Angels (good and bad) as thegns

While transcribing Aldred’s gloss to the Durham Ritual on folio 34r, I came across a curiosity, one of many that I highlight to savor now or later.  As often happens, this one took me down a research rabbit hole.

Durham Cathedral Library A.IV.19, fol. 34r

On lines 1 and 2, Aldred has twice glossed Latin “angels” with Old English “thegns,” where ordinarily he and others would use the anglicized form englas or engelas (variously spelled).

The passage is a capitula or chapter reading from Revelation 12:7-8 as part of a celebration of St. Michael the Archangel’s festival on 29 September.  Maddeningly, the first part of the series begins on the page missing between folio 33 and folio 34, so it picks up mid-sentence.  I add the missing bit first [Corrêa, item 437] and then the transcription of the Latin (Lat.) with Old English (OE) above, followed by a Modern English (ModE) translation:

III Kal. Oct. (29 Sept.) Capitvla in festivitate sancti Michaelis Archangeli

Factum est proelium in caelo; Michael…

OE	7	ðegnas	his	gifvhton	mið vel við ðæm	dræcce		7	se dræcca
1	et	angeli	eius	proeliabantur	cum	dracone	.	et	draco	pu-

OE	gifæht vel	7	ðegnas	his	7	ne	mæhton vel		ne æc	stove
2	gnabat	et	angeli	eius	et	non	ualuerunt	.	Neque	locus	in-

OE	gimoeted	is	hiora	f’ðor	in	heofne
3	uentus	est	eorum	amplius	in	caelo	.

ModE: And there was a great battle in heaven, Michael and his angels fought with the dragon, and the dragon fought and his angels:  And they prevailed not, neither was their place found any more in heaven. [Rev. 12:7-8 Douay-Rheims]

In this passage from the Apocalypse (Revelation), Archangel Michael with his angels is facing off against the dragon and his angels (traditionally understood as the fallen Satan and his demons).

The Old English word þegen has a high frequency across a range of meanings rooted in the idea of service, the most obvious one being a member of the military social class in service to a lord, surviving in modern English as thane. 

As with other religious authors, Aldred in the Durham Ritual uses ðegnas for famulos (as servants of God), and in his gloss to the Lindisfarne Gospels, he uses it for discipuli, servos, apostoli (Luke), ministri (John 7:46, 18:36) and milites (John 19:2, in reference to the soldiers placing the crown of thorns on Jesus’ head). [In John 1:51 the angels ascending and descending on the son of man is glossed angla.]

However in his gloss to Matthew 25:41, Aldred uses thegn as an alternative for the devil’s angels in the division between those sheep bound for God’s kingdom on the right of Christ and those goats disposed of on the left [ Lindisfarne Gospels fol. 80rb5-10 ].

London, British Library MS Cotton Nero D.iv, fol. 80rb (Lindisfarne Gospels)

• Lat:  tunc dicet et his qui ad sinistris erunt discendite a me maledicti in ignem ęternum qui praeparatus est diabolo et angelis eius
• OE: ða coeðes & ðæm ða ðe to winstrum[1] biðon ofstiges gie from me awoergedo in fyr ecce seðe fore-ge-gearuuad is diwle & englum vel ðegnum his.
• ModE: Then he shall say to them also that shall be on his left hand: Depart from me, you cursed, into everlasting fire which was prepared for the devil and his angels. [Douay-Rheims]

Here Aldred hedges with a “vel” alternative to englum by adding ðegnum, perhaps to emphasize that these are the devil’s servants, demons in thrall to Satan.

Thus in the context of the passage in Revelation describing a battle of angelic hosts under two archangelic foes, it makes sense for Aldred to use the militaristic sense of “thegns” for both those angels serving under Michael and those under the satanic dragon. 

But I wondered…

if thegn occurred elsewhere as a way of describing angelic warbands, good or evil.

