Page:Aelfric's Lives of Saints Vol 2.djvu/321



A certain  very  learned  monk  came  from  the  South,  over  the  sea, from Saint  Benedict's  Stow,  in  the  days  of  king  ^Ethelred,  to archbishop  Dunstan,  three  years  before  he  died;  and  the  monk was- called  Abbo. Then they  were  in  conversation  till  Dunstan told him  about  saint  Edmund,  even  as  Edmund's  sword-bearer  told it to  king  Æthelstan,  when  Dunstan  was  a  young  man  and  the sword-bearer a  very  old  man. Then the  monk  put  all  this  story in a  book,  and  afterwards,  when  the  book  had  come  to  us,  within a few  years,  we  turned  it  into  English  just  as  it  stands  hereafter. This monk  Abbo  within  two  years  went  home  to  his minster,   and   was    almost  immediately    appointed  abbot  in  that same minster.

Edmund the  blessed,  king  of  the  East  Angles,

was wise  and  honourable,  and  ever  glorified,

by his  excellent  conduct,  Almighty  God.

He was  humble  and  devout,  and  continued  so  steadfast

that he  would  not  yield  to  shameful  sins,

nor in  any  direction  did  he  bend  aside  his  practices,

but was  always  mindful  of  the  true  doctrine.

[If] thou  art  made  a  chief  man,  exalt  not  thyself,

but be  amongst  men  as  one  of  them.

He was  bountiful  to  the  poor  and  to  widows  even  like  a  father.