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Seth and his mother, Eve, go to Paradise in search of the Oil of Life, whe-
reas in the True Cross material, Seth goes alone.
The legend of the True Cross first appears in Europe in the eleventh
and twelfth centuries.23 The earliest extant text of the combined Quest
and Cross is found in a manuscript from c. 1170 of the Rationale divinorum
officiorum by Johannes Beleth, but in this version Seth brings back twigs
instead of seeds.24 The twig version appears in several medieval church
vault paintings in Denmark, most dating to the fourteenth century.25 The
seed version, which appears in Old Icelandic literature, eventually becomes
more popular than the twig version and in due course triumphs as the most
common version found in vernacular offshoots.26 The pairing of Seth with
the seeds had an allegorical underpinning: in Gnostic texts, Seth is seen
as the “seed” of his great generation, with the Coptic word for “seed” and
“Seth” looking very similar.27 Jerome and John Cassian recognized Seth
as Abel’s replacement and thus a “new progenitor,” which allowed him to
become the originator of the Holy Cross.28 In this sense, it is possible to
see the story of Seth receiving seeds to be planted in his father’s corpse as
a more orthodox version of the Gnostic idea, connecting Seth to Christ
and again distancing the text from the heretical Sethian idea of Seth as
the saviour. Another element to consider is Augustine’s interpretation of
Seth’s name as “resurrection” (resurectio),29 which adds further allegorical
series of vernacular adaptations, with differences of genre and context causing further
variations.” Murdoch, Adam’s Grace. Fall and Redemption in Medieval Literature, 30.
23 Quinn, Quest, 50
24 Quinn, Quest, 11; 88; 103.
25 See Barbara Baert, “The Figure of Seth in the Vault-Paintings in the Parish Church in
Östofte,” Konsthistorisk Tidskrift 66.2 (1997): 97–111. The same author gives an overview
of medieval church art concerning the Legenda in a wider geographical area in “Adam,
Seth and Jerusalem. The Legend of the Wood of the Cross in Medieval Literature and
Iconography,” Adam, le premier homme, Micrologus’ Library 45 (Venice: SISMEL, 2012)
69–99.
26 This version, in which Seth receives three glimpses into Paradise, the last glimpse
culminating in the vision of a child in the branches of a dry tree, and lastly receiving seeds
which grow from Adam’s corpse into the cross, is classified as “Class III” of the four classes
of the Vita. Murdoch, Adam’s Grace. Fall and Redemption in Medieval Literature, 28–29.
27 Klijn, Seth in Jewish, Christian and Gnostic Literature, 92.
28 Baert, “Revisiting Seth in the Legend of the Wood of the Cross,” 143–44.
29 Barbara Baert, “Seth of De Terugkeer Naar Het Paradijs,” Bijdragen Tot Het Kruishoutmotief
in De Middeleeuwen 56.3 (1995): 316; Baert, Heritage of the Holy Wood, 314.
THE “QUEST OF SETH”