Christ I

Christ I is found on folios 8r-14r of the Exeter Book, a collection of Old English poetry today containing 123 folios. The collection also contains a number of other religious and allegorical poems.{{sfn|Rumble|1998|pp=285}} Some folios have been lost at the start of the poem, meaning that an indeterminate amount of the original composition is missing.Lara Farina, 'Before Affection: Christ I and the Social Erotic', Exemplaria, 13 (2001), 469-96 (479 n. 25) {{doi|10.1179/exm.2001.13.2.469}}.

Christ I, concerning the Advent of Jesus, is followed in the Exeter Book by a poem on Jesus's Ascension composed by Cynewulf, generally known in modern scholarship as Christ II, which in turn is followed by Christ III, on the Last Judgment. Together these three poems comprise a total of 1664 lines, and are in turn linked to the poems that follow, Guthlac A and Guthlac B. The sequence of Christ I-III is sometimes known simply as Christ, and has at times been thought to be one poem completed by a single author. Linguistic and stylistic differences indicate, however, that Christ I-III originated as separate compositions (perhaps with Christ II being composed as a bridge between Christ I and Christ III). Nevertheless, Christ I-III stands as an artistically coherent compilation.Roy M. Liuzza, '[http://www.jstor.org/stable/516602 The Old English Christ and Guthlac: Texts, Manuscripts, and Critics]', The Review of English Studies, 41 (1990), 1-11.

The text also contains glosses by Laurence Nowell from the sixteenth century or George Hickes from the seventeenth.{{cite book | editor-first= Bernard J. | editor-last= Muir | editor-link= Bernard J. Muir | year= 2000 | title= The Exeter anthology of Old English poetry: an edition of Exeter Dean and Chapter MS 3501 | edition=2nd | publisher= University of Exeter Press | location= Exeter | isbn= 0-85989-630-7 |pages=15–16}}

Because Christ II is signed by Cynewulf, earlier scholarship supposed that Christ I might also be his work;Edward Burgert, [https://archive.org/details/TheDependenceOfPartI The Dependence of Part I of Cynewulf's Christ upon the Antiphonary] (Washington, D. C.: Milans, 1921). but recent research agrees that the authorship is unknown.{{sfn|Schaar|1949|pp=9}}{{rp|4–5}} Claes Schaar suggested that the poem may have been written between the end of the eighth century and the beginning of the ninth.{{sfn|Schaar|1949|pp=9}}

File:Eala Earendel engla beorhtast - Exeter Book folio 9v top two lines.jpg

The following passage describes the Advent of Christ and is a modern English translation of Lyric 5 (lines 104-29 in the numbering of the Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records):

{{Verse translation|

{{lang|ang|Ēala ēarendel,     engla beorhtast,

ofer middangeard     monnum sended,

ond sōðfæsta     sunnan lēoma,

torht ofer tunglas,     þū tīda gehwane

of sylfum þē     symle inlihtes!

Swā þū, god of gode     gearo acenned,

sunu sōþan fæder,     swegles in wuldre

būtan anginne     ǣfre wǣre,

swā þec nū for þearfum     þīn āgen geweorc

bīdeð þurh byldo,     þæt þū þā beorhtan ūs

sunnan onsende,     ond þē sylf cyme

þæt ðū inlēohte     þā þe longe ǣr,

þrosme beþeahte     ond in þeostrum hēr,

sǣton sinneahtes;     synnum bifealdne

deorc dēaþes sceadu     drēogan sceoldan.

Nū wē hyhtfulle     hǣlo gelyfað

þurh þæt word godes     weorodum brungen,

þe on frymðe wæs     fæder ælmihtigum

efenece mid god,     ond nū eft gewearð

flæsc firena lēas,     þæt sēo fǣmne gebær

geomrum to gēoce.     God wæs mid ūs

gesewen būtan synnum;     somod eardedon

mihtig meotudes bearn     ond se monnes sunu

geþwǣre on þēode.     Wē þæs þonc magon

secgan sigedryhtne     symle bi gewyrhtum,

þæs þe he hine sylfne ūs     sendan wolde.The Exeter Book, ed. by George Philip Krapp and Elliott Van Kirk Dobbie, The Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records: A Collective Edition, 3 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1936), with vowel length marking added on the basis of John R. Clark Hall, A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, 4th rev. edn by Herbet D. Meritt (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1960).

