The Creator’s spell, by which the whole world is held together, is taught to four heroes.
Wealth is a comfort to all men;
yet must every man bestow it freely,
if he wish to gain honour in the sight of the Lord.
Zachary sees the Chieftain’s angel in the shrine.
John comes to the light of mankind.
The All-Ruler’s angel comes to Mary in Galileeland.
The Chieftain of mankind is born in David’s hill-fort.
The aurochs is proud and has great horns;
it is a very savage beast and fights with its horns;
a great ranger of the moors, it is a creature of mettle.
The Baby is brought to the Ruler’s shrine.
Three thanes from the East, led by the workings of fate, follow a star.
The three foreign warriors present their gifts to the Ruler’s Child.
Herod orders his warrior-companions to bead all two-year-old boys around Bethlehem.
The thorn is exceedingly sharp,
an evil thing for any knight to touch,
uncommonly severe on all who sit among them.
Mary and Joseph find the holy Child at the shrine.
John announces Christ’s coming to Middlegard.
Christ the Chieftain is immersed in the Jordan by His loyal thane John.
The Champion of mankind fights off the loathsome enemy.
The mouth is the source of all language,
a pillar of wisdom and a comfort to wise men,
a blessing and a joy to every knight.
Christ, the might Chieftain, chooses His first warrior-companions.
The mighty Rescuer calls twelve to be His men.
The Chieftain’s instructions on the mountain; the eight Good Fortunes.
The instructions on the mountain.
The instructions on the mountain; the secret runes of the Lord’s Prayer.
Riding seems easy to every warrior while he is indoors
and very courageous to him who traverses the high-roads
on the back of a stout horse.
The marriage feast in the guest-hall at Fort Cana.
At hill-fort Capharnaum, God’s Child of Peace heals a household lad of a commander of a hundred men.
Christ the Rescuer raises the dead son of a widow outside Fort Naim.
Christ commands the wind and the sea.
The torch is known to every living man by its pale, bright flame;
it always burns where princes sit within.
The mighty Christ heals the cripple lowered through the roof by his warrior-companions.
The story of the early who sowed good seed.
The explanation of the story.
The story of the wheat and the weeds.
Generosity brings credit and honour, which support one’s dignity;
it furnishes help and subsistence
to all broken men who are devoid of aught else.
The grim-hearted Jews of Galileeland attempt to throw Christ off a cliff.
John the soothsayer is beheaded.
With five loaves and two fishes the Chieftain of human beings feeds a great throng of earls.
The mighty Child of God and good Peter walk on water.
Bliss he enjoys who knows not suffering, sorrow nor anxiety,
and has prosperity and happiness and a good enough house.
Christ the Ruler heals the daughter of a woman from a foreign clan.
Peter, the best of thanes, is given power over Hel’s gates.
On the mountaintop the Son of God gives off bright light.
Christ pays the king’s head-tax to an arrogant thane.
Hail is the whitest of grain;
it is whirled from the vault of heaven
and is tossed about by gusts of wind
and then it melts into water.
Forgiving; the young man with the great treasure-hoard.
The story of the rich man and the beggar.
The story of the workers who came late to the vineyard.
Christ tells His loyal followers about His future torture and death; the curing of the blind men outside Fort Jericho.
Trouble is oppressive to the heart;
yet often it proves a source of help and salvation
to the children of men, to everyone who heeds it betimes.
Christ enters Fort Jerusalem and foretells its fate.
Christ praises the small gift to the shrine of the woman fated to poverty; He advises thanes to pay the emperor’s taxes.
Christ the Champion protects the life-spirit of the woman caught in adultery.
Dissension over Christ’s teaching; Martha and Mary send for Him; Thomas accepts a warrior’s fate.
Ice is very cold and immeasurably slippery;
it glistens as clear as glass and most like to gems;
it is a floor wrought by the frost, fair to look upon.
By decree of Holy Wyrd, God’s Son is able to raise Lazarus from the grave.
The clan-gathering of the Jewish warriors decides to kill Christ.
The Chieftain of human clans teaches at the shrine.
The coming of doomsday.
Doomsday.
Summer is a joy to men, when God, the holy King of Heaven,
suffers the earth to bring forth shining fruits
for rich and poor alike.
The Passion begins; Judas betrays his own Chieftain to southern people; Christ washes the feet of His early and thanes.
The last mead-hall feast with the warrior-companions.
The words of Christ give great powers to the bread and wine.
Christ’s deep fear before battle; His last salute in the garden.
Peorth is a source of recreation and amusement to the great,
where warriors sit blithely together in the banqueting-hall.
Christ the Chieftain is captured; Peter, the mighty swordsman, defends Him boldly.
Peter denies he is a warrior-companion of Christ.
Christ is brought before the assembly as a prisoner.
Christ stands before Pilate of Pontusland; Judas, the deserter, hangs himself.
Pilate, Caesar’s thane, speaks with God’s son.
The yew is a tree with rough bark,
hard and fast in the earth, supported by its roots,
a guardian of flame and a joy upon an estate.
Warriors bring Christ in irons to King Herod; arrogant earls ridicule God’s Child of Peace.
The Jewish warriors threaten Pilate with the ill-will of the emperors at Fort Rome.
Caesar’s thane puts the Best of all men into the hands of the Jews.
The Chieftain is hanged on the criminal tree.
The Chieftain of mankind dies by the criminal-tree rope; His spirit escapes.
The Eolh-sedge is mostly to be found in a marsh;
it grows in the water and makes a ghastly wound,
covering with blood every warrior who touches it.
The body is removed from the gallows tree and buried in the earth; Christ’s spirit returns at night to the corpse; Christ rises.
The angel of the All-Ruler tells the women that the Chieftain is on His way to Galileeland.