Not really very much, which surprised me.  Most of the instances are of less militaristic uses of angelic thegns as ministering servants.  To give two examples:

            1.  The Old English version of Bede’s Ecclesiastical History uses the related noun ðegnung (service) to translate the ministering spirits who escort Cuthbert and his friend Herbert to heaven:

• Lat. atque angelico ministerio pariter ad regnum caelieste translati [Colgrave & Minor, p. 440]
• OE: midd þa engellican ðegnunge ætgædere to ðæm heofenlican rice gelædde
• ModE: “by the ministry of angels were together led to the heavenly kingdom” [Miller, EETS 95, pp. 372-73].

            2.  The Junius Old English poem Genesis uses it poetically to describe first the angel who ministered to Hagar and then the angel who stopped Abraham from sacrificing his son Isaac:

• Hagar (lines 2268-69)
  • OE: þær hie wuldres þegn, engel drihtnes [ASPR 1, p. 68]
  • ModE: “There a thane of glory, an angel of the Lord” [trans. Hostetter]
• Abraham and Isaac (lines 2908-10)
  • OE: Þa metodes ðegn, ufan engla sum, Abraham hlude stefne cygde. [ASPR 1, p. 86]
  • ModE: “Then a thane of the Measurer, a certain angel from above, called Abraham with a loud voice.” [trans. Hostetter]. 

Metod (fate, death), as in most Old English poetry where this word occurs, is understood to refer to the Creator God, so the angel is one of God’s messenger-servants coming from heaven to deliver this directive.

Similarly, the use of thegn-words for ministri (pl) occurs in two Psalter glosses and in a hagiography of St. Michael (discussed further below).  All three are passages where ministri refers to angelic messengers (a redundancy since aggelos means messenger in Greek, similar to the Hebrew mal’akh).

• Psalm 102:21 (103:21), a series of blessings that culminates with the angels:
  • Lat.:  Benedicite Domino, omnes virtutes ejus; ministri ejus, qui facitis voluntatem ejus.
  • OE: Bletsiað dryhten ealle mægenu his ðegnas his ge ðe doð willan his [Junius Psalter, also Vespasian Psalter gloss[2]]
  • ModE: Bless the Lord, all ye his hosts: you ministers of his that do his will. [Douay-Rheims]
• Psalm 103:4 (104:4), the Paris Psalter and the Vespasian Psalter translate ministros with ðegnas:[3]
  • Lat: Qui facit angelos suos spiritus et ministros suos ignem urentem.
  • OE: Se doeð englas his gastas & ðegnas his fyr bern[en]de [Junius, Vespasian, and Paris Psalter].
  • ModE: Who makest thy angels spirits: and thy ministers a burning fire. [Douay-Rheims]

In several of these examples, ðegen is used to translate minister in an angelic context where the word angel is already in use, glossed engel.  In all, the operative aspects of thegn is more service as messengers rather than as warriors.  When the characterization of angels as a warband does occur, we find the OE word weorod (see Bosworth and Toller and the DOE corpus for examples from Bede’s Ecclesiastical History, poetry, and various homilies).

To return to the Archangel Michael…

we find that his attributes and accomplishments are quite extensive beyond just military command of angelic thegns.

An Anonymous Old English Life of St. Michael found in the margins of the manuscript CCCC41 lists the archangel’s accomplishments, both Biblical and extra-Biblical.[4] [Anon OE Lives, pp. 442-51]. The fight against the dragon in Revelation is summarized:

• OE: þis is se halga heahengel, Sanctus Michael, se ðe ær þisse worulde ende ofslihð þone ealdan feond þæt is se micla draca se ðe æt frymðe middangardes gesceapen wæs to ðam beorhtestan engle.
• ModE: “This is the holy archangel Saint Michael, who before the end of this world will slay the ancient enemy, that is, the great dragon who at the beginning of the earth was created as the brightes angel.” [Anon. OE Lives, pp. 448-51].

