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Old English Mægen: A Note on theRelationship Between Exodus andDaniel in MS Junius 11Carl KearsPublished online: 28 Oct 2014.

To cite this article: Carl Kears (2014) Old English Mægen: A Note on the RelationshipBetween Exodus and Daniel in MS Junius 11, English Studies, 95:8, 825-848, DOI:10.1080/0013838X.2014.962299

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Old English Mægen: A Note on theRelationship Between Exodus andDaniel in MS Junius 11Carl Kears

This article engages with the Anglo-Saxon word mægen in order to demonstrate that theOld English Daniel displays a possible working knowledge or memory of the Old EnglishExodus, the poem preceding it in the Junius 11 manuscript. One of the most daringdetours made from the biblical book by the poetic Daniel is that it picks up from wherethe poetic Exodus left off: the Israelites move seamlessly from one poem into the next.More intriguingly, the beginning of Daniel plays on the Old English word mægen—amultivalent term used alone and in compounds more frequently and inventively inExodus than in any other Old English poem. In Daniel, this word is utilised as part ofa summarising history of Moses and his people. The word-focused analysis in this articlewill shed new light on the possibility that Daniel and Exodus are in conversation withone another across the manuscript, and with the notion that Daniel may haveundergone reformulation at some stage on the journey that brought it to Junius 11, sothat it became a more fitting continuation of the astounding representation of salvationportrayed in Exodus.

I. Why Daniel?

The illuminated Anglo-Saxon manuscript known as Junius 11 contains a sequenceof biblical poems in an unconventional order. While the possible agenda behindthe compilation of this codex has sparked considerable speculation, closer analysisof how the poems speak to or echo each other with weighted and recurrent wordsis rarely pursued. Yet, those responsible for transcribing and compiling thiscollection seem to have had an intricate knowledge of the material with whichthey were working. The poems within the Junius codex tessellate and connectwith each other not only in terms of theme and doctrine, but also in the waythey reuse the same words to establish important themes. This article seeks todemonstrate how such linguistic connections in Junius 11 cannot always be

Carl Kears is affiliated with the Department of English, King’s College London, UK. Email: carl.kears@kcl.ac.uk

English Studies, 2014Vol. 95, No. 8, 825–848, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0013838X.2014.962299

© 2014 Taylor & Francis

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ascribed to the mere recycling of formulaic blocks of Old English poetry, or tohappenstance.The verse within Junius 11 is now regarded as five separate poetic works arranged, in

order, as Genesis (A and B), Exodus, Daniel and Christ and Satan.1 The first four aredeemed to make up the “original” portion of the assembly and these Old Testa-ment-based narratives are the work of a single scribe. Christ and Satan, on the otherhand, draws heavily on the New Testament and was transcribed by at least twoother, later hands: it was added some time after the initial binding in order to concludea long manuscript narrative of rise and fall with a conclusive account of redemption inand through Christ. The Old Testament-based poems are known as “Liber I” and theymake up the main part of the manuscript.2 That the order of this sequence (Genesis-Exodus-Daniel) does not correspond to any known scriptural model is often over-looked. This is surprising, as Phyllis Portnoy has mentioned in the most recent collec-tion of scholarship on Anglo-Saxon literature and the Old Testament, because Danielfollows Exodus here and nowhere else: “The manuscript sequence Genesis-Exodus is abiblical given”, she writes, “but why Daniel?”3

The Old English poetic Daniel appears radical in terms of its thematic emphaseswhen compared to the Daniel of the Vulgate or to Jerome’s commentary upon thatsame biblical book (which appears to have contributed to the popularity of thebook of Daniel in the Middle Ages). The eponymous protagonist is also a relatively per-ipheral figure in the poem. But the placement of Daniel directly after Exodus (one ofthe most unique and challenging works of surviving Old English literature) in theJunius manuscript receives little attention in relation to these matters, even thoughone of Daniel’s most daring detours from its biblical model is its continuation ofthe Exodus narrative: the Israelites move seamlessly from one poem into the next asDaniel recalls some of the highly idiosyncratic vocabulary employed in Exodus.4

One explanation for this distinctive chain of Old Testament stories in Junius 11 isthat certain episodes from the scriptural books of Exodus and Daniel were prominent

1Leslie Lockett convincingly dates the production of the main portion of the manuscript somewhere between 960and 990 with a spectrum-based method. For an accessible facsimile, see Muir and Kennedy.2At the end of the manuscript, the verse concludes with the phrase Finit Liber II. Amen. For a discussion of theconstruction of the manuscript see Barbara Raw (202–4), who notes that the “original plan included only theOld Testament poems” but also that “Christ and Satan was an afterthought, therefore, but a fairly early after-thought, as is shown not only by its script but by the fact that it was added before the manuscript as a wholehad been sewn.”3Portnoy, “Daniel and the Dew-LadenWind,” 196. For the most recent scholarship on Anglo-Saxon literature andthe Old Testament, see M. Fox and Sharma, eds.4Exodus occupies pp. 145–71 of the manuscript, Daniel pp. 173–212. The blankness of p. 171 suggests that it wasintended for a bridge-like illustration between the two poems (possibly the Israelites dealing out treasure, as wasproposed by P. Lucas (ed., Exodus). On the blank spaces left for illustration in Daniel, see P. Lucas, “On the BlankDaniel Cycle.” The empty page could also signal a pause in the action of a continuous reading. James Earl (570)drew attention to the fact that p. 171 of the MS, where Exodus ends, contains only thirteen and a half lines of verseand that the following page is the only one found to be blank “between poems” throughout Junius 11. Despite this,Exodus is not often thought to be incomplete.

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in the early medieval liturgy.5 The tale of the Three Hebrew Youths (Hananiah, Azariahand Mishael) and their escape from incineration within the fiery furnace (Daniel II)—which is at the centre of the poeticDaniel (224–489)—featured, with the account of theIsraelites passing through the Red Sea found in Exodus, as part of the readings for East-ertide, particularly those taking place on Holy Saturday. These major events of deliver-ance were typologically connected: they were powerful representations of Baptism andthey prefigured Christ’s victory over Satan in the Harrowing. Moreover, in Easter read-ings the safe passage of the Israelites through the parted waves, Portnoy notes, “spokeof the escape from Pharaoh in terms of salvation from the fornace ferrea”.6 A liturgicalconnection such as this offers some inkling as to why Daniel was included in the Junius11 cycle and why it might have been considered a fitting companion piece for Exodus.But there is a more direct connection in Junius 11: the bridge between two allegorical,liturgically popular events (the Red Sea crossing and the rescue of the Three Youths) isfar less explicit than the link between the end of Exodus and the beginning of Daniel,which are bound by narrative continuity and recurrent vocabulary. In addition, thetwo poems in their entirety offer far more than the aforementioned typologicalevents. Exodus is a long riddle: it is about the pursuit of blood-feud by the Egyptiansand it calls upon its audience to disentangle a mass of complex wordplay in order todecipher the spiritual meaning beneath Old English heroic diction. Daniel, asidefrom the furnace episode, details the fall of the Israelite nation and explores the spiri-tual and mental fluctuations of Nebuchadnezzar.7 It also ruminates upon the use andmisuse of the particular kinds of wisdom, knowledge and teaching that are defined inExodus.A correspondence between Exodus and Daniel was assumed implicitly in Francis

