337). The other upholders of the Cynewulfian authorship think that this
Dream, occurring in the early part of Cynewulf's religious life, led to
the longer and more highly finished poem, the ELENE, written near the
close of his life. The questions of the relationship of the poem to the
Ruthwell Cross and to the ELENE deserve further discussion. With these
is connected the question of date, and the poem has been placed all the
way from 700 to 800 A.D., even a little before and a little after,
possibly 675 to 825 A.D., so as yet there is no common agreement. The
similarity of thought in the personal epilogue (II. 122 ff.) to the
epilogue of the ELENE (II. 1237 ff.) is striking, and they may be
compared by the curious reader. The translation is made from the
Grein-Wuelker text (Vol. II., pp. 116-125), with emendations from others,
as seen in the notes. All can agree with Kemble (_Codex Vercellensis_,
Part II., p. ix) that "it is in some respects the most striking of all
the Anglo-Saxon remains, inasmuch as a departure from the mere
conventional style of such compositions is very perceptible in it. It
contains some passages of real poetical beauty, and a good deal of
fancy." Brooke says (op. cit., p. 443): "This is the last of the
important poems of the eighth century.
Pages:
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32