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Notes
All citation of OE poetry is from George P. Krapp and Elliott V. K. Dobbie, ed.,The Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records, I–VI (New York, 1931–53).
The Old English Exodus (New Haven, 1953), p. 69.
“Some Uses of Name-Meanings in OE Poetry”,Neuphilologische Mitteilungen, LXIX (1968), 166–67.
“New Notes on the Old EnglishExodus”,Anglia, XC (1972), 293. Robinson's interpretation is also accepted by Peter J. Lucas, ed.,Exodus (London, 1977), p. 79.
Note that the other onomastic allusion toÆgyptii which Robinson points out — MSða þe gedrecte “those who had afflicted” (501a) — contains no extraneous element like theman- inmansceaðan.
“Some Uses of Paronomasia in Old English Scriptural Verse”,Speculum, XLVII (1972), 221. For a kind of wordplay onman man different from that noted by Frank, see, e.g.,Christ I 36a, in which the poet describes Mary as a maidenmanes leas “free of sin”. The poet's use of the phrase in the context of describing Mary's virginity recalls that she was also a maidenmannes leas “free of man”.
Cf. Joseph L. Baird, “Grendel the Exile”,Neuphilologische Mitteilungen, LXVII (1966). 377; and Howell D. Chickering, Jr., ed.,Beowulf: A Dual-Language Edition (New York, 1977), p. 307.
The conception of Grendel and the dragon as “man harmers” as well as “evil harmers” is supported by the poet's later references to Grendel as aleodsceaða (2093b) and to the dragon as aþeodsceaða (2278a, 2688a). Besides Grendel and his mother, other offspring of Cain — the giants of Gen. 6.4 — are characterized asmansceaðan (Genesis A 1269a). The giants, too, are both “evil harmers” and, as David M. Wells indicates in his translation, “man-scathers”: “A Critical Edition of the Old EnglishGenesis A with a Translation”, Diss. Univ. of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1969, p. 114.
TheGuthlac A poet also refers to devils asmansceaðan (650b). Since in the same line they are calledmyrðran (a word which elsewhere translates Lat.homicidae), the context supports a reading in which both senses ofmansceaðan are applicable.
See Bernard F. Huppé,Doctrine and Poetry: Augustine's Influence on Old English Poetry (New York, 1959), p. 222; Peter J. Lucas, “An Interpretation ofExodus 46–53”,Notes and Queries, CCIV (1969), 366; Lucas, edition, p. 82; James W. Earl, “Christian Traditions in the Old EnglishExodus”,Neuphilologische Mitteilungen, LXXI (1970), 568–69; Irving, “New Notes”, p. 295; John F. Vickrey, “Exodus and the Treasure of Pharaoh”,Anglo-Saxon England, 1 (1972), 163–64; Vickrey, “Exodus and the Tenth Plague”,Archiv, CCX (1973). 41–52; Daniel G. Calder, “Two Notes on the Typology of the OEExodus”,Neuphilologische Mitteilungen, LXXIV (1973), 86; and Paul F. Ferguson, “The Old EnglishExodus and the Patristic Tradition”, Diss. State Univ. of New York at Binghamton, 1977, pp. 53–61.
See Irving, “New Notes”, p. 293; Calder, p. 86; and Ferguson, p. 56.
See Ferguson, pp. 57–59.
De Universo, XVI, ii (PL, 111, 439). Robinson, p. 167, quotes this passage as far aspriusquam.
Patristic commentators on the tenth plague also view theprimogenita Ægyptiorum as symbolizing devils; see the citations given by Vickrey, “Exodus and the Treasure of Pharaoh”, p. 163.
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Hall, J.R. Mansceađan: Old EnglishExodus 37. Neophilologus 66, 145–148 (1982). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01993682
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01993682