E-text prepared by Carla Foust, Stephen Hutcheson, and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which includes the original illustration. See 31172-h.htm or 31172-h.zip: (https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/31172/pg31172-images.html) or (https://www.gutenberg.org/files/31172/31172-h.zip) OLD ENGLISH POEMS Translated into the Original Meter Together with Short Selections from Old English Prose by COSETTE FAUST, Ph.D. Associate Professor of English in the Southern Methodist University and STITH THOMPSON, Ph.D. Instructor in English in The University of Texas Scott, Foresman and Company Chicago New York Copyright, 1918 By Scott, Foresman and Company Robert O. Law Company Edition Book Manufacturers Chicago, U.S.A. TABLE OF CONTENTS I. PAGAN POETRY 1. EPIC OR HEROIC GROUP PAGE Widsith 15 Deor's Lament 26 Waldhere 29 The Fight at Finnsburg 34 2. GNOMIC GROUP Charms 1. Charm for Bewitched Land 38 2. Charm for a Sudden Stitch 42 Riddles 1. A Storm 44 2. A Storm 45 3. A Storm 46 5. A Shield 48 7. A Swan 49 8. A Nightingale 49 14. A Horn 50 15. A Badger 51 23. A Bow 52 26. A Bible 52 45. Dough 54 47. A Bookworm 54 60. A Reed 54 Exeter Gnomes 56 The Fates of Men 58