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Anglo-Saxon Biblical Lore: An Edition

2012; Routledge; Volume: 93; Issue: 6 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/0013838x.2012.700567

1744-4217

Heide Estes,

Historical and Archaeological Studies

Abstract Seventeen extant manuscripts contain short texts in Old English that relate information about Biblical texts and figures: chronological information, details about the sizes of various Biblical structures, and other kinds of lore about people and events in both the Old and New Testaments. The texts vary from one manuscript to the next, and the manuscripts themselves vary widely in other contents, some containing single texts or related materials, others catalogued in recent codicological work as "miscellanies". The appearance of these short texts in several such miscellaneous collections of materials may provide a window into the circumstances of creation and the purpose of these manuscripts. The variability of the surviving texts of Biblical lore might suggest oral transmission, or a long history of textual transmission, but it also might suggest the work of memory—of a text read, or heard, and only copied later. It may be most productive to posit variable modes of transmission for different scribes working with different kinds of materials, rather than assuming a period of fairly uniformly practised oral transmission giving way, however gradually, to similarly uniform scribal practice. In this edition, Ihave printed the full texts of lore from several of the manuscripts containing the longest texts and the widest selection of unique material. The shorter passages with more thorough overlap with portions of these longer texts are collated with them. Notes 1Ker, Catalogue, 520. 2Frank and Cameron, 125. 3Napier, "Altenglische Kleinigkeiten"; Förster. 4Sauer, "Die 72 Völker"; Tristram; Hall. 5Jones. 6Treharne, "Dates and Origins," passim. 7Campbell, ed. 8James; Budny. 9See Treharne (2003) for discussion of this manuscript; more detail on the additional contents of the manuscripts can be found in Ker, Catalogue; and Gneuss (2001). 10Bredehoft; Toswell. 11Förster, 200. 12Crawford, ed. 13For discussion of some of the materials in this manuscript see Szarmach, "Cotton Vespasian D.vi." 14Keynes, ed.; Birch. 15As titled by Keynes, 34. 16Ibid., 15. 17Ibid., 58. 18Ibid., 59. 19Ker, Catalogue, 240–8; Gneuss, Handlist, 14–15. See also Szarmach 1973; Szarmach, "Cotton Tiberius A.iii"; Scragg; Gerritsen. 20Clayton; Wallis. 21Heyworth. 22Ker, Catalogue, 176. 23Ibid., 175. 24Napier. 25Sauer, "Die 72 Völker," passim; Maclean; Cross, ed. 26Tristram, passim. 27Hall, 5. 28Bischoff. 29Bayless and Lapidge, eds. 30Suchier. 31E.g., Sisam; Kiernan; Stanley; O'Keeffe; Moffat; O'Donnell; Robinson; Orton. 32Sisam. 33Stanley. 34Kiernan; O'Keeffe; and Robinson. See Moffat for an overview of their work. 35Kevin Kiernan quoted in Moffat, 810. 36Jabbour, 181. 37Wormald, 111. 38O'Keeffe. 39Liuzza, 2. 40Ibid., 11. 41Benskin and Laing, 93. See also Swan. 42Robinson, "Print Culture," 425. 43Ibid., 428. 44Sauer, "The Transmission and Structure," 368. 45Hill, 27. 46Ibid., 39. 47Barthes, 92. 48Förster, 193. 49Donoghue. 50This Latin sentence is not in Arundel 60. 51Arundel 60: kyþan. 52Arundel 60: Se forme yld. 53Cotton Caligula A. xv: is. 54Arundel 60: 7 six 7 hund seofontig wintra. Cotton Caligula A. xv: ix hund wintra 7 Lxxvi wintra. 55Arundel 60: is. 56Arundel 60: þreo hund wintra. Cotton Caligula A. xv: 7 xcvii wintra. 57Cotton Caligula A. xv: geara. 58Cotton Caligula A. xv: Lxx geara. 59Arundel 60: Quinta. 60Arundel 60: is. 61Cotton Caligula A. xv: geara. 62Cotton Caligula A. xv: xciii geara. 63Arundel 60: Quinta ad David … 64Arundel 60: is. 65Cotton Caligula A. xv: Cristes tokyme. 66Cotton Caligula A. xv: Lxxxix geara. 67Text between diagonal slashes has been added above the line. Arundel 60 has: Sexta a natiuitate domini usque in natale domini uenit d ccccc xlviiii. 