Who was wisely skilled in the calendar count. 95
It was Gregory himself, the great teacher
Of princes and peoples, who established and ordered
These times of fasting for the ministry of faith
That we still follow freely throughout England.
Just as Gregory decreed from the throne 100
Of Saint Peter. This is the same plan
That priests taught to people in their time on earth,
So you should never follow any other schedule.
Also we observe forty days of fasting
Before the resurrection of our beloved Lord— 105
People now name this period Lent.
Our ancient leader and mentor, Moses,
A glorious hero, first began such a fast
Before he ascended the mountain, maintaining it
For forty days and forty nights, eating no food 110
Before he received the Lord’s cherished law.
The Lord himself, that radiant ruler
Enveloped in flame, gave to Moses
A sacred knowledge, a scripted glory
From his holy hands, telling him to explain 115
His ancient teachings sagely to his followers
As a sign to the faithful that with proper fasting
People can find wisdom, grasping his mysteries,
If God gives us something of value,
A share of virtue, a means to salvation. 120
Likewise Elijah the legendary prophet
Wandered the desert, only eating
When one of the Lord’s angels set him free
From his fast with a feast of bread and water.
He was strengthened with such sustaining food, 125
The gift of God, for a long wilderness
Of forty days and forty nights. After his time
Of hard hunger, he ascended Mount Horeb.
Let us rightly consider the following mystery:
How could that hero, that holy servant, 130
Lose the power to proceed, then ascend the mountain
After the angel offered him that meager feast?
We live in a wilderness, separated from bliss
Apart from glory. The time has come!
We know in this hour that we need to pray: 135
“Lord, help us ascend this mighty mountain?”
Those who teach God’s word with their deeds
Are known to him and considered as angels.
He offers us sustenance for the body and spirit
In his divine teachings. We devour his words. 140
In this wicked world we need to fast,
And without food to be free of sin,
So in our holy abstinence we may ascend
God’s glorious mountain as Elijah did.
Here we consider how the holy saint 145
Departed from this world to seek God’s glory.
A fiery chariot with four proud horses,
Splendid steeds, carried him heaven-high
Into God’s perfect paradise, his heartland
Where Christ the Lord, the Son and Savior, 150
Has promised us all a heavenly home
Full of bliss and blessing if we fast for our sins.
Next we remember how Christ our Savior,
Our shield and protector, the Guardian of heaven,
Taught and helped us. The holy Redeemer 155
Was first immersed in the waters of baptism,
Free from sin, fasting for forty days
And as many nights, guilty of nothing,
To show us the way so that during Lent
We should keep the fast for forty days. 160
Christ’s adversary, that proud, perverse foe,
Tempted and tormented him in the desert solitude.
Seeing the glorious Savior bound in the body
Of a humble man, he began to plot and scheme,
Twisted in sin, how he might stick his arrows 165
In the Lord’s bone-house. No sin came of that,
And the bearer of evil, the bringer of harm,
Fled when the angels came seeking their Lord.
Consider, O sinner, whether the guardian of evil,
The wielder of wickedness, traitor of torment, 170
Will try to tempt you, seduce your soul,
As he did with Christ, our sinless Lord.
That devious devil is under constraint—
He can only aim at a target of guilt.
He can stalk and seduce, but he can’t force sin, 175
And angels will aid if you follow the Lord’s lead.
Now we have noted how the glorious ones
Held a tradition of fasting for forty days,
And so we command through the Son of God
That each man and woman inhabiting the earth 180
Should fast during Lent for a full forty days
Before the Lord’s resurrection day
Until the ninth hour, and abstain from sin
And eating flesh lest he devour doom.
Priests should sing the mass and beseech God 185
In daily fasting to be a friend to people
Across the earth. The faithful should always
Be properly penitent, confessing to their priests
Each and every sin, engaging in penance,
Promising to atone with actions for their sins 190
Of words and works, and to offer alms
To appease and gladden the God of glory.
There is a great need among all people
That their holy priests should refrain from sin
And refuse firmly to lie down in iniquity. 195
Who can intercede for a servant with his lord
If he has angered him? How can a priest pray
For a sinner, if he himself continues to sin,
Offers no atonement, makes no amends,
But repeats his unrighteous acts each day? 200
If a holy priest doesn’t know how to behave,
To keep righteous conduct with respect and fear
Of almighty God, then a man must keep
To the sacred standards, performing firmly
What scripture advises in words and works. 205
If a priest stoops to drink dirty water,
Let the supplicant sip from the clear stream
Of divine doctrine, imbibing God’s glory.
Now I speak in sorrow, lamenting the laxity
Of certain priests who renew strife daily 210
With their divine Lord, inciting his anger,
As they neglect God’s law and lead astray
All the lay people who would follow them.
As soon as they sing the morning mass,
They desire a drink and take to the streets, 215
Searching for a tapster to quench their thirst.
Listen! The thirst of a priest is pernicious.
