In the usual form of the mediaeval legend, Adam, drawing near his end,
sends Seth to the gate of Paradise, to seek the promised Oil of Mercy.
The Angel allows Seth to put his head in at the gate. Doing so (as an old
English version gives it) -
- "he saw a fair Well,
Of whom all the waters on earth cometh, as the Book us doth tell;
Over the Well stood a Tree, with bowes broad and lere
Ac it ne bare leaf ne rind, but as it for-olded were;
A nadder it had beclipt about, all naked withouten skin,
That was the Tree and the Nadder that first made Adam do sin!"
The Adder or Serpent is coiled about the denuded stem; the upper branches
reach to heaven, and bear at the top a new-born wailing infant, swathed in
linen, whilst (here we quote a French version) -
"Les larmes qui de lui issoient
Contreval l'Arbre en avaloient;
Adonc regarda l'enfant Seth
Tout contreval de L'ARBRE SECQ;
Les rachines qui le tenoient
Jusques en Enfer s'en aloient,
Les larmes qui de lui issirent
Jusques dedans Enfer cheirent."
The Angel gives Seth three kernels from the fruit of the Tree. Seth
returns home and finds his father dead. He buries him in the valley of
Hebron, and places the three grains under his tongue. A triple shoot
springs up of Cedar, Cypress, and Pine, symbolising the three Persons of
the Trinity. The three eventually unite into one stem, and this tree
survives in various forms, and through various adventures in connection
with the Scripture History, till it is found at the bottom of the Pool of
Bethesda, to which it had imparted healing Virtue, and is taken thence to
form the Cross on which Our Lord suffered.
The English version quoted above is from a MS. of the 14th century in the
Bodleian, published by Dr. Morris in his collection of Legends of the
Holy Rood. I have modernised the spelling of the lines quoted, without
altering the words. The French citation is from a MS. in the Vienna
Library, from which extracts are given by Sign. Adolfo Mussafia in his
curious and learned tract (Sulla Legenda del Legno della Croce, Vienna,
1870), which gives a full account of the fundamental legend and its
numerous variations. The examination of these two works, particularly
Sign. Mussafia's, gives an astonishing impression of the copiousness with
which such Christian Mythology, as it may fairly be called, was diffused
and multiplied. There are in the paper referred to notices of between
fifty and sixty different works (not MSS.
