Stokes, Revue Celtique 28 (1907) — translated from the Irish.

¹ The tokens of the fifteen days before Doom.

² Jerome in the Annals of the Hebrews makes plain concerning the signs of the fifteen days preceding the Day of Judgement, and so forth — that is, Jerome relates, as he found in the books of the history of the Hebrews, the tokens of the fifteen days before Doom. And these are the tokens of the fifteenth day before Doom: all the seas and waters shall be lifted up above the face of the earth to the clouds of heaven, fifteen cubits above the mountains, so that then shall be heard the wailing of the waves and the roaring of the sea-monsters, the bellowing and the snorting of the great sea-beasts on the dry shores as they leave the water that day.

³ These are the tokens of the fourteenth day before Doom: an awful mighty earthquake and a wave-noise of all the waters falling violently on the second day in their own proper places again, so that they go into the depths of the earth, and no one knows where they go.

⁴ These are the tokens of the thirteenth day before Doom: all the waters shall return into their own right courses again, and shall grow hard and solid so that a multitude of hosts could pass over them.

⁵ These are the tokens of the twelfth day before Doom: all the sea-beasts shall arise furiously upon the earth, up to the rafters of the firmament and the clouds of heaven, and they shall be screaming and crying together vehemently for dread of the Day of Doom; and none on earth knows what they are saying at that time save the great Almighty Father Himself.

⁶ These are the tokens of the eleventh day before Doom: the birds and fowls of the whole earth shall be moving and flying continually without rest or abiding on them, and they shall be eating no food and drinking no drink there.

⁷ This is the token of the tenth day before Doom: great rivers of dense fiery waves shall be in the firmament, from the rising of the sun to its setting.

⁸ This is the token of the ninth day before Doom: a great ugly, rough, horrible noise shall be heard from the covering of heaven, and many lightnings and a mighty thunder shall come out of it; and a red fiery cloud shall rise in the southern part of heaven and spread over the whole expanse of the earth; and a shower of red blood with a flame of rough fiery wave shall be rained out of that cloud, till it fills the whole world both sea and land; and flashing fiery flames over the four quarters of the world; and a great earthquake

⁹ over all the world; and a mighty quaking shall arise in every region of the earth; and the sea with its many beasts shall pass over its boundaries that day.

¹⁰ This is the token of the eighth day before Doom: an exceeding trembling shall be upon all creatures with the shaking of the firmament; and a great crashing upon all the earth for dread of the great victory of death that comes to them; and every creature shall be prostrate with fear; and the waves of the sea shall rise level with the lofty skies; and great strong fiery winds shall shake the ocean from bottom to top. The murmuring and thundering of the sea and the waters with the rivers of fire in the air without music or sport shall be under the four quarters of the world that day. A sorrowful, ever-anxious life without peace and without health shall be theirs, for the wombs of the hills and glens of the world shall be filled with the sinners there.

¹¹ This is the token of the seventh day before Doom: all stones, both small and great, shall be split into four parts, and each part of them shall be talking to the other, and none knows what they say save God Himself; and the woods of the earth shall fall from their roots, being all broken that day; and a dreadful trembling of the stones after their separation into their own shapes; and bitter, serpentine streams of fire shall be raised from the sides of the earth, with the whole world’s single flame(?) from sunrise to sunset — great is the parting of heaven that day.

¹² This is the token of the sixth day before Doom: all trees and stones shall be dripping blood there, and three rough fierce winds shall arise whereby the whole world shall be shaken at once. Wailing and shrieking and clamour and lamentation, wretched and weary, shall be upon the seed of Adam, beseeching the earth to open before them so that they might not be looking upon those mighty evils — for seven times better would it seem to them to die out of the living world at that hour.

¹³ Then shall fall threescore and five hundred stars from the east of the firmament down upon the earth that day, and the mountains shall fall there, so that height shall be upon height against the glens; and the firmament and heaven and earth shall be shut together there.

