Giants — The Mystery and the Myth on Civilisation

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Wiggy W
Wiggy May 25, 2005 10:02:28
Replying to Littlestone

I'm familiar with that Anglo saxon poem, but I'm not sure if we can take it literally. I'm sure the English would have been aware of the achievements of the Roman Empire, would have traded from its margins in Germany, and many would have fought as mercenaries in its armies. What do you reckon?

L Littlestone
Littlestone May 25, 2005 10:44:35
Replying to Wiggy

>I'm familiar with that Anglo saxon poem, but I'm not sure if we can take it literally.<

I agree, not literally but with a good pinch of poetic license. In <b>The Earliest English Poems</b>, Michael Alexander, the translator, writes, "It is possible that the city of the poem (<b>The Ruin</b>) is Aquae Sulis, the Roman Bath, and we may imagine the anonymous author walking about the overgrown streets."

Similarly, and closer to our own time, is Sir Isaac Newton's famous line (part of which is etched on the side of the £2 coin) where he pays homage to his predecessors...

"If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants."*

* Letter to Robert Hooke, 5 February 1676.