in the genuine style of the author. Carlyle here reproduces in metrical
form a few strophes. He has said elsewhere that one of his ambitions was
to make a complete English version of the poem. Since then an endless
number of accounts of it, chiefly worthless, has appeared in magazines
and elsewhere. The first attempt at a complete metrical translation was
made in 1848 by Jonathan Birch, who however only reproduces Lachmann's
twenty _lieder_, with some fifty-one strophes added on his own account.
His version of the first strophe runs thus:

Legends of by-gone times reveal wonders and prodigies,
Of heroes worthy endless fame,--of matchless braveries,--
Of jubilees and festal sports,--of tears and sorrows great,--
And knights who daring combats fought:--the like I now relate.

In 1850 appeared William Nansom Lettsom's translation of the whole poem
according to Braunfels' edition, with the opening strophe turned as
follows:

In stories of our fathers high marvels we are told
Of champions well approved in perils manifold.
Of feasts and merry meetings, of weeping and of wail,
And deeds of gallant daring I'll tell you in my tale.

The next metrical rendering is that by A. G. Foster-Barham in the year
1887. His first strophe reads:

Many a wondrous story have the tales of old,
Of feats of knightly glory, and of the Heroes bold,
Of the delights of feasting, of weeping and of wail,
Of noble deeds of daring; you may list strange things in my tale.