of beacons. The writer is ready for his journey, and directs his
prayer to the rood. His friends now dwell in glory, and the rood
of the Lord will bring him there where he may partake of joy with
the saints. The Lord redeemed us, His Son was victorious, and
with a band of spirits entered His heavenly home 71




PREFACE.


This translation of the ELENE was made while reading the poem with a
post-graduate student in the session of 1887-88, Zupitza's second
edition being used for the text, which does not differ materially from
that in his third edition (1888). It was completed before I received a
copy of Dr. Weymouth's translation (1888), from Zupitza's text; but in
the revision for publication I have referred to it, although I cannot
always agree with the learned scholar in his interpretation of certain
passages. Grein's text was, however, used to fill _lacunæ_, and in the
revision the recently published (1888) Grein-Wülker text was compared in
some passages. The line-for-line form has been employed, as in my
translation of BÉOWULF; for it has been approved by high authority, and
is unquestionably more serviceable to the student, even if I have not
been able to attain ideal correctness of rhythm. I plead guilty in
advance to any _lapsus_ in that respect, but I strongly suspect that I
have appreciated the difficulty more highly than my future critics. The
ELENE is more suitable than the BÉOWULF for first reading in Old English
poetry on account of its style and its subject, which make the
interpretation considerably easier, and I concur with Körting, in his