"Adam lay ybounden", originally titled Adam lay i-bowndyn, is a 15th-century

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ...

Christian text of unknown authorship. It relates the

Biblical The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts of ...

events of

Genesis Genesis may refer to: Bible * Book of Genesis, the first book of the biblical scriptures of both Judaism and Christianity, describing the creation of the Earth and of mankind * Genesis creation narrative, the first several chapters of the Book of ...

, Chapter 3 on the

Fall of Man The fall of man, the fall of Adam, or simply the Fall, is a term used in Christianity to describe the transition of the first man and woman from a state of innocent obedience to God to a state of guilty disobedience. * * * * The doctrine of the ...

. Originally a song text, no contemporary musical settings survive, although there are many notable modern choral settings of the text, such as that by

Boris Ord Boris Ord (born Bernhard Ord), (9 July 1897 – 30 December 1961) was a British organist and choirmaster of King's College, Cambridge (1929-1957). During World War II he served in the Royal Air Force. He is best known for his choral setting of ...

Origins

The manuscript on which the poem is found (Sloane MS 2593, ff. 10v-11) is held by the

British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the Briti ...

, who date the work to c.1400 and speculate that the lyrics may have belonged to a wandering minstrel; other poems included on the same page in the manuscript include "I have a gentil cok", the famous lyric poem "

I syng of a mayden "I syng of a mayden" (sometimes titled "As Dewe in Aprille") is a Middle English Lyric poetry, lyric poem or Carol (music), carol of the 15th century celebrating the Annunciation and the Virgin Birth of Jesus. It has been described as one of the ...

" and two riddle songs – "A minstrel's begging song" and "I have a yong suster". Analysis of their dialect by K.R. Palti (2008) places them within the song tradition of

East Anglia East Anglia is an area in the East of England, often defined as including the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire. The name derives from the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the East Angles, a people whose name originated in Anglia, in ...

and more specifically

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the Nor ...

; two further carol manuscripts from the county contain songs from Sloane MS 2593. The texts of the songs were first printed by Victorian antiquarian Thomas Wright in 1836, who speculated that a number of the songs were intended for use in

mystery play Mystery plays and miracle plays (they are distinguished as two different forms although the terms are often used interchangeably) are among the earliest formally developed plays in medieval Europe. Medieval mystery plays focused on the represe ...

s.Thomas Wright, ''Songs and carols printed from a manuscript in the Sloane collection in the British museum'' (London: W. Pickering, 1836), vi

Analysis

Christ in Limbo with Adam and Eve MET DP852712

''Adam lay ybounden'' relates the events of

, Chapter 3. In

medieval theology The history of theology has manifestations in many different cultures and religious traditions. Terminology and connotations Plato used the Greek word '' theologia'' (θεολογία) with the meaning "discourse on god" around 380 BC in '' ...

, Adam was supposed to have remained in bonds with the other

patriarchs The highest-ranking bishops in Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy, the Catholic Church (above major archbishop and primate), the Hussite Church, Church of the East, and some Independent Catholic Churches are termed patriarchs (and in certa ...

in the

limbus patrum In Catholic theology, Limbo (Latin ''limbus'', edge or boundary, referring to the edge of Hell) is the afterlife condition of those who die in original sin without being assigned to the Hell of the Damned. Medieval theologians of Western Europ ...

from the time of his death until the

crucifixion of Christ The crucifixion and death of Jesus occurred in 1st-century Judea, most likely in AD 30 or AD 33. It is described in the four canonical gospels, referred to in the New Testament epistles, attested to by other ancient sources, and consider ...

(the "4000 winters"). The second verse narrates the

following

Adam Adam; el, Ἀδάμ, Adám; la, Adam is the name given in Genesis 1-5 to the first human. Beyond its use as the name of the first man, ''adam'' is also used in the Bible as a pronoun, individually as "a human" and in a collective sense as " ...

