Prologue

There shall be the fairest of joys
when they meet at the beginning,
an angel and a blessed soul— (1-2a)

when she gives up this earthly joy
and forsakes these loaned pleasures—
when she is parted from her body. (2b–3)

Then the angel speaks—
keeping the elder order—
one spirit greets the other
and announces God’s embassy: (4-5)

“Now you may venture to where
you have striven for a long time,
again and again. I shall lead you myself— (6-7)

“for you the ways will be pleasant
and revealed is the splendorous light of glory.
You are now a fated farer
on your way to the holy home.” (8-10a)

There regret will never come,
for its miseries, a seeking beyond the hedge—
instead there will be an ecstasy of angels, (10b-11)

peace and beatitude, and the couch of souls
where they may always rejoice to their furthest moment,
rejoicing with their Lord, those who have
performed his judgments here on earth. (12-15a)

God will keep perpetual recompense
for them in the heavens, where the Loftiest of All,
the King of Kings, governs the cities. (15b-17)

Those are buildings that do not decay,
nor will life fail through wretchedness
for those that abide therein— (18-20a)

rather it will become better
for them the longer it goes on.
They will enjoy youth and the mercies of God. (20b-21)

To that place the souls of the soothfast
may come after death, those who teach
and perform Christ’s law here, and uprear his praise. (22-24)

They subdue those accursed spirits
and obtain for them the repose of glory—
humanity’s heart must climb into here,

before or after— (25-27a)

when he attends his solitary and sublime spirit,
so that these good souls will be allowed,
clean of blot, to come into God’s wielding. (27b-29)

I.

There are, throughout middle-earth,
many orders of men beneath the heavens,
those who rise up in the reckoning of the holy.
We can rightfully heed any one of them,
if we wish to hold the holy commandments.
The wise man now can take advantage
of the opportunity of auspicious seasons
and his spirit can venture forth, desiring the way. (30-37a)

The world is writhing — love for Christ cools,
and many temptations have mounted throughout middle-earth,
just as in former years God’s prophets have warned wordfully
and through their divination declared the sum
just as it is happening now. All earthly abundance elders
and from their beauty fruiting things fade—
in such tardy seasons all seeds become weaker in virtue. (37b-46a)

Therefore a man needs not think much upon this world
for improvement — that God will bring us a delight
more fair over these evils that we now endure,
before the ending of all creation, which he established in six days,
when he brings forth now these orders under the heavens,
both great and small. (46b-53a)

So this middle-earth is shared out into halves.
The Lord watches where they dwell who keep his law—
he sees his judgments decline every day and stray
from the worldly rule that he pronounced by his own word.
He finds many, but few will be selected. (53b-59)

Some yearn to garb themselves in the glory of their estate
by just gabbing, but do not practice the program. 
For them earth-weal over the Life Eternal is their highest hoping,
that which is eventually estranged from all earth-dwellers.
Therefore they now slander the heart of saints,
those who have confirmed their thought in the heavens,
knowing that their true homeland will endure
perpetually for the multitudes who throughout middle-earth
serve the Lord and through their good works
pine for that precious home. (60-70a)

So these mortal treasures will be meddled for a good
more renowned when they hanker for it,
those for whom the fear of God bends over their heads.
They will be rebuked by that highest majesty
and they will profit in their lives by his commandments—
and they ever wish and hope for the better one hereafter.
They invest in glory— they give alms and comfort the wretched.
They are generous with their rightful possessions.
They show love by exchanging with those who own less.
Daily they serve the Lord, and daily the Lord observes their deeds. (70b-80)

Some dwell in desert places. They willingly seek out and occupy homes
in the shadows. They await their dwelling among heaven’s kind.
Often one drives loathsome terror down upon them,
he who would snatch away life. Sometimes he reveals
terrifying thoughts to them, sometimes idle glories.
The killer, wise in woven lies, has both skills
and persecutes the sole-dweller. (81-88a)

Before these men stand angels, armed with ghostly weapons;
they are mindful of their well-being
and keep the spirits of saints, who know their joy
is with the Lord. These are battle-tested champions
who serve the King, that one who never refuses recompense
for those that endure in his love. (88b-92)

We can now relate what was recently revealed to us
by a holy order, how Guthlac stretched out his heart
to the delight of God, rejected all wickedness
and earthly honors, mindful of the upwards—
his home in the heavens. (93-98a)

