More from Juliana, part III

Yet more from Juliana. I am rapidly approaching the halfway mark, and feel that I am hitting my stride with the voice and language.

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She swiftly asked then, she who was unafraid, pleasing to Christ,
whence his origins were. To her the wrack-kin replied:
I am an angel of God sailing from above,
a noble thane, and to you sent holy from the heights.
For you severe tortures with slaughter-grim wounds are decreed
as deadly punishment. God orders you be commanded,
child of the Wielder, to protect yourself from them." (258-66)

Juliana was then, on account of its fearful message to her,
terrified by that monster, the terror that spoke in words,
the adversary of glory. Then she firmly fastened her spirit,
the young and innocent woman, and called out to God:
“Now I wish to ask you, O Shelter of Warriors, Eternal Almighty,
by the noble creation that you, Father of Angels, established at the start,
do no permit me to turn aside from the praise of your blessed gift,
as this herald who stands before me bids me with his fear-spell.
So I wish to ask you, gentle Lord, the Glory of Kings, to reveal
what this thane might be, bouncing in the breeze,
and who instructs me upon a rough road away from you.” (267-86)

Then the heart of Juliana was gladdened, judgment-blessed.
She grabbed that devil… (287-8)

[at least one folio is missing from the Exeter Book at this point]

…. to sell the King of All Kings unto his death.
Moreover, I contrived it so that champion wounded the Wielder
while the multitude watched, so that both blood and water
sought the earth together there. Moreover, I incited
Herod in his heart so that he ordered the head of John the Baptist
be cut off when the holy man rebuked him wordfully
for his wife-love and his unlawful marriage.*
Also I instructed, guile-minded, Simon Magus to raise strife
against Christ’s chosen thanes and stretch out slander
to the holy men through deep error saying that they were sorcerers. (289-301)

“I endeavored with evil tricks when I seduced Nero
to order Christ’s thanes Peter and Paul be killed and,
before, Pontius Pilate with my teachings to hang
the Wielder of Heaven upon the cross, the Mighty Maker.
Likewise I instructed Ægias to unwisely order
Andrew to be hung upon a high tree, so that he sent
his spirit up from the gallows into the Face of Glory.
Thus have I performed so many wrathful bales with my brothers,
dark with sins, that I cannot relate them all or tell them fully
nor count the number of torments, the grim hate-thoughts. (302-16a)

The holy woman answered him by the Spirit's gift, Juliana:
“You must speak further yet, Enemy of Mankind,
of your mission here, and of who send you to me.” (315b-8)

New Section breaks

More lines from Juliana appear below, this time with the Exeter Book's own section breaks preserved. According to Muir's the Exeter Anthology of Old English Poetry, new sections (chapters, fitts, call them what you like) in the poem are demarcated by skipping a line and then starting the new line with a large capital letter followed by a smaller initial. Translations of the poem vary in their breaks, from Marie Nelson's unbroken stichic presentation to Bradley's divisions by sense. It seems better to, like with the Guthlac translation, to respect the manuscript's division when possible.

Enjoy! And let me what you think about the translation, my lurking friends. :)

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III.

Then it seemed base to the folk-leader to be unable
to turn the heart of that woman, or her intentions.
He ordered her to be seized by the hair
ad heaved up onto a high branch, where
she, sun-bright, should suffer blows, strife unstintingly fierce
for six hours of the day, and he ordered her forthwith
to be taken down again and he commanded her be led to prison.
Within her was the praise of Christ fast wound within her heart-lock;*
in her mild heart, a strength unbroken. (225-35)

The prison door was bolted closed then by the work of hammers.
The holy woman abode within pledge-fast. Always she praised
the Glory-King in her heart, Heaven-realm’s God, the Savior of Men,
within her constraining cell, covered with darkness.
The Holy Spirit was her enduring companion. (235-42a)

Then came suddenly into the closed hall the enemy of heroes
skilled in evil. He wore the shape of an angel—
a soul’s foe skilled in afflicting songs, a captive of Hell,
who spoke to the sainted one: “What do you suffer,
dearest and most worthy to the Glory-King, our Lord?
This deemer has prepared the worst tortures for you,
endless pain, if you do not wish, wise-minded, to make sacrifice
and propitiate his gods. Be hasty, as he orders you led out hence,
so that you quickly offer up some gift, a victory offering,
before you seize your death, a murder before his multitude.
Then you shall escape the judge’s ire, blessed virgin.” (242b-257)

