PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. IN this edition I have endeavoured to remove some of the blunders which disfigured its predecessor, but many, I fear, have escaped my notice. Some parts have been entirely rewritten, and the passages formerly omitted as obscure or uninteresting have been inserted. Such as it is, the translation is now complete. A few notes have been added; and the introduction has been materially altered and, I hope, improved. The Anglo-Saxon diphthong ca is so liable to mispronunciation when reproduced in modern English, that I have thought it better to strike out the e in such names as Healfdene, etc. Halfdene is at any rate nearer the true form than Heelfdene, as he ran some risk of being called. The lines of the original poem are given at the top of each page. |