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Eve in Anglo-Saxon Retellings of the Harrowing of Hell

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 July 2016

Keith Glaeske
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A spate of recent articles attests to a growing interest in Eve in criticism of Old English literature. However, these same articles demonstrate the narrowness of this interest, as they all focus on Eve in one poem — Genesis B — which is not even an entire poem, but rather a small (albeit significant) interpolation into another poem. Other Old English writings have been little studied: in particular, several prominent occurrences of Eve during the Harrowing of Hell survive in the Old English Martyrology; Blickling Homily 7; a homily De descensu Christi ad inferos in Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Junius 121; and the poem Christ and Satan, but have received little comment. In each of these texts Eve supplicates Christ when he descends into hell to free the souls of the biblical patriarchs and prophets after his crucifixion; furthermore, six Old English homilies record Eve's appearance during the Harrowing, although not her active involvement. The Evangelium Nicodemi most fully describes the Harrowing of Hell; Eve's appearance within these texts, however, does not derive from this apocryphon. Moreover, while these episodes incorporate ideas drawn from patristic exegesis, they do not derive directly from patristic writings either; nevertheless, Eve's role in these texts may be an Anglo-Saxon modification of the patristic contrast between Eve and Mary, whereby Eve is portrayed as a type of Mary instead of as her antithesis.

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Traditio , Volume 54 , 1999 , pp. 81 - 101
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Copyright © Fordham University Press 

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References

1 As is evident even from their titles: Finnegan, Robert E., “Eve and ‘Vincible Ignorance’ in Genesis B,” Texas Studies in Literature and Language 18 (1976): 329–39; Chance, Jane, “Eve and Genesis B: Anti-Type of the Peace-Weaver and Virgin Mary,” chapter five of her Woman as Hero in Old English Literature (Syracuse, 1986), 65–79; Renoir, Alain, “Eve's I.Q. Rating: Two Sexist Views of Genesis B,” in New Readings on Women in Old English Literature , ed. Damico, Helen and Olsen, Alexandra Hennessey (Bloomington, 1990), 262–72; and Overing, Gillian R., “On Reading Eve: Genesis B and the Reader's Desire,” in Speaking Two Languages , ed. Frantzen, Allen J., SUNY Series in Medieval Studies (Albany, 1991), 35–63. A notable exception is Hall, Thomas N., “A Gregorian Model for Eve's biter drync in Guthlac B,” Review of English Studies n.s. 44 (1993): 157–75.Google Scholar

An abridged version of this paper was presented at the 32nd International Congress on Medieval Studies at Western Michigan University, 9 May 1997. I am indebted to the participants of the session “Women and Anglo-Saxon England” for their comments and criticisms, and to Christine Flanagan and R. Mark Scowcroft for the careful reading of several drafts of this article.Google Scholar

2 As noted by Clayton, Mary, The Cult of the Virgin Mary in Anglo-Saxon England, Cambridge Studies in Anglo-Saxon England 2 (Cambridge, 1990), 255–56, and by Tamburr, Karl, “Eve (and Adam) at the Harrowing of Hell” (Paper delivered at the Twenty-first Annual Meeting of the Southeastern Medieval Association, Charleston, S.C., October, 1995); I am indebted to Dr. Tamburr for sharing his paper with me contrast between Eve and Mary, whereby Eve is portrayed as a type of Mary instead of as her antithesis.Google Scholar

3 MacCulloch, J. A., The Harrowing of Hell (Edinburgh, 1930), 131–74. The fullest narrations of the Harrowing outside the Evangelium Nicodemi include The Questions of Bartholomew, preserved in Greek, Latin, and Slavonic, and The Book of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, by Bartholomew the Apostle, which survives in Coptic. In the latter, Eve's deliverance from hell is not described, although she is transported from heaven into the divine presence, where she is praised by angelic choirs. See Wallis Budge, E. A., ed., Coptic Apocrypha in the Dialect of Upper Egypt (Oxford, 1913), 196–97.Google Scholar

4 For a summary of the debate concerning the date of the Acta Pilati, see Hall, Thomas N., “The Euangelium Nichodemi and Vindicta saluatoris in Anglo-Saxon England,” Two Old English Apocrypha and their Manuscript Source, ed. and trans. Cross, James E., Cambridge Studies in Anglo-Saxon England 19 (Cambridge, 1996), 37–39. Editions of the Acta Pilati may be found in de Tischendorf, Constantinus, ed., Evangelia apocrypha, 2d ed. (Leipzig, 1876), 210–86 (Greek A) and 287–322 (Greek B). See also Izydorczyk, Zbigniew and Dubois, Jean-Daniel, “Nicodemus's Gospel before and beyond the Medieval West,” The Medieval Gospel of Nicodemus , ed. Izydorczyk, Zbigniew, Medieval & Renaissance Texts & Studies 158 (Tempe, Ariz., 1997), 28–29.Google Scholar

5 For the reasons behind this dating, see Hall, , “The Euangelium Nichodemi and Vindicta saluatoris,” 43–45; see also Izydorczyk, Zbigniew, “The Evangelium Nicodemi in the Latin Middle Ages,” The Medieval Gospel of Nicodemus, 44–46.Google Scholar

6 Tischendorf edited two recensions, Latin A and Latin B (Evangelia apocrypha, 389–416 and 417–32, respectively). Zbigniew Izydorczyk has since identified a third recension; see his “The Unfamiliar Evangelium Nicodemi,” Manuscripta 33 (1989): 176–77, 183–84, and idem, “The Evangelium Nicodemi in the Latin Middle Ages,” 47–54.Google Scholar

