by treading that path of suffering, and made the world also happy. Was Sita ever out of Rama’s heart? And yet apparently for her, but for the good of mankind, God chose to enforce a life of penance on Rama. These reflections bring me joy and peace. Let them bring the same to you.
And how may I sorrow over the imprisonment of my only son? Mahatma Gandhi told me once that others in the world have also their only sons. And a time is coming when whole ​families will have to march to jail. I have just heard of the arrest of the whole family of Deshbandhu C. R. Das. I hope the same good fortune may come to me and my daughter-in-law.
What message I have to give you but the one my husband has given—Go and do likewise? Enlist yourselves in your hundreds of thousands as members of the Provincial Volunteer Corps and go to jail. Let those that remain behind turn their spinning-wheels and work for peace. If we could answer the present repressive policy with firm and determined Satyagraha for just a short while, I have no doubt that Swaraj would be at our doors before the month is out.
I may say again that my heart prays that my son’s and husband’s life in jail may be a bed of roses. I have faith that this is a religious struggle, and suffering religiously endured must bear its fruit. God has shown us an easy way of winning our goal—Swaraj. If we but follow it cheerfully, we may never have to be confronted with the far more difficult task of laying down our lives therefor. I trust you will not fail to seize this golden opportunity. For as, Tulsedas has well said, ‘What boots repentance once a great opportunity has been frittered away?’,
Saruprani Nehru.
# The Pilgrims' March/Mrs. Sarojini Naidu

MRS. SAROJINI NAIDU'S MESSAGE
TO THE PEOPLE OF BOMBAY
At All Times—Under All Conditions—At All Costs
Conquer By Love and Self-Sacrifice.
The Soul of India cannot be silent nor the Spirit of Freedom denied its mainfold miracles of self-fulfilment.
The road to Swaraj is fast becoming a pilgrimage of Joyous suffering and sacrifice, and the prisons of India the true temples of Indian liberty.
The ever-lengthening story of the arrests and imprisonment of our brave leaders and fellow-workers everywere, the poignant courage of their farewell messages, the noble gesture of their victorious martyrdom form a thrilling and immortal chapter in the annals of our national struggle and achievement.
But not less splendid nor less worthy of our tribute is the attitude of proud serenity and self-restraint on the part of the people of the stricken Provinces in the face of such a blind and bitter fury of shameless repression and tyranny.
It is alike our duty and our previlege in this great city to consecrate all our time and thought, our energies and activities to the ​furtherance of this high doctrine and discipline of inviolate and invincible peace at all times, under all conditions, and at all costs.
Unfaltering in our purpose, unflinching in our devotion, let us fearlessly proclaim the faith within us and prove to an incredulous world that the soldiers of Swaraj win their deliverance from bondage not by the sword of harted and destruction, but by the diviner weapons of love and self-sacrifice, in accordance with their own ancient tradition of spiritual power.
Sarojini Naidu,
# The Pilgrims' March/Mrs. Das

Mrs. DAS' APPEAL.
LAST WORD ON HARTAL.
An appeal of Mrs. C. R. Das, says Mahatma Gandhi has given this massage to Bengal about hartal: The honour of leaders requires the ​people of Calcutta to observe complete hartal. It will be proof of their confidence in their leaders and proof also of the exercise of their own free-will. Merchants of Calcutta have now a chance of showing their determination and independence by observing complete hartal in spite of withdrawal of leaders. It is more necessary than ever for people now to observe hartal on 24th. People of Calcutta cannot do better than simply keep themselves at home on 24th except volunteers whose duty it will be to protect from harm those who may choose to open their shops. I am hoping that people of Calcutta will not fail to do their obvious duty on 24th inst.
This Message also expresses our decision, our determination. It embodies also our last and and final word on the hartal in Bengal. Religiously observe hartal all over Bengal. Keep yourself at home on the 24th. Stir not out of your houses on any provocation whatever. Heed not what the Govt. of Bengal and other interested people say in the matter. Put no faith in rumours and misrepresentations which prejudice of power may invent. We leave the honour of Bengal in your hands, and we know it is safe, God help us:—Basanti Debi.