“Guardians of Souls” or “Host(s) of Spirits”? (Genesis A 12a and 41a)

Abstract

It is plain from the context that both gasta weardum and wuldres bearnum refer to the angels of God, identified more explicitly in the following sentence by the phrase engla þreatas (l. 13b). This apparent use of gasta weardas as a distinctive appellation for angels is remarkable, inasmuch as angels are themselves spirits, whom we might sooner expect to find referred to as gastas than defined in relation to gastas. Angels are, of course, protectors or guardians of souls in the Christian tradition. Yet the context of Genesis A offers no particular warrant for an emphasis on this angelic duty, since the first ninety-one lines of the poem concern the angels and their fall, before the creation of mankind. It seems, then, that gasta weardas must be a conventional poetic expression used to denote angels regardless of context. But two things invite some doubt: no other instance of such an expression has survived; and the use of gastas alone to refer to angels (and devils) is well attested,2 and evident in the beginning section of Genesis A, in the half-lines geomre gastas (l. 69a) and werige gastas (l. 90b), which both describe the fallen angels. It is therefore reasonable to ask whether gasta weardum might be the relic of an earlier expression in which gasta referred simply to the angels.