Lilith, The Legend of

the First Woman

Lilith, The Legend of the First Woman is a 19t h-cent ury narrat ive poem in five books, writ t en by
t he American poet , Ada Langwort hy Collier, in 1885, and published in Bost on by D Lot hrop &
Company.[1] It has been reprint ed several t imes in t he 21st cent ury.
 Lilith, The Legend of the First Woman

The cover of Lilith, The Legend of the First Woman

Author Ada Langworthy Collier

Country United States

Language English

Genre Poetry

Publisher D Lothrop & Company

Publication date 1885 (1st edition)

Media type Print (hardcover)

Pages 104 pp (hardcover 1st edition)

ISBN 9781539928478 (hardcover 1st edition)

Lilith, The Legend of the First Woman is a 19t h-cent ury rendit ion of t he old rabbinical legend of
Lilit h, t he first woman, whose life st ory was dropped unrecorded from t he early world, and whose
home, hope, and Eden were passed t o anot her woman. The aut hor warns us in her preface t hat
she has not followed t he legend closely. In her hands, Lilit h becomes an embodiment of mot her-
love t hat exist ed forever, and it is her name t hat lends it s it self t o t he lullabys repeat ed t o young
children.[2]

Literary basis

Collier not only freely changes t he legend of Lilit h, but is free wit h t he unit ies of her own st ory. It
is full of int ernal inconsist encies in narrat ive, and anachronisms. The legend (doubt less made t o
reconcile t he t wo account s in t he Book of Genesis of t he creat ion of woman, t he first of which
represent s her made wit h man, and by implicat ion, coequal; and t he ot her as creat ed second and
subordinat e), is t o t he effect t hat God first creat ed Adam and Lilit h, equal in aut horit y; t hat t he
clashing t his led t o was so great , t hat Lilit h was cast out from Eden,[3] and t he marit al
experiment t ried again, on a different principle, by t he creat ion of Eve.

Lilit h t hereaft er wedded Eblis, t he prince of devils, and became t he mot her of demons and
spect ers; and in vengeance upon her rival, Eve, t he mot her of mankind, became t he special
enemy of babies, whom she st rangles wit h a t hread of her golden hair. The obvious injust ice t o
Lilit h— who seems t o have asked no more t han her fair half, while Adam was t he encroacher, on
t he assumpt ion t hat t hey were creat ed equal —inspired Collier's version of t he legend, according
t o which Lilit h leaves Eden volunt arily, rat her t han submit t o dominance, but loses t hereby t he
blessing of mot herhood. This alone, not eit her Adam or Eden, she envies Eve, and at last st eals
t he covet ed first human baby, which dies, bereft of it s mot her, and so gives Lilit h t he reput at ion
in legend of being a child-murderess.[4]

When Collier discovered t hat t he word "lullaby" (Lilla, abi—begone, Lilit h!) denot ed t he songs
which mot hers soot hed t heir babies, she adapt ed Lilit h's acquired modern meaning, wholly
removed from it s original significat ion, int o t his poem. It enabled Collier t o evolve t he idea t hat
Lilit h, inst ead of being a fiend, was really a creat ure of st rong mat ernal inst inct s and it is in t his
charact er t hat Lilit h was present ed.[1]

Plot
Creat ed Adam's equal alike in st at ure, st rengt h and power, Lilit h's spirit is chafed by Adam's
insist ence on his own supremacy and her subject ion, and rat her t han yield she chooses t o find her
own paradise wit hout t he walls.[2]

"In goodly Eden, Adam, safely bide,

But I. for peace, nor love, nor life," she cried,
"Submit to thee."

According t o Collier's narrat ive, Lilit h, having left t he Garden of Eden, never t o ret urn, goes out
int o t he world.[2] For a t ime, she enjoys t he pleasure in Nat ure's companionship.[1] Far from Eden,
she finds a beaut iful land where she can rule supreme, t hough lonely. It is here t hat she is wooed
by Eblis, t he fallen angel and prince of t he powers of t he air, who forget s t o mourn t he heaven he
lost in t he heaven of Lilit h's love.[2]

Unheeded, swiftly passed them o'er—

Glad summer days -till one hour softly laid
At Lilith's feet a fair lone babe that strayed
From distant Dreamland far. So might one deem
That looked upon its fuce: or; it might seem
From other climes a rose leaf blown apart.
Down drifted there to gladden Lilith's heart.

