¹ PL 32.1286. Google Scholar

² In his review of Irving's edition, Review of English Studies n.s. 6 (1955) 189.Google Scholar

³ I have retained the manuscript reading ymb an twig in line 145, but otherwise the text is that of George Philip Krapp in The Junius Manuscript (The Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records 1; New York 1931) 95. Line references for other Old English poems are also to the ASPR. Google Scholar

⁴ Israel, Sir Gollancz, K., The Cædmon Manuscript of Anglo-Saxon. Biblical Poetry, Junius XI in the Bodleian Library (Oxford 1927) LXIX.Google Scholar

⁵ Gollancz lxix n. 3; Irving, Edward Burroughs, Jr., The Old English Exodus (Yale Studies in English 122; New Haven 1953) 7, 97; and Farrell, Robert T., ‘A Reading of OE. Exodus,’ Review of English Studies n.s. 20 (1969) 408.Google Scholar

⁶ The following essays comment on the figural meaning of the Israelites' delivery: Cross, J. E. and Tucker, S. I., ‘Allegorical Tradition and the Old English Exodus,’ Neophilologus 44 (1960) 122–127; Earl, James W., ‘Christian Traditions in the Old English Exodus,’ Neuphilologische Mitteilungen 71 (1970) 541–570; Isaacs, Neil D., ‘Exodus and the Essential Digression,’ in Structural Principles in Old English Poetry (Knoxville 1968) 151–159; Hugh Keenan, T., ‘Exodus 312: “The Green Street of Paradise,” Neuphilologische Mitteilungen 71 (1970) 455–460; Lucas, Peter J., ‘An Interpretation of “Exodus ” 46–53,’ Notes & Queries 16 (1969) 364–366, and ‘The Cloud in the Interpretation of the Old English Exodus,’ English Studies 51 (1970) 297–311; and Vickrey, John F., ‘Exodus and the Treasure of Pharaoh,’ Anglo-Saxon England 1 (1972) 159–165, ‘Exodus and the Battle in the Sea,’ Traditio 28 (1972) 119–140, and ‘Exodus and the Tenth Plague,’ Archiv 210 (1973) 41–52.Google Scholar

⁷ Hinton, Norman, in ‘Anagogue and Archetype: The Phenomenology of Medieval Literature,’ Annuale Mediaevale 7 (1966) 62, offers a useful caveat on this point.Google Scholar

⁸ Irving, The Old English Exodus 34. Google Scholar

⁹ See especially the papers by Cross and Tucker, Earl, Keenan, and Vickrey cited in note 6 supra. Google Scholar

¹⁰ Robinson, Fred C., ‘Some Uses of Name-meanings in Old English Poetry,’ Neuphilologische Mitteilungen 69 (1968) 166 n. 2. It might be noted that lastweard line 138 possibly echoes ‘persequens,’ another meaning of the name ægyptus. See Robinson 167. Exodus 14 of course refers repeatedly to the pursuit: 14.4, 8, 9, 17, 23. For lastweard note especially 14.9, ‘Cumque persequerentur Aegyptii vestigia praecedentium.’Google Scholar

¹¹ The occurrence of on- for and- in nouns is rare; see Campbell, A., Old English Grammar (Oxford 1959) par. 73 n. 1. On- (or an-) for and- alliterates in Andreas lines 713, 717, 731, and Genesis 396 onlicness. Note also Exodus line 18 onwist, Andreas line 1540 ondwist (MS 7 wist), ‘habitation.’Google Scholar

¹² The Old English Exodus 77.Google Scholar

¹³ Campbell, A., ‘The Old English Epic Style,’ in English and Medieval Studies Presented to J. R. R. Tolkien, ed. Davis, Norman and Wrenn, C. L. (London 1962) 22 and n. 2.Google Scholar

¹⁴ The parallelism of wea and wite is elsewhere seen in Christ and Satan lines 184, 335, and 713. Google Scholar

¹⁵ The Clark Hall and Bosworth-Toller dictionaries indicate that nied may be neuter. Although citations in which nied is clearly feminine are more numerous, the Bosworth-Toller Dictionary cites about half a dozen and the Supplement a few more passages in which nied is clearly neuter. Frequently the gender is indeterminate, as in Exodus line 116 dative singular nyde. Google Scholar

