[Text used: Kluge, _Angelsaechsisches Lesebuch_.
The piece of wood on which the message is written speaks throughout the
poem. It is impossible to tell whether the sender of the message is
husband or lover of the woman addressed.
Some scholars consider the riddle on "The Reed," number LX, as the true
beginning of this poem. It precedes the "Message" in the manuscript.
Hicketeir (_Anglia_, xi, 363) thinks that it does not belong with that
riddle, but that it is itself a riddle. He cites the Runes, in lines
51-2, especially as evidence. Trautmann (_Anglia_ xvi, 207) thinks that
it is part of a longer poem, in which the puzzling relation would be
straightened out.]
First I shall freely confide to you
The tale of this tablet of wood. As a tree I grew up
On the coast of Mecealde, close by the sea.
Frequently thence to foreign lands
5 I set forth in travel, the salt streams tried
In the keel of the ship at a king's behest.
Full oft on the bosom of a boat I have dwelt,
Fared over the foam a friend to see,
Wherever my master on a mission sent me,
10 Over the crest of the wave. I am come here to you
On the deck of a ship and in duty inquire
How now in your heart you hold and cherish
The love of my lord. Loyalty unwavering
I affirm without fear you will find in his heart.
15 The maker of this message commands me to bid thee,
O bracelet-adorned one, to bring to thy mind
And impress on thy heart the promises of love
That ye two in the old days often exchanged
While at home in your halls unharmed you might still
20 Live in the land, love one another,
Dwell in the same country. He was driven by feud
From the powerful people. He prays now, most earnestly
That you learn with delight you may launch on the sea-stream
When from the height of the hill you hear from afar
25 The melancholy call of the cuckoo in the wood.
Let not thereafter any living man
Prevent thy voyage or prevail against it.
Seek now the shore, the sea-mew's home!
Embark on the boat that bears thee south,
30 Where far over the foam thou shalt find thy lord,--
Where lingers thy lover in longing and hope.
In the width of the world not a wish or desire
More strongly stirs him (he instructs me to say)
Than that gracious God should grant you to live
35 Ever after at ease together,
To distribute treasures to retainers and friends,
To give rings of gold. Of gilded cups
And of proud possessions a plenty he has,
And holds his home far hence with strangers,
40 His fertile fields, where follow him many
High-spirited heroes-- though here my liege-lord,
Forced by the fates, took flight on a ship
And on the watery waves went forth alone
To fare on the flood-way: fain would he escape,
45 Stir up the sea-streams. By strife thy lord hath
Won the fight against woe. No wish will he have
For horses or jewels or the joys of mead-drinking,
Nor any earl's treasures on earth to be found,
O gentle lord's daughter, if he have joy in thee,
50 As by solemn vows ye have sworn to each other.
I set as a sign S and R together,
E, A, W, and D, as an oath to assure you
That he stays for thee still and stands by his troth;
And as long as he lives it shall last unbroken,--
55 Which often of old with oaths ye have plighted.
1-6. The text here is so corrupt that an almost complete reconstruction
has been necessary.
51. In the manuscript these letters appear as runes. For illustrations of
the appearance of runes, see the introductory note to "Cynewulf and
his School," p. 95, below. What these runes stood for, or whether they
were supposed to possess unusual or magic power is purely a matter of
conjecture.