Early Medieval English Texts and Interpretations: Donald G. Scragg
Studies Presented to
rSr
Tithe neoitce-
ge
^re]?
ell^
nici^i
5elii!^xei- Sj^/lce- cncyjrye- enllesj^
vyium '»'pif|*
pole
holuin \colhori conn unlyr*
cac07 fpeorol
c 05a))
fvlr^Iin
reon jun
-ittent;
ne^af jmn^ojt fcearuin noljif
hnJe
litr^e-W fiiHtK
^ev 'it
z;eon^ pi^
1a|;q*
I
ai'rttf
rulice- fecj-a
>Aa*cj:Ov cutnert oniu^cp.H tnc^^
Wft*>airl»lo^e^ Vjiim
y^ue'yr
"storm of spears", and Hlakkar
hrid
off, like
el
the skald t>6rfinnr
"valkyrie's storm. "^ Before the bat-
munnr declaimed
a stanza portraying
the imminent clash as just such a downpour: "It darkens at the great rain of the strong gusts of the shield I
A, 315;
known from plored,
The
is
skaldic verse,
.
.
.
the Thunderer's [Odin's] storm"
hundred examples of
IB, 292). Several
this
^thelweard, whose Latin
(Skj,
kenning-type are style has
been de-
speaking here with a Scandinavian, not a Virgilian, accent.
chronicler, notable for his personal interventions,
who recorded
in
the vernacular the vicissitudes of King /Ethelred's reign, also had a skaldic tooth. In the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle for 1003
Sveinn, king of
marched
Denmark
(c.
(ODE
texts),
he reports that
987-1014), after ravaging southern England,
he knew
to the sea "t>aer he wiste his ydhengestas" [where
wave-stallions [= ships] were].^ This was not the everyday
way of talking about Old English prose; ^°
a ship.
The kenning
his
Anglo-Saxon
"sea-horse" occurs only here in
Old English poetry it appears eighteen times, an impressive showing but outnumbered by the almost three hundred "seain
horses" running through the skaldic corpus; for example, pldu jor "steed
of the wave", hafsleipnir "sea-Sleipnir", unnvigg "wave-horse", and unnar
' See Rudolf Meissner, Die Kenningar der Skalden: Ein Beitrag zur skaldischen Poetik, Rheinische Beitrage und Hiilfsbucher zur germanischen Philologie und Volkskunde 1
(Bonn and ®
Leipzig, 1921; repr. Hildesheim, 1984),
176-202.
See Finnur Jonsson, Lexicon poeticum antiquae Unguae
Ordbog over det (Copenhagen, 1913-
septentrionaUs:
norsk'islandske skjaldesprog oprindeUg forfattet af Sveinhjom Egilsson
1916; 2nd ed. 1931; repr. 1966) [Latin original 1860], s.vv. ^ The Angb'Saxon Chronicle: MS D, ed. G. P. Cubbin (Cambridge, 1996), 52; The Angb'Saxon Chronicle, trans. M. Swanton (London, 1996), 135. See R. L Page, " 'A Most Vile People': Early English Historians on the Vikings," The Dorothea Coke Memorial Lecture in Northern Studies (London, 1986), 26-27. '°
Old English lexicographical information throughout this paper comes from AntonHealey and Richard L. Venezky, ed., A Mkrofiche Concordance to Old ErxgUsh
ette diPaolo
(Toronto, 1980).
ROBERTA FRANK
OE ydhengest).^^
hestr
"horse of the wave" (=
late
Anglo-Saxon drawings and stone
stallion"
is
an
a design that
isolated detail in the
is
Like the Viking element in
carvings, the
An^Saxon
basically non-Scandinavian.
It
compound "wave-
Chronicle,
an ornament in
demonstrates, nevertheless,
that in certain circumstances the Anglo-Saxons were able to reach out and
"quote" from the North's poetic
register,
plucking for their
own
purposes
both the cornflowers of eulogy and the violas of perfect pitch.
One garland of kennings an imposture, to
may have been
in Andreas
accessorise a sailor-suit.
J.
gathered to further
R. Hall has recently drawn
at-
tention to a passage in which God, disguised as the skipper of a scemearh
Andrew why he wants
"sea'horse" (267), asks
Hu daet
geweard
wine
\>e \>3es,
du saebeorgas
^^
leofesta,
secan woldes,
maSmum
meres treama gemet, ofer cald cleofu
passage:
bedaeled,
ceoles neosan?
(307-10)
[How, dearest
friend, did
it
befall you, that you, bereft of treasure,
wished to seek "sea-mountains", the expanse of ocean-streams, to take ship over "cold
cliffe"?]
Commentators have tended "sea-cliffe"
to take sceheorgas
and "cold headlands."
and
cald cleofu literally, as
on a reading
Hall, improving
first
de-
fended by Hertha Marquardt,'^ has argued that these "eminences", both scebeorgas classical
"
On
and
cald cleofu, refer to giant waves, a
and Christian Latin verse and
metaphor with
parallels in
in the Bible.
the kenning-typc, see Meissner, Die Kenningar, 208-16. Also Karin Olscn,
"Animated Ships
in
Old English and Old Norse Poetry,"
Mediaeval Art and Literature, ed. L. A.
J.
R.
Houwen
Marquardt, Die aktngUschen Kenningar (Halle
in
Animals and
the
SymboHc
m
(Groningen, 1997), 53-66; Hertha
[Saalel, 1938),
171-74.
R. Hall, "Old English saheorg: Exodus 442a, Andreas 308a," Papers on language and Literature 25 (1989): 127-34; also idem, "Exodus 449a: beorhhlidu," American Notes '^
J.
and Queries 22 (1984): 94-97. The poet does not specify Christ or Jesus (steersman in the Greek and Latin versions), but the second person of the Trinity is implied. Two of the three "sea-horses" in Andreas are mentioned by the Lord {scemearh, 267; hrimhengest, 513), one by Andrew in conversation with him (scehengest, 488). '^
Marquardt, Die altenglischen Kenningar, 174-76.
.
Nort/i-Sefl Soundings
The
cited analogues, however, are either similes ("waves like a mouii'
tain") or transparent phrases C'a
wave").
It is
mountain of water",
in skaldic verse, as Karin
swells of Andreas
meet
ingly depicts the
waves of a
their
match. ^"^
'*a
mountainous
Olsen has noted, that the opaque
No
more
poetry
hostile sea as
cliffs,
and
lov'
crags, hills, peaks,
and
regularly
mountains. Typical skaldic kennings for "wave" include Haka of the sea-king", stafnklif "prow-clifP', Meita
hlidir
kleif "cliff
"mountain-slopes of the
sea-king", skipa hlid "mountain-slope of ships", marfjgll "sea-mountains", fyllar fj^ll
"mountains of the sea", humra
fjgll
"mountains of
and
hvalranns gnipur "peaks of the whale-house [=sea]",
peaks ".^^
A stanza by the tenth-century skald Kormakr opens: Brim gnyr, blalands
brattir
Haka
hamrar
strandar
.
.
(Skj,
[The sea
Haki
is
roars,
the steep
cliffs
lA, 86; IB, 78)
of the shore of Haki's dark-blue land
a legendary sea-king; his dark-blue land
either the coast or the horizon,
whose "steep
is
the sea;
is
cliffs"
the Andreas passage, the kenning for "wave" literal
lobsters",
scegnipur "sea-
its
"shore"
are high waves.
makes
"chill"
an
attribute of undulating lands (of water); for
example, syld svanafoJd "cold earth of swans", svalheimr "cold world".
Having God speak
svalteigr
"cold meadow",
in kennings, casually referring
to his ship as a "sea-horse" and to waves as "sea-hills" and "cold
rounds off his masquerade
ited
it is
as
an old
salt,
an habitue of northern
the poet of Andreas and not that of Maldon
with "the
first literary
use of dialect in English."
who
'^
'^
K. Olsen,
The compound
"The Dichotomy
of
cliffs",
seas. Per-
should be cred-
^^
All sorts of images in Andreas can become sharper skaldic spectacles.
Studies
in
sea-word, with the latter clarifying the former. Like Andreas, too,
skaldic verse
haps
As
placed in apposition to a
when
read through
nihthelm "helmet (cover) of night" oc-
Land and Sea
in the
Old English
Andreas,'* English
79 (1998): 385-94. Meissner, Die Kenningar, 99.
C. Robinson, "Some Aspects of the Maldon Poet's Artistry," Journal of English and Germanic Philology 75 (1976): 25-40, here 26; repr. in idem, The Tomb of Beowulf and '^
F.
Other Essays on Old English (Oxford and Cambridge,
MA,
1993), 122-37, here 123.
.
ROBERTA FRANK curs five times in
Old English
poetry, twice in the Vercelh Book.
second outing in Andreas, the formula to recreate, as
if
is
On
its
broken up and reassembled so as
by accident, a skaldic conceit.
It is
sunset in Mermedonia:
Niht helmade,
brunwann
oferbraed
beorgas steape
.
.
(1305-1306) [Night crowned
[lit.
covered [them]
it
The
.
.
put a helmet on] the high
hills,
bumished-dark
.1
poet turns "helm into a verb
"to put a helmet on [someone],
{helmiarx
crown"), thereby reanimating the cliche; he varnishes
niht
"night" with
the nonce adjective brunwann "burnished dark", evoking the metallic
sheen of a helmet, of an iron-grey dusk
(cf.
fagne helm, Beo 2615). This night-helmet
is
hrune helmas, Jud 317; hrun"
worn high by mountains,
as in
the skaldic head-kenning "hill of the helmet"; for example, hjalma
Idettr
"cliff
and
of helmets", hjalmstofn "helmet-stump", hattar
hattar staup "knoll of the hat."*^
A
common
fell
"hill of the hat",
metaphoric inventory
and analogical technique form a bond between poets who almost certainly never met each other. The sky-as-helmet metaphor of Andreas, like the Danish
hairstyle that
some Anglo-Saxons were
said to ape, has a northern
aura whose attraction for tenth-century England remains both mysterious
and undoubted.*®
By 900 the Norse poets had constructed phorical expression that usually depended for
vious knowledge and training as
When
on
its
decoding as
much on
pre-
a feeling for or observation of nature.
the Andreas poet describes the onslaught of a fierce snowstorm, he
dips for inspiration into this skaldic pool.
'^
a separate language of meta*
Winter
is
raging in Mermedonia:
Meissner, Die Kenningar, 127.
For sky-kcnnings with "helmet" as baseword, see Meissner, Die Kenningar, 104-6. iClfric notes this English weakness for Danish cuts in Ethelred's reign: Pope, Supplement ••
tarj
Two hundred years earlier,
Alcuin had rebuked his countrymen for imiNorthmen: *'Ecce tonsura, quam in barbis et in capillis paganis voluistis": Ernst L. Dummler, ed., Alcuini Epistolae, Monumenta Germaniae Epistolae Karolini Aevi 2 (Berlin, 1895), 43. See the paper by Clayton in this
Homili«, 56.
tating the hairdos of the adsimilari
Historica,
volume.
.
J^orth^Sea Soundings
Snaw eordan band Weder coledon
wintergeworpum.
heardum haegelscurum, hare hildstapan,
swylce hrim ond
forst,
haeleda ebe\
Land waeron
lucon, leoda gesetu.
cealdum cylegicelum, ofer eastreamas
is
blaece brimrade.
freorig
clang waeteres l)rym, brycgade,
Blidheort
wunode
.
.
(1255b- 1262)
[Snow bound the earth with fierce hail'Storms; likewise
grew
wintet'drifts; the air
rime and
with
chill
hoary battle-stalkers,
frost,
locked the homelands of men, the seats of nations. Lands were freezing with cold icicles, the
might of the water congealed,
bridged over the water-streams, the dark wave-road.
dwelt [Andreas]
There
is
.
.
known Latin sources or in the Old The poet revives a dead metaphor
in the
of St Andrew.*^
life
(snow binding the earth, ice fettering the frost.
These "hoary
mula-type har
ice
heart
.]
no hint of this weather
English prose
Joyfril in
battlers talkers", a
hilderinc
sea)
by personifying rime and
nonce compound based on the
for-
"grey battle-warrior", silently and by night imprison
land and water.^° In skaldic diction, the associative link between weather
and
battle
even
is
so strong that words for rain, hail, sleet, snow, wind, ice, and
frost (e.g., drif, dripty drifa,
vedr, stormTy vindr,
and
frost)
and everything to do with killing'frost
and rime
el,
grdp, hagl, hregg, hrid,
iss,
regn, skur,
have almost nothing to do with precipitation
warfare.^ ^
The Andreas
as "battlers talkers"
is
poet's identification of
part of this imagistic
mode.
*' This prose life, extant as a fragment in the Blickling manuscript and complete in Cambridge, Corpus Christi College MS 198, is printed from the former, with the missing parts supplied from the latter, in The Blickling Homilies, ed. R. Morris, EETS o.s. 58, 63, and 73 (London, 1874-1880; repr. in 1 vol., 1967), 229-49. /Elfric's homily on the apos-
tle's
martyrdom has nothing
to
do with
this legendary account:
Clemoes,
CH
1,
507-19
(homily 38). ^°
C(.
fjiik
ok
frost
gekk
night": Fdsthrcedra saga, ed,
alia ndttina
Bjom
(Reykjavik, 1943), chap. 4, 136. ^'
See n. 6 above.
"blowing snow and
K. t>6r6lfsson and
Gudni
frost
walked [went on]
all
j6nsson, Islenzk fomrit 6
ROBERTA FRANK
8 Aggressive water raises lish
head again toward the end of the Old Eng-
its
poem. In a much discussed passage, Andreas
send a devouring flood
invites a stone pillar to
upon the Mermedonians: Stream ut aweoU, Famige walcan
fleow ofer foldan.
mid
eordan JDehton,
aerdaege
Meoduscerwen weard
myclade mereflod. aefter
Sund grunde onfeng,
Dugud weard
deope gedrefed. l^urh
Slaepe tobrugdon
symbeldaege.
searuhaebbende.
\)dss
flodes
geonge on geofone Jjurh sealtne weg.
afyrhted
Faege swulton,
faer.
gudraes
fomam
Paet waes sorgbyrJ)en,
ne gaeldon,
biter beorl)egu.
Byrlas
ombehtl>egnas.
Paer waes aelcum
firam daeges orde
genog
drync sona gearu.
(1523b-1535)
[A
river welled out, flowed over the earth.
Foamy
billows covered
the earth at dawn, the deluge increased. After a day of feasting off sleep. The sea The troop became terrified by the sudden attack of the flood. Doomed they perished, the battle^rush consumed with a salty wave the young men in the ocean.
came
mead. The warriors shook
a pouring out of
took hold of the land, deeply stirred up.
That was a sorrowful brewing, a bitter beer-drinking. Cup-bearers and serving-men did not hold back. For everyone drink enough was at
The
once ready there from the flood
is
figured as
**a
start of day.)
pouring out of mead", "a sorrowful brew", a
"bitter beer-drinking" served by attentive "cup-bearers." Taste decides
which passages neck
in
until dead.
any work should be celebrated and which hanged by the
Modem
readers tend to lean toward an execution.^^
Not
even the poet's change of ealuscenven "ale-pouring" (Beo 769) to mcodwscerwen "mead-pouring" can please:
"
Brooks, cd., Andreas,
point of absurdity in 1533
comments
ff."
at
"As
it
happens, Andreas
114 that "this metaphor
is
is
in this case
elaborated to the
North-Sea Soundings rather clearer than Beotuul/, but to
it is still
mead, a sweet drink. The metaphor
borrowed. "^^
The northern
cxld to
compare anything
muddled, and
is
*bitter*
may have been might not
courts that fostered skaldic art
have been so dismissive. For in this sophisticated verse, as in the Anglo-Saxon narrator's kod-
word "poetic words"
poetry),
"drink". Verse
is
any liquid
— from
lid
ale
were
interchangeable
wave
it is
— can be
synonyms
Around
cBgir
"sea", alda "wave", brim "surf',
stroyed the prince"
gjalfr
and sumhl "drinking
The association in Andreas of flowing mead has parallels in tenth-century skaldic
900, Pjodolfr of
"And
pi
all.^^
waters with an abundance of
tub of mead:
"mead",
also his mj^dr
fors "waterfall", regn "rain", vdgr "sea",
party", poetic
substituted for
"liquor", veig "strong drink", vin "wine", gran-
straumr "moustache-stream",
verse.
ale to
Odin's drykkr "drink";
"ale", hjorr "beer",
"ocean",
mead and
the kennings "drink of the raven" (= blood) or "drink of
terms.^"^ In
Odin" (=
(1488b),
Hvin
tells
of King Fj9lnir drowning in a
the ox's spears' [horns'] windless sea [strong drink] de(Skj.
the exordium of Vellekla
lA, (c.
7; IB, 7).
In the six half-stanzas assigned to
990), the skald Einarr
Helgason
Her-T^s vingnodar austr "draft of Odin's wine-vessel";
calls
poetry
fjardleggjar fyrdar
dreggar brim "fjord-bone's [stone's] men's [dwarfs'] yeast-surf'; dverga bergs geymilg "the dwarfs' mountain-kept liquid"; Rpgnis vdgr "sea of Odin";
Odroris alda
bdra
^^
"wave of Odrerir";
"wave of Bodn"
(Skj,
Kvasis dreyri "Kvasir's blood";
lA, 122-23; IB, 117).
Shippey, Old English Verse, 116. Christine
Fell,
The
"Old English
and Bodnar
poet's patron
heor,''
is
Leeds Studies
ON
8 (1975): 76-95, argues that the poet's "beer" (OE heor, bjorr) was not a malt-based drink, but a sweet fruit liqueur. See also Albert S. Cook, "Bitter Beer-
in English n.s.
Modem Language Notes 40 (1924): 285-88. For the disputed ealuscerwen, see Antoinette diPaolo Healey et al.. Dictionary of Old English, "E" (Toronto, 1996), s.v. The secondary literature on metaphorical drinks is vast: recent additions include Hugh Magennis, Anglo-Saxon Appetites: Food and Drink and their Consumption in Old English and Re-
Drinking,"
lated Literature (Dublin, 1999),
130-33, 158-59; Ute Schwab, "Blut trinken und im Bier
ertrinken. Zur Trinkmetaphorik bei
Saxo Grammaticus im Vergleich
zu einigen Zeugnis-
sen der germanischen Heldendichtung, besonders des Nibelungenliedes," in Saxo Grammaticus. ^^
Tra
storiografia e letteratura, ed.
Carlo Santini (Rome, 1992), 367-415.
for the Heliand poet, whose two wine-recep2733-2742) do not mix drinks (in contrast to Beowulf s Wealhtheow an absent-minded hostess, hands out meadcups at the royal beer-party).
This does not appear to be the case
tions (1994-2076,
who, ^'
like
See Meissner, Die Kenningar, 427-29.
ROBERTA FRANK
15
asked to hearken to this deluge of interrelated streams, to the "swell" that is
pounding against the
brine that he
is
skald's "song's skerry" [teeth], to the surf
and
"bailing" out of his "wine^ship." Both prince
fiiriously
and audience end up thoroughly drenched with Odin's mead.
A
later
stanza in VeUehla describes battle and poetry in terms of a hydrocycle, the
continual circulation of water from
air to
land and back:
Hjalmgr^pi vann hilmir hardr (Lopts vinar) barda (J)vi
kom
V9xtr
i
Vinu
vinheims) fiandr sina, (at forsnjallir fellu
furs
I^rottar skiirum)
i
jDat faer t)j65ar
snytri
(^Ttr jarlssynir) tirar. (Sk/.
In the following
two
for battle
—
With
literal version,
lA, 125; IB, 118-19)
— one
the three kennings
for poetry
and
are italicized:
helmet had got the ruler
stem, of Loptr's therefore
came
friend,
beaten,
a swelling in the river
of the wine abode, his enemies, so that very bold ones in the
— —
fell
showers of Prdttr^s
fire
that gives to the people's minister
three sons of an earl
—
glory.
"Helmet'hail" denotes a rain of missiles. poetry involves a paronomastic
and Vina its
"river": Loptr's friend
"abode"
is
a vat,
As
skald's five-part
and the "river" of the vat
the skald's concentrated outpourings. designate battle.
The
in Andreas,
one
is
the poetic drink
The "showers
liquid
of Odin's
for
while the mead-stream in VeUeUla
is
itself,
fire [spear]"
seems always to wash the other
in a series of rapidly shifting, pictorially incongruous
ing from the pillar in the
kenning
drumming on %nnr "friend", vin "wine", is Odin whose "wine" is the poetic mead;
metamorphoses. But
bubbling with praise, the drink flow-
Old English poem announces,
like
the voice of
hlorth-Sea Soundings
1JI_
the archaic torso of Apollo heard by Rilke: '*Du musst dein Leben andern."26
Reading an old poem
is like receiving a guest from a distant land. You visitor's words, his particular idiom, grammar, and the sense of make try to gestures. Some preceding and surrounding culture, now vanished, gave
context to the utterances of Andreas,
the oddly dressed and worded
stranger in the Vercelli Book. This note looks at
what happens when the
Old English poem is approached through the special language of the skalds. Sometimes light is shed on the meaning of an individual Old English compound or on the interpretation of a puzzling passage; sometimes the local effects the poet sought become a little clearer. And sometimes, with metaphors flashing this way, then that, first one, then another wave catching the
light,
prehension of
"
we
learn something about the
reality, his
take
Anglo-Saxon poet's
ap-
on the world.
"Archaischer Torso Apollos" (1908): New Poems, trans. J. B. Leishman (London, On die conversion of Mennedonia by "water from die rock," see Thomas D.
1964), 164.
Narrative in Andreas," 'NeuphUologische Mituilungen 70 (1969): 261-73, and Marie M. Walsh, 'The Baptismal Flood in the Old English Andreas,'' Traditio 33 (1977): 137-58. Hill, "Figural
MALCOLM GODDEN
/Elfric as
Grammarian: The
Evidence of
his Catholic Homilies
IN AN IMPORTANT STUDY OF LATE Old English spelling much else, published in 1992, Don Scragg drew attention
and work of
variation,
to the
an eleventh'Century Rochester reader and corrector with a keen eye
for
grammatical consistency. Working through some texts of y^lfric in a manuscript dating from about the year 1000,
this reader
noticed the great
grammarian's apparently random, one might say sloppy, variation between strong and
weak forms
of the
noun
lufu
and reduced them to a proper
formity, substituting the strong form throughout.^
that /^Ifric Grammaticus
contemporaries.
What
may not
follows
is
It is
uni-
a salutary reminder
always have been as grammatical as his
a brief attempt to explore
some
aspects of
his grammaticality.