She swiftly asked then, she who was unafraid, pleasing to Christ,
whence his origins were. To her the wrack-kin replied:
I am an angel of God sailing from above,
a noble thane, and to you sent holy from the heights.
For you severe tortures with slaughter-grim wounds are decreed
as deadly punishment. God orders you be commanded,
child of the Wielder, to protect yourself from them." (258-66)

More Juliana

Work on Juliana continues. The lines below conclude the second part of the poem:

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Unafraid she then gave him answer through spiritual thought,
Juliana: “Never will you persuade me to promise tribute
by hypocrisy unto deaf and dumb devil-idols, the enemies of souls,
the worst thanes of torture but I will worship the Lord of Glory,
of Middle-earth and of Power Majestic—
and to him alone do I entrust all things, that he may become
my protector, my helper and savior against the hell-harmers.” (147-57)

Then Affricanus wrathfully delivered her, the father of that woman,
into the power of her enemy, Eleusius.
He ordered her at daybreak to be led unto his judgment-seat.
The crowd was astonished at the woman’s beauty, the people all together.
Then noble Eleusius greeted her at first, her bridegroom,
with soothing words: “My sweetest shone of sun, Juliana!
What gleam you have! What perpetual plenitude of grace!
What fruit of youth’s kind! If you will serve our gods yet
and betake yourself to their protection so mild,
the succor of sainted ones, then shall be turned aside from you
innumerable tortures cruelly contrived, savage sorrows that are
prepared for you if you do not wish to sacrifice unto our true gods.” (158-74)

Him the noble maid gave answer: “Never will you constrain me
with your threats, nor will you prepare torments of such great wrath,
that I would love your lord-ship, except if you renounce these false beings,
your idol-worship and recognize wisely the God of Glory,
Creator of Souls, the Maker of Mankind—
in whose power are all created things forever.” (175-83)

Then before the people with an angry mind Eleusius spoke
with boast-words, growing quite infuriated, the folk-owning man,
and he ordered the woman through spite-wrack to be stretched out
naked and sinless and beaten with scourges. (184-8)

The battle-warrior then laughed, speaking sarcastically:
“Thus is the life-domain of our enemy seized at its start!
Yet I will grant you your life, though you first
spoke many unwary words and refused too strongly
to adore the true gods. Your reward for your counter-thinking
must be frightful tortures afterwards, unless you are reconciled
with them, and sacrifice thankworthy gifts unto them—
after your vice-words setting your peace with them. (189-201a)

“Let rest this strife Juliana, this hateful civic infighting.
If you, long after this, through your rashness again
follow perversity, then I must be compelled to revenge,
constrained by hatred, your god-breaking—your grievous strife-speech—
that you with blasphemy began to contend against the best gods
and the most merciful of those that men know,
that this people-hood has long worshipped for themselves.” (201b-8)

Noble Juliana, heart unafraid, spoke to him:
"I do not fear your judgments, accursed harm-doer,
nor your baleful torments. I have as my hope
Heaven-realm's Ward, the Mild Protector, the Wielder of Power,
he who shields me against your shine-play,*
fro the grip of the fierce ones whom you consider your gods.
They are lacking of every good, idle, worthless,
without profit, nor may any man meet with comfort there,
true concord. Though he may seek friendship for himself,
he will not find there help among those devils.
I have affixed my heart in the Lord,
he who over every power rules wide-lived,
Owner of Glory, of every victory—
That is a True King."


* 214) scinlace: Literally "shine-play," but translated by Kennedy and Bradley as 'delusion(s),' and defined by Woolf as 'delusion, rage.' Clark-Hall defines the word as 'sorcery, magic, superstition' and adds the above definitions. The word must be derived from the same idea as "glamour," a magical spell, and is ancestor to "moonshine" as a wild idea or what gives those wild ideas. I decided to leave the strange kenning as is for the moment until I can think of something that alliterates and seems more communicative.

Start of Juliana II

I've had a little spare time to work on the translations. Besides working on Juliana, I've been reassessing the lineation of the Guthlac poems. Despite several suggestions to try for a prose poem form, I am convinced that the translation belongs in some form of free verse. I am redoing Guthlac now, so please come by to see how you like the new line breaks.

