A number of the best and earliest poems composed in English, from stories of conflict to like songs
This collection of the earliest poems in English contains works from an age within which verse used to be now not written down, yet recited aloud and remembered. Heroic poems have a good time braveness, loyalty and energy, in excerpts from Beowulf and in The conflict of Brunanburgh, depicting King Athelstan’s defeat of his northern enemies in 937 advert, while The Wanderer and The Seafarer examine exile, loss and destiny. The Gnomic Verses are proverbs at the usual order of lifestyles, and the Exeter Riddles are witty linguistic puzzles. Love elegies comprise emotional speeches from an deserted spouse and separated fans, and devotional poems contain a imaginative and prescient of Christ’s go in The Dream of the Rood, and Caedmon’s Hymn, probably the oldest poem in English, talking in compliment of God.
For greater than seventy years, Penguin has been the best writer of vintage literature within the English-speaking global. With greater than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents an international bookshelf of the simplest works all through historical past and throughout genres and disciplines. Readers belief the series to supply authoritative texts stronger through introductions and notes by way of special students and modern authors, in addition to up-to-date translations via award-winning translators.
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Additional resources for The First Poems in English (Penguin Classics)
SERINGS (? ) Syrians. Widsith, seventy five. SHEAFA Ruler of the Lombards (‘Longbeards’), Widsith, 32. legendary civilizer of the tribes of the North coastline, his identify indicates the creation of tillage. He stands on the head of the West Saxon genealogies. below the identify of Scyld Shefing, he's additionally the founding father of the Danes. SHILLING Widsith’s fellow–scop. Widsith, 103. SIBYRHT Retainer of Bryhtnoth, brother of Aetheric. Maldon, 282. SIFECA A follower of Eormanric; in legend, the traitor who triggered Eormanric’s homicide of the Herelings. Widsith, 112 ff. n. SIGEFERTH certainly one of Hnaef’s fans at Finnsburgh, 24; exact with the Saeferth who ideas the Secgan at Widsith, 31. SIGEMUND the nice dragon-slayer. See Beowulf, 875 n. SLIDING-FINNS A tribe who used snowshoes, most likely Lapps. Widsith, seventy nine. SWAEFE Suevi, Suebi: a bunch of relevant German peoples. See below Myrgings. Widsitb, 22, forty four, sixty one. SWEDES A tribe who inhabited just a small a part of southern Sweden. Widsitb, 31, fifty eight. THEODORIC Theodoric the Frank (Widsitb, 24). The eldest son of Clovis, and himself king at Rheims from 511 to 534. THEODORIC Theodoric the Ostrogoth, pointed out as considered one of Eormanric’s retainers at Widsitb, one hundred fifteen. chief of the Ostrogothic state into Italy, the place they overcame Odoacer’s Germans. Theodoric killed Odoacer in his palace at Ravenna on 15 March 493. He governed from Verona for thirty years. within the Nibelungenlied he turns into the best knight, Dietrich von Bern. Deor, 18. THURSTAN Father of Wistan. Maldon, 298. VENDELS The population of recent Vendsyssel in Jutland; no longer the Vandals. Widsitb, fifty nine. VIKINGS A basic identify for sea raiders, Maldon, passim; in all probability a formal identify at Widsitb, fifty nine. WADA, WADE Ruler of the Hselsings. initially a sea-giant. See Widsitb, 21-2 n. WAYLAND The Smith of Germanic legend. See Deor, 1 n. WEST SAXONS the folk of Wessex whose kings grew to become rulers of a united England within the 10th century. The victors at Brunanburgh. WIDIA The early Gothic champion Vidigioia, pointed out via the Latin historian Jordanes. within the lays he turns into the son of Wayland and Beadohild, and without delay linked to Theodoric. At Widsitb, 124 and one hundred thirty, he and Hama are pointed out because the exiles who rule one of many peoples of Gothland. WIDSITH The wandering poet of Widsitb. Represented as a Myrging. WIGELM Father of Offa. See Maldon, three hundred n. WISTAN Son of Thurstan, retainer of Bryhtnoth. Maldon, 297. WULFMAER Son of Bryhtnoth’s sister. Maldon, 113. WULFMAER se geonga (the more youthful) The boy who stood at Bryhtnoth’s part, no longer a similar individual because the above. Maldon, one hundred fifty five, 183. WULFSTAN Son of Ceola, father of Wulfmaer se geonga. The Horatius of the brycg (Maldon, 75,79,155). The conflict can have been fought on his land. See seventy five n.