One
of the most important
moments
was Kenneth Sisam's demonstration, in a
in the history of y^lfric studies series of articles originally
pub'
lished in 1931-1933, that the manuscripts of the Catholic Homilies revealed
a gradual process of authorial revision, and that the revision involved not
only some large-scale changes of the kind noticed rich,
'
much
earlier
by Diet'
but also a great deal of small-scale revision.^ This, he showed,
D. G. Scragg, "Spelling Variations in Eleventh-Century English,"
in-
in England in the
Eleventh Century, ed. Carola Hicks (Stamford, 1992), 347-54. ^
K. Sisam,
"MSS
Bodley 340 and 342:
Studies 7 (1931): 8 (1932):
/Elfric's Catholic
51-68, 9 (1933): 1-12; rev. and
Homilies" Review of English idem. Studies m the
repr. in
MALCOLM GODDEN
14
eluded some grammatical changes, specifically the change from dative to accusative in nouns governed by the preposition
Subsequent work on the
CH
1),
and
especially the Royal manuscript of that series, by Peter Cle-
moes showed
that revision or correction of
indeed, forming the major
component of
grammar was very widespread
i^lfric's correction in
These
stages of his dissemination of the work.^
gender and
/)ur/i.
the Catholic Homilies (hereafter
First Series of
the early
revisions affected the
nouns, the declension of adjectives, classes of weak
class of
verbs, forms of relative pronouns,
moods of
emed by
My own subsequent work on the
prepositions or by verbs.
Series of Catholic Homilies (hereafter
CH
verbs,
2)
and cases of nouns gov*
Second
produced some more limited
evidence of similar changes by /tlfric/
This evidence of authorial changes in grammatical usage important and interesting questions about the writer who used /Elfric
other
Grammaticus
men
or y^lfric the
called /Elfric.
Was
it
Grammarian, to distinguish him from
rules
he only half-knew or half-practised?
a language with a great deal of free variation,
trying to impose rules?
some
the Old English which he inherited a rule-
bound language, but one whose
Or was
raises
to be called
on which he was
Or was it a language in transition between two The much-delayed publication of Clemoes's
of rules or conventions? tion of
CH
in 1997, gives us the opportunity to look
J,
some of these
The Evidence for Revision
should perhaps start by noting the kinds of evidence
with and
History of
how
Old
edi-
closely at
questions.
I.
We
more
sets
reliable
it
is,
we
are dealing
before looking at the particular types of
English Uterature (Oxford, 1953), 165-79; E. Dietrich,
Literaturgeschichte der angelsdchsischen Kirche,"
"Abt
Zeitschrift fUr historische
/Elfrik:
Zur
Theologie 25
487-594; 26 (1856): 163-256. originally developed these conclusions in his Cambridge Ph.D. thesis of 1956; they were revised and elaborated in his introduction to the facsimile edition of the Royal manuscript j^lfric's Pint Series of Catholic Homilies (British Museum Royal 7 C.Xll, fols. 4-218), cd. Norman E. Eliason and Peter Clemoes, Early English Manuscripts in Facsimile 13 (Copenhagen, 1966), and in the introduction to his edition of CH I which he wrote at the same time but which was not published until 1997. (1855): '
Clemocs
^
Godden.
CH
2.
y^lfric as
Grammarian
15
change.^ Sisam, following a point
made by
Dietrich in the nineteenth
century, noted that there were three very early, sound, scripts of
CH
1
,
and that
large-scale differences
they represented three successive stages in
London, British Library
text:
MS
Royal 7
MS Gg.3.28 (=
K),
whose
manu-
(= A), a copy of the
Series of Catholic Homilies^ represents the earliest
University Library,
reliable
of
CH
two
Corpus Christi College,
MS
First
known state; Cambridge,
text
was familiar
as the basis
Cam-
of Thorpe's edition of 1844-1846,^ represents a later stage; and bridge,
that
development of the
/Elfric's
c.xii
and
among them showed
188 (=Q) represents a
still
later stage
containing additional texts and passages.
He showed that the first
also differed a great deal in points of detail,
grammar, and wording,
1
which he was inclined
to attribute to ^Ifric's revision too.
And
he went
show that the Royal manuscript of CH J had been corrected and annotated in /Elfric's own hand, and that many of the alterations were on
on
to
points of grammar; and that other, less reliable, manuscripts could be
shown
to occupy particular places within the sequence of revision,
on the
change or more commonly changes of
detail.
basis of either large-scale
Clemoes
built
on that pattern
in his analysis of y^lfric's revision, in his in-
troduction to the facsimile of the Royal manuscript and in his introduction to his edition. In the case of
ed since there
is
CH 2,
the evidence
is
much more
limit-
only one complete manuscript (K) and no equivalent to
A or Q,
though there are nearly
from the
Series.
Here one has
thirty manuscripts containing selections
on
to rely
identifying large-scale differences
that distinguish the manuscripts in terms of authorial revision and succes-
'
by
Manuscripts containing items from the CathoUc Homilies are refen-ed to in
sigla
devised by Clemoes and used in the
in Pope, Supplementary Homilies.
B
D
These
EETS
this essay
editions of the CathoUc HomiUes
and
A (London, British Library, Royal 7 C.xii); C (Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, 303);
are:
(Oxford, Bodleian Library, Bodley 343); (Oxford, Bodleian Library, Bodley 340 and 342);
E (Cambridge, Corpus
Christi
G
College, 198); F (Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, 162); (London, British Library, Cotton Vespasian D.xiv); (London, British Library, Cotton Vitellius C.v); J (London,
H
British Library,
Cotton Cleopatra
University Library, Gg.3.28);
B.xiii
and Lambeth Palace Library 489);
L (Cambridge,
University Library,
li.
1.
33);
K
(Cambridge,
M (Cambridge,
Ii.4.6); N (London, British Library, Cotton Faustina A.ix); O (CamCorpus Christi College, 302); (Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, 188); R (Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, 178); T (Oxford, Bodleian Library, Hatton 113 and 114 and Junius 121); U (Cambridge, Trinity College, B.15.34).
University Library, bridge,
^
Q
The Homilies of the Angb-Saxon Church: The First Part, Containing the Sermones CathThorpe, 2 vols. (London, 1844-1846).
ohci or Homilies of y€lfnc, ed. B.
MALCOLM OODDEN
16 sive stages in the i
evidence
One
text,
CH
and then with the help of
important argument for attributing such revision to y^lfric
evidence of his lies
development of the
try to identify consistent patterns in variations of detail.
own
later writings,
which
edited by Pope,
such as the
some
in
show
areas
is
the
homi-
later (supplementary)
a consistent grammatical
practice that matches the alterations attributed to /Elfric in the text of the
There
Catholic Homilies.
are,
though, reservations to be expressed about
the nature of the evidence. In the case of the Royal manuscript,
it is
ble to claim that all the thousand or so alterations entered in the script
and
reflected in other copies of the text
approved by
them
but
/Elfric;
it
many
of
but were entered by the two main scribes or
by others unidentified. In the case of any differences of substance I
manu-
initiated or at least
has to be acknowledged that a great
own hand
are not in his
were
possi'
we
are
think entitled to say that /Elfric did initiate them, and that the scribes
and others must have copied them over from another manuscript on instructions. In the case of the grammatical changes,
made the
alterations in another manuscript
he told the
their copy with that manuscript, or that
tain specified types of
change in the manuscript on
In the case of other manuscripts, at other places, far
ations in
them
removed from
are the
work of
may be
that /Elfric
scribes to collate
scribes to
their
own
make
cer-
account.
are dealing with copies produced
/Elfric,
scribes
And
traced back to /Elfric himself.
we
it
and told the
his
and trying to deduce which
vari-
and correctors and which can be
that can be a matter of probabilities
rather than certainties.
11.
!•
The Nature of the Revision
Cases after Prepositions
a) fmrh,
Sisam
identified this revision,
useful feature. In
Old English
and
it
remains the most frequent and
generally J)urh takes the accusative.^
takes the accusative, invariably
I
think, in /Elfric 's
in the Catholic Homilies, as represented by
CH 2, '
the dative
is
quite
Sec Bruce Mitchell, Old
own
MS A for CH
common, though the
It
later writings.
accusative
I
and
is
also
But
MS K for
dominant: of
Engiish Syntax, 2 vols. (Oxford, 1985). § 1207.
/€lfric as
Grammarian
17
about twelve hundred instances of |)urh, some two hundred are followed by the dative (in
many
of the other instances the case
is
indeterminate). But
these instances of dative are gradually altered to accusative. In
CH
text of
manuscript
I
MS
A's
there are sixteen alterations to accusative entered in the
but about eighty-five remain unaltered. In forty-five in-
itself,
stances, manuscripts representing the next stage of development, the ones
CH I which /Elfric sent to Archbishop Sigeric, show the accusative where MS A has dative. And the remaining forty instances or so show the accusative in manuscripts representing the next stage. One of these manuscripts is K, which was used by Thorpe for his deriving from the copy of
and
edition of the Catholic Homilies,
appear with
jjur/i
in his text of
instances of dative in all
CH
this explains
With
I.
CH
why 2,
the dative does not
there are
K or other manuscripts representing the
some ninety early phase,
of which are replaced by accusative in manuscripts belonging to later
stages: twenty-five of
Two main strongly
them
at a fairly early stage, the rest later.
points strike one
enough about
first
about this process:
this nicety of
grammar
(a)
that y^lfric felt
to correct every single in-
stance to accusative, despite the frequency of dative in his early writings;
but
(b)
that he did not feel strongly enough about the usage to eliminate
CH the correction very patchy in MS A despite his personal supervision, and then takes several more stages complete. In CH 2 clear that he made at least two indebefore the dative thoroughly in one go. In
it is
it is
pendent attempts to deal with erally related) before
stage.
And
script K,
is
I
it
it
which contains both
CH
is,
working with two copies
collat-
comprehensively disposing of the dative at a later
took longer with
2 though none in
(that
I
CH
2 than with
Series, there are
CH
still
1
,
so that in
manu-
a lot of datives in
CH
.
Clearly /^Ifric acquired or developed a grammatical rule here, that l>urh
should always take the accusative. But did this displace a different rule?
The
use of the dative as opposed to the accusative does not seem to be re-
lated to sense or syntax, but
it
does seem curiously to be related to the
kinds of nouns involved.^ In the early versions of the text there
is
a gen-
* There is an excellent discussion of this phenomenon in /^Ifric's early work by Arthur Sandved, "Some Notes on the Syntax of Prepositions in /Elfric's Homilies," in Studies in English Language and Early Literature in Honour of Paul Christopherson, ed. P.M. Tilling, Occasional Papers in Linguistics and Language Learning 8 (Coleraine, 1981),
117-35; see also Mitchell, Old English Syntax, § 1153.
MALCOLM OODDEN
1_8
eral
tendency to use the accusative
if it is
example
plural;
1
,
if
the noun
is
singular but the dative
with dative and accusative in the same phrase,
nicely illustrates the distinction:
t)urh disne geleafan
1.
There
and
t>urh
godum geeamungum {CH
a parallel tendency to use the accusative
is
person or tangible thing, but the dative
words 1
or
2.
God
for
MS K
of
or the devil, the dative
CH
1
gode
3.
And 4.
\>uTh.
Jjurh
\>uTh deofle 0,
is
l)urh
MS A
of
CH
drihten 6
1,
deofol 6
abstract gast:
^urh godes gast 8
the rule with godum geeamungum^ "good merits":
godum geeamungum 8
Compare too the
a
an abstraction. Thus with
very rare in either
more common with the more
is
is
god 8
deoflum
turh godes gaste 4 the dative
the referent
\)uih crist 7
Jjurh drihtne
But the dative
20.276)
2:
t)urh criste
t)urh
if it is
is
if
I
j)urh
gode geeamunga
contrast between words for bird and words for speech or
discourse:
5.
I^urh t>isne eam/fiigel
\>uih [)isum
One might
cwyde/tacne/wordum
note too the usage with pronouns and demonstratives. Not
prisingly the dative
is
rare with the personal pronoun, since
it falls
sur-
under
the "rule" just described:
6.
But
l>urh him/hire
it is
abo
plural, as if
tive
\>\ii\\
hine 34
\)uih hi 12
rare with the demonstrative or definite article,
even in the
the presence of the demonstrative inhibited the use of the da-
even with
plurals
and
abstractions:
y€lfric as
Grammarian
1_9
Jjurh {x)ne/t>a 161
J)urh l5am/t)9ere 11
7.
On
the other hand, the dative
S*
nanre/nanum 6
Ipxxrh
is
the rule with nan:
J^urh
nan/nane
hard to see an articulable rule here, though there
It is
a personal preference, a feeling for what
As
noted, l>urh with the dative
I
/Elfric's
work, but
when
scribes
is
is
clear evidence of
right or comfortable.
unusual in Old English outside
is
and readers found
not to have been particularly troubled by
it. It is
it
in his
work they seem
very seldom indeed that
a scribe or corrector has altered a dative in any of the extant manuscripts,
and the evidence manuscripts
as a
whole suggests that where there
goes back to /Elfric's
it
nice example that supports that point
9.
K
is
at
CH
K
l)urh
agenum geearnungum
CHR
t^urh
agene geearnunga
DF
\>uih.
agene geearnungum
D
altered to
agene geearnunga
altered to
agenum geearnungum
F (BO
t>urh
and
F, closely
MSS CHR
y^lfric.
reflect a
But two manu'
false form, agene
geearnungum, with accusative
and dative noun (perhaps inherited from a misreading or miS'
copying of an /Elfrician revision). the accusative. tive.
A
linked and sharing a lot of error and corruption,
have somehow acquired a adjective
between
agene geearnunge)
has the dative of the expected type (see above),
D
variation
2 28.7:
change to accusative that probably goes back to scripts,
is
changes, not to those of others.
A
A reader of D saw
this
and altered
it
to
reader of F saw the same hybrid and altered to the da-
Both correctors were operating,
dle of the eleventh century.
I
Both saw
think, at Rochester around the mida false concord
and corrected
there was apparently not a clear rule about the correct case. (B and
it,
but
G
are
twelfth-century manuscripts with levelled endings and of no account here.) It
most
would seem then that users of
Old
l}urh
English, but
after a very uncertain start.
+
accusative was normal convention for
became
specifically a rule for /Elfric only
MALCOLM GODDEN
20 b)
The evidence of other wif) is like /mr/i.
The
prepositions.
accusative
normal in most
is
the dative
equally
is
common
writers,
which the genitive
in late /Elfric (except for contexts in
is
and the
rule
normal), but
in early versions of the Catholic Homilies.
There are twenty-eight examples
MS A
in
of
CH
1
,
gradually altered to
CH
accusative over five successive stages of revision. In
twenty-eight examples of each case in
MS
K, but
all
2, there are
datives were eradi-
cated in the course of later revision.
With
other prepositions, such as
normal case from the beginning
which he soon eliminated.
oj)
and ymhe, the accusative
for /^Ifiric, but there
is
the
were a few datives
We might say there was a rule from the outset,
but some exceptions slipped
in.
With
others though, such as ofer and on^
gean, variation or flexibility remained throughout his writings. In the Cath'
Homilies the dative
olic
is
much more common than
the accusative with
these prepositions in early versions of the text, whereas in /Elfric's later
work the accusative
is
evidence that /Elfric
much more common than the dative. There is clear did alter many instances of dative to accusative, so
that in later versions of the Catholic Homilies the accusative
is
dominant,
but some datives remain, and clearly he went on using the dative quite often in later it
appears.
variation
The
is
life.
And
We
have here a change of preference but never a
as Pope's glossary shows, there
is
no evidence
rule,
that the
anything to do with context or sense.
best evidence of grammatical change remains with prepositions
because they occur so frequently, but similar patterns are evident in other matters.
2.
Forms of Nouns
a)
Weak and
strong.
Clemoes records that
in
MS A
lufu
from weak to strong, and l>eow and it is
not clear that /Elfric had a rule on
weak forms of would be
usefril
lufu
and sunu have both been altered
hcetu
from strong to weak.' Even
all
and sunu are recorded
to look
more
in his later
closely at the important
CH
I,
128 n.
7.
work by Pope.
word
(meaning both "slave" or "servant" and "minister" or
Clcmocs,
so,
of these since both strong and
J)coit;
It
or l)eowa
"cleric"). In the
Grammarian
y€lfric as
later homilies edited
21_
by Pope, the weak form l)eowa
the one example of a strong form lies,
although the weak form
twenty-eight examples against eighty-one of the little
almost invariable;
probably early. In the Catholic Homi-
is
usual, the strong
is
is
is quite common, with weak form. But there is
sign of /^Ifric himself being sufficiently concerned about consistency
in this case to ''correct" the instances of strong use; there are a few
changes in
MS A
MS T has l>eowas weak. But there
is
but
little
K has ^eowan,
and
This looks
like a case
preserved in
MS
F
l)urh
at
CH 2
Here
reflect
CH 2
where ^Ifric changed
is
the weak form and
where
an /^Ifrician change to
12.174:
his original dative after
J?ur/i,
but in making this revision used the
evidence also that others apart from /El-
made changes themselves
in his text, e.g.,
14.111:
K l)eoiv R
11.
might
9.168,
l>eowum
F, to accusative,
strong form of the noun. There fric preferred
A variation at CH 2
a counter-example at
K l>urh l>eowa5
10.
thereafter.
J^eow has
reader of
Some
^eow'a'
T ^eowa
been changed to l)eowa by an eleventh-century Worcester
MS R,
and
text was then copied into T.
its
inconsistencies of class remain uncorrected altogether.
The word
for ''heaven" appears in the Catholic Homilies in three distinct forms, all
common
elsewhere in Old English, but occurring in largely complementary
distribution in /Elfric's work:
the nominative singular
it
occurs as a strong feminine, found only in
(seo heofon); as a
weak feminine, appearing
in the
oblique cases of the singular (heofonan); and as a strong masculine, occurring mainly in the plural (heofonas,
heofon and heofones). There ently related to sense,
could
justify
The
and
is
-a,
um, but also one example each of
clearly a pattern here, but
it is
hard to imagine that
it
it is
not appar-
was one
really interesting case
is
metod, a poetic word used by /Elfric ex-
perimentally in his early alliterative homilies. ^° /Elfric probably in the
/Elfric
grammatically.
form of a poetic epithet, metoda
'° See M. R. Godden, 206-23.
'•/^Ifric's
drihten,
knew
it
and seems to have been un-
Changing Vocabulary,"
English Studies 61 (1980):
MALCOLM OODDEN
22 sure quite
how
to treat this word: was
it
weak or
strong,
noun
or adjective?
occurs in the following phrases in the Catholic Homilies:
It
12.
(a)
laed us
(b)
sy t>am
(c)
metoda god (CH
I
35.285)
metodan drihtne (CH I 38.350) gecuron manslagan na metoda drihten
hi
(var.
metodan)
(CH
2 14. 208) (d)
taes
(e)
se
metodan drihtnes (CH 2
and
usually a strong masculine noun, in poetry
It is
and that would
examples
fit
genitive plural, "of fates" or
a
19.49, 259)
metoda drihten (CH 2 23.184-185; 34.32-33)
weak noun
and
(e)
It is
in apposition,
but not for
(c),
and
in the prose of Alfred,
metoda
(c),
**of
gods." But examples
which would
unless
(e) if
(a),
we
understood as a
is
(b)
and
also be possible for
(d)
suggest
examples
(a)
accept the manuscript variant metodan.
perhaps not surprising that /^Ifric eliminated this word in revision,
though that may have been more because
it
was poetic than because of his
grammatical uncertainty.
b)
Gender of nouns.
Clemoes notes nine changes "resurrection",
all
nine to masculine or neuter), to feminine).^ as
it
usually
^
in
MS A
affecting the gender of
susl (neuter to
In /^Ifric's later works
feminine) and edwist (neuter
cerist is
always masculine or neuter,
in the Catholic Homilies, but clearly
is
occasionally at
first
and then eliminated that
slipped through to later manuscripts
(CH
I
pare too the example o{ is
hcel/hcelu
which
usual in /Elfric, but
it
I
he treated
it
as
feminine
usage,
though one example
30.81).
Both masculine and
feminine forms are well evidenced in other prose
The feminine
cerist
feminine to masculine, and one each for wcestm (femi-
texts.
One might com*
discussed in an earlier article.'^
looks as though he treated
masculine sometimes as well. Scribes or readers did not
like the
it
as
masculine
33 n. 11; Clemoes, CH I, 128 n. 8. Clemoes deI, 1.73 as from feminine to neuter, but since wcestm is otherwise masculine in i^lfric's work it is perhaps more likely to have been a change from feminine plural to masculine singular. On the general problem of gender in
" Eliason and Clemoes,
First Series,
scribes the alteration to wctstm at
nouns, see Mitchell, Old '^
Godden,
"/Clfric's
En^h
CH
Syntax, §§ 62-71.
Changing Vocabulary."
Grammarian
/^Ifric as
and often changed
23
to feminine, for instance at Pope, Supplementary
it
Homilies, 5.193-194.
3.
Mood In
Verb
of
in Subordinate Clauses
MS A Clemoes cites changes from indicative to subjunctive after behead
cBrf>aml>e, het ^czty
itiated
by
/Elfric.
l)cet,
gedafenad
J)cet.^^
Clemoes notes some
These were presumably
frirther
examples of
gi/,
in-
this sort of
change, evident from the variant readings of other manuscripts, which he
by
attributes to later stages of revision
CH
distribution.^"^ In
tive
and subjunctive
2 7.101 there
t>u
because of the manuscript
between
indica-
an indirect question with hwceder:
after
nast hwaeSer
13.
y^lfric
a case of variation
is
.
.
gebide {variant gebitst).
.
In his later homilies y^lfric always uses the subjunctive after hwceder, but
he does occasionally use the indicative Homilies
y
and
usage. ^^ But type.
it
looks as
this
is
for instance these
is
responsible for alterations of this
examples in
CH 2
25:
CH 2 25.7 MSS KBU: and nahhad hwcet hi etad MS C etan MS H eton MS D etad > etan MS F cetad >
14.
CH 2 25.32 MSS KBCDF: MS H eton MS U etan At
in early versions of the Catholic
another area in which he regularised his
who
hard to be sure
it is
Compare
if
line
and
hi
nahhad
etan
hivcet hi etad
32 the disciples say to Christ that the people listening to him have
nothing to
eat:
and
hi
nahhad hwcet
have forms of the subjunctive, and /Elfrician change, since
H
and
But the same phrase occurs passage in
ftiU.
Here
H
U
hi etad. I
Two
manuscripts,
H
derive from a late version of his text.
at line 7,
where
has subjunctive but
y^lfric
U
is
giving the gospel
has indicative, and two
other manuscripts have alterations entered by a reader or corrector
'^
Eliason and Clemoes,
'*
Clemoes,
'^
Cf. Mitchell,
CH
I,
Old
First Series,
130 n.
and U,
would normally take that to be an
33 n. 17; Clemoes,
CH
I,
128 n. 14.
13.
English Syntax, §
2085 on the variation
in usage.
who
is
.
MALCOLM GODDEN
24 certainly not i^lfric (D
and
here derived from D).
suspect the evidence here suggests that
I
F,
the two Rochester manuscripts again;
not change to subjunctive but readers at
CH 2
wees beboden
l)cet hi
MNO wees behoden This looks
cannot be
4.
is
^\hic did
We might note also the change
15.313:
KE
15.
did.
