Fire and Ice
When the angels rebelled against their Maker, they demanded a kingdom of their own in a land without him — and he gave them what they wanted.
Anglo-Saxon Britain 410-1066
When the angels rebelled against their Maker, they demanded a kingdom of their own in a land without him — and he gave them what they wanted.
Anglo-Saxon Britain 410-1066
In the Anglo-Saxon poem Genesis, we have heard how God created angels to serve him in glory, and how one — dearly beloved, and the mightiest — roused others to bring war against their Maker, craving thrones and servants of their own. The rebels were thrust forth from heaven, but worse awaited them: for a weak and inferior creature called Man was to take their place.
Translated by Albert S. Cook (1853-1927), abridged and slightly altered
THEN spoke the haughty king,
Once brightest among angels, in the heavens
Whitest, and to his Master dear beloved.
‘Most unlike is this narrow place
To that which once we knew, high in heaven’s realm,
Which my Lord gave me, though therein no more
For the Almighty we hold royalties.*
Yet right hath He not done, in striking us
Down to the fiery bottom of hot hell —
Banished from heaven’s kingdom, with decree
That He will set in it the race of man.
Worst of my sorrows this: that, wrought of earth,
Adam shall sit in bliss on my strong throne,
Whilst we these pangs endure, this grief in hell.
Woe! Woe! had I the power of my hands,
And for a season, for one winter’s space,
Might be without; then with this host I —
But iron binds me round; this coil of chains
Rides me; I rule no more; so know I that He knew
My mind, and that the Lord of hosts perceived
That if between us two by Adam came
Evil towards that royalty of heaven,
I having power of my hands —
But now we suffer throes in hell, gloom, heat,
Grim, bottomless; God Himself hath swept us
Into these mists of darkness.
* Here, ‘royalty’ means a share in the rights and honours of a ruling family.