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Deor had this experience, and comforts himself in a grim way by recalling various examples of men who have suffered more than himself. The poem is arranged in strophes, each one telling of some afflicted hero and ending with the same refrain: His sorrow passed away; so will mine. "Deor" is much more poetic than "Widsith," and is the one perfect lyric of the Anglo-Saxon period.
In our study we have noted: the great epic or heroic poem Beowulf, and a few fragments of our first poetry, such as "Widsith," "Deor's Lament," and "The Seafarer." Characteristics of Anglo-Saxon life; the form of our first speech. The Northumbrian school of writers. Bede, our first historian, belongs to this school; but all his extant works are in Latin.
It is not far hence, By mile measure, that the mere stands, Over which hang rimy groves. WIDSITH. The poem "Widsith," the wide goer or wanderer, is in part, at least, probably the oldest in our language. The author and the date of its composition are unknown; but the personal account of the minstrel's life belongs to the time before the Saxons first came to England.
Older than Beowulf is the lyric poem of Widsith, which has some historical interest as depicting the doings of kings, princes and warriors. It contains traces of the epic, which in Beowulf, whose English poem is next in point of time, is more markedly developed. During the fifth and sixth centuries the Germanic tribes who emigrated to Britain brought with them a heathen literature.
The version of the Hroar-Helgi story which we find in the Skjọldungasaga and the Bjarkarímur is the result of an attempt to harmonize conflicting traditions emanating from events about which we now find the first account in Beowulf and Widsith, as is also Saxo's treatment of the same matter in his sixth and seventh books.
Qualities of Literature. Tests of Literature. The Object in studying Literature. Importance of Literature. Summary of the Subject. Bibliography. Our First Poetry. "Beowulf." "Widsith." "Deor's Lament." "The Seafarer." "The Fight at Finnsburgh." "Waldere." Anglo-Saxon Life. Our First Speech. Christian Writers. Northumbrian Literature. Bede. Cædmon. Cynewulf. Decline of Northumbrian Literature.
OUR FIRST SPEECH. Our first recorded speech begins with the songs of Widsith and Deor, which the Anglo-Saxons may have brought with them when they first conquered Britain. At first glance these songs in their native dress look strange as a foreign tongue; but when we examine them carefully we find many words that have been familiar since childhood.
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