The connexion between these two versions might be explained in two ways. The short version of MS. Harl. 2253 may be the beginning of a transcript of the longer poem in which the scribe broke off because his memory failed him, or because he was only acquainted with a popular version of the opening lines. On the other hand, the short version may be the older, and the more learned composer of the poem in MS. Harl. 913 may have been elaborating this and other such riddling stanzas current at the time. But any attempt to decide between these two possibilities must necessarily depend upon the conclusion formed as to the relation of the Latin stanzas in MS. Harl. 913 to their English equivalents, and this question will be more conveniently discussed in connexion with the general origin of the _Erthe upon Erthe_ poems. As regards the date of the two MSS., MS. Harl. 2253 is generally ascribed to the beginning of the fourteenth century, and the Kildare MS. (MS. Harl. 913) is dated c. 1308 by Crofton Croker, c. 1308 to 1330 by Heuser, while Paul Meyer is of opinion that it may belong to an earlier period still. The dialect of both poems is South Midland, probably of the western part of the district. MS. Harl. 2253, which is commonly associated with Leominster, has _heuede_ (4). MS. Harl. 913 has _lutil_, _schrud_, _muntid_, _heo_, _mon_, _lond_, and S. Midl. forms of verbs. We have therefore two types of the A version, standing in close verbal relation to each other, of much the same date and dialect, and representing in all probability the kind of _Erthe_ poem current at the end of the thirteenth century in the South-west Midland district. THE #B# VERSION.