After Enosh, Kenan was lord and guardian
Of the country, living seventy years
Before his son Mahalalel was born,
Followed by children for eight hundred forty years.
Then he left the world at nine hundred ten, 1230
When his time was finished under the heavens.
After Kenan, Mahalalel held the inheritance.
He lived sixty-five years before beginning
To bear children with his beloved wife.
She first gave him a son named Jared. 1235
Mahalalel lived long, enjoying many blessings,
Both earthly treasures and the joys of men.
He lived eight hundred ninety-five years
Before departing, leaving the land,
Its rule and riches to his son Jared. 1240
Jared was generous, giving gold to his people.
He was righteous and noble, respected and loved
By his kith and kin. He lived a life
Of one hundred sixty-five years
Before his wife gave him a gift of joy— 1245
Enoch, his noble first-born son.
Then he fathered many more children
Over the span of some eight hundred years,
Proud descendants of a great tribe.
He lived nine hundred sixty-five years 1250
Till he passed on power to his eldest son.
Enoch was a wise and worthy leader,
A righteous ruler, shepherd of his kin.
He prospered and fathered many sons
For three hundred years. God was gracious to him. 1255
Enoch left life in no ordinary way.
He died no death as mortals do
When God reclaims their worldly wealth
And leaves their lifeless bodies bound
For a graveyard bed. The Lord of angels 1260
Transported Enoch alive from earth
In the same form that his spirit received
Before he was brought forth into the world
By his mother, his soul robed in flesh.
He left the land’s rule to his first-born son 1265
When he ascended from the earth, a mighty miracle,
After three hundred sixty-five years of life.
His son Methuselah received the inheritance,
Living the longest of any of these patriarchs,
Enjoying worldly pleasures, siring children 1270
Before he died at nine hundred seventy.
After Methuselah, his son Lamech ruled.
He lived one hundred two years
Before beginning to bear children.
The people’s leader was wise and worthy, 1275
Beloved by all. He ruled the realm well.
He lived five hundred ninety-five more years
Before leaving the inheritance to Noah,
His first-born son, who ruled afterwards.
That leader waited some five hundred years 1280
Before his wife bore him three fine sons—
Shem, Ham, and Japheth, as books tell us.
The people of middle-earth began to multiply
As so many sons and daughters were born.
They multiplied widely across middle-earth. 1285
The descendants of Seth were dear to God,
Blessed with prosperity, respected by their Ruler,
Fair and faithful, righteous and good—
Until the children of God began to seek
Brazen brides from the cursed race of Cain, 1290
Defying his holy will and word.
The sons of men took shameful wives,
Beautiful but unblessed, stunning but sinful.
Then the Ruler of heaven spoke to people
In his righteous wrath, saying these words: 1295
“The race of Cain is not forgotten—
The crime of Cain is not forgiven.
They were not guilt-free when they left my spirit,
And now this nation enrages me.
The sons of Seth renew this feud 1300
By marrying women from among my foes.
The beauty of these brides, these unbelievers,
And the devious wiles of the fierce fiend
Have wormed their way into these men,
The people who were once at peace with me.” 1305
After one hundred twenty years in the world,
The race of Cain found no repentance
But rather became renegades, outlaws forever,
Conspiring with giants, malevolent monsters.
Then the world’s Creator, the Wielder of power, 1310
Was determined to punish his sinful foes,
Men and monsters, vicious and vile,
Bloated with evil, drunk with destruction,
Hideous and hateful to their righteous Lord.
The Victory-lord saw all the earth’s evils, 1315
The world’s wickedness, the shameless sins,
And decided to destroy those faithless people
With a grim vengeance. He repented creating
The race of men when he made Adam,
Stirring his soul to life with his own breath, 1320
And decided because of man’s savagery and sin
To lay waste to the world, blasting each body,
Withdrawing every breath. Dark days
Were approaching the fallen children of men.
Yet Noah was blessed, loved by the Savior, 1325
A virtuous man, righteous and merciful,
The son of Lamech in the line of Seth.
God knew that he held holy thoughts
In his mind, bold courage in his heart—
He was steadfast and true. So God told Noah 1330
Of the coming vengeance on the sons of men.
He saw that the earth was alive with evil,
Its wide plains polluted with sin,
Its rivers an endless road of unrighteousness.
All life was abomination, so the Lord said: 1335
“The day of vengeance is drawing near.
