Death & Dying
Bede's Death Song
Translated by Cosette Faust Newton & Stith Thompson (1918) · From Preserved in a Latin letter on Bede's death
Before leaving this life there lives no one
Of men of wisdom who will not need
To consider and judge, ere he sets on his journey,
What his soul shall be granted of good or evil--
After his day of death what doom he shall meet.
Codex Note
Five lines of gnomic verse on facing death and judgment, traditionally said to have been composed by the Venerable Bede on his deathbed in 735 and recorded by his pupil Cuthbert.
Cite this poem
MLA
Anonymous (Old English). “Bede's Death Song.” Translated by Cosette Faust Newton and Stith Thompson. Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/anonymous-old-english/9/.
Chicago
Anonymous (Old English). “Bede's Death Song.” Translated by Cosette Faust Newton and Stith Thompson. Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/anonymous-old-english/9/.
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