Copy Book Archive

With Hymns and Sweet Perfumes Elfric imagines how the Virgin Mary went to her eternal home.
990-994
King Ethelred the Unready 978-1016
Music: George Frideric Handel

© Brian Robert Marshall, Geograph. Licence: CC-BY-SA 2.0. Source

About this picture …

An icon of the Virgin Mary enthroned, with the Biblical Kings David and Solomon (her ancestors) on either side, and the Christ-child on her lap. In the Russian Church, the feast of Mary’s repose (or ‘dormition’ or ‘falling-asleep’) is kept with great solemnity, but also with Elfric-like caution. The hymns of that day say that after Mary died, her soul was translated directly from earth to heaven, accompanied by angels; that the Apostles gathered at her bedside; that she died and was buried. They do also hint that no trace of her body was later to be found.

With Hymns and Sweet Perfumes
When Elfric, Abbot of Eynsham near Oxford during the reign of Ethelred the Unready (r. 978-1916), came to preach on August 15th, the Feast of the Repose of Mary, he was unusually tightlipped. Some of what was passed around he regarded as legend, but he was sure of one thing: that Mary did not go home to heaven all on her own.
Translated and abridged

WE read here and there in books, that very often angels came at the departure of good men, and with spiritual hymns led their souls to heaven. And, what is yet more certain, at their departure some have heard the singing of male and female voices, accompanied by a great light and a sweet perfume.*

Now if Jesus has often shown such honour at the death of his saints, and commanded their souls to be brought to him with heavenly hymns, how much more, do you imagine, would he now, today, send the heavenly host to meet his own mother, that they with light beyond measure, and hymns beyond words, might lead her to the throne which was prepared for her from the beginning of the world?

There is no doubt that all the heavenly host would rejoice with unspeakable bliss in her coming. Indeed, we believe that the Lord himself came to meet her, and benignly, delightedly, placed her by him on his throne.*

See St Chad and the Invisible Choir.

Ode VIII of the Canon for the feast says: ‘The angelic hosts were amazed, seeing their Master in Zion, bearing in His arms a woman’s soul; for as befitteth a Son, He exclaimed to her in all-pure manner: Come, O pure one, and be glorified with thy Son and God!’

Précis

Elfric, Abbot of Eynsham, reflected on the death of the Virgin Mary, and surmised what might have happened on the basis of stories current in his own time of the death of Christian saints. He thought it safe to suppose that for his own mother, Christ would have sent choirs of angels and sweet odours as he brought her home. (60 / 60 words)

Source

Abridged and modernised from Elfric of Eynsham’s Sermon on the Assumption of Mary, with acknowledgements to the translation (from Old English) by Benjamin Thorpe.

Suggested Music

The Arrival of the Queen of Sheba (from ‘Solomon’)

George Frideric Handel (1685-1759)

The Sixteen, directed by Harry Christophers.

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How To Use This Passage

You can use this passage to help improve your command of English.

IRead it aloud, twice or more. IISummarise it in one sentence of up to 30 words. IIISummarise it in one paragraph of 40-80 words. IVMake notes on the passage, and reconstruct the original from them later on. VJot down any unfamiliar words, and make your own sentences with them later. VIMake a note of any words that surprise or impress you, and ask yourself what meaning they add to the words you would have expected to see. VIITurn any old-fashioned English into modern English. VIIITurn prose into verse, and verse into prose. IXAsk yourself what the author is trying to get you to feel or think. XHow would an artist or a photographer capture the scene? XIHow would a movie director shoot it, or a composer write incidental music for it?

For these and more ideas, see How to Use The Copy Book.

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