Paul Kingsnorth - The Wake

micel rowan did my grandfather do through the secg and the lesch below the reed and down streams deorc and windan and nefer did i thinc we wolde find our way baec efer to our hus so far was we in to the fenn. the secg had been cuman in ofer us for a long time and it was locan lic we was in a deop place in the ground but after many hours we cum to a place where it fell baec and there opened before us a great mere hecged around with yeolo secg and singan with the call of coot and hraga

my grandfather then he rowed us slow to the middel of this mere and he stopped rowan and he toc the ars wet and dryppan into the boat and we roccd then with the wind and the water. and my grandfather he saes to me loc into the water cilde loc down

and i loccd then into the deorc water and at first i colde see naht but the blaec and the ael and the writhan caddis and the grene ropes of mos on the water still but my grandfather was specan lic he meant to hiere a good answer from me so i cept locan and then lic sum masc had cum off my nebb sudden i seen the treows

under the boat under the water and not so deop was the stocc of a great blaec treow torn to its root lic a tooth in the mouth of an eald wif. a great treow it was wid and blaec as the fyrs aesc blaec as the deorcness beyond the hall on a night when the mona sleeps and as i was locan i seen another and another and i colde see that under this mere was a great holt a great eald holt of treows bigger than any i had seen efer in holland and ealdor i was sure ealdor efen than my grandfather. and through the waters these treows they seemed to stir though in triewth they was still as the graef and blaeccer

then i specs to my grandfather lic he is sum wicce what is this grandfather i saes what is this holt under the water what world is this. i was thincan many things that afeart me then i was thincan this was the land where aelfs cums from or that ents or dweorgs was here or efen that it was the hall under the mere in what grendel was lifan and that his mothor was cuman for me under my lytel boat. until my grandfather spac i efen thought he was him self an aelf or an eorca in a mans masc cum to tac me to his world of blaec and yfel and me no place to run

my grandfather then he left the ars still in the boat and we was driftan slow on a wind that was so lytel we colde not feel it and naht near but the yeolo secg and naht hierde but fugols and wyrmfleoges and driftan then ofer the great blaec treows he telt me of the holt of the lost gods of angland

he telt me that in the time before the crist angland was ham to a hus of gods what was born of this ground and what lifd in it among the folc. and these gods he saed was not lic the crist they was not ingenga gods bound about in lies and words not gods of fear unseen in the heofon what priccd man sore and bound him with laws and afeart him with fyr but these was gods of the treows and the water lic we is folc of them

the ealdor of these he saes was woden also called grim who walcced the duns and the high hylls woden cyng of the gods of angland from who all triewe anglisc cyngs is cum in blud. and before the crist saes my grandfather and i hierde from others after that this is triewe though then i wolde not belyf him before the crist he telt me it was woden what was hung fyrst on a treow and woden holed with a spere until waters cum from him and woden who fell lic he was cwelled then cum up again and in risan was gifen the wisdom of the world in the runes. and woden then was called upon by anglisc folc in holt and feld and now the preosts they tells us he is the deoful himself though they has tacan his lif for the tale of their own god the hwit crist who nefer cums

woden has a wifman my grandfather saes also and her name is frig and for all wifmen frig is a freond in the birth of cildren and in luf and in all wifly things. and the first son of woden and frig was thunor freond of all wilde places god with a hamor what waepen brought on the lightnan itself. and his brothor was balder whose beuty was greater efen than the beuty of the fenn in winter efen than of my wifman edith. and his brothor also was ing ealdor of the holt who steered the waegn of lif through the grene months who colde becum a boar for feohtan and for specan to the land and all wihts

and these gods saes my grandfather these gods was lic our folc lic my edith to me and thy good mothor to thu before she was tacan. these gods was lifan here in this holt in the daegs before the waters cum and drencced it. this was the holt of the eald gods for they had no hus lic us now they was not weac lic us they was of treow and ground

and ofer all these gods he saes ofer efen great woden was their mothor who is mothor of all who is called erce. erce was this ground itself was angland was the hafoc and the wyrmfleoge and the fenn and the wid sea and the fells of the north and efen the ys lands. and great erce it was who brought the waters to cum ofer the holt of the eald gods and to drenc the treows so they is now lytel stoccs for she seen that the folc of angland had teorned from them to this crist the lyan god who specs of heofon but cnawan not our own ground. for erce she is the ground herself and until anglisc folcs sees what they has done the holt of the gods will be for efer under the deorc waters of this fenn and the gods will be lost to us.

and the gods he saes the gods them selfs waits still beneath these waters for us to cum baec and when angland is in need if we call them they will cum all of them from the eald holt below this fenn mere and feoht again with anglisc men agan any and heaw them down

the treows in the mere was beorned in to me that daeg and until i is in my deop graef always i will see them. ah my grandfather the crist he saed wolde nefer cum all the strength of preost and biscop he wolde sae all their hold ofer men is in this one lie that the crist will cum to recen with them all but he nefer cums. and my grandfather he had seen this for when he was a yonge man micel of the world was in high thryll for it had been a thousand years since the crist cum saed all the preosts and biscops and for many years it had been saed this was the year he wolde cum again

and for one full year folcs was wepan and biddan and sean signs in the heofon and all preosts and biscops was saen it will be tomergen and then again tomergen. and then when the year was gan at last with a thousand fyrs on a thousand hylls ofer angland and folcs callan up to heofon on them and when it was done and the crist was still not cum then the preosts and the biscops they saed naht mor and it was nefer spoc of again. and then saed my grandfather then their lies was claere and yet dumb men still belyfs them and triewely he saed most men is hunds or esols and not to be loccd up to

well my grandfather was a wise man in many things and of the hunds and esols he spac triewe and of the crist also. but of the lost gods under the mere the eald gods who wolde cum again when angland called well i was callan them i was callan them from fenn and holt and they did not feoht for angland. woden thunor ing they did not cum for harald cyng for dunstan or eadberht or odelyn lic they had not cum for all the men of sanlac. lic they had not cum to stand agan the bastard and send him baec to the sea with the frenc hunds he bring to eat our land lic goats

but i sceolde spec with care for i did call and sum thing

sum thing cum

sum one cum

sum one cum and is still here

but i will spec now while he is still i will spec to thu of the fyrs beginnan as was seen in fugol and in star and in many other signs what the fenn gaf to me.

my sons and my best gebur was tacan from me in high sumor and i did belyf this wolde cwell us. i had to go with asger to the meado and sithe and succ was the grass and succ the month that odelyn also and efen annis moste sithe though this is not wifmans worc their worc bean to reap only. but naht mor colde we do and so annis moste sithe and lay the grass in windrows and then we moste all mac riccs for the hig and dry it and tac it to the barn what was still in need of worc. and later also annis moste help in cuttan and feccan in the waet and the baerlic at haerfest then gleanan and grindan the flour for the loaf for though ecceard had saed my men wolde be baec they was not and on our land the crops grow cwic and the weods long. and the swine too was needan worc also the sceap and oxen and our one hors and the treows and when the aeppels was growan annis moste mac of it what she colde for the winter and also do all other wifly things and i moste be worcan on barn and heges and heawan in the holt and tendan to the haerfest and locan at asger that he not cut off his hand with an ax or sum other dumb thing