''Christ I'' (also known as ''Christ A'' or (''The'') ''Advent Lyrics''), is a fragmentary collection of
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 ...
poems
Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings in ...
on the coming of
the Lord, preserved in the
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 Englis ...
. In its present state, the poem comprises 439 lines in twelve distinct sections. In the assessment of
Edward B. Irving Jr, "two masterpieces stand out of the mass of Anglo-Saxon religious poetry: ''
The Dream of the Rood
''The'' ''Dream of the Rood'' is one of the Christian poems in the corpus of Old English literature and an example of the genre of dream poetry. Like most Old English poetry, it is written in alliterative verse. ''Rood'' is from the Old English ...
'' and the sequence of liturgical lyrics in the Exeter Book ... known as ''Christ I''".
The topic of the poem is
Advent, the time period in the annual liturgical cycle leading up to the anniversary of the coming of Christ, a period of great spiritual and symbolic significance within the Church — for some in early medieval Europe a time of fasting, and the subject of a sermon by
Gregory the Great
Pope Gregory I ( la, Gregorius I; – 12 March 604), commonly known as Saint Gregory the Great, was the bishop of Rome from 3 September 590 to his death. He is known for instigating the first recorded large-scale mission from Rome, the Gregoria ...
(590-604 CE). The Old English lyrics of ''Christ I'', playing off the Latin antiphons, reflect on this period of symbolic preparation.
Manuscript and associated texts
''Christ I'' is found on folios 8r-14r of the
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 Englis ...
, a collection of
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 ...
poetry today containing 123 folios. The collection also contains a number of other religious and allegorical poems. Some folios have been lost at the start of the poem, meaning that an indeterminate amount of the original composition is missing.
''Christ I'', concerning the
Advent of Jesus, is followed in the Exeter Book by a poem on Jesus's
Ascension composed by
Cynewulf
Cynewulf (, ; also spelled Cynwulf or Kynewulf) is one of twelve Old English poets known by name, and one of four whose work is known to survive today. He presumably flourished in the 9th century, with possible dates extending into the late 8th ...
, generally known in modern scholarship as ''
Christ II'', which in turn is followed by ''
Christ III
''Christ III'' is an anonymous Old English religious poem which forms the last part of ''Christ'', a poetic triad found at the beginning of the Exeter Book. ''Christ III'' is found on fols. 20b–32a and constitutes lines 867–1664 of ''Christ'' ...
'', on the
Last Judgment. Together these three poems comprise a total of 1664 lines, and are in turn linked to the poems that follow, ''
Guthlac A'' and ''
Guthlac B
''Guthlac A'' and ''Guthlac B'' are a pair of Old English poems written in celebration of the deeds and death of Saint Guthlac of Croyland, a popular Mercian saint. The two poems are presented consecutively in the important Exeter Book miscellany o ...
''. The sequence of ''Christ I-III'' is sometimes known simply as ''Christ'', and has at times been thought to be one poem completed by a single author. Linguistic and stylistic differences indicate, however, that ''Christ I-III'' originated as separate compositions (perhaps with ''Christ II'' being composed as a bridge between ''Christ I'' and ''Christ III''). Nevertheless, ''Christ I-III'' stands as an artistically coherent compilation.
[Roy M. Liuzza,]
The Old English ''Christ'' and ''Guthlac'': Texts, Manuscripts, and Critics
, ''The Review of English Studies'', 41 (1990), 1-11.
The text also contains glosses by
Laurence Nowell
Laurence (or Lawrence) Nowell (1530 – c.1570) was an English antiquarian, cartographer and pioneering scholar of Anglo-Saxon language and literature.
Life
Laurence Nowell was born around 1530 in Whalley, Lancashire, the second son of Alexand ...
from the sixteenth century or
George Hickes George Hickes may refer to:
* George Hickes (divine) (1642–1715), English divine and scholar
* George Hickes (Manitoba politician) (born 1946), Canadian politician
* George Hickes (Nunavut politician)
George Hickes, Jr. is a Canadian politi ...
from the seventeenth.
Origins
Because ''Christ II'' is signed by Cynewulf, earlier scholarship supposed that ''Christ I'' might also be his work;
[Edward Burgert, ]
The Dependence of Part I of Cynewulf's Christ upon the Antiphonary
' (Washington, D. C.: Milans, 1921). but recent research agrees that the authorship is unknown.
Claes Schaar
Claes Schaar (1920 – 2012) was a Swedish literary historian.
He studied at Lund University and took the doctorate in 1949 with the thesis ''Critical Studies in the Cynewulf Group''. He later studied Chaucer and Shakespeare; later issuing ''Marin ...
suggested that the poem may have been written between the end of the eighth century and the beginning of the ninth.