7 Tischendorf, , Evangelia apocrypha, 430: “Adam fell down at the feet of the Lord and then, rising, kissed his hands and shed many tears. And he testified to all, ‘Behold the hands which fashioned me!’ And he said to the Lord, ‘You have come, O King of Glory, delivering men, and bringing them into your everlasting kingdom.’ Then also our mother Eve in like manner fell at the feet of the Lord and, arising, kissed his hands and shed many tears. And she testified to all, ‘Behold the hands which made me!’ ” (ed. and trans. Elliott, J. K., The Apocryphal New Testament [Oxford, 1993], 203).Google Scholar

8 The Evangelium Nicodemi survives in at least 424 Latin manuscripts, not including twelve recently lost or destroyed. For a recent census, see Izydorczyk, Zbigniew, Manuscripts of the Evangelium Nicodemi, Subsidia Mediaevalia 21 (Toronto, 1993).Google Scholar

9 For the influence of the Evangelium Nicodemi upon medieval art, see Schiller, Gertrud, Ikonographie der christlichen Kunst, 5 vols. (Gütersloh, 1966–91) 3:41–68, and Kartsonis, Anna D., Anastasis: The Making of an Image (Princeton, 1986). In addition to the prose translations of the Evangelium Nicodemi, which survive in nearly every medieval vernacular (see n. 11 below), other poetic and dramatic texts record the Harrowing of Hell (e.g., the Cursor Mundi; for other examples, see n. 12 below). For its influence on medieval English literature, see further Collett, Katherine Anne Smith, “The Gospel of Nicodemus in Anglo-Saxon England” (Ph.D. diss., University of Pennsylvania, 1981); Izydorczyk, Zbigniew, “The Legend of the Harrowing of Hell in Middle English Literature” (Ph.D. diss., University of Toronto, 1985); and Marx, C. W., “The Gospel of Nicodemus in Old English and Middle English,” The Medieval Gospel of Nicodemus, 207–59.Google Scholar

10 The earliest surviving copy of the Latin B recension of the Evangelium Nicodemi is preserved in Padova, Biblioteca Antoniana, cod. 473, fols. 138v-147v (s. xi/xii); Izydorczyk, , Manuscripts of the Evangelium Nicodemi, 128, no. 247. See further idem, “The Unfamiliar Evangelium Nicodemi,” 180–82, which lists seventeen possible manuscripts of Latin B, and “The Evangelium Nicodemi in the Latin Middle Ages,” 51, n. 32, which mentions an eighteenth. The example of Latin B in Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 288 (edited in Collett, , “The Gospel of Nicodemus in Anglo-Saxon England,” 179–214) dates from the thirteenth century.Google Scholar

11 Prose translations of the Evangelium Nicodemi survive in Old English, Middle English, Old Irish, Middle Welsh, Anglo-Norman, Old French, Occitan, Italian, Low and High German, Slavonic, Old Swedish, Old Danish (fragments only), and Old Norse (Descensus Christi only); see further Hall, , “The Euangelium Nichodemi and Vindicta salutoris,” 57–58, n. 75, and the essays in The Medieval Gospel of Nicodemus. For an edition and translation of the Old English Evangelium Nicodemi, see Cross, , Two Old English Apocrypha, 138–247.Google Scholar

12 While Eve is absent from prose translations of the Evangelium Nicodemi, poetic versions of the Harrowing of Hell in Middle English and Old Irish, as well as dramatic representations in the Cornish Ordinalia and the cycle plays from Towneley, York, and N-Town do feature Eve, although her role in these texts differs from the role she plays in Old English narrations of the Harrowing; see n. 61 below. Kartsonis acknowledges that “early examples [of the Anastasis] do not consider her presence mandatory” (Anastasis, 13), but many iconographical representations of the Harrowing also depict Eve; see Schiller, , Ikonographie, 3, nos. 99–136 (examples of the Anastasis) and 137–78 (examples of the Ascent to Heaven).Google Scholar

13 Collett, , “The Gospel of Nicodemus in Anglo-Saxon England,” 93–98. Collett discusses eight of Ælfric's sermons that contain motifs from the Evangelium Nicodemi; two of these mention Adam and Eve (Catholic Homilies 1.1, 1.14; see the next two notes), but she neglects to include three further references to the protoplasts (see n. 15 below).Google Scholar

14 Ælfric's Catholic Homilies: The First Series, ed. Clemoes, Peter, EETS s.s. 17 (London, 1998), 188: “Christ, in that time to hell went, and overcame the devil, and from him took Adam and Eve and their offspring, that portion which previously pleased him.” All subsequent translations are mine, unless otherwise noted.Google Scholar