It will drive him to lie and deceive the tapster,
Saying that one might innocently bring him
A fine, full feast of oysters and wine 220
During the morning. It seems such a priest
Has animal instincts as he forages for food,
Desperate for drink, like a wolf or a hound,
Seizing whatever he finds without restraint.
So these priests take pride in sitting at the table, 225
Blessing the wine, pouring out full portions,
Toasting each other, saying God permits this,
Stuffing themselves with anything available.
They urge anyone exhausted after mass
To guzzle wine, gobble oysters, gorge on fish— 230
[Their blasted words and bloated bellies
Will one day invite a hot, hellish feast.]
CÆDMON’S HYMN
Cædmon’s Hymn comes down to us from a story in Bede’s Ecclesiastical History of the English People and exists in Latin and Engli
sh in twenty-one medieval manuscripts with a number of variant readings (Fulk and Cain, 142). The poem is an important cornerstone in Anglo-Saxon history and legend. It purports to be the first poem in which the new Christian teachings were set down in the alliterative, strong-stress poetic tradition of the Germanic peoples who had migrated to England.
Bede says that Cædmon worked in a secular capacity at the monastery at Whitby. After dinner the harp would sometimes be passed around the table for each person to sing something, but on such occasions Cædmon would excuse himself and leave the festivities because he didn’t know how to sing. On one such occasion, he left the harp-passing party, went to the livestock shed where he was assigned night duty, and lay down to sleep. Then an awe-inspiring figure came to him in a vision or dream and called to him, Cædmon, sing me hwæthwugu, “Cædmon, sing me something.” Cædmon answered humbly, “I don’t know how to sing—that’s why I always leave the table.” The voice answered, “Yet you will sing for me.” “What shall I sing?” Cædmon asked. The voice answered, Sing me frumsceaft, “Sing me Creation, the beginning of all things.” And Cædmon, who had never sung anything before, began miraculously to sing the song now known as Cædmon’s Hymn.
Cædmon’s Hymn
Now let us praise the Creator and Guardian
Of the heavenly kingdom, his power and purpose,
His mind and might, his wondrous works.
He shaped each miraculous beginning,
Each living creature, each earthly kind. 5
He first made for the children of men
Heaven as a roof. Then our holy Shaper
Crafted middle-earth, a home for mankind:
Our God and Guardian watching over us—
Eternal, almighty—our Lord and King. 10
BEDE’S DEATH SONG
This poem exists in numerous manuscript versions in both Northumbrian and West Saxon dialects (Dobbie, 1942, c–cvii; Fulk and Cain, 173). It was probably composed or recited from memory by Bede shortly before his death in 735. It appears in a letter written by Cuthbert, a disciple of Bede, in numerous manuscripts in various dialects and must have been quite popular. The poem shares motifs from other OE poems, such as the Soul and Body poems, the Last Judgment poems, and Christ III: Judgment. Fulk and Cain note that “for all its brevity, the song is a poignant expression of humility by the greatest scholar of the age, remarking simply that all the intellect one requires in preparation for the afterlife is the ability to consider how one’s soul will be judged” (173).
Bede’s Death Song
Before he departs on that inescapable journey
Down death’s road, no man is so wise
That he knows his own end, so clever or unconstrained
That he need not contemplate the coming judgment,
Consider what good or evil resides in his soul, 5
What rich reward or bounty of unblessings
Will be offered in eternity when his time runs out.
THE LEIDEN RIDDLE
This is a Northumbrian version of Riddle 33 in the Exeter Book; it appears in MS Voss. Q.106 in the University Library at Leiden. It is a translation of Aldhelm’s Latin De Lorica riddle. Most editors believe that this version was probably written earlier than the Exeter version since it follows Aldhelm’s Latin ending, whereas the Exeter version substitutes a common formulaic riddlic ending for the final two lines of the poem. For more on riddles, see the headnote to Riddles 1–57 in the Exeter Book section.
The Leiden Riddle
The earth was my mother—I was raised
From her cold, wet womb. I know in my mind
I was not woven from hair or wool
By skilled hands. I have no winding
Weft or warp, no thread to sing 5
Its rushing song; no whirring shuttle
Moves or shakes me, no weaver’s sley
Strikes belly or back. No silkworms spin
With inborn skill their subtle gold
For my sides, yet warriors call me 10
A coat of joy. I do not fear
The quiver’s gift, the deadly arrow’s flight,
Though they must certainly aim and shoot.
LATIN-ENGLISH PROVERBS
These metrical proverbs, preserved in MS Cotton Faustina A.x and Royal MS 2B.v in the British Library, contain rhyming half-lines in both Latin and Old English. The OE and Latin versions are, as Dobbie points out (1942, 201), in close agreement, so I have given only a single translation, including as much rhyme as it is possible to muster. The one exception to the closeness is the Latin half-line amor abolescit (love fades), which is paired with the OE leof alaðaþ (the dear or beloved becomes hateful or hostile). My compromise translation occurs at line 2a, where the word “threatened” can carry elements of both meanings.
