Classics
A Classic Sampler
Beowulf / Viking Poetry
Sir Gawain & the
Green Knight and Pearl
Poetry 'zine
Featured Poems
Editor's Notes
Submissions
Resources
Other Translations
Medieval Texts
Modern Poetry
Fantasy Poetry
Poetic Techniques / Essays
Site Info
Masthead / Awards
New Changes & Old
Site References
Deor (Translation)
Keith MoulKnowing wretchedness, Welund moved near snakes.
Lone-minded man muted to pain,
He cleaved to his sorrow coldest vengeance
Through winter's longing, having watched in anguish
As Nithhad bound him with knotted sinews,
Annulled all mastery of the better man.
That passed over ... and so this may!
Not brothers' deaths, but her belly swollen
And plump from plowing appalled this Beadohild,
Whom Welund had weighted a pitiable way:
Never bold, now bred, with bearing close,
Distress drugged and reason deserted her.
That passed over... and so this may!
We heard rape's outrage as ruin fell to song,
Hate-words; yet heartless by the hurt of Nithhad
Who, slitting the flesh, slept sorrowfully.
That passed over... and so this may!
The Maerings' stronghold shook steadily
Full thirty winters in Theodoric’s trust.
That passed over... and so this may!
Asking of Eormanric we heard but evil
Of his wolfish ways, how widely his sway
Grieved Goths in the kingdom-- that grimmest of kings!
Many a man sat, sorrow-bound,
Watchful for misery; wished many a time
That his country's nightmare might be overcome.
That passed over... and so this may!
And still he sits liege to sorrow,
Darkened in heart, doling himself
What surely seems an endless share of woe.
Yet the world's turning works into his mind—
The wicked lord falls before the wise,
Grants by his absence honor to the abject man,
Power to the weak, pain to his fallen hinds.
So that I of myself wish to say
That once I sang as the Heodenings' scop
To my dear prince. Deor was my name.
Many winters I ruled rightly from my place,
Ruled the high lord-- until Heorrenda now,
He skilled in song, received my whole estate,
That I had never stained since bestowed on me.
That passed over... and so this may!
All rights reserved.