At Tara today in this fateful hour

A verse from The Rune of St Patrick


At Tara today in this fateful hour
I place all heaven with its power,
and the sun with its brightness,
and the snow with its whiteness,
and fire with all the strength it hath,
and lightning with its rapid wrath,
and the winds with their swiftness along their path,
and the sea with its deepness,
and the rocks with their steepness
and the earth with its starkness:
all these I place,
by God’s almighty help and grace,
between myself and the powers of darkness.


Wordchecker

fateful (adjective): with far-reaching, often disastrous, consequences
hath (verb): has
wrath (noun): great anger
swiftness (noun): quickness; rapidity
steepness (noun): precipitousness; the quality of sloping almost vertically
starkness (noun): the state of being severe in appearance; coldness and emptiness

A verse from The Rune of St Patrick or St Patrick’s Hymn Before Tara
Traditionally ascribed to the fifth-century Saint Patrick, patron saint of Ireland (385-461). This translated version by James Clarence Mangan

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