![Caedmon ms Cainan](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/18/Caedmon_ms_Cainan.jpg)
The Junius manuscript is one of the four major codices of
Old English literature
Old English literature refers to poetry and prose written in Old English in early medieval England, from the 7th century to the decades after the Norman conquest of England, Norman Conquest of 1066, a period often termed Anglo-Saxon England. Th ...
. Written in the 10th century, it contains poetry dealing with Biblical subjects in
Old English
Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...
, the vernacular language of Anglo-Saxon England. Modern editors have determined that the manuscript is made of four poems, to which they have given the titles ''Genesis'', ''Exodus'', ''Daniel'', and ''Christ and Satan''. The identity of their author is unknown. For a long time, scholars believed them to be the work of
Cædmon
Cædmon (; ''fl. c.'' 657 – 684) is the earliest English poet whose name is known. A Northumbrian cowherd who cared for the animals at the double monastery of Streonæshalch (now known as Whitby Abbey) during the abbacy of St. Hilda, he wa ...
, accordingly calling the book the Cædmon manuscript. This theory has been discarded due to the significant differences between the poems.
The manuscript owes its current designation to the Anglo-Dutch scholar
Franciscus Junius, who was the first to edit its contents and who bequeathed it to
Oxford University
Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...
. It is kept in the
Bodleian Library
The Bodleian Library () is the main research library of the University of Oxford, and is one of the oldest libraries in Europe. It derives its name from its founder, Sir Thomas Bodley. With over 13 million printed items, it is the second- ...
under
shelfmark
A shelfmark is a mark in a book or manuscript that denotes the cupboard or bookcase where it is kept as well as the shelf and possibly even its location on the shelf. The closely related term pressmark (from press, meaning cupboard) denotes only th ...
MS Junius 11.
Name and date
![Caedmon ms ship](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2f/Caedmon_ms_ship.jpg)
The codex now referred to as the "Junius manuscript" was formerly called the "Cædmon manuscript" after an early theory that the poems it contains were the work of
Cædmon
Cædmon (; ''fl. c.'' 657 – 684) is the earliest English poet whose name is known. A Northumbrian cowherd who cared for the animals at the double monastery of Streonæshalch (now known as Whitby Abbey) during the abbacy of St. Hilda, he wa ...
; the theory is no longer considered credible, therefore the manuscript it is commonly referred to either by its Bodleian Library shelf mark "MS Junius 11", or more casually as "the Junius manuscript" or "Codex Junius". 'Junius' in these is
Franciscus Junius, who published the first edition of its contents in 1655.
It has been established on
palaeographical
Palaeography ( UK) or paleography ( US; ultimately from grc-gre, , ''palaiós'', "old", and , ''gráphein'', "to write") is the study of historic writing systems and the deciphering and dating of historical manuscripts, including the analysi ...
grounds that compilation of the manuscript began c. AD 1000. Recent work has suggested an earlier, narrow window for the likely compilation date to 960-1000 for Liber I and shortly thereafter for Liber II, based on an integrated dating of the text, paleography, and illustrations.
The compilation was in two stages: Liber I contains the poems ''Genesis'', ''Exodus'', and ''Daniel'', and was the work of a single scribe. Liber II contains the poem C''hrist and Satan''. The manuscript contains numerous illustrations that are an example of the Winchester style of drawing, typical of the period and region; it appears that two illustrators worked independently on the manuscript. The first scribe left spaces in the text for other illustrations which were never completed.
Illustrations
The manuscript is partly illustrated with a series of line drawings depicting the events in the text. From spaces left by the scribes, it appears that it was intended that the manuscript be fully illustrated; in the event, the work was left unfinished after only about a third of the artwork had been drawn. This scheme of illustrations, which is unparalleled in other manuscripts of Anglo-Saxon poetry, implies that the manuscript was conceived of as being considerably more important than most vernacular texts; it may have been intended for devotional or didactic use.
Contents
The names of the poems themselves are modern inventions; they are not given titles in the manuscript. As with the majority of Anglo-Saxon writing, the poems are anonymous and their provenance and dating are uncertain.
Genesis
![CaedmonManuscriptPage46Illust](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ad/CaedmonManuscriptPage46Illust.jpg)
''Genesis'' is a paraphrase of the first part of the
biblical
The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts of a ...
book of Genesis
The Book of Genesis (from Greek ; Hebrew: בְּרֵאשִׁית ''Bəreʾšīt'', "In hebeginning") is the first book of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament. Its Hebrew name is the same as its first word, ( "In the beginning") ...
, from the Creation through to the test of Abraham's faith with the sacrifice of Isaac (
Gen. 22).
The work is now recognised as a composite work formed of two originally distinct parts, conventionally referred to as ''
Genesis A
''Genesis A'' (or ''Elder Genesis'') is an Old English poetic adaptation of the first half or so 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 Genesi ...
