Is there one fairly standard version of who was saved in the Harrowing of
Hell and who wasn't? I'm thinking of the 14c. English "De Erkenwaldo" in
which the dead virtuous pagan specifically laments that Christ left him
behind on that occasion. ("Quen žou herghedes helle-hole and hentes hom
žeroute, Ži loffynge oute of limbo, žou laftes me žer.") He is virtuous
enough to deserve heaven, but now requires a posthumous baptism (and I
recall that there was a similar baptism-of-dead-virtuous-pagan story told
about another saint too) ... does this fit in with the usual understanding,
or would you call it creative license in order to give Erkenwald a miracle
and a plot?
I'm familiar with the Erkenwald poem by chance, more or less; I'm
reasonably ignorant of other texts of the period ...
Jonathan Gilbert
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