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By mdrout, on September 4th, 2007 The bird is very beautiful with many very attractive parts.
When he goes from this earth to seek his old dwelling place, he shows himself to men who from far and near gater to gaze upon him. The people discuss him in their writings and depict him in stone.
Then the family of other birds gather around him in the air. They praise him with songs and fly in a circle around the Phoenix. They follow him towards his dwelling place, but then the Phoenix flies away and departs from the earth.
Thus after death, the bird goes back to his noble homeland. The other bird return home, mourning. Only God knows whether the Phoenix is male or female.
In his homeland, the bird enjoys the streams and woodlands for a thousand years. And then the pyre burns him again. But he is afterwards awakened to life. For this reason he does not despair, because he knows that the flames will renew him. He is his own son and father and the inheritor of his old heirlooms.
Likewise each blessed person chooses everlasting life for himself instead of dark death. The nature of the Phoenix is similar to the chosen servants of God on earth: through the Father’s help they keep happiness and prepare for themselves prosperity in the heavenly homeland.
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By mdrout, on September 3rd, 2007 [N.b.: I am posting Caedmon’s Hymn out of sequence (its regular place is in ASPR volume 6, Anglo-Saxon Minor Poems), but my students need to memorize it as part of English 208: Anglo-Saxon Literature.]
Now we must praise the keeper of the heavenly kingdom
The power of the Measurer and his mind-thoughts,
The work of the glory-father; as he, each of wonders,
the eternal Lord, established from the beginning.
He first shaped, for the children of men,
Heaven as a roof, the Holy Shaper,
Then middle-earth, man-kind’s Guardian,
The eternal Lord, afterwards created,
The earth for men, the Lord Almighty.
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By mdrout, on August 31st, 2007 When the sky is clear and everything is still, the bird begins to build a nest. From far and near he gathers the most sweet-smelling herbs and woodblossoms, and builds his nest at the top of the tree, surrounded with beautiful smells.
In the hottest summer, the sun makes the nest warm until it burst into flame, burning the bird. Fire devours his body.
But after a while the ashes gather together into a clump. Then out of the ashes comes something that looks like an apple. A worm grows, as if it has hatched. He becomes like an eagle’s chick and keeps growing until he is the size of an eagle. The bird is reborn, renewed and separated from sins.
This process is similar to the sprouting of the earth in the spring.
The bird eats only honey-dew as he grows to full size.
When he is fully grown, he seeks his homeland. He grasps what remains of the fire with his claws and flies home. He carries his own bones there and buries them and the ashes all together in the beautiful land.
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By mdrout, on August 30th, 2007 A bird lives in this wood: it is named the Phoenix. He never dies in this good place as long as the world remains. He watches for when the sun rises above the sea and then, when it has risen, he bathes himself twelve times in the streams. Then he goes up onto a high tree where he can watch the sun travel over the waves.
As soon as the sun is shining over the sea, the bird flies from the tree and sings as he soars through the sky. The song is sweeter than all the musical instruments of the world, trumpets, horns, harps, voices and even the organ. It is sweeter than the wings of swans. The bird sings until the sun goes down he stops singing, listens, and then beats his wings three times. And he always marks the hours, twelve times each day, both day and night.
The phoenix does this for 1000 years at a time.
But when he has weakened with age, the grey-feathered bird flies away from the beautiful land and finds a realm in earth where no people live. There he rules over a family of birds and dwells with them in the desert for a while, until he flies west to the land of Syria. There, he seeks out a hidden place within a grove of trees. He chooses one tree, which people call the Phoenix (the same name as the bird).
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By mdrout, on August 29th, 2007 I have heard that far away there is the most beautiful of lands, but no powerful man may reach it because of God’s will. All the place is beautiful: green woodlands, many rivers, no rain nor snow nor frost nor fire nor hail nor rime nor heat nor cold, but everything is perfect. The land is covered with blossoms.
The land, wise men tell us, is twelve fathoms higher than the highest mountains.
The wood is filled with leaves in all seasons that never wither. When the flood came to the rest of the world, this land was unscathed and it will remain perfect even after the judgment and the fire and the opening of the tombs of mortals.
There are no enemies or suffering or weeping, no disease or death or losing of life, no hail or frost nor rain, but there are beautiful streams. Twelve times at the command of God the streams flow through the land. The leaves and flowers never fall and beautiful smells linger there always. This will never be changed until God decides to end this work.
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By mdrout, on August 28th, 2007 The youths then proclaim that God should be praised, and bless him according to all creation, heat and cold, light and darkness, fish and birds, etc., etc.
Nebuchadnezzar notes that whereas they had put three men into the furnace, there are now four there; he concludes that one is an angel. Nebuchadnezzar goes near to the furnace and commands the youths to come to him. They do so, and he sees that they are completely unharmed by the fire.
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By mdrout, on August 27th, 2007 Azarias (who has been put, with three other youths, into the hot fire by order of King Nebuchadnezzar) begins to pray to God, tellin God how great He is and apologizing for the wrong that he and the other youths have done. He notes that they will now lose their lives if not for the power of God, and reminds God of the covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
Then an angel comes from the heavens and protects the youths from the fire. The temperature in fact becomes pleasant and summer-like.
