in Grein's _Dichtungen der Angelsachsen_ (II. 104 ff., 1859), and
of lines 1-275 in Koerner's _Einleitung in das Studium des
Angelsaechsischen_ (p. 147 ff., 1880). A good summary of the poem is
given in Earle's "Anglo-Saxon Literature" (p. 234 ff., 1884), and a
briefer one in Morley's "English Writers" (II. 196 ff.).

The ELENE is conceded to be Cynewulf's best poem, and ten Brink remarks
of the ANDREAS and the ELENE: "In these Cynewulf appears, perhaps, at
the summit of his art" (p. 58, Kennedy's translation). The last canto is
a personal epilogue, of a sad and reflective character, evidently
appended after the poem proper was concluded. This may be the last work
of the poet, and there is good reason for ten Brink's view (p. 59) that
"not until the writing of the ELENE had Cynewulf entirely fulfilled the
task he had set himself in consequence of his vision of the cross. Hence
he recalls, at the close of the poem, the greatest moment of his life,
and praises the divine grace that gave him deeper knowledge, and
revealed to him the art of song."

II. The JUDITH is a fragment, but a very torso of Hercules. The first
nine cantos, nearly three-fourths of the poem, are irretrievably lost,
so that we have left but the last three cantos with a few lines of the
ninth. The story is from the apocryphal book of Judith, and the part
remaining corresponds to chapters XII. 10 to XVI. 1, but the poet has
failed to translate the grand thanksgiving of Judith in the sixteenth
chapter. The story of Judith and Holofernes is too well known to need
narration. The poet, doubtless, followed the Latin Vulgate, as we have
no reason to think that a knowledge of Greek was a common possession
among Old English poets; but, as Professor Cook says, "the order of
events is not that of the original narrative. Many transpositions have
been made in the interest of condensation and for the purpose of
enhancing the dramatic liveliness of the story."

The Old English text is found in the same manuscript with the BEOWULF
(Cotton, Vitellius, A, xv.), and, to my mind, this poem reminds the
reader more of the vigor and fire of BEOWULF than does any other Old
English poem; but its author is unknown. It has been assigned by some
scholars to the tenth century, which is rather late for it; but
Professor Cook has given reasons for thinking that it may have been
written in the second half of the ninth century in honor of Judith, the
step-mother of King Alfred. It was