The relationship between the earthly world, heaven and hell in Oxford, Bodleian Library MS Junius 11

The main goal of this thesis is to analyse how the relationship between the earthly world and the supernatural world (heaven and hell) are represented in Oxford Bodleian Library Junius 11 in text and image, and on this basis to trace how the Anglo-Saxons understood and located the place of the human in the Universe. Junius 11 is one of the major Anglo-Saxon poetic manuscripts, and has remained relatively complete until today, containing the four biblical poems: Genesis, Exodus, Daniel, Christ and Satan. It is also the only illuminated manuscript of Anglo-Saxon poetry to survive, with drawings completed through part of the poem Genesis. In chapter 01 I will explain in detail the aims of this thesis, the manuscript features and story (possible year of production, and provenance), and the general methodology about the approach towards text and pictures in manuscripts and medieval art in general. In chapter 02 I will analyse the function of the architectural elements especially in the images of heaven and their function as representation of power, both political and religious, not simply as ornamentation in the manuscript. In chapter 3 I will focus on the images and text of hell in Junius11 and how it is pictured as a chthonic psychological space, the place of the uncanny, through three main features: anti-hall, tomb and hellmouth, and womb (the feminine body). In chapter 4 the main focus will be the space of the earth, earthly paradise and the idea of earth as an island, I also added a section about the funerary practices in late Anglo-Saxon England. In conclusion, this thesis will demonstrate how the different spheres, heaven, hell and earth were depicted in Junius 11, how their relationship works and possible connections with the daily live, political power, attitudes about gender, funerary practices and conceptions about their place in the earthly world and in the supernatural world, that is life after death.