The three youths then begin to speak. They bless God for his creation and ordering of the world and say that they believe that only through His desire will their bodies be separated from their souls.
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By mdrout, on August 24th, 2007 The sun sets, but then a holy light comes from the heavens and illuminates the tumulus all night long. At dawn, Guthlac rises and tells the servant that it was now time to carry out the tasks Guthlac had assigned him. Then he lifts up his hands, opens his eyes, and sends his soul to heaven.
A heavenly light surrounds the tumulus as singing angels carry Guthlac to heaven. The area is filled with sweet smells and beautiful songs. Then the servant traveles in a boat to see Guthlac’s sister. He tells her of the saint’s death, saying that he himself is sad at the death of Guthlac, but that the saint has gone to God’s light. He tells the sister that she should bury Guthlac’s body.
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By mdrout, on August 23rd, 2007 The servant is very distressed, and he asks Guthlac a question that has been troubling him: “I have heard you debating with someone in the nights. Where did this person come from?” Guthlac answers that, although he does not want to brag, that he has been speaking to an angel who has been sent from God every evening after the second year in which Guthlac started living at the tumulus. But Guthlac has always kept knowledge of these visits secret–until today.
The Guthlac’s soul set forth from his body, and from his mouth came out the sweetest smell, like summer herbs covered with honey.
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By mdrout, on August 22nd, 2007 Easter arrives and Guthlac gets up from his sickbed. He preaches the gospel so beautifully to his servant than no one has ever previously heard the like: it seems to be the words of an angel.
It had now been four days since Guthlac’s illness began, and he endures without fear even though Death is sneaking nearer. Then it is seven days since the sickness began. Guthlac’s servant visits him and finds him lying on the ground. In the sixth hour, Guthlac can barely speak, but he says to the servant that he should listen to Guthlac’s final words. The servant agrees. Guthlac tells the servant to go to Guthlac’s sister once the saint is dead and tell her that he expects to see her in heaven. He should tell the sister to put Guthlac’s body in a dark tomb where it will abide for a long while in its sandy house.
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By mdrout, on August 21st, 2007 One servant remaines with Guthlac. When he notices that Guthlac is deathly ill, the servant asks him how he has become sick and if the disease can be cured. Guthlac says that pain came upon him in the night and that soon he will be dead.
The servant mourns. Guthlac understands and comforts him, saying that it is no real hardship to suffer the will of the Lord. Nor does Guthlac fear hordes of devils. He tells the servant not to be troubled in mind, because Guthlac is yearning to come to heaven and gaze upon the Lord. He knows that after his body’s death he will receive a reward that is not fleeting.
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By mdrout, on August 20th, 2007 Sometimes the birds would come to Guthlac and he would feed them. Sometimes people would visit him. Guthlac would heal those who were suffering.
It was now close to Guthlac’s death day. He had spent fifteen years in the wilderness when suddenly a sickness afflicted him. God did not want Guthlac to suffer a long time. Guthlac’s strength was spent but his spirit did not yield. Human must drink the cup of death that Eve brewed for Adam. Death approached Guthlac.
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By mdrout, on August 17th, 2007 God created men out of the earth. Adam was the first, brought forth into Paradise, which was perfect, full of endless joys and free of death. But too soon he and his wife tired of following the Ruler’s law. His wife took the fruit that the as the serpent convinced her to. Then Adam and Eve were expelled from Paradise and thrust into exile and toil. From then on, women and men would have to pay for sins through death. The devil ruled the world and, no matter how hard one tries to follow God’s laws, no one can avoid the bitter drink that Eve served to Adam.
Death has ruled over all earth-dwellers. But there have been a great many saints who have done God’s will. Books tell us how Guthlac reached perfection among the English. His miracles were known far and wide through Britain. He healed many people. No one can count all the miracles he performed.
Often troops of devils invaded his dwelling place. They would make a loud noise in the wilderness. But Guthlac would withstand their torment. The devils would take various forms, including that of a dragon or of humans. But Guthlac persevered no matter how the devils threatened him.
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By mdrout, on August 16th, 2007 The poet says that no one should doubt the story of Guthlac because the events happened within “our lifetimes.” God so loves all people that He wants us to always take in wisdom so that His truth may conquer.
Guthlac’s soul was brought to heaven by angels and the saint was granted a throne in heaven. And similarly the souls of those who hold to truth will be able to ascend to heaven. These people are the chosen warriors of Christ. The love to fast, avoid doing evil, and the pray; they struggle against sins and hold to truth. They depart from the earth and pass onto the heavenly Jerusalem and there they will always gaze upon the face of God.
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By mdrout, on August 15th, 2007 Guthlac says that the devils will be always miserable because God will never grant them any light and they will always be separated from Him and remain in hell.
Then a messenger from heaven comes and commands the devils to return Guthlac unharmed to his tumulus. The angel says that there shall be no wounding of Guthlac. He (the messenger) is the judge and he tells the devils that not only must they heal Guthlac of any of his hurts, but they must now obey his commands. The messenger is one of the twelve disciples [we learn immediately that he is Bartholomew].
Guthlac’s spirit soars as he is carried by the obedient devils back to his tumulus. The birds bless him with their songs and often bring food to him so that he can remain happy in the wilderness.
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