ABSTRACT
In the Old English account of the Fall of humankind in Genesis B, the forbidden fruit eaten by Adam and Eve is described as an instrument of death: https://www.niso.org/standards/z39-96/ns/oasis-exchange/table">
He æt þam wife onfeng
helle and hinnsið,
þeah hit nære haten swa,
ac hit ofetes noman
agan sceolde;
hit wæs þeah deaðes swefn
and deofles gespon,
hell and hinnsið
and hæleða forlor,
menniscra morð,
þæt hie to mete dædon,
ofet unfæle
(lines 717b-23a) 1He took from that woman hell and death, though it was not called this, but had to take the name of fruit; yet it was the sleep of death and the persuasion of the devil, hell, and death and the perdition of mankind, the death of men, that unholy fruit which they ate.