Blackburn’s early edition, Exodus and Daniel: Two Old English Poems Preserved inMS Junius 11, published in 1907. Though no clear claims for the connection weremade, some of Blackburn’s remarks remain suggestive. In good company with anumber of early Anglo-Saxonists who looked disdainfully on Daniel’s “literary” qual-ities, Blackburn claimed that the furnace scene (Daniel 224–489) could have had some“literary estimate”—along with the rest of the poem—had it been in the control of theExodus poet, who demonstrated “poetic fancy” and “power” in the description of theEgyptians drowning in the Red Sea (Exodus 447–515).8 Why did Blackburn put the two

5For a discussion of the relationship between vernacular Old English verse and the liturgical ceremonies of theAnglo-Saxon period, see Bruce Holsinger (160), who draws attention to the fact that “even during the BenedictineReform itself, provocative texts like the Old English Benedictine Office demonstrate a creative will among Englishmonastic and clerical communities to experiment with a liturgical vernacularity rich in its aesthetic and formalpossibilities.”6Portnoy, “‘Remnant’ and Ritual,” 413.7Critical attention in recent years has drawn attention to the representation of the poem’s central figure, Nebu-chadnezzar—to his pride, exile and dreams: see Caie; Overing; Harbus; Sharma; and H. Fox. For the “structuralunity” and oppositions (between good and evil, prideful overreaching and measured faith) in the poem, seeFarrell, ed., 34–6; and Anderson.8Blackburn, xxxiv.

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poems together? Why publish an edition of these two works and not include the otherJunius poems? Despite the point of comparison in the introduction being literary“quality”, Blackburn also drew parallels between the digressive nature of the poems(the “patriarchal digression” or backflash to Noah and Abraham in Exodus (362–446); the “Azarias lyrics” or furnace scene in Daniel) and the manner in which theyboth “failed” to offer “strong and clear characterisation” of their leading figures.9

Blackburn appears to have been more set on marking out the differences betweenthe poems—a strange thing, given that he published them in sequence and overlookedthe narrative continuity that ties them together.In the late twentieth century,Daniel began to earn more praise. GrahamCaie saw the

poem as “important in the imaginative unity of the entire Junius XI MS”.10

Despite the growing consensus following Caie’s essay that Daniel was worthy ofmore detailed study, comments on the poem’s relationship with Exodus havebeen sparse, brief and careful.11 No enquiries have been made into possible philo-logical or linguistic connections. But it is in these areas that the poems echo oneanother. The presence of similar collocations, compounds, thematic vocabularyand wordplay in both Exodus and Daniel cannot always be ascribed to the reuseof common Old English poetic formulae because, in some cases, the occurrencesare unique to the two poems. If anything, Exodus is the work of a poet whosought to push the verse form to its very limits: the poem is irregular, it containsa high number of hapax legemona, and the poet demonstrates a dexterity and inge-nuity with some unusual compound diction. Also, if type-scenes and recurrent for-mulaic phrases resulted in what Andy Orchard has called “a scenario innately likelyin any event, namely that untold numbers of Anglo-Saxons must have carried intheir heads songs both Latin and vernacular, Christian and secular, learned andlay, new and unknowably ancient”,12 then a poet, scribe or compiler, havingcome across Exodus, would no doubt have remembered its most forceful or recur-rent word-formations and their referents because they seem, at least amongst whathas survived, extremely unique.What I want to ask in this article, then, is whether or not the Old English Daniel

demonstrates a working knowledge or memory of Exodus. Is there more to therelationship between these two works than the coexistence of extracts from their bib-lical models in the liturgy? Exodus is likely to have been a striking piece of work—anyone who read or heard it may well have come under its influence. Could Exodushave inspired a new version of Daniel for the Junius codex? Or was a pre-existing

9Ibid., xxxi–xxxvi.10Caie, 3.11See Bjork, 216: “In addition to the appearance of similar words such as ae and waer, the formula ‘gif hie metodlete’ [if the Creator permitted them] (Exodus, ll. 52b, 414b) occurs with only slight modification in Daniel, l. 56b:‘þenden hie let metod’ [while the Creator permitted them].” Seth Lerer (126–58) viewsDaniel as a narrative enact-ment of the Law, the wræclico wordriht, set out in Exodus, but makes no claims for the Daniel poet having knowl-edge of a version of that poem.12Orchard, 309.

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version of Daniel altered so that it could follow on from Exodusmore seamlessly? Moreimportantly, can the tracing of recurrent words or collocations across these poems—and even across the length and breadth of the manuscript—offer more solid groundson which to build provocations about the “unity” of Junius 11’s first portion and aboutthe manner in which these poems speak to or remember one another? The unknowncompilers and interpolators, haunting the transmission history of this compilation firstknown as the “Caedmon manuscript”, may well have had sound (or even multi-) lin-guistic knowledge as well as in-depth familiarity with the poetics, words and phraseswithin the traditions in which they were working—enough, perhaps, to make sure apoem like Daniel followed Exodus smoothly because the biblical versions did notlink up so well.13

What follows here is a discussion of the relationship between Exodus and Daniel thattraces the occurrences of one, significant word (Old English mægen) unusually fre-quent in Exodus and fully imbricated within the account of the Israelite exodus thatopens the poetic Daniel. Mægen was an important word for Anglo-Saxon Christianpoets because of its ability to refer to a variety of things at once (e.g. extra-physicalstrength, God-given strength, an army, God’s hosts, Christian virtue, pre-Christianpower). This word-focused analysis will offer some new thoughts about the compo-sition of Daniel and about the possibility that this poemmay have undergone reformu-lation at some stage on the journey that brought it to Junius 11, so that it became amore fitting continuation of the astounding representation of salvation found inExodus.

II. The Time-Bending Journey to Jerusalem: The Prologue to the Old EnglishDaniel

The Junius manuscript teaches modern readers the importance of thinking carefullyabout the beginnings of Old English biblical poems.14 Such contemplation is required

13A. Doane (“The Ethnography of Scribal Writing,” 420–9) has drawn attention to the nature of the “scribe asperformer” with the help of the ethnographic work of Richard Bauman, in which “performance” was definedas the responsibility to an audience for clear and competent communication. Doane posits that “the scribe’s per-formance is not only of the power of writing, but also of the power of speaking, and the scribe’s performance istherefore considered not as faithful duplication, but as the exercise of his own ‘communicative competence’withinthe tradition that normally resides in speaking and traditional memory” (ibid, 423). Though Doane does notdiscuss Junius 11 here, these claims can certainly be brought to bear on it—it is a manuscript famous for itsvarious stages of interpolation and compilation. If the vernacular poems in Junius 11 were copied and assembledto be understood by a contemporary audience (what Doane calls “present use”), then it is possible that the copyingprocess involved adaptation and synthesis of poetic and narrative features.14Genesis A, for example, begins with an extra-biblical “exordium” or “prologue” that resituates the entire Genesisstory: the first creation in this poem is the construction of hell by God (20b–81). Furthermore, this new beginninghelps establish the core vocabulary by which oppositions are classified throughout the remainder of the imagina-tive paraphrase (such as that between those who keep the wær [“treaty/contract/covenant”] with God and thosewho, through oferhygd [“pride”], break it). All quotations from Genesis A are from Doane, ed., Genesis A: A NewEdition.