'' and ''
Genesis B
''Genesis B'', also known as ''The Later Genesis'', is a passage of Old English poetry describing the Fall of Satan and the Fall of Man, translated from an Old Saxon poem known as the ''Old Saxon Genesis''. The passage known as ''Genesis B'' surv ...
''; the latter, lines 235-851 of the poem as we have it, appears to have been interpolated from an older poem to produce the current text.
It is ''Genesis B'' which has attracted the most critical attention. Its origin is notable in that it appears to be a translation from a ninth-century
Old Saxon
Old Saxon, also known as Old Low German, was a Germanic language and the earliest recorded form of Low German (spoken nowadays in Northern Germany, the northeastern Netherlands, southern Denmark, the Americas and parts of Eastern Europe). It i ...
original; this theory was originally made on metrical grounds, in 1875 by the German scholar Sievers, and then confirmed by the discovery of a fragment of Old Saxon verse that appears to correspond to part of the work in 1894. Thematically and stylistically, it is distinctive: it tells the story of the
falls of Satan and
Man
A man is an adult male human. Prior to adulthood, a male human is referred to as a boy (a male child or adolescent). Like most other male mammals, a man's genome usually inherits an X chromosome from the mother and a Y chromo ...
in an epic style, and has been suggested as an influence for ''
Beowulf
''Beowulf'' (; ang, Bēowulf ) is an Old English epic poem in the tradition of Germanic heroic legend consisting of 3,182 alliterative lines. It is one of the most important and most often translated works of Old English literature. The ...
'', and even, perhaps, for
Milton
Milton may refer to:
Names
* Milton (surname), a surname (and list of people with that surname)
** John Milton (1608–1674), English poet
* Milton (given name)
** Milton Friedman (1912–2006), Nobel laureate in Economics, author of '' Free t ...
's ''
Paradise Lost
''Paradise Lost'' is an epic poem in blank verse by the 17th-century English poet John Milton (1608–1674). The first version, published in 1667, consists of ten books with over ten thousand lines of verse (poetry), verse. A second edition fo ...
''.
Exodus
''Exodus'' is not a paraphrase of the biblical book, but rather a retelling of the story of the Israelites'
Flight from Egypt and the
Crossing of the Red Sea
The Crossing of the Red Sea ( he, קריעת ים סוף, Kriat Yam Suph, parting of the Sea of Reeds) forms an episode in the biblical narrative of The Exodus.
It tells of the escape of the Israelites, led by Moses, from the pursuing Egyptia ...
in the manner of a "heroic epic", much like Old English poems ''
Andreas
Andreas ( el, Ἀνδρέας) is a name usually given to males in Austria, Greece, Cyprus, Denmark, Armenia, Estonia, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Finland, Flanders
Flanders (, ; Dutch: ''Vlaanderen'' ) is the Flemish-speaking northern portion of B ...
'', ''
Judith'', or even the non-religious ''
Beowulf
''Beowulf'' (; ang, Bēowulf ) is an Old English epic poem in the tradition of Germanic heroic legend consisting of 3,182 alliterative lines. It is one of the most important and most often translated works of Old English literature. The ...
''. It is one of the densest, most allusive and complex poems in Old English, and is the focus of much critical debate.
Exodus brings a traditional "heroic style" to its biblical subject-matter.
Moses
Moses hbo, מֹשֶׁה, Mōše; also known as Moshe or Moshe Rabbeinu (Mishnaic Hebrew: מֹשֶׁה רַבֵּינוּ, ); syr, ܡܘܫܐ, Mūše; ar, موسى, Mūsā; grc, Mωϋσῆς, Mōÿsēs () is considered the most important pro ...
is treated as a general, and military imagery pervades the battle scenes. The destruction of the Egyptians in the Red Sea is narrated in much the same way as a formulaic battle scene from other Old English poems, including a 'Beast of Battle' motif very common in the poetry.
The main story is suspended at one point to tell the stories of Noah and Abraham's sacrifice of Isaac. Some scholars consider this change of subject a feature of the "epic style" comparable with the similar digressions in ''Beowulf'', while others have proposed it is a later interpolation.
Edward B. Irving
Edward is an English given name. It is derived from the Anglo-Saxon name ''Ēadweard'', composed of the elements '' ēad'' "wealth, fortune; prosperous" and '' weard'' "guardian, protector”.
History
The name Edward was very popular in Anglo-Sa ...
edited the poem twice, 1955 and 1981: the first edition excerpted the Noah and Abraham portion as a separate poem; on later reflection, Irving recanted, admitting it was an integrated part of the Exodus poem. There appears to be justification in patristic sermons for connecting the crossing of the Red Sea with these topics.
In recent decades, attention has shifted away from the "heroic" aspects of Exodus to consider its densely allusive structure and possible
typology
Typology is the study of types or the systematic classification of the types of something according to their common characteristics. Typology is the act of finding, counting and classification facts with the help of eyes, other senses and logic. Ty ...
