2 - Sails, Veils, and Tents: The Segl and Tabernacle of Old English Christ III and Exodus

Summary

This paper examines how the image of the Holy of Holies—the veiled sanctuary of God in the Judeo-Christian tradition—was interpreted and embellished by the poets of two early Anglo-Saxon works: Christ III and Exodus. Christ III is the third consecutive poem about the life of Christ to appear in the late-tenth-century Exeter Book of Old English poetry (Exeter Dean and Chapter MS 3501). With a distinctly meditative style, it focuses on Judgment Day and the second coming of Jesus. Exodus appears in the late-tenth-century/early-eleventh-century Junius Manuscript (Oxford, Bodleian Library, Junius 11), which contains poetry and illustrations. This poetically complex Old English poem is famous for introducing original imagery and dramatic diction into its narration of the Israelites’ exodus from Egypt. Despite their differences, the two poetic works share an anglicizing approach to the interior curtains of the Herodian temple and the movable tabernacle. In Christ III, this anglicizing can be seen in the emphasis upon the temple veil as high-status treasure, which is portrayed much like a prized Anglo-Saxon tapestry. Exodus, on the other hand, adapts the tabernacle for an Anglo-Saxon audience by merging it with the pillar of cloud (another potentially confusing concept in need of translation) in a passage steeped in exile imagery. Together, these poems point toward the different cultural meanings attributed to sacred textiles, and the desire of Anglo-Saxon composers to bring descriptions of such objects into line with Old English poetic idioms and ideals.

CONTEXTUALIZING THE TEMPLE VEIL AND TABERNACLE

The immediate context of both textile objects can be found in their biblical representations. Since the veil is mainly described in passing, I will begin with it. Included in the biblical list of miraculous events that mark the death of Christ is the tearing of the temple veil:

Jesus autem iterum clamans voce magna, emisit spiritum. Et ecce velum templi scissum est in duas partes a summo usque deorsum: et terra mota est, et petrae scissae sunt. Et monumenta aperta sunt: et multa corpora sanctorum, qui dormierant, surrexerunt. (Matt. 27:50–52)

[And Jesus again crying with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost. And behold the veil of the temple was rent in two from the top even to the bottom, and the earth quaked, and the rocks were rent. And the graves were opened: and many bodies of the saints that had slept arose.]