68Cotton Caligula A. xv: oð þissere woruld ende. Arundel 60: agan oð nu to middan wintre kimð; þæt is ðonne an þusend geara 7 viiii 7 hundnigantig geara. 69Arundel 60: … anni si uitautem anni quinque mille cxc vii; a natiuitate domini usque ad finem mundi d d xxvi. The text concludes here in this manuscript. 70Cotton Caligula A. xv has the same numbers but the sequence is different: þæt is þonne six þusend geara 7 c geara 7 xxv geara 7 ix monðas. 71Cotton Caligula A. xv: six þusend geara 7 c geara 7 Lviii geara. Again the numbers are the same, but articulated differently. In this manuscript, the text concludes here. 72Space left for coloured capital letter as for Sem and Cham, but it was never added. Manuscript spelling ending it "ht" corrected in next instance to "Iafeth," where "th" is written over erasure. 73From Caligula A. xv. [fol 126v] Sapientia grecorum. Invidia iudeorum. Superbia romanorum. Largitas langobardorum. Sobrietas guthorum. Eleuatio francorum. Gula gallorum. Ira brittorum. Stultitia saxorum. Libido scottorum. Crudelitas pictorum. 74Compare Ælfric's Interrogationes Sigewulfi, which contains a similar passage in questions XLIX and LI, lines 322–36 and 340–4. Different readings (though not variant spellings) are noted below. 75Cotton Julius A. ii: Noes ark wæs iii hund feðma lang, 7 fiftig wide, 7 þrittig heah. See also Cotton Tiberius A. iii. 76Ælfric's Interrogationes Sigewulfi: "gestoten." 77Ælfric's Interrogationes Sigewulfi: "heora." 78Ælfric's Interrogationes Sigewulfi: "adruwog." 79BL Ms Cotton Vespasian D. vi has a close analogue to the following passage. Variations in spelling and word order are not recorded; other differences between the two texts are described in the footnotes. Other descriptions of the Ages of the World are in Stowe 944, Cotton Caligula A. xv, and BL Ms Arundel 60; and in Latin only, in Cotton Tiberius A. iii. 80This is the rubrication given at this point in the manuscript, but Ælfric's De Initio Creaturae is not the text that follows. 81Cotton Vespasian D. vi: twa 7. 82Cotton Vespasian D. vi: 7 twa hund. 83For additional texts listing the Ages of the World, see below: Cotton Tiberius A. iii and Stowe 944, with annotations. 84This first part of the sentence is not in Cotton Vespasian D. vi. 85"ða man þæt mære Salomones tempell worhte. Þæt is" not in Cotton Vespasian D. vi. 86Cotton Vespasian D. vi: hund siofentig ðusenda 7 hund eahtodig manna. 87"ðus fela wæs": Cotton Vespasian D. vi has "ðara wer\h/tena." 88Cotton Vespasian D. vi: hund siofentig ðusenda 7 ðrio hund. The remainder of this material on Solomon's temple is not in Cotton Vespasian D. vi, which resumes with "ðanan wæs to Cristes þrowunga twa ðusenda wintra 7 seofen 7 ðritig." 89"wearð getimbrad ealles a urnen" Cotton Vespasian D. vi has: geweorc. 90Cotton Vespasian D. vi: fiowær ðusendo wintro 7 siofen 7 hund eahtodig. 91Cf. Rouen, Bibliothèque Municipale, I 49 (524): "Er Romeburg getimbred were from frimðe weron agane feower ðusend wintra 7 feor hund 7 twa 7 hund eahtatig. 7 æfter þem þe Rome getimbroð wes wes ures drihtnes acenes ymb seofon hund wintre 7 tiene." 92Cf. the opening of Adrian and Ritheus in Cotton Julius A. ii [fol. 137v]: Adrianus cwæð to Ritheus. Saga me hu lange wæs Adam on neorxnawange. Ic þe secge. He wes þrittine gear. Saga me on hwilcne dæig he gesingode. Ic þe secge. On Frydæig. & on þone dæig he was ær gesceapen. & on þa dæge he eft aswealt. 93Cf. two notes in the Old English Hexateuch. "Methodius cwað Adam wæs gesceopa man on wlite of ðritig wintra, & naþeless on ane dage & geara & æfter ðam an & twa wintra & þri wintra & ælla ða oðron. … Me cwæð þæt he wære inne neorxnawange .vii. tide. See S. J. Crawford (419) for the text of the notes. Also see the opening of Ælfric's De Initio Creaturae (CH. I. i), which corresponds closely to the versions of the text written in the Tollemache Orosius and in Cotton Caligula A. xv. "Adam leofode nigan hund geara 7 þrittig geara." 