From Bede's Ecclesiastical History, II. xiii A counsellor advises King Edwin on whether to accept Christianity:
þyslic me is gesewen, þu cyning, þis andwearde lif manna on eorðan Thus seems to me, king, this present life of men on earth to wiðmetenesse þære tide þe us uncuð is in comparison with that time which is unknown to us, (to be) swylc swa þu æt swæsendum sitte as if you at feasting should sit mid þinum ealdormannum and þegnum on wintertide with your lords and subjects in winter-time,
and sie fyr onælæd & þin heall gewyrmed and a fire be lit and your hall warmed, and hit rine and sniwe and styrme ute and it should rain and snow and storm outside;
cume an spearwa and hrædlice þæt hus þurhfleo and come a sparrow and suddenly fly through the house, cume þurh oðre duru in þurh oðre ut gewite should come through one door in, through other out depart.
hwæt he on þa tid þe he inne bið Lo, he during that time he is inside ne bið hrinen mid þy storme þæs wintres be not touched by the winter’s storm; ac þæt bið an eagan bryhtm & þæt læsste fæc but that is an eye’s flash and the smallest time, ac he sona of wintra on þone winter eft cymeð and he soon (briefly) from winter to winter again comes (returns).
Swa þonne þis monna lif to medmiclum fæce ætyweð So this life of men to a modicum (small stretch) of time is revealed; hwæt þær foregange oððe hwæt þær æfterfylige we ne cunnon what there comes before, or what there after follows, we know not.
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