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Genesis, Lines 47-102

In these lines God punishes the renegade angels, sending them to hell. Those angels who remain in heaven are peaceful and prosperous. God then begins to create the earth.

Genesis, lines 1-46

The Anglo-Saxon poem Genesis, from the Junius Manuscript, lines 1-46.

Here are the opening lines of Genesis, the first poem in the Junius Manuscript. My plan is to post a podcast of between 40 and 100 lines of Old English poetry read aloud each weekday, followed, perhaps, by a lecture on the poem as each poem is finished. With a little luck, we can work our way through the entire Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records in a little over a year.

Lines 1-46 tell how God ruled the realm of heaven with the “guardians of souls.” But the leader of angels begins to become prideful and seeks to have a throne in the northern part of heaven. So God becomes angry and fashions a fiery prison for Satan.