C
like /Elfric's
sceoldon caflice etan
l>cBt hi caflice
ceton
change, from the manuscript witnesses, but one
certain.
Forms of Relative Pronoun Clemoes notes changes from neuter demonstrative pronoun
relative to the indeclinable particle 1.*^
In
CH
to be at
/)e,
and vice
versa, in
used as of
CH
2 there are few changes in the form of the relative that seem
all likely
to go back to /^Ifric, but there
this interesting little
is
set:
16.
jxjet
MS A
CH 2
4.304
K
MNO CH 2
on mcEgdhades
5.4
K
gelic
NO CH 2
gelic
5.157
K
MNO CH2
on mcBgdhades
him
sumum sumum filiad
him fiUad
7.51K
mannum mannum
l>a
de
,
.
de
hiredes ealdre se de ferde hiredes ealdre de ferde
.
.
.
.
.
.
se de
nu
l)am de
is
nu
.
is
.
geduht
.
.
.
.
geduht
y^lfric as
Grammarian
25^
case other manuscripts have dropped the demonstrative or changed
avoid that clash. in the last
MSS
it
to
MNO might well reflect an y^lfrician change. But
example the same change
pears in F, neither due
think to
I
is
D and also ap-
actually entered in
/Elfric.
Others were clearly uncomforta-
ble with that construction, as well as, or instead
of, /^Ifric.
Conclusions clear that in the Catholic Homilies as first written ^Ifric's grammatical
It is
usage was in
many
respects inconsistent in itself
with normal Old English usage. areas, generally
with the
normal practice
his
radic
effect of
later,
manner. Often
it
He made
and sometimes out of line
some what became
quite extensive revisions in
changing the grammar to
though over several stages and in a rather spo-
much
looks as though
made by him when he was checking
of the detailed revision was
individual copies for error rather than
undertaking a sustained, methodical correction of a master copy. In some areas too his usage
remained
variable,
and although
Royal manuscript or elsewhere suggest a areas,
it
his revisions in the
sensitivity to correctness in these
was a passing matter rather than a major concern. Connie Eble,
in a 1970 dissertation
dence shows "that
on the Royal manuscript, concludes that the
/Elfric
writer of his native language.'*^®
It is
true that the alterations point to a
writer with a concern for grammatical correctness
one could
and consistency. But
also argue that the variation present at the outset in the
manuscript and in
MS
K,
its
Royal
continuation through subsequent versions,
and the unmethodical nature of stinctive usage
evi'
was a conscientious grammarian and a careful
was variable and
revision suggest a writer
who was
far
whose own
in-
from certain what correct
usage was. Kenneth Sisam suggested that the model for y^lfric's grammatical
It
concerns was Latin:
is
even possible to specify a
Second
Series
likely date for
the reform.
was followed by the Latin Grammar, in which
The
y^lfric
gave a considerable space to prepositions and the cases they govern.
lic
The
task of explaining Latin usage
and translating the exam-
** Connie C. Eble, "Noun Inflection in Royal 7 C. xii, /^Ifiric's First Series of CathoHomilies" (Ph.D. diss., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1970).
MALCOLM GODDEN
26 pies
would bring home to him the anomalies of his own practice and the advantages of
English,
found overhauling the surprise to those
age.
make
for
.
.]
in
That he should be
may come
as a
think of the tenth century as an uncouth pleasure in
artist's
all
the
little
things that
good writing. His handling of the prepositions reveals
once the care that
lies
behind
standards by which he moulded
I
[.
details of his English syntax
who
But he took an
regularity.
think the point about dating
is
at
and the Latin
his finished prose it.*^
doubtful.
Comparison between the Royal
manuscript and others shows that the grammatical revision was well ad-
vanced before the production of the archetypes from which tant copies survive, including, /EXfric sent to
Archbishop
completed work on
CH
2,
on Clemoes's
This copy was
Sigeric.
which was apparently
itself
other ex-
all
one which
hypothesis, the
sent before he
in turn before
he began
work on the Grammar. In other words, the grammatical concern well before the writing of the
teaching Latin started
Grammar. But obviously
earlier,
started
/Elfric's interest in
and that would certainly have allowed a
concern with Latin grammar to influence the key influence? /Elfric does in the
his vernacular usage.
Grammar
give a
list
Was
Latin
of prepositions
which take the accusative and those which take the ablative, with a small group that take either depending on meaning.^° That indeed might have prompted him to be more rigorous between
relation
his Latin rules
himself.^
and
^
But there
his English usage.
is
not
Note
much
cor-
that he cites
super as a preposition that takes accusative or ablative according to sense
(motion or location), but his
own
usage with the corresponding English
preposition, ofer, shows variation unrelated to sense. In the case of nounclasses,
he remarks in the Grammar that some nouns are of varying
"dubii generis, \>xt
some of
is,
twylices cynnes."^^
Old English nouns,
his
''
Sisam, Studies, 184-85.
^°
j^^rics
Grammatik und 267-68.
Though
that
is
class:
also true of
his efforts to correct inconsistency, for
Glossar, ed.
J.
Zupitza,
Sammlung
englischer
DenkmSler
1
(Berlin, 1880). ^'
Though Sandved "Syntax
prepositions
is
of Prepositions" shows that /^Ifric's actual usage with not particularly consistent in the Grammar, even in the chapter on Latin
prepositions.
"
Sandved, "Syntax of Prepositions,"
19.
Grammarian
j^lfric as
example with not require of
27
suggest that he was looking for a regularity that
cerist,
have concentrated on grammar rather than
1
throw some
light
on the
shows a great deal of
rich
and varied vocabulary; there are over
the Catholic Homilies, including
with grammar,
some
He
lexical variation.
many
but
lexis
may
seems to have relished a
thousand separate words in
five
instances of apparent synonyms. But
usage changed quite substantially in
/£lfric's lexical
between the Catholic Homilies and
areas
lexis here,
work, in the Catholic Homi-
issues. /Elfric's early
lies,
as
he did
his pupils in their use of Latin.
his later works. ^^
This
is
in
new words like lagu and macian coming into his usage, but many cases where he used several synonyms apparently in-
part a matter of it
also includes
discriminately early
on and
later
he uses both cydere and martyr he uses hwcedre,
and
l>eah
one or two. Thus
his range to
'martyr" in the Catholic Homilies, but
his early
l>eahhwcBdere, f)eah,
and swa^eah
we
CH
in
There
especially stual>eah thereafter.
here to what
is
but
I
relies
an evident
mainly
similarity
find in his grammatical practice, with variable usage in
works giving way in some areas to a more uniform practice in
though in the case of
later works,
revised
*
himself to martyr in his later work. For ''however, nevertheless"
restricts
on
narrowed
for
and corrected
exception
is
metod).
his earlier
And
lexis there
is
very
little
works to match his later usage
in the case of lexis
we have
in 1970
and developed
in
more
ter in 1991, that a standardised vocabulary
detail
(a striking
a possible explana-
tion for this concern with uniformity, in the hypothesis,
Helmut Gneuss
sign that /^Ifric
first
proposed by
by Walter Hofstet-
was devised and taught at
St.
/Ethelwold's school in Winchester in the second half of the tenth century
and subsequently used by Winchester- trained cluding
y^lfric.^'^
But though
it is
sirability of a standardised lexis
direct impact
on
his
own
conceivable that /^Ifric learnt the de-
from /Ethelwold,
usage.
He
particularly strong predilection for the
^^
^^
or -influenced writers, in-
it
is
hard to see any
does not in fact seem to show a
Winchester vocabulary: according
I summarise here the main points of Godden, "/Elfric's Changing Vocabulary." Helmut Gneuss, "The Origin of Standard Old English and /^thelwold's School at
Winchester,"
ASE
1
(1972): 63-83; Walter Hofstetter, "Winchester
and the Standardisa-
Old English Vocabulary," ASE 17 (1988): 139-61 (a distillation of his dissertation, "Winchester und der spStaltenglische Sprachgebrauch: Untersuchungzur geographischen und zeitlichen Verbreitung altenglischer Synonyme" [Munich, 1987]). See the
tion of
paper by Lapidge in
this
volume.
MALCOLM GODDEN
28
to Hofetettcr's figures for the group of words he has studied, /Elfric used
the "Winchester" word only 70 per cent of the time and employed
synonyms other than the preferred Winchester choice
Where
own changes
his
examined by Gneuss and Winchester preference:
in the other cases.
of usage can be parallelled with the words Hofstetter, is
it
he seems to be working against the
the loan-word martyr that he eventually
And
standardises on, rather than the Winchester preference cydere.
if
/^Ifric had indeed spent the previous ten or twenty years at Winchester
learning and practising a standardised vocabulary,
there a
it is
why
hard to explain
such variation and experimentation in the Catholic Homilies, with
is
more uniform
There were
practice only developing gradually later.
naturally words that he seldom or never used, though contemporaries
might use them, but
it
uniformity or
difficult to see a principle of
is
standardisation operating in his lexis at the early stage. His variations of
he
lexical practice suggest that
left
of usage, or even a settled practice.
some
Winchester with no established
The same
could probably be said of
which shows considerable
aspects of his morphology,
rules
toleration of
variation in such things as plural endings of neuter nouns or preterite
endings in weak verbs.
The that
it
overall sense that a study of his changing vocabulary gives
was
for
him
a matter of feel, of tone, rather than rules.
suggest that that was his position about cases or noun-forms felt right in
grammar when he
is
tentatively
started; certain
some contexts and wrong
that was a natural and instinctive aspect of his usage.
I
one
in others,
and
On reading through
work he began to notice inconsistencies or oddities, and changed them when he did notice them; some of these alterations perhaps
copies of his
achieved the status of rules
That
from and why gy. In
and
it
some is
for
him, and affected his future usage.
leaves unanswered the question of it
showed such variation
areas
perhaps
it
the more shown such
the fact that the only text
resembling
his original usage
grammar,
I
practice,
surprising that a product of /Ethelwold's variations.
have
/Elfric's variation in
came
and morpholo'
lexis,
was uncharacteristic of normal Old English
all
school should have
in
where
so far
A possible straw
come
across that
the case governed by purh
in the
wind
is
shows anything is
another Win-
chester text, of uncertain date but certainly produced by his time: the an-
onymous
Life of St Machutus.^^ It looks as
" The Old
English Life
if
Winchester practice
toler-
ofMachutus, cd. David Ycrkes (Toronto, 1984). The glossary
j^lfric as
Grammarian
29
ated rather more variation than
we have become used
to assuming. But
perhaps the crucial point was that yClfric was primarily a
stylist
rather
than a grammarian or even a pedagogue; variety of expression and nuances of rhythm and tone evidently mattered more than the kind of grammatical consistency that the later Rochester corrector sought to achieve.^^
records four instances of ^urh with the dative, against
many with
the accusative.
On
the
Winchester origin of the text see esp. xli-ii. Mitchell, Old English Syntax, § 1207, notes two other instances of the dative outside /Elfric's work. ^^
I
am
grateful to
teristically excellent
Susan Irvine of University College London
advice
on
this paper.
for
some charac-
MECHTHILD GRETSCH
/Elfric's Sanctorale
and the
Benedictional of ^^thelwold
THE FIRST BOOK EVER TO BE PRINTED in Old English was /Elfric's Easter homily, edited by Archbishop Matthew Parker and his circle, and /Elfric played a paramount role in the formative period of Anglo-Saxon studies
from the
late sixteenth to the early
his Latin
Grammar
eighteenth century.^
It
was through
Old English and the Latin paradigms
pro-
vided with English translations that the early ''antiquaries" gained a
first
glimpse of the grammatical structure of Old English, and, above
was
written in
through his vast corpus of homilies and
Matthew
Parker, William L'Isle,
all, it
saints' lives that scholars
such
as
George Hickes and Elizabeth Elstob
sought to demonstrate that the Church of England had
its
venerable roots
in pre'Conquest times. Scholarly interest in /Elfric has not abated since
the days of these pioneers, and consequently /Elfric
is
one of the best
re-
See [M. Parker et al.], A Testimonie of Antiquitie, shewing the auncient fayth in the Church of England touching the sacrament of the body and bloude of the Lord here puhhkely preached and also receaued in the Saxons tyme 600 yeares agoe (London, 1566 or 1567). For surveys of the period, see the essays in Anglo-Saxon Scholarship: The First Three Centuries^ ed. C. T. Berkhout and M. McC. Gatch (Boston, 1982), and The Recovery of Old English: Anglo'Saxon Studies in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, ed. T. Graham (Kalamazoo, '
1999); for the early eighteenth century, see also ar's
522.
M.
Gretsch, "Elizabeth Elstob:
A Schol-
Fight for Anglo-Saxon Studies", AngUa 117 (1999): 163-200, 481-524, here
481-
MECHTHILD GRETSCH
32 searched authors in Old English
literature.^ Surprisingly, perhaps, in spite
of this wealth of secondary literature, there remain aspects of his oeuvre on
which so
far scarcely
any work has been done. In a recent
when he
Lapidge has pointed out one such aspect
and the
ture of /Elfric's sanctorcde
and
selected the saints
principles according to
commemoration
feasts for
article
Michael
suggested that the struc-
which
in his homilies
/Elfiric
and
lives
would deserve close attention.^ As Lapidge noted, there are obvious peculiarities
with regard to the saints and
memoration
in his sanctorale,
when,
feasts
for
chosen by
/Elfric for
com-
example, he commemorates the
deposition of St Swithun (2 July), not the feast of the translatio (15 July), or
when,
as a
Benedictine monk, he celebrates only one of the two feasts depositio), or
when, though Win-
he seems to depart from Winchester's
liturgical practice in
of St Benedict (again the chester-trained,
commemorating the from
less
feast of
Vedastus, ludoc or Bertin, /Elfric
Qmdraginta
milites (9
March), while omitting
Northern French and Flemish
his sanctorale all the
No doubt
important
who were
number
such as Sts
especially culted at Winchester.^
had an intimate knowledge of the
full
included in liturgical calendars or the martyrology, but that only a limited
saints
range of saints
it is
equally clear
of those saints could be honoured by providing
As
their vitae in the vernacular.
is
confirmed by their respective prefaces,
the two sets of the Catholic Homilies, containing forty pieces each, preserve fairly accurately /Elfric's original
though preserved /Elfric's original
^
L.
Uography
A.
less intact,
scheme
compilation,^ and the
lJ\fes
of Saints,
probably also closely approximated forty in
for the collection.^
Within the three
collections,
M. Reinsma, for example, lists 882 titles up to 1982: /Elfric. An Annotated Bib' (New York, 1987). Reinsma's bibliography has recently been updated by
Kleist,
"An Annotated Bibliography of /Elfrician Studies:
1983-1996", in Old Engiish Szarmach (New York, 2000), 503-52. Kleist lists 162 items of approximately 400 titles that have accumulated during the intervening
Prose. Basic Readings, ed. P. E.
out of a total twelve years. ^
See M. Lapidge,
"/Elfric's Sanctorcde**, in
Hohf
Men and
Prose Saints' Lives and their Context, ed. P. E. Szarmach *
See Upidge,
'
The
Series, ed. P.
Second *
Clemoes,
Series, ed.
The
"/Clfric's Sanctorak*\
critical editions of
edition
s.s.
The
First
17 (Oxford, 1997) and y€lfric's Catholic Homilies.
The
M. Godden, EETS is:
/Elfric's
119-23.
the Catholic HomiHes are:
EETS
Holy Women. Old En^h 1996). 115-29.
(New York,
s.s.
/^Ifric's Catholic Homilies.
5 (Oxford, 1979).
Uves of Saints, ed.
W. W.
Skeat,
EETS
o.s.
76, 82. 94. 114
(London, 1881-1900; repr. in 2 vols.. 1966). There are thirty-six pieces in Skeat's numbering from which three non-y^Elfrician lives have to be subtracted (nos. 23 and 23B, 29, and 33). For the changes which the Lives of Saints underwent in the course of their
Sanctorale
j^lfric's
33^
in the Catholic Homilies the items pertaining to the sanctorale occur side by
with those for the temporale, and in the Lives of Saints they are mixed with homihes treating incidents from the Old Testament.^ This leaves us side
with a total of fifty^four
feasts of
the sanctorale, nineteen occurring in the
first series of the Catholic Homilies, sixteen in
the second series and twenty-
nine in the Lives of Saints,^ By comparison, the four Winchester calendars printed by Francis (no. 11)
and 226
Wormald commemorate some 209
(nos. 9
and
10),
(no. 12) feasts respectively.^ /^Ifric's awareness of
to pick for inclusion in his three collections of homilies tively small selection
from the
feasts of
and
213
having
vitae a rela-
the sanctorale (but also from those
of the temporale) emerges clearly from his prefaces to these collections: in
the English preface to the Lives of Saints he remarks with regard to the
God
saints of the sanctorale that is
impossible to
has so
commemorate them
many
all.^°
saints for his service that
it
Similarly, concerning the feasts
of the temporale, /Elfric explains that in his two sets of Catholic Homilies he
has not expounded
the gospel pericopes read in the course of a year but
all
only a selection of these, which should be sufficient for edifying and
recti-
fying the souls of the simple-minded.^^ Although he does not say so ex-
A
J. Hill, "The Dissemination of /Elfric's Lives of Saints: Preliminary Survey", in Holy Men, ed. Szarmach, 235-59. For the non-zElfirician pieces,
manuscript transmission, see see
ibid.,
236-37 and 253,
n. 4.
For the division of the liturgical year into temporale and sanctorale cycles, see, for example, A. Hughes, Medieval Manuscripts for Mass and Office: A Guide to their Organiza^
tion
and Terminobgy (Toronto, 1982), 4-13, and
tern Liturgy
from
the
Tenth
to the
J.
Harper, The Forms and Orders of Wes-
Eighteenth Century (Oxford, 1991), 49-53. Traditionally
the temporale contains the moveable feasts keyed to Easter and the feasts pertaining to Christ such as Christmas; the sanctorale contains saints' feasts and feasts of the Virgin
Mary, which are always celebrated on the same day of the year. A simple division into moveable and immoveable feasts is also possible, in which case Christmas and Epiphany would belong to the sanctorale: this division is adopted by Michael Lapidge, "/Elfric's Sanctorale'', 115-16. Such a division makes sense because feasts such as Christmas and Epiphany (but not the moveable feasts) are recorded in Anglo-Saxon liturgical calendars. ® For these figures and lists of the items in question, see Lapidge, "/Elfric's Sanctorale", 116-19. The total of fifty-four feasts of the sanctorale is arrived at by ignoring the duplications of feasts that occur in the three collections. ^
See
F.
Wormald,
English Kalendars before A.D.
1
100,
HBS
72 (London, 1934), nos.
9 (London, British Library, Cotton Titus D. xxvii), 10 (Cambridge, Trinity College, R. 15. 32), 11 (London, British Library, Arundel 60) and 12 (London, British Library, Cotton Vitellius E. xviii). '°
See Lives of Saints, " See Clemoes, OH
ed. Skeat, 1:
173.
1: 6.
MECHTHILD GRETSCH
34 plicitly,
we may be
certain that the principle
choice of the temparale the
laity
— may
sanctorale.
items — the moral and
commemorate those
improvement of
spiritual
for his
get from /Elfric with regard to the pres'
ence of a particular saint in one of the three collections Uc Homilies
i^lfric's
behind the selection of saints
also be sought
The one statement we
which governed
saints culted
that the Catho^
is
by the
laity
nationwide,
whereas the Lives of Saints contain vitoe of saints commemorated in monasteries only.*^ But this broad distinction does not give a rationale for inclusion of one saint and omission of another in cases where both would qualify for treatment in
somewhat nearer It
one of the three
collections.
Is it
possible to get
to the rationale of /Elfric's selection?
has been pointed out that a political and ethical motivation occa-
sionally
seems to have determined
to the vitae and
Old Testament
decided to include pieces such as of Moses (no.
Maccabees
xiii),
Kings (no.
(no. xxv), St
/Elfric's choice, especially
pieces in the Lives of Saints,
The
xviii),
Maurice and
Martin (no. xxxi) because of the
Forty Soldiers (no.
ix).
with regard
and that he
The
Prayer
Achitophel and Absalom (no. his
Companions
parallels to
(no. xxviii)
contemporary
xix),
and St
political condi-
which they provided, and because of their potential for serving as a vehicle for the political and ethical instruction of a lay audience.'^ In tions
the case of the Forty Soldiers of Sebaste in Armenia (Quadraginta
such
parallels
and potential may
memorating them, practice, as
also serve as
/Elfric departs radically
we have
seen.
The
plain
why he
in late
penchant
i^lfric's
'^
liturgical
and arrogant enemy. By the
for this type of narrative
may
help to ex-
omitted from his sanctorale saints that were widely venerated
Anglo-Saxon England and/or Winchester such
Amandus, Audoenus,
whom
an explanation why, in comfrom Winchester's
Forty Soldiers provide an excellent exam-
ple of collective resistance towards a cruel
same token,
milites)
Bertinus,
led exemplary lives as bishops or
See Godden.
CH
2: 2
and
as Sts Vedastus,
Audomarus, ludoc and Grimbald,*^
monks but could not
Lives of Saints, ed. Skeat.
1:
serve as
all
of
mod-
4.
Sec M. R. Godden, "Experiments in Genre: die Saints' Lives in /^Ifric's CaOwhc Homihcs", in Holy Men, ed. Szaimach, 261-87, at 261-62; idem, "i^lfric's Saints* Lives and die Problem of Miracles", Leeds Studies in English 16 (1985): 83-100, at 94-97; and idem, "y^Uric and the Vernacular Prose Tradition", in The Old English HomHy and its Backgrounds, ed. P. E. Szarmach and B. F. Hupp^ (Albany, 1978), 99-117, here 107-8. '^
'*
See above,
p. 32.
y^lfric's
Sanctorale
35_
why he
heroic resistance, and
els for
Francia
who
fitted this pattern:
St Dionysius and
his
included instead two saints from
St Maurice and the
Theban
Legion, and
Companions.'^ Another determining factor
may have been
^Ifric's selection of his saints
a wish to comply with the
St Thomas,
we have
Towards the end of the second
series of
predilections of his patrons. In the case of clear proof of such compliance.
for
one
saint,
the Catholic Homilies ^^Ifric has a note saying that he has not written a Life of St
Thomas
Old English
for
two reasons: because
a translation of his passio into
verse has been in existence for a long time,
Augustine rejected
as
however, a Life of St
passio.^^ y^lfric includes,
and because St
a certain episode in the
incredible (ungeleaflic)
Saints collection (no. xxxvi). Interestingly, this
Thomas
in his Lives of
provided with a brief
is
Latin introduction, where /Elfric reiterates St Augustine's (and his own)
doubts about that specific episode but concludes that he will translate the passio of St
Thomas
nevertheless, since the venerable
weard urgently requested him to do western provinces (975-c. 998),
commissioned the enced
y^lfric's
so.'^
/^thelweard, ealdorman of the
who together may quite
Lives of Saints, ^^
with his son /Ethelmaer
forty-four pieces instead of the usual
first series
forty. '^
With
mind, one might ask what influence may have made vide a homily for the Nativity of the Virgin
'^
Maur
influ-
Mary
which contained
these examples in
/Elfric relent
(8
September)
and proafter
he
26 and 29. The commemoration of a third Prankish is no doubt due to the (en-oneous) notion that he
Lives of Saints, ed. Skeat, nos.
