Thorpe adverted to it in his publication of the
"Codex Exoniensis," which contains an Anglo-Saxon poem of the same kind,
with which it is interesting to compare this later version of the
legend. There is a portion of another semi-Saxon poem, entitled "The
Grave," printed in Mr. Conybeare's "Illustrations," and by Mr. Thorpe in
his "Analecta Anglo-Saxonica," which appears to be by the same hand, or
at any rate of the same school and age. Indeed some of the lines and
thoughts are identical with passages of the following poem. Mr. Thorpe
has justly called "The Grave" a singularly impressive and almost
appalling fragment; expressions equally characteristic of that with
which the reader is here presented._
_This impressive character, coupled with the interest which the fragment
possesses, as a specimen of the moral poetry of our ancestors, and as
throwing light upon the transition of our language from Saxon to
English, has been the motive for producing it in a more legible form
than that in which it first appeared._
_In one of the smaller poems (No. V.), printed by Mr. Wright with the
Owl and the Nightingale, from the Cottonian MS. Calig. A. ix. "The sorie
sowle maketh hire mone," in language not dissimilar to that used in the
following fragment; and the dreary imagery of the house appointed for
all living, and the punishment which awaits a wicked life at its close,
are painted in an equally fearful manner.
Pages:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25