The Old English Genesis and Milton's Paradise Lost: the characterisation of Satan

Abstract

The aim of this study is to determine whether and to what extent the English poet John Milton may have been influenced in the composition of Paradise Lost by the Old English poem known as Genesis B. The paper will examine similarities and differences in the characterisation of Satan and of the temptation of Adam and Eve in both poems. The comparison between two of the illuminations of the Junius 11 ms. and the corresponding passages in Paradise Lost will be part of the analysis