EN011.13 Tex
Ott 2025
D. At Three Burgs
4. Frya’s Tex
Good fortune awaits the free. In the end, they shall see me again. But only those can I deem free who are slave neither to another nor to their own passions.[2]
Here is my counsel:
1. When great is the need, and good counsel and good deed no longer avail, then call upon the spirit of Wralda.[3] But you must not call upon him before everything has been tried, for I tell you with good reason, and time shall prove: Those who lack courage shall always collapse under the burden of their own suffering.
2. One may offer up to Wralda’s spirit only kneeling thanks, yea, thricefold: for the gifts you have received from him, for what you now have, and for the hope of guidance in troubled times.
3. You have seen how readily I lent my help. Do the same for your kinsmen,[4] but do not wait until [012] you have been asked. The suffering ones would curse you, my maidens would erase your name from the Book, and I should have to shun you as a stranger.
4. Never accept from your kinsmen kneeling gratitude, which is owed to Wralda’s spirit. Envy would stalk you, wisdom would rebuke you, and my maidens would accuse you of stealing (the honor) of the Father.
5. Four things have you been given to use, namely: air, water, land, and fire. But Wralda claims ownership of them all. Therefore, I advise you to choose righteous men who justly divide the labor and its fruits, so that no man is free from work or defense.
6. If anyone is found among you who sells his own freedom, he is not of your folk. He is a bastard, of corrupted lineage. I advise you to expel him and his mother. Teach this to your children, morning, midday, and evening, so they will dream of it at night.
7. Anyone who robs another of his freedom, even if the other were in debt to him, I would parade with collar and leash like a slave girl — though I advise you to burn his corpse and that of his mother in a barren place. Thereafter, [013] bury their ashes fifty feet deep, so not a single blade of grass might grow upon them. For such grass would kill your most precious animals.
8. Never assail the folk either of Lyda or of Finda. Wralda would help them, so that your violence would return upon your own heads.
9. If it should happen that they seek your counsel, or anything else, you ought to help them. But if they come to rob, then fall upon them like radiant fire.
10. If one among them desires to marry one of your daughters, and she consents to it, you shall explain to her her folly. But if she insists on following her suitor, then they may go in peace.
11. If your sons desire any of their young women, you must do the same as with your daughters. But neither the one nor the other may ever return, for they would bring back foreign morals and habits. And the moment these took hold amongst you, I could no longer watch over you.
12. Upon my maid Festa, I have fastened my hope. Therefore, you must make her your [014] honorary mother. If you follow my advice, then she should remain my maid, and all devout maidens who come after her. Then the Lamp that I have lit for you shall never be extinguished. Its light will forever illuminate your mind and you shall remain as free from domination as your sweet rivers are free from the brine of the endless sea.
Notes
- ↑ ‘Tex’ (TEX) — to be understood through context; possibly related to TÉKEN (sign, token, omen) and derived from verb TÉJA (tie, tow, weave); compare archaic Dutch: ‘tijgen’, ‘touwen’; Spanish: ‘tejer’ (weave) and Greek: τείνω (strain, pull).
- ↑ 'passions' (TOCHTA) — or: ‘thoughts’; compare 7.16 “Her deeds were driven by her passions”; 52.03 “slaves ... to their beliefs”; 139.24 “one should control and direct his passions”.
- ↑ ‘spirit’ (GÁST) — can also be read as ‘ghost’.
- ↑ ‘kinsmen’ (NÉSTON) — or: ‘neighbors’, ‘those closest (next) to you’; Dutch: ‘naasten’, German: ‘Nächste(n)’.
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Chapter D: Sandbach 1876