15 I.e., Ælfric's homilies in Dominica Palmarum and Dominica Pascae (Catholic Homilies 1.14 and 1.15): seo godcundnyss wæs on ϸære hwile on helle. and gewrað ϸone ealdan deoful. and him of anam adam ϸone frumsceapenan mann. and his wif euan. and ealle ða ϸe of hyra cynne gode ær gecwemdon (“the divinity was in that time in hell and bound the old devil, and from him took Adam, the first-created man, and his wife Eve, and all those of their kin who had before pleased God”); ure hælend crist tobræc hellegatu. and generode adam and euan and his gecorenan of heora cynne. and freolice of deaðe aras and hi samod. and astah to heofonum (“our Lord Christ broke the gates of hell, and delivered Adam and Eve and his chosen of their kin, and joyfully from death arose, and they with him, and ascended to heaven”); ibid., 296–97, 305. Additional references occur in homilies for Dominica III in Quadragesima and De Sancta Trinitate et de Festis Diebus per Annum: ϸa ða hé Adam and Efan and heora ofspring genám,/swiðe micelne dæl, of ϸam manfullum deofle,/and gelædde hí of helle up to heofonan ríce (“then he took Adam and Eve and their offspring, very much the greater part, and led them from hell to the heavenly kingdom”); he him of anam his (agen) handgeweorc,/Adam and Euan, and eall ϸœt he wolde/of heora cynne ϸe him ge(cwem)e wæron (“he took from him his own handiwork, Adam and Eve, and all that he would of their kin that were pleasing to him”); Homilies of Ælfric: A Supplementary Collection, ed. Pope, John C., EETS o.s. 259 (London, 1967), 275, 469.Google Scholar

16 For example, a homily In die Sancto Pasce in Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 162 F (s. xi in), ed. Lees, Clare A., “Theme and Echo in an Anonymous Old English Homily for Easter,” Traditio 42 (1986): 119: And he ϸa genam Adam and Euan and mid him up alædde mid heor[a] tudre and teame (“And he took Adam and Eve and led [them] with him up with their offspring and race”). The homily is anonymous but is preserved in a collection of Ælfrician homilies and contains extracts from Ælfric's homily Sermo de sacrificio in die Pascae. Google Scholar

17 The portions of the Martyrology contained in LB, MSS Additional 23211 (s. ix) and Additional 40165 A (s. ix/x) preserve two distinct textual traditions, suggesting an earlier date for the archetype (see Kotzor, Günter, ed., Das altenglische Martyrologium, Abh. Akad. Munich, 2 vols., 88 [1981] 1:143*; cf. Sisam, Celia, “An Early Fragment of the Old English Martyrology,” Review of English Studies n.s. 4 [1953]: 212). However, it should be noted that the portion of the Martyrology to be considered below survives in the manuscripts LB, MS Cotton Julius A.x (s. x/xi) and Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 196 (s. xi, third quarter), both later than the composition of Ælfric's homilies.Google Scholar

18 Kotzor, , Das altenglische Martyrologium, 2:46–47: “There all the men and women that had ever before believed in him saw him, and they rushed forth from their torments and, weeping, fell down at his feet and spoke thus: ‘Help us Savior, now that you hither come, though it is late. Always we looked forward to your coming; but stop now these threats and interrupt these lamentations and make known your power in hell as you did on earth, where you redeemed living men by your cross: save now us dead ones with your death.’ There also Adam and Eve recognized him where they were smothered in the depth of darkness. When they saw his bright light after that long time, there Eve implored him, that he pity her, because of her kinship to Saint Mary. She said to him: ‘Remember, my Lord, that she was bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. Help me therefore.’ Then Christ released them both from that place and sent before them a great number of rejoicing folks, when he would journey victorious again to his body.” Google Scholar

19 The patristic contrast between Eve and Mary dates to nearly the beginning of the Christian era, developing alongside an analagous contrast between Adam and Christ (cf. Rom. 5:15, 1 Cor. 15:21–22). Patristic writers typically contrast Eve's disobedience to Mary's obedience (Irenaeus Adversus haereses 3.22.4 and 5.19.1) or state that Eve conceived the words of the serpent whereas Mary conceived the Word; hence Eve (ironically, since she is “Mother of All the Living”) bore death, whereas Mary bore life (e.g., Justin Martyr's Dialogue with the Jew Trypho 100; cf. Tertullian's De carne Christi 17.5–6, which contrasts their respective children, Cain and Jesus). Examples in Old English include Ælfric's Catholic Homilies 1.13 and 1.30 and Blickling Homily 1: from ϸisse halettunge heo wæs geeacnod; forϸon ϸe he hire ϸ[a ecean] hælo on his tungon brohte; deofol ϸonne ϸurh ϸa attor berendan næddran, mid hire ϸære yfelan scéonesse ond fácne, beswác ϸone ærestan wífmon … on ϸæs engles wordum wæs gehyred ϸœt ϸurh hire beorϸor sceolde beon gehæled eall wífa cynn ond wera. Seo æreste modor ϸyses menniscan cynnes wræcwíte middangearde brohte, ϸa heo Godes bebodu abræc (“through this greeting she conceived; because he to her eternal salvation on his tongue brought. But the devil, through the poison-bearing serpent, with its evil suggestions and deceit, deceived the first woman … in the angel's words was heard that through her offspring should be healed all woman and men. The first mother of mankind brought punishment to earth when she God's commandments broke”); see Morris, R., ed. and trans., The Blickling Homilies, EETS o.s. 58, 63, and 73 (London, 1874–80; repr. as one volume, 1967), 3–5.Google Scholar

20 See also Éamonn Ó Carragáin, , “Crucifixion as Annunciation: The Relation of ‘The Dream of the Rood’ to the Liturgy Reconsidered,” English Studies 63 (1982): 487–505.Google Scholar

