A view of the eruption of the Eyjafjallajökull (IPA [ˈeiːjaˌfjatlaˌjœːkʏtl̥], and sometimes referred to as E15) volcano in Iceland in 2010, showing the cloud, fire and lightning. In Genesis, the poet tells how the rebel angels made war on heaven, demanding a kingdom of their own, and were defeated; how God granted their desire, apportioning to them a dark and desolate realm without the light and the bliss they hated because they were his; and how that dreadful host found a place of “eternal night and sulphur-pains, fulness of fire, dread cold, reek and red flames”, not regarding it as the fulfilment of their desires but as a new wrong, and held themselves absolved as they bent their malice on God’s creature, Man.
Introduction
In the Anglo-Saxon poem Genesis, we have heard how God created angels to serve him in glory, and how one — dearly beloved, and the mightiest — roused others to bring war against their Maker, craving thrones and servants of their own. The rebels were thrust forth from heaven, but worse awaited them: for a weak and inferior creature called Man was to take their place.
THEN spoke the haughty king,
Once brightest among angels, in the heavens
Whitest, and to his Master dear beloved.
‘Most unlike is this narrow place
To that which once we knew, high in heaven’s realm,
Which my Lord gave me, though therein no more
For the Almighty we hold royalties.*
Yet right hath He not done, in striking us
Down to the fiery bottom of hot hell —
Banished from heaven’s kingdom, with decree
That He will set in it the race of man.
Worst of my sorrows this: that, wrought of earth,
Adam shall sit in bliss on my strong throne,
Whilst we these pangs endure, this grief in hell.
Woe! Woe! had I the power of my hands,
And for a season, for one winter’s space,
Might be without; then with this host I —
But iron binds me round; this coil of chains
Rides me; I rule no more; so know I that He knew
My mind, and that the Lord of hosts perceived
That if between us two by Adam came
Evil towards that royalty of heaven,
I having power of my hands —
But now we suffer throes in hell, gloom, heat,
Grim, bottomless; God Himself hath swept us
Into these mists of darkness.
* Here, ‘royalty’ means a share in the rights and honours of a ruling family.
Précis
The author of Anglo-Saxon poem Genesis imagines the agonised speech of Lucifer to his fellow rebels against God. Thrust from heaven, they now must endure the extreme conditions of a land without God; but what rankles most that lowly Man will be given his seat in heaven, and he no longer has the power to prevent it by force. (59 / 60 words)
The author of Anglo-Saxon poem Genesis imagines the agonised speech of Lucifer to his fellow rebels against God. Thrust from heaven, they now must endure the extreme conditions of a land without God; but what rankles most that lowly Man will be given his seat in heaven, and he no longer has the power to prevent it by force.
Variations: 1.increase the length of this precis to exactly 65 words. 2.reduce the length of this precis to exactly 55 words. 3.introduce one of the following words into the precis: because, besides, despite, if, just, may, or, ought.
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