¹⁶ See Kelly, J. N. D., Early Christian Doctrines (London 1958) 375–377. Besides Kelly 375–400, discussions of early soteriology are to be found in Gustaf Aulen, Christus Victor, trans. Hebert, A. G. (London 1950) 52–76; Hastings Rashdall, The Idea of Atonement in Christian Theology (London 1919) 323–365; and Rivière, Jean, The Doctrine of the Atonement: A Historical Essay, trans. Cappadelta, Luigi, 2 vols. (London and St. Louis 1909).Google Scholar

¹⁷ Enchiridion 108, PL 40.282–283; De Trinitate 4 especially 10–13, and 13 especially 10–18, PL 42.896–901 and 1024–1033. See also Augustine, De libero arbitrio 3.10.30–31, PL 32.1286–1287; Gregory the Great, Moralia in Iob 17.30.46–47, PL 76.32–33; and ælfric, In Dominica Palmarum, in The Homilies of ælfric, ed. Thorpe, Benjamin (London 1844–1846) I 216.Google Scholar

¹⁸ Aulén 63–64 comments: ‘It must be admitted that it is not surprising that many features in the patristic teaching should awaken disgust, such as its mythological dress, its naive simplicity, its grotesque realism. But it may well be questioned whether it is justifiable on this account to cast this teaching summarily aside. It should be evident that the historical study of dogma is wasting its time in pure superficiality if it does not endeavour to penetrate to that which lies below the outward dress, and look for the religious values which lie concealed underneath.’ Google Scholar

¹⁹ PL 42.1029. Google Scholar

²⁰ See for example Augustine's commentary on Psalm 67.13 (PL 36.821–822). Google Scholar

²¹ Christ lines 558–570, Descent into Hell lines 35–36, Elene lines 902–915; The Blickling Homilies, ed. Morris, R. (EETS 58; London 1874) 67, 85, 87, 89; Homilies of ælfric, ed. Pope, John C. (EETS 259; London 1967) I 274–275.Google Scholar

²² Dietrich, Franz, ‘Zu Cädmon,’ Zeitschrift für deutsches Altertum 10 (1856) 344.Google Scholar

²³ Levin, L. Schücking, Untersuchungen zur Bedeutungslehre der angelsächsischen Dichtersprache (Heidelberg 1915) 44.Google Scholar

²⁴ For instance Psalms 27.9; 32.12; 73.2; 77.62, 71; 81.8; 93.5, 14. Google Scholar

²⁵ Psalm 81.8 in the Paris Psalter: ‘Aris drihten, nu! Dem eorÐware, / forϸan ϸu eart erfeweard ealra Ðeoda.’ Google Scholar

²⁶ Though I do not agree with his referring ingefolc to the Egyptians, Rosier, James L., in ‘Icge Gold and Incge Lafe in Beowulf,’ Publications of the Modern Language Association 81 (1966) 344, elucidates the formations ingefolc and ingemen. It seems possible that the -ge- in these as in some other forms in Exodus may imply the idea of assembly. See Quirk, Randolph and Wrenn, C. L., An Old English Grammar (London 1955) 111.Google Scholar

²⁷ In Lucae Evangelium expositio 4 (PL 92.477).Google Scholar

²⁸ De Trinitate 4.13 (PL 42.899–900).Google Scholar

²⁹ Moralia in Iob 4.23.42 (PL 75.657).Google Scholar

³⁰ The Blickling Homilies 85; and The Gospel of Nicodemus, ed. Crawford, S. J. (Edinburgh 1927) 23.Google Scholar

³¹ See for instance Rashdall (note 16 supra) 364. Google Scholar

³² Christus Victor (note 16 supra) 70.Google Scholar

³³ In Contra Julianum 1.6.26, for example, Augustine, citing Chrysostom, St. John, says that Christ ‘paternis nos cautionibus invenit astrictos, quas conscripsit Adam’ (PL 44.658).Google Scholar

³⁴ Moralia in Iob 17.30.47 (PL 76.33).Google Scholar

³⁵ Sermones 60.3 and 22.4 (PL 54.344–345 and 197).Google Scholar

³⁶ On the envelope pattern see Bartlett, Adeline Courtney, The Larger Rhetorical Patterns in Anglo-Saxon Poetry (New York 1935) 9–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

³⁷ For further discussion of these matters see Vickrey, ‘Exodus and the Battle in the Sea’ (note 6 supra). Google Scholar