St
have
possibly also
choice of feasts for the Catholic Homilies, In any case, he
seems to have obtained a special edition of the
saint,
Ealdorman /Ethel'
{Lives of Saints, no. 6),
was St Benedict's principal student:
his vita retails
many
incidents pertaining to a biogra-
phy of St Benedict. See Godden,
CH 2,
297-98. For a discussion of /Elfric's attitude towards the vita orthodoxy and interest in history, see Godden, "/tlfric's Saints' Lives and the Problem of Miracles", 88-90. The kind of passing reference which /Elfric has to the episode in question would seem to indicate that the Old English poetic version of the passio was known at least among the first readers of the Catholic Homilies. Unfortunately it has not survived. '^
of St
Thomas
'^
in terms of his
"Sicut /Et)elwerdus uenerabilis dux obnixe nos praecatus est": Lives of Saints, ed.
Skeat, 2: 400. **
As emerges both from
the Latin and from the
tion: Lives of Saints, ed. Skeat, ''
This
much emerges from
which has been preserved
moes,
CH
177, app.
crit.
to the collec-
the Latin conclusion to the English preface to the
series,
1,
Old English preface
1: 4.
in
Cambridge, University Library Gg.
3. 28: see
furst
Cle-
MECHTHILD GRETSCH
36
had expressly declined to do so on grounds of the dubious and nature of the source material.^^
Was
one or several of his patrons or was it which the cult of the Virgin played
it
again
in
reformed monastic or was
passio
not clear whether /Elfric intended
whether
a combination of
it
to be included in his Lives for
possessed a relic of the saint and where, conse-
quently, he was held in especial veneration. Glastonbury, the ster,
ad' this
was a piece written by him on commission
it
some monastery which
it
and
circles,
From the manuscript transmission of
/Elfric's sanctoralel
it is
from
what influence was St Vincent
mitted to
of SamtSf^^ or
sort of pressure
in deference to the important role
in /Ethelwoldian Winchester,
especially
both?^' Or, to give a last example: by
some
difRcult
New
Min-
Winchester, and especially Abingdon would be obvious candidates for
such a commission.^^ In firic's
sanctorale as
it is
this case, St
Vincent would not be part of i^l-
defined in his prefaces to the Catholic Homilies and
the Lives of Saints. But given the wide dissemination of his cult
England and given the indubitable Winchester base
be ruled out that St Vincent either obtained the intervention of one of
for his cult,
his vernacular Life
^^Ifric's lay patrons, or that his vita
all
it
over
cannot
through
was com-
posed by /Elfric as an afterthought while he was recollecting his Winches* ter roots
and the veneration
in
which the
saint
was held in two further
important monastic centres, Glastonbury and Abingdon. In addition to the factors
doubt other forces
^° /Elfiric's
at
work
I
have touched on so
far,
there were
in the shaping of /Elfric's sanctorale
remarks are found in a note in the second
series
—
no
literary
of the Catholic Homilies
which would have been appropriate for commemorating the feast on 8 September: see Godden, CH 2, 271. The homily which /Elfric eventually composed for that feast is ed. B. Assmann, Angelsdchsische Homilien und Heiiigenleben (repr. with supplement by P. Clemoes, Darmstadt, 1964), 24-48. in the place
^'
For an analysis of
/Elfric's attitude
towards this feast of the Virgin, see
M. Clay-
and the Nativity of die Blessed Virgin Mary", Angiia 104 (1986): 286-315; for the importance of the cult of the Virgin in reform circles and especially at Winchester, see eadem, The Cult of the Virgin Mary in Anglo-Saxon En^nd, CSASE 2 (Cambridge, 1990), 61-89 and 1 10-21, and eadem, "Centralism and Uniformity Versus Localism and Diversity: The Virgin and Native Saints in the Monastic Reform'*, Peritia 8 (1994): 95-106. ton, "/€lfric
^^
The
Life of St
Vincent
is
edited by Skeat as an appendix: see
Lt: King Alfred to the Twelfth Century (Oxford, 1999), 1: 457, 463-64, and passim.
of Saints {ibid.,
**
t
ed. Skeat
294),
I
am
grateful to
Helmut Gneuss and Michael Lapidge, who read
typescript and, as always,
made many
helpful suggestions.
this article in
JOYCE HILL
/Elfric's Authorities
SINCE THE BEGINNING OF THE Fontes An^-Saxonki project,
Don
Scragg
has been the Director for Old English, and although there have been nu'
merous other occasions when we have worked together,
been a constant thread
in
both of our
pose of Fontes Anglo-Saxonici
is,
lives since
this project has
the mid' 1980s.
written sources used in Anglo-Saxon England, whether in
AnglcnLatin
new is
texts,
analysis.
The
put'
in brief, to establish a database of all
Old English
or
by exploiting existing scholarship and by undertaking
Work
continues, but the database
is
already substantial
available in searchable form at
.
It
and can
be interrogated in a number of ways, working with the analysed text to discover
which sources were
used, or working with the source texts to dis'
cover what was available and in which Anglo-Saxon texts particular sources were employed.
The
tribution to the study of
information
Anglo-Saxon
is
valuable as
it
stands as a con-
intellectual history, but
it is
also a
platform for approaching larger questions about textual cultures, the trans-
mission of ideas, and the working practices of Anglo-Saxon authors and compilers. Don's
own
research
is
entirely in
his close attention to the primary texts
and
harmony with
this:
through
his analysis of recensions
and
textual transmission, he has contributed significantly to our understanding
of the larger picture of what shaped the ideas of the vernacular author,
how
those ideas were conveyed and received, and what, therefore,
we can
learn from the surviving written record of the place of the Anglo-Saxons in early medieval culture. In a article
which
volume celebrating Don's achievement, an
gives further attention to /Elfric's source-authorities conse-
JOYCE HILL
52 quently seems an appropriate contribution: above in being
on Old English
all, it is
a topic for
Don
homilies.
§
The examples
and XVII
in this study will be homilies VII, X,
we cannot
Supplementary Homilies.^ However,
in Pope's
treat these independently
of /Elfric's two series of Catholic Homilies since Pope's edition of the Sup' plementary Homilies provides us with the textual materials which witness to /Elfric's
continuing work on his temporale sequence.^ Furthermore,
though not
all
al-
of /^Ifric's Catholic Homilies are exegeses of the day's pre-
scribed lection, most are, and so also are the three homilies to be consid-
ered here, so that
it is
legitimate to take as a starting point the frame of
reference set up by the Catholic Homilies before using these three later
works to pose questions about
y^lfric's textual traditions
and our
interpre-
tations of them.
The
evidence within the exegetical Catholic Homilies seems very
straightforward. /Elfric frequently underscores his orthodoxy his interpretations
Great
is
by naming the authority he
following: Gregory the
most frequently invoked, then Bede, Augustine, and Jerome,
descending order. There are also three occasions lingian authorities:
and Amalarius
34)
is
and validates
Haymo in a
two of the
in
Second
vSeries
when
First Series
homily
(II.
/Elfric
homilies
5).
in
names Caro(I.
8 and
I.
In the Latin letter
sent to Sigeric, Archbishop of Canterbury, to accompany his copy of the First Series,
Amalarius
is
not named (he
but the five other names are dus,
is
included in the
Haymo, by
contrast,
Hos namque
is
list
all listed
as if
he
is
is
not cited in the
First Series),
and another Carolingian, Smarag-
of equal importance with the Fathers;
singled out as being used only "sometimes":
auctores in hac explanatione sumus secuti. uidelicet
Augustinum. ypponiensem. Hieronimum. Bedam. Gregorium. Sma-
'
Pope, Supplementary Homilies.
^
For a discussion of the evolution of
/Elfiric's
A. M. CleSome Aspects
temporale homilies, see P.
moes, "The Chronology of /Elfiric's Works," in The An^io-Soxom; Studies
m
of their History and Culture Presented to Bruce Dicktns, ed. idem (London, 1959), 212-47, 2. All subI and Godden, with further detail in the introductions to Clemoes,
CH
,
sequent references to the Catholic Homilies are to these editions.
CH
^Ifric's Authorities
53
ragdum, et aliquando Haegmonem;
omnibus
Horum
denique auctoritas ab
catholicis. libentissime suscipitur.^
[For, indeed,
we have
followed these authors in this exposition:
namely, Augustine of Hippo, Jerome, Bede, Gregory, Smaragdus,
and sometimes Haymo, acknowledged by
We
for the authority of these
is
most
willingly
the orthodox.]
all
should not be surprised by what appears to be a discrepancy be-
tween ^Ifric's statement of principles in the
letter
and
his practice
within
the homilies themselves, since the letter was not written as part of the
and
Catholic Homilies
context.
and
The
it
has
its
own
quite distinct function
and rhetorical
Latin letter seeks the approval of an ecclesiastical superior,
justifies /Elfric's
decision to offer patristic orthodoxy to the laity
through complex rhetorical manoeuvring, which
one might expect
elsewhere."^ In this context,
I
have discussed in
to find a
detail
more complicated
statement of source authorisation than in the homilies themselves where,
by contrast, the language unlearned /^Ifric's
priests of
is
the vernacular, the audience are the relatively
the secular church and their lay congregations, and
primary purpose was to give a clear and reassuring validation by
invoking the names of the Fathers.
The
naming of
selective
authorities within the homilies themselves
easy to understand, although, as
modern
is
scholarship has shown, /Elfric
used more authorities than he names, which he had access to either direct'
compendia, several of which we have probably not yet
ly or via various
identified.^
What
is
more
difficult to discern
formation he provides for Sigeric.
One way
kind of apologia with a political as well y^lfric, in
tic tradition,
^
Clemoes,
cox, ed.,
the significance of the in-
of reading the letter
as a personal
is
as a
dimension. Thus
defending his position and in championing his
on equal terms the
lists
is
own
orthodoxy,
names which collectively represent the patriseven though there is a marked difference in the extent to
CM
I,
173.
/^Ifric's Prefaces,
four
The modem English translation is taken from Jonathan WilDurham Medieval Texts 9 (EXirham, 1994), 127.
^ Joyce Hill, 'Translating the Tradition: Manuscripts, Models and Methodologies in the Composition of /^Ifric's Catholic Homilies,'' Bulletin of the ]ohn Rylands University Li-
brary of Manchester 79 (1997): 43-65. '
See
now
the Pontes Anglo-Saxonici database and Malcolm Godden,
HomiJlies: Introduction,
Conxmentary and Glossary,
EETS
s.s.
/EXfric*s CdChoItc
18 (Oxford, 2000).
JOYCE HILL
54
which he uses them. Yet, at the same time as signalling his Benedictine Reform credentials by his claim to patristic orthodoxy, he also draws atten* tion to his position within the Reform by naming two of the notable CarO' lingian authorities, Smaragdus
much more
CathoUc Homilies. But there
we can
and Haymo, references that would carry
weight with Sigeric than with the primary audience of the
begin to judge
how
is still
more that needs
to be uncovered before
to use the information provided
and so
inter'
pret /^Ifric's use of source authorities.
Modem
scholarship has
letic material
shown
authors in the letter to Sigeric ble to
him
that a great deal of the patristic homi'
used by .^Ifric and referred to by the names of the
and
in the homilies themselves
first
was
four
availa-
in the popular Carolingian homiliary of Paul the Deacon,^ so
that the sentence in the Sigeric letter itemising /Elfric's sources could be
seen as a reference not to
six
named orthodox
authors consulted by refer-
ence to discrete works, but to three Carolingian homiliaries, which came into England with the Benedictine Reform. There
is
no doubt
that i^lfric
had available to him the homiliaries of Paul the Deacon, Smaragdus,^ and
Haymo,^ he had its
but, as
in a
1
have argued elsewhere, that of Paul the Deacon, which
somewhat augmented form, probably lacked the
compiler.^ /^Ifric would have seen
letic exegesis
on the
attributed to
its
it
familiar lections of the liturgical year, with
patristic author. If
his Benedictine
Reform
each item
he had known that Paul the Deacon
was the compiler, he might have signalled mation of
attribution to
instead as an anthology of homi-
this to Sigeric in further confir-
credentials, given the
dependence of
the Anglo-Saxon Reform on Carolingian models and texts. But
it is
not
* Cyril L. Smctana, •'/Clfric and die Early Medieval Homiliary," Tradmo 15 (1959): 163-204. The contents of Paul's homiliary are listed by Smetana, following Friedrich Wiegand, Das Homiliarum Karls des Grossen auf seine ursprungUsche Gestalt hin unttrsucht, Studium zur Geschichte der Theologie und der Kirche 1. 2 (Leipzig, 1897), but one should now consult Reginald Gr^goire, Les homiliaires du moyen Age: Inventaire et ancdyse des manuscrits, Rerum Ecclesiasticarum Documenta, Series Maior, Pontes 6 (Vatican City, 1966), 71-114, and the further update in idem, Homiliaires Uturgiques midUvaux: arudyse
des manuscrits, Diblioteca degli Studi Medievali (Spoleto, 1980), 423-78. '
Joyce Hill, "i€lfric and Smaragdus," Anglo-Saxon Engjand 21 (1992): 203-37.
only edition of Smaragdus's homiliary
is
The
Migne, PL 102: 14-551.
Smeuna, "/Clfric and the Homiliary of Haymo of Halbcrstadt," Traditio The Haymo who produced this homiliary is now known to be Haymo of Auxerre. The only edition of Haymo's homiliary is Migne, PL 118: 11-746. •
Cyril L.
17 (1961): 457-69.
' Hill,
"Translating die Tradition," 50-54.
/^Ifric's Authorities
inevitable that he
55
would have done
so, since
the homiliary of Paul, as an
anthology, gave one direct access to whole texts of the Fathers, clearly identified, so that
ors rather
it
would have been equally proper to
than the compiler, even in writing to
refer to the auth'
and certainly
Sigeric,
within the homilies themselves. Smaragdus's homiliary likewise gave y^lfric direct
through
its
and highly
visible access to the
words of the named Fathers
marginal annotations noting the source authority for particular
passages, thus reinforcing /Elfric's claim to be working within this chain
of authority, and allowing
him within the homilies
to continue with the
^° powerful practice of naming the Fathers rather than any intermediary.
Yet each of Smaragdus's exegetical interpretations of the lection was a unique compilation which
means
that, although
itself
each gave direct access to
the words of the Fathers, clearly identified in the margins, each homily was, in another sense, Smaragdus's own, in a
way
that was not true of the
items in the anthology compiled by Paul. Haymo's homiliary again:
it is
as patristic as the other two,
and the dependence on
patristic texts
tracts, so that, if material
naming the
is
not by sustained verbatim ex'
drawn from Haymo
authority, that authority has to be
mieux: hence the two references to
different
is
but the authors are not identified
is
to be "authorised" by
Haymo
himself, faute de
him by name within the
homilies,
who
could be
alongside the overwhelming preference for the Fathers,
named whenever /Elfric had his eye on the homiliaries of either Paul or Smaragdus. As for the reference to Haymo being used ''aliquando" I believe that is because he used Haymo's homiliary in a way from the other two, drawing upon him frequently, but for
("sometimes"), different
particular details
and
as a
prompt
for biblical associations, rather
than
for
sustained passages of attributable interpretation.^^
The
compilatio
method of composition,
to
which
/^Ifric subscribes,
causes great difficulty for those
who
transmission of ideas. There
of course, the difficult problem about
we
is,
wish to identify sources and trace the
identify as the source: the ultimate source (which
priately points to within the homilies) or the
is
what
what
/Elfric appro-
immediate source text from
'° Hill, "y^lfric and Smaragdus," 234-37, discusses die marginal annotations in the manuscripts of Smaragdus's homiliary and the way in which these are represented in the
edition of PL. ' '
The
different resources provided
in Hill, 'Translating the Tradition."
by the three homiliaries are discussed more
fully
JOYCE HILL
56 which the material ter to Sigeric).
scholar as
it
drawn
is
But even
alludes at least in part in the let'
not as simple a choice for the modern
is
appears, because the authors anterior even to the Carolingians
— who were themselves
inveterate compilatores
bedded in an intertextual
may be
(which
which he
(to
this
i^lfric's
culture, so that
— were
when
immediate source)
identifies
Bede
authority for a particular passage, the ultimate authority
one of the
earlier Fathers,
took his material. these authorities
On
may
em-
in turn deeply
a Carolingian compilatio as the source
may
actually be
whom
such as Gregory or Jerome, from
Bede
the other hand, a Carolingian attribution to one of in fact
be taken over from a marginal annotation in
a Bede manuscript serving as the Carolingian writer's immediate source.
Thus the source
identified by the later writer (such as /Elfric)
may be
the
ultimate source, though transmitted through various intermediaries, or
may be an good
intermediate source at one remove, which
faith as the ultimate source.'^
or at least
if all
But even
if
this
is
claimed in
the options can be identified, our questions about sources
answered because the
modem
scholar
is still
left
mediate source might have been. Furthermore,
still
is
not
fully
wondering what the imif
there
is
point to a range of possible immediate sources, as there often there
all
can be disentangled,
and thus about textual access and compositional method are
fric,
it
evidence to is
with /El-
the added complication that these source manuscripts
may
have a considerable amount of overlapping material, so that the source* hunter
The
may not be
able to decide
author himself, by contrast,
one more than the
which one
/Elfric used at a given point.
may have had a strong sense that he used may simply have had a sense that he
other, or he
found them both indispensable in ways which, retrospectively, he could not or would not think to quantify in any precise fashion. In his magisterial introduction and Homilies,
Malcolm Godden
commentary on
professes himself to
claim to have used Smaragdus.
He
/Elfric's Catholic
be puzzled by
/Elfiic*s
accepts, of course, that /Elfric
had a
copy of his homiliary, and he acknowledges possible influences in nineteen homilies, but he goes
on
to state that:
'^ For an overview of this intertextuality as developed by Bede and the Carolingians and thus transmitted to /€lfric, see Joyce Hill, Bede and the Benedictine Reform, Jarrow
Lecture 1998 Qarrow, 1998). On Bede's identification of source authorities by marginal armotations in the commentaries on Mark and Luke, see M. L. W. Laistner, "Source-
Marks
in
Bede Manuscripts," Journal of
Theological Studies 34 (1933):
350-54.
^Ifric's Authorities
Apart from
I.
7,
51_
27 and esp.
I.
is
8
it is
a matter of occasional de-
which could have come from elsewhere, and Smaragdus
tails
never the sole source. cite
II.
It
remains a puzzle to
me
Smaragdus so prominently in the preface, when Haymo, who
used
much more
extensively and
is
much
less derivative, is cited
being used merely aliquando, and others, such
as
is
that y^lfric should
as
Alcuin and
Juli-
an of Toledo, are not mentioned at all. Perhaps Smaragdus's status as author of a commentary on the Benedictine Rule and a treatise
made him a key the monastic movement to cite.^^ on the monastic
The
final
life
authority figure for a writer of
sentence of the quotation from
Godden
tive for /Elfric's citation of
Smaragdus in the
should certainly be given
weight; the letter
cated,
an
position,
apologia in
frill
which
But the
tactic.
brings
^Ifric only is
if
I
have already
indi-
— and — was undoubtedly an important authorities
Godden's argument
is
less
particularly
convincing, since
it
close to the position of earlier scholars, such as
Smetana, Pope, and Cross,
Forster,
that
rest of
him dangerously
as
is,
mo-
which
same time adopts a polemical
/Elfric at the
and the mention of Carolingian
of this influential monastic authority
points to a political letter to Sigeric,
who
admit Smaragdus
as a source for
the detail cannot be accounted for in any other way.^"^ Yet
not a tenable position from which to conduct the analysis of an
author's participation in an intertextual tradition. Authors textual, particularly
if
who
are inter-
they display this by overt attributions which stand
outside the body of the text, as did Bede in his commentaries
on Mark
and Luke and the majority of Carolingian exegetes, including Paul the
Deacon
in his homiletic anthology
and Smaragdus
in his lection-based
compilationeSj are useful to subsequent authors precisely because their patristic attributions verify their participation in
'^
Godden,
j^lfric's Catholic Homilies: Introduction,
a chain of interpretation
Commentary and
Glossary, Ix.
*^
This problem is discussed with reference to these earlier analyses in Hill, "/Elfric and Smaragdus." There are further examples in eadem, "/Elfric's Sources Reconsidered: Some Case Studies from the Catholic Homilies," in Studies in English Language and Litera' tare. 'Doubt wisely': Papers in Honour o/E. G. Stanley, ed. M. J. Toswell and E. M. Tyler
(London and
New York,
cents: TTie Sources
and eadem,
"/Elfric's
in Alfred the Wise: Studies in
Occasion of her Sixty-Fifth Birthday, ed.
Godden (Cambridge,
Homily on the Holy InnoHonour of Janet Bately on the Jane Roberts and Janet L. Nelson, with Malcolm
1996), 362-86;
Reviewed,"
1997). 89-98.
JOYCE HILL
58
modem
(making them "derivative" from a
viewpoint) and precisely be-
cause they overlap with each other, allowing the modified,
new
catena of authorised material by
other at points
when
has a better a
"much
less
priori
moving from one to the
Godden does
to suggest, as
is
to miss the point. If the verbatim textual overlap
move more
and more
consistently
the Deacon and Smaragdus than between two, one could well imagine that in a higher position than
Haymo Haymo is
here, that
case for being used than Smaragdus because
derivative"
allowed /Elfric to
to create a
the end of an overlap opens up fresh possibilities for
Thus
textual enrichment.
new author
easily
Haymo and
summing up he might
Haymo; the problem
for us
is
between Paul
either of the other
give Smaragdus
when
in identifying
he did use or equally well could have used Smaragdus instead of
There iliary
is
no need,
after all, to give priority to the contents of Paul's
over that of Smaragdus
which
is
common
to
when
them both
that, although the material
is
/Elfric
unless, of course,
ostensibly the
same
it
can be demonstrated
in each, there are in fact
elements in one not found in the other which are reflected in text. Furthermore, in studying /^Ifric tice
we have
hom-
working with material
clearly
is
Paul.
/Elfric*s
to assume a working prac-
which is relatively flexible, since it can be readily demonstrated that was very open to making new combinations from his sources in any
/Elfric
given homily.
My supposition
has always been that
to test to the full the claims
we
made by
we should
at least allow ourselves
y^lfric himself,
and
that, in
doing
so,
should pay due regard to the complexities of the intertextual tradition,
accepting that
adopting a
it is
fundamentally and intentionally derivative, rather than
modem perspective which makes judgments about what, within
the tradition,
is
deemed
to be "derivative"
and what
is
not.'^ Bede, for
example, in his commentaries on Mark and Luke, where there are marginal
annotations of just the kind found in Carolingian compilations,
less a creator
is
no
of derivative patristic catena than Smaragdus or Alcuin, Hra-
banus Maurus, or Claudius of Turin. In pursuing, over a number of years, the questions of
how we
tertextual tradition,
'^
my
identify /Elfric's
immediate sources within an
detailed examples have been
in-
drawn from the
A work of major importance for understanding this fundamental aspect of medieval
literary culture
Theory,
is
Martin Irvine, The Making of Textual Culture: 'Grammatica' and
350-1100 (Cambridge,
1994).
