Genesis A
Genesis A (or Elder Genesis) is an Old English poetic adaptation of about the first half of the biblical book of Genesis. The poem is fused with a passage known today as Genesis B, translated and interpolated from the Old Saxon Genesis.
Genesis A (and B) survive in the Junius Manuscript, which has been held in the Bodleian Library at the University of Oxford since 1677.
Lacunae
[edit | edit source]The sole manuscript containing Genesis A is incomplete, with a number of leaves missing. This means that, as we have it today, there are gaps (lacunae) in the poem. Paul G. Remley has estimated the number of missing lines thus:[1]
| text | lines |
|---|---|
| Genesis A | 1-168 |
| lacuna | 62 |
| Genesis A | 169-205 |
| lacuna | no detectable textual loss |
| Genesis A | 206-34 |
| lacuna | 70 |
| Genesis B | 235-441 |
| lacuna | 116 |
| Genesis B | 442-851 |
| Genesis A | 852-2045 |
| lacuna | no detectable textual loss |
| Genesis A | 2046-381 |
| lacuna | 20 |
| Genesis A | 2382-418 |
| lacuna | 61 |
| Genesis A | 2419-512 |
| lacuna | 18 |
| Genesis A | 2513-99 |
| lucuna | 36 |
| Genesis A | 2600-806 |
| lacuna | 19 |
| Genesis A | 2807-2936 |
The total length of the combined Genesis A and B poems when the Junius Manuscript was complete was therefore around 3339 lines.
Summary
[edit | edit source]Genesis A begins before Biblical Genesis—not with the creation of the world but with the creation of Heaven and the angels and with Satan's war on Heaven.[2] Then the poet describes the days of creation, culminating with the creation of Adam and a description of the Garden of Eden.[3] After this, the poem scholars call Genesis B resumes the story of Adam in the Garden,[4] while also going back to the war on Heaven Genesis A already discussed.[5] Following the material from Genesis B, the poem is a fairly close translation of the Biblical book of Genesis up to and including the sacrifice of Isaac (Genesis 22.13).
Textual background
[edit | edit source]Scholars consider the poem in the Junius manuscript of separate authorship than Genesis B, though both are presented concurrently in the Junius Manuscript.[6] Charles Leslie Wrenn even considers Genesis A to be a composite work.[7]
Scholars such as Wrenn once considered the work to be partially written by Cædmon,[7] though as far back as Laurence Michel in 1947 there were critics: he calls the attribution based on "circumstantial evidence" and that any connection "may be laid to the prevalence of well-known pious introductory formulas".[8]
Editions and translations
[edit | edit source]The editions and translations of Genesis A include:
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- Doane, A. N. (ed.), Genesis A: A New Edition (Madison, Wisconsin, 1978)
- Genesis A & B are edited along with digital images of their manuscript pages, and translated, in the Old English Poetry in Facsimile Project eds. Foys, Martin et al. (University of Wisconsin, Madison, 2019-)
- Ophelia Eryn Hostetter's translation
See also
[edit | edit source]References
[edit | edit source]- ^ Paul G. Remley, Old English Biblical Verse: Studies in Genesis, Exodus and Daniel (XXXXX), p. 94 fn. 1.
- ^ lines 1-102
- ^ lines 103-234
- ^ Genesis B, lines 235-245
- ^ Genesis B, lines 246 ff
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