21 As in the Old English Heptateuch: Adam ða cwæð: Dis is nu ban of minum banum ond flæsce of minum flæsce (“Adam then said: this is now bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh”), from Crawford, S. J., ed., The Old English Version of the Heptateuch, Ælfric's Treatise on the Old and New Testament and his Preface to Genesis, EETS o.s. 160 (London, 1922), 87. Ælfric repeats the same formula in his Catholic Homilies 1.1 (Clemoes, , Ælfric's Catholic Homilies, 182). Both texts likewise refer to Eve as “Mother of All the Living” (ealra libbendra modor); see ibid., and Crawford, , Heptateuch, 90 (cf. Blickling Homily 1, cited in n. 19).Google Scholar

22 An edition of Bückling Homily 7 (Princeton, University Library, Scheide 71, fols. 50r-58v) appears in Morris, , The Blickling Homilies, 82–97. The anonymous homily in Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Junius 121, fols. 148v-154v, was first edited by Enid M. Raynes (Edwards), “Unpublished Old English Homilies: Mainly from MSS CCCC 188, Hatton 114, 115, and Junius 121, together with Vercelli Homily IX” (D.Phil. diss., Oxford University, 1955), 72–86, but has since been reedited by Schaefer, Kenneth Gordan, “An Edition of Five Old English Homilies for Palm Sunday, Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday” (Ph.D. diss., Columbia University, 1972), 141–67; Fadda, Anna Maria Luiselli, “ ‘De descensu Christi ad inferos’: una inedita omelia anglosassone,” Studi Medievali, 3d ser. 13 (1972): 989–1011; and by Downs, Yvonne, “An Edition of an Old English Easter Day Homily on the Harrowing of Hell” (master's thesis, Manchester, 1980).Google Scholar

23 Morris, , The Blickling Homilies, 87: “at once the innumerable host of sanctified souls, who before had been taken captive, bowed to the Savior, and with weeping supplication prayed to him, and spoke thus: ‘You come to us, redeemer of the world, you come to us, hope of heaven-dwellers and earth-dwellers, and also our hope, since formerly the prophets spoke of the future, and we hoped and trusted to your arrival. You gave on earth forgiveness of sins to men. Free us now from the devil's power and from hell's captivity. Now, you descended into the abyss of hell for us, do not leave us now to remain in punishment when you return to your heavenly kingdom. You established signs of your glory in the world, set now your sign of glory in hell.’ ” Cf. Fadda, , “ ‘De descensu Christi,’ ” 1004.Google Scholar

24 Morris, , The Blickling Homilies, 87: halgan sawla ϸa mid unasecggendlicum gefeán cleopodan to Drihtne, ond ϸus cwæϸon: “Astig nu Drihten Hælend Crist, up, nu ϸu hafast helle bereafod, ond ϸæs deaϸes aldor on ϸyssum witum gebundenne. Gecyϸ nu middangearde blisse ϸœt on ϸinum upstige geblissian ond gehyhton ealle ϸine gecorenan” (“the holy souls with indescribable joy spoke to the Lord, and thus said: ‘Ascend now Lord Savior Christ, up, now that you have despoiled hell, and have bound the prince of death in these torments. Make known now bliss in middle-earth so that all your chosen may rejoice and trust in your ascension’ ”); cf. Fadda, , “ ‘De descensu Christi,’ ” 1004.Google Scholar

25 Morris, , The Blickling Homilies, 87–89: “Adam then with a weeping and piteous voice cried to the Lord, and said, ‘Have mercy upon me, O Lord; have mercy upon me, for your great mercy, and blot out my unrighteousness; because I alone have sinned against you and have done great evil before you. I have erred just as the sheep that perishes. Visit now your servant, Lord, for your hands have made and fashioned me; leave not my soul with hell's hosts, but show your mercy upon me, and lead me out of these bonds, and from this prison-house, and from the shadow of death.’ The Lord Savior then was merciful to Adam, and at once his bonds were loosened; and having embraced the Savior's knees, he said, ‘My soul shall bless the Lord, and all that is within me shall bless his holy name. You yourself became merciful to all my unrighteousness, you yourself healed my sicknesses, and delivered my soul from everlasting destruction, and satisfied my longing with good things.’ ” Junius 121 varies little from Blickling Homily 7; see Fadda, , “ ‘De descensu Christi,’ ” 1006.Google Scholar

26 Adam's thanksgiving in Blickling Homily 7 may be compared to Ps. 29:2–6 and to his single speech in the Latin A recension of the Descensus Christi: Adam vero genibus domini advolutus lacrimabili cum obsecratione deprecatus magna voce dixit: Exaltabo te, domine, quoniam suscepisti me, nec delectasti inimicos meos super me. Domine deus clamavi ad te, et sanasti me domine: eduxisti ab inferis animam meam, salvasti me a descendentibus in lacum. Psallite domino omnes sancti eius, et confitemini memoriae sanctitatis eius: quoniam ira in indignatione eius, et vita in voluntate eius (“But Adam, falling at the knees of the Lord with tearful entreaty, prayed in a loud voice and said, ‘I will exalt you, O Lord, because you have taken me up and not made my foes to triumph me. O Lord God, I cried to you, and you, Lord, have healed me. You have brought my soul out of Hades and have saved me from those who go down into the pit. Sing to the Lord, all his saints, and give thanks to the remembrance of his holiness, for there is wrath in his indignation and life in his good pleasure’ ”); Tischendorf, , Evangelia apocrypha, 403; trans. Elliot, , Apocryphal New Testament (n. 7 above), 195. Adam's speech in the Old English Evangelium Nicodemi is substantially shorter, ending at the first sentence; see Cross, , Two Old English Apocrypha (n. 4 above), 228–29.Google Scholar

