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 enormous earth. (1-10)

They traveled among the cities, as he had commanded,
the Emperor’s awful thanes. Often they roused strife with perverted acts,
those that loathed 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. (11-17)

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 eagerly sought an idol, heathen-worship
over the word of God. His name was ascribed as 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. He did not fully know the outcome—
how she, young in spirit, despised espoused friendship.
Fear of God was greater in her mind than all the riches that rested
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 wealth acquired
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 be your wedded wife.
Never will you, through your violent spite,
prepare so 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 fetch 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:
“Your 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
are a disgrace to me in my heart’s ken.
She quite viciously offers me abuse before these 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,
then 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 pleasing 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, the dearest
and the sweetest in my heart, alone upon the earth, the light of my eyes,
Juliana! You have in foolishness taken, through your idle hostility,
a way contrary to the judgment taken by wise men.
You renounce too strongly, against your own advice,
your bridge-groom, who is better than you,
more noble in this world, more wealth-endowed in moneyed riches.
He is good to have as a friend.
Therefore it is worthy that you be the love of this man,
his eternal love’s blessing, yet not forsake him.” (89-104)

 

II.

Then blessed woman gave answer to her father,
Juliana, who had firmly founded her wifely friendship to God:
“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
him 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 to another
woman for bride-love—he will have nothing here.” (105-16)

Then her 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 alien gods
and abandon those that are dearer to us, who stand as succor to our people,
then 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)

The blessed then gave him back answer, wise and dear to God, Juliana:
“I wish to speak a truth to you, so long as I am of the living,
I will not 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 Affricanus 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 words that you spoke
in folly before when you disparaged the worship of our gods.” (140-6)

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 the Power Majestic—
and to him alone do I entrust all things, that he may become
my guarantor, 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 shine 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 Measurer 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 control of our struggle 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
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 these people have long worshipped for themselves.” (201b-8)

That noble 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,
from 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.” (209-24)

 

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
and heaved up onto a high branch, where
she, sun-bright, should suffer blows, strife unstintingly fierce
for six hours of the day, and he, her foe, 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 crafty in afflicting songs, a captive of Hell,
who spoke to the sainted one: “Why 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)

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 not 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,
Herdsman of Majesty, what this thane might be, bouncing in the breeze,
and who instructs me upon a rough road away from you.” (267-82a)

A voice called out, lovely from the heavens,
and spoke to her these words: “Take hold of this perverse creature
and hold him fast, until he tells truthfully of his mission,
everything from the start and what his origins are.” (282b-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 Measurer.
Likewise I instructed Ægias unwisely to order
holy Andrew 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. (302-15a)

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 sent you to me.” (315b-8)

The wretched monster gave answer to her, seized by fear,
hopeless of peace: “Listen. My father, the king of hell-citizens
sent me on this journey here to you, from that narrow home,
in his sorrow-house, he is more eager for every evil than I.
Then he sends us to convert the mind of the soothfast
by wicked deceit, to turn them away from their salvation.
We are sad-minded, frightened in spirit—
He is not a merciful lord, but a terrifying prince.
If we have not done anything evil, we dare not afterwards
come anywhere near his presence. (319-31)

“Then he sends them forth, throughout the wide earth,
thanes from the darkness, ordering them to raise violence,
and if we are met upon the mould-way either far or near,
and are found, then the devils bind us and in welling flame
we are beaten with scourges. If the mind of the soothfast
is not perverted through our hindrances, the heart of the holy,
we suffer the hardest and worst tortures by sore blows.
Now you can understand the truth in your own heart,
that I was forced by oppression and this presumption
and threatened with miserable days until I sought you out.” (332-44)

 

IV.

