--here begin the actual things that were done in connexion with our Saviour, just as Theodosius the illustrious emperor found it in Jerusalem in Pontius Pilate's court-house; according as Nicodemus wrote it down all with Hebrew writing on many leaves as follows.
The "Dialogues of Solomon and Saturn" belong to a legendary stock that has sent its branches into all the early vernacular literatures of Europe. The germ is found in the Bible and in Josephus. In 1 Kings x. 1, we read that, when the Queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon, she came to prove him with hard questions. Josephus, in the "Jewish Antiquities," vii. 5, tells a curious story about hard questions passing between Solomon and Hiram, king of Tyre. From such a root appear to have grown the multiform legends in various languages which passed under such names as the "Controversy of Solomon," the "Dialogues of Solomon and Saturn," or of "Solomon and Marculfus." This became at length a mocking form of literature; often a burlesque and parody of religion. Mr. Kemble traces these legends to Jewish tradition; but of all the examples preserved he says "the Anglo-Saxon are undoubtedly the oldest.... With the sole exception of one French version, they are the only forms of the story remaining in which the subject is seriously and earnestly treated; and, monstrous as the absurdities found in them are, we may be well assured that the authors were quite unconscious of their existence."[120] There are, however, some places in which one is moved to doubt whether the extravagance is the product of pure simplicity, and without the least tinge of drollery.
But the reader may judge for himself. The fragments preserved are partly poetical and partly in prose: the poetry is rather insipid; our quotation shall be from the prose. The subject is the praise and eulogy of the Lord's Prayer, which is personified and anatomised. Saturnus asks, "What manner of head hath the Pater Noster?" And, again, "What manner of heart hath the Pater Noster?" We quote from the answer to the latter question:--
Salomon cwæth. His heorte is xii thusendum sitha beohtre thonne ealle thas seofon heofenas the us sindon ofergesette, theah the hi syn ealle mid thy domiscan fyre onæled, and theah the eal theos eorthe him neothan togegnes birne, and heo hæbbe fyrene tungan, and gyldenne hracan, and leohtne muth inneweardne ... ... he is rethra and scearpra thonne eal middangeard, theah he sy binnan his feower hwommum fulgedrifen wildeora, and anra gehwylc deor hæbbe synderlice xii hornas irene, and anra gehwylc horn hæbbe xii tindas irene, and anra gehwylc tind hæbbe synderlice xii ordas, and anra gehwylc ord sy xii thusendum sitha scearpra thonne seo an flan the sy fram hundtwelftigum hyrdenna geondhyrded . And theah the seofon middangeardas syn ealle on efn abrædde on thisses anes onlicnesse, and thær sy eal gesomnod thætte heofon oththe hel oththe eorthe æfre acende, ne magon by tha lifes linan on middan ymb fæthmian. And se Pater Noster he mæg anna ealla gesceafta on his thære swithran hand on anes wæxæpples onlienesse geth{ ^y}n and gewringan. And his gethoht he is springdra and swiftra thonne xii thusendu haligra gasta, theah the anra gehwylc gast hæbbe synderlice xii fetherhoman, and anra gehwylc fetherhoma hæbbe xii windas, and aura gehwylc wind twelf sigefæstnissa synderlice.--Kemble, pp. 148-152.