Note to Anon Mdr 10VII
[5-6] þaðan flaut allr ilmr guðs ‘Through you [lit. from there] flowed all the sweet perfume of God’: The antiphon Assumpta est Maria in cœlum, sung at the Feast of the Assumption, includes the following verse, which derives ultimately from the Hymn to the Beloved in S. of S. I.3 : In odorem unguentorum tuorum currimus: adolescentulae dilexerunt te nimis ‘we run after the odour of your ointments: the young maidens have loved you much’. The first reading, from Eccles. XXIV.20-1, also draws on this imagery: sicut cinnamomum et aspaltum aromatizans odorem dedi quasi murra electa dedi suavitatem odoris, et quasi storax et galbanus et ungula et gutta et quasi libanus non incisus vaporavi habitationem meam et quasi balsamumno mixtum odor meus ‘I gave a sweet smell like cinnamon, and aromatical balm; I yielded a sweet odour like the best myrrh; And I perfumed my dwelling as storax, and galbanum, and onyx, and aloes, and as the frankincense not cut, and my odour is as the purest balm’.