Old English & Middle English Verse: Recent Episodes
Christendom College
Language and Literature expert Dr. Robert Rice eloquently reads Old English and 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.
Dr. Robert Rice reads the Linguistic and Social Change, and the Unchanging Human Heart ( from Troilus & Criseyde, Book II, lines 22-28.)
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.