I mean to destroy with a mighty flood
All life everywhere shaped and sustained
By nature and nurture—men and women,
Birds of the air, beasts of the land, 1340
Fields and groves. You will have sanctuary
With your sons and family in a saving-ship,
An ark of mercy against the storm-winds
To protect the faithful when the dark waters,
The death-floods, come to destroy mankind, 1345
Those bent in sin. Begin now to build
A mighty ship, a sea-floater, a wave-walking
Ocean-home with rooms for all creatures
To rest in, a holding haven, safe and secure
For each of earth’s species, each natural kind, 1350
A shelter against the rage and wrath to come.
Build separate stalls, tiers and floors,
A broad deck. Be sure to make it
Fifty measures wide, thirty high, three hundred long.
Build the joints strong to survive the storm. 1355
Take into the ark, that floating fortress,
The offspring of every species, fish and fowl,
Beast and bird, seed and shoot, flower and fruit.
Build a roomy boat—the bigger, the better.”
Noah obeyed his Creator’s commands, 1360
Telling his family the flood was coming,
A dark calamity, a dire punishment
For sinful people, but no one believed him.
Still he persisted in his brave boat-building,
Heeding his Lord’s holy plan and purpose. 1365
After many years of constructing the ark,
Noah was rewarded by the Lord’s return,
True to his promise. God saw the ship
Rising high in the yard, a house for the waves,
Ready to launch a
nd ride out the flood, 1370
Caulked with earth-lime of a special kind—
Like the firmest faith, hardening in squalls,
Repulsing rough water, tightening against tempests—
Steadfast in the face of savage storms.
Then our Lord and Savior said to Noah: 1375
“Most beloved of men, I give you this pledge—
That you and your family shall load the ark
With every kind of creature, the seed and progeny
Of every plant and animal. The world will survive
In the belly of the boat you’ve cunningly built. 1380
You and your heirs—three sons, four wives—
Must ride the waves in the abundant ark.
Take into the ship seven of each species
That are food for men, and two of the others.
Take also fruits, grains, seeds, and shoots, 1385
The promise of plenty in days to come,
Enough to sustain all living creatures
Aboard the sea-wood. After the ravaging flood,
I will return the earth to its green goodness,
Its beauty and bloom, its sustaining fullness. 1390
Now gather your creatures and enter the ark.
You and your family still hold my favor
And will ride the waves to a renewed world.
In seven days a slaughter-rain will fall
On the face of the earth. Everyone will die 1395
Who is not in the ark. For forty days and nights,
The world will be battered by a rage of rain,
As I pummel the earth with wind and wave,
Wreaking my vengeance with dark storm-clouds.
The flood will destroy the world’s wealth 1400
Along with its owners. All sins and sinners
Will be swept away. Only those inside the ark
Will be saved when the savage storm beats down
And buries the earth in an endless sea.
This is the covenant I promise to keep.” 1405
Then Noah loaded the ark with every kind
Of earthly creature as the Savior commanded—
Men and women, plants and animals,
Birds and beasts—everything God needed
To restore the earth, reclaim creation, 1410
After the deadly flood. With his deft hands
The Guardian of life, Protector of people,
Sealed the door of that floating sea-house
With a tight blessing against the tempest.
The son of Lamech was six hundred years old 1415
When he made his way up the gangplank
And climbed aboard with his cherished family,
A wise patriarch with his youthful sons,
The seeds of creation, the promise of progeny
After the flood. On the dry decks 1420
Of their floatable world, they waited for water.
Then the Lord lashed the land with rainstorms,
Opened the well-springs of the earth to flow,
Ordered the oceans to rise and rage,
Commanded the waters to cover creation. 1425
The rivers ran over, the seas surged on the strand,
No living thing outside the ark was spared.
The Water-wielder was wrathful and righteous—
He covered and hid the children of middle-earth
Who were feuding with him in a blanket of waves, 1430
A shroud of dark water. The storm-dread
Brought doom for forty days and nights.
The savage storm squeezed the life
Out of the bone-house of every creature,
Leaving dead flesh, a clutch of corpses. 1435
The flood covered land and lovers,
Men and mountains, trees and travelers.
There was nowhere for the wicked to flee.
The ark floated on the rising flood,
Holding Noah’s family and the keep of creatures, 1440
Those blessed by the Lord when he loaded the ship
And closed with his hands the doors of the hold.
Then the sea was like a ring of bright water
From end to end, horizon to horizon,
As the ark sailed on under the skies 1445
With its precious cargo, the promise of creation.
God guarded the ship so the seething tempest
Could not touch them, the wild water waste them.
The Lord was their pilot through the savage storm.
The fierce flood was fift een measures deep 1450
Over the dark mountains—a mighty miracle,
A strange wonder. Finally there was no one left
For the seas to swallow, for death to drink.