Guthlac’s hope was upon that place, after he enkindled him,
he who paves the life’s way for souls, and gave to him
angelic gifts, so that he alone began to inhabit
a mountain-home, and through humble mind
gave away all his proper possessions,
which his youth must have applied to the joys of this world.
A holy warden from the heavens held him close,
who eagerly fortified his flawless heart with goodness of spirit. (98b-107)

Okay, we have often heard that this holy man
in his earliest age enjoyed many hazards.
The time yet came for the judgment of God,
when he gave an angel unto Guthlac’s understanding
so that his thirst for sinning could be assuaged.
The time was at hand — and two guardians kept watch over him,
they battled over him—an angel of the Lord and a fearsome specter.
Their counsels could be not any less alike,
which they bore on many sorties into his heart’s reason. (108-18)

V.

God shielded Guthlac against the loathsome clutches
of spirits, wretched and wracking—
they were fierce to rush upon him with greedy grasp.
God never wanted his soul should suffer bodily pain
from them, he granted that the harmers may only touch
him with their hands, and that his peace was protected against them. (404-11)

Then the demons heaved Guthlac onto the high breeze,
giving him power beyond the kindred of men,
so that he was shown before his eyes everything
under the dominion of holy shepherds,
the bearing of men in monasteries whose use their lives in lusting,
idle possessions and arrogance, in ostentatious clothing,
as will be the custom of youth where they are not
checked by the fear of the elder. (412-20)

The fiends need not have rejoiced there—
rather they had too swiftly consumed the fruits
of their endeavor, only granted them for a short while.
They might not long afflict his body-house with tortures,
nor vex him by any abuse they might achieve. (421-26)

Then they conducted him from the sky
to his most beloved home on earth,
so that he again climbed the barrow in the grove.
The killers groaned and moaned mournsomely
that a child of man had excelled them in calamities,
and thus, destitute and alone, this would come
as a hardship to them, if they could not
painfully pay him a greater blow in return. (427-34a)

Guthlac set his hope in the heavens, trusting in salvation—
he had endured the fiends’ embrace with his life.
The insurrection of miserable demons was a temptation vanquished.
The champion remained, happy on the hill:
his reward was with God.
It seemed in his thought that he was blessed
among mankind who protected his noble soul alone
so that the enemy’s hand at the uttermost end
should hurt him not, when the Lord’s glory
would guide him, compelled to die at last. (434b-45)

Nevertheless yet, remembering their griefs,
the blame-blabbers promised him the baleful 
with furious blasphemies. His faith was revealed:
that God had rewarded Guthlac with courage
with his favors since he struggled alone. (446-50)

An accursed demon said to him wordfully:
“We should not need to toil this arduously for you,
if you would have readily heeded the precepts of friends.
When you first came, humbled and wretched, into this flash-point,
then you vowed that the Holy Ghost would shield you readily
against hardships, because of the token that turned
the hand of men away from your noble face.” (451-59)

(Within that mask dwell many men, resigned to fault.
They don’t serve God at all, but please their bodies
for love of delicate food’s delights —
so you all render unto the Lord
worthy memorials in foolish delight.
You all hide before men many things
that you conceive in your heart.
Although you practice them in secret,
your deeds will not be kept hidden.) (460-66)

We conducted you upon the breeze,
depriving you of the land’s joys,
for we desired you would see for yourself
that we have bring the truth against you.
All of these torments you have endured
because you could not change this fact.” (467-69)

Then it happened that God wished to give him
favor after his suffering, so that he esteemed martyrdom
in his breast. He gave Guthlac wisdom
in his heart’s thoughts and a might-fast memory.
He stood against many old devils,
emboldened by courage, and said to vex them that they,
vanquished, must abandon that green plain. (470-77)

“You are scattered! Sin weighs upon you!
You know not how to beseech the Lord of Multitudes,
nor humbly seek for mercy, even though he permitted it for you
some little while that you were allowed to possess power over me.
You were willing to accept that with patience,
but conducted me up angrily so that I could see from the air
the constructs all over this country.
The radiant light of heaven was revealed to me,
though I might have endured your fury. (478-87)

