Genesis b and the comedic imperative.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Vickrey, John F., 1924-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

English poetry--Old English, ca. 450-1100.

English poetry.

English poetry--Old English.

Physical Description:

324 pages ; 24cm

Place of Publication:

Lanham, Maryland : Lehigh University Press, 2015.

Summary:

Readers of Old English would generally agree that the poem Genesis B, a translation into Old English of an Old Saxon (i.e., continental) retelling of the story of the Fall, is a vigorous and moving narrative. They would disagree, however, as to the meaning of the poem. Some hold that it reflects an orthodox Christian viewpoint and others claim that it assumes a distinctly unorthodox position in portraying Adam and Eve as not morally culpable in their disobedience but merely tricked into disobedience through the wiles of the Devil's agent. Genesis B and the Comedic Imperative, examining these incompatible readings, infers that the poem is essentially orthodox, that it demonstrates sufficiently the moral culpability of Adam and Eve, and that it departs from orthodoxy only insofar as it conveys a strong impression that Adam and Eve will undertake what amounts to Christian penance, leading them eventually to Heaven. The poem thereby attains the happy ending typical of early medieval Christian narrative. Hence the titular "Comedic Imperative." The inference of orthodoxy follows as a nigh-inevitable conclusion of the interpretation of several motifs: the poem's culturally imbued martiality, its allegorical bent, and also what A. N. Doane noted as its tropological bent. The argument depends heavily upon philological inquiry and on examination of prevailing beliefs and attitudes of contemporaneous Frankish society, religious and civil, leading to the reinterpretation of crucial passages. Of these, most notably, is the passage in which Adam, in refusing the Tempter's invitation to eat the fruit, observes that the Tempter has given no tacen "sign" as evidence that he truly is God's emissary. Other passages that have impeded critical perception of the poem's significance are also examined, such as the notorious micel wundor clause (595-98) and the pseudo-gnomic declaration swa hire eaforan sculon after lybban (623-35), In sum, Genesis B sustains the orthodoxy otherwise of the Junius 11 manuscript. Book jacket.

Contents:

I Deposition of a Dame 1

II Comedy, Wit, Tropology, Allegory 25

Comedy 25

Wit 34

Tropology 35

Allegory 43

III Adamic Resolve 51

Manuscript Illustrations (unpaged)

IV Adamic Failure 75

Allegorical Narrative 75

The MS Illustrations of the Fall 81

The Second Temptation of Adam 91

V Father of Lies 105

"Despaire Breeds Not... Where Faith Is Staid" 105

Patriarchaism and Then Some 126

VI "God Was Himself a Warlord" 139

VII 'No Fiend Here in the Realm' 167

VIII Dom Is Darker and Deeper 195

IX The Boda and Gottschalk 217

X Adam and Eve and the Light 235.

ISBN:

1611461677

9781611461671

OCLC:

884480346