            In addition, Michael is credited with protecting the three youths in the fiery furnace from the Book of Daniel.  It is Michael who gave them the words of the famous Benedicite, a prayer/hymn deployed for many protective purposes, which also echoes Psalm 102 (Benedicite Domino, omnia opera ejus). [Anon OE Lives pp. 444-45]

In Blickling Homily XVI To Sancte Michaheles Mæssan, the homilist quotes Paul on angels as ministering spirits, translating ministrum as ðegnunge gæstum:

• OE: Ond ðæs engles mægen on his mægen ond his wundor þær þonne weorðod bið, ond oftost æteowed on þæm dæge, swa cwæð Sanctus Paulus, ‘Qui ad ministrum summis…’ ‘Englas beoð to ðegnunge gæstum fram Gode hider on world sended, to ðæm ðe þone ecean eðel mid móde ond mid mægene to Gode geearniað, þæt him sýn on fultume ða þe wið þæm awergdum gastum syngallice feohtan sceolan.’
• ModE: “The archangel’s power and miracles are venerated there, and are most frequently shown on that day (St Michael’s Day), as St Paul said, ‘Qui ad ministrum summis… ‘ ‘Angels are as ministering spirits sent into the world by God to those, who with desire and virtue, merit from God the eternal kingdom, so that they (the angels) may be a help to those who constantly contend against the accursed spirits.’ “ [Kelly, p. 144 lines 189-94]

The quote from Paul is probably a paraphrase of Heb. 1:14:

• Lat:  Nonne omnes sunt administratorii spiritus, in ministerium missi propter eos, qui haereditatem capient salutis? [Vulgate]
• ModE: Are they not all ministering spirits, sent to minister for them, who shall receive the inheritance of salvation? [Douay-Rheims]

However, the next section concluding the homily on St. Michael is derived from the Visio S. Pauli, the apocryphal Apocalypse of Paul [see Kelly, pp. 190-92; also  Johnson, pp. 54-55, and Sowerby, pp. 176-83].

Notably, the demonic crew in the homily are described with many epithets, but not with ðegnas. 

So what about demonic angels as thegns of Satan…

as in the dragon of Aldred’s gloss of Revelation 12:7-8? 

This does seem even more rare, the only other instance being the Matthew 25:41 passage cited above. Again, Aldred’s handiwork. Otherwise, I did not encounter any correlation in the OE corpus between deofol and thegn.[5] 

But there is an interesting representation of Satan as ealdordeofol in apocryphal homilies, including another CCCC41 marginal homily from the Gospel of Nicodemus [Hulme, pp. 610-14].  DOE cites them:

• Nic (D) 2: ure drihten, hælend Crist … astahg niðer to helwarum to þan, þæt he wolde … þæt ealdordeoful oferswiðan.
• Nic (D) 6: þæt dioful is geciged and nemned Satanas, þæt is, ealdordeoful in wite.
• Nic (D) 48: ða se stranga wið þæne stranga geræsde, þa ure Drihten acom and þæt ealdordioful geband.  Nic (E, different MS) 5: se deofol is geciged & genæmned sathanas þæt is ealdordeofol on wite, & he rixað & wunað on helle nyoðeweardre.
• HomU 12.2 60: se ytemesta draca, þæt is þæt ealdordeoful, se <lihð> gebunden onbecling mid raceteage reades fyres … in hellegrunde. [Apocalypse of Thomas in Willard].
• HomS 5 31: þonne cweð sum deofol, mare þe is toweard þonne þu gesyxt þone ealdordeofol þe lið onbæc gebunden on þære neowelnesse hellegrundes.
• HomS  5 56: and syþþan heo bið gelæd to þam ealdordeofle Satanas.
• HomS 31 47: mare þe is toward, þonne we ðe gebringað mid urum ealdredeofle, se is gebunden in þam nyðemestan hellegrunde. [3^rd Sunday after Epiphany in Willard]

Apocryphal literature of this type does not mean these evocative vernacular representations are unorthodox (unless you are the homilist Ælfric, who was quite the purist).  Personally, I think ealdordeofol for Satan makes a good opposite to hehangel (archangel) Michael.  I almost wish Aldred had used it in Rev. 12 for the dragon with his thegns. 

