Page:Gummere (1909) The Oldest English Epic.djvu/204

188 the wise God all awards with difference, on many an earl great honor lays, wealth at will, but woe on others. —To say of myself the story now, I was singer erewhile to sons-of-Heoden, dear to my master, Deor my name. Long were the winters my lord was kind; I was happy with clansmen; till Heorrenda now by grace of his lays has gained the land which the haven-of-heroes erewhile gave me. That he surmounted: so this may I!

  HIS word, beyond reasonable doubt, means “far-wanderer”; the poem surely describes the life and defines the vocation of a typical roving singer of the older times. How its parts were put together, what credit goes to its historical and biographical statements, how one is to reconstruct the wanderer’s itinerary, are questions still under lively debate; they are not to be discussed now 