Excerpt from Select Translations From Old English Poetry Edited With Prefatory Notes and Indexes To this end their poetry should be rendered acces sible. The prose can wait, if need be; but specimens of the better Old English poetry, translated, where that is possible, rather than traduced, should be drawn from the cabinets of professional scholars into the light of day. He who will should have some opportunity to read for pleasure that which may be well written to admire what may be spirited, pathetic, or sublime; to realize the variety of theme and treatment within the four or five hundred years which the period covers to compare poem with poem, and, if possible, century with century, or even writer with writer to trace the relation between our older literature, broadly considered, and the later; and to do this unvexed, so far as may be, by mislead ing comment, while provided with brief' suggestion on important matters, and especially with respect to the sources of fuller information. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.