¹⁴ This is the token of the fifteenth(?) day before the Doom: great thunderings and the noise of the four fiery winds from the four regions of heaven. The elements shall shrink and part from their heavenly powers, and their nature shall fail, so that an innumerable shower of stars shall fall from the firmament — that is, five stars and threescore and three hundred and five thousand shall fall down to earth, as ripe fruit falls on a windy day. The moon shall be turned to blood, and the sun shall be darkened, and the mountains and all coverings shall be turned to ashes. The anguished wailing and the wretched cry of the birds as they burn and blaze that day; and the bitter serpentine streams of the fire shall thunder then between heaven and earth. Bitter sharp woe and fervent lamentation, and heavy grief, and repentance upon repentance mighty shall be among the seed of Adam at that time.

¹⁵ All human kind shall then be kneeling fervently to God and beseeching Him to save them from the fire of doom.

¹⁶ This is the token of the fourth day before Doom: all the lawful souls(?) of the earth shall come out of their own places and be upon the plains bellowing and howling without food or comfort that day; and mankind shall come out of the places they are in, and each of them shall part from the other in madness, and they know not themselves what they say; and everyone that tastes life shall die at that same time; and the whole world shall be under hail and fire.

¹⁷ And the doors of the kingdom shall be opened there. Alas, the violent beating and the mighty great roar of the seven heavens as the Creator comes with His angels out of them to the judgement of doom!

¹⁸ Then the angels of heaven shall say to the Creator: “Alas, alas, O Lord,” say they, “come quickly to meet us, lest the living fire of doom consume us!” For however venomous is the fire that is in the world, the fire of doom is seven times hotter than it. For there are four fires, and each fire is seven times the heat of the other, as one of the sages said: the fire of earth, and the fire of the moon(?), and the fire of doom, and the fire of hell.

¹⁹ Seven times the heat of the fire of earth that melts(?)

²⁰ is the bright heat of the moon’s fire;

²¹ seven times the heat of the fierce fire of doom

²² is the raw fire of hell.

²³ Then the angels and the souls of the saints and of the righteous shall be freed as a fish is in water, so that the fire of doom shall not burn them.

²⁴ This is the token of the third day before the Doom: all graves shall be opened, and their inmates shall come forth honourably; and the world shall be under grief that day, for there shall be no dwellings of living or dead in the world then.

²⁵ This is the token of the second day before Doom: all the living shall die then.

²⁶ This is the token of the day before Doom: the array of the assembly — that is, the great King of heaven and earth and hell, with an innumerable company of angels and archangels of heaven — the nine orders of heaven in His train — to the top of Mount Sion to judge their deeds, both good and ill, of the children of that Adam(?), that day.

²⁷ This is the likeness of the household of heaven in the Creator’s train that day: the stars of heaven and the sand of the sea and the grass upon earth. This is the measure of the power and might of the angels:

²⁸ seven angels of them could destroy the whole world from sunrise to sunset in the space of a single day.

²⁹ More awful and greater are their voices than thunder; therefore then the Creator sets a proclamation upon mankind — Michael the archangel. And all men shall then hear Michael’s proclamation from the Creator, calling them to that great assembly. Whereupon all the dead shall rise out of the earth at that time — the apostles and prophets and confessors shall rise first, the martyrs and saints and righteous, and the folk of virginity and repentance thereafter, and lastly the baptised(?).

³⁰ None shall be younger or older than another that day, for at the age of thirty years all mankind shall arise — at the age at which Adam was made, and at the age at which Jesus was when He was baptised.

³¹ Alas, foul indeed shall be the resurrection of the sinners that day. There shall then be a great mighty host of all the seed of Adam going anxiously through the thundering fiery seas of fire and through the insufferable waves of the red-flaming death, from the four quarters of the world, to meet the true-judging almighty High King, to Mount Sion.

³² Alas, then the household of heaven and earth and hell shall be gathered to that assembly; whereupon the King of the assembly shall arise with His cross on His back in the sight of all, and thus He shall rise, with His body all red upon Him, with the marks of the wounds and scars of His Passion upon Him; and it shall be manifest to all the pagans the deep unhealable wounds and the great pains they themselves inflicted upon Him.