³⁸ In De catechizandis rudibus 20.34 Augustine says that the Passion was figured even more openly (apertius) in the paschal feast than in the transitus (PL 40.335). There is a detailed discussion of the figure of the Paschal Lamb in Jean Daniélou, The Bible and the Liturgy (Notre Dame, Indiana 1956) 162–176. In ‘Exodus and the Battle in the Sea’ 131, I implied that the poem referred to the tenth plague only in lines 33–53. This was quite inadvertent, since I felt fairly sure about the meaning of lines 140 and 147 even before I had written that paper.Google Scholar

³⁹ Enarratio in Psalmum 88 11 (PL 37.1127) and Sermo 134 4 (PL 38.745).Google Scholar

⁴⁰ Sermones 51.7 and 55.3. Cf. 61.4: ‘Evacuatum est igitur generale illud venditionis nostrae et lethale chirographum, et pactum captivitatis in jus transiit Redemptoris’ (PL.54, 312–313, 324, and 348). For numerous citations of chirographum in the sense ‘cautio privatorum’ see the Thesaurus Linguae Latinae, s. v. chirographum 2. In Anglo-Saxon the word was of course better known than might be inferred from the solitary brief citation from ælfric (an allusion to Col. 2.14) in the Bosworth-Toller Supplement, s. v. cyrographum. Chirographa were documents written out in duplicate or triplicate on one parchment, the copies then being separated by cutting lengthwise through the word(s) CYROGRAPHUM written between them. Chirographa were mostly used for contracts. See the remarks by H. D. Hazeltine in Dorothy Whitelock, Anglo-Saxon Wills (Cambridge 1930) xxiii–xxvi, and Miss Whitelock, 150–151. For examples the literary student may conveniently be referred to Wolfgang Keller, Angelsächsische Palaeographie (Palaestra 43 pt. 2; Berlin 1906) plates IV–X.Google Scholar

⁴¹ Brodeur, Arthur G., ‘A Study of Diction and Style in Three Anglo-Saxon Narrative Poems,’ Nordica et Anglica: Studies in Honor of Stefán Einarsson, ed. Orrick, Allan H. (The Hague 1968) 111.Google Scholar

⁴² Bosworth-Toller, Dictionary, s. v. fretan II, ‘to break, burst, frangere, rumpere’; Hall, J. R. Clark, A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, s. v. fretan, ‘break, Ex 147’; Grein-Köhler Sprachschatz, s. v. fretan 2, ‘frangere, rumpere.’Google Scholar

⁴³ Robinson, Fred C., ‘Lexicography and Literary Criticism: A Caveat,’ Philological Essays: Studies in Old and Middle English Language and Literature in Honour of Herbert Dean Meritt, ed. Rosier, James L. (The Hague 1970) 105: ‘If a word occurs in a slightly unusual application, the lexicographer's tendency is to introduce into the dictionary entry a special meaning for the occurrence, a definition which will fit in a literal way the context in question. This propensity often leads lexicographers to flatten out figurative language and to resolve ineptly numerous intended ambiguities.’Google Scholar

⁴⁴ The Great Catechism, 24, trans. Moore, William, in Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series (New York 1890–1900) V 494.Google Scholar

⁴⁵ Sermones 64.2 and 60.3 (PL 54.359 and 344).Google Scholar

⁴⁶ Moralia in Iob 33.7.14 and 33.9.17 (PL 76.680 and 682–683).Google Scholar

⁴⁷ For further consideration of lines 580–590 see Vickrey, , ‘Exodus and the Treasure of Pharaoh’ (note 6 supra). This view of the passage rests on Robinson's identification, in ‘Notes on the Old English Exodus,’ Anglia 80 (1962) 373–378, of the afrisc meowle line 580 as the wife of Moses, a suggestion that has recently been challenged by Irving, , ‘New Notes on the Old English Exodus,’ Anglia 90 (1972) 323, on the ground that afrisc meowle is plural in meaning. The typological interpretation, I believe, surmounts this objection. As pa wæs eÐfynde afrisc meowle, plural in meaning, is singular in form, so many churches are implied in ecclesiam ex gentibus Christo conjunctam. In Jerome's Tractatus de Psalmo 67 a plural ‘churches’ is explicit: ‘Et speciei domus diuidere spolia. Ipsi apostoli diuidunt in ecclesiis spolia, quae acceperunt ab idolis' (CCL 78.2.42).Google Scholar

