University of Virginia Library

A short metre, and one full of echoes, is that which is best fitted to the genius of Anglo-Saxon verse, so as to represent it fairly. The writer in the first instance wrote another version of this opening rhyme; but saw cause to reject it, as not being literal enough, and because for the metre's sake he was obliged to interpolate two lines. The reason why it is here below inserted is, (not by way of proof of extraordinary pains-taking, for the same sort of labour has occurred in other portions of this version, but) because it is considered by a learned friend as on the whole the best of the two. To the writer's mind, a sin against faithful rendering was fatal, and he prefers the more literal rhyme just already given to the reader. Here then is the rejected one: