Articles liés à Widsith, a Study in Old English Heroic Legend
Présentation de l'éditeur
Beowulf has, in England at least, not been extended to the other monuments of Old English heroic poetry: and that poetry has often, in consequence, been somewhat misjudged. The chief merit of Widsith is that it enables us to make a more correct estimate. If Widsith had been, as some have thought it, an authentic record of a visit to the court of Ermanaric, it would have been valuable: though hardly so valuable as the account left by Priscus of his visit to the court of A ttila, an account which nevertheless few trouble to read. But Widsith is more to us than any record of fourth or fifth century travel could have been: it is a record of lost heroic song. As one of its earliest editors said, with sound sense, if in questionable Latin, Discimus ex eo, quot carmina temporum injurid nos amisimus. A nother advantage to be drawn from a study of Widsith is that here we find the older scholars at their best. It is remark able, considering the means at his disposal, how good are the comments even of the despised Conybeare, and still more is this true of those of Kemble, Leo, Lappenberg, Ettmiiller, and in more recent days, of Moller, Ten Brink, and Miillenhoff. I hope that I have shown, both in dealing with the Harlung story and the Offa story, that my reverence for Miillenhoff is not a superstitious one. But it is time to protest against the undue depreciation of that great scholar, which has of late been prevalent, particularly in England and A merica.
(Typographical errors above are due to OCR software and don't occur in the book.)
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