By the Venerable Bede (672 or 673–735 A.D).

With comment by John Birtwhistle

Fore ðæm nedfere nænig wiorðe    In setting out on our forced march,

ðonc snottora ðon him ðearf siæ    who can be wiser than one who reflects

to ymbhycgenne ær his hinionge    with his last breath whether his life

hwæt his gastæ godes oððe yfles    brought to others consolation or pain?

æfter deað dæge doemed wiorðe.    On that hangs day or night for his soul.

Bede was a seventh-century Northumbrian monk, famous to this day for his Church History of the English People narrating the …