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when it comes to Daniel, as the first forty lines of the poem stand as a kind of exordiumthat sets up the ensuing narrative.15 This section may not have been part of the “orig-inal” poem (comprised of the sections of the Old EnglishDaniel that stick to the frame-work of the biblical book).16 It may also have been fashioned and added in order togive some structural unity to an unfinished work, or to tie the beginning of Danielto the end of Exodus: this exordium begins with an overview of the Israelite journeyout of Egypt to Jerusalem (described in Exodus) and continues the story of thatnation’s short-lived prosperity.The descent of the Israelites into pride and deceit is the main focus of Daniel’s intro-

ductory narrative. The Israhela cyn (“kin of Israel” [23a]) lose their faith as well as theirminds as they abandon æcræftas (“power of the Law” [19a]). Pride works its way intotheir lives (hie wlenco anwod: “pride invaded them” [17]) as they are enslaved by drun-kenness and deofles cræft (“devil’s craft” [32b]).17 Opposing terms (æcræftas vs. deoflescræft here) are frequent in the prologue and they help set up the two sides of the “con-flict” in play throughout the poem.18 The darkened minds of the Israelites—full of deo-foldædum and druncne geðohtas (“devil deeds”, “drunken thoughts” [18])—standagainst God’s lare (“teaching” [25b]), wisdom (“wisdom” [27b]) and snytro (“learning”[28a]). The Israelite desire for temporal eorðan dreamas (“joys of the earth” [30a])opposes God’s eces rædes (“eternal counsel” [30b]).Before they fall into sin and unriht (“unrighteousness” [23b]), however, the Israelites

rule Jerusalem. The opening lines of Daniel compress the events of the escape fromEgypt which have been fully represented in Exodus, coming to its end just over a manu-script page earlier, on 171.Daniel begins on page 173, collapsing a long history into justa few time-bending lines:

Gefrægn ic Hebreos eadge lifgean

in Hierusalem, goldhord dælan,

cyningdom habban, swa him gecynde wæs,

siððan þurh metodes mægen on Moyses hand

wearð wig gifen, wigena mænieo,

and hie of Egyptum ut aforon,

mægene micle. þæt wæs modig cyn! (Daniel 1–7)

(I have heard of the Hebrews living blessedly in Jerusalem, dealing out the gold-hoard, having the kingdom, as was natural for them, since through the strength

15There is a lack of consensus on just where the beginning of the poem stops being an exordium or extra-biblicalsection: R. Farrell (34) sees it as thirty-two lines. Roberta Frank (80) sees it as forty-five and Bjork as seventy-nine.I lean close to forty-five—the line in which Nebuchadnezzar enters the poem serving as the cut-off.16See Paul Remley (257–8), who is cautious about viewing this exordium as a composition added toDaniel at somestage of its transmission to Junius 11.17All quotations from Daniel are from Farrell’s edition and line numbers are given parenthetically in the text.Translations are my own.18Farrell, 34.

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of the Creator an army of many warriors was given into the hand of Moses, and theyfared out of Egypt by a great power. That was a brave kindred!)

Lines 1–7 call attention to the journey made by the Hebrew nation in the Juniusmanuscript up until this point. The events of Exodus are reviewed and rememberedand the audience are reminded what it was that brought them, along with the Israelites,here to Jerusalem, the magnificent high burh (“stronghold” [9a]) emblematic of theirsuccess. Caie was struck by these opening lines, noting that “although a thousand yearsare passed over, there is a continuity of action and theme, as one is given theimpression that the heahburg of Jerusalem was reached immediately after the RedSea crossing”.19 Daniel’s overview of the exodus story is only eight lines long but itswords suggest an invocation of the poetic Exodus: knowledge of that precedingpoem appears to be assumed. In Exodus, the migration out of Egypt is one of amægnes maeste (“great force” [67a]), a modigra mægen (“resolute force” [101a]),going forth at the command of Moses (101b).20 In the opening lines of Daniel, theIsraelite host is a modig cyn (7b) and, by way of metodes mægen (4a), journey out ofEgypt by a mægene micle (7a). Just like the opening of Daniel, the atmosphere at theend of Exodus is one of triumph as the Israelites rejoice in their miraculous escapefrom the feud-pursuing Egyptians. On the shores of the Red Sea, alongside theAfrisc meowle (“African woman” [580b]) who is with golde geweorðod (“goldadorned” [581b]), the Israelites “deal” or “share” this gold, in a similar manner tothe gold-hoarding Israelites at the beginning of Daniel:

Ongunnon sælaf segnum dælan

on yðlafe ealde madmas,

reaf ond randas; heo on riht sceodon

gold ond godweb… (Exodus 585–8a)

(The sea-remnant [the Israelites] began to deal out among the tribes the oldtreasures on the shore, shields and spoils. They rightly divided the gold and goodcloth… )

As these examples suggest, the more we examine the beginning of Daniel whilstthinking of Exodus, the more we pause on single words, and, through this, recallevents that have gone before in Junius 11. Perhaps we start thinking about whetheror not this is coincidence: are the similarities between the two poems mere mattersof orally derived formulaic repetition, or was the poet responsible for the opening of

19Caie, 3.20Quotations from Exodus are from the edition by Lucas and line numbers are given parenthetically in the text.However, as is necessary with this poem (considering the disagreements between and emendations of its variouseditors), I have cross-examined the text with the editions of George Krapp (ed.) and Edward Irving (ed.) as well aswith the more recent, accessible edition of Daniel Anlezark (ed. and trans.) and, when relevant, the manuscriptitself. Translations my own.

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Daniel demonstrating his knowledge and understanding of the highly original poeticsof Exodus?The opening lines of Daniel state that God’s mægen is the force by which the wig of

wigena mænieo are given into the hand of Moses. Echoes of Exodus resound here.21 Thepowerful hand of Moses is an important motif within the Exodus poet’s design and “thehand” as a symbol of strength and authority pervades the textual and pictorial narra-tives of the Junius 11 cycle, where it often represents the creative and destructivepowers of God. In Exodus, for example, the cataclysm that takes place in the RedSea is handweorc Godes (“God’s hand-work” [493b]), made possible mid halige hand(“with holy hand” [486a]); in Genesis B, Adam is Godes handgesceaft (“God’s hand-cre-ation” [455a]; see further lines 494 and 628), Eve and Adam were handum gesette (“setby [God’s] hands” [463b])—they are his handgeweorc (“hand-work” [241b]).22 Onpage 9 of the manuscript, the artist’s depiction of the creation of Eve places heavyemphasis on the role of God’s hands (they are large, bold and involved): the pictorialnarrative on this page moves forward as God creates with a hands-on approach (as hetakes Adam’s rib in the lower right illustration) and provides guidance (he holds Eve’shand on the right side of the page). InGenesis A, God defeats the rebellious angels whenhe honda arærde (“raised his hands” [50b]). These angels, we are told inGenesis B, werecreated through God’s handmægen (“hand-power” [247]) and he mid his handumgesceop (“shaped [them] with his hands” [251a]).23 In Exodus, the hand of Moses isthe authoritative conduit of divine strength—it is thus a focal point in the highestsense of the word: like viewers of the manuscript images (see, particularly, p. 61, theAscension of Enoch), the Israelites in Exodus have their eyes directed by handtowards a higher realm, towards a more spiritual way of seeing and towards thepower of God at work on earth.24 The dominance of this motif throughout theJunius codex suggests that there might well be a conscious awareness or shared knowl-edge of an important physical and spiritual symbol (or one that represents divinestrength in a physical body) across several poems.

21Least striking, though still worthy of comment, is the use of wig. With the senses “army” (5a) and “armed one/warrior” (5b), this term does not occur again throughout the rest of Daniel. In Exodus, wig (referring to battle orwarriors) is used consistently throughout the section detailing the march of the Israelite and Egyptian armies towar.22All quotations from Genesis B are taken from Doane, ed., The Saxon Genesis.23The manuscript images parallel these and many other uses of hand-symbolism in the poems. Take, for example,the depiction of God throughout the creation cycle (pp. 6 and 9) with hands raised. In the scenes of Satan bound inhell (bottom of p. 3 and pp. 16–17 and 20), there is emphasis on the binding of his hands (as there is in the accom-panying poem, Genesis B, with the envelope formed by lines 368b and 387b).24The repayment or reward (Heah wæs þæt handlean [19a]) is what is granted by God so that Moses, in turn,achieves victory through the power of his own hand and pays a reward of death to the Egyptians. As he tellshis troops at lines 262–3, mihtig Drihten þurh mine hand / to dæg þissum dædlean gyfan (“on this day themighty hand will give them [the Egyptians] their reward by my hand”). Several of the plagues in the Vulgateare also described as God channelling his power through the hand of Moses (see, for example, Exodus 10.12–14 [the plague of locusts]; 10.21–3 [the plague of darkness]).

