Stephen Baxter
Weaver

AD 1492

The Prophecy of Nectovelin 4BC

(Free translation from Latin, with acrostic preserved.)

Ah child! Bound in time's tapestry, and yet you are born free

Come, let me sing to you of what there is and what will be,

Of all men and all gods, and of the mighty emperors three.

Named with a German name, a man will come with eyes of glass

Straddling horses large as houses bearing teeth like scimitars.

The trembling skies declare that Rome's great son has come to earth

A little Greek his name will be. Whilst God-as-babe has birth

Roman force will ram the island's neck into a noose of stone.

Emerging first in Brigantia, exalted later then in Rome!

Prostrate before a slavish god, at last he is revealed divine,

Embrace imperial will make dead marble of the Church's shrine.

Remember this: We hold these truths self-evident to be -

I say to you that all men are created equal, free

Rights inalienable assured by the Maker's attribute

Endowed with Life and Liberty and Happiness' pursuit.

O child! thou tapestried in time, strike home! Strike at the root!

The Menologium of the Blessed Isolde

AD 418

(Free translation from Old English, with acrostic preserved.)