In this restructured and greatly expanded version of Burton Raffel's out-of-print classic,Poems from the Old English, Raffel and co-editor Alexandra H. Olsen place the oldest English writings in an ...entirely different perspective. Keeping the classroom teacher's needs foremost in mind, Raffel and Olsen organize the major old English poems (exceptBeowulf) and new prose selections so as to facilitate both reading and studying. A general introduction provides an up-to-date and detailed historical account of the Anglo-Saxon period, and concise introductions open the literature sections of the book and many of the translations.Raffel's masterly translations of Old English poetry, praised as fine poems in their own right, reproduce much of the flavor as well as the sense of the originals. With more than 1800 newly translated lines and many revised older translations, the poems in this volume are organized into four genres-elegies, heroic poems, religious poems, and wisdom poetry. Raffel's new translations include more than twenty poem-riddles, with proposed solutions in a separate section. Prose translations-grouped in historical, testamentary and legal, religious, social and instructional, and medical and magical categories-feature writings by King Alfred, Aelfric, and Wulfstan, among others.
In this restructured and greatly expanded version of Burton Raffel’s out-of- print classic, _Poems from the Old English_ , Raffel and co-editor Alexandra H. Olsen place the oldest English writings in ...an entirely different perspective. Keeping the classroom teacher’s needs foremost in mind, Raffel and Olsen organize the major old English poems (except _Beowulf_ ) and new prose selections so as to facilitate both reading and studying. A general introduction provides an up-to-date and detailed historical account of the Anglo-Saxon period, and concise introductions open the literature sections of the book and many of the translations. Raffel’s masterly translations of Old English poetry, praised as fine poems in their own right, reproduce much of the flavor as well as the sense of the originals. With more than 1800 newly translated lines and many revised older translations, the poems in this volume are organized into four genres—elegies, heroic poems, religious poems, and wisdom poetry. Raffel’s new translations include more than twenty poem-riddles, with proposed solutions in a separate section. Prose translations—grouped in historical, testamentary and legal, religious, social and instructional, and medical and magical categories—feature writings by King Alfred, Aelfric, and Wulfstan, among others. **Burton Raffel** is Distinguished Professor of Humanities and professor of English at the University of Southwestern Louisiana. **Alexandra H. Olsen** is professor of English at the University of Denver.
The Middle English poem Pearl is an elegy on the death of a child, written to provide consolation for the loss of a loved one through instruction in Christian theology. The mourning father’s faith in ...God has been shaken by his daughter’s death. Having fainted away on his daughter’s grave, he is transported in a dream vision to an earthy paradise where he sees his daughter across a stream, transfigured and clothed in garments set with pearls. She explains to him her exalted status as a bride of Christ and shows him a vision of the New Jerusalem. Ravished with his vision, he attempts to cross the stream to join his Pearl, only to be woken from his dream of paradise. This translation of the poem is accompanied by a preface on the translation, a reproduction of the poem in its original orthography, a transcription of the manuscript, a glossary, and instructions on how to read the manuscript hand.