's temptation by Eve and the serpent. John Speirs suggests that there is a tone of astonishment, almost incredulity in the phrase "and all was for an apple", noting "an apple, such as a boy might steal from an orchard, seems such a little thing to produce such overwhelming consequences. Yet so it must be because clerks say so. It is in their book (probably meaning the

Vulgate The Vulgate (; also called (Bible in common tongue), ) is a late-4th-century Latin translation of the Bible. The Vulgate is largely the work of Jerome who, in 382, had been commissioned by Pope Damasus I to revise the Gospels u ...

itself)."John Speirs, ''Medieval English Poetry: The Non-Chaucerian Tradition'' (London: Faber & Faber, 1957), pp.65–66 The third verse suggests the subsequent redemption of man by the birth of

Jesus Christ Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label= Hebrew/ Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and relig ...

Mary Mary may refer to: People * Mary (name), a feminine given name (includes a list of people with the name) Religious contexts * New Testament people named Mary, overview article linking to many of those below * Mary, mother of Jesus, also calle ...

, who was to become the Queen of Heaven as a result, and thus the song concludes on a positive note hinting at

Thomas Aquinas Thomas Aquinas, Dominican Order, OP (; it, Tommaso d'Aquino, lit=Thomas of Aquino, Italy, Aquino; 1225 – 7 March 1274) was an Italian Dominican Order, Dominican friar and Catholic priest, priest who was an influential List of Catholic philo ...

' concept of the " felix culpa" (blessed fault). Paul Morris suggests that the text's evocation of Genesis implies a "fall upwards. Speirs suggests that the lyric retells the story in a particularly human way: "The doctrine of the song is perfectly orthodox...but here is expressed very individually and humanly. The movement of the song reproduces very surely the movements of a human mind."

Text

Settings

The text was originally meant to be a song text, although no music survives. However, there are many notable modern choral settings of the text, with diverse interpretations by composers such as Peter Warlock,

John Ireland John Benjamin Ireland (January 30, 1914 – March 21, 1992) was a Canadian actor. He was nominated for an Academy Award for his performance in ''All the King's Men'' (1949), making him the first Vancouver-born actor to receive an Oscar nomin ...

, Philip Ledger,

Howard Skempton Howard While Skempton (born 31 October 1947) is an English composer, pianist, and accordionist. Since the late 1960s, when he helped to organise the Scratch Orchestra, he has been associated with the English school of experimental music. Skem ...

and

Benjamin Britten Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten (22 November 1913 – 4 December 1976, aged 63) was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He was a central figure of 20th-century British music, with a range of works including opera, other ...

(titled ''Deo Gracias'' in his '' Ceremony of Carols''). A new setting by Giles Swayne was commissioned for and first performed in 2009 by the

Choir of St John's College, Cambridge The Choir of St John's College, Cambridge is considered to be one of the finest collegiate choirs in the world. It is part of the English cathedral tradition, having been founded to sing the daily liturgy in the College Chapel, though it is set ...

and their annual broadcast of the Advent carol service on

BBC Radio 3 BBC Radio 3 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It replaced the BBC Third Programme in 1967 and broadcasts classical music and opera, with jazz, world music, drama, culture and the arts also featuring. The sta ...

. The Connecticut composer Robert Edward Smith wrote a setting of the text that was premiered in December 2018 in Hartford at

Trinity College Trinity College may refer to: Australia * Trinity Anglican College, an Anglican coeducational primary and secondary school in , New South Wales * Trinity Catholic College, Auburn, a coeducational school in the inner-western suburbs of Sydney, New ...

's annual Lessons and Carols. The piece featured the College's Chapel Singers, directed by Christopher Houlihan.
Lessons and Carols

Boris Ord

\relative Boris Ord's 1957 setting is probably the best-known version as a result of its traditional performance following the First Lesson at the annual Nine Lessons and Carols, Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols at the chapel of

King's College, Cambridge King's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Formally The King's College of Our Lady and Saint Nicholas in Cambridge, the college lies beside the River Cam and faces out onto King's Parade in the centre of the cit ...

, where Ord was organist from 1929 to 1957.A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols 2003
, Retrieved 22 November 2010

References

External links

Image of the Sloane MS 2593
at bl.uk {{DEFAULTSORT:Adam lay ybounden 15th-century poems 15th-century Christian texts British poems Middle English poems English Christian hymns Christmas carols Sloane Manuscript 2593 Cultural depictions of Adam and Eve Articles containing video clips Works of unknown authorship Advent songs