Old English & Middle English Verse

Modern English prose translation

When the siege and the assault were ended at Troy,

The city battered and burnt to brands and ashes,

The man that the plots of treason there wrought

Was tried for his treachery, the veriest on earth.

It was Aeneas the prince and his noble kin                     5

Who then subdued provinces, and lords became

Of well nigh all the wealth in the western isles.

Afterwards noble Romulus hastened to Rome,

With great pride that city he founds first,

And names it with his own name, as it now has;               10

Tirius to Tuscany goes and establishes houses,

Langaberde in Lombardy sets up homes,

And far over the French flood Felix Brutus

On many banks full broad Britain he settles

                  with joy;                                            15

          Where war and distress and wonder

          By turns has dwelt therein,

          And often both bliss and blunder

          Full rapidly has shifted since.

And when this Britain had been founded by this noble lord, 20

Bold men were bred therein, who loved warfare,

In many a past time trouble that wrought.

More wonders in this land have occurred here often

Than in any other that I know, since that same time.

But of all who here dwelt, of Britain’s kings,                  25

Ever was Arthur the noblest, as I have heard tell.

Therefore an adventure in the land I mean to show,

That a marvel in sight some men hold it,

And a prodigious adventure of Arthur’s wonders.

If you will listen to this lay but a little while                    30

I shall tell it at once, as I heard it in town,

                  with tongue,

          As it is fixed and set down

          In story bold and strong,

          With loyal letters locked,                                   35

          In land as it has been long.

Modern English Prose Translation (lines 1-18):

When April with its sweet showers

The drought of March has pierced to the root,

And bathed every vein in such liquid

By which virtue engendered is the flower,

When the West Wind with its sweet breath   5

Has inspired in every wood and heath

The tender shoots, and the young sun

Has in the sign of the  Ram half its course run,

And little birds make melody,

That sleep al the night with open eye          10

(So nature urges them in their hearts),

Then long folk to go on pilgrimages,

And palmers to seek strange shores,

To distant shrines, known in sundry lands;

And specially from every shires end           15

Of England to Canterbury they go,

The holy blissful martyr to seek,

Who has helped them when they were sick.

Modern English Translation:

                                   Pater Noster
                    Our Father who art in heaven

                        hallowed be thy name;

                           thy kingdom come.

          thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven;

                  give is this day our daily bread,

                   and forgive us our trespasses

                            as we forgive those

                      who trespass against us,

                   and lead is not into temptation

                   but deliver us from evil. Amen.          

                               Ave Maria 
                      Hail, Mary, full of grace!

                       The Lord is with thee.

              Blessed art thou among women,

      And blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. 

Modern English Translation:

Here King Ezelstan, lord of men,        

ring-giver of warriors, and his brother also,

Eadmund the Fzeling, everlasting glory

achieved in battle by the edges of swords

near Brunanburh.  They cleaved the shield-wall,

hewed the war-lindens with the leavings of hammers,

the offspring of Eadward, as befitted their descent

from noble ancestors, that they often in battle

against each enemy should defend the land,

treasure and homes.  The enemy perished,                      10

Scots people and Vikings

fell doomed.  The field flowed

with the blood of warriors, since the sun rose

in the morning time, the glorious star

glided over the ground, God’s bright candle,

the eternal Lord’s, until the noble creature

sank in setting.  There lay many a man

gored by spears, a man of the north

shot over the shield; just as the Scots also,

weary, sated with war.  The West Saxons went forth          20

the long day with picked troops

on the tracks of the hated people,

fiercely cutting down from behind those in flight

with file-sharpened swords.  The Mercians did not refuse

hard hand-play with any hero

who with Olaf over the sea’s surge

in a ship’s bosom sought land,

doomed in battle.  Five young kings lay

on that battlefield,

put to sleep by swords; likewise seven                          30

jarls of Olaf, and countless numbers of the army,

Vikings and Scots.  There was put to flight

the prince of the Northmen, compelled by necessity

to the prow of his ship with little company;

the ship pushed to sea, the king went out

on the fallow flood: he saved his life.

Likewise there all the old man in flight came

to his northern kin,  Costontinus,
grey battle warrior; he had no cause to exult

in the meeting of swords; he was stripped of kinsmen,       40

deprived of friends on the battlefield,

slain in strife; and he left his son

on the field of slaughter, destroyed by wounds,

young at war.   He had no need to boast,

the grey-haired warrior, in the clash of swords,

the malicious old man, no more than did Olaf;

with their remnant of warriors; they had no cause for laughter

that they had the better on the battle field

in the clash of banners, the encounter of spears, 

the meeting of men, the exchange of blows                     50

of those who on the field of slaughter

with Edward’s sons played.

   Then departed the Northmen, the dreary survivors of spears,

in nailed ships onto Dingesmere

over deep water to seek Dublin, 

and again Ireland, ashamed in spirit.

Likewise the brothers both together,

king and atheling, sought their kinsmen,

the land of West Saxons, exulting in war.

They left behind them to enjoy corpses                          60               

the dark-coated one, the black raven,

the horn-beaked one and the dun-coated one,

the eagle white from behind, to enjoy the carrion,

the greedy war-hawk, and the grey beast,

the wolf in the forest.  Never was there greater slaughter

on this island ever yet

of folk felled before this

by the sword’s edge, of which books tell us,

by wise old men, since from the east hither

Angles and Saxons came up                                      70

over the broad seas seeking Britain,

proud war-smiths, they overcame the Welsh,

noble warriors, eager for glory, conquered the land.