The grave-guards are bribed with jewels; Peter, John, and Mary Magdalene come to the grave.
Christ the Ruler joins the warrior-company of earls on the road to Emmaus Castle.
Sun is the light of the world
I bow to the divine decree.
Sun
Shield of the clouds
and shining ray
and destroyer of ice.
The sun is ever a joy in the hopes of seafarers
when they journey away over the fishes’ bath,
until the courser of the deep bears them to land.
Tiw is a guiding star; well does it keep faith with princes;
it is ever on its course over the mists of night and never fails.
God with one hand
and leavings of the wolf
and prince of temples.
Birch
Leafy twig
and little tree
and fresh young shrub.
The poplar bears no fruit; yet without seed it brings forth suckers,
for it is generated from its leaves.
Splendid are its branches and gloriously adorned
its lofty crown which reaches to the skies.
The horse is a joy to princes in the presence of warriors.
A steed in the pride of its hoofs,
when rich men on horseback bandy words about it;
and it is ever a source of comfort to the restless.
Man is an augmentation of the dust
great is the claw of the hawk.
The joyous man is dear to his kinsmen;
yet every man is doomed to fail his fellow,
since the Lord by his decree will commit the vile carrion to the earth.
Man
Delight of man
and augmentation of the earth
and adorner of ships.
Water
Eddying stream
and broad geysir
and land of the fish.
The ocean seems interminable to men,
if they venture on the rolling bark
and the waves of the sea terrify them
and the courser of the deep heed not its bridle.
ᛁᚾ ᚦᛖ ᛒᛖᚷᛁᚾᚾᛁᛝ ᚷᚩᛞ ᚳᚱᛠᛏᛖᛞ ᚦᛖ ᚻᛠᚠᛖᚾᛋ ᚪᚾᛞ ᚦᛖ ᛠᚱᚦ. ᚾᚩᚹ ᚦᛖ ᛠᚱᚦ ᚹᚪᛋ ᚠᚩᚱᛘᛚᛖᛋᛋ ᚪᚾᛞ ᛖᛘᛈᛏᛁ, ᛞᚪᚱᚳᚾᛖᛋᛋ ᚹᚪᛋ ᚩᚠᛖᚱ ᚦᛖ ᛋᚢᚱᚠᚪᚳᛖ ᚩᚠ ᚦᛖ ᛞᛖᛖᛈ, ᚪᚾᛞ ᚦᛖ ᛋᛈᛁᚱᛁᛏ ᚩᚠ ᚷᚩᛞ ᚹᚪᛋ ᚻᚩᚠᛖᚱᛁᛝ ᚩᚠᛖᚱ ᚦᛖ ᚹᚪᛏᛖᚱᛋ.
Ing was first seen by men among the East-Danes,
till, followed by his chariot,
he departed eastwards over the waves.
So the Heardingas named the hero.
ᛏᚻᛖᚾ ᚷᚩᛞ ᛋᚪᛁᛞ, “ᛚᛖᛏ ᚢᛋ ᛘᚪᚳᛖ ᛘᚪᚾᚳᛁᚾᛞ ᛁᚾ ᚩᚢᚱ ᛁᛘᚪᚷᛖ, ᛁᚾ ᚩᚢᚱ ᛚᛁᚳᛖᚾᛖᛋᛋ, ᛋᚩ ᚦᚪᛏ ᚦᛖᛁ ᛘᚪᛁ ᚱᚢᛚᛖ ᚩᚠᛖᚱ ᚦᛖ ᚠᛁᛋᚻ ᛁᚾ ᚦᛖ ᛋᛠ ᚪᚾᛞ ᚦᛖ ᛒᛁᚱᛞᛋ ᛁᚾ ᚦᛖ ᛋᚳᛁ, ᚩᚠᛖᚱ ᚦᛖ ᛚᛁᚠᛖᛋᛏᚩᚳᚳ ᚪᚾᛞ ᚪᛚᛚ ᚦᛖ ᚹᛁᛚᛞ ᚪᚾᛁᛘᚪᛚᛋ,[ᚪ] ᚪᚾᛞ ᚩᚠᛖᚱ ᚪᛚᛚ ᚦᛖ ᚳᚱᛠᛏᚢᚱᛖᛋ ᚦᚪᛏ ᛘᚩᚠᛖ ᚪᛚᚩᛝ ᚦᛖ ᚷᚱᚩᚢᚾᛞ.” ᛋᚩ ᚷᚩᛞ ᚳᚱᛠᛏᛖᛞ ᛘᚪᚾᚳᛁᚾᛞ ᛁᚾ ᚻᛁᛋ ᚩᚹᚾ ᛁᛘᚪᚷᛖ, ᛁᚾ ᚦᛖ ᛁᛘᚪᚷᛖ ᚩᚠ ᚷᚩᛞ ᚻᛖ ᚳᚱᛠᛏᛖᛞ ᚦᛖᛘ; ᛘᚪᛚᛖ ᚪᚾᛞ ᚠᛖᛘᚪᛚᛖ ᚻᛖ ᚳᚱᛠᛏᛖᛞ ᚦᛖᛘ.
Day, the glorious light of the Creator, is sent by the Lord;
it is beloved of men, a source of hope and happiness to rich and poor,
and of service to all.
An estate is very dear to every man,
if he can enjoy there in his house
whatever is right and proper in constant prosperity.
The oak fattens the flesh of pigs for the children of men.
Often it traverses the gannet’s bath,
and the ocean proves whether the oak keeps faith
in honourable fashion.
The ash is exceedingly high and precious to men.
With its sturdy trunk it offers a stubborn resistance,
though attacked by many a man.
Thoughts of a Hermetic sage 