Latin-English Proverbs
Heat is cooled; white is soiled.
Love is threatened; light is darkened.
Everything fades except what’s made
Eternally to last, forever steadfast.
THE METRICAL PREFACE TO THE PASTORAL CARE
This poem is a verse preface to Alfred’s translation of The Pastoral Care. It occurs along with the epilogue below in several manuscripts (see Dobbie, 1942, cxiii–cxiv). Greenfield points out that here “Gregory’s work, personified, speaks briefly of its original composition in Rome, its transmission by Augustine to the English, and Alfred’s translation and dispatching of it to his bishops ‘because some of them, who least know Latin, needed it’” (Greenfield and Calder, 247). There is also a “speaking book” in Thureth, in “The Book’s Prologue to Aldhelm’s De virginitate,” and in the book or Bible riddle, Riddle 24.
The Metrical Preface to The Pastoral Care
Augustine brought this message from the south
Over the salt-sea to our island-dwellers,
As the Pope of Rome, the Lord’s champion,
The leader of the church, had earlier ordered.
Through the wise study of sacred texts,
Gregory held in mind a hoard of learning, 5
A treasure of wise truth for the telling.
So he acquired and increased knowledge,
Winning over a multitude of people
To the Guardian of heaven; that greatest Roman,
So rich in spirit, was rewarded with fame. 10
Afterwards King Alfred translated my words
Into English, sending me to all his scribes,
North and south, commanding them to copy me,
So that he could bring these copies to his bishops
And enable those who knew the least Latin 15
To read the translation and learn the truth.
THE METRICAL EPILOGUE TO THE PASTORAL CARE
In this poem the words of The Pastoral Care are compared to the transforming waters of baptism and the fulfilling waters of redemption associated with the power of the Holy Spirit. Campbell and Rosier point out that “this spirit flows through Gregory’s book for those who wish to partake, a fact which the poet … elaborates by adding many details to the basic metaphor” (79). Isaacs adds that “the Pastoral Care, then, is the body of water, as distilled from its original source in God, from which priests can draw in order to transmit its blessings to their flocks; but their vessels must not be leaky, lest the scirost wætre, ‘brightest waters’ be dispersed” (84). The motif of the address to the reader at the end of the poem is also found in the colophon to Bede’s Ecclesiastical History of the English People below.
The Metrical Epilogue to The Pastoral Care
These are the healing waters that the Lord of hosts
Promised us as comfort and consolation to mankind.
He wanted the living waters to flow into the world
From the hearts and minds of the faithful followers
Who believed in him on earth and under heaven. 5
No one can doubt that the wellsprings of this water
Abide in the high fathoms of heaven—thei
r source
Is the Holy Spirit. From there it is drawn down
To earth by a selection of saints and scholars,
Wise ones chosen to champion the truth. 10
Those who have heard the Lord’s words
Channeled the truth through the holy books
In manifold ways to the minds of men.
Sometimes sages dam up the streams of wisdom,
The treasure-house of thoughts and words, 15
Hold it back behind unspeaking lips,
So that the Lord’s waters might not flow
Needlessly away and their wisdom be wasted.
But the springs run deep and still in the heart
Through God the Father’s fathomless grace 20
Sometimes the unwise let the waters run,
Streaming unchecked across the plains,
So the bright, clear flow becomes clouded,
Pouring out its power into endless marshlands,
Where the mind is mired and the words are wasted. 25
But you, dear reader, can now draw and drink,
For God has granted Gregory the power
To dig this well at your own doorway.
Let the wise man who comes quickly
Fill up his jug, drink from his cup, 30
And come back for more. If anyone arrives
With a leaky jug or a cracked cup,
Let him hurry home first to repair it,
Lest he should lose the clearest of waters
From the deepest spring and find himself 35
Away from the well without the drink of life.
THE METRICAL PREFACE TO GREGORY’S DIALOGUES
This poem “precedes the text of Bishop Wærferth’s translation of Gregory’s Dialogues in MS. Cotton Otho C.i, Part 2” (Dobbie, 1942, cxv). This is yet another “speaking book” preface like “The Book’s Prologue to Aldhelm’s De virginitate” and “The Metrical Preface to The Pastoral Care” (see above), where the riddle-like voice of the book explains what is to follow and sometimes asks for prayers for those involved in the writing and/or making of the book. There is some debate about the bishop identified in line 12. The name has been altered by a scribe over an erasure in the manuscript and appears as “Wulfstan,” but it is now thought to have originally read “Wulfsige” (see Sisam, 1953, 201 ff., and Yerkes, 510 ff.). The reference to Alfred in line 26 probably indicates that Wulfsige was the bishop of Sherborne in Alfred’s time (Sisam, 1953). The OE translation of Gregory’s Latin Dialogues has been ascribed by Asser to Wærferth, bishop of Worcester, 872–915 (Cook, 1902, 14), but it may have been made by more than one translator (Fulk and Cain, 66).
The Complete Old English Poems Page 116