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What stands out most of all in the opening lines and proceeding exordium of Danielin relation to Exodus, however, is the Old English word mægen. This word is also fullyutilised by the Exodus poet, who delights in its multivalency. One who had read orheard Exodus and had the ability to compose or amend vernacular verse could nothave failed to notice this, given the sheer frequency with which it occurs. The wordis extremely weighted and it comprises part of the Exodus poet’s challenge to hisreaders and hearers: the audience without and the Israelites within the poem’s worldmust learn to distinguish between “heroic” or literal meaning (mægen meaningarmy, or physical strength) and “Christian” or spiritual meaning (mægenmeaning vir-tuous, Godly power). Audrey Walton has recently described the poem’s “seamlesstransitions from literal to ‘spiritual’ senses” as being “authorised by the double mean-ings of particular Anglo-Saxon words”25—and mægen is certainly one of these. More-over, alone and in compounds, mægen is used more frequently in Exodus than in anyother Junius poem. No other biblical poem in the surviving corpus uses it more (onlyCynewulf’s Elene, more than twice the length of Exodus, demonstrates an equalnumber of occurrences).At the beginning of Daniel, mægen helps identify the key events of the Israelite

exodus. As a stand-alone noun, it does not occur again beyond the 45-line exordiumexcept for two occurrences at the very end of the poem (at lines 702 and 758). Theopening and closing sections of Daniel are very similar (some phrases and wordsoccur in both sections whilst not doing so anywhere else in the poem): parallels areforged between Belshazzar (whose fall into drunkenness, pride and devilry ends thepoem) and the Israelites (whose fall initiated the narrative) suggesting a designedunity of structure. The absence of mægen from the rest of Daniel is surprising giventhat it defines many key events, as well as God’s miraculous power, in the openingsection: until the closing sequence of the poem (Belshazzar’s feast), the Daniel poetuses only folcmægen (“troop” or “folk-power/army”) at line 185 (this compound isfound in surviving Old English only in Exodus [347a] and Andreas [1060a]) and hord-mægen (“treasure/power-hoard”) at line 670, which is a hapax legomenon.

III. Old “Mana”, New Strength

It is therefore striking that mægen features so prominently throughout Exodus and inthe opening section of Daniel. Does this suggest that the beginning of Daniel recalls notjust the biblical Exodus, but also the unique rendering of that story we find in the poeticExodus?Old English mægen was a prominent word and concept for Anglo-Saxon Christian

poets. Of ambiguous Germanic origin, it looks to have its roots in the base mag (“tohave power”) and can be identified with Old Englishmagan (“to be able”) as it connotesability and strength. Mægen also gestures towards heightened or preternatural

25Walton, 9.

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capability.26 Francis Magoun and then Stephen Glosecki noted that mægen may retainreflexes of a “pagan”, tribal Germanic concept of “mana”: “a force utterly distinct frommere physical power or strength, the possession of which assures success, good fortune,and the like to its possessor”. This was an inner, divine force or life-energy to be con-trolled and directed in order to bring success, luck and authority over one’s surround-ings.27 Butmore recent anthropologists advise caution. Roger Keesing rallies against theearlier, Codringtonian view of “mana” that “became part of the metalanguage ofanthropology” and notes that the view of “mana” that saw it as an “invisiblemedium of power, a spiritual energy manifest in sacred objects, a potency radiatedby humans”, in fact “rested on very insecure ethnographic grounds”.28 Tracing the lin-guistic evidence instead, Keesing suggests “a state of efficacy, success, truth, potency,blessing, luck, realisation—an abstract state or quality, not an invisible substance ormedium”.29 This concept of “mana” is not too far away from that of Old Englishmægen (the meaning of which is close to Keesing’s re-evaluation, with some remainsof that old Codringtonian definition). The belief in a kind of inner power that couldchannel as well as refer to the divine is common in tribal societies and is likely alsoto have been common in the primitive languages and communities of the early Germa-nic peoples.30 Traces of this “mana” concept are likely to reside in the uses ofmægen inthe Old English metrical charms, those remedies Glosecki suggests might be remnantsof early Northern European “therapeutic and apotropaic verses, often accompanied byritual,… treasured by those who staked their lives upon their effective power”.31 Thecharm known as Wið Færstice (“Against a sudden stitch”) offers an example ofmægen as a “mana” used and directed in an animistic world. This charm describeswomen similar to Norse valkyrjur, who fire and direct “spears” of illness. The powerbehind these mysterious darts is referred to in a specific way:

Stod under linde, under leohtum scylde,

þær ða mihtigan wif hyra mægen beræddon

and hy gyllende garas sændan

26See Clemoes, “King Alfred’s Debt to Vernacular Poetry,” 224; and Clemoes, Interactions, 72–3. In the later work,Peter Clemoes offers many examples from Beowulf to show thatmægen refers only to “physical” strength. Thoughit is referring to physical capability in that poem, it also, I think, gestures towards a more extra-physical force (aswe see in Beowulf’s feats, and as we know from the terms used in the works of other Christian poets, not least thoseof Exodus and Daniel). Therefore, I don’t dispute the claim of Clemoes, but seek to add to it only by saying thatinterpreting mægen as “physical strength” can leave unstated the inner force—used and directed physically—thatseems to be behind it, an innate power that, when applied, takes the bearer beyond the boundaries of the humanbody.27Magoun, 34. See further Glosecki, Shamanism.28Keesing, 137.29Ibid., 138.30Roger Keesing’s analysis of “mana”-terms in the Oceanic languages shows the term has a variety of different—though related—meanings, just like Old Englishmægen. In Tongan, for example, “mana” is “supernatural, super-human, miraculous,” the verb “mana, mana-I”means “to bewitch; to cause something to happen to another.” InNiue, Stative “mana” means “powerful,” the noun “power, authority, miracle” (see Keesing, 140–53).31Glosecki, “Stranded Narrative,” 48.

