Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 23, 1912.djvu/274

 252 Reviews.

Beowulf and the Finnsburg Fragment. A Translation into Modern English Prose. By John R. Clark Hall. Swan, Sonnenschein & Co., 191 1. 8vo, pp. lxvi + 287. 25 ill. + map.

There is no sort of need to emphasise the importance of Beowulf to historians, antiquaries, and students of national life, so that we may confine our notice of this book to stating that it is very clearly printed and well illustrated, and supplied with copious notes and a map illustrating the geography of the poem. The first edition of this translation appeared in 1901, and the present contains the author's revisions and additions. Perhaps one of the most interesting portions of the book, apart from the translation, is the "Index of Things Mentioned in Beowulf"; herein are notes on shields, houses, corselets, and a variety of other things, with a number of illustrations and references to the occurrence of the terms in question in the text of the poem.

There is a copious bibliography of books on Beowulf which will be of great service to students.

Bertram C. A. Wjndle.

The Oxford Book of Ballads. Chosen and edited by Arthur Quiller-Couch. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1910. Sm. 8vo, pp. xxiv + 871.

Sir a. Quiller-Couch's name as editor and chooser of this collection of ballads makes for certainty as to its adequacy as a collection from the literary point of view. And from that standpoint, which is, of course, that of the editor and the publishers, we have nothing but praise for this delightful and prepossessing little volume, in which lovers of this form of poetry will find all their old favourites. Personally, and still from this point of view, we may venture to express our great appreciation of Book IV., which consists of carols and such like songs. What could be more splendid in \\-<\% ge7ire than "Jolly Wat," or "I Saw Three Ships," or "The Twelve Good Joys " ?

But from the folklore point of view also, though that was not