Genesis A (or Elder Genesis) is an Old English poetic adaptation of about the first half of the biblical book of Genesis. The poem is fused with a passage known today as Genesis B, translated and interpolated from the Old Saxon Genesis.
Genesis A (and B) survive in the Junius Manuscript, which has been held in the Bodleian Library at the University of Oxford since 1677.
Lacunae The sole manuscript containing Genesis A is incomplete, with a number of leaves missing. This means that, as we have it today, there are gaps (lacunae) in the poem. Paul G. Remley has estimated the number of missing lines thus:Paul G. Remley, Old English Biblical Verse: Studies in Genesis, Exodus and Daniel (XXXXX), p. 94 fn. 1. +textlinesGenesis A1-168lacuna62Genesis A169-205lacunano detectable textual lossGenesis A206-34lacuna70Genesis B235-441lacuna116Genesis B442-851Genesis A852-2045lacunano detectable textual lossGenesis A2046-381lacuna20Genesis A2382-418lacuna61Genesis A2419-512lacuna18Genesis A2513-99lucuna36Genesis A2600-806lacuna19Genesis A2807-2936 The total length of the combined Genesis A and B poems when the Junius Manuscript was complete was therefore around 3339 lines.
Summary Genesis A begins before Biblical Genesis—not with the creation of the world but with the creation of Heaven and the angels and with Satan's war on Heaven.lines 1-102 Then the poet describes the days of creation, culminating with the creation of Adam and a description of the Garden of Eden.lines 103-234 After this, the poem scholars call Genesis B resumes the story of Adam in the Garden,Genesis B, lines 235-245 while also going back to the war on Heaven Genesis A already discussed.Genesis B, lines 246 ff Following the material from Genesis B, the poem is a fairly close translation of the Biblical book of Genesis up to and including the sacrifice of Isaac (Genesis 22.13).
Textual background Scholars consider the poem in the Junius manuscript of separate authorship than Genesis B, though both are presented concurrently in the Junius Manuscript. Charles Leslie Wrenn even considers Genesis A to be a composite work.
Scholars such as Wrenn once considered the work to be partially written by Cædmon, though as far back as Laurence Michel in 1947 there were critics: he calls the attribution based on "circumstantial evidence" and that any connection "may be laid to the prevalence of well-known pious introductory formulas".
Editions and translations The editions and translations of Genesis A include: . https://web.archive.org/web/20181206091232/http://ota.ox.ac.uk/desc/3009 Doane, A. N. (ed.), Genesis A: A New Edition (Madison, Wisconsin, 1978) Genesis A & B are edited along with digital images of their manuscript pages, and translated, in the Old English Poetry in Facsimile Project eds. Foys, Martin et al. (University of Wisconsin, Madison, 2019-) Ophelia Eryn Hostetter's translation
See also Genesis B Old Saxon Genesis
References