The Earliest English Poems (Penguin Classics)

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Summary: Earliest English Poems
Review: Reading Anglo-Saxon literature can be for modern readers like listening to fingernails scratched on a blackboard. A mind conditioned to democracy, fair play and (public) modesty recoils at primitive sensibilities embodied in the heroic ideal -- where childlike loyalty to one's tribal lord is paramount and boasting about one's prowess is considered good manners. An excellent introduction to this anthology prepares new readers for the Anglo-Saxon world and world-view.

If we take Alexander at his word that "The excuse, ultimately, for a book of this sort is a conviction on the part of the author that some early English poems deserve to be read by those who do not make their living out of the subject, that what is excellent should be made current," these poems call for a more liberal translation. Alexander gamely tries to retain the sound of the originals, but sacrifices some of the empathy he could have inspired in an amateur audience.

Realism has conditioned modern readers to expect literary characters of more than one dimension, containing qualities both noble and despicable, and situations that are morally questionable. Most of these poems leave little room for ambiguity -- the good are good, the evil are monstrously evil.

The two most appealing poems for the modern reader may be "The Dream of the Rood" and "Deor." The first poem recounts the crucifixion from the persona of the cross. It is hard to read the line "They drove me through with dark nails" without admiration for the poet. "Deor" is the lament of a court poet whose role has been usurped by another. His plight is sympathetic.

Tales of battle and adventure abound. Perhaps the greatest adventure story is the survival of the poems themselves. They were recounted by memory for generations, transcribed by monks who layered Christian morality on top of pagan ideas, survived Viking raids and library fires as charred manuscript scraps. Old English is a language as alien to modern English as the surface of Mars is to Earth. Despite the difficulty of translation and difference of perspective, it is worth looking backwards to read these poems. If for no other reason than they are ours.