A vernacular and Christian Genesis : the adaptation of Genesis myths in Beowulf and old English Old Testament verse

Abstract

This study focuses primarily on two Old English Old Testament poems, Genesis A and Genesis B, as well as Beowulf, a narrative of vernacular origin that only makes direct reference to biblical narratives drawn from the Book of Genesis. I treat these Old English texts as cultural translations, or adaptations, of Genesis-derived or -related myths, namely the angelic creation, rebellion and fall; the Creation of Earth and humankind; the temptation and lapse of humankind; Cain and his descendants; and the Great Flood. This thesis is distinctive in its analysis and comparison of the Genesis poems and Beowulf in such depth, even where they belong to different genres. Different genres, however, do not preclude broadly similar approaches to biblical narrative, even where the texts in question are in no way identical in this regard. This thesis demonstrates that Genesis A and Genesis B adapt antediluvian Genesis-derived or -related myths with reference to Christian exegesis and vernacular social conventions. This is done primarily with reference to two objectives. The first is to trace the manner whereby the two biblical poems adapt their biblical source narratives with reference to patristic interpretations of the Old Testament, including allegorical levels of meaning, and Christian concepts such as redemption. The second objective is to document the cultural translation, or adaptation, of Genesis-derived or -related myth with reference to vernacular social conventions, particularly the lord-retainer relationship, and to explain how this aspect of the Old English texts works in conjunction with their rendition of Christian concepts. While these objectives are not original, my analysis points to specific aspects of the texts that have either been overlooked or underestimated by previous researchers. These include, inter alia, recourse to the same narrative motifs and the similar social attitudes that underlie the Genesis A and Genesis B accounts of the angelic rebellion; the dramatic irony that undermines the rhetoric of Satan’s emissary’s celebratory speech after Adam’s lapse in iii Genesis B; and the same poem’s representation of Adam’s repentance as a process. Moreover, I draw attention to the political ideology that underlies the representation of the lord-retainer relation in the texts, particularly in the representation of the angelic rebellion and fall. The representation of God as a king or overarching lord, and the appeal to the lord-retainer relationship by the chief rebel angel, particularly in Genesis B, suggests that this relationship is abused whenever directed against a king. The third objective of this thesis is to show that Beowulf belongs in a poetic tradition infused with Old Testament poetry. I indicate, in this regard, that Beowulf makes strategic use of its narratives derived from the Book of Genesis, as well as of Christian or Christianised concepts, coupled with vernacular elements. Moreover, Beowulf represents the Cain theme as an archetype, or as a model for subsequent actions or events, as for Genesis A. This aspect of Beowulf points to an underlying ideology that gives chronological and thematic precedence to biblical myth over the vernacular narrative that makes up the bulk of the text. Beowulf thereby follows an approach that broadly recalls the Genesis poems, even where it differs, inter alia, in terms of the absence of the Christian notion of salvation in relation to its characters. My study leads to the conclusion that a more comprehensive understanding of Beowulf may be reached through further contextualisation with reference to the broader Old English corpus dominated by Old Testament (and Christian) poetry. This study suggests, moreover, that we may speak, in the Old English poetic context, of a vernacular and Christian Genesis. However, the relationship between the vernacular and Christian aspects is asymmetrical, in that Beowulf gives precedence to biblical myth while the Genesis poems make use of vernacular elements to promote, inter alia, a monarchic ideology that is also in evidence in Anglo-Latin ecclesiastical charters.