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([I] stood under linden, under a light shield, where those mighty women proclaimedtheir strength/mana and, yelling, they sent spears.)32

There might even be reflexes of an older concept of the “mana” possessed by reveredfigures in themægen- andmag- forms used to refer to leaders in the poems of Junius 11(albeit in a newer, Christian context). Compounds such as magoræswa (Exodus 17, 55,102) and mægenwisa (Exodus 554b) connote qualities of strength in wisdom, power,sharp-mindedness, knowledge, faith, teaching and leadership: attributes of leadingfigures (whether of a tribe or a nation) whose mægen is controlled and beneficial.But the Junius poems also go some way to suggest that mægen is a quality that canbe misdirected and ill-used if it is not balanced or controlled by the mod.33 Satan, inGenesis B, created with God’s handmægen (247), believes that he has more mægynand cræft (“strength and skill” [269b]) than God and God’s “war-companions” ( folc-gestælna [270a]). The irony of Satan’s boast circulates around his own concept ofmægen as he reduces it to a matter of physical prowess (and Satan does have moreof that kind ofmægen than God’s troops), missing the point that God’smægen is some-thing quite different: it is virtuous, creative, spiritual and controlled—used againstuncontained pride, rather than in support of it. Christian poets seem to have had agood grasp of the multivalent nature of mægen as they applied it to figures from scrip-ture and also to miraculous events therein.34 Such a range of meaning is also evident inthe progression the term appears to have made from connotations of “(innate/phys-ical/magical) strength” to significations of “(virtuous/Christian/God-derived) strength,power, or might (of the mind, soul, or body)”, as mægen would come to gloss Latinvirtus in texts such as the Vespasian Psalter.35 The word moved into a new domainas Christianity synthesised with the Germanic vernacular, and it would eventuallytake on meanings of “moral” or “virtuous” strength as it does perhaps most memor-ably in the Paris Psalter containing Alfred’s Psalms.36

Mægen also served Christian poets well in its ability to refer to a “strength” thatcould have been virtuous if the world they were depicting had knowledge of God.This is certainly the case in Beowulf. Beowulf himself is often characterised by hismægen and, as Fred Robinson notes, the poet used this term to show thatBeowulf possessed “what passed for virtue” in a pre-Christian society.37 Mægen

32Wið Færstice, lines 5–7: for the text of this charm, see Doane, “Editing Old English Oral/Written Texts,” 125–45.33See Engberg.34See Bosworth—Toller, mægen, II: “an exercise of power, effort, a mighty work, miracle.”35Clemoes, “King Alfred’s Debt,” 224.36Clemoes also notes that Alfred is unique in often preferring cræft as a gloss to virtus. The abundance of the termmægen in the Psalms, however, does not mean that the king was unaware of its importance as a representation ofinnate, God-given strength.37Robinson, 54. Here Fred Robinson picks out the well-known lines praising Beowulf as a prime example of this(wæs moncynnes mægenes strengest / on þam dæge þysses lifes [196–7]), noting that “‘He was of all mankind thestrongest in strength (mægen) in that day of this life.’ Consideration of the apposed meanings ‘strength’ and‘virtue’ contained in mægen may lead us to a fuller appreciation of this half-line” (54).

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also highlights the growth of Beowulf’s strength (whether in rumour, reality orthrough the hero’s own tale-telling) to a state of mythic, superhuman power: inHrothgar’s highly providential speech welcoming Beowulf’s arrival on the shoresof Denmark, for example, the lord of the Scyldings notes that the sæliþende (“sea-merchants” [377b]) said þæt he þritiges / manna mægencræft on his mundgripe(“that he [Beowulf] had the strength-craft of thirty men in his hand-grip” [379b–80]). When announcing himself as the right man for the job of dispatchingGrendel, Beowulf tells Hrothgar that snotere ceorlas (“wise/learned men” [416b])had seen him destroy eotena cyn (“a tribe of giants” [421a]) and, on the waves atnight, niceras (“water-serpents” [422a]), forþan hie mægenes cræft mine cuþon(“since they had known my strength’s craft” [418]).38 Then, just before Grendel’sMother arrives to tear Hrothgar’s hæleþa leofost (“most beloved thane” [1296b])from his bed, the poem recalls Beowulf’s tremendous strength in the earlier fightwith Grendel:

þær him aglæca ætgræpe wearð;

hwæþre he gemunde mægenes strenge,

gimfæste gife ðe him god sealde,

ond him to anwaldan are gelyfde,

frofre ond fultum; ðy he þone feond ofercwom,

gehnægde helle gast.39

(There the adversary [Grendel] came to grips with him [Beowulf]; but he [Beowulf]remembered the force of his strength, a gem-fast gift that God had given him, and hetrusted in the mercy of the all-powerful Lord, comfort and aid; by these he overcamethe fiend, brought low the hell-spirit.)

Outside the narrative frame of the world in which Beowulf’s strength (from a god) isthe source of his victory, the poet now makes clear that this innate power can beappreciated as a gift of the God with whom later Christians can conquer the fiendsof hell. Mægen thus becomes a fitting term for a hero whose extra-physical strengthwas used correctly in a time before Christianity, suggesting the even greater victorythat can be accomplished through the virtuous use of one’s faculties, and throughtheir considered and measured application.Mægen offered Christian poets the potential for paronomasia because it stemmed

from a concept of inner force—the stuff that flows through the one who steps outof “natural” or “physical” dimensions and into the realm of the superhuman. Theword is also occasionally used in poetry to refer to a “host” or “army” (whilst retaining

38All quotations from Beowulf are taken from Klaeber’s Beowulf: Fourth Edition edited by Fulk, Bjork, and Niles.Translations my own.39Fulk, Bjork, and Niles, lines 1269–74a.

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the related meaning of “power”). This allowed a scop like the poet of Exodus to refer tolegions of men whilst suggesting the strength they gained from their assembly in God’sname. In turn, the poet of Exodus calls upon his audience to distinguish betweenmean-ings such as “army”, “glory” and “strength” within a given context. In the accusativesingular at Exodus 131b, mægen connotes “strength” (referring to the Israelites beingrestored by food on the sea shore), as it does at line 242b. The term refers to the (Israe-lite) “army” (going on the migration, the war-march, away from Egypt) at lines 67aand 101a. At line 210a it refers to the Egyptian army seen from the Israelite perspective,suggesting that the Israelites are wrongfully looking upon it as a threat they have noadvantage over.40 Following this, Moses inspires reorganisation and resolution in theIsraelite troops so that mægen wæs onhrered (“strength was reared up” [226b]),which could be taken as a reference to the martial strength of the “army” remustering,but seems more likely to refer to the God-given force rising up within the ranks by wayof Moses’ wisdom and leadership, for he is the human agent directing God’s mægen(see also lines 300a and 346b).41

In the description of the drowning of the Egyptians in the Red Sea (447–515), somuch of the poem’s vocabulary that was used to describe the martial threat of Phar-aoh’s army is reversed and undone: the waves themselves, described as a ferociousarmy, show the Egyptian force for what it truly is (its “mana”, without God, is illusory,the threat is physical). Mægen is not only used to suggest that the Egyptian “force” or“host” has been punished and crushed, but that the strength of their heathen regimehas been submerged—that their potential for achieving a virtuous strength fromGod is now irrevocably buried, as is evident in the following phrases, referring tothe Egyptians: mægen wæs adrenced (“the force was drowned” [459a]) and mægeneall gedreas (“the force completely perished” [500b]).

IV. An Exodus into Daniel

With these remarks concerning the general significance and uses ofmægen in mind, therole of the word and compounds containing it in Exodus and in those parts of Daniellikely to have been refashioned for Junius 11 is worthy of further investigation. Con-sider again the opening lines of Daniel:

Gefrægn ic Hebreos eadge lifgean

in Hierusalem, goldhord dælan,

cyningdom habban, swa him gecynde wæs,

siððan þurh metodes mægen on Moyses hand

40The Israelites often see the Egyptian force in heightened terms (their fears taking them into a way of seeing thatcomes close to them doubting and renouncing their faith). This is accentuated at line 215a when, in fear, they viewPharaoh’s host as the maran mægenes (“more powerful army”).41Compounds also refer to the troop or powerful troops: beadumægen (329), folcmægen (347), leodmægen (128,167, 195), þeodmægen (342), mægenheap (197), mægenþreat (513), mægenþrymm (349 and 541).

