Mr.

Shippey's translation and notes are taken from his book Poems of Wisdom and
Learning in Old English.

It is going to happen: the sea will rise in flood over the world,
life will be over for every single person. Anyone who wants to
can often ponder this truth in his own mind.
Our Lord has fixed the time when he will come here, on that
greatest day, as highest king of power; then the ruler of
mankind will burn the land with fire. That will not be a small
convocation to hold! A blaze will be kindled, once fire has
seized the earth's surface, the burning flame has taken the
bright creation. All this wide world will be full of coals and cruel
firebrands - this world ruled now by hardhearted men who
hoard ostentatiously and provide their Lord with ridicule - until
those who should keep watch against their sins betray them, so
that they have to go down to hell with the crowd, fly off with the
devils. They are for the fire, torment in obscurity, where day
never shines brightly in the sky, but it stays shut up for ever,
once the soul's dreadful sentence is pronounced. It is cramped
above, and hot inside; that is no splendid mansion, but the
greatest of terrors there, no home to be looked forward to, but
down there the abyss of hell, a miserable journey for the man
who so often disturbs the peace with his words. He has no
knowledge of the dark side of creation, how it stands ready
eternally and endlessly for the man who is thrown down there
for his sins, and then endures his fate for ever. Who then has a
mind wise enough, or possesses so much knowledge that he can
ever describe the height of heaven, or the amount of good
things in it as thoroughly as they are, standing ready for all
pure souls,, for all those who are prepared to feel fear at this
utterance of its profundity? The day shall come when we bring
forward each of our sins, our thoughts and our behaviour. That
will be a stern assembly, a fierce army to face.
The heat will have grown cold. Then there will be nothing in this
world except the noise of the water, the home of the fish will
flow over the world (?). Here there will be neither bone nor
blood, but every child ever born will have to ask what is the
reward for his soul and his body of everything we have ever
done on earth, good or bad. No greater terror can ever take
place in the world - and this will be known by many! The stars
will not be visible to us here any more, but earthly prosperity
and distinction will have gone. So I mean to teach people all the
time that they should praise the glory of God on high, and live
their lives faithfully, hoping for heaven, and should always gain
the Lord's love by their actions in this world, before that day of
splendour announces with trumpets the burning heat of the fire,
the overpowering terror.
No nobleman can keep his distinction in this life any longer, not
once the guardian of light has sent fire across the entire face of
the world. His army blazes in the sky, the flame sweeps on,

bright and burning, it is announced to many that they must
shed their blood, as punishment from the king of power; all the
bright creation quakes, the firebrands will leap on that vital day,
heaven above will ring. When men and women leave the world
and earth's miseries behind, they will see then what they have
earned in eternity. Then it will be shown who have lived their
lives in purity; their reward will be waiting. There has always
been a hope of having that in heaven, ever since our Saviour,
the Ruler of the world, was fastened tightly on the dark tree
with a painful clamp; for Christ knows of all good deeds. But the
sinful soul will have no cause to take pride in being bound for
heaven, since it so often despises holy instruction, brings it into
contempt. He is not aware of the terror he will be allotted, he
has no perception of evil, till the moment it strikes him. Then he
realises it, when the calamity is on him, announcing to many a
man throughout the world that in the division he will be put with
the crowd on the left-hand side, worse for him than if he were
allowed to turn to the right, set free from his sins. The man who
can enjoy what he wants, who can be cheerful over his wine and
sit feasting licentiously, without worrying about his last journey,
he thinks little about how things may turn out for him once this
world is over.
Then after that event the Lord of souls, the Prince of glory, will
give everything that he wants to the man who now meditates in
misery upon his sins, enduring great anxiety in his mind; the
Ruler of life and Guardian of heaven will then repay him
beneficently, after he has left this world, for having been so
melancholy, so sorry for his sins. The man who wants to live
with God must not be too slow, not too apathetic about the
things I am teaching here, if he wants to live in the mansion
which our Father in glory is preparing for us, the Prince of souls.
It is the Lord of victory who will decorate that hall, who will
build it with splendour. The pure will go to it, those who are free
of vice, as the Ruler has said, King of all kings. So everyone
alive must listen to the Lord, if he thinks deeply, if he wants to
rise to heaven in the heights.
Yet it will happen, that although the body is covered with earth
and clay, it will receive life, will draw breath after lying in the
ground. The people will be summoned, all Adam's children
called to convocation; then souls and their bony houses will be
brought together, united for their journeys. That will make the
truth known, when on that greatest day we men assemble
beneath the cross; then many truths will be told, everything
that has happened beneath the sky, whether hot or cold, good
or evil. The highest King of heaven listens attentively to what
men have done. Never has horn been sounded or trumpet blown
so loud that his clear voice will not be louder to men across the
whole world, the Ruler's words. The continents will shake at the
message he has in mind for us all.
Now repeat what this says: it will become obvious that I
cannot prevent that event beneath the sky, but it will have to
happen like this to everybody, with burning fire over all the
bright homes of men. Then, after the fire, life will be made
permanent; the man who thinks the right way now will have
happiness in heaven.