Elene. English;The Elene of Cynewulf by Cynewulf
page 35 of 48 (72%)
page 35 of 48 (72%)
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answered him (the Holy Spirit was granted unto
him with strength, a love hot as fire, a knowledge welling up through the learning of a warrior); and he spake this word, filled with wisdom:--'Thou needst not so mightily, ever mindful of evil, renew 940 sorrow and enkindle strife, O sinful prince of murder, inasmuch as the mighty King, who hath awakened with His word many of the dead, doth thrust thee into the nether depths, thou worker of iniquity, 945 into the abyss of torture, bereft of joy. Know thou full clearly that thou in folly didst forsake the brightest of lights and the love of the Lord and that glorious faith, and that thou hast since dwelt in a 950 bath of fire, burdened with tortures and seared with flame, and that there, with hatred in thy soul, thou shalt ever suffer woe and misery without end.' Elene heard how the foe and the friend struggled together, the glorious and the foul on opposite sides, 955 the sinful and the blessed. And she was the gladder in heart as she heard that the hellish enemy, the Prince of evil, was vanquished; she marveled at the wisdom of the man, how in so little time he was so filled with faith, and how he who had 960 ever been so ignorant was imbued with knowledge. And she thanked God, the King of glory, that through the Son of God the joy of both these things was come unto her--on the one hand at the sight 965 of the tree of victory, and on the other at this faith which she so clearly understood as a glorious |
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