⁴⁸ The Old English Exodus 77.Google Scholar

⁴⁹ On the figural significance of Melchisedek see Burlin, Robert B., The Old English Advent (Yale Studies in English 168; New Haven 1968) 10–13.Google Scholar

⁵⁰ For detailed comments on Advent Lyric 6 see the notes in Burlin 108–110; in Campbell, Jackson J., The Advent Lyrics of the Exeter Book (Princeton 1959) 20–22 and 90–91; and in Albert S. Cook, The Christ of Cynewulf (Boston 1900) 94–96. The seeming abruptness of se yldra cyning taken as referring to Melchisedek is paralleled in line 362. In his comment on the so-called ‘Exodus B’ section, Irving says that ‘the transition from a discussion of the history of the Israelite race to the mention of Noah is at best rather abrupt and surprising.’ See The Old English Exodus 8–9; and also Earl, ‘Christian Traditions in the Old English Exodus’ 563–565, and Isaacs, ‘Exodus and the Essential Digression’ 157–159 (note 6 supra).Google Scholar

⁵¹ Irving, , The Old English Exodus 7, suggests that ‘on the whole perhaps 50 lines is a fair guess at the amount of missing material.’ He is assuming that originally the gathering was complete and that the two leaves now lost once contained part of the text, whether their pages were filled with writing or were to some extent left blank for illustration. But it is conceivable that in copying at this point the scribe spoiled a leaf beyond the possibility of correction and therefore excised it, beginning his copying again on the following page. The text would then have been complete but in a gathering of seven leaves instead of eight. The odd leaf, containing some of the text but possibly some blank space as well, might then have fallen out at a later time. It so happens that the missing leaves were the fourth and fifth leaves of the gathering, that is, the inner leaves, as Irving's diagram, p. 6, makes clear. But these were the leaves which, if either were a half-sheet, might have been the more liable to fall out. By this hypothesis it might be reasonable to estimate even fewer than fifty lines as the amount of text now lost. See Ker, N. R., Catalogue of Manuscripts Containing Anglo-Saxon (Oxford 1957) xxiv pars. (c) and (b), in which he notes that when a pair of half-sheets was used (i.e., deliberately) in place of one full sheet, the half-sheets are ‘rarely the first and eighth or the fourth and fifth leaves, which would be more likely to fall out.’Google Scholar

⁵² Mitchell, Bruce, A Guide to Old English (2nd ed.; Oxford 1968) 83.Google Scholar

⁵³ The Junius Manuscript 205.Google Scholar

⁵⁴ The Old English Exodus 78.Google Scholar

⁵⁵ In Review of English Studies n.s. 6 (1955) 185–186; and Medium ævum 25 (1956) 32.Google Scholar

⁵⁶ Thorpe, Benjamin, Cædmon's Metrical Paraphrase of Parts of the Holy Scriptures, in Anglo-Saxon (London 1832) 187. Cf. Bouterwek, Karl W., Cædmon's des Angelsachsen biblische Dichtungen 1 (Gütersloh 1854) 117, 250, 319. For Irving's view see ‘New Notes on the Old English Exodus’ (note 47 supra) 303–304, where he abandons Kock's proposal and suggests ymb ane twige, taking neuter twig as a scribal alteration of feminine twigu. Google Scholar

⁵⁷ Exodus, 7.19–20, 8.17, 9.23, and 10.13.Google Scholar

⁵⁸ Origen, , In Exodum homilia 4.6: ‘Virga ergo per quam geruntur haec omnia, per quam Aegyptus subjicitur et Pharao superatur, crux Christi sit, per quam mundus hic vincitur, et princeps hujus mundi cum principatibus et potestatibus triumphatur’ (PG 12.321). This interpretation is repeated by pseudo-Bede, In Pentateuchum commentarii — Exodus 7 (PL 91.301); Hrabanus, , Commentaria in Exodum 1.12 (PL 108.34); and the Glossa ordinaria, Liber Exodus 7 (PL 113.203). Cf. Isidore, , De Veteri et Novo Testamento quæstiones — In Exodum 12 (PL 83.292).Google Scholar

⁵⁹ Catechetical Lectures, 13.3, trans. Gifford, Edwin Hamilton, in Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers Second Series (New York 1890–1900) VII 82. Cf. Cat. Lect. 1.3; 4.13–14; 13.36; 17.35–36.Google Scholar

⁶⁰ In Exodum homilia 6.8 (PG 12.337). The comment is repeated by Hrabanus in the Commentaria in Exodum 2.4 (PL 108.72–73).Google Scholar

