The Lord everlasting, at last established
As a home for man, the Almighty Lord.
Primo cantavit Cædmon istud carmen.
[6.] The many synonyms (known as “kennings”) make this passage impossible to translate into smooth English. This fact is true in a measure of all old English poetry, but it is especially the case with this hymn.
BEDE’S DEATH SONG
[Text used: Kluge, Angelsächsisches Lesebuch.
This poem was attributed to Bede, who died in 735, by his pupil, Cuthbert, who translated it into Latin. The Northumbrian version is in a manuscript at St. Gall.
These verses are examples of gnomic poetry, which was very popular in Old English literature. Miss Williams, in her Gnomic Poetry in Anglo-Saxon (Columbia University Press, 1914), p. 67, says that this is the earliest gnomic expression in Old English for which a definite date may be set.
Text criticism: Charlotte D’Evelyn, “Bede’s Death Song,” Modern Language Notes, xxx, 31.]
[Before] leaving this life there lives no one