“You set me in scorn because I suffered meekly
the roomy regula and the wild hearts of young men
in God’s temples. By this you would make game
of the praise of saints. You sought the inferior,
and did not judge the better by their deeds.
Yet these acts shall not be kept secret. (488-93)

“I wish to speak a truth refuting you all—
God has shaped the youth and the delight of men
so they cannot bear themselves with maturity in their early bloom
but instead they delight in the joys of the world
until the count of winters subdues their youngness.
Thus their spirit feels affection for the demeanor
and deportment of a more mature state,
which many throughout middle-earth appropriately serve in their ways.
Men will reveal their wisdom to other people:
they lose their arrogance after their youth flees folly. (494-504)

“You do not distinguish that fact, rather you speak of the sins
of the wicked, and never celebrate the hearts and practices
of the soothfast. You rejoice in crimes and do not look
for the comfort that you may experience any improvement
in your wrack-journeys. Often you stand accused,
for which comes chastisement from heaven.
That one who has sent me can reconcile us,
he that controls the length of every life.” (505-12)

So the sainted soldier shouted out—
he was a martyr for mankind, sundered from his sins.
Yet he must endure his share of pain,
though the Lord ruled over his torments. Listen—
that seemed some wonder to men that Guthlac would further
allow miserable demons to strike him with savage seizures,
and that it happened yet! (513-20)

Greater still was that Christ sought middle-earth himself,
and shed his blood into the hands of slayers.
He held dominion over both life and death when he suffered
willingly and meekly the malice of persecutors on earth.
Therefore it is now fitting that we consider the deeds
of law-fast men, and say praise to the Lord for all these exempla,
the wisdom that his books reveal for our sakes through his glorious works. (521-9)

 

VI.

Grace in sacred power was discovered within Guthlac.
There is much to relate, all after the beginning,
what he endured in courage: (530-32)

The vanguard whom the Almighty Father himself
had decreed against the hidden adversaries of life.
There his soul became pristine and proven.
It is widely known throughout middle-earth that his heart
flourished in God’s design—
there is still much to tell about what he suffered himself
under the narrow bonds of his malicious guests. (533-40)

Then he scorned the pain and always was mindful of his soul,
of the protector who kept his mind, so that Guthlac did not doubt
the truth in his breast, nor with grieving injure his spirit,
but that steadfast heart dwelt in the holy man
until he had overcome these troubles. (541-6)

His torments were harsh, grim the servants,
all of them that promised his life’s downfall.
They were not allowed to condemn Guthlac to death,
the shepherds of sin, but his soul waited within its body-house
until a dearer hour. Readily they observed that God
would deliver him from hatred. He would sternly judge
their forceful vengeance. So the Lord can, almighty and alone,
easily protect every one of the blessed against hardships. (547-56)

Nevertheless, fury-swollen, the wracked wrathfully brought him,
the champion of glory, the holy Host-thane, to the doors of hell,
where the doomed spirits of the sinful
first seek entry after their death-pangs
into that horrible house, the bottomless pit down below the cliffs.
They shook him, wickedly offering him battle, dread and hatred,
and a savage journey, as is the custom of fiends,
when they wish to betray the souls of the soothfast
with sins and crafty tricks. (557-68)

Grim-hearted they began to harass God’s warrior
in his heart, affirming strongly that he must go into
that terrible and grim place and go down humbled
to hell’s citizens and there suffer in burning bonds.
They desired to drag the miserable wretch into hopelessness
among the angry words, the Creator’s champion. It could not be so! (569-76)

Lornsome and loathly to Christ, they spoke to Guthlac harshly:
“You are not worthy, no servant of the Lord, pristinely proven,
nor a righteous champion, well known by word and deed,
holy in his heart. Now you must dive deep into hell,
to have no more of the light of the Lord in Heaven,
the lofty houses, the seat in the sky,
because you have performed too many sins and evils
in your flesh-home. We wish to repay you a bounty
for every blot, where it will be the most loathsome
for you, in the most horrific soul-torment.” (577-89)

Guthlac the blessed man gave answer to them in his spirit,
with the power of God: “Do so much, if Christ the Lord,
the Light-Origin of Life will permit you, the Wielder of Hosts,
to be able to led his pledge-pilgrim into that hateful flame.
That deed would be in the power of the Glory-King,
Christ the Savior, he that humiliated you and routed you
into servitude under close confinement. (590-8)