⁶¹ The belief is illustrated very clearly in Old English poetry and prose. In Juliana lines 490–494 the devil confesses that sume, ϸ a ic funde / butan godes tacne, gymelease, / ungebletsade, ϸ a ic bealdlice / ϸ urh mislic cwealm minum hondum / searoponcum slog; in Andreas lines 1337–1340 the devils, syÐÐan hie oncneowon Cristes rode / on his mægwlite, mære tacen, / wurdon hie Ða acle on ϸ am onfenge, / forhte, afærde, ond on fleam numen. For fairly explicit statements in the prose see The Bückling Homilies 47, 91, 243; ælfric's Lives of Saints, ed. Skeat, Walter W. (EETS 76; London 1881) 76, 132; (EETS 82, 1885) 374, 466, 470; (EETS 94, 1890) 12, 20, 152–154; (EETS 114, 1900) 264–268; The Homilies of ælfric (note 17 supra) I 466, 534; Legends of the Holy Rood, ed. Morris, Richard (EETS 46; London 1871) 17; The Homilies of Wulfstan, ed. Bethurum, Dorothy (Oxford 1957) 172, 176–177; also 169 (Latin). On the sign of the cross generally in early Christianity see Ludwig Eisenhofer, Handbuch der katholischen Liturgik (Freiburg i. B. 1932) I 273–281.Google Scholar

⁶² PL 36.593. Google Scholar

⁶³ 2.41.62 (PL 34.64). Google Scholar

⁶⁴ PL 79.587. Cf. Moralia in Iob 6.37.56: ‘Hyssopus quippe interna nostra mundare consuevit’ (PL 75.761); and Paterius, Expositio Veteris et Noui Testamenti — Super Numeros: ‘Quid in hyssopo, nisi mansueti cordis humilitas designatur?’ (PL 79.767). Google Scholar

⁶⁵ PL 83.416. Google Scholar

⁶⁶ PL 35.1952. In his Quæstiones in Heptateuchum 4.33, Augustine takes hyssop to mean fides (PL 34.734 and 736). Google Scholar

⁶⁷ See Daniélou, , The Bible and the Liturgy (note 38 supra) 162–176, for a number of references.Google Scholar

⁶⁸ The ‘testimony’ is briefly discussed in Smalley, Beryl, The Study of the Bible in the Middle Ages (2nd ed.; Oxford 1952) 34.Google Scholar

⁶⁹ 1.11 (PL 23.226). Cf. Tractates de Psalmo 83 (CCL 78.2.106–107). In the Breviarium in Psalmos, pseudo-Jerome says of Psalm 50.9 that ‘sicut enim hyssopus terrenus curandis pulmonibus aptus est, ut avertat inflationem: ita coelesti quis respersus hyssopo: id est, humilitate cordis, ab omni superbiae malignitate purgatur’ (PL 26.973). Google Scholar

⁷⁰ 4.2 (PL 16.437; cf. PL 16.399–400 and PL 14.827). Google Scholar

⁷¹ Etymologiae 17.9 (PL 82.628); Quaestiones in Vetus Testamentum — In Numeros 15 (PL 83.349); De fide Catholica contra Judaeos 1.40 (PL 83.487).Google Scholar

⁷² PL 50.746. Google Scholar

⁷³ PL 70.364. Google Scholar

⁷⁴ Alcuin: Expositio in Psalmos Poenitentiales (PL 100.584–585); Commentaria in Ioannem 7.40 (PL 100.985); Tractatus super Epistulam ad Hebraeos 9 (PL 100.1074). Hrabanus: De universo 19.8 (PL 111.527–528); Commentaria in Exodum 1.23 (PL 108.52–53); Expositio in Leviticum 4.6 (PL 108.392); Enarrationes in Librum Numerorum 2.24 (PL 108.704–705 and 709); Expositio in Epistolam ad Hebraeos 9 (PL 112.775). See also Walafrid Strabo, Epitome commentariorum Rabani in Leviticum 14 (PL 114.822); and Haymo of Auxerre, Expositio in Epistulam ad Hebraeos 9 (PL 117.885). Also pseudo-Bede, Explanatio in Secundum Librum Mosis 12 (PL 91.308); Explanatio in Tertium Librum Mosis 14 (PL 91.348); Explanation Quartum Librum Mosis 19 (PL 91.367–368); Quaestiones super Numeros 16 (PL 93.403); Interpretatio Psalterii artis cantilenae (PL 93.1101); and (Alcuin?) In S. Joannis Evangelium expositio 19 (PL 92.915). For the Glossa ordinaria see PL 113.219, 336, 412, 583, and 919. References to the meaning of hyssop among the Greek Fathers are perhaps of less immediate importance in this paper, but a few may be mentioned: Origen, Selecta in Leviticum (PG 12.404); In Leviticum homilia 8.10 (PG 12.503); Procopius of Gaza, Commentarii in Leviticum and in Numeros (PG 87.739–742 and 847–850); Hesychius, Commentarius in Leviticum 4.14 (PG 93.952); Fragmenta in Psalmos (PG 93.1201–1202); Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lectures 3.1, in Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers Second Series VII 14. Google Scholar

