The Belly of Hell: Jonah and Whale in Medieval Literature

1. The Belly of Hell:Jonah and Whale in Medieval Literature Brendan O’Connell 5/2/19 (image: Pieter Lastman, Jonah and the Whale, 1621)

2. Old Testament Book of Jonah • Jonah as wayward prophet who boards a ship and attempts to flee God • God sends a huge storm which almost wrecks his ship • Jonah cast into sea and swallowed by a ‘great fish’; repents and is expelled onto dry land • Preaches to the Ninevites, who repent • Scholars view story as ahistorical and possibly parodic

3. Fear andJonah • Fear felt by ship’s crew, and by Ninevites • Fear leads repentance or conversion • Jonah’s fear is not explicit • Medieval literary versions heighten Jonah’s fear

4. Patience • Late fourteenth century alliterative poem • Northwest Midlands dialect of Middle English • By anonymous author of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight; British Library, MS Cotton Nero A.x • Homiletic poem on theme of patience (though Jonah is far from patient) • Jonah’s journey through a series of confined spaces

5. Jonah 1:1-3 The word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai: ‘Go to the city of Ninevah and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.’ But Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish.

6. FleeingGod He telles me those traytouresarntyppedschrewes; I com with those tythynges, thay ta me bylyve, Pynes me in a prysoun, put me in stokkes, Wrythe me in a warlok, wrast out mynyyen. Patience, 77-80 He tells me those traitors are consummate villains; [if] I come with those tidings, they [will] seize me immediately, confine me in a prison, put me in the stocks, torture me in a foot-shackle, pluck out my eyes. (Translation by Andrew and Waldron)

7. Jonah’s cross ‘Oure Syresyttes’, he says, ‘on sege so hyghe, In his glowandeglorye, and gloumbesfullyttel Thagh I be nummen in Nunnive and naked dispoyled, On rode rwlytorent with rybaudesmony.’ Patience, 93-96 ‘Our Lord sits,’ he says, ‘on a throne so high in His shining glory, and frowns very little even though I should be taken in Nineveh and stripped naked, pitifully torn apart on a cross by many villains.’ (Translation by Andrew and Waldron)

8. Jonah and Christ ‘For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.’ Matthew 12: 40 Jonah brings God’s word to Gentiles, undergoes symbolic death and resurrection, but is a reluctant prophet Jonah as both ‘type’ and ‘antitype’ of Christ: a figure of Christ and a figure of the sinner (Getty Museum MS. 37, Fol. 119V)

9. Paupers’ BibleJoseph, Christ, Jonah [British Library, Kings MS 5, fol. 19r]

10. Jonah 1:17 But the Lord provided a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was inside the fish three days and three nights.

11. Mouth of the whale … in at hit throte withouten thret more, As mote in at a munster door, so mukelwern his chawles. Patience, 267-8 … in at its throat without more ado, like a speck of dust in at a cathedral door, so large were its jaws. (Translation by Andrew and Waldron)

12. In theBelly of the Whale He glydes in by the gilesthurghglaymandeglette, Relande in by a rop, a rode that hym thought, Ay hele over hedhourlandeaboute, Til he blunt in a blok as brod as a halle. Patience, 269-72 He glides in by the gills through slime and filth, reeling in by a gut, that seemed like a road to him, all the time whirling about head over heels, till he stopped in a compartment as broad as a hall. (Translation by Andrew and Waldron)

13. The Belly as Hell And ther he festnes the fete and fathmesaboute, And stod up in his stomak that stank as the devel. Ther in saym and in sorwe that savoured as helle, There was bylded his bour that wyl no bale suffer. Patience, 273-76 and there he finds [lit. makes fast] his feet and gropes about, and stood up in its stomach, which stank like the devil. There in grease and in filth that smelled like hell, there was built the bower of the man who is willing to suffer no harm. (Translation by Andrew and Waldron)

14. Harrowing of Hell • Belief that Christ descended into Hell after Crucifixion to redeem the righteous (particularly Old Testament figures such as Adam and Eve) • Souls frequently depicted emerging from Hell mouth • Patience draws parallels between Christ’s descent to Hell and Jonah’s time in belly of the whale

15. Jonah’s prayer ‘Lorde, to the haf I cleped in cares fulstronge; Out of the hole thou me herde of hellenwombe. I calde, and thou knew mynunclersteven. Thou diptes me of the depe se into the dymmehert.’ Patience, 305-6 ‘Lord, to You have I called in severe sorrows; from the hole of the belly of hell You heard me; I called out, and You knew my indistinct voice. You plunged me into the dim heart of the deep sea; the great flow of Your sea enfolded me about.’ (Translation by Andrew and Waldron)

16. Enclosure • Experience of enclosure in poem can be terrifying or comforting • Spearing: ‘hellenwombe’ as image of pregnancy? • ‘The abyme byndes the body that I bydeinne’ (The abyss binds the body that I live in) • Jonah’s expulsion from the whale as a sort of rebirth

17. Jesus as Mother The mother can lay the child tenderly to her breast, but our tender mother Jesus, he can familiarly lead us into his blessed breast through his sweet open side… Julian of Norwich, Revelations of Divine Love, trans. E. Spearing (London, 1998), p. 141

18. The sea bed … my consciousness was taken down on to the sea bed… Then I underderstood this: that if a man or a woman were under the wide waters, if he could see God (and God is constantly with us) he would be safe, body and soul, and be unharmed, and […] would have more joy and comfort than words can say. Julian of Norwich, Revelations of Divine Love, trans. E. Spearing (London, 1998), p. 55

19. Safe in the belly of the whale So in a bouel of that best he bides on lyve, Thre days and threnyght, ay thenkande on Dryghtyn, His might and his merci, his mesurethenne; Now he knaweshym in care that couthe not in sele. Patience, 293-6 So in a bowel of that creature he remains alive, three days and three nights, continually bearing God in mind – His might and His mercy, and then His moderation. Now he acknowledges Him in sorrow who could not in good fortune. (Translation by Andrew and Waldron)

20. Jonah preaches to the Ninevites • The ‘drede of Dryghtyn’ (fear of the lord) convinces Ninevites to repent • The walled city transformed from doomed enclosure to a place of salvation • God explains to Jonah that, just as he protected Jonah in the whale, it is his wish to save the Ninevites

21. All that is made In this vision, he showed me a little thing, the size of a hazel-nut, lying in the palm of my hand, and it was as round as a ball. I looked at it with my mind’s eye and thought, ‘What can this be?’ And the answer came to me, ‘It is all that is made.’ I wondered how it could last, for it was so small I thought it might suddenly have disappeared. And the answer in my mind was, ‘It lasts and will last forever because God loves it…’ Julian of Norwich, Revelations of Divine Love, trans. E. Spearing (London, 1998), p. 47