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                                THROUGH
                             GOLDEN DOORS
                                  TO
                          ENGLISH LITERATURE




                         THROUGH GOLDEN DOORS
                                  TO
                          ENGLISH LITERATURE

                             A NEW SERIES
                          BY JEANNETTE MARKS
                   _Lecturer at Mt. Holyoke College_


The master-stories of English literature told for young readers. The
author, who has been professor of English Literature at Mt. Holyoke
and the author of several successful books for both younger and older
readers, has been occupied for a long time in making a selection of the
best stories from the greatest English writers beginning with "Beowulf"
and the dawn of English letters.

The present volume offers masterpieces chosen from the earliest English
literature from the seventh to the fourteenth century, stories which
are not readily accessible.

The second volume will offer hero tales of the Middle English period,
from Chaucer and others.

In later volumes selections will be made from the masters of modern
English literature.


                       EARLY ENGLISH HERO TALES
                           From 600 to 1340
                      Other books in preparation
             _Each illustrated, 12mo, Cloth, 50 cents net_
                     HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS


[Illustration: MEDIEVAL LONDON
_From Manuscript 16 F. ii in the British Museum_]


[Illustration]


                                 EARLY
                                ENGLISH
                              HERO TALES

                                TOLD BY
                            JEANNETTE MARKS
                            WELLESLEY M.A.
                    LECTURER AT MT. HOLYOKE COLLEGE

                              ILLUSTRATED


                            [Illustration]


                           HARPER & BROTHERS
                           NEW YORK & LONDON




                 COPYRIGHT, 1915, BY HARPER & BROTHERS



                PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
                         PUBLISHED APRIL, 1915




                                  TO
                               H. M. C.




                               CONTENTS


  CHAP.                                                      PAGE

        INTRODUCTION                                          vii

  I.    THE FIRST ENGLISH HERO                                  1

  II.   WELSH MAGIC                                             9

  III.  THE BATTLE AT THE FORD                                 18

  IV.   CÆDMON THE COWHERD                                     30

  V.    THE SHEPHERD OF LAUDERDALE                             41

  VI.   THE BOY WHO WON A PRIZE                                48

  VII.  A FISHERMAN'S BOY                                      57

  VIII. THE WEREWOLF                                           68

  IX.   AT GEOFFREY'S WINDOW                                   75

  X.    A FAMOUS KITCHEN BOY                                   85

        CHRONOLOGY                                            101




                             ILLUSTRATIONS


  MEDIEVAL LONDON                                  _Frontispiece_
    (From Green's _Short History of the English People_.)

  KINGS IN ARMOR                                        _Page_ 27
    (From Green's _Short History of the English People_.)

  HENRY III. SAILING HOME FROM GASCONY, 1243              "    61
    (From Green's _Short History of the English People_.)

  KNIGHT IN ARMOR                                         "    87
    (From Green's _Short History of the English People_.)




                             INTRODUCTION


Supposing you were asked to enter a Great Palace? And within that
palace, you were told, were more than a thousand golden doors? And
those doors opened into rooms and upon gardens and balconies, all of
which were the most beautiful of palace rooms and gardens? And some
were more beautiful than anything the world had ever known before? Do
you think you would go through the gate to that palace?

And if you were told that in the palace were lamps so bright that they
lighted not only the palace, but cast a glow over the whole world?
And that these lamps hung from chains the ends of which you could
not see, just as Pryderi was not able to see the ends of the hanging
golden chains in the palace which he entered? And once within the Great
Palace you were not only better for being there, but also happier and
stronger and more beautiful, and never any more could you be lonely?
It sounds like an Aladdin's lamp, does it not, which, once seen and
touched, could bring so much beauty and power into our lives! Indeed,
it is Aladdin's lamp--the lamp of men's minds and souls. And the Great
Palace is the Palace of English Literature.

Over those doors are many names written--names never to be forgotten
while the English tongue is spoken. And in that palace there is
fairyland; there are giants and monsters; there are warrior heroes
like Beowulf, and saintly heroes like Cuthbert; there are noble boys
like Alfred; there are poets, princes, lovely ladies, little children,
spirited horses, faithful dogs; there are heard the sound of singing,
the playing of the harp, the beat of feet dancing, cries of gladness,
cries of sorrow, the rolling of the organ, the fluting of birds, the
laughter of water, and the whisper of every wind that has blown upon
the fields of the world; there are seen flowers of every marvelous and
starlike shape, of every rainbow hue, and jewels as shining as the
lamps hanging in the Great Palace, and fruits rare and strange filling
the Great Palace with sweet fragrance and color; there are rooms unlike
any rooms we have ever seen before; and the years are there--nearly
two thousand--numbered and made beautiful; there, too, are Wisdom and
Kindness and Courage and Faith and Modesty and Love and Self-Control,
coming and going hither and yon through the wide hallways or on service
bent up and down the narrow corridors.

It is a Palace of Enchantment, is it not? Yes, it is a Palace of
Enchantment, and I can think of no greater happiness, no stronger
assurance that we shall