No one could mourn the greatest of miseries
But the air itself when the flood had covered 1455
All the once living creatures of middle-earth,
Except those onboard, shielded by the Savior,
When the stern-hearted King of creation
Lifted up the obedient flood.
God the Maker was mindful of his seafarer, 1460
The son of Lamech, his faithful family,
And the creatures he carried—seed and stock,
Bird and beast, fish and fruit—all the life
That the Lord of light had locked in the ship.
God led Noah over the swelling waves, 1465
Across the wide lands with his guiding word.
The ocean ebbed, the flood subsided,
The dark waters diminished, the drowning ceased.
God revoked the rain and stilled the seas.
The ship had sailed for one hundred fifty 1470
Days and nights beneath the heavens,
Certain in the strength of its nailed sides,
Till the tempest passed and the tide turned.
Then Noah’s ark, the best of boats,
Greatest of sea-houses, heaved up on land, 1475
High on Ararat in the mountains of Armenia,
Where Lamech’s son, that saintly sailor,
Awaited his orders from the almighty Creator,
Some sign that he should leave the great ship
And find rest for his people, relief from the peril 1480
Of the dark flood that had devastated the world.
The ocean receded, the waves retreated.
Then the seafarers with their wives and families
Longed for a time when they could leave the ark,
Step out across the nailed deck-planks, 1485
And carry their belongings onto dry land—
They were too long confined in the crowded ship.
Then the heroic helmsman tested whether
The flood had finally left the land.
Many days after the mountain slopes 1490
Had held and harbored the ark’s wealth
Of people and progeny, seeds and scions,
The renewing richness of the earth’s life,
The son of Lamech let loose a black raven,
Flying from the sea-house across the flood. 1495
He believed that if the bird found no land,
He would return to the wave-wood across the seas,
But the bird was fiendish and played him false
By floating on a corpse, an unfair flesh-boat.
That dark-feathered bird had found its home! 1500
Seven days later, Noah tried a gray dove
To see if the sea would yield green earth.
The dove searched everywhere for dry land
But failed to find a place to perch—
No leaf-land, grass-hillock, or tree-slope. 1505
Her feet could not light on any good ground.
The land from hill to hollow, sea to sand,
Was covered with water. That weary bird
Flew back to the ark that evening
Across the dark, gloomy sea, settling 1510
>
Tired and hungry in Noah’s holy hands.
After another week, the same brave dove
Was sent out again from the stranded ark.
She flew, rejoicing in the sky’s freedom,
And found a resting place for her weary wings 1515
And tiny, tired feet—a perfect perch
In the branch and beauty of a lofty tree.
She sat in peace, enjoying the bough,
Then plucked a precious gift of green,
Shook her feathers, and flew home again 1520
With her promising present to Noah’s ark,
Placing an olive branch, a green twig,
In her captain’s hands. That hardy sea-lord
Sensed in the sprig that comfort had come,
A welcome respite from sailing the sea-road. 1525
After waiting a third week, the blessed man
Once again sent out the free-flying dove.
She discovered dry land with a green wood,
Resolving never to return to the ark,
That uneasy refuge of pitch and plank, 1530
Now that there was no need for ship-survival.
Then our Savior, the Guardian of heaven,
Spoke to Noah in a holy voice:
“Here is your homeland once again readied,
A rest from your relentless sea-journey, 1535
A bed of bright joy, the delight of dry land.
Now the earth awakens. Go in peace and prosper
With the world’s offspring that I saved from the waves
When the ocean engulfed this third homeland.”
So Noah disembarked at the orders of the Lord, 1540
Walked down the planks and stood on the strand,
Leading the survivors of the savage flood,
The righteous remnant of the days of rage.
The wise patriarch set up a sacrifice
To his Lord and Savior, offering a portion 1545
Of the life-gifts given to him by God
When he boarded the ark. The Lord was pleased
With Noah and his family, accepting the offering,
Especially since the faithful son of Lamech
Had lived by his laws and accomplished his will 1550
By his words and works ever since he was young.
He deserved God’s favor, his bright blessing.
The Lord of glory spoke again to Noah:
“Be fruitful and multiply in the shelter and safety
Of this wondrous world. Fill the earth with life. 1555
Bring out the birds and beasts, the seeds and shoots.
Let the land bloom, the birds begin singing,
The animals feed and flourish. The earth is alive—
The time of the tempest is finished. In your hands
I place the power of your forefathers’ world, 1560
The verdant groves, the enlivening air,
The fruits and flowers, the fish and fowl.
The Complete Old English Poems Page 15