Hrodulf
For the past ten years or so, this poem has lived on Professor Cathy Ball’s excellent Old English pages at Georgetown, but I noticed this year that her site is gone from their servers. (In web terms, 1996 was a long time ago — Hu seo þrag gewat, genap under nihthelm, swa heo no wære.) In order to preserve this trifle from the obscurity it deserves, I am placing it here.
Incipiunt gesta Rudolphi rangiferi tarandi
Hwæt, Hrodulf readnosa hrandeor –
Næfde þæt nieten unsciende næsðyrlas!
Glitenode and gladode godlice nosgrisele.
Ða hofberendas mid huscwordum hine gehefigodon;
Nolden þa geneatas Hrodulf næftig
To gomene hraniscum geador ætsomne.
Þa in Cristesmæsseæfne stormigum clommum,
Halga Claus þæt gemunde to him maðelode:
“Neahfreond nihteage nosubeorhtende!
Min hroden hrædwæn gelæd ðu, Hrodulf!
“Ða gelufodon hira laddeor þa lyftflogan –
Wæs glædnes and gliwdream; hornede sum gegieddode”
Hwæt, Hrodulf readnosa hrandeor,
Brad springð þin blæd: breme eart þu!”
Explicit
In modern English:
Hrodulf the Red-Nosed Reindeer
Lo, Hrodulf the red-nosed reindeer –
That beast didn’t have unshiny nostrils!
The goodly nose-cartilage glittered and glowed.
The hoof-bearers taunted him with proud words;
The comrades wouldn’t allow wretched Hrodulf
To join the reindeer games.
Then, on Christmas Eve, bound in storms
Santa Claus remembered that, spoke formally to him:
“Dear night-sighted friend, nose-bright one!
You, Hrodulf, shall lead my adorned rapid-wagon!”
Then the sky-flyers praised their lead-deer –
There was gladness and music; one of the horned ones sang”
Lo, Hrodulf the red-nosed reindeer,
Your fame spreads broadly, you are renowned!”
