The Fall in Particulate.

The layering of evil spirits -some winding up in the air, some on earth, some in hell-found in all three versions (A.1.114, B.1.125, C. 1. 126) is explained with reference to a tradition of a less precipitate fall of the angels imagined as snowflakes, as in Cleanness and the ME Fall and Passion. The imagery of evil spirits as falling particulate matter is related to that of “motes in the sunbeam,” itself an outgrowth of the tradition of commentary on Wisdom 11:21, according to which anything without number could be considered alien to the kingdom of heaven.