Below are four stanzas of Juliana from the second part of the poem:


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To her father then blessed Juliana gave answer,
she that had to God firmly founded her wifely friendship:
“Never will I endure this prince’s husband-love
unless he should cultivate the God of Hosts more eagerly
than he has previously done, loving with gifts
he that created the light, heaven and earth and the course of the seas,
the orbit of the universe. He cannot otherwise bring me to his bed.
Eleusius must look with his goods for another woman for bride-love—
he will have nothing here.” (105-16)

Then Juliana’s fiendly father replied to her in rage—
and he was not promising her ornaments:
“I shall make it such, as my life endures, that if you do not abandon
this crime first, if you henceforth attend to an alien god
and abandon those that are dearer to us, who stand as succour to our people,
that you shall succumb to death, quickly forfeiting your life
through the clutch of beasts, if you do not wish to submit to
the legal union, the partnership with brave Eleusius.
Great is that enterprise and terrible too for one like you,
one that despises our lord.” (117-29)

Blessed Juliana then gave him back answer, wise and dear to God:
“I wish to speak a truth to you, so long as I am of the living,
I wish not to tell a lie. Never will I fear your judgments,
nor are your torturing perils bitter to me, your battle-crash
by which you with violent evil-doing threaten me,
nor will you ever cause by your idolatry
me to turn from the praise of Christ.” (130-9)

Then Africanus* was infuriated, angry and ferocious,
maddened and mind-grim, the father against the daughter.*
Then he ordered her beaten, threatening her with torment,
troubling her with tortures and spoke this speech:
“Exchange your thoughts and convert these word that you spoke
in folly before when you disparaged the worship of our gods.” (140-7)

New Juliana lines! Yatta!

Long time no post, nu? Here is the first section of Juliana, which has been posted to the appropriate page as well, fresh off the grill. There are doubtlessly still some mistakes, and notes are marked but not yet completed. As usual, please send me your comments and suggestions.

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I.

Listen! We have heard of heroes deliberating,
deed-brave men determining what occurred in the days
of Maximian, who throughout middle-earth, raised up
persecution, an infamous king killing Christian men
and felling churches—a heathen war-leader pouring out
upon the grassy field the sainted blood of the God-praising,
the right-performing. His realm was broad, wide and mighty
across human nations—very nearly across the entire earth. (1-10)

They traveled among the cities, as he had commanded,
the Emperor’s awful thegns. Often they roused strife with perverted acts,
those that hated the Lord’s law through criminal skill.
Fiend-ship was aroused, heaving up heathen idols
and slaying the holy, breaking the book-crafty and burning the chosen,
terrifying the champions of God with spear and flame. (11-7)

There was a certain wealthy* man of noble kind, a mighty count.
He ruled over guard-cities, ever defending that ground and holding
hoarded treasure in the city of Nicomedia. Often he earnestly and by duty
sought an idol, heathen-worship over the word of God. His name was ascribed
to be Eleusius and he had a great and renowned authority.
When his mind began to yearn after the virgin Juliana curiosity broke him.
She bore in her soul the holy troth, eagerly intending that her maidenhood
would be preserved for the love of Christ, pure from any sin. (18-31)

Then was that woman, with the wish of her father, betrothed to that wealthy man.
Her fate he did not fully know—how she, young in spirit, despised espoused friendship.
Her fear of God was greater in her mind than all the riches that abode
in the possession of that nobleman. Then the wealthy one, that gold-rich man,
was eager in his heart for marriage, when the woman would most promptly
be prepared for him, a bride unto his home. She firmly set herself against
that warrior’s love, although he owned acquired-wealth within hoard-locks,
uncountable jewels upon the earth. (32-44a)

Condemning it all, Juliana spoke a word amongst a multitude of men:
“I can say to you that you need not trouble yourself so greatly. If you adore
and believe in the True God and exalt his praise, you would recognize
the Comfort of Souls and I would immediately, without faltering, be prepared
to submit to your desire. Likewise I say to you, if in fact you confide
in an inferior god through devil-worship, or call to heathen-idols,
you cannot have me nor can you compel me to sin.
Never will you, through your violent spite, prepare the harsh pain
of severe torments that you should turn me from these words.” (44b-57)

Then the nobleman grew swollen with fury,
stained with criminal acts, hearing that woman’s words.
Rough and heart-blind, he ordered then a swift messenger
to bring the saint’s father to deliberation at once.
Voices mounted up after they leaned their spears together,
these war-great men. They were heathens sick in their sins,
father-in-law and son-in-law. (58-65)

Then spoke the ward of realms
with that woman’s father, and a dangerous mind,
spear-holding: “You daughter has shown me
shame. She says to me—singling me out—
that she does not care for my husband-love
nor my conjugal ways. These great difficulties
were a disgrace to me in my heart’s ken.
She quite viciously offers me abuse before your own people—
she commanded me to worship an alien God with my wealth,
—over the other Gods that we have known before—
to praise him wordfully, to extol him in my mind,
or else I will never possess her.”* (66-77)

