The Three Hosts of Doomsday in Celtic and Old English
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.26754/ojs_misc/mj.199411715Abstract
Late Old English homiletic literature contains a characteristic motif, that it is better to feel shame for one's sins before a confessor in this life, than to feel shame before the hosts of heaven, earth, and hell on the day of Judgment. This theme is discussed in M. R. Gooden, "An Old English Penitential Motif," Anglo-Saxon England 11 (1973): 221-39, where it is described as "peculiarly Anglo-Saxon." Yet this view is unfounded. The reference to the three hosts of Doomsday, which occurs in Hiberno-Latin writings known to have circulated in Germany and Austria in the eighth century, as well as in later writings in Irish and Welsh, is almost certainly of Irish origin. In its allusion to these hosts, therefore, the penitential motif discussed by Professor Godden, far from being "peculiarly Anglo-Saxon," shows Celtic influence.
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