Elene continues

Here is more from the Elene translation, which is literally pouring out onto the page.

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Likewise the shelter of noblemen ordered then, the ring-giver
of warriors, just as he saw that sign, the battle-first of his armies,
that had been revealed to him, Constantine, the glory-blessed king,
that token, the cross of Christ, to be wrought with the greatest haste.
He commanded then in the dawning at the first of day
the warriors to be roused and the weapon-clash,
to heave up the sword-banners, and that holy tree
to be carried before them into the crowd of their enemies,
to bear the symbol of God. The trumpets sang loud
before the army. The raven rejoiced these works,
dewy-feathered, the eagle observed this journeying,
the slaughter-cruel warriors. The wolf hove his song up,
the companion of the woods. The terror of battle stood tall. (99-113)

There was the crack of shields and the pack of warriors,
the harsh hand-swing and the armies’ slaughtering,
after they met first the spraying of missiles.
Onto that fated folk the showers of arrows,
spears over yellow shields onto the throng of the fearsome,
the haters sword-grim, the venomous battle-darts
through the power of fingers sent forth.
The resolute warriors advanced, sometimes pressing forward,
sometimes breaking the shield cover, piercing it with blades
thronging battle-bold. Then was that plumed banner raised,
the standard before the squadron, singing the cry of victory.
(114-24)

Elene continues

Yes, I know I said I would be doing Genesis next, but I got to thinking that if I resumed Elene then I would have an actual manuscript. Call it "Five Anglo-Saxon Hagiographic Poems" (taking Guthlac A & B as two separate poems).


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Then the Caesar ordered with great haste, under the arrows’ flurry,
his warriors be summoned unto battle beneath the heavens
against the fearsome war-players, be led out for an attack.
Immediately the Romans were made ready, men victory-valiant,
with weapons to warfare, although they had fewer to go to battle
than the Hunnish king. They rode about their renowned leader—
their shields dinned, the camp-wood resounded—
The king marched forth in a horde, an army to battle.
The winging raven sang, sable and slaughter-fell.
The army was on the march.
The horn-bearers leapt, the heralds cried out,
the horses trod the earth. The host drew together,
quick to the quarrel. (42b-56a)

The emperor was afraid, affrighted by terror, after
he surveyed the strangers, the army of Huns and Hrethgoths
that gathered their army at the river’s shore, a force uncountable
on the border of the Rome-dwellers’ realm. Heart-sorrow weighed
upon the Roman ruler—for the kingdom he hoped not
for army-lacking—he had too few troops,
shoulder-companions to stand against the overwhelming force,
bold in battle. The army camped, nobles about the prince,
near the water course, about the length of a night
after they had first seen their enemies’ movements. (56b-68)

Then it was revealed unto Caesar himself in his sleep,
where he slumbered in company, victor-strong, seeing
a dreamy portent. It seemed to him beautiful in the shape of man,
a white and hue-bright warrior, a someone was shown to him—
more fair than he had seen early or late under the heaven.
He started up from sleep, covering himself with his boar-crest.
The messenger quickly, the brilliant herald of glory,
spoke and named him by his name—the helm of night was thrown back:
"Constantine, the King of Angels has ordered that, Wielder of Fates,
you be offered a pledge, the Lord of Multitudes.
Do not be afraid though the terror of strangers threatens you,
the cruelty of battle. Look to the heavens, to the Ward of Glory,
there you will find a bolster, the symbol of victory.” (69-85a)

Constantine was instantly ready —
through that holy command, his heart-box was opened
and he looked up, just as that messenger declared,
the faithful peace-weaver. He saw there bright with ornaments,
the beautiful tree of glory across the roof of the heavens,
adorned with gold, gems were shining;
The pale wood was inscribed with book-staves,
bright and light: “WITH THIS SIGN YOU
WILL OVERCOME THIS TERRIBLE PERIL,
AND WITHSTAND THE HATEFUL HORDE.”
Then the light departed, ventured up, the angel with it,
into the crowd of the clean. The Emperor was happier
for this vision and more sorrowless, the prince of warriors,
in his mind for that fair sight. (85b-98)

Juliana completed

Hello all,

It only took eleven months, but Juliana is now complete in first draft. The final section, what I'm calling the epilogue is posted below. For the rest of section six, please go to the full Juliana translation from the sidebar.

Following Kennedy and Bradley, Cynewulf's runic signature is translated into likely words and are given in italics. The lines are purposely different from those of the rest of the narrative, broken up into short bursts of thought. I like how this pattern of lineation feels so far, so I think I'll keep it.