.
Peter J. Lucas
Piotr Józef Andrzejewski (born 2 June 1962), known professionally as Peter J. Lucas, is a Polish and American actor.
In 2006 he participated in ''Taniec z gwiazdami''.
Filmography Film
*1996: '' Independence Day'' as a Russian reporter
*19 ...
, for instance, has argued that the poem is an
allegorical treatment of the Christian's fight with the devil. The
Crossing of the Red Sea
The Crossing of the Red Sea ( he, קריעת ים סוף, Kriat Yam Suph, parting of the Sea of Reeds) forms an episode in the biblical narrative of The Exodus.
It tells of the escape of the Israelites, led by Moses, from the pursuing Egyptia ...
has been seen as echoing the
Baptismal
Baptism (from grc-x-koine, βάπτισμα, váptisma) is a form of ritual purification—a characteristic of many religions throughout time and geography. In Christianity, it is a Christian sacrament of initiation and adoption, almost inv ...
liturgy and prefiguring the entrance into Heaven. The Pharaoh may be associated with Satan through some subtle verbal echoes. However, these readings are still controversial and much-debated. A more balanced view would accept that though certain intermittent parts of the narrative of Exodus merge into typological allusion, this is not sustained throughout the poem.
Daniel
A short paraphrase of the
book of Daniel
The Book of Daniel is a 2nd-century BC biblical apocalypse with a 6th century BC setting. Ostensibly "an account of the activities and visions of Daniel, a noble Jew exiled at Babylon", it combines a prophecy of history with an eschatology (a ...
, dwelling particularly on the story of the
Fiery Furnace, deals with the first five chapters of the Book of Daniel.
Christ and Satan
A three-part poem detailing the Fall of Satan, Christ's
harrowing of Hell
In Christian theology, the Harrowing of Hell ( la, Descensus Christi ad Inferos, "the descent of Christ into Hell" or Hades) is an Old English and Middle English term referring to the period of time between the Crucifixion of Jesus and his re ...
(from the
Apocrypha
Apocrypha are works, usually written, of unknown authorship or of doubtful origin. The word ''apocryphal'' (ἀπόκρυφος) was first applied to writings which were kept secret because they were the vehicles of esoteric knowledge considered ...
l New Testament ''
Gospel of Nicodemus
Gospel originally meant the Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was set out. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words an ...
''), and Christ's temptation in the desert.
Facsimiles
* ''The Cædmon manuscript of Anglo-Saxon Biblical poetry: Junius XI in the Bodleian '', ed. by Israel Gollancz (London: Oxford University Press, 1927.)
Digital facsimiles are available online and offline:
A complete digital facsimileis available through
digital Bodleian.
A complete digital facsimile with copious annotations, transcriptions and translations was released on CD format in 2004:
*
Editions
* Several poems from MS Junius 11 are edited to digital images of their manuscript pages, and translated, in the
Old English Poetry in Facsimile Project'
See also
*
Anglo-Saxon literature
Old English literature refers to poetry and prose written in Old English in early medieval England, from the 7th century to the decades after the Norman Conquest of 1066, a period often termed Anglo-Saxon England. The 7th-century work ''Cædmon ...
*
Exeter Book
The Exeter Book, also known as the Codex Exoniensis or Exeter Cathedral Library MS 3501, is a large codex of Old English poetry, believed to have been produced in the late tenth century AD. It is one of the four major manuscripts of Old Engli ...
*
History of the English Bible
Partial Bible translations into languages of the English people can be traced back to the late 7th century, including translations into Old and Middle English. More than 100 complete translations into English have been written.
In the United S ...
*
Nowell Codex
The Nowell Codex is the second of two manuscripts comprising the bound volume Cotton MS Vitellius A XV, one of the four major Anglo-Saxon poetic manuscripts. It is most famous as the manuscript containing the unique copy of the epic poem ''Beow ...
*
Old English Bible translations
The Old English Bible translations are the partial translations of the Bible prepared in medieval England into the Old English language. The translations are from Latin texts, not the original languages.
Many of these translations were in fact Bib ...
*
Vercelli Book
The Vercelli Book is one of the oldest of the four Old English Poetic Codices (the others being the Junius manuscript in the Bodleian Library, the Exeter Book in Exeter Cathedral Library, and the Nowell Codex in the British Library). It is an an ...
References
Further reading
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External links
Bodleian Medieval Manuscripts Catalogue EntryEncyclopædia Britannica Cædmon manuscriptThe Gutenberg project edition of Codex Junius
{{Authority control
1655 books
English poetry collections
Old English poems
Christian illuminated manuscripts
Literary illuminated manuscripts
Later Anglo-Saxon illuminated manuscripts
English manuscripts
Bodleian Library collection
10th-century illuminated manuscripts