Blest pair! if aught my verse avail,
No day shall make your memory fail
From off the heart of time,
While Capitol abides in place,
The mansion of the Aeneian race,
And throned upon that moveless base
Rome's father sits sublime.
_Conington's Translation, Book IX_.
BEOWULF.
Beowulf, the only Anglo-Saxon epic preserved entire, was composed in
southwest Sweden probably before the eighth century, and taken to England,
where it was worked over and Christianized by the Northumbrian poets.
It is variously attributed to the fifth, seventh, and eighth centuries;
but the seventh is most probably correct, since the Higelac of the poem
has been identified with Chocilaicus of the "Gesta Regum Francorum," a
Danish king who invaded Gaul in the days of Theuderic, son of Clovis, and
died near the close of the sixth century.
The only manuscript of the poem in existence is thought to be of the tenth
century. It is preserved in the British Museum. Since 1837 much interest
has been manifested in the poem, and many editions of it have been given
to the public.
Beowulf contains three thousand one hundred and eighty-four lines. It is
written in alliterative verse. The lines are written in pairs, and each
perfect line contains three alliterating words,--two in the first part,
and one in the second.
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