94Tollemache Orosius (BL Add. 47967): Adam lifede nigan hund geara 7 xxx geara. Cotton Caligula A. xv: Adam wæs her on worulde lifes ix hundgeara 7 xxx geara. Adam wæs on helle æfter his forðsiðe, 7 ealle þa gewitenan sawla mid him, oð þone dæg þe ure drihten erist þrowode. Þæt is þonne v þusend geara 7 cc geara 7 xxviii geara. Also see Bodl Lib Hatton 115: Nigen hundred wintre 7 XXX Adam liuede on þissere worulde on geswince 7 on ermðe, 7 soððan to helle for 7 þer grimme wite þolede […] þusend wintre 7 twa hundred wuintre 7 ehte 7 twenti wintre. 95folio 43v. 96Cotton Caligula A. xv: Noe hæfde iii suna; þus wæron hatene Sem, Cham, Iafeð. Of þam þreom awocan 7 forðcoman Lxxii þeoda. Fram Iafeðe xv, 7 fram Chame xxx, 7 fram Seme xxvii. 97See Stowe 944 for Latin note (phrased as question and answer) on the number of descendants of Noah and languages in the world. 98"e" erased. 99Cf. Tollemache Orosius (BL Add. 47967): Noe lifede ær ðam flode 7 æfter ðam flode [nigan hund wintra] 7 fiftig wintra 7 he wæs innan ðære earc feowertig daga, he 7 his wif 7 his ðreo sunu, Sem, Cham, 7 Iaphe[t]h, 7 hyra ðryo wif. 7 seo earc wæs ðryo hund fæðma lang 7 fiftig fæðma wid 7 ðritig fæðma heah. 7 his sunu Sem lifede syx hund geara, 7 his sune hatte Arfaxad 7 se lifode ðryo hund geara 7 ðryo 7 dritig, 7 his sune hatte Sale 7 se lifode feower hund geara 7 ðryo 7ðritig geara. Ða gestrynde he sunu; se hatte Heber. Of him asprang þæt Hebreisce. … 100Cf. Latin passage in Stowe 944, below. 101See the longer Ages of the World passages in BL Harley 3271, above, and Stowe 944, below. CCCC 201; Bodl Lib Ms Hatton 113; and CCCC 178 contain an Old English version of this account of the Ages of the World: "An yld is geteald of Adame to Noe, oþer of Noe to Abrahame, ðridde of Abrahame to Dauide, feorðe of Dauide to ðam myclan heregange, fifte, of ðam heregange to Cristes gebyrdtiman, sixte of ures drihtnes gebyrdtide to þam ende, þe god ana wat, seofoðe belimpð to þam toweardan life." In all three texts, this is prefaced by a note on the Creation: "Be frumsceafte. On þisne worulde fruman god ælmihtig gesceop and geworhte on syx dagum ealle gesceafta, and þæs seofon þas dæges he gereste hine. And on six ylda is þeos woruld eac todæled, and seo seofoðe belimpð to þære ecan reste." 102The scribe has initially written "xiiii," but this has been replaced above the line with "xvi." Cotton Caligula: xvi; Cotton Titus D. xxvii: feowortyne. Bodl Lib Ms 343: fiftene æld. 103Cotton Titus D. xxvii: xvi; Bodl Lib Ms 343: sixtene gær. 104Cotton Caligula A. xv: geara eald; Cotton Titus D. xxvii: þreo 7 syxti. 105Cotton Caligula A. xv: concludes with: 7 xxxiii geara eald þa he þrowode for us. Bodl Lib Ms 343 (2406) Sancta maria wes ðreo 7 sixti winter ða heo of midden ærde ferde. 7 heo wes fiftene æld ða heo crist acende. 7 heo wes mid him ðreo 7 ðritti winter on midden ærde. 7 heo wes efter him sixtene gær on ðissere worlde. For full analysis of Ages of Mary texts, see Hall. 106Cotton Julius A. ii contains a series of notes on the Criminals, the size of Noah's Arc, St. Peter's Church, and Solomon's Temple. Variations from the text are recorded in footnotes below. 107Cotton Julius A. ii: Hy wære on Ebreis genemned [Acha]sachat 7 Macros, 7 on Greckisc Malica 7 Ioca, 7 on Romanisc Cismus 7 Dismus. 108Cotton Julius A. ii: sixti. 109Cotton Julius A. ii: wæs. 110Following this note, the text of Cotton Julius A. ii contains the following material, not strictly Biblical lore: Istorius sæde þæt þyses middangeardes lenge wære xii þusend mila, 7 on bræde six þusend 7 þreo hundred, butan litlum ealandum. Man hafað bana twa hundred 7 nigontine, 7 he hafað æddrena þreo hundred 7 fife 7 sixti. 7 swa fæla daga beoð on twelf monðum, 7 hund twentig geara hafað þritti þusend daga 7 six hundred. 111Bodl Lib Ms Hatton 113 and CCCC 178 contain almost identical versions of this passage. 112Added later in different ink. 113Added to the bottom of the page in a different hand and with a different ink, with an insertion mark at this point.