-------------------------

Epilogue

There is a great need for me
for that holy woman to effect me help,
when the dearest of all shall be parted
from me, the two brothers united shall
be torn apart, their great heart-love.
My soul shall part from my body
upon a journey—I myself do not know where—
in ignorance of its destination.
From this place I shall seek another,
journeying according to my former works
and my olden deeds. (695b-703a)

Mournful will mankind depart.
The king will be stern, the Giver of Victories,
when, flecked by sins, the sheep,
terrified, await what, according to their deeds
He will adjudge them, as a reward of life.
The watery floods will tremble,
lowering themselves sorrowfully.* (703b-09a)

I remember all that pain,
wounded by the sins that I late and early
have wrought in this world,
what I must lament with mournful tears.
There was one time too late,
so that I was ashamed afore of my evil deeds,
while ghost and body together fared
uninjured upon the earth.
I will have need of mercies then,
that the holy woman intercede
with that highest of kings.
(709b-717a)

A great heart’s sorrow reminds me
of this need. I pray that every man
of human kindred who recites this song,
earnest and mindful,
will remember me by my own name,
and pray to the Lord, the Helm of the Heavens,
Wielder of Powers, will provide me help,
on that greatest of days, the Father,
the Spirit of Comfort, on that awful day,
the Deemer of Deeds, and his dear Son,
when their Threeness sitting in majesty
as a singularity, the kindred of mankind
through that glorious creation decrees by his works
the reward of every man. Forgive us, Great God
so that we find your aspect, Joy of Nobles,
merciful on that famous day—
Amen.
(717b-31)

Juliana VI underway

I'm about a hundred lines from the end of Juliana, and I can't express how happy that makes me. Although I am generally happy with the results, this poem has been with me for far too long. The summer was a pretty wretched stretch of bad translating, which I do not care to revisit.

I'm looking ahead with mild excitement to the next target, and I'm beginning to think it should be Genesis A&B. It's long, it's difficult, it really needs to be done.

--------------------------

[MS folio missing]

“… eagerly before
they praised [him] on high and his holy word,*
they said truly that he alone wielded all victories
over all of creation, and eternal blessed gifts.” (559b-63a)

Then came an angel of God, blazing with bangles
and thrust the fire to the side, freeing and fortifying
her clean of guilts, free of vices, and scattering
the ferociously hungry tongues of flame where the holy woman stood,
the maiden more bold, in their midst, unhurt. (563b-68)

That for the rich man was a distress to endure—
he would change it, if he could, for the whole world.*
Heliseus, flecked with many sins, sought how he could
most painfully, through the worst of torments,
devise her soul’s death. Nor was the enemy too slow—
he instructed the nobleman to make an earthen vessel,
by wonder-craft and the terrifying howls of warriors,
ordering it to be set it around with wooden beams
and forest timber. Then the obstinate creature commanded
that men fill that earth-bowl with lead, and then ordered
the pyre, the greatest of fires, be kindled,
surrounded by brands on all sides.
The bath welled with heat. (569-81)

Swiftly then, Heliseus, swollen with rage, ordered the woman
sinless and devoid of fault, to be shoved into the surging lead.
Then the fire became separated and scattered.
Lead burst wide, hot and hungry—
Warriors were terrified, seized by the rush.
There were five and seventy of the heathen host
forburned through the searing sneeze.
Then yet Juliana the holy woman stood
uninjured in her beauty. Nothing of her hem or garment,
her hair or skin, was damaged by the fire,
neither body or limb. She stood in the flames
totally unharmed, saying thanks for all to the Lord of Lords.
Then the deemer became stormy and mind-savage;
he began to tear his clothes and bared and gnashed his teeth.
He raged in his wits as if he were a wild beast,
roaring sad-minded and cursing his gods,
because their power could not withstand a woman’s will. (582-600a)

Juliana, the maid of glory, was resolute and unafraid,
mindful of her strength and the desire of the Lord.
Then the wretched judge ordered her put to death by sword-bite,
holy at heart, deprived of her head, chosen by Christ.
Her death would be no profit to him,
after he further knew its consequences. (600b-06)

Then was the hope of the holy woman renewed
and the mind of the maiden greatly gladdened,
after she heard the hero deliberate his evil counsel,
that the conclusion of her struggle-days must come—
her life released. Then Heliseus, full of sins, ordered
Juliana, chaste and chosen, to be led unto her sinless death.
Then came suddenly that humbled hell-ghast singing a harmful song,
wretched and unhappy—that same cursed devil
whom she had bound and beaten with torments—
he called for the crowd, filled with sorrowful songs: (607-18)

“Requite it with affliction now, that she has despised
the power of our gods, and degraded me most strongly,
so that I became a traitor. Let her obtain the hateful rewards
through the sword’s spoor, achieve your olden enmity,
enveloped in your sins. I remember the sorrow,
how I endured in one night countless afflictions
and sufferings, fast in bonds, innumerable evils. (619-27a)

Last part of Juliana V

The final stanzas of the fifth section of Juliana are now drafted. These were fairly complicated, and will probably change incrementally as I continue to read them aloud to myself.

