Translated from Anglo-Saxon.

Before I was so much as a boy, I came into
danger; a maiden met me and said: ‘Greetings, my
darling, from now on the two of us must never be
separated on earth’ – never be separated on
earth. Alas! elf-fair lady, and my friend, alas!
must never more be separated on earth.

She kissed me straight away, where the moon
was shining, she embraced me and bound me in
her grasp. Quickly she took me with her under
the gloom, where the shadow-way always
flickered – where the death-mist always flickered.
Alas! elf-fair lady, and my friend, alas!
where the shadow-way always flickered.

I don’t know where I was, we stepped in a boat,
where the sea moaned on the sand. I travelled
over the ocean, and hid my thoughts to myself,
but always my longing grew stronger – always
longing grew stronger. Alas! elf-fair lady, and my
friend, alas! where longing always grew stronger.

There the ground was green, and her hound was
white, and the wheat on the stalk was golden – in
the far-off land, on the silver strand, where the
dwarf lurked under the mountains – the dwarf
lurked under the mountains. Alas! elf-fair lady,
and my friend, alas! where the dwarf lurked
under the mountains.

I prayed to God, tired of my exile by the dim and
dreary waves, where the sun did not shine, but a
great gem-stone glowed there in the sky with his
beams – glowed brightly with his beams. Alas!
elf-fair lady, and my friend, alas! glowed there in
the sky with his beams.

Fifty years later I returned again, poor and hurt,
to men and my family. The one who had known
me before was now in the mould, and now I
dwindle, grey and alone – dwindle alone and in
pain. Alas! elf-fair lady, and my friend, alas! and
now I dwindle, grey and alone.