Then again the holy woman asked wordfully the enemy of heroes,
the workman of crime, the originator of sinful deeds.
“You must speak to me further, enemy of souls,
about how you grievously harm, by falling into sins,
the soothfast girded round with guilt.” (345-351a)

To her the fiend answered, a faithless wretch,
and spoke his words: “I will make it known to you,
blessed virgin, of every evil from the start forth unto the end
that I, wounded by sins, have performed—
and not just a few times—so that by this you may plainly know
yourself that this is the truth, and not at all lies.
I believed and reckoned it certain, an overweening thought,
that I could, without difficulty and by my own craft,
turn you away from your salvation, so that you renounced
the Heaven-King, the Lord of Victories, and bowed down
to an inferior, sacrificed to the Origin of Sins. (352b-62a)

“Thus I turn the minds of soothfast men through varying forms.
Where I find him making steadfast his spirit to the desire of God,
I am soon ready to bear horrible thoughts against him,
the multifold lusts of the mind and dark errors,
through delusions uncountable. (362b-68)

“I sweeten in him the desires for sin, the wicked loves of his heart,
so that he, quickly for evil deeds attached to his crimes, hears my teachings.
I enflame him very strongly in these sins so that he, burning,
ceases his prayers, stepping willfully—he can not abide
in the place of prayer firm as a foundation
for long on account of the love of his crimes.
And so I conduct a hateful dread to the man to whom I begrudge
life and the clarity of belief, if he wishes to hear my teachings
through the desires of his mind and to perform sins. He shall afterwards
turn away, deprived of all good virtues. (369-81)

“If I meet any powerful or mind-proud champion of the Measurer
who against my arrows’ flight will not bend far thence
from the battle but heaves up his board against them,
mind-wise, a holy shield, his ghostly war-dress,
who will not betray his God—but bold in his prayers he makes a stand,
fast in a foot-band so I must flee far thence,
low-minded, more deprived of comfort, in the grip of gleeds,
mourning my care, so that I can not with craft of strength
go against him with war, but sad I should seek others
lacking in courage, under the bristle of standards,
the more sluggish warrior who I can puff up with my leaven,
and hinder from warfare. Although he in the strength of God
may begin spiritually, I will be immediately ready,
so that I look through all his thought,
how established might be his inward strength,
how he has built his defenses. (382-401a)

“I open up the gate of his wall through reproach;
the tower will be breached, an aperture opened,
then first I dispatch to him through arrow-flight
into his breast-self bitter thoughts by varied desires of the mind,
so that it seems better to himself to perform sins
instead of the praise of God, lusts of the body.
I am an eager teacher so that he may live
according to my wicked customs, averted certainly
from the law of Christ, his heart troubled for me
as power in the pit of his sins. I care more,
and more eagerly about the spirit, the ruin of the soul,
than for the body-house, that which must become in this world
the comfort of worms and is commended to a lair in the earth.” (401b-17a)

Then again the woman spoke: “Speak, wretched shape,
spirit unclean, ruler of darkness, how do you associate yourself
in the company of the clean? You, pledge-less, labored of old
against Christ and drew along a struggle, plotting against holy men.
For you was the pit of hell delved below, where you,
harassed by your misery on account of your over-pride,
sought a home. I supposed that you must be the more cautious—
and the more cowardly—in such meeting against the sooth-fast,
those that often withstood your will by the Glory-King. (417b-28)

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, Measurer of Man-kind,
such as I founded hope in my father, the king of hellish citizens. (429-37)

“Then I am sent forth against sooth-fast people,
so that I might convert their minds to 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 knew 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)

 

V.

Then that beautiful woman, the candle 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 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 cross 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 give up 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,
as soon as the heavens and the way of stars were reared,
the earth was fastened and those 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-506a)

“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,
however I might approach the way to them. (506b-518a)

There were 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 mine
a sorrowful account in our gloomy home.” (518b-530a)

Then Eleusius the noble, 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 full of cares, 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)

 

VI.

