Now first printed from a MS. in the Cottonian Library. WITH A TRANSLATION AND NOTES, BY CHARLES WYCLIFFE GOODWIN, M.A. FELLOW OF CATHARINE HALL, CAMBRIDGE. LONDON: JOHN RUSSELL SMITH, 4, OLD COMPTON STREET, SOHO SQUARE. MDCCCXLVIII. EXCHANGE OY 6 133 PREFACE. THE Life of St. Guthlac, Hermit of Crowland, was originally written in Latin by one Felix, of whom nothing is with certainty known, further than what appears upon the face of his work.* From its being dedicated to Alfwold, king of the EastAngles, it may be conjectured that the author was an inmate of some monastery within the realm of East-Anglia; and he cannot have written later than A. D. 749,-the year of Alfwold's death. Though not personally acquainted with Guthlac, Felix drew his materials from persons who had known and conversed with the saint, and notwithstanding the * The Latin Life is printed both in the Bollandine and Benedictine Acta Sanctorum, under the 11th of April. Felix is usually called a monk of Crowland. In one MS. he is termed in the prologue, Catholicæ Congregationis Sancti Bedan vernaculus, from which the Benedictine editor infers that he was a monk of Jarrow. But this reading is unsupported by other MSS., and no dependence can be placed upon it. Vita. S. Guthlaci in vita Setorum Ras aplectoren marvellous colouring given to the incidents related, the memoir may be regarded as, upon the whole, authentic, and as a curious picture of the belief and habits of the age. Upon the work of Felix is founded the poetical ✓ Legend of St. Guthlac, contained in that singular col✓lection of Anglo-Saxon poetry the Codex Exoniensis. Less important, but not without its value to the student of our ancient literature, is the prose version in the same language, now for the first time given to the public. When and by whom this translation was made is unknown; the style is not that of Ælfric, to whom it has been groundlessly ascribed. The florid rhetoric of Felix is much pruned and cropped, but without the omission of any material incidents; the writer often paraphrases rather than translates, and in truth sometimes quite mistakes the sense of the original. Only one MS. of this version is known to exist, preserved in the Cottonian collection, in the volume marked Vespasian D. xxi. But amongst the contents of the MS. known as the Codex Vercellensis is an extract comprising two chapters of the Life of Guthlac. For a transcript of this most interesting 9 fragment I am indebted to the kindness of Mr. Benjamin Thorpe. It is curious, as presenting a text very different from the Cottonian copy; indeed it has almost the appearance of being part of an independent translation, though I believe this is not really the case. I have given all the variations of importance in the notes at the end of the volume. The Cottonian MS. is written in a very fair, neat hand, and, according to Wanley, is the work of the scribe who wrote the Bodleian Heptateuch, which latter he assigns to a date shortly after the Conquest. I have followed carefully the variable spelling and capricious use of the accent, which are as characteristic of writings of the Anglo-Saxon period as punctilious uniformity in orthography is of our own. I have made here and there such alterations as the received rules of accidence or syntax seemed to require, and the reading of the MS. will always be found in the margin, so that the reader may judge for himself. The original Latin has suggested an emendation occasionally where the text was evidently corrupt, and the Vercelli Fragment supplies a few valuable readings. In accordance with the prevailing fashion of b |