e boat that bears thee south,
30 Where far over the foam thou shalt find thy lord,--
Where lingers thy lover in longing and hope.
In the width of the world not a wish or desire
More strongly stirs him (he instructs me to say)
Than that gracious God should grant you to live
35 Ever after at ease together,
To distribute treasures to retainers and friends,
To give rings of gold. Of gilded cups
And of proud possessions a plenty he has,
And holds his home far hence with strangers,
40 His fertile fields, where follow him many
High-spirited heroes-- though here my liege-lord,
Forced by the fates, took flight on a ship
And on the watery waves went forth alone
To fare on the flood-way: fain would he escape,
45 Stir up the sea-streams. By strife thy lord hath
Won the fight against woe. No wish will he have
For horses or jewels or the joys of mead-drinking,
Nor any earl's treasures on earth to be found,
O gentle lord's daughter, if he have joy in thee,
50 As by solemn vows ye have sworn to each other.
I set as a sign S and R together,
E, A, W, and D, as an oath to assure you
That he stays for thee still and stands by his troth;
And as long as he lives it shall last unbroken,--
55 Which often of old with oaths ye have plighted.

1-6. The text here is so corrupt that an almost complete reconstruction
has been necessary.

51. In the manuscript these letters appear as runes. For illustrations of
the appearance of runes, see the introductory note to "Cynewulf and
his School," p. 95, below. What these runes stood for, or whether they
were supposed to possess unusual or magic power is purely a matter of
conjecture.

THE RUIN

[Text used: Kluge, _Angelsaechsisches Lesebuch_.

This description of a ruin with hot baths is generally assumed to be of
the Roman city of Bath. The fact that the poet uses unusual words and
unconventional lines seems to indicate that he wrote with his eye on the
object.]

Wondrous is its wall-stone laid waste by the fates.
The burg-steads are burst, broken the work of the giants.
The roofs are in ruins, rotted away the towers,
The fortress-gate fallen, with fros