}}

|Hail Earendel, brightest of angels,

Sent to men over middle-earth,

And true radiance of the sun,

Fine beyond stars, you always illuminate,

From your self, every season!

As you, God born wholly of God,

Son of the true Father, were ever

In the glory of heaven without beginning,

So now your own creation awaits you

Through eternity in need, that you send

To us that bright sun, and you yourself come

So that you illuminate those who for the longest time,

Covered by smoke, and in darkness here,

Dwelled in continual night; enfolded in sins,

They had to endure the dark shadow of death.

Now we believe in joyful salvation,

Brought to people through the word of God,

Which in the beginning was from the Father almighty,

Jointly eternal with God, and now again became

The flesh without sin that the virgin bore

Through suffering to safety. God was with us,

Seen among sins; the mighty child of fate

And the son of man dwelt together,

United amidst the people. We may express

Our thanks to the Lord of victory always through our deeds,

Because he wanted to send himself to us.

}}

As presented in the Exeter Book, Christ I is divided into five sections, each marked by a large capital, a line-break, and punctuation, as follows: lines 1-70, 71-163, 164-272, 275-377, 378-439.{{rp|15}}

However, researchers have found it helpful to understand Christ I as comprising twelve sections or 'lyrics'. Each lyric is introduced with a selection from a Latin antiphon (verses from Scripture sung before and after the reading of a psalm chosen to reflect the fundamental ideas presented in the psalm), followed by lines of poetry in Old English which expand on that source. Most of the antiphons used are known as the O Antiphons, which receive their name because they all begin with the Latin interjection O (rendered in the poem with the Old English interjection ēalā).{{sfn|Otten|1907|pp=1}}{{sfn|Henry|1911}}{{sfn|Campbell|1959|pp=8}} Medieval manuscripts of the O Antiphons vary in order and content, meaning that the precise sources for several of the Christ I lyrics are uncertain.Thomas D. Hill, '[https://www.jstor.org/stable/43345706 The Seraphim's Song: The "Sanctus" in the Old English "Christ I", Lines 403-415]', Neuphilologische Mitteilungen, 83 (1982), 26-30.

Several of the Greater Antiphons are not used in Christ I, leading some scholars speculate that, since we know that the beginning of Christ I is missing, the missing antiphons ("O Sapientia", "O Adonai", and "O radix Jesse") were originally used in the poem but have been lost.{{sfn|Campbell|1959|pp=9}}

The following table summarises the content and sources of each of the twelve lyrics. Unless otherwise stated, information on sources comes from Burgert{{rp|51}} and the antiphon text from Bamberg State Library, MS Misc. Patr. 17/B.11.10, folios 133-62, 10c.{{rp|12–14}}

The order of antiphons that the author uses for the lyrics imply that the poet was not concerned about any distinctions between antiphons, or the order that he had found them in his sources.{{sfn|Campbell|1959|pp=9}} Upon analysis of the position of each poem, no rational order can be found, suggesting that the order of each poem in the sequence is unimportant.{{sfn|Campbell|1959|pp=11}}

{{further|Eärendil and Elwing}}

J.R.R. Tolkien was influenced by the following lines from Christ I (lines 104-5), which inspired his portrayal the character Eärendil in his legendarium and is one of many examples of the Old English word middangeard which partly inspired Tolkien's fantasy world:{{ME-ref|Bio|"Reunion", pp. 72, 79}}

{{Verse translation|

{{lang|ang|Eálá Earendel engla beorhtast

Ofer middangeard monnum sended.}}

|

Hail Earendel brightest of angels,

over Middle Earth sent to men.}}

Variants of lines inspired by these survived through multiple poetic and prose versions to be published in The Silmarillion where they appear as the greeting "Hail Eärendil, bearer of light before the Sun and Moon! Splendour of the Children of Earth, star in the darkness, jewel in the sunset, radiant in the morning!" {{ME-ref|Silm}}

Tolkien wrote "There was something very remote and strange and beautiful behind those words, if I could grasp it, far beyond ancient English."Day, David. 2003 The World of Tolkien. London: Octopus Publishing Group, p. 8.

