Bede's sparrow in the hall, in Old English
Bede tells how a king of Northumbria asked his advisers whether to accept Christianity. One of them answered with a picture that has been quoted ever since: a human life is like a sparrow flying through a warm hall on a winter night. Bede wrote in Latin, and this is the Old English translation made around 890.
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The text and translation
Þyslic me is gesewen, cyning, þis andwearde lif manna on eorðan, to wiðmetenesse þære tide þe us uncuð is:
Thus seems to me, O king, this present life of men on earth, in comparison of that time which is unknown to us:
Word by word
- Þyslic
- such, like this
- me
- to me
- is
- is
- gesewen
- seen, appears
- cyning
- O king
- þis
- this
- andwearde
- present
- lif
- life
- manna
- of men
- on
- on
- eorðan
- earth
- to
- to, in
- wiðmetenesse
- comparison
- þære
- of that
- tide
- time
- þe
- which
- us
- to us
- uncuð
- unknown
- is
- is
swylc swa þu ætfleon mid þinum ealdormannum and þegnum on wintra, and fyr onæled and þin heall gewyrmed, and hit rine and sniwe and styrme ute;
as if thou sattest at meat with thy ealdormen and thegns in winter, and the fire were kindled and thy hall warmed, and it rained and snowed and stormed outside;
Word by word
- swylc
- as if, like
- swa
- as
- þu
- thou
- ætfleon
- sattest
- mid
- with
- þinum
- thy
- ealdormannum
- aldermen, nobles
- and
- and
- þegnum
- thegns, retainers
- on
- in
- wintra
- winter
- and
- and
- fyr
- fire
- onæled
- kindled
- and
- and
- þin
- thy
- heall
- hall
- gewyrmed
- warmed
- and
- and
- hit
- it
- rine
- rained
- and
- and
- sniwe
- snowed
- and
- and
- styrme
- stormed
- ute
- outside
and cume an spearwa and hrædlic þæt hus þurhfleo, cume þurh oðre duru in, þurh oðre ut gewite.
and a sparrow came and swiftly flew through the hall, coming in by one door and going out by the other.
Word by word
- and
- and
- cume
- should come
- an
- a, one
- spearwa
- sparrow
- and
- and
- hrædlic
- swiftly
- þæt
- the
- hus
- house, hall
- þurhfleo
- flew through
- cume
- coming
- þurh
- through
- oðre
- one
- duru
- door
- in
- in
- þurh
- through
- oðre
- the other
- ut
- out
- gewite
- depart
Hwæt! he on þære hwile þe he inne bið, ne bið hrinen mid þy storme þæs wintres; ac þæt bið eagan beorhtnes and þæt læste fæc, and he sona of wintra in winter eft cymeð.
What! While he is within, he is not touched by the storm of winter; but that is only the twinkling of an eye and the shortest space, and immediately he returns from winter to winter again.
Word by word
- Hwæt
- lo, what!
- he
- he
- on
- in
- þære
- that
- hwile
- time, while
- þe
- that
- he
- he
- inne
- inside
- bið
- is
- ne
- not
- bið
- is
- hrinen
- touched
- mid
- with
- þy
- the
- storme
- storm
- þæs
- of the
- wintres
- winter
- ac
- but
- þæt
- that
- bið
- is
- eagan
- of an eye
- beorhtnes
- twinkling, brightness
- and
- and
- þæt
- the
- læste
- least, shortest
- fæc
- space of time
- and
- and
- he
- he
- sona
- immediately
- of
- from
- wintra
- winter
- in
- into
- winter
- winter
- eft
- again
- cymeð
- comes
What to notice
- an spearwa is “a sparrow”, and you can see both modern words in it. An is the ancestor of a and an.
- rine and sniwe and styrme means “rained and snowed and stormed”. This is prose, and it is much closer to modern English than the poetry is, which makes it a good place to start.
- þurh oðre duru in, þurh oðre ut gewite means “in by one door, out by the other”. Read it aloud, and most of the words will come to you.
- of wintra in winter means “from winter to winter”. The whole image closes on those few words.
Read it yourself
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Sources
Old English Bede (c. 890), ed. Bright, An Anglo-Saxon Reader (1917). Public domain. English: Claude (AI)
Text licence: Public domain.
Language pack licence: Texts public domain / CC BY-SA 4.0; annotation CC BY-SA 4.0.
Texts: Caedmon's Hymn, Beowulf lines 1-11, Cnut's proclamation of 1020, The Battle of Maldon lines 312-313, The Wanderer lines 1-7 and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle entry for 793 (all public domain); the Lord's Prayer in Early West Saxon as standardised in Wikipedia's 'Old English' article (CC BY-SA 4.0). Wulf and Eadwacer: W. J. Sedgefield, An Anglo-Saxon Verse-Book (1922), pp. 39-40, public domain; transcribed against the printed pages. Tagging and glosses: AI (Claude; Codex for Wulf and Eadwacer), checked against Wiktionary; not yet reviewed by a person. Additional passages carry their own source credits.
The introduction and notes on this page were written by Claude (AI). Word glosses are AI-assisted, and so is the English unless the source above names another translator.