I also note reference to the devil as witherweard (contrary, perverse, oppositional, like the archaic widdershins).  Three examples:

1.  The wiðer wearðan engel sátán in the the Egbert penitential [Confessionale pseudo-Egberti 1.4 28  (London, British Library, MS. Cotton Tiberius A.III, fol. 53v15); Logeman, pp. 515-516]. 

London, British Library MS Cotton Tiberius A.iii, fol. 53v

• OE: …drihtne gescilde þe wið ealle deofles costnunga 7 wið þæne wiðer weardan engel satan….
• ModE:  ….the Lord shield you against all devil’s tempations and against the adversary angel satan…

2.  The Old English translation of Gregory the Great’s Pastoral Care commissioned by King Alfred uses the term in a passage about how the ruler (ealdormon) should be humble [Section XVII starting p. 106 in Sweet]:

• OE: Buton tweon ðonne se mon oferhygð ðæt he bio gelic oðrum monnum, ðonne bið he gelic ðæm wiðerweardan & ðæm aworpnan deofle. [Sweet, p. 112]
• ModE:  “Without doubt when a man is impatient of being like other men he resembles the perverse and bansihed devil.” [Sweet, p. 112]

3.  The Blickling Homilies also favor its use for Satan or the devil:

• Blickling Homily III
  • Gá ðú onbæcling, wiþerwearda in Jesus’ temptation where he says “get behind me, Satan” [Kelly, BH III Dominica Prima in Quadragesima, p. 18 lines 14-15].
• Blickling Homily IV
  •  OE:  ‘Eala,’ cwæþ Sanctus Paulus, ‘þæt biþ deofles goldhord, þaet mon his synna dyrne his scrifte.’ Forþon þæm wiþerweardan beoþ þæs mannes synna gecwemran þonne eal eorþlic goldhord. [Kelly, BH IV Dominica Tertia in Quadragesima, p. 28, lines 63-65] 
  • ModE:  “’Oh,’ said St Paul, ‘for a man to hide his sins from his confessor is deemed as the devil’s treasure.’ Our adversary (the devil) considers a man’s sins more acceptable than all other kinds of earthly treasure.” [Kelly, p. 29.]

In the Lindisfarne Gospels, Aldred uses witherweard as a gloss for Satan (Mark 1:13, 3:26), for adversary (Matt 5:25/Luke 12:58, Luke 18:3, Luke 21:15), and for the anti-Christ (Matt 24:24/Mark 13:22).  He also uses the adjective in the Preface to Matthew to describe the false seeds sown by heretics (wiðerworda larwas) and their apocryphal lies (wiðer-weardra gedwola glossing apocriforum nenias) [Skeat, Matthew, p. 6, line 16 and p. 8, line 9].

In the Durham Ritual, he uses adjectival forms of witherweard for:

• Lat. aduersus to indicate adverse health (fol. 61r18 Lat. aduerse salutis, OE wiðirwærdo hæles) in the prayer of St. John against poison (reptilian and demonic), for which see Scribe B chapter.
• Lat. hereticus, false teachers glossed wiðirwordvm larwvm, in the alphabet of words on fol. 88vb8
• Asmodeus demon as the wiðirwearda god divl (fol. 67r5, 18), in the field prayers that first got me into studying Aldred and Durham A.IV.19.

Consequently, I think Aldred…

might have enjoyed Fenwick Lawson’s 1956 wood sculpture of the archangel and his nemesis, if it had appeared through some temporal wormhole in Bede’s church of St. Paul at Jarrow when Aldred was there:

Fenwick Lawson, St. Michael and the Devil (1956), St. Paul’s, Jarrow

The imagery, verbal and physical, presents us with a choice:  do we focus our attention on the demonic evil or the overpowering good? 

This rabbit hole exploration of angels as thegns of the archangel Michael and of his adversary the dragon reminds us that ubiquitous as evil may be, good triumphs.  Or, as Mr. Rogers instructs us, in any dire situation, look for the helpers–and I might add, be the helpers, the allies who step forward and speak up for the vulnerable. 