27 Eve's speech in Blickling Homily 7 and Junius 121 roughly correspond, except that Junius 121 includes here the text “hu mæg ic hit ðonne acuman ænigra ϸinga oððe aberan? Ϸu wast mine gyltas and mine dysinyssa and hi næron beforan ðe ahydde ne bemiðene” (“how then can I endure it or bear anything? You know my guilt and my foolishness and they were not before concealed or revealed”); see Fadda, , “ ‘De descensu Christi,’ ” 1006.Google Scholar

28 Morris, , The Blickling Homilies, 89: “Eve as yet continued in bonds and in weeping; she said: ‘You are just, Lord, and your judgments are right; therefore deservedly I suffer these torments. I was in honor in Paradise, and I did not perceive it; I was perverse and became like foolish brutes. But you, Lord, shield of my youth and of me, be not mindful of my folly, nor turn from me your presence nor your mercy, and turn not in anger from your servant. Hear, gracious God, my voice with which I, poor one, cry unto you, for my life and my years have been consumed in sorrow and lamentation. You know of my fashioning, that I am dust and ashes, if you behold my unrighteousness. I entreat you now, Lord, for the sake of your servant Saint Mary, whom you have honored with heavenly glory; you filled her womb for nine months with the prize of all the world; you know that you, Lord, sprang from my daughter; and that her flesh is of my flesh, and her bone of my bones. Have mercy now upon me, Lord, for the honor of her glory. My Creator have mercy upon me, most wretched of all women, and pity me and deliver me from the bonds of death.’ The Lord Savior then was merciful to Eve, and immediately her bonds were loosened. She cried out then, and said: ‘Let your name, Lord, be blessed in the world, because your mercy is great towards me; now you have delivered my soul from the nether hell.’ ” Cf. Fadda, , “ ‘De descensu Christi,’ ” 1006–8.Google Scholar

29 The phrase dust ond axe may instead allude to Job 42:6, during Job's own repentance, or Gen. 18:27, where Abraham pleads with God to spare Sodom.Google Scholar

30 In Junius 121, Eve repeats twice the formula mine gyltas and mine dysinyssa (“my guilt and my foolishness”), and also mentions her youth once (geogeðhades); Fadda, , “ ‘De descensu Christi,’ ” 1006. Eve's “youth” should be understood not to reflect her literal age but rather her innocence: while Jewish rabbinics maintain that the protoplasts were created at the age of 20 (e.g., Šir Hašširim Rabbah 3:2, Bere’šit Rabbah 14:7, and b. Hullin 60a), Anglo-Saxon lore states that they were created at the age of 30, as in the Durham Rituale: Eua mulier quae induta est XXX annis atque nasceretur (Thompson, A. H. and Lindelöf, U., eds., Rituale Ecclesiae Dunelmensis: The Durham Collectar, Surtees Society 140 [London, 1927], 197). See also the prose Solomon and Saturn 10: Saga me on hwilcere ylde wæs adam ða he geseapen wæs. Ic ϸe secge, he wæs on xxx wintra yldo (“Tell me at what age was Adam when he was created. I tell you, he was thirty years of age”; ed. and trans. Cross, James E. and Hill, Thomas D., The Prose Solomon and Saturn and Adrian and Ritheus, McMaster Old English Studies and Texts 1 [Toronto, 1980], 26, 70), and a twelfth-century note to the Old English Heptateuch in LB, MS Cotton Claudius B.iv: Methodius cwað. adam wæs gesceopa man on wlite of ðritig wintra (“Methodius said: Adam was created man at the age of thirty winters”; Crawford, , Heptateuch, 419).Google Scholar

31 Although the Old English Martyrology in Julius A.x preserves the Genesis ordering of this phrase, it is worth noting that the Martyrology recorded in CCCC 196 reverses the phrase, paralleling Blickling Homily 7 and Junius 121.Google Scholar

32 Eve's appeal in Junius 121 also emphasizes Mary's motherhood: Geara me min Drihten, for ϸinre modor lufan of ðære ϸu wære geeadmet ϸæt ðu menniscne lichaman underfenge. Heo onfeng flæsce of minum flæsc and ban of minum bane…. Miltsa me forðanϸe ðu man fram mannum wære. Alys me, forðanϸe ðu woldest mana beon to ðam ϸæt ðu menn alysdest (“Hear me my Lord, for love of your mother you were humbled so that you accepted a human body. She received flesh of my flesh, bone of my bones…. Have mercy on me, since you are man from man. Release me, since you would become man in order to redeem mankind”); Fadda, , “ ‘De descensus Christi,’ ” 1006.Google Scholar

33 A diplomatic edition of the text may be found in Kuypers, A. B., ed., The Prayer Book of Aedeluald the Bishop, Commonly Called the Book of Cerne (Cambridge, 1902), 196–98. A critical edition of the text appears in Dumville, David N., “Liturgical Drama and Panegyric Responsory from the Eighth Century? A Re-Examination of the Origin and Contents of the Ninth-Century Section of the Book of Cerne,” Journal of Theological Studies n.s. 23 (1972): 376–77, repr. in McNamara, Martin, The Apocrypha in the Irish Church (Dublin, 1975), 73–74. Kuypers’ apparatus notes that much of the dialogue in this text originates from the Psalms: in particular, Adam's words derive from Pss. 50:3, 6; 118:176, 73; 15:10; 118:124; 141:8; and 52:1, 3–5. Eve's words echo Ps. 118:137; Gen. 42:21; Pss. 48:13; 24:7; and 26:9.Google Scholar

