Here’s the modern English translation of Undrentide

 

It happened like this in early May

When balmy and temperate is the day

And Winter showers have gone away

And every field is full of flowers

And every branch is bright with bloom

 

And everything is growing merrily

This same queen, Dame Heurodis

Took two maidens, highly prized

And all went together in the noontide

To play and sport by an orchards side

 

To see the flowers unfurl and spring

Forth from the earth, and to hear the birds sing

They sat them down, all three

Under a grafted fairy tree

And soon the lovely queen

Fell asleep upon the green


To wake her up, the maidens dared not do

They let her lie and take her rest

And so she slept til noontide passed

Until that midday was over at last

Until that midday was over at last

 

But as soon as she started awake

She cried aloud with a hateful wailing

Wringing her hands, and her feet

And clawing her face until it was wet with blood

She tore her rich robe into shreds

And was driven out of her mind in grieving


Her two attendant maidens

Dared not stay longer at her side

But they raced to the palace

And told the squires and knights


That the queen was on the brink of madness

And told them to go and restrain her

The knights, and the ladies too

And the damsels (sixty or more) ran to the queen


They reached her, at the orchard

And took her up in their arms

They bore her to her bed

And bound her tightly there

But she kept crying out the same thing

That she wanted to be up and away