Gripla - 2023, Blaðsíða 63

61GENESIS AND PROVENANCE OF THE OLDEST SOUL
shared by both of them, and while he admits to being the physical agent
of sin, he vehemently denies his part as a possible perpetrator of crimes.
Subsequently, he draws a parallel between the responsibilities of people’s
bodies and souls in sinning and the biblical antecedent of Adam and Eve’s
responsibility in the formation of original sin. The body then builds his
defence of contributory guilt and his own condition that is subordinate to
the soul, as he acts mechanically. The soul rebuts this defence with a final
speech tracing the fundamental arguments of her accusations and reflecting
the ontology of evil. The scene ends with the appearance of a devil who
announces their condemnation to hell, followed by other devils who, like
wolves, pounce on the soul, seizing her and dragging her away while she
struggles. Her desperate screams wake up the narrator, thus interrupting
his dream.
The text of the Desputisun is transmitted in five codices, one of them
being now lost: Paris, Bibliothèque de l’Arsenal, 3516, fols. 140v–143r,
from Saint-Omer, c. 1250–75 (P); Brussels, Bibliothèque Royale, 9411–
9426, fols. 83v–90r, from Flanders/Northeast Artois/Hainaut, 1230
(B); London, British Library, Cotton Julius A.VII, fols. 72v–77r, from
Worcester, c. 1200 (C); London, British Library, Harley 5234, fols. 180r–
181v, from Durham, c. 1250 (H); †Turin, Biblioteca Nazionale, L.V.32,
unknown foliation (†T).11 In turn, the Desputisun has served as the direct
source of a Castilian translation known as Disputa del alma y el cuerpo,
which is preserved in a single fragment (Madrid, Biblioteca nacional de
España, V.5, núm. 9)12 and in a Norse version, known as Viðrǿða líkams
ok sálar (einn laugardag at kveldi) [A conversation between body and soul
(on Saturday evening)], the subject of this essay. Both texts date back to
11 †T (Turin, Biblioteca Nazionale, L.V.32), which was once part of the Savoy royal collec-
tion, was lost in a fire at the National Library in Turin in 1904. A partial transcription of
the manuscript was made by George-Jean Moucht (1737–1807) in the second half of the
eighteenth century. Regrettably, the text of the Desputisun was not copied by Moucht, but
other texts were. The following are the texts shared with R: Bible by Hugues de Berzé;
Voie de Paradis by Raoul de Houdenc; Congés by Jean Bodel; and Dit du pel, Dit du pélican,
Conte du bachelier, Dit du dragon, Dit du Prud’homme, Dit d’envie, Dit d’amour, Dit de la
Rose, Dit d’amour fine, Dit de Gentillesse by Baudouin de Condé. See the discussion in
Mauro Braccini, “Unica e esemplari creduti irrecuperabili dopo l’incendio della Biblioteca
Nazionale di Torino: Un ulteriore controllo sulla copia settecentesca del cod. L. V.32,” Studi
mediolatini e volgari 47 (2001): 191–204.
12 See Antonio García Solalinde, “La disputa del Alma y el Cuerpo: Comparación con su
original francés,” Hispanic Review 1.3 (1933): 196–207.