uit;
115 Glory be to God on high, who grants us our salvation!"

1. These opening lines are typical of the group of poems usually known as
the "Elegies"--this and the next four poems in the book. It is
probable that the poems of this group have no relation with one
another save in general tone--a deep melancholy that, though present
in the other old English poems is blackest in these.

15. _Wyrd:_ the "Fate" of the Germanic peoples. The Anglo-Saxon's life
was overshadowed by the power of Wyrd, though Beowulf says that "a man
may escape his Wyrd--if he be good enough."

87. Ancient fortifications and cities are often referred to in
Anglo-Saxon poetry as "the old work of the giants."

THE SEAFARER

[Edition used: Kluge, _Angelsaechsisches Lesebuch_.

Up to line 65 this is one of the finest specimens of Anglo-Saxon poetry.
It expresses as few poems in English have done the spirit of adventure,
the _wanderlust_ of springtime. The author was a remarkable painter of
the sea and its conditions. From line 65 to the end the poem consists of
a very tedious homily that must surely be a later addition.

The use of the first person throughout and the opposing sentiments
expressed have caused several scholars to consider the first part of the
poem a dialogue between a young man eager to go to sea and an old sailor.
The divisions of the speeches suggested have been as follows:

(By Hoenncher) (By Kluge) (By Rieger)
1-33a Sailor 1-33 Sailor 1-38a Sailor
33b-38 Youth 34-64 or 66 Youth 33b-38 Youth
39-43 Sailor 39-47 Sailor
44-52 Youth 48-52 Youth
53-57 Sailor 53-57 Sailor
58-64a Youth 58-71 Youth
71-end Sailor

Sweet, in his _Anglo-Saxon Reader_, objects to these theories since there
are not only no headings or divisions in the manuscript to indicate such
divisions, but there are no breaks or contrasts in the poem itself.

"If we discard these theories," he says, "the simplest view of the poem
is that it is the monologue of an old sailor who first describes the
hardships of the seafaring life, and then confesses its irresistible
attraction, which he justifies, as it were, by drawing a parallel between
the seafarer's contempt for the luxuries of the life on land on the