Old English Mægen 837

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wearð wig gifen, wigena mænieo,

and hie of Egyptum ut aforon,

mægene micle. þæt wæs modig cyn! (Daniel 1–7)

These lines make clear the Daniel poet’s fondness for wordplay. Channelled throughMoses, God’s mægen (4a) allows the Israelites to emerge out of Egypt with amægene micle (7a). A reference to the “great army” and “great power” that broughtthe Hebrews to Jerusalem, the mægene micle construction encapsulates within it themiracle of the cloud-pillar, the strength and virtue of Moses, along with the martialvigour with which the Israelites came to their gold-hoard. Indeed, conceiving of theIsraelite legion as a mægene recalls the criteria by which the army was selected inExodus (224–51). This extra-biblical passage begins by stating thatmægen wæs onhrered(“strength [or the army] was reared up” [226b]) and þæt wæs wiglic werod. Wace negretton / in þæt rincgetæl ræswan herges (“that was a warlike host. The army’s leadersdid not greet the weak into that warrior-company” [233–4]). This long section ofExodus poses certain problems, as Bryan Wyly has demonstrated: “what”, he asks,“is to become of the Israelites passed over in the muster once Moses’ forces havebeen mercilessly exterminated in the battle?”42 The presence of mægen in the poet’selaboration, however, suggests that this selection process is not based on physicalability alone, but on virtuous strength too:

Gamele ne moston,

hare heaðorincas, hilde onþeon,

gif him modheapum mægen swiðrade,

ac hie be wæstmum wigheap curon,

hu in leodscipe læstan wolde

mod mid aran, eac þan mægnes cræft,

garbeames feng. (Exodus 240b–6a)

(The aged, grey battle-warriors would not thrive in battle, if among the brave batta-lions their strength had weakened, but they [i.e. those in charge] chose the regimentfor its stature, for how courage with honour would last among the people, also forthe craft of strength in grasping a spear.)43

Troops—or, allegorically, Christians—are “picked” and can achieve salvation,victory over sin and hell, through the rightful application of mægen. In this way,they become armed with the strength of spiritual grace, wisdom and virtue. Though

42Wyly, 217–18.43This extra-biblical passage, a possible free elaboration of the Vulgate version of Exodus 12.37, has attracted someattention for its analogical and typological significance. John Hermann (2–3) sees the situation (Israelites sur-rounded and outnumbered by hostile tribes) as representative of the soul besieged by sins. If so, those lackingmægen (strength, but for the interpretive audience member, virtuous strength) would not be picked to go onto the Promised Land.

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this passage appears as highly heroic poetry, a deeper meaning resides within it, readyto be unlocked by those attuned to the allegorical potential of the poem’s language.Those who might have taken mægen as primarily physical or martial strength herewould be forced to review their interpretation at the end of the poem when thepoetic voice offers advice on the way scriptural texts (as well as Exodus itself) can beread:

Gif onlucan wile lifes wealhstod,

beorht in breostum, banhuses weard,

ginfæsten god Gastes cægon,

run bið gerecenod, ræd forð gæð (Exodus 523–6)

(If the Interpreter of Life, the warden of the bone-house, bright in the breast, willunlock the vast and goodly stronghold [of scripture] with the keys of the Spirit,the mystery will be understood and counsel [ræd] will go forth.)

With typology as the “key”, a word like mægen in Exodus takes on a gastlice meaningand cannot be read or heard without connoting Christian virtue.In some ways, then, the use ofmægen in the opening lines ofDaniel is a fitting way to

present a compressed overview of Exodus—if indeed that is what the poet is doing—because, in the words of Roberta Frank, the “semantic extensions” of the word inDaniel’s opening passage “range all the way from ‘bodily strength’ to ‘divinemiracle’”, as they do throughout Exodus.44 In part, Exodus envisions the Israelitejourney as one that moves away from a martial and literal view of the world (theworld-view embodied by the Egyptians, who pursue a vendetta and refuse to acknowl-edge God’s power even after Tenth Plague [33–48]) towards insight, wisdom and ræd.Following Moses, the Israelites come to acknowledge God as their salvation, as the“eternal foundation” (Exodus 285a) beneath manifestations of wonder in the temporalworld.Certain other collocations found in Exodus re-emerge within and around the

opening section of Daniel. As Moses attempts to turn the Israelites to beteran ræd(“better counsel” [269b]) in Exodus, he speaks out to the troops: þis is se ecea Abra-hames God…modig and mægenrof, mid þære miclan hand (“this is the eternal Godof Abraham… brave and powerful, with that great hand” [273, 275]). More interest-ingly, towards the very end of Exodus, Moses, “strengthened with might” (mihtumswiðed [550b]) offers a similar overview of the Israelite plight to the one we find inthe opening lines of Daniel:

wundor ongeton,

modiges muðhæl. He to mænegum spræc:

44Frank, 89.

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“Micel is þeos menigeo, mægenwisa trum,

fullesta mæst, se ðas fare lædeð;

hafað us on Cananea cyn gelyfed

burh and beagas, brade rice… (Exodus 552b–7)45

([the Israelites] recognised the wonder, the brave one’s healing words. He [Moses]spoke to the multitudes: “Great is this host, the leader strong, greatest of helpers,who leads this wayfaring; he has allowed us the people in Canaan, the strongholdand the treasures, the broad kingdom… )

It is as though the Daniel poet takes a cue from these lines when setting up the fall ofthe Israelites in his exordium: there, we recall, the Israelites are a wigena mænieo (theyare also a micle menigeo at Exodus 554a). God, a mægenwisa at the close of Exodus(554b), is said to have provided mægen at Daniel line 4a and to have worked amægen micle for the Israelites who came out of Egypt (Daniel 7a). The blessed andprosperous Israelites take the burh and beagas in the final stages of Exodus and rulethe burgum whilst still in a state of eadge (“blessedness”) when Daniel begins (9a).The burh is a dominant image throughout Daniel, too: the relationship betweencities and the emotional states of their inhabitants, so important throughout the nar-rative, is firmly established in the exordium. There, the stronghold of Jerusalem crum-bles as the Israelites fall and the kingdom of Babylon rises up, marking the beginning ofDaniel’s ongoing exploration of translatio imperii.46

The Hebrew rule of the burh in Daniel is conditional: þenden hie þy rice rædanmoston, / burgum weoldon, wæs him beorht wela (“while they were able to guide/counsel the kingdom, rule the strongholds, their glory was bright” [8–9]). The tem-poral conjunction þenden is a suggestive marker of this: the Israelite glory lasts onlyas long as they rule in a particular way. The nature of such rule is implicit in theverb rædan. Given that the noun form ræd (meaning “good counsel”) is one of thecore words in the Junius manuscript for the identification of the faithful and just,the beginning of Daniel makes clear that good rule as well as prosperity can only bemaintained through the nurture and upkeep of ræd—a quality that also enables theIsraelites to “hold” and interpret the covenant. This is suggested in the followingtwo lines: þenden þæt folc mid him hiera fæder wære / healdan woldon, wæs himhyrde God (“while that folk intended to keep their father’s oath with him, God was

45A similar passage in Exodus gestures towards the movement of the Israelite host through alliteration andcollocation:

werod eall aras,modigra mægen, swa him Moyses bebead,mære magoræswa, Metodes folc… (100b–2)

See, again, lines 226, 243, 245 and 300 (all using mægen in this manner).46For a discussion of this theme, see Remley, 248–52.