⁷⁵ Sacramentarium Gelasianum 3.76 (PL 74.1227); and Sancti Gregorii Magni Liber Sacramentorum (PL 78.156). On the aspersio see Eisenhofer, Handbuch (note 61 supra) I 476–480; on the penitential psalms (6, 31, 37, 50, 101, 129, 142) see 166–167.Google Scholar

⁷⁶ 2.16.24 (PL 34.47–48). It is interesting to find hyssop specified as an ingredient in several Anglo-Saxon prescriptions for lung and chest ailments, though it might be unwise to infer from such evidence that the Anglo-Saxon leech had much familiarity with the plant itself. See Oswald Cockayne, Leechdoms, Wortcunning, and Starcraft of Early England (London 1864–1866) I 374, 378; III 16, 22, and perhaps 124. The recipes from Lacnunga (Cockayne III 16, 22) are thought by J. H. G. Grattan and Charles Singer to have been derived from Graeco-Roman medicine; see Anglo-Saxon Magic and Medicine (Oxford 1952) 18, 96 n. 1, 114–115, and 120–121. It might be mentioned finally that botanically the biblical ‘hyssop’ was not hyssopus officinalis. Some believe it to have been a species of origanum. See Leopold Fonck, Streifzüge durch die biblische Flora (Biblische Studien 5; Freiburg i.B. 1900) 105–109. Google Scholar

⁷⁷ Moralia in Iob 4.23.42 (PL 75.657).Google Scholar

⁷⁸ Sermo 40 2 (PL 54.269).Google Scholar

⁷⁹ Sermo 36 2 (PL 54.254).Google Scholar

⁸⁰ 2.18.32 and 32.24.51 (PL 75.571 and 76.668). Google Scholar

⁸¹ De Trinitate 4.10 (PL 42.896).Google Scholar

⁸² Enarratio in Psalmum 88 11 (PL 37.1126–1127).Google Scholar

⁸³ 14.13 (PL 41.421). Google Scholar

⁸⁴ In his commentary on Hebrews Alcuin observes that ‘hyssopus enim herba humilis est et in petris nascens: humilitas Christi significatur per hanc herbam et fortitudo, qua interiora nostra purgantur. Nam hoc genere herbae pulmonum vitia purgari solent’ (PL 100.1074). The comment is repeated by Hrabanus (PL 112.775) and Haymo of Auxerre (PL 117.885). On the courage of the Israelites and on the meaning and scope of lines 54–62 see Vickrey, ‘Exodus and the Battle in the Sea’ (note 6 supra) 132–140. Google Scholar

⁸⁵ Line 307 reads ‘Nalles hige gehyrdon haliges lare.’ Krapp, The Junius Manuscript 210, seems to regard hige as the dative of the noun; he translates ‘scorned not in mind.’ But the synonymy elsewhere of courage and obedience suggests the possibility of taking hige as accusative: ‘Not at all did (they) despise courage, the counsel of the holy one.’ By this view a comma should follow gehyrdon. Google Scholar

⁸⁶ The MS reads an paÐas line 58, án mód line 203, án dgne line 304, and án getrum line 334. Google Scholar

⁸⁷ Elements evidently not alliterating are lost in lines 243b, 288a, and 514a. In line 118a, probably the second element of a compound is lost. Alliterating elements are certainly lost in lines 340a, 503a, 574b, and probably in 487a, on which see Robinson, ‘Notes on the Old English Exodus’ (note 47 supra) 368–370. Google Scholar

⁸⁸ Krapp, , The Junius Manuscript xxiii, observes that ‘short vowels frequently have accent marks.’ It is interesting to note the same feature in Daniel line 503 twígum. Google Scholar