Literary
59
/€lfric*5 Authorities
Catholic Homilies:
now
is
I.
5, 7, 21, 33, 40; II. 4, 6, 16, 23, 25.^^
My
intention
to use three homilies from outside the collection as edited by Cle^
moes and Godden, not
much
so
for detailed analyses of
the kind
positions to be
overcome
I
have
and the
fered before, as for illustrations of the problems to be faced
of'
prediS'
in negotiating the intertextual minefield.
1. Pope, Supplementary Homiues VII: Dominica Quarta Post Pascha Qohn 16: 5-14).
Introduction, 333-39. Text, 340-50. Pope
identifies /Elfric's chief source as Alcuin's
Commentaria
Evangelium, and he puts forward the possibility that /^Ifric suited
it
directly,
although he
is
in loannis
may have
con'
also careful to point out that the relevant
portion of the commentary was excerpted into certain Carolingian homi' liaries to
stand as an exegetical homily for the Fourth Sunday after Easter,
which has the
lection
John
16: 5-14.
The
homiliaries that
Pope names are
those of Smaragdus and Rabanus Maurus. Pope further notes that Alcuin
drew on a homily by Bede, and that Bede's homily was Deacon's collection. that he
[sc.
/^Ifric]
He
continues, however,
made
use of anything in
itself in
**I
have found no evidence
it
that Alcuin did not in'
elude, "^^ the clear implication being that /Elfric actually
Alcuin's text rather than the
noted by Pope
is
homily of Bede.
full
that, in addition to using Bede,
tine's In loannis Evangelium Tractatus
The
worked from
other complexity
Alcuin drew on AuguS'
CXXIV. Thus, Augustinian
in y^lfric could well be immediately derived
Imes 177-180 of the Old English homily
Paul the
material
from Alcuin, although in
/Elfric gives the substance of a
passage in Augustine that Alcuin lacks, which leads Pope to surmise
(p.
338) that /Elfric had independent access to Augustine's Tractatus,^^
Fi-
Pope
nally,
lists
Haymo
as a possible source,
although again there
is
the
'^ See Hill, "/Elfric and Smaragdus" 0, 33, 40; II. 4, 6, 16); "/Elf^ic's Sources Reconsidered" (1. 7, 21, II. 23, 25); and "/Elfric's Homily on the Holy Innocents" (I. 5). Some of the homily numbers in Godden's edition of the Second Series differ from the
homily numbers
in the preceding scholarship,
which
necessarily referred to Thorpe's
nineteenth-century edition. '^
Pope, Supplementary Homilies,
homily '*
is
on
1:
338.
pp. 337-38.
Pope, Supplementary Homilies,
1:
338.
The
fiill
discussion of the sources of this
JOYCE HILL
60 complication that Haymo's homily
with a good
many
additions,
cuin's."*^ In view of /Elfiric's
LXXXVII
known
and that verbal
32-38 warrants the quotation of Haymo
He
There
modification of Bede's partially to Al-
Haymo, Pope concludes
use of
i^lfric probably consulted this homily,
lines.
is '*a
some of which correspond
that
similarity at lines
as the
immediate source
many
other points, but no*
for these
goes on:
is
general correspondence at
seem to have preferred Haymo's way of sayAlcuin's or Bede's, and at several points his expothings to ing
where sition
else does /tlfric
is
totally different
Alcuin's commentary in exegesis of
John
16:
from Haymo's.^^
original
its
5-14 to the
form does not, of course, relate the
liturgical year,
gian homily compilations the association Easter: Bede's
homily
is
when
all
of the Carolin-
with the Fourth Sunday after
as anthologised in Paul
Alcuin's commentary
but in
the Deacon; the extract from
used in the homiliaries of Smaragdus and Rab-
anus Maurus; and the homily of Haymo, which depends in various ways on the Bedan homily and on the Alcuinian passage, as already noted. For
someone working within the
liturgical
framework,
as /Elfric was,
he had to hand
have been easy to have used such homiliaries
as
know
Haymo were
that Paul the Deacon, Smaragdus, and
Since in this instance Rabanus Maurus fric's
use of Rabanus
is
is
identical to
it
would
— and we
familiar to him.
Smaragdus and
/El-
not well attested, we can reasonably discount Ralv
anus as a possible immediate source in favour of Smaragdus. But where does that leave us with respect to Alcuin?
The commentary would have
have been consulted
if
as a discrete
work,
Alcuin
is
really to
to
be seen as
the immediate source. Yet the whole of the relevant passage from Alcuin is
also in Smaragdus, beginning
and ending
at the right point
and
associ-
ated with the correct day, here defined as the Third Sunday after the Octave of Easter (PL 102: 296-299). For practical reasons, therefore, inherently er
more
likely that /Elfric's
than Alcuin.
" Pope, SuppUmentary
"
it
seems
immediate source was Smaragdus rath-
Homilies,
1:
338.
Pope, Supplementary Homiiies,
1:
338.
j^lfric's Authorities
6J_
2. Pope Supplementary Homiues X: Dominica Pentecosten Qohn 14: 23-31).
Introduction, 393-95. Text, 396-405. Homily
X
provides another opportunity for testing the likelihood that /El'
immediate sources were homily collections rather than discrete
fric's
works. According to Pope, /Elfric's "chief guide" was Haymo's homily C,
which
made
in turn
XXX in Gregory's
use of homily
Homiliae in Evangelia
and Tractatus LXXVI-LXXIX of Augustine's commentary on John.^^ believes, however, that /Elfric also
Having thus There
is,
set out his case,
went
He
to these older sources directly.
he remarks:
to be sure, a homily for Pentecost attributed to Smarag-
dus (Migne,
PL
CIl. 328-31) in
which
several of the relevant paS'
sages from Augustine appear, but not quite
same can be
said of the
of them; and the
all
commentary by Alcuin.
I
am
inclined to
believe, therefore, that /^Ifric turned to Augustine directly.^^
This
a slightly misleading
is
comment, not
least
because the Smaragdus
homily (PL 102: 328-331), a pre-selected extract, into a collection that /Elfric was
known
to use,
is
liturgically
exactly the
"indexed"
same
as
the
Alcuin commentary on these verses of John, whereas the implication of Pope's
dence.
comment is that they are two distinct pieces of comparative eviThe second misleading implication is that, when /Elfric's Augustin-
ian material is
is
compared with that
available in Alcuin/Smaragdus, there
not enough in the Carolingian catena to account
for /Elfric, so that in-
dependent consultation of Augustine has to be assumed. In source commentary at the foot of the
Old
fact, in his
English text, Pope attributes
only two passages directly to Augustine: lines 151-158, and 190-203. Lines 151-158 are actually in Smaragdus (PL 102: 330A-B), taken from
Alcuin,
who
in turn takes the words
from Augustine, so they are hardly
evidence for independent consultation of Augustine. Lines 190-203 are a
more complex, in that the Augustinian passage quoted in Pope's source commentary (with which -^Ifric does not correspond on a phraseby-phrase basis) has a verbal equivalent in Smaragdus (PL 102: 330Dlittle
^'
"
Pope, Supplementary Homilks,
1:
393.
Pope, Supplementary Homilies,
1:
393.
JOYCE HILL
62
331 A), although the words are not arranged in the same way. At point, in Smaragdus and in tified
by Pope), the focus
Haymo
is
(/Elfiric's
this
other possible source as iden*
on redemption and damnation. That
is
also
the case in the verbally similar passage in Augustine, but Augustine names
Adam, whereas Haymo and Smaragdus do
not.
ludes directly to the Harrowing of Hell. /Elfric
None is
of the Latin texts
in a general
way
al-
close to
three texts, which are in turn close to each other, but he alludes to the
all
Harrowing, as they do not, and he names Adam, the Carolingian texts do not. Thus in the end
Adam
that
is
as
it is
Augustine does, and
simply the naming of
evidence for linking /Elfric directly to Augustine. In a con-
—
in which is about redemption, damnation and the Harrowing of Hell, it is not necessary to imagine
text
it is
virtually impossible to
imagine
—
— on the
naming of Adam. The
tual material directly used by /Elfric, at least as so far identified,
be described with reference to ultimate authorities such
and Augustine, but the material was his three
major source homiliaries: Haymo,
intertextual relationship with
which
mentary,
is
as directly identified
itself
raise
XXX,
tex-
prop-
Gregory form in
by Pope;
existing also in
Haymo's homily; and the homily of Smarag-
an exact copy of the corresponding passage of Alcuin's comdrawing heavily on Augustine. There are dense intertextual
relationships here,
which
may
as
in fact in readily accessible
Paul the Deacon, which includes Gregory's homily
dus,
contrary,
that /^Ifric would have turned to
a discrete copy of Augustine's Tractatus for the
erly
—
homily
/^Ifric's
which
greatly complicate source identification
and
fundamental questions about what constitutes the source, even
when we have
identified the range of options; but the likelihood that
/Elfric derived his material
practical support and
is
from
his Carolingian homiliaries has powerfril
a well-attested compositional process
3. Pope Supplementary Homiues XVII: Dominica XII post Octavas Pentecosten (Mark
on
7:
his part.
31-37).
Introduction, 563-66. Text, 567-80.
The homily an
has two parts: the exposition of the lection, from Mark, and
alia narratio, lines
homily Pope
203-276
identifies Bede's
in Pope's edition. For the
Homily
II.
main
part of the
6 as the principal source;
it
was
included in Paul the Deacon's homiliary for a Sunday in mid-August post Laurentii in the old system of designating the
Sundays
(Z
after Pentecost),
y^lfric's Authorities
63^
and for the Thirteenth Sunday
after
of the homiliary.^^ Since, as
have noted,
I
Pentecost in subsequent developments /^Ifric's
copy of Paul the Dea-
modern designation of the Sundays of Ordinary Time, he would have had no difficulty in consulting the Bedan homily via Paul the Deacon; his own homily is likewise for the Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost, expressed in the common variant of the Twelfth Sunday con
will
have had
this
the Octave. Pope notes briefly that the Bedan homily
after
is
''likewise in
the collection of Smaragdus,"^"^ but he goes on to note that:
only readily available rival to Bede's homily was Haymo's
The
homily CXXIV,
for the
same Sunday on the same
certainly used, but less frequently than
from
his practice in
quote
Haymo
some other
This /Elfric
might have been expected
homilies;
only parenthetically, as
text.
it
I
have found reason to
were, for the passages be-
ginning at 106, 113, and 187.^^
However, Pope observes that
at lines
78-81
^^Ifric
seems to have con-
sulted Bede's In Marci Evangelium Expositio for the geographical
on pend on Bede's "ad orientem", found
Decapolis, in particular the phrase *'on eastdaele",
homily or in fied
/Elfric's
in his
comment
which seems
commentary but not
other significant source, the
Haymo
homily
to dein his identi-
by Pope.^^
In fact, although Pope mentions Smaragdus only in passing,
it is
this
homiliary that here provides the key to /Elfric's compositional practice.
Despite what Pope
tells us,
the homily in Smaragdus 's collection
Bede's homily, but the relevant extract from his commentary on 102: 440-442). This it is
is
closer to y^lfric
tellingly
it
— even more
retains the Decapolis **ad orientem" information, notwith-
standing the occasional abbreviations in the Smaragdus text. notes, this detail
nihus
not
than the homily, which means that
the better candidate for being seen as the source, and
—
is
Mark (PL
is
ultimately derived from Jerome's Liher de Situ
Locorum Hebrceorum. Not
surprisingly,
it
is
As Pope et
Nomi-
attributed to Bede by
^^ On the redesignation of the Sundays after Pentecost in the transmission of Paul the Deacon's homiliary, see Hill, 'Translating the Tradition," 54-56.
^^
Pope, Supplementary Homilies,
1:
565.
^^
Pope, Supplementary Homilies,
2:
565.
^^
Pope, Supplementary Homi^s,
2:
565.
JOYCE HILL
64 Smaragdus. Since Bede's commentary Bede's homily, since
Haymo's
homilies,
takes from
y^lfiric
a better
is it
should accept Pope's account of
evidence points, rather, to
for /Elfiric
than
a detail not found in Bede's or
and since the Bedan commentary
Smaragdus, with the relevant detail retained,
The
match
it is
y^lfric's sources
in the homiliary of
is
why we
difficult to see
and working methods. Smaragdus.
/Elfric's direct use of
Matthew
Similar arguments obtain for the alia narratiOy dealing with
8:
23-27. For this material /Elfric turns to homilies for the Fourth Sunday after
Epiphany: Pope
(though for a slight
out a complicated scenario, involving Jerome
sets
and perhaps
detail,
Origen
indirectly),
(via
Paul the
Deacon), Haymo's homily XX, and Bede's commentary on the parallel text in
Mark
dus's
4: 35-40.^^
homily on
He makes no
this lection
reference to Smaragdus, but Smarag-
(PL 102: 98-l(X))
is
one of
more elaborate
his
concatenations, for which the manuscript attributions alternate between
Bede and Jerome, with the Bedan material, as Radle notes, being Bede's commentaries on Mark and Luke.^® The access to Bede's commentary on
Mark
4:
35-40
is
thus already provided for /Elfric by Smaragdus, and
whibt, as Pope notes,
Origen 's sermon, there
it is
inherently probable that /Elfric had read
is
nothing of substance in
readily be accounted for via
Bede (transmitted
and Haymo. The small
argue)
Pope to speculate on
detail
who
I
more
would
"redran" at line 213, which prompts
/^Ifric's access to
reference to Smaragdus,
that could not
it
via Smaragdus, as
Jerome,
is
also
accounted for by
has precisely this detail, "feritate", in his
catena (PL 102: 99A).
These examples from the Supplementary
Hcnnilies
show
/Elfric continu'
the main sources
work with the homiliaries identified as Catholic Homilies. There is nothing surprising about ing to
that.
modifies the impressions given by Pope's analyses, and
examples to answer Godden's puzzlement about why
it
But
for the
this study
provides
/^Ifric
more
should have
given Smaragdus such a prominent position in his letter to Sigeric.^^
^'
Pope, Supplementary Homilies,
^'
Fidel Rddle, Studien zu Smaragd von Samt'Mi/uel,
2:
565-66.
Medium i^vum:
Philologische
Studien 29 (Munich, 1974). 213.
" The
entries in the Pontes Anglo-Saxonici database follow Pope's
and so make no reference
to
Smaragdus
for homilies
VII and
method of analysis,
X discussed here; for homily
65
/^Ifric's Authorities
/Elfric's
work
is
in the
same
tradition as those of the Carolingian biblical
exegetes and compilers of lection^based homiliaries, not just because of
substance and
its
of composition.
self'Conscious orthodoxy, but also because of
Why
we not
should
look
first
to
them
— and
its
its
method
particularly
to the catena in the homiliaries, conveniently organised as they are by the liturgical year tionesl If
—
as
the immediate source for /Elfric's exegetical compila^
we do not do
so,
we
are in danger of allowing our instinctive dis'
missal of "the derivative text" to inhibit our appreciation of this enduring
and increasingly complex textual community.
XVII there elsewhere.
is
one reference
to
Smaragdus
for a detail
which cannot be accounted
for
PATRIZIA LENDINARA
^^frater
non
homo
redimit, redimet
A Homiletic Motif and
.
.
/^
its
Variants in Old English
AMONG THE MOTIFS WHICH OCCUR
in
Anglo-Saxon anonymous homilies,
along with the over-used topoi of the Judgment Day, there
emphasizes
how
every
more than one homily no man lifetime,
man will stress
will receive aid
is
laid
from those
would have come to
is
one which
be alone in front of the Supreme Judge. In
on the
—
fact that, at the
Judgment Day,
relatives or friends
in his
his aid in case of need.
— who,
The
motif
with a certain degree of freedom, and verbatim repetitions are
rare:
is
used
homi-
how neither the father nor any other relative will be of help at point. As the father will not be allowed to help his son, the son in his
lists stress
this
turn will not be able to help his father.
A
remark usually follows remind-
how everyone will be judged according to his own deeds. The motif under examination occurs in several Old English homilies, some of which are interconnected, drawing on common sources or employing
ing the motif,
*
same
which
On
material.^ for
Its
will start I
the composite homilies, see
from Winchester,"
XXX:
1
convenience
Sources,
my
analysis of the occurrences of the
"no
aid
from kin", with the an-
M. R. Godden, "Old
English Composite Homilies
shall call
ASE its
4 (1975): 57-65; D. G. Scragg, "Napier's Wulfetan Homily Relationship to the Vercelli Book and its Style," ASE 6 (1977):
197-211; idem, Dating and Style in Old English Composite HomiUes, H. M. Chadwick Memorial Lectures 9 (Cambridge, 1999).
PATRIZIA LENDINARA
68
onymous homily 30 (Hom
men
Cambridge, Corpus Christi College
MS
201, pp. 222-
leofestan**:
t)a
Ne
in
U 55), that opens with the words "Ic bidde and eadmodlice laere
maeg
[xjnne gefultmian se faeder {)aem suna, ne se sunu
t>aer
Jjaem faeder, ac sceal [xDnne anra gehwilc aefter his
agenum gewyrh-
tym beon demed. In this homily, also
known
as the
Macarius homily, the motif
is
reduced
to a brief remark containing a twofold statement without any further am-
The
plification.^
subsequent remark, to the effect that every
judged according to his
own
deeds, occurs several times in
and draws on well'known Scriptural
Hom U tions: the
55
is
man
will
be
Old English
sources.^
a composite homily that can be divided into three sec*
opening section, the
ubi sunt section,
taining Macarius's vision of Hell.
The homily
and the
shares
its
last
section con'
opening part with
Vercelli IV,
and both draw on a metrical homily attributed to Ephrem the
Syrian,^ the
De
sion);^
Hom U
paenitentia
55
is
(which circulated in the West in a Latin ver-
closer to the
De
paenitentia
than
is
Vercelli FV.
55 (Angus Cameron, "A List of Old English Texts," in A Plan for the DicOld English, ed. Roberta Frank and Angus Cameron [Toronto, 19731). The homily has been recently edited by Rosa Zafifuto, "Ediiione e analisi dell'omelia 'Ic bidde and eadmodlice laere men j^a leofestan' (ms. Cambridge, Corpus Christi College 201)," Ph.D. diss., University of Rome III, 1999 (quotation at 182). The first editor was B. Thorpe, Ancient Laws and Institutes of England, Great Britain Public Records Commission 28 (London. 1849), 466-69; 2: 394-401. ^
B
3. 4.
tionary of
^
See,
i.a.,
Proverbs 24:12 "reddetque homini iuxta opera sua"; Psalm 61:13 "quia
tu reddes unicuique iuxta opera sua"; Ecclesiasticus 16:13
"secundum misericordiam suam
hominem secundum operam suam iudicat"; Matthew 16:27 "et tunc reddet unicuique secundum opus eius"; Romans 2:6 "qui reddet unicuique secundum ope* sic
correptio
illius
1 Corinthians 3:8 "unusquisque autem propriam mercedem accipiet secundum suum laborem"; Revelation 2:23 "Et dabo unicuique vestrum secundum opera vcstra." * The Syriac Father Ephrem of Edessa died in A.D. 373: for the De paenitentia, sec CPG 3915; CPL 1143; Hermann J. Frede, KirchenschrifisuUer. Verzeichnis und Sigtl, 3rd
ra eius";
ed. (Freiburg '
im
The De
Breisgau, 1995), 447.
paenitentia
might be spurious or based only loosely on genuine works of
wish to thank Charles D. Wright who kindly gave me access his article, now in print, "The Old English 'Macarius' Homily, Vercelli IV, and Ephrem Latinus* De paenitentia,** in Via Crucis: Essays on Early Medieval Sources arui Ideas m Memory of ]. E. Cross, ed. Thomas N. Hall with Thomas D. Hill Charles D. Wright, Medieval EurO' pean Studies 1 (Morgantown, WV, 2002). 210-34.
Ephrem:
I
&
A
Homiletic Motif
The homily (Horn
69
in Vercelli, Biblioteca Capitolare,
U 9 or Vercelli IV), with
sion of something
its
MS
several additions,
which must already have been
is
CXVII,
U
16-24 ver^
in existence in English
before Vercelli IV":^ also the motif of **no aid from kin" ticulated than in
fols.
an "expanded
is
more
fully ar^
55 (and the Latin source) and includes a remark about
the impossibility of receiving help, not only from relatives, but from any other man:
faeder,
ne maeg se faeder helpan l^am suna, ne [se] sunu [^am ne nan maeg odrum. Ac anra gehwylcum men sceal beon
demed
aefter his
Paer Jx)nne
The De
paenitentia,
supplies several
agenum gewyrhtum.^ whence both
U
55 and Vercelli IV drew
themes to the two homilies, such
as
to be too tied to worldly riches, but rather to worry about the far as
one
the motif of "no aid from kin"
is
this part,^
the exhortation not
concerned, in the
after'life.
De
As
paenitentia
finds the following:
Non
liberabit frater
proprium fratrem nee iterum pater filium suum
sed unusquisque stabit in ordine suo
tam
in vita
quam
in in'
cendio.^
^ See Scragg, Dating and Styie, 5. The priority of Vercelli IV has been demonstrated by Wright in "The Old English 'Macarius' Homily."
B 3. 4. EETS
homily is printed by D. G. Scragg, The Vercelli HomiUes and Related 300 (Oxford, 1992), 90-104, at 93. Another complete version of the homily is found in Cambridge, Corpus Christi College MS 41, fols. 254-280 (the lines at issue contains an interesting variant, "faeder ne dohtor t)aere meder"); Cambridge, Corpus Christi College MS 367, pt. 2, fol. 25 contains one part of the homily. ^
Texts,
*
U
9; the
o.s.
55 shares the Macarius vision with Napier
XXIX
(B. 3. 4.
26
= Horn
printed by Arthur S. Napier, Wulfstan. Sammlungder ihm zugeschriehenen HomiUen,
U
26)
Samm*
lung engUscher Denkmaler 4 (Berlin, 1883; repr. with bibl. suppl. by Klaus Ostheeren,
and Zurich, 1966), 134-43. According to Louise Dudley, "An Early Homily on the 'Body and Soul' Theme," ]oumal of English and Gewxanic Philology 8 (1909): 225-53, both homilies, for the part of the vision, have been translated, independently, from the same Latin archetype, which does not belong either to tlie family of the homily in Rome, Biblioteca Nazionale Vittorio Emanuele, MS 2096, or to that of the Semio LXIX of the Sermones ad fratres in eremo (a homily the author and manuscript of which is still unknown): see Theodor D. Batiouchkof, "Le d6bat de Tame et du corps," Romania 20 (1891): 1-55, 513-78, here 576-78; J. Machielsen, Clavis Patristica Pseudepigraphorum Medii Aevi lA (Tumhout, 1990), 242, 260 (nos. 1127, 1196). ' K. Fischer (= Kilianus Piscator), Ubri Sancti Effrem (Freiburg im Breisgau, n.d.) (c. Berlin, Dublin,
PATRIZIA LENDINARA
70
how both
evident
It is
homilists simphfy the warning of the
De
paenitentia,
dropping the reference to brothers, picking up the remark about father and son,
and repeating the same
in reverse. For this reason
wonder whether
I
the words of the De paenitentia might be considered the sole model for the
motif of "no aid from kin" and ilar
passages occur in other
into examination
(I
only source, the more so because sim-
its
Old English
will return to the
homilies,
which
problem of sources
I
will
now
take
end of the
at the
survey).