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their protector” [Daniel 10–11]).47 These lines seem to be reaching back into thehistory that was traced so circuitously and memorably in Exodus, adding anotherdimension of tragedy and dramatic impact to the Israelite fall: Moses gave the Israeliteseces rædas at the end of Exodus (516b) and then in the exordium of Daniel those ecesrædes (30a) are consumed by eorðan dreamas (“earthly joys” [30b]).48

An awareness of the uses of mægen may also add something to the ongoing debateabout the “unity” ofDaniel. As has already been mentioned, the grip of wlenco (“pride”[17]) on the Israelites in the opening section of Daniel is strong, and it invades them ætwinþege / deofoldædum, druncne geðohtas (“at the wine-feast, with devil-deeds, drunkenthoughts” [17–18]). Despite God’s repeated attempts to send lare (“instruction/teach-ing” [25b]) and wisdom (27b), the Israelites “give up” ( forlæton [19b]) following theæcræftas and the metodes mægenscipe (“measurer’s power” [20a]) in favour of deoflescræft (32b).49 Likewise, in the final segment of the poem, Belshazzar is the burgaaldor (“lord of the strongholds” [676b]) only oðþæt him wlenco gesceod (“until pridedestroyed him” [677b]). The Babylonians at the end of Daniel, like the Israelitesturning to deofles cræft and druncne geðohtas at the start of the poem, are told (byDaniel) that they have taken to drinking to deoflu (“devils” [749a]) with the sacredliturgical vessels formerly owned by the Israelites who had prosperity oðþæt hie gylpbeswac, / windruncen gewit (“until prideful boasting seduced them, their wits wine-drunk” [751–2]). If these kinds of parallels suggest unity, then the “balance” of begin-ning and end is supported further by the presence ofmægen (as a stand-alone noun) inboth of the sections—as is, perhaps, the idea that Belshazzar falls in a more disturbingway than the Israelites (the fall of the Hebrew nation having provided the blueprint fordisobedience and defiance of the law).Whilst older critics disputed the unity of Daniel, agreeing that it was incomplete,

corrupt or ineffective, R. Farrell’s 1974 edition brought credibility to the poem andargued for its unity of design well enough to be supported by scholars such as Caieand R. Bjork.50 More recently, Manish Sharma has questioned the parallels between

47Ræd is a fitting term for good rule in Daniel because the poet appears to insist on a number of characteristics thatkeep faith permanent and keep God on one’s side. These are spiritual wisdom, rightful interpretation, measure andthe teaching, knowledge, maintaining and understanding of God’s law. Ræd, as Nicholas Howe (“Cultural Con-struction,” 1–23) has shown, is related to “moral virtues of wisdom and goodness” (as we often see in theMaxims),the interpretation of texts and the world, through which it creates and strengthens community. It stands opposedto unræd—a quality defining prideful figures such as the rebel angels—throughout the Junius poems.48The final occurrence of “folc” in Exodus is of considerable impact: folc wæs on lande (“the folk were on land”[567b]). This refers to the Israelites reaching salvation, after they have been referred to as sailors throughoutthe poem. “Folc,” Howe (Migration and Mythmaking, 77) notes, accumulates strong meaning throughoutExodus, for it “appears most tellingly in phrases that establish the distinctive nature, and thus the historicalvalue, of the Israelites: Metodes folce (l. 102), folca leofost (l. 279) and folca selost (l. 446).” Such significancegives even more weight to a term like folcmægen (Exodus 377) as it gestures towards the God-given virtue andstrength prescribed to the folk for their use (or, when we come to Daniel, misuse).49The nounmægenscipe (suggesting power/strength-ship in the same sense as “lordship”) is found nowhere else insurviving Old English. Was the poet responsible for this opening section of Daniel putting his own spin on thepower of the “Measurer,” a power presented so strikingly in Exodus?50For an older view, see Gollancz, ed.

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the opening and closing sections ofDaniel, noting that Belshazzar does not move out ofthe confines of his burh: his pride does not result in exile as it does for Nebuchadnezzarand the Israelites. Thus, critics may have “overstated the poem’s parallelism”.51

However, Sharma also points out that the Belshazzar episode is linked to the rest ofthe poem with structural elements “such as drunken feasting, idolatry, pride, anddownfall” and that the beginning and end have their relationship “reinforced by thefact that the term wlenco appears in Daniel only in lines 17 and 677.”52 It is not incor-rect to think of Daniel as a composite work, as the early scholars did; nor can we denythat the end of the poem as it stands parallels the opening segment in various ways. The“parallel” serves to accentuate that Belshazzar will not be given exile or movementbeyond the prison walls of his own city and mind because his transgression (and there-fore his punishment) is more severe than that of the Hebrews and Nebuchadnezzar.53

Though the Babylonian tyrant’s plight at the end is almost the opposite to that of theIsraelites at the beginning, the relationship between the two falls still manages to framethe poem, as they both echo or connect with each other in terms of their vocabulary.To reaffirm that drunkenness, boastfulness and misuse of prosperity align perpetra-

tors with the devil, Daniel ends on a note of doom that sets up the salvific impact ofChrist and Satan. There is considerable irony in the lines depicting Belshazzar at hisfeast, dismissive of the devastation coming to Babylon:

Gesæt þa to symble siðestan dæg

Caldea cyning mid cneo-magum,

þær medugal wearð mægenes wisa (Daniel 700–702)

(Then the king of the Chaldeans sat at feasting on the fated day with his kinsmen,when the leader of that army became drunk.)

The king’s role as leader is overshadowed and perverted: drunkenness encroaches onmægen, intoxicating it. The term is sullied by a tyrannical figure and relegated to iden-tifying spiritless leadership. Belshazzar lacks control over his “army” as well as his“strength”. Belshazzar also appears to have been blind to the virtue thatmægen can rep-resent (such as the God-given power referred to at the beginning of the poem)—amistake made by prideful figures throughout Junius 11. Daniel’s poem-concludingspeech sees that mægen returns to this rightful, virtuous context as Belshazzar andhis kinsmen are juxtaposed with the converted king Nebuchadnezzar, who wentbefore them. Daniel speaks and makes clear that Nebuchadnezzar may have had hisfaults:

51Sharma, 105.52Ibid., 104 and 109 respectively.53The poem might have no signs of incompleteness in the manuscript, but this is not to say that at an earlier stagein the transmission history of a poetic Daniel there might have been accounts of Daniel’s interpretation of the runon the wall, the slaying of Belshazzar or the overcoming of Babylon by Darius.

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ac þæt oftor gecwæð aldor ðeoda

soðum wordum ofer sin mægen,

siððan him wuldres weard wundor gecyðde,

þæt he wære ana ealra gesceafta

drihten and waldend (Daniel 757–61a)

(but the leader of nations [Nebuchadnezzar] more often said to his forces in truewords, after the warden of glory had made known the wonder to him, that he[God] alone is the lord and ruler of all created things)

Mægen is brought into the company of truth, wonder, Godly leadership and creation inthe closing words of the poem.There is one final mægen-link between Exodus and Daniel and it lies in their shared

interest in and exploration of rising and falling nations (translatio imperii). Followingthe account of the Egyptians drowning in the Red Sea, Exodus describes the news of thiscatastrophe as being broadcast across the burgum:

bodigean æfter burgum bealospella mæst,

hordwearda hryre, hæleða cwenum,

ac þa mægenþreatas meredeað geswealh,

þa spelbodan. (Exodus 511–14a)

(the messengers must announce across the cities the most baleful news, the fall of thehall-guardians, to the men’s wives, because the sea-death had swallowed the force ofthe powerful threats.)