----------------------

“I have borne it all—cruel crimes throughout human nations,
those that have happened in the wide ages from the start of the world
for the kindred of men, the earls upon the earth.
There was none among them that have dared to touch me thus
boldly as you now do, holy with your hands.
There were none of these mindful men across the earth
through holy might, none of the high-fathers or prophets:
even though the God of Multitudes, the King of Glory,
revealed to them the spirit of wisdom, his boundless gift,
nevertheless I might approach the way to them. (506b-518a)

There was none of them who have laden me with bonds so boldly*
or whelmed me over with calamity, before now
when you seized me fast and overcame my great strength,
which my father gave me, the enemy of man-kind,
when he ordered me to venture, a prince from the darkness,
so that I had to sweeten your sins for you.
There sorrow befell me, a heavy hand-struggle.
I need not rejoice over this errand in the company of my kinsmen
after this sore suffering, when I must render unto them
a sorrowful account in our gloomy home.” (518b-530a)

Then Heliseus the noblemen, a cruel-minded man, ordered
Juliana, holy in heart, to be lead out from her narrow house
unto his doom-seat to speak with the heathens.
She, sainted and inspired in her breast, dragged with her
that unbelieving devil, fastened in bonds.
Then he, wretched and careful, lamented his errand,
bewailed his pain, bewept his bad fortune, speaking wordfully:
(530b-38)

“I entreat you, my lady Juliana, before the peace of God,
to work me no further insult, no disgrace in front of these earls,
more than you have done already, when you overwhelmed
the wisest under the prison’s shadow, the king of the hell-dwellers
in the city of fiends; he is our father, the evil prince of murder.
So, you have chastised me by your soreful swats!
I know as truth that I have never met, before or since,
in worldly realms a woman like you—more bold in your thoughts,
nor more cross-timbered* of all womankind!
It is clear to me that you have become in all things
unabashed and wise in mind.” (539-553a)

At that moment the woman allowed the devil after his time
of suffering to seek the shadows in the dark earth,
the adversary of souls, in pain of torment. He knew more readily,
that messenger of malice, to speak of it before his kinsmen,
torture’s thanes, how it befell him on his journey. (553b-58)

Okay, so a sense of flow is returning now that I've made a point to work on Juliana a little bit every day. Here are the first fifty lines of the fifth part of the poem, in which the interrogation of the demon continues:

-----------------------------------------

Then that beautiful woman, the light of glory,
spoke wordfully to that pledge-breaker:
“You must confess more wicked deeds,
humiliated spirit of hell, before you may go hence—
what iniquity, what great evil works by dark error,
have you accomplished, against the children of men?” (454-60a)

To her that devil replied: “Now I learn it by your speech,*
that I must speak my mind, constrained by compulsion
as you command me, to suffer your affliction.
This miserable time is full strong, this punishment excessive.
I have to suffer and tolerate all things in your judgment,
to uncover my dark and stained deeds, which I have plotted for an age.
Often I have stolen the sight, blinding countless warriors
by wicked thoughts, the kindred of men, covering the light
of their eyes with a cowl of mist, through the poisonous spear-point
and storms of darkness, and I have crushed the feet
of some through evil contrivances, others I have brought into burning,
into the blazes’ embrace, so that the last of his tracks was visible.* (460b-75a)

“Also I did unto some so that the blood spewed
from their bone-locks, so that they with sudden peril
gave up their ghost through the welling of their veins.
Others on a sea-voyage were drowned upon the way of waters,
on the ocean-flood, by my skill under the gloomy gushing.
Some I delivered unto the rood so that they gave up their life,
dreary, upon the high gallows. Others I incited by my teaching
to make strife so that they in sudden peril renewed old grudges,
drinking beer. I poured out for them crime from the cup,
so that they lose their soul in the wine-hall through sword-grabbing,
hastening fated from the flesh-home, seeking sore wounds.
When I find some without the mark of God, heedless
and unblessed, then I boldly slay them by various deaths
with my own hands and devilish devices. (475b-94a)

“Even though I sit a summer-long day,* I could not relate
all the suffering that I have performed as evil, early and late,
indeed since the heavens and the way of stars were areared,
the earth was fastened and the first humans, Adam and Eve,
from whom I snatched away life and instructed them
so that they abandoned the love of the Lord, his eternal blessed gift,
and their bright happy home, so that wretchedness became them both
forever and so upon their heirs, the darkest of sinful deeds—
How much more endless evil must I recount? (494b-506)

Juliana IV complete!

After only six months, I have finished the first translation of part four of Juliana. It's not that it is particularly difficult rendering, I just have had a lot of other things to do with my time. The final three stanzas are posted below and appear on the Juliana translation page in context. The post-wrestling conversation with the devil is almost finished.

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The accursed one addressed her, that wretched miscreant:
“Say to me first how you, daring through deep thought,
became thus battle-bold beyond all of woman-kind
so that you clapped me fast thus in chains,
in every way defenseless. You placed your trust
in God Eternal, He that Sits in Majesty, Maker of Man-kind,
such as I founded hope in my father, the king of hellish citizens. (429-37)

“Then I am dispatched against sooth-fast people,
that I might convert their minds in wicked deeds,
their hearts from health. At times my desire is
restrained by their resistance, my hope for holy ones,
just as sorrow befalls me here on my campaign.
I know that much too late myself: now I, a sin-worker,
have to suffer shame over this for a long time. (438-45)

“Therefore I beg of you through the power of the Highest,
the grace of the Heaven-King, who upon the rood-tree
suffered, Lord of Majesty, that you have mercy upon me
in my wanting, so that I miserable may not wholly perish,
even though I, thus rashly and dull-wittedly sought you
on my journey, where I did not expect such an unhappy time as this.
(446-53)