Aethelthryth's Ode

This is what happens when I spend too long working on my history thesis :)


I see my life before death
Before the doctor would make that cut
A well into the black pit of pus
Churning inside me
In my youth I cared for nothing
Save my father’s arms around me
Scorned on earth, a third child’s fate
The father comforted me
Married, nay sold, once to an aeldorman
Who prized so much what I held inside
that noble light, a comfort to me in darkness
Protected by God and by shame
I watched him die, unmet in his yearnings
Yet still again my spirit was tied
This time to a king
Handsome in body, yet lacking
To Me the attraction of what I held in side
The sweet promise of a reward
Richer than any man-made crown
I scorned his bed, sullied with filth
And made for myself my own name
Till that day when he tried
To still that sacred flame
To douse it in the ocean of his lust
But on that day Christ prevailed
Him and his army of angelic men
My attacker they spurned, and protected my bed
Then I fled to that isle surrounded by Fens
A gift of my first troth
before Tainted with sin, I made it new
a declaration before God
the founding of his noble house
in honor of the virgin, mother of our Lord
queen in noble strength
gathering about me, men and women alike
hymns to our Lord prayed loud and fierce
a virgin leading virgins
I led them towards the light
To the Glory of God who is good and just and strong
Who protects the weak
who exalts the humble
the lump came that year
the one that grew from my neck
a sign of my sin—a heavy cross
a reminder of days, days lost
where upon my neck hung not this gown of wool
but instead glistening ropes
shinning
displaying to all the blackness of my heart
the vanity of my soul
the lump grew and swelled—fed by death
until that day, pouring out its rage
it took my life, as well it should
then buried in the ground
in a humble wooden box
my body lay still, my bones cheating death
but my soul upward, to the house of my Lord
In my father’s embrace
At last free of all thorn.