• {{citation |title=The Exeter Book |editor-first=George Philip |editor-last=Krapp |editor2-first=Elliott Van Kirk |editor2-last=Dobbie |series=The Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records: A Collective Edition |number=3 |location=New York |publisher=Columbia University Press |year=1936 |oclc= 352008 |isbn= 9780231087667}}, pp. 3–49; [https://ota.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/repository/xmlui/bitstream/handle/20.500.12024/3009/3009.html online at the Oxford Text Archive]
• The Advent Lyrics of the Exeter Book, ed. by Jackson J. Campbell (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1959)
• The Old English Advent a Typological Commentary, ed. by R. B. Burlin, Yale Studies in English, 168 (New Haven, CT, 1968)
• [https://oepoetryfacsimile.org/?document=12991&document=12882 Old English Poetry in Facsimile Project], ed. by Foys, Martin et al. (Center for the History of Print and Digital Culture, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2019-); poem edited in transcription and digital facsimile edition, with Modern English translation

• The Christ of Cynewulf, A Poem in Three Parts: The Advent, the Ascension, and the Last Judgement, trans. by Charles Huntington Whitman (Boston: Ginn, 1900)
• Cynewulf, [http://www.yorku.ca/inpar/Christ_Kennedy.pdf Christ], trans. by Charles W. Kennedy (Cambridge, Ontario: In Parentheses, 2000)

{{reflist|30em}}

{{refbegin}}

• {{cite book |last=Campbell |first=Jackson J |title=The Advent Lyrics of the Exeter Book |location=Princeton |publisher=Princeton UP |year=1959 }}
• {{cite book |last=Cook |first=Albert S |author-link=Albert Stanburrough Cook |chapter=Introduction |title=The Christ of Cynewulf |editor-last=Cook |editor-first=Albert S. |year=1909 |publisher=Ginn and Company |location=Boston |edition=2nd |url=https://archive.org/details/cu31924060309980 |access-date=15 March 2015 }}
• {{cite encyclopedia |last=Henry |first=Hugh T. |title=O Antiphons |encyclopedia=The Catholic Encyclopedia |volume=11 |location=New York |publisher=The Robert Appleton Company |year=1911 |url=http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11173b.htm |access-date=15 March 2015 }}
• {{cite encyclopedia |last=Mershman |first=Francis |title=Advent |encyclopedia=The Catholic Encyclopedia |volume=1 |location=New York |publisher=The Robert Appleton Company |year=1907 |url=http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01165a.htm |access-date=15 March 2015 }}
• {{cite encyclopedia |last=Otten |first=Joseph |title=Antiphon |encyclopedia=The Catholic Encyclopedia |volume=1 |location=New York |publisher=The Robert Appleton Company |year=1907 |url=http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01575b.htm |access-date=15 March 2015 }}
• {{cite encyclopedia |last=Rumble |first=Alexander R. |title=Exeter Book |encyclopedia=Medieval England: an Encyclopedia |editor1-first=Paul E. |editor1-last=Szarmach |editor2-first=M T |editor2-last=Tavormina |editor3-first=Joel T |editor3-last=Rosenthal |location=New York |publisher=Garland, Inc |year=1998 }}
• {{cite book |last=Schaar |first=Claes |title=Critical Studies in the Cynewulf Group |location=Lund |publisher=C.W.K. Gleerup |year=1949 }}

{{refend}}

{{Wikisource-inline|Crist}}

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Category:Old English poems

Category:Christian poetry

Category:Christianity in Anglo-Saxon England