34 Dumville, , “Liturgical Drama,” 375, 380; Kuypers, , The Book of Cerne, 198.Google Scholar

35 See Dumville, , “Liturgical Drama,” 376. Lines 5–14 of Dumville's text correspond to the words of the righteous souls in Blickling Homily 7 and Junius 121, but the Cerne text continues their speech for ten more lines, before they praise Christ for releasing their bonds; neither homily has an analogue for these additional words.Google Scholar

36 PL 39:2059–61; the similarity in the phrasing in pseudo-Augustine Sermo 160, the Book of Cerne, and Blickling Homily 7 was first noted in Förster, Max, “Altenglische Predigtquellen I,” Archiv für das Studium der neueren Sprachen und Literaturen 116 (1906): 301–14.Google Scholar

37 Dumville, , “Liturgical Drama,” 375, 386–87. Although accepted by Collett (“The Gospel of Nicodemus in Anglo-Saxon England” [n. 9 above], 66), Dumville's assertion was challenged by Jackson J. Campbell: “We do not know, of course, whether a Latin homily existed which contained all of this material, in which case the Blickling homilist was merely translating. It seems more likely to me, however, that this combination of Descent lore … was first made by this homilist for this homily” (“To Hell and Back: Latin Tradition and Literary Use of the ‘Descensus ad inferos’ in Old English,” Viator 13 [1982]: 138).Google Scholar

38 Cross, James E., “The Use of Patristic Homilies in the Old English Martyrology,” Anglo-Saxon England 14 (1985): 119. Cross further notes that this “Latin homily was not itself the source of the passage in OEM, but it included ideas which were also in OEM's source, and these indicate that OEM used another homily, as yet unfound.” Google Scholar

39 “The two Old English texts are far from identical … [and it seems] that they were translating similar Latin texts independently” (Campbell, , “To Hell and Back,” 139).Google Scholar

40 Dumville speculates that this lost Latin homily is ultimately responsible for the introduction of Eve's plea (“Liturgical Drama,” 377, n. c), although Campbell further postulates a greater “number of unknown Latin homilies on our subject which were current in England during the tenth and eleventh centuries” (“To Hell and Back,” 139).Google Scholar

41 Krapp, George Philip, ed., The Junius Manuscript, Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records 1 (New York, 1931), 148–49: “Then he let the blessed souls, Adam's kin, ascend, but Eve could not yet look in glory before she said [these] words: ‘Once I angered you, eternal Lord, when we two, Adam and I, ate of the apple, because of the serpent's evil, though we both never should have. The fiend, he who now forever burns in bonds, persuaded us both so that we ate the fruits, in order that we might control heaven, our holy home. When we two believed these words of the accursed one, [and] took the bright fruit by our hands from the holy tree. We two bitterly requited this, when we both in this hot den had to go, and remain afterwards a number of years, many thousands, severely burned. Now I beseech you lord of the heavenly kingdom, before the host which you led hither, the troops of angels, that I might be allowed to ascend with my children. Three nights ago the Savior's thane came home to hell; he is now in strong fetters, wretched by punishments, since the King of the World became angry for his pride. He told us truthfully that God himself would come home to the inhabitants of hell. Then each one arose, sat on their arm, and reclined on their hands. Although the terror of hell seemed terrible, all were glad in their torment that their noble lord would visit hell to help.’ ” Google Scholar

42 Christ reiterates these ideas later in Christ and Satan: Ic on neorxnawonge niwe asette treow mid telgum, ϸæt ða tanas up æpla bæron, and git æton ϸa beorhtan blæde, swa inc se balewa het, handϸegen helle (lines 479–83a). “In paradise I planted a new tree with boughs, whose branches bore apples, and you both then ate the bright fruits, as the wicked one, hell's servant, bade you both” (ibid., 151).Google Scholar

43 Blickling Homily 7 does not mention the Fall, but Junius 121 notes that “Hit gewearð swa ϸæt <se> deofol beswac and forlærde ϸa twegen frumsceapenan menn, Adam and Euan, ðe we ealle of coman, swa ϸæt hi Godes bebod abræcon, and wæron him ungehyrsume and deofle gehyrsum” (“It happened that the devil deceived and led astray the two first-created people, Adam and Eve, from whom we all descended, so that they broke God's command, and were disobedient to him and obeyed the devil”); Fadda, , “ ‘De descensu Christi’ ” (n. 22 above), 998. Likewise, the entry for 23 March in the Old English Martyrology (“The Sixth Day of Creation, Adam and Eve”) focuses entirely upon the creation of the bodies of the protoplasts, noting only that hi ϸœt [i.e., Godes bebodu] ne geheoldan (“they did not keep them [i.e., God's commandments]”). The only other reference to the protoplasts’ disobedience occurs in the entry for 21 March (“The Fourth Day of Creation”): Ac ϸa Adam ond Eua on neorxnawonge gesyngodan, ða wæs ϸæm tunglum gewonad heora beorhtnes, ond hi næfdon na siððan butan ϸone seofoðan dæl heora leohtes (“But when Adam and Eve sinned in Paradise, then was diminished the brightness of the stars, and they have only a seventh part of their brightness”); Kotzor, , Das altenglische Martyrologium (n. 17 above), 2:42, 38. Also, while Ælfric's Catholic Homilies 1.1 and his homliy De Sancta Trinitate retell the Fall, his homily Dominica III in Quadragesima does not. Surprisingly, patristic exegesis, when it contrasts the Fall to Christ's redemption, does not note Eve's role in both the Fall and the Harrowing of Hell; but see the pseudo-Epiphanian homily cited in n. 56 below.Google Scholar

