122. #uuantruce#, failure; as being compounded of #wan#, wanting, and
the noun of #trucian#, to fail, it should mean absence of failure.
#hað#: for omission of nom. see 6/18.
123. For the pain of dying as penance, comp. ‘Quidam autem electi in
fine suo purgantur a levibus quibusdam peccatis,’ Isidore vi. 361;
‘Nullus tui Ordinis peribit, si Ordinem amaverit; aut in morte
purgabitur, aut in brevi post mortem,’ Arnulf of Boheries in S. Bern.
Opera, ii. 802.
124. #eðelice lette#, easy hindrance, i.e. slight delay. #merchestowe#:
Morris suggests ‘merthestowe, a place of mirth,’ or alternatively
translates the MS. reading, place marked out, place of separation. The
word is not found elsewhere; it is probably a special coinage for the
intermediate state, the place of the soul waiting for the body, the
place of the ‘morȝemete,’ the limited joy of which the soul is capable
in its severed state (‘requies ei, sed in anima sola, interim datur,’
Anselm, in Eadmer, 161 col. 2 B); the banquet of perfect felicity, ‘se
fulle mete,’ follows when soul and body meet again at the resurrection,
17/157 (‘in anima simul & corpore laetabuntur,’ Ans.). Comp. #March#,
‘myddys be-twyn ij cu{n}treys,’ Prompt. Parv. ed. Mayhew, 282.
128. #belimpð hit#: a superfluous nominative, as if, what is it that
happens?
129. #letes# in Specimens is resolved into lete + his, the latter being
_gen._ of hit, governed by fandie, and so like ‘ȝif we his abiriȝdon,’
OEH i. 223/22. But support is lacking for enclitic es = his: it seems
better to take letes as lete + es, _pl. acc._, them, or even as _s. a.
f._ used incorrectly as _neuter_.
131. #anu# is taken by Morris as for anu{m}, but neither his ‘at once,’
Specimens, nor ‘only,’ OEH, is satisfactory. Probably the original had
anūge (= #ānunge#) gerǣde, entirely, quite ready, very keen.
132. #hade#, a past among the presents, is probably a mistake for habe
_subj. pres._ of indefinite comparison, Howsoever many vices he has on
him, just so many fiends he there encounters: fele has dropped out after
swa 133.
135. In Specimens [habbeþ] is inserted after _hi_, with the translation,
‘and they shall have for their reward the home that long shall last.’
The text given means, they shall be thrust from his sight and into their
reward which must last long for them. For #hin# = in, comp. 13/23, and
for #abroden into#, 13/27. But the original may have had, ⁊ higien him
to hire lēan þe lange sceal gelǣstan.
136. #a þa mucele deie#: comp. ‘on þam miclan dæge,’ Christ 1049, and
often; ‘in iudicium magni diei,’ S. Jude, 6. See Deering, W., The
Anglo-Saxon Poets on the Judgment Day, 8.
138. #niȝen anglene had#: ‘Novem esse distinctiones, vel ordines
angelorum sacrae scripturae testantur: id est, Angelos, Archangelos,
Thronos, Dominationes, Virtutes, Principatus, Potestates, Cherubim et
Seraphim,’ Isidore, vi. 137.
141. #þer midenarde . . . werpeð abec#. The article is _s. d. fem._, the
noun _s. d. masc._ The phrase might mean, with all those who for his
love turn backwards to the world, but not, ‘put aside the world,’
Morris. It seems to be without parallel: such expressions as,
‘projecerunt legem tuam post terga sua,’ ii Esdras ix. 26, suggest the
_acc._ þes midenard here.
142-146. The ultimate source is Ephraem Syrus, ‘Quomodo sustinebimus,
Fratres, quum videbimus igneum fluvium . . . comburentem omnem terram et
quae in ea sunt opera? Tunc, dilecti, ab illo igne flumina deficient et
fontes evanescent, stellae cadent, sol extinguetur, luna abibit, coelum
plicabitur ut volumen, sicut scriptum est . . . Quomodo sustinebimus
tunc, Christo dilecti, quum videbimus terribilem thronum praeparatum et
signum crucis apparens, in quo affixus est Christus voluntarie pro
nobis,’ ed. Lamy, ii. 192. Comp. with the present passage BH 91.