A Lyric for Advent

This is the fifth in a collection of twelve Advent lyrics (the first a fragment), based on a group of antiphons sung at vespers during the Advent season. The antiphon that is the source of this lyric reads, O Oriens, splendor lucis aeternae et Sol iustitiae, veni et illumina sedentes in tenebris et umbra mortis: “O Rising Sun, radiance of eternal light and Sun of righteousness, come and illuminate those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death.”

You may consult this poem in its context in one of the editions of the Exeter Book: George Philip Krapp and Elliott Van Kirk Dobbie, ed., The Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records (New York, 1931-1953), vol. 3 and Bernard J. Muir, ed., The Exeter Anthology of Old English Poetry (Exeter, 1994). The lyrics were edited separately (with a translation) by Jackson J. Campbell, The Advent Lyrics of the Exeter Book (Princeton, 1959).