In Napier
XXX (= Hom U
27)
it is
said that
each
man will
be alone at
Judgment Day:
man
Daer JxDnne ne maeg aenig
oSres gehelpan,'° se faeder JDam
suna, ne se sunu t>am faeder, ne seo
modor
Ac
tor jjaere meder,
ne nan maeg odrum.
demed
agenum gewyrhtum.^^
aefter his
XXX Library, MS
Napier
Hatton 113,
The
1491-1492),
fols.
dehter ne seo doh-
men byd
a composite homily, extant complete in Oxford, Bodleian
is
fols.
73-80v, which borrows from Vercelli IV
and three other homilies of the same sources.'^
J)aere
anra gehwylcum
collection, as well as
from other
section with the motif of **no aid from kin"
C3v-4v.
I
wish to thank Charles D. Wright for sending
is
me
one of
a copy of
the relevant pages of this edition. '°
Scragg,
Dadng and
Style, 11,
remarks that in Napier
die genitive object, whereas in Vercelli IV and
" B.
Hom U
XXX
the verb gehelpan takes
55 helpan takes the dative object.
The homily has been republished, from Appendix of Scragg, The Vercelli Homilies, 396-403, at 401. For its contents, see Scragg, "Napier's 'Wulfstan' Homily XXX"; according to Scragg {Dadng and Style, 9), "there is some authentic Wulfstan material in the compilation, but much of the homily consists of anonymous material that survives in other homilies." For Wulf' Stan's canon, see Dorothy Whitelock, ed., Sermo Lupi ad Anglos (third rev. ed. London, 1963; repr. Exeter, 1976), 17-28; Dorothy Bethumm, ed.. The Homilies ofWulfstan (Oxford, 1957), and Karl jost, Wulfstanstudien, Schweizer Anglistische Arbeiten 23 (Bern, 3. 4. 27:
Hatton 113,
Napier, Wulfstan, 143-52.
in the
1950).
See Scragg, "Wulfstan Homily XXX," 198. Cambridge, University Library MS li. 228-238 contains a shortened version of the homily (B 3. 2. 41 = Hom S 41): this homily, for "Tuesday in Rogationtide", is still unprinted; I quote the relevant passage from a transcript of the Dictionary of Old English of Toronto: "Fordan \>e \>sex he maeg nan mann oj^ran gehelpan ne se faeder t>am sunu ne se sunu \iam faeder ne nan mann Jjaer ne maeg ©Isrum gehelpan." Also the homily in London, British Library, MS Cotton Otho B. x. fol. 120 is related to Napier XXX. '^
4. 6, fols.
A
Homiletic Motif
7J_
those borrowed from Vercelli IV; as he does in other instances, the homilist
expands the passage, adding a parallel remark to the fact that the
mother
A
not help the daughter
Corpus Christi College
bridge, is
will
MS
162, pp.
said that neither a brother nor a father
the
damned
l^a
422-31 (Hom S
44),
Cam-
where
it
nor any other relative can help
Judgment Day.
at the
se bro6or
P>aer
ne
the reverse.
as well as
quite elaborate version of the motif occurs in the homily in
ne maeg J^am oSrum helpan ne
neahmagas ne 3a ma5mgestreon ne
se faeder J^am suna,
t»ysse
woruldaehta aen-
igne man {)3er gescyldan magon. Ac Drihten gylded anra gehwylf>aer ne ongyt se faeder cum menn aefter his sylfes gewyrhtum .
t)one sunu ne
se
sunu t>one
faeder
modor ne
lufa6
ne seo modor
hwilc hys
sylfes
yrmda wepad and
Members
l^aere
M
8).
.
dehter ne miltsad.
Ac
Ipa
anra ge-
heofa^.^^
of the family, relatives, and friends are mentioned in the
homily in Cambridge, University Library,
(Hom
.
ne wyr3a6, ne seo dohtor
MS
1.
li.
33, fols. 207r-211r
This instance seems independent from the others, and seems
common
either to rework a
motif with freedom or to draw on different
sources:
Eala man, faeder
'^
B
J^e t>is
ne gehelpd
3. 2. 44; the
gehyrst his
t>aet ic
3e secge,
on
t>aere
stowe
\)e
suna ne him to nane gode beon ne maeg, ne
homily
is
printed by Joyce Bazire and James E. Cross, Eleven Old
English Rogationtide Homilies (Toronto, 1982; repr.
98-101 and
\)2et
52, lines 115-18. This homily, for
London, 1989), 47-54, here 51,
"Wednesday
lines
in Rogationtide", also oc'
MS Hatton 116, pp. 382-95, where it is said: "Jjer se ne maeg gehelpan, ne se faeder l)am suna, ne Jja neahmagas ne \)Z madmgestreon Der ne on-git se feder t>one sunu; ne se sunu l)one faeder ne wurdad; ne seo debtor l^a modor ne lufad; ne seo moder t>a dohter ne miltsad." The two homilies are listed as separate entries both in Cameron, Plan for the Dictionary (B. 3. 2. 33 and B. 3. 2. 44) and the Dictionary of Old English Concordance (Hom S 44 and Hom S 33). The Hatton homily was printed by Max Forster, "Der Vercelli-Codex CXVII nebst Abdruck einiger altenglischer Homilien der Handschriften," in Festschrift fUr Lorenz Morshach, ed. F. Holthausen and H. Spies, Studien zur englischen Philologie 50 (Halle, 1913), 20-179, curs in Oxford, Bodleian Library,
brot>er l^am ojjrum .
.
.
here 128-37, here 135, lines 15-18.
The two
homilies were linked by idem,
"A New
Version of the Apocalypse of Thomas in Old English," Anglia 73 (1955): 6-36, here 11.
PATRIZIA LENDINARA
72 suna \>^m
ne mcxier
faeder,
dohtcr, nc
l^aere
nan oder freond ne
maeg to nane helpe.*^ In this instance, the motif of "no aid from kin" has been Last Judgment (wherever
eschatological motifs. In Hell there will be
no
distinction
and poor, powerful and humble; the theme of the preceding passage and
and
tives
The
is
friends.
motifs
ubi sunt
— which
known
well
is
several variants: a personage
famous
men
The
ubi sunt occurs in the
Old English
in
literature
might be asked about the destiny of
of the past (emperors, kings, and princes), but otherwise the
about where the joys and splendours of the past have gone.
is
topos was largely used from the beginning of the fourth century on-
wards,*^ though
England.*^
nonyma
A
origin
its
more remote and was known
is
contributing factor in
sive lamentatio
its
diffusion
The combination
my opinion,
**
B
of the motif of
was meant to
3. 5. 8; the
in
Anglo-Saxon
was provided by the
Sy
animae peccatrids of Isidore of Seville, where the ubi
sunt occurs along with penitential motifs.
in
between rich
related to that of the impossibility of helping rela-
— has
question
moved from the
takes place) to Hell/^ as happens with other
it
homily
is
stress
printed by
"no
^^
aid from kin" with the uhi sunt,
the contrast between things and people
Anna Maria
Luiselli
Fadda, Nuove
Omehe deUa
Rinascenza Benedettma (Florence, 1977), 144-57, here 149. ''
this
As
far as
the
De
paenitentia
is
concerned, Ephrem stressed the opposition between
world and the next. '*
On
the
dififiision
of the ubi sunt, see Mariantonia Liborio, "Contributi alia storia
deir'Ubi sunt'." Cultura hieoktma 20 (1960): 143-207. ''
E.g.,
by Ephrem in the De works of his.
paenitentia (just before the
as well as in other
" See
J.
E. Cross, '"Ubi sunt' Passages in
ships," Vetenskaps-Socieuten
i
Lund Arshok
Old English
"no
aid from kin" passage)
— Sources and Relation-
The
topos occurs both in Old De consolatione Phiiosophiae and of dependence upon the Latin text) and prose (1956): 25-44.
English poetry {Seafarer, Wanderer, translation of the
Psalm 78
(Hom 1
U
—
in the last
two instances
M 8; Hom S 6; Hom S
=
Napier XLIX; Hom S 40. 20 = Blickling X; Hom U *'
PL
83: 825-868, at 865.
auteur 'ascetique':
The Synonyma.
les
in
= Blickling V; Hom S 26 = Blickling VII; Hom S 40. 3 = Vercelli X; Hom U 3; Hom U 9 = Vercelli IV; Hom 27 = Napier XXX; Hom U 55).
17
On
this
work, see Jacques Fontaine, "Isidore de Seville
fenigmes des Synonyma," Studi MedievaU 3rd
ser.
6 (1965): 163-95.
also contain remarks about the sinners' condition of loneliness
"NuUus mihi protectionem buit, nullus malis
meis succurrit,
on
earth:
defensionem adhibet, nullus adminiculum tridesertus sum ab omnibus hominibus" (PL 83: 829).
praebet, nullus
A
Homiletic Motif
73_
that are relevant in one's lifetime and the condition of loneliness experi-
enced
at the
Judgment Day, when the position that
might hold within family or society
made
will
a
man
not be relevant at
riches
woman)
Hom
explicit in
same sentence.
Hom
M
8 has
its
source
— discovered and marked by
seventeenth-century hand in the margin of the manuscript
Augustine homily, that
where
is,
nee pro patre
filium,
reperitur amicus qui redimat,
A similar motif non
in a pseudo-
said:
it is
non
a sixteenth- or
—
no. LXVIII of the Sermones ad fratres in eremo
de qua non liberabit pater
Ibi
a
This juxta-
S 44 (and S 33) where both earthly {madmgestreon and woruMceht) and relatives are mentioned in the
position was
ubi
(or
all.
is
nee
filius fidejubebit;
frater qui succurrat.^°
found in the pseudo-Isidorean Sermo
adjuvat pater ad filium, nee
filius
III:
ad patrem;
ibi
non
in-
venitur amicus qui redimat amicum, neque frater qui succurrat fratri.21
In both Latin homilies, as well as in
Hom M
8,
the motif has been
moved
to Hell.
Also Wulfstan employs a similar motif in
Ne
bearh nu
suna, ne aenig his
lif
ne laewede
his
agenum
ma
J)e
faeder,
Sermo Lupi ad Anglos:
fremdan, ne faeder his
ne broker odrum; ne ure
ne fadode swa swa he sceolde, ne gehadode regoUice, lahliee;
ne
aenig
wid oderne getreowlice ne lx)hte swa
swa he sceolde.^^
rihte
^°
foroft gesib gesibban t>e
hwilum beam
his
PL
40: 1354-1355, here 1355; Machielsen,
CPPMA,
lA: 260, no. 1195,
The
author of Sermo LXVIII is still unknown: see Jean-Paul Bonnes, "Un des plus grands pr6dicateurs du Xlle si^cle: Geoffroy du Laroux, dit Geoffiroy Babion," Revue Binidictine 56 (1946): 174-215, here 178. ^'
PL
83: 1223-1225, here 1224; see also
The homily occurs in Munich, 44-46 (ninth century). The first part of
804-5, no. 5306. fols.
" B
2. 4. 2:
Bethumm,
ed.,
GPL
1225 and Machielsen,
Bayerische Staatsbibliothek,
CPPMA,
MS Clm.
the homily agrees with Sermo LXVIII.
The Homilies of Wulfstan, 255-60, here 257.
IB:
17059,
PATRIZIA LENDINARA
74
Wulfstan's words are a further proof of the circulation of the motif of "no aid from kin" in
Old
English. Source studies of composite homilies are
complicated by the overlapping of material from previous vernacular homilies
that hinders the singling out of Latin sources: according to Wright the
author of Vercelli IV was drawing on an earlier version of the Macarius
homily whose text was turn
Hom
than the actual text of
slightly friller
U
55; in
its
M 8 draws either on a Latin sermon attributed to Augustine or
on a pseudo-Isidorean homily. The other passages may either go back to yet other Latin (themselves from Greek or Syriac) texts, or may rework a widespread motif, known only from vernacular sources.
Parallels
The
motif under examination has a paralleP^ in the
of the Seafarer (lines 97-102) where related,
can help the
ures, that
is
sinfril
one
earthly wealth, lavished
I>eah
\>c
graef wille
brotx)r his
ne maeg
j^aere
[xjnne he hit
The
on
a
man's grave are of no
nearly treas-
avail:
hine mid
\>e bit)
synna
wille, fril
for godes egsan, aer
hyded
passage repeats the previous
earthly glory that cannot save a
"
no man, however
Judgment to come. Gold and
byrgan be deadum, [)aet
sawle
gold to geoce
disputed lines
golde stregan
geborenum,
majjmum mislicum
said that
is
at the
much
l^enden he her leofad.^^
comments on the
man
transitory nature of
from God's Judgment.^^ Eschato*
Sec G. V. Smithers, "The Meaning of the Seafarer and the Wanderer," Medium (1957): 137-53, and 28 (1959): 1-22.
/Evwm 26
" George P. Krapp and Elliott van K. Dobbie, ed., The Saxon Poetic Records 3 (New York and London, 1936), 146.
" On
these lines, see Marjorie Daunt, ''The Seafarer
11.
Exeter Book,
97-102,"
The Anglo-
Modem
Language
Review 11 (1916): 337-38; Kenneth Sisam, "Seafarer, Lines 97-102," Review of English Studies 21 (1945): 316-17; R. Hamer. "The Seafarer, Line 99b," Notes Queries n.s. 39 (1992): 13-15; Michael D. Chemiss, "The Meaning of The Seafarer, Lines 97-102,"
&
Modem
Philology
do not emend
66 (1968): 146-49; Krapp and Dobbie
line 99b.
(as
well as
Chemiss and Hamer)
A
Homiletic Motif
logical
75^
themes are exploited in the Seafarer and in the Wanderer, where
both the motif under examination and the stated.
The
whereas
form
latter occurs in disguised
made
it is
ubi sunt topos are poetically (lines
explicit in the Wanderer.
82
in the Seafarer,
ff.)
The motif
of
"no
aid
from
kin" occurs only in the Seafarer, in a rather simplified form, referring to
what happens on try to help the
The receive
earth, just after one's death
dead somehow
— and not
at
— where and when
Judgment Day or in Hell.
motif that everyone will be alone on the
no help whatsoever
poem
the eschatological
is
also
relatives
Day
of Judgment
and
will
found in Old High German poetry, in
Muspilli where, at line 57, occurs the following
statement:
dar ni
mac denne mak andremo
[Then no
relative
helfan vora
demo
can help the other before the
muspille^^
Muspilli]^^
Otfrid too, in the fifth book of his Evangelienhuch, provides several examples of
how anyone can
help the other at Judgment
"abulges dag" ("the day of wrath"), as he calls
Ni mag thar manahoubit kind noh quena
Day
(5.19.23), the
it:^®
helfan hereren uuiht
(5.19.47-48)
[Then the
serf
cannot help in any way either the master, or the
son or the wife.]
^^ Wilhelm Braune, Althochdeutsches Lesehuch, 16th ed. rev. by Ernst A. Ebbinghaus (Tubingen, 1979). The influence of Ephrem was surmised by Gustav Grau, QueUen und
Verxvandtschaften der dlteren germanischen DarsteUungen des Jungsten Gerichtes, Studien zur
Englischen Philologie 31 (Halle, 1908), 239-42. See also Cola Minis, Handschrift, Form und Sprache des Muspilli, Philologische Studien und Quellen 35 (Berlin, 1966), 79. ^^
The
Muspiili contains several
Ephremic
roricnt 4 (1973): ^*
Johann
Margot Schmidt, "Influence dc du d6but du moyen-age," Parole de
motifs; see
saint fephrem sur la litt6rature latine et aliemande
325-41.
Kelle, Otfrids von Weissenburg Evangelienbuch. Text, Einleitung, Grammatik,
Metrik, Glossar (Regensburg,
1856-1881;
repr.
Aaien, 1963),
2:
362.
PATRIZIA LENDINARA
76 This proves that the motif, which was
was
homilists,
also
known
in other
fiilly
Germanic
developed by Old English
literatures.^^
Sources According to Sebastian Brock: "very cus and
Ephrem Latinus
is
little
.
.
.
of the extant
Ephrem Grae*
genuine Ephrem, and in most cases probably
did not even start out in Syriac."^° Several works attributed to circulated in the titled
De
West
in Latin translations.^*
The De
Ephrem
paenitentia
(also
that belongs to a small corpus of six metrical homi-
patientia)^^^
found in several manuscripts,^^ was available in England^^ and was
lies
^'
to c.
A similar motif
800 or
is found in "Audax es vir iuvenis", an abecedarian poem, datable contained in several manuscripts. An insular origin (Ireland or Engrhythm has been put forward: see Martha Bayless and Michael Lapidge,
earlier,
land) for this
CoUectanea Pseudo-Bedae, Scriptores Latini Hibemiae 14 (Dublin, 1998), 92-98, 279-83.
The poem
also found a place in the so-called "Cambridge Songs", no. 18, strophe 20, "Venit dies iudicii/ et erit magna districtio,/ ut non adiuuet pater filium/ nee filius defendat patrem": Jan M. Ziolkowski, The Cambridge Songs (Carmina Cantabrigiensia) (New York and London. 1994; repr. Tempe. 1998 [MRTS vol. 1921), 76-83, 225-27 (where
the relevant lines are misinterpreted). '°
Sebastian P. Brock,
"The
Syriac Background," in Archbishop Theodore:
Commemo'
Michael Lapidge, Cambridge Studies in AngloSaxon England 11 (Cambridge, 1995), 30-53, here 40. rative Studies
''
die
on
his Life
and
Influerxce, ed.
See Sebastian P. Brock, "A Brief Guide to the Main Editions and Trarwlations of of St. Ephrem," The Harp: Review of Syriac and Oriental Studies 3 (1990): 7-
Works
29. ^^
No
it survives in Greek and in several "Ephraem's 'On Repentance'." The ancient Latin translation was printed for the first time by Fischer, Ubri Sancti Effrem. For the Greek text, see J.S. Assemani, Sancti Ephraem Syri opera omnia quae exstant Graece, Syriace, Latmc, 6 vols. (Rome, 1732-46), 1: 148a-153b, at 151a (Greek text) and 151b (Latin translation). The motif of "no aid from kin" occurs also in other works by Ephrem.
Syriac original of the sermon has survived;
translations.
^'
The
See
oldest
Pattie,
one
is
CittJi del
Vaticano, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana,
MS
Barbe-
671, which dates from the second half of the eighth century: See T. S. Pattie, "Ephrem the Syrian and the Latin Manuscripts of *De Paenitentia'," British Ubrary jour'
rini lat.
md
13 (1987): 1-24.
^ On the circulation of his works, see Patrick Sims-Williams, "Thoughts on Ephrem the Syrian in Anglo-Saxon England," in Learning and Literature m AngUySaxon En^nd, Michael Lapidge and Helmut Gneuss (Cambridge, 1985), 205-26; repr. with original pagination and addenda in idem Britwn and Early Christian Europe: Studies m Early Medir eval History and Culture (Aldershot, 1995), and Thomas H. Bestul, "Ephraim the Syrian ed.
and Old English Poetry," Anglia 99 (1981): 1-24. See also David Gam, "Knowledge of Ephraim's Writings in the Merovingian and Carolingian Age," Hugoye: Journal of Syriac Studies 2, 1 (1999) (Special Issue: The Infkence of Saint Ephraim the Syrian-ll).
A
Homiletic Motif
77_
U
the source of at least two homilies (Horn
55 and Vercelli IV), which
drew the motif of "no aid from kin" from Ephrem.
On the
other hand
it
must be remarked that the elements of the motif
under examination were quite widespread:
(CPG
exitu animi, et de secundo adventu
for
example, in the homily
andria (and in part by Theophilus of Alexandria, his predecessor) that a
man
formed in
will
De
5258), attributed to Cyril of Alexit is
said
be damned or saved according to the deeds he has per-
and that he
his lifetime
will
not receive any help whatsoever:
T6t8 oo5sl(; 6 TrapiaTdfievoq, Kai ^^ap7rd.su-
|j.6voq
Gspouaav,
fl
[Then there
Kaxa5iKd(^ouaav
xfjv
will
Ottoji^vei
vj/fi(t)ov.^^
not be anyone at hand snatching you away from
the punishment, neither father nor mother, nor son, nor daughter,
nor any
relative, neighbour, friend or defender, neither
money nor
bestowal of
plenty of riches, nor magnificence of power; rather
all
these things will vanish like ashes in the dust and the defendant waits alone for the judgment that will either discharge
deeds or
Although
condemn
this
sermon, as well
elaborating
U
55, Vercelli
it is
PG
the sources mentioned above, might have
also likely that
et
both the homilies (with the
IV and S 44) and the Psalter,
non
Tod und
where, in the
were simply
Roman
version of
homo; non
dabit
pretium redemptionis animae suae. Et laborabit
Seelenreise,
also contains the ubi sunt
Seafarer
redimit, redimet
77: 1072-1089, here 1072. This attribution has
Recheis, Engel '^
as
said: "frater
Deo placationem suam
^5
it is
on the words of the
Psalm 48: 8-9,
of his
him.]^^
been known in England, exception of
him
Temi
been questioned by Athanas The Greek homily
e testi 4 (Rome, 1958), 175.
theme (1077) and other eschatological
motifis.
This homily was very influential in the Eastern churches: see Batiouchkof, "Le d6bat," 12, 40. There was even an Arabic version (see CPG 5258).
PATRIZIA LENDINARA
78
aetemum.""
in
In the West-Saxon prose version of the Psalter these
verses receive extensive
nan bro6or
7. I^aet
he wylle,
l)eah
hwile
\)e
gif
oj^res
he
sy; for
nanwuht for \>y
tilianne
ne ne ded to goode
nyle,
him
J)am se brodor
na ne onginS to
sylf
sawle nele alysan of helle, ne ne maeg,
sylf
he her by6. Gylde
hwile de he her
he
comment:
Jjaet
sylf
t>a
alyse his sawle JDa
nyle odde ne maeg, gif
o\>\>e
he
and
Jjaet
weord
agife to alys-
nesse his sawle.^®
The words
match both the
of the prose version of the Psalter
Seafarer
and
the Old English homilies and witness an early use and diffusion of the motif.