“I am his humble serving-man, his vassal patient.
I must submit myself wholly to his sole judgment everywhere
and wish forever to be subordinated to him eagerly
with my soul’s thoughts, and faithfully follow my Savior,
in both my practice and presence. I wish to thank him
for all these gifts that God shaped—first the angels
and then the earth-dwellers. I will bless him with a blithe heart
the Light-Origin of Life and day and night sing praises to him
through honor befitting, praise in my heart the Warden of the Heaven-Realm.
That will never be allowed you from above, in the light’s leniency,
that you may speak the Lord’s praise. Rather you must,
welling with woe in death, whooping bewail your lamentation
in Hell, to never have the holy exaltation of the Heaven-King. (599-617)

 

VII.

“I will worthy that Deemer by words and deeds
in my days, love him in my lifetime,
as his lesson and grace spring forth as sprouting speech,
to those who with their works accomplish his will.
You are pledge-breakers, so you have lived long on the exile’s track,
given flame to drink, enticed by darkness,
deprived of heaven, bereaved of joy,
committed to death, caught up in crimes and hopeless of life—
you would devise a cure for your blindness.
You readily scorned then the fairer creation in former-days,
the spiritual heaven-joy, when you conceived contrary to the Holy Lord.
You would not ever be allowed to abide in joy-days,
but in shame were shaven with sins
for your over-pride, in eternal fire,
where you must suffer death and darkness,
wailing the width of your years.
Never should you expect an improvement to this state. (618-36)

“And I believe that fact in the Life-Origin,
the Eternal Ruler of all creation, that he,
for his mercies and powerful means, the Savior of Men,
never will abandon me in the valor-works for which I have
long campaigned for God in my body-house and in my soul
through the mysteries of multifold powers.
Therefore I trust in the glory of the brightest Trinity,
which holds in its hands heaven and earth, by their consent—
so that you never can, rage-hearted with malice
drag me into torments, vile murderers
and man-harmers, dark and unvictorious. (637-651a)

Truly I am satisfied, sweetly in my soul’s box,
by graceful belief and with the love of the Lord, 
instigated in my breast unto that better home,
enlightened in my limbs to that everlasting
dwelling most precious. There is my native land,
pleasant and joyous in the Father’s Glory,
where the light’s radiance nor life’s hope in God’s realm
was never rendered to you for the savior’s sake,
because of your over-pride that mounted you in mind
through idle boast provoked too powerfully. (651b-62)

“You believed and desired, you evil-thinkers,
that you must be like the Shaper in glory.
There a worse thing happened to you,
when the Wielder gave you wrath to wassail
in gloomy torment—there a pyre was kindled
for you afterwards, blended with poison,
and through his deep doom expelled
you from joy, the society of angels. (663-70a)

Now and forever it shall be so that you have damnation
in welling-flame, and no blessings at all.
Nor need you believe, beshorn of glory, that you,
sinful in the shade with guile-tricks, can shove me into shame,
nor drag me into the fire-blaze down into this hell-house,
where a home for you has been created,
the darkness of everlasting night,
strife without end and grim ghast-killing.
There you mourning must be dragged into death
while I will have the delight of joys among the angels
in that lofty realm of the stars, where is the Lawful King:
the succor and salvation for the race of heroes,
their company and community.” (670b-684a)

Then came a messenger of the Lord, holy from the heavens,
who with his voice pronounced fear
of a sublime sort for the miserable demons.
He ordered them to immediately lead glory’s champion
limb-whole and unharmed from that wrack-trip,
so that the dearest soul, prepared in God’s protection,
should journey unto joy. The press of fiends were trembling
in their terror. The powerful being spoke,
the Lord’s precious thane, shining day-bright.
He held the soul of Guthlac in his power,
the proud protector rich in mighty deeds.
He bound the servants of darkness into agonizing restraints,
imposing hardship and earnestly commanding them: (684b-97)

“Let there be no break of bone nor bloody wound,
no welts on his body nor one whit of injury
which you could do to harm to him.
Rather you will place him whole where you grabbed him.
He shall control the countryside —
you may no longer defend that place against him.
I am the judge; the Lord commanded me to utter at once,
that you will heal him of every injury with your own hands,
and after be obedient to him in his own judgments.
I must not conceal my countenance before the lot of you.
I am the servant of the Maker. I am one of twelve who he cherished
in his heart, most faithful in the form of men. (698-710)

“The Lord dispatched me here from heaven,
seeing that you, on the earth for your envies,
lay torments upon this pledge-pilgrim.
He is my brother, his hardship grieves me.
I bring this about, where my friend dwells in his refuge,
who I will keep the peace with. Now I may aid his task —
and for that you will often be shown my face.
Now I will seek him out frequently.
I must conduct his words and works to the Lord in witness—
so he will know his deeds.” (711-21)

 

VIII.

