y the case with this hymn.

BEDE'S DEATH SONG

[Text used: Kluge, _Angelsaechsisches Lesebuch_.

This poem was attributed to Bede, who died in 735, by his pupil,
Cuthbert, who translated it into Latin. The Northumbrian version is in a
manuscript at St. Gall.

These verses are examples of gnomic poetry, which was very popular in Old
English literature. Miss Williams, in her _Gnomic Poetry in Anglo-Saxon_
(Columbia University Press, 1914), p. 67, says that this is the earliest
gnomic expression in Old English for which a definite date may be set.

Text criticism: Charlotte D'Evelyn, "Bede's Death Song," _Modern Language
Notes_, xxx, 31.]

Before leaving this life there lives no one
Of men of wisdom who will not need
To consider and judge, ere he sets on his journey,
What his soul shall be granted of good or evil--
5 After his day of death what doom he shall meet.

1. Bede, the author of the _Ecclesiastical History of England_, was the
greatest figure in the English church of the seventh and eighth
centuries.

SELECTIONS FROM GENESIS

[The poem readily divides itself into two parts: _Genesis A_, the bulk of
the poem, and _Genesis B_, lines 235-853. The latter is a translation
from the Old Saxon. The passage here translated is from _Genesis A_.

GENESIS A

Critical edition of _Genesis A_: F. Holthausen, _Die aeltere Genesis_,
Heidelberg, 1914.

Translation: C. W. Kennedy, _The Caedmon Poems_, New York, 1916, p. 7.

Partial translation: W. F. H. Bosanquet, _The Fall of Man or Paradise
Lost of Caedmon_, London, 1869.

Date and place: Early eighth century; Northern England. The author was
obviously acquainted with _Beowulf_.

Source: Vulgate Bible; first twenty-two chapters.]

The Offering of Isaac

2845 Then the powerful King put to the test
His trusted servant; tried him sorely
To learn if his love was lasting and certain.
With strongest words he sternly said to him:
"Hear me and hasten hence, O Abraham.
2850 As thou leavest, lead along with thee
Thy own child Isaac! As an offering to me
Thyself shalt sacrifice thy son with thy hands.
When thy steps have struggled up the steep hill-side,
To the height of the land which from he