 

[MS folio missing]

“… eagerly before
they praised him on high and his holy works,
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 most of maidens, in their midst, unhurt. (563b-68)

That was a distress to endure for the rich man—
he would exchange it, if he could, for the whole world.
Eleusius, 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:
it was surrounded by brands on all sides.
The bath welled with heat. (569-81)

Swiftly then, Eleusius, 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 in number five and seventy of the heathen host
forburned through the searing sneeze.
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 knew its further 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 Eleusius, 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 to 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 that sorrow,
how I endured in one night countless afflictions
and sufferings, fast in bonds, innumerable evils.” (619-27a)
Then blessed Juliana looked towards the furious one,
hearing the devil of hell sing his misery.
The enemy of mankind began then to take flight,
seeking torments, and spoke a word:
“Woe to me, a ruined thing! There is now a great chance
that she will soon humiliate a wretched me
with evil disaster, just as she did to me before.” (627b-34)

Then was she conducted near to the borderland
and to that place where they rough-souled
through hateful violence intended to kill her.
She began then to teach the people and to strengthen their praise
from their sins and promise them comfort,
the way to glory, and spoke these words:
“Remember the joy of warriors and the splendor of glory,
the hope of the holy, the God of heaven-angels.
He is so worthy, that all the nations and all the kindred of angels
up in heaven praise him, the high power, where help is nearby
eternal for all lifetime, to those who must have it. (635-46)

“Therefore I, dear people, wish to teach you to secure your house
with law-doing, lest with sudden blasts the winds throw it down.
The strong wall must withstand the storm’s showers more firmly,
sinning intents. Establish yourself with love and illuminated belief
establish your foundation, resolute, to peace upon the living stone.
Hold in your hearts the true faith and peace
among you by the desire of your minds and holy mystery.
Then the Almighty Father gives to you all his mercy,
where you all possess comfort with the God of Powers,
the most need after your troubling songs. (647-60a)

“Because you know not your departure from here
at the end of your life, it seems to me prudent that you,
watching against the battle-rush of your foes,
keep vigilance, lest your sworn enemies hinder your way
to glory’s citadel. Beg the Child of God, the Prince of Angels,
the Lord of Mankind, the Giver of Victories to be merciful to me.
May peace be among you, and perpetual true love.” (660b-69a)

At that moment Juliana’s soul was led away
from her body to its lengthy joys
by the blow of the sword. (669b-71a)

Then the malicious Eleusius sought the sea-stream, fearful at heart,
upon a ship accompanied by a throng of his harmers—
he bounced across the water’s flood for a long while
upon the swan-road. Death seized them all, that band of men
and himself among them before they sailed to land
through terrible chastisement. There were thirty
and four of the kindred of warriors deprived of their souls
through the whelm of waves, underlings with their lord,
deprived of comfort, without hope, they sought their hell. (671b-82)

Nor needed those thanes in the home of darkness,
that band of retainers in the deep pit,
turn towards their first-spear for their allotted treasure,
so that they in the wine-hall across the beer benches
might receive rings, or appled gold. (683-88a)

Unlike them, the body of the holy woman was conducted
with praise-songs, by a great many unto its mould-grave,
so that they, a mighty folk, brought it within the city.
There ever since with the passing of years
the praise of God was lifted until this very day,
with great majesty among that fellowship. (688b-95a)

 

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,
faring forth according to my former works
going with my olden deeds. (695b-703a)

Mournful will mankind (CYN) depart.
The King will be stern, the Giver of Victories,
when, flecked by sins, the sheep (EWU),
terrified, await what, according to their deeds,
he will judge them, as a recompense of life.
The watery floods (LF) will tremble,
lowering themselves sorrowfully. (703b-09a)

I remember all that pain,
the wounds of 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 in this habitation.
I will have need of mercies then,
so that the holy woman may treat
with that highest of kings. (709b-717a)

The need of this reminds me—
a great heart’s sorrow. I pray that every man
of humankind 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, to 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 sits in majesty
as a singularity, the kindred of humans,
through that glorious creation, and decrees by his works
the reward to every man. Forgive us, God of Powers
so that we may find your aspect, Joy of Nobles,
merciful on that famous day—

Amen.

(717b-31)