The relationship of power, word, and light in the Old English poems of Oxford, Bodleian MS Junius 11.

摘要

The eleventh-century Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Junius 11 contains of the Old English poems Genesis, Exodus, Daniel, and Christ and Satan. Most critics treat these poems as separate, discrete works. I approach the four poems as a single coherent sequence, emphasizing Christ and Satan as both a worthwhile poem and a key to the unified imagery of the sequence of poems.; First, I present a description of the manuscript: its history, sources, handwriting, omissions, and condition. Careful attention to the manuscript is necessary for understanding the sequence of poems it contains. From this evidence, I conclude that Christ and Satan was meaningfully added to the Old Testament poems in the eleventh century.; Next, I select three motifs that pervade the poems: teaching/reteaching, covering, and garbled speech and silence. Through a close reading, I evaluate these image clusters, elucidating their connotations through careful attention to vocabulary and through textual comparisons. My reading reveals the centrality of image clusters connoting power, speech/word, and light which are encapsulated in the Byrhtword aras image in Christ and Satan. My reading of these images suggests the unity of the four poems and the importance of Christ and Satan.; To make these poems available to a modern audience, I then translate the whole of Junius 11. My translation demonstrates the significance of the image clusters studied in Chapter 2 and the centrality of Christ and Satan in the sequence of poems.; The manuscript evidence and the study of image clusters, support a reading of the Junius 11 poems as a unified work, as is also demonstrated in the translation. Christ and Satan and its synesthetic Byrhtword image provide both a climax for the image clusters and a lens through which to view the Junius 11 poems.