44 Christ makes another allusion to Eve's role as “Mother of All the Living” later, after the saved ascend to heaven: Ϸa hie begeton on godes willan feowertig bearna, ϸæt forð ϸonon on middangeard menio onwocon (lines 472–74). “Then they begat, by God's will, forty children, so that thence forth a multitude were born in middle-earth” (Krapp, , The Junius Manuscript, 150). The explicit mention of forty children is unique; the primary and secondary Adam literature (e.g., Vita Adae et Evae 24:3) typically state that Eve bore sixty children, plus Cain, Abel, and Seth, as in Solomon and Saturn 24: Saga me hwæt sunu haefede adam. Ic ϸe secge, xxx sunena and xxx dohtra (“Tell me how many sons had Adam. I tell you, thirty sons and thirty daughters”); translation from Cross, and Hill, , The Prose Solomon and Saturn (n. 30 above), 29, 88.Google Scholar

45 Finnegan, Robert Emmett Jr., ed., Christ and Satan: A Critical Edition (Waterloo, Ont., 1977), 109; see also idem, “Three Notes on the Junius XI Christ and Satan,” Modern Philology 72 (1974): 180–81. The association of Eve with the Church (the spouse of Christ) develops out of the patristic typology of Adam and Christ, with further explication of Eph. 5:32; it pervades the exegesis of Augustine especially: see, e.g., De civitate Dei 22.17; Sermo 22.10; and Enarrationes in Psalmos 40.10, 126.6, 127.11, 133.2, and 138.2. Compare to Ælfric's homilies Dominica II post Aepiphania and Dominica Palmarum (Catholic Homilies 2.4 and 2.14); see Ælfric's Catholic Homilies: The Second Series , ed. Godden, Malcolm, EETS s.s. 5 (Oxford, 1979), 32, 148. It should be noted, however, that Eve's association with the Church is made by comparing her creation from Adam's side to the piercing of Christ's side during his crucifixion.Google Scholar

46 Compare to Ælfric's homily Dominica XXI post Pentecosten (Catholic Homilies 1.35): Seo halige gelaϸung is cristes bryd; ϸurh ða he gestrynð dæighwomilice gastilce beam; and heo is ealra cristenre manna moder. and ϸeahhwæϸere ungewemmed mæden (“The holy church is Christ's bride, through which he begets daily spiritual children; she is the mother of all Christian men, and yet an unblemished maiden”); Clemoes, , Ælfric's Catholic Homilies (n. 14 above), 477.Google Scholar

47 See, e.g., Augustine Sermo 213.8.Google Scholar

48 Krapp, , The Junius Manuscript, 149: “She then reached with her hands toward the King of Heaven, and asked for mercy through [her] relation to Mary: ‘Lo, Lord, you were born from my daughter, to help men on earth. Now it is clear that you are God himself, eternal Source, Creator of all creation.’ ” Google Scholar

49 Certainly the intervention of Mary for sinners is not uncommon in Old English texts: another tradition unique to Anglo-Saxon writings records Mary's intercession for a third of the damned souls after the Final Judgment; originally appearing in the Apocalypse of Mary, the incident was isolated by Anglo-Saxon homilists and transported into the context of Final Judgment. See Clayton, Mary, “Delivering the Damned: A Motif in OE Homiletic Prose,” Medium Ævum 55 (1986): 92–102.Google Scholar

50 “O Mary, how courageous a king you bore us when you brought that child to us in Bethlehem.” Krapp, George Philip and van Kirk Dobbie, Elliott, eds., The Exeter Book, Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records 3 (New York, 1936), 221. A similar statement appears when John praises Gabriel in lines 79–80: “Ϸæt ϸu gecyðdest ϸa ϸu ϸæt cnyht to us/brohtest in Bethlem.” Google Scholar

51 Ibid., 222: “Likewise I beseech you, our Savior, by your childhood, best of kings, and by the wounding, Lo[rd] of hosts, [and by] your resurrection, best of princes, and by your mo[ther……. Mar]y is the name, whom all hell's inhabitants laud and pr[aise].” Google Scholar

52 Anderson, James E., ed., Two Literary Riddles in the Exeter Book (Norman, Okla., 1986), 124–26.Google Scholar

53 “Wit unc in ϸære burnan baϸodan ætgædre” (line 132). The reference is to Adam's penance in the Jordan, as recorded in the primary Adam literature (see Vita Adae et Evae 7:2–8:3). For an alternative reading of this line, see Kaske, Robert E., “The Conclusion of the Old English ‘Descent into Hell,’ ” in Paradosis: Studies in Memory of Edwin A. Quain, ed. Fletcher, Henry George and Schulte, Mary Beatrice (New York, 1976), 47–59.Google Scholar