Then Guthlac’s spirit was overjoyed after Bartholomew
had proclaimed God’s message. The obedient captives stood ready,
those who did not deviate from the word of that saint.
Glory-blessed the Lord’s champion then began to draw himself
on the dear journey to that desired portion of earth.
They bore him and held him from breaking,
heaving him with their hands and protecting him from a fall.
Smooth and soft, their travels were done under the terror of God. (722-32a)

Victor-triumphant the builder returned to the barrow.
Many species, the race of tree-fowl blessed him with insistent chirping,
revealing the return of the blessed man in tokens.
Often he held out food for them when they flew about his hands,
hungry and greedily eager, exulting in his aid.
So that mild heart parted himself from the joys of mankind,
serving the Lord and taking unto himself the joys
of wild beasts since rejecting those of the world. (732b-41)

Tranquil was the triumph-field and the hall renewed,
the voice of birds fair and the earth blossoming;
the cuckoos announced the spring.
Guthlac was allowed, blessed and resolute, to brook his dwelling.
That green plain stood in God’s protection.
The warden, who had come from the heavens,
had enfeebled the fiends. What design has become fairer
in men’s lifetime, which our elders remember
or we know for ourselves since? (742-51)

What wonders are these known to us!
All this has come to pass within the period
of our own times. Therefore none of men’s kindred
across the earth need doubt it,
indeed such good is worked as a confirmation of the souls’ life,
lest weaker hearts have need to turn from that testimony 
when they might profit by the truth in their own sight. (752-9)

So the Almighty adores all creation beneath the breeze
in its body-housing, the tribes of men throughout middle-earth.
The Wielder wishes that we always and prudently
swallow up his wisdom, so that his truth becomes
a recompense for his gifts among us,
which he grants and sends to us as an honor and understanding,
clearing lenient life-courses for our souls that reach towards radiance. (760-8)

This is certainly not the least that his love makes known,
when it builds godly gifts in the heart of men.
So he exalted Guthlac’s days and deeds through his decree.
He was the first—firm in fights with his foes, set against sins,
where he little wanted afterwards for vigilance.
Often his word was sent up to God through his humility;
his prayer allowed to come into that bright creation.
He thanked the Prince for those things he was given 
to endure in his sufferings—until the moment when,
through God’s will, a better life may be granted him. (769-80)

And so was Guthlac’s spirit carried into the high heavens
in the embraces of angels, conducting him lovingly
before the face of his Eternal Judge. The reward was granted him,
a seat in the skies, where he might always exist, 
established in life, and continue in calm forever.
The Child of God is his patient protector,
the Mighty Lord and Holy Herdsman,
the Warden of Heaven’s Realm. (781-9)

So the souls of the sooth-fast may climb up
into that perpetual home, the realm of the stars,
those who accomplish the Glory-King’s life-long lesson here
in words and works, and in their life’s season
earn eternal life on earth and a home on high.
Those are the Host-men, chosen champions dear to Christ,
bearing in their breasts bright belief and holy hope. (790-99a)

With clean hearts they worthy the Wielder,
holding thought both prompt and prudent onto the forth-way
to their Father’s homeland. They ready the soul’s house,
expertly overfighting the Enemy and eschewing sinful desires
in their own breasts. These men attend to brother-love eagerly—
in God’s purpose they trouble themselves, adorning
their souls with holy thoughts. The command of the Heaven-King
they effect on earth. They love fasting—they are sheltered
from baleful evil and strive after their prayers.
They struggle against sins and keep truth and right. (799b-810)

Their hence-going will never grieve them after,
when they voyage to that holy city,
departing directly for Jerusalem, where
they may joyfully behold the face of God
and her peace and panorama unto the world’s end,
where she truly abides, beautiful
and glory-fast, for the entire width of life,
in the delight of the land of living. (811-8)