The
man
insistence of the
more so
for a
at the
Anglo-Saxon homilists on the
Judgment Day produced a
Germanic audience, where the
According to the Germanic custom
strong. for
be alone
will
homicide by payment of the price
set
it
fact that every
striking image, the
role of the Sippe
was so
was possible to atone even
upon each man according to
rank.^^ In this connection the importance of the relatives
his
was promi-
nent: see, for example, the Laws of Alfred:
Gif faedrenmaega maegleas
30. gif
mon
medrenmaegas haebbe, gielden
dan
dael t>a gegyldan, for
§
1.
driddan
gefeohte 7
j^a
he
ofslea, 7 lx)nne
5aes weres driddan dael, [6rid'
dael]
he
fleo.
Gif he medrenmaegas nage, gielden
healfrie
mon
Jja
gegildan healfne, for
feo.
'' According to Sisam, '^Seafarer, Lines 97-102,'* 316-17, the Seafarer line 99 echoes Psalm 48; Smithers, "The Meaning of the Seafarer,*' 11, also points out a parallel with Zephaniah 1: 18: "sed et argentum eonim et aunim eonim non potent liberare eos in die irae Domini."
^
James
W.
Bright and Robert L. Ramsay, Uber Pscdmorum. The WestrSaxon Psabns,
being 0\e Prose Portion or the
'first fifty'
of the 50am] cyninge, healfhe t>am gegildan.'^^
Man's condition
in his lifetime
and
death
after his
is
entirely different,
and hence the need to remind the audience about such difference, I would also like to suggest two further levels of interpretation in
refer'
ence to the audience of the Old English homilies, where the motif was ex' tensively used,
and which may have determined
were intended
for
and woman are tended both
on what
both
sexes, and,
owing to
and
expansions. Homilies
this fact, it
is
Judgment
is
meant
to convey another
message of equality and hope, stressing the fact that there difference
between the layman and the
tives
— and no
man
also in^
for clerics, and, for this reason, the insistence
will take place at the Last
monastery, where he
said that
Judgment Day. Homilies were
alike in front of the
for seculars
its
may have been
property —
,
left
ecclesiastic.
when
still
will
not be any
The monk
a child, has
in the
no
rela^
but will not be more lonely in front of the
Supreme Judge.
my
In
opinion, and the
uhi sunt topos, the motif of
more
"no
so for the evident connection with the aid
from
kin*' also builds
on the
between members of the society and members of the family foreground,
on the much
the limbs of the
body)."^^
older
and widespread
In this respect,
subject glossaries such as /^Ifric's,
it
parallel
parallel
(and, in the
between these and
finds a remarkable parallel in
where the section "Nomina membro-
rum" begins with the names of the limbs ("Membrum an lim, membra ma lima ..."), followed by the names of the members of society, ecclesiastical and lay ('Tatriarcha heahfceder, propheta witega ..."), and ends with the .").'^^ names of the members of the family ("Pater feeder, mater modor .
As
well as in so
many
similate a literary topos, notwithstanding
to reshape
^
it,
imparting
.
other instances Anglo-Saxons were able to
new
how remote
its
origin was,
as-
and
strength and additional meaning to the motif
Attenborough, The Laws of the Earliest English Kings (Cambridge, 1922), 76. man and die world, see J. E. Cross, "Aspects of Microcosm and Macrocosm in Old English Literature," in Studies in Old English Literature m ^'
F. L.
For the parallel between
Honor of Arthur G. Brodeur, ^^
ed. Stanley B. Greenfield
(New York,
1963), 1-22.
Grammatik und Glossar. Text und Varianten, Sammlung englischer Denkmaler in kritischen Ausgaben 1 (Berlin, 1880; 2nd ed. with introd. by Helmut Gneuss, Berlin, Zurich, and Dublin, 1966), 297-322, here 297, 299. Julius Zupitza, Aelfrics
PATRIZIA LENDINARA
80 of "no aid from kin."
The image
not receive help from either metrical homilies of
Latin translations.
but
it
most
Ephrem the
The
of the
man who,
relatives or friends,
Syrian,
at
Judgment Day, does
might be drawn from the
which circulated
motif also occurs in Old High
was in the Old English homilies that effective exploitation.
it
in the
German
West
in
literature,
found the largest use and the
GALE
OWEN-CROCKER
R.
Horror in Beowulf: Mutilation, Decapitation, and Unburied
VIOLENCE
IS
CELEBRATED IN Beowulf s heroic world, which
warrior'Danes "Gar-Dena" 1538).^ Focus falls is
(line
upon the
1)
many
nations, of their
monegum maegj^um
is
populated by
and battle^Geats "GuS-Geata" (\mt
glory of the victor,
expended on the victims: Scyld Scefing, we
enemies, from /
Dead
and
little
or
no sympathy
are told, deprived troops of
mead benches
C'scea^Jena l)reatum,
meodosetla ofteah", lines 4-5), acts which would,
presumably, have involved killing some of those enemies before the suT' vivors submitted; but their fate
is
not mentioned. Nor are the specific
achievements of Scyld's descendants documented by the Beou;uI/'poet,
though we are told that Healfdene was 58) and Hrothgar was given success fact,
considering this
is
deeds of valour C'^rym
few armed encounters
a .
.
poem .
in
fierce in battle
line 64). In
introduced to us as dealing with glory and
ellen", lines 2-3)
at first
C'gudreouw", line
war f'heresped gyfen",
we
are treated to remarkably
hand. Only episodes in the Swedish Wars
merit prolonged description: Weohstan's dispatch of Eanmund, his
tailed,
more
deac-
count of the pillaging of
'
pillag-
Ongentheow's sword-fight with Eofor and Wulf, again with an
ing of the body and subsequent reward (lines 2612-2619); and,
his
All references are taken from
armour and sword and the
F.
killers'
rewards
Klaeber, ed., Beowulf and the Fight at Finnshurg, 3rd
ed. (Boston, 1950). All translations are
my own.
.
GALE
82
R.
OWEN-CROCKER
2961-2998). In the recent past which forms a sketchy backdrop to Beowulf s adventures, other named characters have killed or been killed: (lines
Heatholaf died at the hand of Ecgtheow dered his brothers with a sword self
crushed Daeghrefn
(lines
(lines
460-461), Unferth mur-
587-588, 1167-1169), Beowulf him-
2501-2502) and Haethcyn was
Ongentheow
of revenge by
(lines
killed as
an act
2924-2930); but always the circum-
(lines
stances of the fight are vague, and in
none of these
cases
do we follow the
fate of the victim's body. Haethcyn's accidental killing of his older brother
with an arrow
more
is
specific (lines 2435-2443), but
we
learn nothing
about the dead Herebeald. Instead the narrator speaks of the anguish and
King Hrethel,
frustration of the bereaved father.
which cannot be
waes feohleas gefeoht,
I>aet
hredre hygemede; aedeling
at
the death of a son
compensated with money or avenged:
either
fyrenum gesyngad,
sceolde hwaedre swa j^eah
unwrecen
ealdres linnan
.
.
Swa Wedra helm Herebealde
aefter
heortan sorge
wihte ne meahte on dam feorhbonan faeghde gebetan; hatian ne meahte n5 dy aer he lx)ne headorinc ladum daedum JDeah him leof ne waes.
weallinde waeg;
Gines 2441-2443, 2463-2467) lit
was a
fight without
compensation, exceedingly painful, very
wearisome to the heart; nevertheless, the prince had to leave unavenged. lines
.
.
.
Thus
llike
life
the bereaved father in the digression,
2444-2462] the Guardian of the Geats carried surging sorrow
in his heart for Herebeald.
He
could not in any
way avenge the
feud on the slayer; none the sooner could he persecute the battle warrior with hostile acts, although he was not dear to him.)
There ly
is,
therefore, in Beoivulf
mentioned but
and pragmatic
is
2l
backcloth in which killing
is
frequent-
not dwelt upon, being interwoven with the ethical
issues of
the heroic world, matters such as tribute, revenge,
booty, and reward. Against this, two opposite extremes, the elaborate funeral ritual
and the denial of the
right to burial or cremation, stand out
Beowulf
Horror
in
starkly.
The
83^
ritual obsequies
of Beowulf,
provide emotional climaxes and structural is
as
mation and mound
burial conclude
at Finnsburg
and the
row (presumably with
Though
significance.
his
it.
have argued elsewhere, around which the poem
the action and Beowulf s cre-
built:^ Scyld's ship funeral inaugurates
mation
I
pillars
In the body of the poem, the cre-
burial of the Last Survivor's treasure in a bar-
dead
lord) are of
major thematic and structural
the Christian audience of the
poem might have
garded the funerals as exotic in their pagan trappings fires,
(ship,
re-
cremation
grave-goods, barrows), they are ceremonial rather than spiritual occa-
sions: there
is
no pagan theology
in
them.
The
narration of
tered through Christian perception (*'Scyld gewat
.
.
.
them
waere" [Scyld went to go into the keeping of the Lord],
lines
[arguably] ''GuSrinc astah" [the warrior ascended], line 1118;
nu hruse"
is
so
fil-
feran on Frean
26-27;
"Heald
Ipu
[hold now, earth], line 2247; **heofon rece swe(a)lg" [heaven
swallowed the smoke], line 3155) that they can be seen, not
as
wrong
or
offensive, but in their context "proper". All are highly emotive, but they
are also cathartic; the funeral ceremonies burn, bury, or transport the corpse,
public
honour the dead, and give an opportunity grief, after
for the exhibition of
which the mourners (Hengest and Hildeburh excepted)^
are free to go about their business
to fight invaders, or wandering
—
of supporting another king, preparing
away to
die.
In counterpoint to this ritualized disposal of the body runs the recur-
rent motif of death so unnatural that what in terms of funeral rites
own in
country and
Denmark,
that the
as
is
he
is
inaccessible.
is
normally owed to the dead
When Beowulf has
returned to his
describing to Hygelac the events that have taken place relates the
death of y^schere he focuses on the fact
Danes were not able to give
their loved
one a proper funeral
(a
cremation), because Grendel's mother had carried off his body:
N5der hy hine ne moston, deaSwerigne
bronde forbaernan,
^
ne on b^l hladan,
See Gale R. Owen-Crocker, The Four Funerals
Poem (Manchester, ^
syddan mergen cwom,
Denia leode
in
Beowulf:
And
the Structure
of the
2000).
Hengest ostensibly supports another king (Finn) but eventually has revenge on him,
a further grief, presumably, for Hildeburh.
GALE
84
mannan;
leofhe
hlo
feondes fae6(mum
|)aet lie
R.
OWEN^CROCKER
aetbaer
un)der firgenstream. Oines 2124-2128)
[The people of the Danes were not able to fire,
after
man on
bum
morning came, they were not able to
him, dead, with
beloved
lay the
the pyre. She carried away the body, in the arms of his
enemy, under the mountain stream.) This der.
is
a different perspective from previous references to /Cschere's mur^
When
Hrothgar revealed to Beowulf that Grendel's mother had
killed
/Eschere, his lament focused on the loss of a companion and councillor, a
good and generous nobleman
set out in pursuit of Grendel's
1323-1344), and
(lines
mother,
it
was the
when
distress of
company
the
the Danes as
they came across y^chere's severed head on which the poet concentrated:
Denum winum
6egne monegum,
to gelx)lianne,
oncy6
eorla
eallum waes,
weorce on m5de
Scyldinga
gehwaem,
on Jjam holmclife
sydj^an /Escheres
hafelan metton.
aines 1417b-1421) [For all the Danes, for the retainers of the Scyldings, for
thane,
it
was grievous to
suffer in
many
a
the heart, a distress for each of
the noblemen, after they came across /Eschere 's head on the
cliff
by the water.)
It is significant
instead
on the
that in talking to his uncle, Beowulf should concentrate
same
fate
in the Frisian raid,
and
lack of funeral rites for /Eschere, because the
awaits Hygelac*s body.
although the event
is
He
is
to die far from
in the future as
home,
Beowulf
talks to
homecoming, the audience of the poem already know of
Hygelac at his
it
because
been anticipated, when Wealtheow gave Beowulf a neck-ring killing
Grendel:
^one bring haefde nefa Swertinges
Higelac Geata,
nyhstan
side.
as
it
has
thanks for
Horror
in
Beowulf
sidt>an
85
he under segne
hyne wyrd fomam,
waelreaf werede; syjjcian
he
for
sine ealgode,
wean
wlenco
faehde to Fry sum.
He
eorclans tanas
yda
ofer
in Francna faejjm
ond
breostgewaedu,
wyrsan wlgfrecan aefter
fill,
he under rand gecranc.
rice t)eoden;
Gehwearf t>a
JdI
ahsode,
fraetwe waeg,
se
feorh cyninges,
beah somod;
wael reafedon
Geata leode
gudsceare,
hreawTc heoldon. Oines 1202-1214a)
[Hygelac of the Geats, nephew of Swerting, had the ring on his expedition, after he defended treasure under the standard, pro-
last
tected spoils of war; fate carried le,
him
off, after
he looked
battle with the Frisians, out of recklessness.
He had
for troub-
treasures
then, the chief of the kingdom, precious stones across the sea.
perished under the round shield.
The
king's
life,
He
mailcoat and the
ring together passed then into the embrace of the Frisians. Inferior warriors plundered the slain after the carnage.
The Geatish
people
occupied the place of slaughter.]
According to the Latin Liber Monstrorum, bones which were believed to be those of Hygelac were exhibited on an island at the
The
author of the
poem
probably
knew the
did not rest in peace, especially since, as
I
mouth
of the Rhine.
tradition that Hygelac's bones
have suggested elsewhere, the
lack of funeral for /Eschere and the lack of a funeral in his for
Hygelac may be linked
"^
structurally in a
complex
own
country
series of parallels
framed by the two central funerals (that of Hnaef and the Last Survivor's lord).5
Also deprived of a proper funeral gression
now known
as
*The
Father's
the hanged son in the elegiac diLament" which is inserted into the
is
^ Quoted in R. W. Chambers, Beowulf: An Introduction to the Study of the Poem with a Discussion of the Stories ofOffa and Finn, with supplement by C. L. Wrenn (Cambridge, 1921; 3rd ed. 1959), 4. '
Owen-Crocker, Four
Funerals,
159-161.
GALE
86
R.
OWEN-CROCKER
ostensibly historical narrative of Hrethel's bereavement.^ This factual account but
Swa
is
not a
an analogy:
gomelum
bid geomorlTc
to gebldanne,
giong on galgan
ceorle
his byre ride
\>ddt [
hangad
]
hrefhe to hrodre Gines 2444-2448a) [Likewise
it
is
painful for
young, rides on the gallows
The is
reason for the hanging
is
an old .
.
.
man
hangs
never given;
a criminal or the sacrificial victim of
ism, as the (the god
method the
loss
we
the raven.)
are not to
know
a tree
and had a raven
of one young
man
if
the son
some remote and abhorrent pagan-
may imply Nor do we
of execution and the mention of the raven
Woden hung on
know how
to endure that his son,
as a joy to
as a familiar).
should relate to the disappearance
of his comitatus and the emptying of his stronghold of riders and music.
The
retainers at least are buried, "rldend swefad
[riders sleep,
haeled in
/
heroes in the grave (lines 2457-2458)] and
hodman"
we can
only sup-
pose that they have died in battle and their leader's body has been ex-
posed by a vengeful enemy, perhaps of the passage
is
as a sacrifice to his god.
the digression, suffers not only grief but also frustration: he
do what
right to
on the
slayer,
The
function
to convey the emotion of Hrethel who, like the father in
is
who
is
denied the
proper on the death of a son. Unable to take revenge is
also his son, Hrethel has
no
relief for his surging
grief.
In other cases, too, the non-burial anticipate ers, fates
what might happen
is
imagined, not actual. Characters
to themselves, or
what
will
audience are made to experience feelings of revubion and
*
The
be done to oth-
so horrible that both the listening protagonists and the poem's terror.
Beowulf
protagonists are two uncles and the grandfather of the (fictional) hero Beowulf.
A third uncle, Hygelac, has some claim to historicity, but the episode of one brother killing another is similar to an event in Norse mythology involving characters with similar names. The Beoundf-poct may have exploited a known story (with a slightly different outcome). See Roberta Frank, "Skaldic Verse and the Date of Beoundf,'* in The Dating of Beourulf, ed. Colin Chase (Toronto, 1981), 123-39, here 132.
Horror
Beowulf
in
87_
when he
speaks of the possibility of death with grim realism gar
and makes
he
his boast that
Na
\>u
ac he
hafalan hydan, d[r]eore fahne,
gif
greets Hroth'
Grendel:
mlnne
t>earft
me habban
wile
mec dead nimed; byrgean t>enced,
byred blodig wael,
unmumlTce,
ete5 angenga
no du ymb mines ne
mearcad morhopu; ITces
will fight
feorme
t>earft:
leng sorgian. Oines 445b-451)
my
[You will not need to hide
with blood,
he
if
will intend to taste
pity,
it
head, but he will have
death takes me; he
will carry off the
the solitary one will eat
[it],
will stain his retreat
on the moors. You
grieve longer about taking care of
my
me
stained
bloody corpse,
will
without
[it]
not need to
body.]
This statement comes in the context of an elaborate conceit of courtesy
which we might paraphrase that you let
far,
me
as
have the inconvenience of a turn
my
mailcoat,
**I
ask you this favour, since
cleanse your hall for you.
which
is
funeral, but could
If I
1
should
I
have come so fail
you won't
please trouble you to re^
a family heirloom, to
my
king." Within this
setting of civilized conversation, the matter-of-fact acceptance by the
noble speaker of a bloody death and consumption by the monster provokes a frisson of terror. This
is
what Grendel has done
before,
and
will
do
though not to Beowulf. The enjoyment of cannibalism, which
again,
makes Grendel uniquely clearly evoked here,
horrific
among the monsters
of the poem,
is
and from the point of view of the victim, rather than
the perpetrator or an impersonal narrator. Beowulf s wrestling match with
Grendel
will in fact
sures that the
be very one-sided, but
poem's audience
this anticipation of defeat en-
fully appreciates
the hero's clear-headed
as-
sessment of risk and his courage in proceeding.
This projection of a gory end will, ironically, relate to
for
Beowulf
also highlights motifs
which
the killing of Grendel rather than his enemy.
The
hero's blood will not be shed, at least not in this adventure; but blood,
which has
'
At
line
(arguably) stained the floor of
Heorot
725 Grendel
flor
will step
onto the fdgne
in the past,^ will cer-
of Heorot. Fag can
mean "deco-
.
GALE
88 ground
tainly stain the
mere
at
Beowulf s
the hero uses to
*To
Grendel
as
victory,
and
it
flees injured,
will
it
R.
OWEN'CROCKER up from the
will well
melt the blade of the ancient sword
Grendel's mother and decapitate Grendel's corpse.
kill
hide the head" was probably a recognised poetic formula for "burial",
but also the reference curs throughout fectually, as
is
Denmark: Beowulf will
in
/
graedig gudleod" [the decorated sword sang a greedy bat-
on her head
1521-1522)] and eventually decapitate her.
(lines
(The narrator speaks poetically of the severing of vertebrae, 1567, but Beowulf
is
crisply explicit
heafde becearf
(lines 2138-2139)].)
heafde becearf',
.
.
.
when he
Grendeles m5dor"
lac, "ic
mother
He
and take
1590)]
fline
ond
1614)]. It will
be carried back to Heorot "cyningbalde
baeron" [royally brave /
on
somod"
{ja hilt
men
weorcum
had to carry Grendel's head, with 1639)]^ to ignominious exposure
ITc for
on
flet
eorlum ond
boren
/
[of
difficulty,
.
.
.
on the
.
.
as a trophy
it
together (line
hilt
men
.
.
on
hall]
spear-shaft (lines
t>aer
guman druncon,
where men drank, 1647-1649)].
(lines
.
.
.
that
1
[four
1637-
/
"I>a
eges-
carried by
terrible in front of
The
severed head
"t>aes sig Metode jjanc eagum starige!" [Thanks be to gaze with my eyes on the gory head (lines
Jxjne hafelan heorodreorigne
the Lord for this
hafelan
1634-1635)], "feower
be the focus of Hrothgar's appreciation:
taet ic
.
Grendles heafod"
mid" [Then Grendel's head was
the
Grendel's
.
and horror among the witnesses:
noblemen, and the lady with them will
(lines
geferian
Grendles heafod,
|)aere idese
the hair on to the floor
head and the
head
carried the
t>aem waelstenge
waes be feaxe
[the
1566-
head "hine ^a
will cut off Grendel's
head
[cut off his
decapitated
[1
lines
the adventure to Hyge-
tells
"jxjne hafelan
scoldon
rC'
strike (inef-
mother "hire on hafelan
turns out) at the head of Grendel's
it
hringmael ag5l tle-song
one manifestation of the "head" motif which
Beowulf s adventure
.
.
.
.
.
1778-1781)].
rated", the usual interpretation in die present context; but *
I
interpret uxElstenge, "slaughter-shaft", as a
kenning
it
can
also
mean
for "spear", as
"stained".
do most com-
imagine Grendel's head fixed in some way (skewered, perhaps) to the spearcarried horizontally, supported by two men at each end. Rolf Bremmer has a different interpretation. Reading wctlstenge literally as "camage-pole", he decbres: "All the way from the mere to the hall, the monster's head is elevated on some sort of stake or pole in such a way that everyone will be able to see it": Rolf H. Bremmer Jr, "Grendel's Arm and the Law," in Studies in Eng^h Language and Uterature: 'Doubt unsely'. Papers m Honour ofE. G. Stanley, ed. M. J. Toswell and E. M. Tyler (Lonmentators; shaft,
I
which would be
don and New York,
1996), 121-32, here 124; see also note 16.
Horror
Beowulf
in
89
Wiglaf also faces the
possibility that his
body
will
be destroyed by a
monster, but prefers this to cowardice: **God wat on mec, leofre, \>d£t
mlnne iTchaman
knows, concerning me, that
my
body with
my
but the injury will not be is
it is
me
is
micle
me
that flame should embrace
treasure giver (lines 2650-2652)]. Again, the event will
what might occur. Wiglaf anticipated;
dearer to
it is
not happen, but the audience of
Ipdet
mid mlnne goldgyfan gled faedmi?" [God
/
given the opportunity to taste the horror
is
indeed be burnt by the dragon's flame,
will
fatal.
Once more, it is the fate of another that who will be killed by the dragon,
Beowulf, not Wiglaf,
will be destroyed by fire, on his funeral pyre: "swo gende wope bewunden ... ob t>aet he 6a banhiis gebrocen haefde / hat on Heofon rece swe(a)lg" [the roaring flame mingled with weeping hredre Heaven swaluntil it had broken the bone'house, hot at the core
and whose body leg
/
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
lowed the smoke Oines 3145-3148, 3155)].
Another projected case of non-burial after he has
gentheow. King of Sweden,
is
the revenge anticipated by
killed
On-
Haethcyn of Geatland near
Ravenswood and expects further Geat victims: he and his army will cut open the enemies with swords and hang some of them for sport on gallows-trees:
cwaeS, he
meces ecgum
on mergenne
getan wolde, [fuglum] to
sum[e] on galgtroewu[m]
gamene. Oines 2939-2941)
[He said in the morning he would cut [them] open with sword edges, [hang] certain ones
It is
on
gallows-trees as sport for the birds.]
not clear whether the Geats
will die
by hanging or whether Ongen-
theow intends to expose the bodies of those already dead by hanging them on trees. The editorial emendation fuglum, which makes the 'sport" en*
joyable for birds as well as vengeful humans, literation (Frofgr in line 2941b)
wood named
is
plausible in view of the al-
and the proximity
after carrion-eating birds.
