An Anthology of Old English Poetry

I have two books by Charles W. Kennedy, late Murray Professor of English Literature at Princeton University. These two include this text, simply entitled 'An Anthology of Old English Poetry', and other volume, 'Early English Christian Poetry.' Both volumes are translated into alliterative verse, incorporating one of the primary features of Old English verse. Even though Old English looks like a foreign language to readers of Modern English, one can still pick up a page of Old English verse and see clearly the alliteration present, words beginning with the same sound repeated. Grammarian Robert Diamond describes alliteration as a decoration for Modern English poetry, but a structural necessity for Old English. Kennedy's translations also keep the metrical division that is present in Old English verse in his modern translations, as much as possible. Old English verse is arranged as verse-pairs, and these appear on the same line with a break between the two parts. The first part is called the 'on-verse', and the second part the 'off-verse'. On-verses can have one or two alliterating syllables; off-verses generally have only one alliterating word. Because of the differences in grammar structure that have taken place, Kennedy doesn't always keep to this pattern, although he does strive to do so. Kennedy relates the obscurity of these Old English poems with the joke that it is a 'small body of verse almost completely surrounded by scholars'. The poems contained in this collection illustrate very clearly the Germanic foundation of the English language, and illustrate Germanic cultural influences over literature types. There are also religious and biblical themes included here. Kennedy includes some of the translations from his other text on Christian poetry ('The Whale', 'The Phoenix', various biblically-based pieces), but the majority of the works here are secular, relating to life situations common to the ancient island people. There is an entire chapter devoted to Sea Poetry (including 'The Seafarer', one of the better known poems in Old English), riddles and gnomic verses, as well as pieces from Beowulf and pieces from a more continental background (German and Danish subject influences are strong here). This book and its companion by Kennedy are good for introducing this little-known poetry to wider audiences. Unfortunately, both volumes are out of print now. The value of scholars is somewhat lessened by the fact that there are no translation notes, glossaries, or indications of Old English directly in the texts. As a side-by-side comparison with original texts, these will be useful, but these will not in-and-of-themselves be useful for teaching Old English. Still, if you find copies, buy them!