54 Anderson, , Two Literary Riddles, 125.Google Scholar

55 The Homilia in diuini corporis sepulturam has been catalogued in Geerard, M., ed., Clavis Patrum Graecorum, 4 vols. (Turnhout, 1974–83) 2:333, no. 3768. The Greek text (with a Latin translation) appears in PG 43:439–64; MacCulloch translates select passages into English (see The Harrowing of Hell [n. 3 above], 192–96). According to Ogilvy, J. D. A., Books Known to the English, 597–1066, Mediaeval Academy of America Publications 76 (Cambridge, Mass., 1967), this text was not known to Anglo-Saxon England.Google Scholar

56 Migne translates the Greek thus: Haec et his similia Dominus cum loqueretur, resurgit cum eo, qui in ipso conjunctus erat Adam; surrexit una et Eva, et alia multa corpora (PG 43:463). It is worth noting that Christ's speech to Adam draws numerous parallels between the Fall and his crucifixion, but Eve's role during the Temptation and Fall is not mentioned, the opposite of most patristic exegesis, which instead omits her role in the Harrowing. The only parallel made by Christ to involve Eve discusses her creation: “Dormivi in cruce, et romphaea penetravit meum latus, propter te, qui in paradiso obdormisti, et Evam ex latere protulisti;” cf. the sources listed in n. 45 above.Google Scholar

57 For editions of the original Syriac (with German translations) see Des heiligen Ephraem des Syrers Carmina Nisibena, ed. Beck, Edmund, CSCO 218–19, 240–41 (Louvain, 1961–63). Ephrem's Hymns on Nisibis 57.3 alludes not to Eve during the Harrowing but rather during the Temptation and Fall: “Eva lasse ab von der Schlange und greife dich an; / denn du hast die Einfältige überlistet, o Drache!” (CSCO 241, 74); cf. Hymns on Nisibis 35.20.Google Scholar

58 St. Ephrem the Syrian: Selected Prose Works , trans. Mathews, Edward G. Jr. and Amar, Joseph P., Fathers of the Church 91 (Washington, D.C., 1994), 278; the original Syriac appears in Des heiligen Ephraem des Syrers Sermo de Domino Nostro , ed. Beck, Edmund, CSCO 270 (Louvain, 1966), 3–4.Google Scholar

59 Ephrem the Syrian: Hymns, trans. McVey, Katherine E. (New York, 1989), 137; the original Syriac appears in Des heiligen Ephraem des Syrers Hymnen De Nativitate (Epiphania) , ed. Beck, Edmund, CSCO 186 (Louvain, 1959), 73–74.Google Scholar

60 See Bestul, Thomas H., “Ephraim the Syrian and Old English Poetry,” Anglia 99 (1981): 1–24, and Sims-Williams, Patrick, “Thoughts on Ephrem the Syrian in Anglo-Saxon England,” in Learning and Literature in Anglo-Saxon England , ed. Lapidge, Michael and Gneuss, Helmut (Cambridge, 1985), 205–26. Bestul concludes that Ephrem may have influenced late Anglo-Saxon monastic culture but not Old English verse. Sims-Williams discusses a prayer in the Book of Cerne (fols. 71v-77r) attributed to Ephrem; although he acknowledges that “a connection between the Syriac works of the saint of Edessa and these prayers cannot be established,” still, “in several cases they derive from the Graeco-Latin ‘Ephremic’ corpus” (ibid., 208). See also Stevenson, Jane, “Ephraim the Syrian in Anglo-Saxon England,” Hugoye: Journal of Syrian Studies [http://www.acad.cua.edu/syrcom/Hugoye], 1, 2 (1998), which discusses the evidence for the presence of Ephremic and pseudo-Ephremic texts in Canterbury during the tenure of Archbishop Theodore (A.D. 669–90).Google Scholar

61 It should be noted that Eve's active role of beseeching Christ for deliverance from hell changes substantially in Middle English drama, where she (after Adam) instead heralds Christ as he approaches hell and/or thanks him for their redemption, not unlike the Latin B recension of the Descensus Christi. An exception to this tendency exists only in the Middle English Harrowing of Hell: Adam and Eve ask for deliverance from hell, much as they do in Blickling Homily 7 (e.g., Adam refers to his sin and also his creation by God). They are both, however, the first to speak to Christ instead of the last, and they also do not thank Christ after their rescue from hell. Moreover, Eve makes no reference to Mary when she addresses Christ (see Hulme, William Henry, ed., The Middle English Harrowing of Hell and Gospel of Nicodemus, EETS e.s. 100 [London, 1907], 13–16).Google Scholar

62 The Book of Cerne suggests a Latinate (but still insular) origin; Dumville argues for a composition date the first half of the eighth century for the Harrowing of Hell text, basing his argument on the derivation of most of the text from the Psalter, in particular the Breviate Psalter ascribed to Bishop Æðiluald (bishop of Lindisfarne from 721/4 until 740) immediately preceding the Harrowing text in the Book of Cerne. Michelle P. Brown, however, has shown that the relationship between the two texts is not direct and concludes that while “the Harrowing of Hell text in Cerne was probably an earlier composition, it need not be directly related to the Breviate Psalter” in the Book of Cerne; see her The Book of Cerne (Toronto, 1996), 146.Google Scholar

63 Kotzor, Günter, “The Latin Tradition of Martyrologies and the Old English Martyrology,” in Studies in Earlier Old English Poetry, ed. Szarmach, Paul (Albany, N.Y., 1986), 308–10.Google Scholar

64 See, for example, Irenaeus Adversus haereses 3.22.4, 5.19.1; idem, Demonstratio praedicationis apostolicae 33; and Augustine Sermo 213.8.Google Scholar