Spelling the Wonders of God’s Creation: The Old English “Order of the World”

There’s a beautiful lesser-known poem from the Old English Exeter Book called “The Order of the World” (alternately, and I think more appropriately, titled “The Wonder of Creation”). The short poem (100 lines) is, as it terms itself, a herespel (line 37), a praise song to God the Father Almighty extolling the beauties of His creation, particularly the sunrise and sunset, the sea and the land.

Sunset over the Pacific Ocean

After an introduction of sorts, the Creation song begins:

Lo! In the beginning the Father Almighty,

High guardian of treasure, formed heaven and earth,

The wide depths of the sea and the visible world, (lines 38-40)

I find this translation by R. M. Liuzza to be lovely.* He has had to modernize many of the obsolete words, but has done so in a way that keeps the original OE alliterative aesthetics in the lines, if not the actual alliterative sounds because so many of the poetic words used in “The Order of the World” have fallen out of the English language.**

Take these lines of the Creation song that introduce the poet’s primary focus on the heavenly bodies, particularly the sun:

So they bear forth beauty into the world,

the glory of God and his generous deeds. (47-48; my emphasis)

The original alliteration in line 47 was on worulde and an obsolete word for beauty, wlite. By translating wlite as “beauty,” Liuzza has shifted the alliteration of the line off of “world” to the verb “bear” (OE berath). It would be a significant shift aesthetically for a listener 1000 years ago, but works just fine for a modern reader.***

We can find another beautiful passage in Liuzza’s translation a few lines later in the praise song:

. . . His power propels

heaven’s candle and the high waves with it,

the Lord of life beckons, and brings

all creation into his own vast embrace. (53-56)

From the general picture of “heaven’s candle” (a popular OE metaphor for the sun) above and the seas beneath, the poet moves into images of the sunrise and then sunset. The sunrise is “this bright light / that comes over the misty cliffs each morning / traversing the waves adorned with wonders” (59-61).

If the sun arrives adorned with wonders, it departs likewise:

Departing with wonder into the western sky,

the most glorious star goes traveling in a troop,

until in the evening it treads the edge

of the outer ocean, and summons another gloom; (68-71)

Like the idealized, often sea-faring Germanic warrior of Old English poetry, the sun travels across the sky with companions, although I’m not sure what the poet envisions these to be (clouds? the unseen heavenly bodies?).

No doubt all of us can recall amazing sunsets (and possibly for you early birds even sunrises) that we have experienced during our lives. Indeed, one of the wonderful things about the old books is how they can help people throughout the ages feel a kinship with each other. As the “Order of the World” poet demonstrates, over a thousand years ago people were just as captivated by the diurnal appearance and disappearance of “heaven’s candle.”

After a brief contemplation on the mystery of the sun after it “passes beyond the horizon / into murk and gloom under the mass of waters” (78-79), the poet offers a beautiful sum-up of his praise song. In more simple, yet highly poetic, lines the poet sings,

And so he knit together—as he well knew how—

Day with night, depth with height,

The sky with the sea, the shore with the streams,

Land and water, fishes and waves.

That work never weakens, he holds it all well; (82-86)

Line 82 is almost an exact replica of line 43, near the beginning of the herespel, which, as typical with OE poetry, is a poem within the poem. The emphasis is on God as the great crafter/shaper with the wisdom to join together all of his Creation.

Such Creation praise songs are familiar in the biblical Psalms and in Old English literature.**** Yet “The Order of the World” is not just a beautiful depiction of the sun and sea and not just a praise song to God. Old English words are often compounds, and the latter half of herespel (line 37, translated by Liuzza “praise-song”), usually means in Old English a discourse, homily/sermon, or narrative. (Just as a side note, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, the noun “spell” in English isn’t associated with enchantment until centuries later.)

Since this very poetic poem is intended as a homily, the poet instructs his hearers to “Learn these lessons!” (Leorna thas lare; literally “Learn this lore”; line 23). Didactic poetry is the norm in the Middle Ages, and the poet operates under the assumption that the order and beauties of God’s creation should result naturally in obedience to the Creator (cf. Romans 1:18-25). The poem thus concludes,

And so a man should strive to obey the Maker,

every child of men should abandon idle lusts,

life’s fleeting fancies, and hurry to true bliss,

abandon every hateful enmity, set aside

old sinful deeds, and set out for that better realm. (98-102)

Abandon idle pleasures, particularly sinful ones, and set your sights on things above, preaches the poet. Why? Because this life is “fleeting,” which is how many translators render the OE word læne (present-day English “loan”). That is, our life is on loan to us—a repeated idea in OE literature (cf. The Wanderer lines 108-10, The Seafarer line 66, Beowulf 2845).

“The Order of the World” thus encourages both its original hearers and its present-day readers, in contemplating the order and beauty of Creation, to humble themselves before their Almighty Creator.*****

* R. M. Liuzza, Old English Poetry: An Anthology (Broadview, 2014). You can view the original poem at the University of Virginia Old English site: http://faculty.virginia.edu/OldEnglish/aspr/a3.14.html

** Old English poetry relies on alliteration and stresses, rather than rhyme, using the beginning sounds of words (alliteration) to link together the two halves of a poetic line. Rhyme in OE poetry is very rare.

*** Line 48 is a perfect example of OE alliterative aesthetics, with two words in the first half of the line alliterating with one in the second half: “dryhtnes duguthe ond his dæda thrym.” Given all the obsolete words, the “d” alliteration does not, however, work when translated to modern English. Liuzza has kept “deeds” (OE “dæda”) but shifted the alliteration to the modern “g” words.

**** See, for example, Psalm 19 or 104, as well as the OE “Cædmon’s Hymn” and Beowulf lines 90-98.

**** Contrast the example of the monster Grendel in the Old English poem Beowulf, who is enraged by the Creation-focused song of praise he hears sung in Hrothgar’s meadhall and lashes out in violence as God’s adversary (line 786), ultimately earning God’s judgment as meted out by Beowulf (cf. lines 86-104, 381-4, 685-7, 711, 928-31, etc.).