Bede's Death Song


"Bede's Death Song" is the editorial name given to a five-line Old English poem, supposedly the final words of the Venerable Bede. It exists in multiple copies, in both Northumbrian and West Saxon dialects.

Attribution to Bede

Bede died on Thursday, 26 May 735 on the floor of his cell, singing Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit and was buried at Jarrow. Cuthbert, a disciple of Bede's, wrote a letter to a Cuthwin, describing Bede's last days and his death. According to Cuthbert, Bede fell ill, "with frequent attacks of breathlessness but almost without pain", before Easter. On the Tuesday, two days before Bede died, his breathing became worse and his feet swelled. He continued to dictate to a scribe, however, and despite spending the night awake in prayer he dictated again the following day. At three o'clock, according to Cuthbert, he asked for a box of his to be brought, and distributed among the priests of the monastery "a few treasures" of his: "some pepper, and napkins, and some incense". That night he dictated a final sentence to the scribe, a boy named Wilberht, and died soon afterwards. Cuthbert's letter also relates a five-line poem in the vernacular that Bede composed on his deathbed, known as "Bede's Death Song". It is the most-widely copied Old English poem, and appears in 45 manuscripts, but its attribution to Bede is not absolutely certain—not all manuscripts name Bede as the author, and the ones that do are of later origin than those that do not.

Text

Recorded in both Northumbrian and West Saxon, as edited in the Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records series the poem reads:

Northumbrian version

West Saxon version

Modern English translation

In a literal translation by Leo Shirley-Price, the text reads as:
Before setting forth on that inevitable journey, none is wiser than the man who considers—before his soul departs hence—what good or evil he has done, and what judgement his soul will receive after its passing.

In a verse translation by Brice Stratford, it reads: