He wæs on middanearde, and middaneard wæs geworht þurh hine, and middaneard hine ne gecneow.
Note that the word for "world" here is not the OE woruld, meaning "state of affairs, age." That word is used in on worulda woruld, the translation of Latin in saecula saeculorum, and the direct ancestor of our liturgical phrase, "world without end." Rather, "He was in the world and the world was made through him, and the world knew him not" is expressed by the word middaneard -- which is none other than good old Middle-Earth, Tolkien's adopted milieu.