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A Short History of England's Literature (1905)
A Short History of England's Literature - 1905 Author:Eva March Tappan Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: head of Grendel. He had killed the mother and cut off the head from Grendel's body, which lay in the cavern. Beowulf's third exploit took place many years lat... more »er, after he had ruled his people for fifty years. He heard of a vast treasure of gold and jewels hidden away in the earth, and although it was guarded by a fire-breathing dragon, he determined to win it for his followers. There was a fearful encounter, and his thegns, all save one, proved to be cowards and deserted him. He won the victory, but the dragon had wounded him, and the poison of the wound soon ended his life. Then the thegns built up a pyre, hung with helmets and coats of mail; and on it they burned the body of their dead leader. After this, they raised a mighty mound in his honor, and placed in it a store of rings and of jewels. Slowly the greatest among them rode around it, mourning for their leader and speaking words of love and praise, — Said he was mightiest of all the great world-kings, Mildest of rulers, most gentle in manner, Most kind to his liegemen, most eager for honor. This is the story of Beowulf as it has come down to us in a single ragged and smoke-stained manuscript. This A PORTION OF THE FIRST PAGE OF THE BEOWULF MANUSCRIPT manuscript was probably written in the eighth or ninth century, and the poem must differ greatly from the original version, especially in its religious allusions. In earlier times, the Celts had learned the Christian faith chapter{Section 4from the Irish ; but-it was not preached to the Teutons EHeotoi in southern England until 597, when mission- tty'oiitiie" aries from Rome made their way to Kent. At poem. first they were allowed to preach on the little island of Thanet only and in the open air ; for the wary Teutons had no idea of hearing strange teach...« less