⁸⁹ King Alfred's West-Saxon Version of Gregory's Pastoral Care, ed. Sweet, Henry (EETS 45; London 1871) 236–237, 242–243; and ælfric's Lives of Saints (EETS 76, note 61 supra) 130, 202. Note also anfealdnes in the Pastoral Care 236–237, 242–245.Google Scholar

⁹⁰ Wright, Thomas, Anglo-Saxon and Old English Vocabularies, ed. Wülcker, Richard Paul (2nd ed.; London 1884) I 485. This is from a glossary in MS Cotton Cleopatra A iii.Google Scholar

⁹¹ Pseudo-Bede, , whose comment on Exodus 12.22 is one of the few to mention the fasciculus, makes the standard remark that ‘hyssopus autem herba est humilis; quia pectus purgat, figuram Christi tenet. Humilis in assumptione carnis,’ and then adds, “Fasciculus hyssopi,” id est, credulitas Incarnationis Christi et divinitatis illius corporibus inesse debet’ (PL 91.308). Although I take the reconstruction ymb an[feald] twig to be by far the most likely interpretation, a few others can be mentioned. One is that an earlier MS read ymb ysopan twig and that ysop- was lost in copying. Another is that the text had something like ymb ysopan — cf. ϸurh ysopon in the Old English Psalm 50 line 73 — and that a gloss an twig replaced ysopan. Neither of these explanations is perhaps very likely. It is possible too that instead of anfeald the reading was anlic or maybe even ansund. Perhaps it was a form in an; not otherwise attested. Of attested forms, anfeald seems to me the likeliest.Google Scholar

⁹² The Old English Exodus 78.Google Scholar

⁹³ Cf. lines 49–53: ‘Swa ϸæs fæsten dreah fela missera, / ealdwerige, Egypta folc, / ϸ æs ϸe hie wideferÐ wyrnan ϸohton / Moyses magum, gif hie metod lete, / on langne lust leofes siÐes.’ For a discussion of this passage see Vickrey, ‘Exodus and the Tenth Plague’ (note 6 supra) 46–52. Referral of ϸ æt feorhlean to the requital which the Egyptians hope to give on their spildsiÐ line 153 seems precluded by ϸæt. Google Scholar

⁹⁴ See the comment in pseudo-Bede (PL 91.307). Google Scholar

⁹⁵ Dante, from the famous letter to Can Grande della Scala, in Dorothy Sayers, L., trans., The Comedy of Dante Alighieri: Cantica I, Hell (Penguin Books 1949) 15. Line 146 his, insofar as it refers to anyone literally, I take to refer to Moses. Figurally it is Christ. His mégwinum ‘expresses the moral sense,’ and in the moral sense lines 146–147 anticipate lines 148–153. Accordingly, his mægwinum, if there is any doubt, is explained by Moyses leode line 152. In a way then it would be appropriate to punctuate with a colon after fræton. Alternatively, perhaps there was some reference to Moses toward the end of the lines now lost, or just possibly the allusion to hyssop, the use of which Moses had commanded and which signified the humility of Christ, was thought adequate to identify his. Google Scholar

⁹⁶ For evidence of early medieval understanding of in medias res, see Leyerle, John, ‘The Interlace Structure of Beowulf,’ University of Toronto Quarterly 37 (1967) 5–7, who cites the comment on Ars poetica lines 42–45 found in the eighth-century Scholia Vindobonensia ad Horatii Artem poeticam ed. Zechmeister, Josephus (Vienna 1877) 4–5. Leyerle also notes that Alcuin's poetical life of St. Willibrord begins in medias res. It would seem possible that the Exodus poet was aware of the classical precedent for beginning the main narrative this way.Google Scholar

⁹⁷ The Old Engish Exodus 30, 81.Google Scholar

⁹⁸ See Isidore's comment in De Veteri et Novo Testamento quaestiones — In Exodum 14 (PL 83.294). This follows Origen, In Exodum homilia 4.7 (PG 12.323). Cf. pseudo-Bede (PL 91.303), Hrabanus (PL 108.43), and the Glossa ordinaria (PL 113.216). Google Scholar

⁹⁹ For references see especially Rivière, The Doctrine of the Atonement (note 16 supra) II 163–169, 187–192. Google Scholar

¹⁰⁰ De Trinitate 8.5 (PL 42.952).Google Scholar