哈佛经典49－Epic&Saga

　　BEOWULF
　　TRANSLATED BY FRANCIS B.GUMMERE
　　PART Ⅰ-THE TREASON OF GANELON
　　PART Ⅱ-THE PRELUDE OF THE GREAT BATTLE
　　PART Ⅲ-THE REPRISALS
　　THE DESTRUCTION OF DA' DERGA'S HOSTEL
　　THE STORY OF THE VOLSUNGS AND NIBLUNGS
　　TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE
　　THE NAMES OF THOSE WHO ARE MOST NOTEWORTHY IN THIS STORY
　　A PROLOGUE IN VERSE
　　SONGS FROM THE ELDER EDDA
　　PART OF THE SECOND LAY OF THLGI HUNDING'S-BANE
　　PART OF THE LAY OF SIGRDRIFA
　　THE LAY CALLED THE SHORT LAY OF SIGURD
　　THE HELL-RIDE OF BRYNHILD
　　FRAGMENTS OF THE LAY OF BRYNHILD
　　THE SECOND OR ANCIENT LAY OF GUDRUN
　　THE SONG OF ATLI
　　THE WHETTING OF GUDRUN
　　THE LAY OF HAMDIR
　　THE LAMENT OF ODDRUN

　　Beowulf is not folk-song,but belongs to a much more conscious and devepoped stage of art than the popular.The exploits narrted in the poem belong to the life of Germanic peoples before they crossed the North Sea,and the least one of the characters can be identified whith a historical personage.Simple almple almost to bareness in style,withour subtlety or high imageination,the Song of Roland is yet not without grandeur;and its patriotic ardor gives it a place as the earliest of the truly national poems of the modern world,Of the lrish epic tales,The Destruction of DA Derga's Hostel is a specimen of remarkable beauty and power.The primitive nature of the story is shown by the fact that the plot turns upon the disasters that follow on the violation of tabus,or prohibitions often with a supernatural sanction,by the mostrous nature of many of the warrious,and by the utter absence of any attempt of rationalize or explain the beliefs implede or the marvels related in it.The powers and achievements of the heroes are fantastic and extraordinary beyond de*ion,and the natural extra natural constantly mingle;yet nowhere does the narrator express suprise.