Modern English prose translation:

                  Came on dark night

the shadow-walker striding.  The bowmen slept,

who were to hold the gabled hall,

all but one.  It was l known to men

that the demonic foe might not, if the Lord dis not wish it,

bring them under the shadows; 

but he wakeful, wrathful in indignation,

awaited enraged the outcome of battle.

Then came off the moor under misty hills                      710              

Grendel going, he bore God’s anger;

the evil ravager intended to ensnare some

of mankind in that high hall.

He waded under the clouds until he knew

clearly the gold hall of men,  

shining in gold.  That was not the first time

that he had sought Hrothgar’s house;

never he in the days of his life before or since

did he harder luck or hall-thanes find.

Came then to the hall the warrior striding,                      720

deprived of joys.  The door, firm with forged bands, 

immediately sprang open as he touched it with his hands;

then hostile minded he ripped open, since he was enraged,

the mouth of the hall.  Quickly thereafter

the fiend trod the patterned floor,

went angrily; there stood out from his eyes,

most like fire, an eerie light.

He saw in the hall many a warrior,

a sleeping band of kinsmen all together, 

a company of young warriors.  Then his spirit laughed;      730

the dire adversary believed that, before dawn came,

he would separate life from the body

of each of them, for he was in expectation

of a plentiful feast.  It was no longer his fate

that he might consume of mankind anymore

after that night.  The mighty kinsman of Hygelac

watched how the criminal assailant 

under sudden attack would act.

     Modern English prose translation

                     Listen!  I intend to tell    the choicest of dreams

                    which I dreamt     in the middle of the night

                     while speech-bearers*     dwelt at rest.                          *A kening for ‘men’

                       It seemed to me that I saw     a most wondrous tree

                     born aloft in the air,     enveloped with light,                                     5

                     the brightest of beams.     That beacon was completely

                     stippled with gold;     gems stood

fair at the corners of the earth,     five of which there were

up on the crossbeam.    Beheld it there all the angels of the Lord,

fair from their creation.    Nor indeed was that a criminal’s gallows.                           10

                     But there beheld it      holy spirits,

                     men over the earth,      and all this glorious creation.

                       Wondrous was that victory-beam,    and I was stained with sins,

                     deeply wounded with wrongdoings.     I saw the Tree of Glory,

                     worthily adorned,     beautifully shining,                                          15

                     garnished with gold;      jewels had covered worthily the tree of the forest. 

                     Nevertheless, through that gold     I was able to perceive

                  the ancient strife of wretches,     when it first began

to bleed on the right side.  I was struck completely through with sorrows.                     20

Fearful I was before that fair vision.     I saw that bright beacon

change clothing and colors.    Awhile it was with wetness drenched,

soaked with the flow of blood,    awhile with treasure bedecked.

                  Yet I lying there     a long while

                  beheld in penitent sorrow     the Savior’s tree,                                    25

                  until I heard     that it uttered speech.

                  Began then to speak words    the most blest of woods.

                     “It was years ago,    (I remember it yet),

                  that I was hewn down       at the forest’s edge,

removed from my trunk.     There mighty enemies seized me,                                   30

made me there into a spectacle,     ordered me to bear their criminals.        

Men bore me then on their shoulders,     until they set me on a hill;

fastened me there enemies enow.      Then I saw the Lord of mankind

                  hasten with great zeal    when that He would ascend me.

                  There I dared not then    against the Lord’s word                                35

                  bow or break,    when I saw trembling

                  the surface of the earth.    I might all

                  the foes have felled,    nevertheless I stood fast.

Modern English Translation:

Now must we praise    the kingdom of heaven’s Guardian,

                  Measurer’s might    and His mind’s thought,

                  the work of the Glory-Father,    as of each of wonders, He,  3

                  the eternal Lord,    established the beginning.

                  He created first    for the sons of men                                                                                                                      

                  heaven as a roof,    the holy Shaper.                             6

                  Then middle-earth    mankind’s Guardian,

                  the eternal Lord,    afterwards furnished

                  the land for men,    Prince all-powerful.                         9                                   

Modern English Translation: 
        
            The Sign of the Cross

                   In the name of the Father

                           and of the Son

                      and of the Holy Spirit                                              

                                  Amen.

                        The Lord’s Prayer

               Our Father, who art in heaven,

                      hallowed be thy name.

                        Thy kingdom come.

                    thy will be done on earth

                          as it is in heaven.

             Give us this day our daily bread,

                and forgive us our trespasses

   as we forgive those who trespass against us.

            And lead us not into temptation,

                        but deliver us from evil.

                                       Amen.

                        The Hail Mary

                  Hail Mary, full of grace,

                     the Lord is with thee.

           Blessed art thou among women,
    and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.

                  Holy Mary, Mother of God,

                          pray for us sinners,

               now and at the hour of our death.

                                 Amen.

                        The Gloria Patri

    Glory be to the Father and to the Son

                  and to the Holy Spirit

       as it was in the beginning, is now,

                    and ever shall be,

                    world without end.  Amen.