³³ Christ shall sit thereafter with His twelve apostles about Him. Alas, then shall be the great famous boundary at hand — a full doomsday: a day of vengeance and punishment upon the sinners, and a day of honour and dignity upon the righteous.

³⁴ A wretched ghostly cry shall be uttered by the reprobate rabble of the world that day as they are cast bound and hard-fettered into the horrible depths of hell by the hands of the unholy household of their enemy — the Devil — being sorely tormented and shut up in hell for ever and ever.

³⁵ The saints and the righteous shall then be praising their Creator fervently, and they joyful and glad after winning victory and triumph over the Devil.

³⁶ Alas, all mankind shall then be set in four assemblies in the presence of Christ: good and very good, evil and very evil.

³⁷ Alas, woe to him who shall not be steadfast for the righteous — the gentle, charitable, merciful, fasting, devout, humble, penitent, when provision for the swift, stern judgements is brought there.

³⁸ Alas, there shall then be set apart the transgressors and the false judges, the contentious and the wanton, the buffoons and satirists and jesters, the heretics and marauders, the plunderers and the… the deceivers(?), the shouters, the satirists, the scolding women, the proud, the gluttonous, the wrathful, the murderers, the folk of kin-slaying and shame, and the folk of every other evil.

³⁹ It is those who shall be cast by demons into the everlasting street of hell for ever and ever; and that folk shall be destroyed out of the world, for they themselves abandoned the reward of heaven and the sight of their holy almighty Father; and they shall be a thousand years in the ever-living fire of doom, for that is the length and duration of the day of doom.

⁴⁰ Alas, that state is neither peaceful nor pleasant, for neither food nor drink nor repose is found there, but everlasting hunger and thirst without relief, and cold and insufferable heat.

⁴¹ Alas, wretched shall be the fervent lamenting cry, and the great cry of woe, and the vehement weeping, and the grief of mind, and the heart-torment, and the everlasting mournful hand-clapping of the living(?) sinners, as they are dragged strongly after the refusal of mercy to the everlasting pain of hell; and they shall be uttering great blasphemy and wretched repentance upon repentance against the Lord, because He forgave them not in the blessed world they forfeited.

⁴² Alas, three locks shall then be fastened upon the sinners that day: the lock upon them as they are cast into the many horrible pains of hell; the lock of their eyes from the world; and the lock upon the hope of the heavenly kingdom without their seeing it from that time forth.

⁴³ Alas, they shall then sit anxiously in the presence of the king of iniquity — the Devil — in the glen of hellish pains, where there is a dark fire unlit(?) and a sorrowful, ever-anxious, foul, stagnant, venomous, unclean life; where there is trembling on face and hard shackles on body, and grief on mind, and darkness on cheeks, and wretched weary weeping, and ceaseless lament, and lasting hand-clapping, and heavy tears of blood over cheeks in torment, and cries of woe to listen to.

⁴⁴ Alas, the Devil shall then make heavy-bound, hard-fettered captives of the tormented sinners, as he casts them into the narrow-sided, hard-headed, horrible iron prison of hell for ever and ever. Pale faces with lasting scars(?) and with the appearance of a dead man shall be theirs; and horrible many-headed monsters with thick blood-red snouts upon them; and a great bird-beast there with five hundred heads upon it, and five hundred teeth in each head, and a hundred legs upon it, and a hundred toes on each leg, and a hundred nails on each toe of it.

⁴⁵ Though all mankind should speak, they could not tell the number of the many pains of hell — the ever-living fire that burns there for ever, and it gives no light; and though the sea were poured over it, it would not quench it.

⁴⁶ And this is the second pain there: insufferable cold, as this proof says — De quo dicitur: si mitteretur mons ignitus in glaciem uerteretur — that is, if a blazing mountain of fire were cast into it, it would make ice and snow of it.