The fall of the Egyptian nation in the Red Sea is the fall of the “hoard-guardians”—astatus also given to the Egyptians who were demolished in the Tenth Plague (hord-wearda hryre [35]). The above lines, detailing the end of the Egyptian “threat”,suggest that their mægen was merely temporal: grandeur no deeper than surface-level, physical, martial splendour. In Exodus, it is the Israelites who come to acknowl-edge the deop meanings in the world. Their treasure is distributed moderately, withknowledge of eternal treasures to come.54 But in Daniel the Israelites give up suchmeasured and obedient practice. Desire for worldly joy creeps back into theirminds. Overcome with a pleasure in earthly goods amidst their burh, the Israelitesof Daniel fall into the kind of God-less behaviour they worked so hard to escape inExodus. Retribution comes: an inevitability within a city darkened by malice andblack arts, and once so bright in

54The eternal counsels given to the Israelites on the shore of the Red Sea are called a deop ærende (“deep message”[519a]). The ironic “reward” (lean [507b]) given to the Egyptians in the Red Sea is deop, and Moses opens the deopsea with his green tacen (“emblem/token” [281])—an act which gestures towards the deeper meaning beneaththings, that is, the spiritual significance beneath text and world.

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eðelland

þær Salem stod searwum afæstnod,

weallum geworðod. To þæs witgan foron,

Caldea cyn, to ceastre forð,

þær Israela æhta wæron bewrigene mid weorcum; to þam þæt werod gefor,

mægenþreat mære, manbealwes georn. (Daniel 39b–45)

(the native land, where Salem stood fastened with cunning skill, honoured withwalls. To that place the witan fared, the Chaldean kin, forward to the city, wherethe possessions of the Israelites were hidden amidst fort-works; to it the troopwent forward, the famous force-threat, eager for baleful murder.)

Mægenþreat occurs only twice in surviving Old English: at the end of Exodus as the cat-aclysmic Red Sea episode concludes and in the exordium of Daniel. This compoundnoun takes mægen into a threatening territory of meaning (þreat can mean a“troop”, “crowd” or “throng”; but it can also carry meanings of “violence”, “oppres-sion” and “punishment”55). Such “threat”—epitomised by the Egyptians and then,in Daniel, by the Chaldeans—arrives as a host: a force or army of physical strength,a form of mægen untouched by virtue, hostile to God. Such hordes are submergedbeneath the waves in Exodus (once the Israelites have been directed towards recog-nition and understanding of God’s power, and away from seeing things in martialand literal terms), but they boil back to the surface in Daniel, as the Hebrews forgetthat strength is to be found in spiritual wisdom, ræd and self-control. As the IsraelitesinDaniel fall into the doom from which they were saved in Exodus, it is fitting that theirpunishment should come in the form of a mægenþreat (a term used to define thatwhich pursued them for so long in the previous poem)—and that they are taken onlangne sið (68b), on eastwegas (69b), back into exile, back into captivity within ademonic stronghold.56 The reversal of fortune is striking: at the close of Exodus, werecall, the Egyptian defeat is the hordwearda hryre (“fall of the hoard-wardens”[512a]). The Israelites rejoice in this treasure at the end of that poem. Their fallfrom prosperity in Daniel brings the punishing Chaldeans, and the poet states thatGehlodon him to huðe hordwearda gestreon (“they loaded up as booty the treasure ofthe hoard-wardens” [65]) when taking the Israelites captive.The associations traced in this article suggest that the exordium of the Old

English Daniel has a strong poetic connection with the Old English Exodus and itsfinal passages. Though episodes from the biblical books of Exodus and Daniel cametogether in liturgical programmes, the versions of these narratives found in Junius

55See Bosworth—Toller, þreat, II.56In its beginnings the long Israelite migration in Exodus sets out along the forðwegas (“forth-ways, onward paths”[32b]), and the progress of the journey is thereafter marked by weg-compounds that define certain stages of thetransitus (norðwegas [68b]; lifeweg [104b]; flodewege [106a]; suðwegum [155b]). Such wandering, such flight fromthose who pursue vengeance, is put to rest with the “locking down” of Pharaoh’s hosts—for whom there is no wegback to the homes they want to find (Exodus 454; and 456b–7a).

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11 are elaborative and interpretive retellings appropriated for Anglo-Saxon culture:there are many more connections between the two poems than the allegorical signifi-cance of the two biblical episodes (the Red Sea crossing in Exodus, the escape from thefiery furnace in Daniel) associated with the Eastertide readings. What is more, some ofthe vocabulary used to recall the Israelite exodus out of Egypt in the opening lines ofDaniel points to the highly original version of that story we find in the Exodus placedjust before the Daniel of Junius 11. Whoever was responsible for the composition ofDaniel’s exordium used poetic words and collocations that were vital to the creationof the interpretive challenge at the heart of Exodus.Of course, Exodus and Daniel fit in well with the overarching Junius 11 theme of fall

and redemption.57 Events depicted in these poems correspond well with other fallsthroughout the Junius 11 cycle: the fall of the Israelites has greater and more ominoussignificance to it when we recall other falls, other breakings of the wær (“oath” or “Cove-nant”), such as the angelic falls found in Genesis A and B. Such connections allow us totrace illuminating and informative parallels across the manuscript. Perhaps scribes andcompilers did this too. The poems of Junius 11 speak to each other. Words and colloca-tions become markers and reminders of what constitutes obedience and disobedience, orgood and bad counsel, as the manuscript goes on. Take the example of the idol on theplane of Dura raised by the rædleas Nebuchadnezzar (Daniel 177a). We might recallthat it was with unræd that the rebel angels of Genesis A turned away from God andtried to raise their own idolatrous kingdom, as their fall initiated the narrative of themanuscript’s first portion. These rebels are cast into the rædleas hof (“place withoutgood counsel” [GenA 44b]). Nebuchadnezzar’s foolishness echoes that first transgressionand, if we relate his rædleas act to acts lacking ræd in the Junius poems, it becomes heavilyladen and intertwined with other, central Junius 11 narratives of sin, pride and struggle,helping us contextualise and interpret the depth of the tyrant’s transgression.There is certainly a conversation taking place between Exodus and Daniel, one

that raises the possibility of a shared knowledge or exchange between them. Simplyput, it appears as though whoever compiled the manuscript wanted them to beread and heard together, in sequence. Though Old English mægen was an importantword for early medieval Christian poets, the relentless frequency with which itoccurs in Exodus would have struck any learned hearer or reader into attention andcontemplation—the significance of the word in this poem would surely have remainedin the memory-store. The use of mægen to define certain events of the Israelite exodusin the opening lines of Daniel also invites us to recall a very specific presentation of thisvital migration. Of course, this could be nothing more than the recurrence of formulaicblocks of verse, without the intention of relating the two poems, but that is an argu-ment that does not wholly account for the narrative synthesis that moves one poeminto the other, nor for the words and phrases found only in these two works. Thereare words in the opening section of Daniel that were pivotal to the rhetorical heft of

57See Hall.

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Exodus. Daniel remembers Exodus, recalling it as history with a re-sounding andrehearing of its mægen (to think even more about formulaic language, and aboutnot dismissing it, Daniel’s first words are, fittingly, Gefrægn ic (“I have heard…”

[1a]).58 Chains, links, parallels and cross references; poetic memory and poems remem-bering: the relationship between Exodus and Daniel forces us to consider the languageof Old English poetry—right down to individual words and the journeys they makethrough literature and through time—as having some bearing upon a selection oftexts. It asks us to treat seriously the possibility that a poem like Exodus could itselfhave been influential.

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58Walton (4) notes that gefrignan, which is also present in the beginning of Exodus (… we feor and neah gefrigenhabað, “we have heard, far and near” [1]), “connotes a kind of avidity,” as it was used to gloss words such as inquir-ere (“to seek out, to search out”). “The action of the Israelites on the shore at the conclusion,” she writes, “avidlyseeking out the treasure of textual meaning, echoes the poem’s opening act of gefrignan, understood as a kind ofactive ‘finding out’ rather than a passive hearing” (Walton, 4).

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