Sample
The following passage describes the Advent of Christ and is a modern English translation of Lyric 5 (lines 104-29 in the numbering of the
Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records The Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records (ASPR) is a six-volume edition intended at the time of its publication to encompass all known Old English poetry. Despite many subsequent editions of individual poems or collections, it has remained the standard refere ...
):
Sources and structure
As presented in the Exeter Book, ''Christ I'' is divided into five sections, each marked by a large capital, a line-break, and punctuation, as follows: lines 1-70, 71-163, 164-272, 275-377, 378-439.
However, researchers have found it helpful to understand ''Christ I'' as comprising twelve sections or 'lyrics'. Each lyric is introduced with a selection from a Latin
antiphon
An antiphon ( Greek ἀντίφωνον, ἀντί "opposite" and φωνή "voice") is a short chant in Christian ritual, sung as a refrain. The texts of antiphons are the Psalms. Their form was favored by St Ambrose and they feature prominentl ...
(verses from Scripture sung before and after the reading of a psalm chosen to reflect the fundamental ideas presented in the psalm), followed by lines of poetry in Old English which expand on that source. Most of the antiphons used are known as the ''
O Antiphons
The O Antiphons (also known as the Great Advent Antiphons or Great Os) are Magnificat antiphons used at Vespers on the last seven days of Advent in Western Christian traditions. They likely date to sixth-century Italy, when Boethius refers to th ...
'', which receive their name because they all begin with the
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
interjection ''O'' (rendered in the poem with the Old English interjection ''ēalā''). Medieval manuscripts of the ''O Antiphons'' vary in order and content, meaning that the precise sources for several of the ''Christ I'' lyrics are uncertain.
[Thomas D. Hill,]
The Seraphim's Song: The "Sanctus" in the Old English "Christ I", Lines 403-415
, ''Neuphilologische Mitteilungen'', 83 (1982), 26-30.
Several of the Greater Antiphons are not used in ''Christ I'', leading some scholars speculate that, since we know that the beginning of ''Christ I'' is missing, the missing antiphons ("O Sapientia", "O Adonai", and "O radix Jesse") were originally used in the poem but have been lost.
The following table summarises the content and sources of each of the twelve lyrics. Unless otherwise stated, information on sources comes from Burgert
and the antiphon text from
Bamberg State Library
The Bamberg State Library (german: Staatsbibliothek Bamberg) is a combined universal, regional and research library with priority given to the humanities. Today it is housed in the New Residence, the former prince-bishop's new palace. The Free ...
, MS Misc. Patr. 17/B.11.10, folios 133-62, 10c.
Interpretation of structure
The order of antiphons that the author uses for the lyrics imply that the poet was not concerned about any distinctions between antiphons, or the order that he had found them in his sources. Upon analysis of the position of each poem, no rational order can be found, suggesting that the order of each poem in the sequence is unimportant.
Influence on other writers
J.R.R. Tolkien was influenced by the following lines from ''Christ I'' (lines 104-5), which inspired his portrayal the character
Eärendil in his
legendarium
Tolkien's legendarium is the body of J. R. R. Tolkien's mythopoeic writing, unpublished in his lifetime, that forms the background to his ''The Lord of the Rings'', and which his son Christopher summarized in his compilation of ''The Silmaril ...
and is one of many examples of the Old English word ''
middangeard
In Germanic cosmology, Midgard (an anglicised form of Old Norse ; Old English , Old Saxon , Old High German , and Gothic ''Midjun-gards''; "middle yard", "middle enclosure") is the name for Earth (equivalent in meaning to the Greek term , "inhab ...
'' which partly inspired Tolkien's
fantasy world
A fantasy world is a world created for/from fictional media, such as literature, film or games. Typical fantasy worlds involve magic or magical abilities, nonexistent technology and, sometimes, either a historical or futuristic theme. Some wor ...
:
Tolkien wrote "There was something very remote and strange and beautiful behind those words, if I could grasp it, far beyond ancient English."
[Day, David. 2003 ''The World of Tolkien''. London: Octopus Publishing Group, p. 8.]
Editions and translations
Editions
* , pp. 3-49
online at the Oxford Text Archive* ''The Advent Lyrics of the Exeter Book'', ed. by Jackson J. Campbell (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1959)
* ''The Old English Advent a Typological Commentary'', ed. by R. B. Burlin, Yale Studies in English, 168 (New Haven, CT, 1968)
Translations
* ''
The Christ of Cynewulf, A Poem in Three Parts: The Advent, the Ascension, and the Last Judgement'', trans. by
Charles Huntington Whitman (Boston: Ginn, 1900)
* Cynewulf,
Christ', trans. by Charles W. Kennedy (Cambridge, Ontario: In Parentheses, 2000)
Notes
References
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External links
{{DEFAULTSORT:Christ 1
Old English poems