And of the treasures of the Earth, He gave With open hand; and for their use He bade The denizens of Earth and Sea in crease And multiply, and trees bring forth their fruit. Sin-stained, they thenceforth sojourned in a land More sorrowful, a region and a home More barren far of every earthly Good Than were those blissful Seats from which alas By Sin they were expelled. CAEDMON (Died 680). [Translated from the Anglo-Saxon dialect and edited by S. HUMPHREYS GURTEEN, in 1896.] JUDITH How, rampant and raving, he roused with his urging The bench-sitting barons to clamor blithely. So the hateful one through the whole day Deluged with wine all of the drinkers, The strong-souled wealth-lord, till in stupor they lay, So drenched all his dukes as if death had them slain Glutted with good things. The prince gave order To fill for the feasters until the day faded, The darksome night neared them. Then the pernicious one Bade the blest maid be brought in haste, The ring-adorned, to his resting-place, The bracelet-laden. Forthwith obeyed they, The servitors, what their sovereign bade, The mailed warriors' master: marched they quickly To the guest-hall, where Judith they found Prudent in mind, and promptly then A finely-wrought fly-net round the folkleader's Royal bed hung, that the baleful one, Leader of legions, through it might look |