Then darkened the bold father-in-law after these words
Juliana’s father, unbinding his mind-hoard:
“I swear it by the true gods, as I find favor at their hands,
or else, my prince, comfort at yours in wine-halls,
if these words are true, dearest of men, which you say to me,
that I will not spare her, but will give her to you,
famous prince, unto your authority for her ruination.
Sentence her to death, if you deem it appropriate,
or allow her to live, whatever may be more preferable to you.” (78-88)

Then her father boldly went to speak with Juliana,
resolute and wrath-wretched, swollen with rage,
where he knew the glad-hearted young woman kept her home.
He spoke then by word: “You are my daughter, dearest
and sweetest in my heart, close by the earth, the light of my eyes,
Juliana! You have in foolishness taken, through your idle hostility,
a way contrary to the judgment of wise men.
You renounce too strongly according to your own advice,
your bridge-groom, who is better than you,*
more noble in this world, more wealth-endowed in money riches.
He is good to have as a friend.
Therefore it is worthy that you be the lady of this man,
his eternal love’s blessing, yet not forsake him.” (89-104)

Happy New Year! Juliana begins

Greetings one and all!

Feeling restless and realizing that the work of translation makes me feel good about myself --a needed break from other writing and studying-- I decided to get going on Juliana. Here are the first 57 lines. This represents my first attempt to get into the voice of Cynewulf, a process that will take discovering as I go along.

Right at the start, I am interested in the kennings with æht- as the first part (æht-welig (18), æht-spedigra (101), æht-gestealdum (115)) that indicate the wealth of Eleusius where we might usually expect a kenning on feoh-. It seems to me an intriguing possibility that there is a pun intended here, playing off a less common usage of æht (according to BT, with a long vowel, feminine noun) to mean "persecution." This usage appears only once in Beowulf (a text we have good reason to believe Cynewulf knew well)at line 2957: "Þa wæs æht boden Sweona leodum, segn Higelaces freoðowong þone forð ofereodon, syððan Hreðlingas to hagan þrungon" [Then was persecution commanded for the Swedish people, the standards of Hygelac over-rode into the refuge-field, after the Hrethings swarmed to its battlements.] Since Eleusius is both rich in possessions and in the desire to persecute Juliana, the double meaning definitely works though it is lost in translation.

(Translation)

Listen!
We have heard of heroes deliberating, deed-brave men determining
what occurred in the days of Maximian, who heaved up persecution
throughout middle-earth, an infamous king killing Christian men
and felling churches—a heathen war-leader pouring out upon the grassy field
the sainted blood of the God-praising, the right-performing.
His realm was broad, wide and mighty across human nations,
very nearly across the entire earth. (1-10)

They traveled among the cities, as he had commanded, the Emperor’s awful thegns.
Often they roused strife with perverted acts, those that hated the Lord’s law
through criminal skill. Fiend-ship was aroused, heaving up heathen idols
and slaying the holy, breaking the book-crafty and burning the chosen,
terrifying the champions of God with spear and flame. (11-7)

There was a certain wealthy* man of noble kind, mighty count.
He ruled over guard-cities, ever defending that ground and holding
hoarded treasure in the city of Nicomedia. Often he earnestly and by duty
sought an idol, heathen-worship over the word of God. His name was ascribed
to be Eleusius and he had a great and renowned authority.
When his mind began to yearn after the virgin Juliana curiosity broke him.
She bore in her soul the holy troth, eagerly intending that her maidenhood
would be preserved for the love of Christ, pure from any sin. (18-31)

Then was that woman, with the wish of her father, betrothed to that wealthy man.
Her fate he did not fully know—how she, young in spirit, despised espoused friendship.
Her fear of God was greater in her mind than all the riches that abode
in the possession of that nobleman. Then was that wealthy one, that gold-rich man,
was eager in his heart for the marriage, when the woman would most promptly
be prepared for him, a bride unto his home. She firmly set herself against
that warrior’s love, although he owned acquired-wealth within hoard-locks,
uncountable jewels upon the earth. (32-44a)

Juliana condemned all that and spoke a word among the multitude of men:
“I can say to you that you need not trouble yourself so greatly. If you adore
and believe in the True God and exalt his praise, you would recognize
the Comfort of Souls and I would immediately, without faltering, be prepared
to submit to your desire. Likewise I say to you, if in fact you confide
in an inferior god through devil-worship, or call to heathen-idols,
you cannot have me nor can you compel me to sin.
Never will you, through your violent spite, prepare the harsh pain
of severe torments that you should turn me from these words.” (44b-57)

(Notes)

18: See above for discussion of æht-welig.