Eblis woos Lilit h and she becomes his wife. Lilit h's children are lit t le imps wit hout affect ion for
her or her mat ernal yearnings; in fact , t hey t ort ure her. When Lilit h st art s t hinking about Eden,
Eblis t akes her t here and, upon looking over it s wall, she is annoyed t o see Adam wit h anot her
wife, Eve, who is breast feeding. Lilit h's discovery t hat she has been supplant ed and t hat Eve's
child loves it s mot her, arouses jealousy and lat er, Lilit h st eals t he baby, devot ing all her
affect ionat e and at t ent ion t o it , but t he child subsequent ly grows ill. Aft er Adam and Eve are
driven from t he Garden, Lilit h relent s and t akes t he child back t o it s mot her, in whose arms it
aft erwards dies, and Lilit h ret urns t o her own land.[1]

There looking on the sea.

 Low-voiced, she sang. So sweet the idle song,
She said: "From Paradise, forgotten long,
It comes. An elfin echo that doth rise
Upward from summer seas to bending skies.
In coming days, from any earthly shore
It shall not fail. And sweet forever more
Shall make my memory. That witching strain
Pale Lilith's love shall lightly breathe again.
And Lilith's bitter loss and olden pain
O'er every cradle wake that sweet refrain.
My memory still shall bloom. It cannot die
While rings Earth's, cradle-song-—sweet lullaby."

Criticism

Wakeman st at ed t hat Lilit h is described as a graceful creat ion, but t he effect of her appearance
might have been enhanced if Eblis had been pict ured darker in charact er. Eve is described as love
and t enderness, while Adam's charact erist ics are not st rongly marked. The poem has many
beaut iful, descript ive passages. It is generally smoot h in it s met rical expression, employing
iambics.[1] Kerr crit iqued t hat while t he st ory's verse was unequaled, t he poem lacks sust ained
power. A cert ain looseness in t he const ruct ion of sent ences implies t hat t he work didn't undergo
much revision.[2] In a t hird review it is said t hat while Collier's descript ive powers were analyt ical
and microscopic, t here is a sameness which result s in t oo oft en exhibit ing one pict ure in different
light s.[5]

Notes

1. Wakeman 1885, p. 411.

2. Charles H. Kerr Company 1884, p. 9.

3. Dennis, Geoffrey; Dennis, Avi S. (2014). "Vampires and Witches and Commandos, Oy Vey: Comic Book
Appropriations of Lilith" (https://muse.jhu.edu/article/548227) . Shofar: An Interdisciplinary Journal of
Jewish Studies. 32 (3): 72–101. doi:10.1353/sho.2014.0031 (https://doi.org/10.1353%2Fsho.2014.0
031) . ISSN 1534-5165 (https://www.worldcat.org/issn/1534-5165) .

4. Carson 1885, p. 438.

5. Critic Printing and Publishing Company 1886, p. 62-63.

References

This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain: Carson, Samuel
(1885). The Overland Monthly (ht t ps://books.google.com/books?id=ZLoRAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA
438) (Public domain ed.). Samuel Carson.

This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain: Charles H. Kerr
Company (1884). "Minor Reviews" (ht t ps://books.google.com/books?id=XQTnAAAAMAAJ&pg=
RA14-PA9) . The University (Public domain ed.). Chicago: Charles H. Kerr Company.

This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain: Crit ic Print ing
and Publishing Company (1886). "Reviews" (ht t ps://books.google.com/books?id=YYnmAAAAM
AAJ&pg=PA62) . The Critic (Public domain ed.). Crit ic Print ing and Publishing Company.

This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain: Wakeman, Edgar
L. (1885). "The Current " (ht t ps://books.google.com/books?id=zarPAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA411) . 3
(80) (Public domain ed.). Edgar L. Wakeman.

External links

"Lilit h, The Legend of t he First Woman" (ht t ps://babel.hat hit rust .org/cgi/pt ?id=uc1.%24b2748
52;view=1up;seq=1) , full t ext from Hat hiTrust
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