eferred to ten Brink's "Early English Literature,"
Kennedy's translation (1883), and to Morley's "English Writers," Vol.
II. (1888).

JAMES M. GARNETT.

UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA, VA.,
May, 1889.

PREFACE TO EDITION OF 1900.

I have added to this reprint of my "Elene and other Anglo Saxon Poems" a
translation of the DREAM OF THE ROOD, which has been on hand for several
years awaiting a suitable time to see the light. A brief Introduction to
the poem has been prefixed, which, doubtless, leaves much to be desired,
but it is all that the translator now has time for, and I must refer to
the works mentioned for fuller information and discussion. With thanks
for past consideration, and the hope that this addition has made the
book more acceptable, I entrust it again to indulgent readers.

JAMES M. GARNETT.

BALTIMORE, MARYLAND,
October, 1900.

PREFACE TO EDITION OF 1911.

I have read over carefully these translations with a view to another
reprint, which the publishers find necessary, but I have not compared
them again with the texts used. I have corrected a few typographical
errors of little importance.

For the bibliography I would refer to Brandl's _Sonderausgabe aus der
zweiten Auflage von Paul's Grundriss der germanischen Philologie_
(Strassburg, 1908), in which I find noted Holthausen's edition of the
ELENE (Heidelberg, 1905), but I have not seen it.

I take advantage of this opportunity to say that my translation of
BEOWULF, of which the last reprint was issued in 1910, is not in
_prose_, as some have misconceived it, but it is in the same metrical
form as the translations in the present volume,--an accentual metre in
rough imitation of the original. I agree with Professor Gummere and
others that this is a better form for the translation of Old English
poetry than plain prose. It was approved by the late Professor Child
nearly _thirty_ years ago, as noted in the Preface to the second edition
of my translation of BEOWULF, January, 1885.

JAMES M. GARNETT.

BALTIMORE, MARYLAND,
February, 1911.

INTRODUCTION.

In presenting to the public the following translations of the Old
English (Anglo-Saxon) poems, ELENE, JUDITH, ATHELSTAN, BYRHTNOTH, and
THE DREAM OF THE ROOD, it is desirable to prefix a brief account of them
for the information of the general reader.

I. The ELENE, or Helena, is a poem on the expedition of the Empress
Helena, mother of Constantine the Great, the first Chr