9. Adam and Eve deliberateCodex Vindob. 2980, Folio 24v, 127 x 100 mm. Placed before l. 870 and illustrates ll. 965-1010.
Rubric
How Adam and Eve decided to do penance.Text
Adam said: "Today we must both lament until God reverses the blow that he has dealt us and in his mercy grants us a source of food that will improve our lot and restore our bodily strength. The food we have is not fit for our bodies, and on this account we must lament and do penance (in order to win his) grace." "Penance? What is that?" she asked, "you must describe it to me so that we may avoid undertaking anything that would be too difficult, thereby causing God in his goodness to ignore our prayers and be as enraged as he was before. Therefore, Adam, tell me what act of penance you plan to undertake. Seeing that it was I who sinned and you who did nothing wrong, I alone should do penance." Adam replied: "You are a woman, and your body is weak, for human frailty causes your suffering. Because of this I shall endure the penance longer in God's mercy than you will be able to suffer it. I will fast for forty days, and so long with heartfelt complaint shall I do penance in the Jordan. By standing up to my neck in it I shall assuage God's wrath. It is my wish that you should also do penance as I tell you. You are to fast for thirty-four days, and during that time you are to stand in the water without saying a word until our true, sweet God honours his command and restores us to that place from which he banished us." (965-1010, Translation by Halford, 1984, p. 254)Analysis
"The hut is a thatched roof supported on poles. Adam and Eve are sitting on the grass under it. Adam is clothed in a fringed, yellow tunic and is barefoot. He is pointing at Eve, who is wearing the same dress as before. . . .This picture is placed near the point at which the poem takes up its apocryphal source, but according to the rubric it refers to Adam's and Eve's later decision to do penance. It would appear that at some stage an attempt was made to clothe the protoplasts correctly in the tunicas pelliceas of Gen. III:21. In this copy only Adam is shown thus and his attire is something of an anomaly when compared with the two preceding illustratrations." (Halford, 1980, pp. 17-18)Bibliography
Halford, M-B. Illustration and Text in Lutwin's Eva und Adam: Codex Vindob. 2980, Goppinger Arbeiten zur Germanistik, 303; Stuttgart: Kummerle Verlag, 1980.Halford, M-b. Lutwin's Eva und Adam, Goppingen Arbeiten zur Germanistik, Goppingen: Kummerle Verlag, 1984.