Soon afterwards Morley's "English Writers," Vol.
II., appeared (1888), in which an English translation is given (pp.
237-241); also Stopford Brooke, in his "History of Early English
Literature" (1892), has given an account of the poem, with partial
translation and epitome (pp. 436-443). (See also p. 337 and pp. 384-386
for further notice.) The poem is very briefly mentioned by Trautmann in
his monograph on Cynewulf (1898, p. 40). There are some very interesting
questions connected with the poem which cannot be discussed here. Was it
by Cynewulf? On the affirmative side we find Dietrich, Rieger, Grein,
ten Brink, D'Ham, and Sweet. On the negative, Wuelker, Ebert, Trautmann,
Stephens, Morley, Brooke, and others. Pacius, who edited the text, with
a German translation, in 1873, thinks that we know nothing about the
poet. Brooke has propounded a theory, previously adumbrated by the
editors of the _Corpus Poeticum Boreale_, Vigfusson and Powell, that an
older poem, possibly of Caedmonian origin, as shown by the long
six-accent lines, has been worked over by Cynewulf, with additions, and
that it is "his last work" (p. 440). Certain lines of the poem, in the
Northumbrian dialect, are found on the Ruthwell Cross, which fact
complicates the question of origin. These are compared by Brooke (p.
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