⁴⁷ The third pain: serpents of hell, and burning, and many monsters of hell gnawing and tearing the souls for ever.

⁴⁸ The fourth pain: the foul and abominable stench of hell.

⁴⁹ The fifth pain: the violent smiting of the demons, like the sledges of a smith in his smithy, ever smiting and slaying the souls.

⁵⁰ The sixth pain: everlasting darkness, as is said in this canticle — Terra tenebrarum ubi umbra mortis, et nullus ordo, sed sempiternus horror inhabitat (the land of darkness where is the shadow of death, and no order, but everlasting horror dwells there).

⁵¹ The seventh pain: the confession of the sins which none ever confessed in this world, so that all the people of hell shall see them at that time.

⁵² The eighth pain: the everlasting sight of the Devil’s face; for certain it is that though hell’s pain were great, that pain were greater — for sparks of fire drop violently from the accursed eye of the Devil as drops of red water from a hearth.

⁵³ The ninth pain: fiery locks and fetters blazing upon every limb and every member apart of the sinners, so that they cannot escape from the pains in which they are for ever and ever — because they themselves did not bind those limbs in the world in the penance and cross of repentance for their sins and transgressions.

⁵⁴ As for the saints and the righteous, the mighty Lord shall make a ready welcome for them that day, and shall say to them: Uenite benedicti — “Come, you blessed,” and so forth.

⁵⁵ Then seven glories shall be given to the bodies of the righteous and seven glories to their souls. These are the seven glories of those bodies: Claritatem — brightness, for the bodies of the resurrection-folk shall be seven times brighter than the sun that day. Velocitatem — swiftness, for the bodies of the resurrection-folk shall be swifter than the wind. Fortitudinem — strength. Libertatem — freedom. Voluntatem — will, for their will shall be one with the Lord’s. Sanitatem — health, for no sickness or disease shall be upon them for ever. Immortalitatem — immortality, for there shall be no parting of body and soul from one another for ever.

⁵⁶ These are the seven glories of the soul: wisdom, and love, and concord, humility and honour, understanding and joy. Alas, those are the honours and gifts that the mighty Lord gives to His own righteous — to the people of gentleness and holiness, of almsgiving and mercy, of good works and virginity for God’s sake.

⁵⁷ Then there is the everlasting life without death, and the music of many songs and the lordly entertainment without end or limit, and the health without sickness, and the delight without strife, and the virginity without corruption, and the peace without discord, and the lordship without disturbance, and the freedom without labour, and the wealth without hunger, and the rest without loss. Grace without decay, the unity of angels, a feasting without end, the keeping of the great Easter among the nine orders of heaven’s angels; and a high noble Lord, fair and dear and mighty, gentle and meek and kindly with them, in their royal cities and their crystal beds; and everyone shall then be seated according to his rank and his desert and his good works, awaiting the noble eternal King, praying the righteous, truly-judging, noble, honourable, humble One in the presence of the great Godhead — the King of the three households in equal song with cherubim and seraphim and the nine orders of heaven, and with Him who was and is and shall be for ever, without age, without decay, without weakness, without faintness, without sorrow, without sadness, in their subtle shining bodies, in the company of angels and in the stead of paradise.

⁵⁸ Alas, the greatness and breadth and width of the heavenly city cannot be told. For the swiftest thing of flying and wing-beating in the whole world could not traverse that kingdom from the beginning of the world to its end.

⁵⁹ Alas, great and mighty is the size and eternity and brightness of that city, and its calm and its light, its fairness and its pure brightness, its steadfastness and stability, its preciousness and its beauty and its holiness, its height and its brightness(?), its dignity and its honour, its fullness and its perfect oneness.

⁶⁰ Alas, fortunate indeed is he who with good works and good deeds shall dwell in that city on doomsday; for there shall be in that oneness the threefold oneness — the unity of the royal Trinity, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

⁶¹ I beseech the mercy of great God that we may all reach that oneness of the noble, all-powerful King, and that we may dwell for ever together with Him, and so forth.