). ten Brink thinks that the poem
was not written by an eye-witness, and says (p. 92): "The poem lacks the
epic perception and direct power of the folk-song as well as invention.
The patriotic enthusiasm, however, upon which it is borne, the lyrical
strain which pervades it, yield their true effect. The rich resources
derived from the national epos are here happily utilised, and the pure
versification and brilliant style of the whole stir our admiration." It
well serves to diversify and enliven the usually dry annals of the
"Anglo-Saxon Chronicle," and cannot be spared in the great dearth of
poetry of this period.

IV. The BYRHTNOTH, or Fight at Maldon, relates in vigorous verse the
contest between the Saxons, led by the Ealdorman Byrhtnoth, and the
Danes at the river Panta, near Maldon in Essex, in which the Danes were
victorious and Byrhtnoth was slain. The incident is mentioned in four
manuscripts of the "Anglo-Saxon Chronicle" under the year 991, but one
gives it under 993. The MS. in which the poem was contained was
unfortunately burnt in the great fire above-mentioned (1731); but Thomas
Hearne, the antiquary, had fortunately printed it, as prose, in his
edition, of the Chronicle of John of Glastonbury (1726); hence this is
now our sole authority for the text, which is defective at both the
beginning and the end. The poem has been highly esteemed by scholars,
and is a very valuable relic of late tenth century literature. It has
been often reprinted, and translated several times in whole or in part.
Grein does not translate either the ATHELSTAN or the BYRHTNOTH. Koerner
translates it in full, and so does Zernial in his Program "Das Lied von
Byrhtnoth's Fall" (1882). This monograph contains the fullest study of
the poem that has been made. It is translated into English, with some
omissions, by Kennedy in ten Brink (pp. 93-96); it is barely mentioned
by Earle (p. 147), and a summary of it is given by Morley in "English
Writers" (II. 319-320). A Bibliography will be found in Wuelker's
_Grundriss_ (pp. 344-5). An edition of both ATHELSTAN and BYRHTNOTH has
been long announced in the "Library of Anglo-Saxon Poetry," but it has
not yet appeared.[1] Sweet says of the BYRHTNOTH (Reader, p. 138):
"Although the poem does not show the high technical finish of the older
works, it is full of dramatic power and warm feeling"; and ten Brink,
with more enthusiasm, calls it (p. 96) "one of the pearls of Old English
poetry, full, as