Now we must honor heaven’s warden, the power of the Creator, and his purpose— work of the father of glory, as he of every miracle, the everlasting Lord, established the beginning. He first shaped for the sons of the earth, heaven for the roof. The holy Creator, mankind’s warden, then Earth, the everlasting Lord afterward adorned the earth for people, the master almighty.
--Caedmon's Hymn
Listen! I wish to declare
the best dream!
Listen! I mused in
mid-night
while
speech-bearers slept in their beds.
It seemed to me
that I saw a splendid tree
lifted into the
air, enveloped by light,
brightest of beams.
All of that beacon was covered with gold; beautiful gems shone
fair from the corners of the earth; likewise
there were five
up on the shoulder-clasp. There angels
beheld the Lord, all
fair for forever— certainly the
gallows of
the feckless one were not there—
but the holy ghosts
beheldthem there,
men over the mould
and all this majestic creation.
The victory tree
was wonderful; I, stained by sin,
wounded sorely with
wickedness. I saw a tree of wonder
adored with a drape
delightfully shine,
garnished with
gold. They had gems
which worthily covered
the Ruler’s tree.
Yet through that
gold I might grasp
the wretcheds’
former strife—that it first began
to sweat blood from the right side. I
was all afflicted with sorrows;
I was frightened by the fair sight! I
saw that beacon, fain for
death,
change coverings and color: at times
it was drenched with wet
blood,
soaked with a flow of sweat even while adorned
with treasure.
Nevertheless I
there lay a long while.
Sorrowful, I studied
the Savior’s tree,
until I heard that
it spoke;
the noblest wood
began to speak these words:
‘It was years
ago—that I still remember—
that I was felled
from the edge of the
forest,
removed from my root. Strong fiends
seized me there,
They made a spectacle of me there,
commanded me
to raise up their
criminals.
Men bore me there on their shoulders
until they set me on a butte;
the many fiends fastened me there. I
saw the Lord of mankind
hasten with great heroism, so that he
would mount me.
There I dared not—over
the Lord’s word—
to bend or break, when
I saw
the earth’s
surfaces tremble. All the fiends
I might have felled
when I stood fast!
They then stripped the young hero
that was God Almighty.
Strong and steadfast, he climbed onto
the dispised gallows,
noble in the sight of many when he
would redeem mankind.
I trembled then when the warrior
embraced
me; I did not dare to topple to the earth,
to fall to the surfaces of the groud,
but I had to stand fast.
I was reared up as a cross. I raised
the great king,
Lord of heaven; I did not dare to
bend.
They pierced me with dark nails; the
wounds were
scars on me,
open, malicious wounds—I did not dare
to injure any of them.
They insulted us both together; I was
all soaked with blood
begotten from this man’s side after
he had sent forth his ghost.
‘On that hill I
have experienced
fierce fates: I saw
the God of hosts
severely stretched
out; the darkness of heaven,
the Ruler’s corpse
covered with clouds;
a shining spleandour; a shadow go
forth,
dark under the
clouds. All of creation
wept,
they lamented the
king’s fall: Christ was on the
cross.
However, there the
fervid came from afar
to the Lord; I that
beheld all.
I was sore, oppressed with sorrow, I
bowed
down to the hands of the
soldiers
humble, with great heart. There they grabbed Almighty God,
they raised him from the weighty torment;
the
warriors then left me
to stand covered with sweat; I was
all wounded with shafts.
The laid the bone-weary one down
there.
They stood themselves at his body’s head.
They beheld there heaven’s Lord and
he rested there a while,
tired after a terrible battle. Then
they began to wreak him a tomb;
the soldiers within view of the slayer
carved it from shining rock,
They fixed therein the Ruler of
victories. They then began to sing a
funeral song
sorrowful at sundown, then they afterwards would again set forth,
weary, away from the wonderful Lord;
he rested there with wanting company.
Yet we there
grieving a good while
stood still. A
shout went up
from the champions.
The corpse grew cold,
that lovely
lifehouse. Then the man began to lop us down
all to the earth.
That was an awful fate!
The man burried us in the roted pit
where the thanes of the Ruler—
his friends—found
out,
adorned me with
gold and silver.
Now you may hear,
my hero, the beloved,
that I have endured
evil doer’s work
of tender trouble.
The time is now come
that they worship
me wide and far
men over the mould,
all this majestic creation,
beseech themselves
to this beacon. On me the Son of God
suffered a while;
therefore I, sublime, now
tower under the
heavens. I may heal
each one of them
who is in awe of me.
Once I was made
hardest of mulcts,
most loathsome to
men, until I for them the way of life
rightly opened for
the voice-bearers.
Lo! he then
worshiped me, the Lord of wonders,
over the wood of
the forest, that Ward of the Kingdom of Heaven.
just as did his
mother, Mary herself,
Almighty God, for
all men,
honored above all
man’s kin.
‘Now I command you,
my dear champion,
that you speak this
sight to men,
reveal the words
that it is a wondrous beam
on which the Almighty
God suffered
for mankind’s many
sins
and Adam’s old
deeds—
he tasted death
there. Yet the Defender again
arose
with his majestic
might to help man.
He ascended into
heaven. From hither he will hurry back
into this
Middle-Earth to seek mankind
on Doomsday, the Defender himself,
Almighty God with
his angels,
so that then he
will judge, he who has
control of judgment
of each and every
one as he already here
earned in this fleeting life.
There, no one will
be unafriad
of the word that the
Warden will say;
there, he will ask
the multitude where the man would be will be
willing of death
for the Defendor’s name,
bitter to taste, as
he previously died on the beam.
And then they will
shudder and scarely think
what they could
begin to say to Christ.
No one need be
afraid there,
they who already
bear the best beacon in their breasts
may, through the
cross, seek the Kingdom
from the earthly
way—every soul
that would live
with the Lord.’
I besought myself
to that beam with a blithe
heart,
great strength.
There I was solitary,
a small host. My
spirit was
impelled into
marching forth, many in all experienced
longing. The hope
of my life is now for myself
that I may visit
the wood of victory
more often alone
and then with all men,
to worship well. It
is my will for the
hearty in heart and
my hope of protection is
centered on that
cross. I have not a
kingdom with many
friends on this
earth, yet they forth from here—
went from the world of joy,sought the
wonderous King
forthemselves;
they live now in
heaven with the High Father,
they abide in
honor. I expect
each day when the cross
of the Lord,
which here on Earth
I already beheald,
will fetch me from
this fleeting life,
and bring me then
into great bliss,
the dream in heaven.
There is the Defender’s folk
seated to
feast—there is bliss forever.
And he then would
set me there since I afterwards might
abide in honor,
ably with the saints
to enjoy the dream.
The Lord is a friend to me
who here on earth
already suffered
on the gallows-tree
for mankind’s sins;
he liberated us and
gave us life
in our heavenly
home. Hope was renewed.
The Son was
victorious in the sojourn
mighty and
successful, when he came with a multitude,