JUNIUS MANUSCRIPT

Junius Manuscript: translation

(The Caedmon Manuscript)

(ca. 1000)

MS Junius 11 in Oxford’s Bodleian Library (MS 5123) is one of the four major collections that contain virtually all extant OLD ENGLISH poetry. The manuscript, named for the 17th-century antiquarian Franciscus Junius (who donated it to the university), contains four lengthy Old English poems on Christian subjects:GENESIS, EXODUS, DANIEL, andCHRIST AND SATAN. The poems are difficult to date, but clearly were written between the seventh and the 10th centuries.

Junius had postulated that the author of these poems was the legendary poet CAEDMON, who according to the Venerable BEDE was the first to couple Christian subjects with Germanic poetic form. Modern scholarship no longer accepts the attribution to Caedmon, partly because it seems clear that the poems were not written by the same poet. But the poetry in the manuscript is still sometimes regarded as being in the “Caedmonian School.”

Of all the Old English poetic codices, the Junius Manuscript is the most elaborately manufactured. It was produced by four distinct hands about the year 1000, at Christ Church in Canterbury according to some speculations. All half lines are carefully punctuated. Sections of the text are marked by elaborately illuminated initial capitals in animal forms. The manuscript is also illustrated by a number of line drawings.

■ Krapp, George Philip, ed.The Junius Manuscript. Vol. 1,Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records. New York: Columbia University Press, 1931.