We can call them angel thegns.

Bibliography

• Anonymous Old English Lives of Saints. Ed. and trans. Johanna Kramer, Hugh Magennis, and Robin Norris. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2020.
• Arundel Psalter (London, British Library, MS Arundel 60):  Oess, Guido, ed. Der altenglische Arundel-Psalter, eine Interlinearversion in der Handschrift Arundel 60 des Britischen Museums.  Heidelberg: C. Winter, 1910. [Hathi Trust]
• ASPR 1: Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records Vol. 1: The Junius Manuscript, ed. George Philip Krapp. New York: Columbia University Press, 1931.
• Bede, Bede’s Ecclesiastical History of the Enlglish People [Latin]. Ed. and trans. Bertram Colgrave and R. A. B. Mynors. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1969.
• Bede, The Old English Version of Bede’s Ecclesiastical History of the English People. Ed. and trans. Thomas Miller.EETS 95.  London: Early English Text Society, 1890-98.
• Bosworth Toller’s Anglo-Saxon Dictionary Online or see the print replica of An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary (useful for looking up the explanation of references)
• Corrêa, Alicia, ed. The Durham Collectar.  HBS CVII. London: Boydell for Henry Bradshaw Society, 1992.
• DOE:  Dictionary of Old English and Corpus (University of Toronto)
• Douay-Rheims 1899 American Edition of the Bible at BibleGateway .
• Hostetter, Aaron K.  Old English Poetry Project, translation of Junius Genesis.
• Hulme, W.H. “The Old English Gospel of Nicodemus.” Modern Philology 1: 579-614.
• Johnson, Richard F. Saint Michael the Archangel in Medieval English Legend.  Woodbridge: Boydell, 2005.
• Junius Psalter (Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. Junius 27): Brenner, E. Der altenglische Junius-Psalter: die Interlinear-Glosse der Handschrift Junius 27 der Bodleiana zu Oxford. Anglistische Forschungen 23. Heidelberg: C. Winter, 1908.  [Hathi Trust]
• Kelly, Richard J., ed. and trans. The Blickling Homilies Edition and Translation : (with General Introduction, Textual Notes, Tables and Appendices, and Select Bibliography. London: Continuum, 2003.
• Logeman, H., “Anglo-Saxonica Minora.” Anglia 12: 497-518. Confessionale pseudo-Egberti (London, British Library, MS. Cotton Tiberius A.III).
• Skeat, Walter W.  The Gospel According to Saint Matthew in Anglo-Saxon, Northumbrian, and Old Mercian Vesions.  Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1887.
• Sowerby, Richard. Angels in Early Medieval England. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2016.
• Sweet, Henry, ed. and trans. King Alfred’s West-Saxon Version of Gregory’s Pastoral Care : with an English Translation.  EETS 50-53. London:  N. Trübner & Co. for the Early English Text Society, 1909.
• Vespasian Psalter (London, British Library, MS. Cotton Vespasian A.I): Kuhn, Sherman M., ed. The Vespasian Psalter. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1965.
• Willard, Rudolph, ed. Two Apocrypha in Old English Homilies. Beiträge zur englischen Philologie 30. Leipzig: B. Tauchnitz, 1935; New York: Johnson Reprint, 1967. [not seen, no online access]

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[1] Corrected from wynstrum with a “y” (dot under, “i” above).

[2] The Vespasian Psalter glosses the angeli of v. 20 with englas but the ministri of v. 21 with ðegnas. 

[3] This particular verse is quoted in Hebrews 1:7, showing the superiority of Christ to the angels.

[4] Cambridge, Corpus Christi College 41 is a manuscript containing a copy of Bede’s Ecclesiastical History in Old English, but it has margins full of all kinds of interesting things that I have dabbled in, as well as a selection of homilies with themes related to protection.

[5]  Occurrences of demon in Old English are limited to Aldred’s use in one of the field prayers of the Durham Ritual additions and in a Psalter gloss, Arundel Ps. 95:5 (demonia glossing Lat demonia), arguably transliterations rather than translations.

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