1Naveth my saule bute fur and ys, and the lichome eorthe and treo. The powerful imagery of this line — the ethereal soul is fire and ice, the organic body is earth and tree — indicates that the lost poem must have contained vivid metaphors, as captured in Segar’s translation: “My soul has nought but fire and ice, / And my body earth and wood” (A Mediæval Anthology, p. 37). Reiss offers the following comment: “the body can most likely anticipate only the wood of the coffin and the earth in which it will lie, while the soul similarly will have for its end or resting place the fire and ice that in the medieval view characterized hell” (“Religious Commonplaces,” p. 98). Such a reading complements the visions of hell found in Poema Morale (art. 3) and Eleven Pains of Hell (art. 28).back to note source
2Bidde we. In the Jesus sequence of poems, many closing stanzas open with this phrase, which signals a final prayer. Because the first letter B is always a red capital (as would be expected here were the B not missing), these standard endings are quite noticeable to a reader of the manuscript. Compare The Passion of Jesus Christ (art. 1), line 547; Poema Morale (art. 3), line 389; The Saws of Saint Bede (art. 4), line 349; The Annunciation (art. 10), line 4; and Doomsday (art. 13), line 41.back to note source
4tything. “news of one’s fate.” Compare the note on the meaning of tydinges in Three Sorrowful Tidings (art. 23), line 1.back to note source
2–5the laste Dom . . . ne byth undon. The immediate topic — Doomsday — is simply part of a closing prayer. It offers little indication of the content of the lost poem.back to note source