The
in the narrative of a
similarity to
Adam
of Brem-
en's reference to sacrificial victims hanging from trees^ together with the
"Corpora autem suspenduntur in lucum, qui proximus est templo" [Indeed the bodhung in the sacred grove which is next to the temple]: G. Waitz, ed., Adami Gesta Hammaburgensis Eccksiae Ponafkum ex recensione LappenbergU, Monumenta Ger'
ies are
GALE
90
R.
OWEN^CROCKER
modem
gallows and raven motifs inevitably suggests to a
audience a rem'
iniscence of paganism, specifically (again) of sacrifice to
may
Christian poet this passage
Woden. The mind when
well have had distasteful heathenism in
was structured into the poem.*°
However, the tearing of exposed corpses by carrion-eating
commonplace
evidently a story of
Noah's
flood,
in the late
Anglo-Saxon period:
birds
was
in rendering the
both the poet of the Old English Genesis A'' and
the illustrator of the Old English Hexauuch^^ adopted the patristic tradition that the reason the raven did not return to the ark was that
feeding on corpses;^' in an anonymous account of
The Seven
it
was
Sleepers,
the bodies of martyrs persecuted by Decius are hung on the town walls,
and
their heads, "like those of others
walls
upon head-stakes."
hremmas. and flesh. *^ In
maniac
feala
who were
cynna
and rooks
fugelas") tear out their eyes
poem The
the Old English
Fortunes of
Rerum Germanicanim, Owen, Rites and Religions of
Historica, Scriptores
1876), 175. See Gale R.
thieves, outside the town-
Birds, specifically ravens
in the
Men
and
(*'hr6cas.
and
pull out their
the fate of the
man
usum scholanim 2 (Hanover, Anglo-Saxons (Newton Abbot
and Totowa, NJ, 1981), 15-20. '°
The
controversial passage in
which the Danes
resort to
paying homage to idols and
Geats on one of a clear series of parallels framed by Scyld's funeral and Beowulf s: Owen-Crocker, Four Funerals, 179-80. " "Eft him seo wen geleah, / ac se feonde gespeam fleotende hreaw; / salwigfedera devil worship Oines 175-188)
is
in structural relationship to the reference to
gallows'trees,
secan nolde" (Subsequently the supposition [that the raven would seek out landl deceived him, for the enemy [the raven] perched on a floating corpse; the dark'feathered creature was not willing to search] (lines 1446-1448): George Philip Krapp, cd., The Junius Manuscript,
The Anglo-Saxon
Poetic Records
1
(New York and London,
1931), 45.
'^
lish
C. R. Dodwell and Peter Clemoes, The Old English Illustrated Hexateuch, Early EngManuscripts in Facsimile 18 (Copenhagen, 1974), fol. 15r. '^
The
scholar, Bede.
Journal of English
'
EETS
can be found in Ambrose, Augustine, Isidore, and, significantly, the See Silvia Huntley Horowitz, "The Ravens in Beowulf,*' and Germanic PhUobgy 80 (1981): 502-11, here 504-5.
tradition
Anglo'Saxon
lives of Saints, 23, lines
74-78
in
Walter
W.
Skeat, ed., j€lfric's Lives of Saints,
76, 82, 94, 114 (London, 1881-1900; repr. as 2 vok, 1966),
1: 492 (Skeat's which is now recognised as non-z^lfrician, develops the Latin source in a typically Anglo-Saxon way: "Et supra muros et piimacula ciuitatis suspendebant eos, et capita eorum iuxta ciuitatem ante portas infigebant in ligno. Et uolocres caeli cames eorum et uiscera detinentes in ore suo circa murum circuibant, comedentes menbra athletarum et martyrum Christi" [And they hung them over the walk and piiuiacles of the city and thrust their heads on wood by the city in front of the gates. And the birds of the air took their flesh and organs in their mouth [and] circled the walls devouring the limbs of the champions and martyrs of Christ): Hugh Magennis, ed., The
O.S.
translation).
This
text,
Horror
who
Beowulf
in
9J_
hang on the gallows includes having
will
flesh of his lifeless
his eye
pecked out and the
body torn by a dark^coated raven ("hrefn
.
.
.
salwig-
happen to the Geats. They are rescued by dawn of Hygelac's troop, with horn and trumpet (lines 2941-2945), and it is Ongentheow himself who perishes in a bloody fight against Wulf and Eofor which includes three savage sword cuts to the pad").^^ This horror will not
the dramatic arrival at
head that cause blood to spurt from under
and shatter
his hair
his helmet.
Clearly this was a famous victory, and Hygelac continued to be cariously) as *'bonan
On
the face of
it,
Ongent)eoes" [the
Ongentheow
gets a
killer
raw
of
deal.
Ongentheow
He
his
queen.
An
old
man
(he
is,
like
(vi-
(line 1968)].
has engaged the Geats
in revenge for their aggression: the invasion of his land
and robbery of
known
and the abduction
Hrothgar, hlorxdenfexa,
"grey-haired", line 2962), he fights bravely alone against
two younger war-
we consider, however, the horror of what he intended to do to the Geats, we may feel he deserves what he gets. The proper disposal of the body was clearly important to the Anglo-
riors. If
Saxons, and had been so since long before the Christian Church associated
it
with the fate of the
soul.
Thousands of pre-Christian Anglo-Saxon
graves have been discovered, laid out with grave-goods according to recognisable patterns, or containing cinerary urns decorated in characteristic
techniques and well
sites
styles,
most of them
away from the
may have been them were.
treated in this way,
what were
in
settled areas.
it is
all
members of
clear that a significant
society
number of
Christianity probably reinforced the importance of '^proper"
funerals, to the extent that, as Katherine
out, in the
clearly designated burial
Though not
An^o-Saxon
O'Brien O'Keeffe has pointed
Chronicle^ as a standard (probably biblical-derived)
formula **upon mention of the death of a person of rank, the place of burial is
noted with 'and
Anon^fTTious
his (her)
body
Old English Legend of the Seven
lies at
Sleepers,
X'."^^
Something of the horror
Durham Medieval Texts
7 (Durham,
25-28 (the translation is my own), y^lfric's own brief version of the story detail: see Godden, CH 2: 247-48. Carrion is the favourite food of the raven
1994), 74, lines
omits this
{Corvus corax).
The rook
{Corvus fmgilegus) will eat carrion indiscriminately along with
small birds and animals, eggs, and vegetable food.
George Philip Krapp and Elliott Van Kirk Dobbie, ed., The Exeter Book, The Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records 3 (New York and London, 1936), 154-55, lines 33-42. '^
'^
Katherine O'Brien O'Keeffe, "Body and
27 (1998): 209-32, here 211 and note annals.
4,
Law
in Late
where instances
Anglo-Saxon England," are
ASE
noted in twelve Chronicle
GALE
92 an AngloSaxon audience might have can be explained by the al
was the
Trehame
OWEN^CROCKER
denial of proper funeral rites
Anglo-Saxon society lack of buri-
fact that in late
fate of criminals
their sins. Elaine
felt at
R.
and excommunicates who had not atoned
has noted the significance of part of an intro-
ductory addition to Vercelli Homily IX, found in Oxford, Bodleian
MS
brary,
Hatton 115, which
excommunication and the **ne hi
then
lists
some of the
which could
sins
but drag
pit,
Li-
result in
results of this, including denial of proper burial:
nan man ne byrge binnan gehalgodan mynstre, ne fur^um
num pytte ne here, any man bury them
for
to hae|)e-
ac drage butan cyste butan hi beswicon" [nor should
within the holy church, nor even carry them to a hea-
them away without
a coffin unless they repent].'^
It is
interesting to note that "the heathen pit", though obviously inferior in
the eyes of the Christian writer to burial in "the holy church", ognised as a legitimate resting
place. '^
The
worst fate of
all is
is still
rec-
to be de-
nied burial of any kind.
There was, and
still is,
a kind of horror about the unrecovered body,
modem
whether
it is
fictional
medieval monster. Neither religious
the casualty of
entirely account for the
"properly" laid to
rest.
gal requirements alone
mous expense,
warfare or murder, or the victim of a
human compulsion
There
is
clearly
beliefs
nor legal requirements
to see loved or respected ones
some deep psychological need. Le-
do not explain why people should go to the enor-
difficulty,
and anguish of
raising a
body from a plane that
has crashed into the sea, only to bury the remains at sea again, as in the case of John
Kennedy
Jr.
Anglo-Saxon poets exploit
this universal
human
necessity to add an extra dimension to their narrative. In a literary heroic
world where war
become
dulled.
is
common, the impact
Comrades' corpses carried
of bereavement and grief can off for
consumption by wolves
" E. M. Trehame, "A Unique Old English Formula for Excommunication from Cambridge. Corpus Christi College 303." ASE 24 (1995): 185-21 1. at 198 quoting D. 0. Scragg. The VerceUi HomUies and Related Texts, EETS o.s. 300 (Oxford, 1992). 161 (the translation
is
my
own).
The implication that the bodies were dumped in a communal grave is '*
of heathens in the Christian Anglo-Saxon period 1 know, confinned by archaeology,
not. so far as
and not at all compatible with the evidence of Viking burials.
earlier
Anglo-Saxon pagan graves and
Horror
in
Beowulf
93^
or carrion-eating birds, ^^ a severed head
on a cliff, or on the gallows sharpen the perception of agony.
ing
The most extreme case beloved human being; it is
of non-burial in Beowulf however, y
the monster Grendel. Even
of the poem, Grendel's fate stands out.
sters
disposed
of,
a son's body hang-
pushed over the
cliff
in
The
is
not any
among the mon-
dragon's corpse
is
at least
an undignified echo of Scyld Scefing's
sea funeral (lines 3131-3133).^° Grendel's
mother
is
simply abandoned by
the narrator once she has been struck dead, as Beowulf turns his attention to Grendel's corpse. Beowulf leaves her where she
becoming her tomb. Grendel, however,
suffers
her underwater
fell,
lair
dismemberment and decapi-
arm is wrenched off during the fight in Heorot, and hung up as a trophy. Then, as he lies dead, his head is severed, separated from his body, and brought to the hall to be exposed. The reactions of the tation: first his
Danes
to the trophies are curiosity
and
delight, but there
they are gruesome and horrible objects.
The
is
no doubt that
recognition of her son's
blood-covered arm hanging exposed at Hrothgar's roof, and his death from the wound, cause Grendel's mother considerable
by Beowulf when he
any sympathy
tells his tale
grief,
to Hygelac, though
at the time, being preoccupied
a fact appreciated
no one
spares her
with the manifestation of her
revenge, the abduction of /Eschere (lines 1302-1303, 2113-2122).
The ready
decapitation of Grendel's corpse
lifeless
C'aldorleasne", line 1587)
Danes. There
may be
is
unnecessary.
The monster
is al-
and can do no more harm to the
a preventative element in Beowulf s action, an
avoidance of the dead monster ''walking" again,
as in
zombie Glamr in the Old Norse
well-known analogue to
Grettis saga, a
the re-killing of the
Beowulfy^^ and reflected in the occasional cases of decapitation and repositioning of the
head which can be found in Anglo-Saxon cemeteries of
'' The "Beasts of Battle", which in their full complement include the eagle, the raven and the wolf, feature in poetic battle scenes in several Old English poems, including Elene, The Battle of Brunanburg, Judith, The Wanderer and Beowulf itself. ^° Owen-Crocker, Four Funerals, 86. ,
^'
legs:
Grettir decapitates the "walking dead"
G. N. Garmonsway and
1980), 312.
J.
GlSmr and
Simpson, Beowulf and
its
places his head between his
Analogues (London, 1968; repr.
GALE
94
OWEN-CROCKER
R.
the conversion period, evidently a time of uncertainty and superstition.^^ Probably more prominent
is
the motif of equity. Just as Grendel's violating
and murderous arm was struck al for
so Grendel's head
off,^^
is
taken in requit-
/^chere's head.
Decapitation and exposure of the head were recognised punishments for criminals, as
(above, p. 90).
is
The
apparent from the reference in
We
have confirmation of
it
Seven Sleepers'
from Anglo-Saxon execution
cemeteries: at Walkington Wold, East Yorkshire, several skulls were found
buried separately from the skeletons, some of which had lost the lower jaw after rotting. burial.^^
These heads had evidently been exposed
At Wor
Barrow, Dorset, too,
for a period before
Andrew Reynolds
play of decapitated heads was evidently the
states,
stances of severed and separated heads at other execution suggest the practice.
The
"the
norm,"" and occasional
dis-
in-
sites,^^ also
seventh- to ninth-century cemetery at Old Dairy
Cottage, Hampshire, which had seven decapitations, stood at the boun-
" See Owen, Rites and Religions, 74-75. For specific cases see A. L. Meaney and S. C. Hawkes, Two Anglo-Saxon Cemeteries at Winnall, Winchester, Hampshire, The Society for Medieval Archaeology Medieval Monograph Series 4 (London, 1970). ^^
The
severing of Grendel's hand Cine 834), which he had used (folmum, line 722)
to violate a building that, to the heroic world, was almost sacred
and
The
to seize warriors
of a hand is not and when it occurs it is generally made clear that a hand is to be struck off because it was with the hand that the crime was committed. According to the Laws of King Alfred the loss of a hand was the penalty for theft from a church (i^lfred 7); later it was the punishment for a corrupt moneyer /Ethelstan 14, 1; 11 Cnut 8,1); significantly, under /Ethelstan, the severed hand was to be set up "on da mynetsmiddan" [at [or 'on' or 'in'] the mint] as Grendel's hand is displayed beneath the roof of Heorot (line 836): F. Liebermann, ed., Die Gesetze der Angel{mid handa, line 746) a
is
common punishment
subtly appropriate as a "punishment".
in the
Anglo-Saxon
sachsen, 3 vols. (Halle, 1898-1916), ^* J.
E. Bartlett
and R.
1:
1
laws,
52, 158, 314.
W. Mackey,
1969," East Riding Archaeology
loss
"Excavations on Walkington Wold, 1967-
(1973): 1-93, esp. 21, 24-26.
There were eleven appar-
ent executions at Walkington Wold, which were not contemporary. Some of the skulls had signs that they had been cut off with a sharp instrument, and only the single female skull was buried with its body. Graves were rough or shallow. The excavators assumed that this execution group dated to soon after the Roman period, but Richards (Julian D. Richards, "Cottam: An Anglo-Scandinavian Settlement on die Yorkshire Wolds," Archaeological jourrud 156 [1999]: 1-111, here 93) assumes
nolds (Andrew
J.
Reynolds, "Anglo-Saxon
Law
in the
Study of the Old English Judicial System," Ph.D. Reynolds,
"
Reynolds,
late
Saxon, following Rey-
An
Archaeological
University of London, 1998),
"Law in the Landscape," 163. "Law in the Landscape," 163, cites Bran Hampshire; and Roche Court Down, Wiltshire.
^^
Hill,
diss..
it is
Landscape:
Ditch, Cambridgeshire;
Meon
Horror
in
Beowulf
95^
dary of three Anglo-Saxon estates, the records of which stocc at this point, obviously the ''head stake"
to heafod
all refer
on which the gruesome
mains were impaled.^^ At Cottam, Yorkshire, a weathered, jawless found in a ally
been interpreted
pit has
as the
re-
skull
remains of an execution eventU'
buried in what was possibly the hole in which the gallows stood.^^
Cottam was not a cemetery but a settlement
site (of
eighth- to ninth-
century date), confirming the literary evidence that heads were exposed close to habitation.
Contemporary evidence, then, just
punishment
for the atrocities
suggests that Grendel's
misled into underestimating the magnitude and dramatic capitation.
Even
efifect
of the de-
where beheading was a recognised punish-
in a world
ment, a severed head was a
body receives
he has committed; but we should not be
horrific sight to those
who
witnessed
it.
The
poet's reference to Grendel's head being carried onto the floor of the hall
where men drank
eorlum ond J)aere idese mid, / wliteseon noblemen and the lady with them, a won-
''egeslTc for
wraetlic" [terrible in front of
drous spectacle (lines 1647-1650)]
is
typically understated
and we are not
now
granted the satisfaction of a description of the monstrous head last
exposed to
light;
carried into the hall cratic pleasures Sir
Gawain and
it is
where noblemen and the queen pursue
their aristo-
obvious. Similarly, the poet of the Middle English
is
the
at
but the impact of the horrific thing that has been
Green Knight
will explain that the
poem
purpose of the de-
capitation in Arthur's hall was to frighten Guinevere to death; she was ac-
customed to tournaments and a different matter.^^ ally illustrated in
The
injuries,
effect of decapitation
the lower drawing on
don, British Library
MS
but a severed head in the hall was
fol.
on
a watcher
is
graphic-
59r of the Harley Psalter (Lon-
Harley 603):^° the psalmist watches the behead-
ing of the Lord's "saints" (Psalm 116:15) with an unmistakable gesture of horror, right
hand
across the lower part of the face, probably reflecting the
"
Reynolds,
^*
Richards, "Cottam," 93.
"Law
in die
Landscape," 130-31.
^' Though in this case there was the additional horror that the headless knight continued to converse before the high table: W. R. J. Barron, ed.. Sir Gawain and the Green
Knight (Manchester, 1974), 158, lines 2459-2462. '°
Thomas H. Ohlgren, ed., Anglo-Saxon Textual Illustration: mth Descriptions and Index (Kalamazoo, 1992), 223.
Manuscripts
Photographs of Sixteen
GALE
96 words "I suffered
distress
OWEN>CROCKER
R.
and anguish" which occur in the third verse of
the psalm.
The Anglo-Saxons would have been familiar with stories
of the decapi-
tation of Christian martyrs (and, occasionally, their accusers), though this is
common means
not a very
of death in
Old English
saints' lives,
many
of
the protagonists enduring more colourful and imaginative mutilations and
The
ordeals.^*
climax of a martyr's beheading sometimes comes after a
long anticipation and
is
itself
the occasion for a miracle: the British
Christian St. Alban was beheaded at Verulamium in 301, together with his erstwhile executioner,
provoking a grotesque miracle: the substitute
out as the saint's head
Other
stories of
mar-
tyrdom involve the separation of the severed head from the body and
their
executioner's eyes
fell
miraculous reunion.
The body
fell.^^
of Bishop Dionysius, decapitated along with
other saints "with sharp axes", arose and re-united
itself
with
its
head be-
company of angels to the place where it desired to lie.^^ A more elaborate version of this theme of the reunification of the body is to be found in the Passion of Saint Edmund, the Anglo-
fore walking, headless, with a
Saxon king of East Anglia who was Having survived beating with
ticularly sorrowful
situation
no body
is
There was a more
^*
See
The head was
mourners
who had
satisfactory
woods
outcome
for the head, a
so),
though
it
The
the head, but for
Edmund's
wolf miraculously its
own
was "ravenous and
recovered and laid with the body for a hasty
Robert DiNapoU, An Index of Theme and Image to the Homilies of Church: Comprising the Homilies of ^Ifric, Wulfstan, and the Blickixig and
••torture" in
An^Saxon
VercelU Codices '^
would not be
"day and night" from other beasts (evidently denying
nature as a "beast of battle" to do
hungry."
it
took up Edmund's body were par-
"because they did not have the head to the body."
subjects: while they searched the it
who
similar to that of /^chere's
to cremate.
protected
and impaling
decapitation on the orders of Ivar.
Vikings hid his head in dense brambles "so that
buried" and the mourning subjects
the
by Danish Vikings in 870.^
cudgels, flogging with whips,
Edmund was executed by
with arrows,
The
killed
(Hockwold cum Wilton, 1995).
Bede, Historia
Ecclesiastica, 1.7: Bede's Ecclesiastical History
of the English People,td.
Bertram Colgrave and R. A. B. Mynors. (Oxford, 1969), 28-34; retold by of Saints, 19: ed. Slccat. 1: 414-25. here 420, 422.
" Uves of Saints, 29: ed. Skeat, 2: 186, 188. ^ Written in Latin by Abbo of Fleury and translated ed. Skeat. 2:
314-35.
by
i^lfric, lives
/Elfiric.
Lives
o/ Sonus, 32:
Horror
burial.
Beowulf
in
At
9J_
the subsequent translation of the saint, not only was the body
found to be miraculously incorrupt, but the head and body were physically joined once more.
Among
native legends and history, Christian heroes are sometimes de-
capitated by heathen enemies, obviously a particularly nasty fate.
A
twelfth'century account of Ealdorman Byrhtnoth, leader of the English force at the Battle of
Maldon
Anglo-Saxon warrior
(991), records that the
was beheaded by a rush of Vikings as he fought and that the Vikings carried the
head away with them: "conglobati unanimiter in eum irruerunt
caput pungnantis vix
secum
cum magno
labore secuerunt,
in patriam porta verunt" [[the
et
quod inde fugientes
enemy] grouping together, rushed
with one resolve upon him and, with great
managed to cut off his head as he fought. They took this away from there with them as they fled to their native land]. The monks of Ely reclaimed the Ealdorman's body from the
battlefield
effort, just
and the abbot ordered a
the head in the subsequent burial.^^
When,
Byrhtnoth was explored, the absence of a
ball of
wax
to replace
in 1769, the alleged
skull
tomb of
and evidence of an almost-
severed collar bone appeared to confirm the atrocity.^^ Intriguingly, the
Northumbrian
a pagan enemy, lost the
same body
saint
King Oswald, another victim of
parts as Grendel. Like Grendel's
and head, Oswald's severed members were taken
as trophies,
arm
but they
became holy relics. Oswald was killed in 642 at Maserfield fighting against Penda of Mercia, who ordered Oswald's head and arms to be hacked off and fixed on stakes. The rest of his bones were recovered and translated to Bardney Abbey (Lincolnshire) through the intervention eventually
of his niece,
Queen Osthryda
of Mercia, but the head and arms were re-
covered by Oswald's brother King farne,^^
from where
it
ty to Chester-le-Street St.
of
Cuthbert and
Oswy who
deposited the head at Lindis-
was carried by the Lindisfarne monastic communi-
and eventually Durham, along with the remains of
relics of St.
Aidan.
One
hand, or possibly both hands.
^^ Alan Kennedy, "Byrhtnoth's Obits and Twelfth-Century Accounts of the Battle Maldon" in The Battle of Maldon AD 991, ed. Donald Scragg (Oxford, 1991), 59-78,
here 65, 68; the text is taken from E. O. Blake, ed., Liber Series 92 (London, 1962), 2. 136. ^^
EliensiSy
Camden
Marilyn Deegan and Stanley Rubin, "Byrhtnoth's Remains:
Society Third
A Reassessment of his
Stature," in Maldon, ed. Scragg, 289-293, here 289-91. ^' Bede, Historia Ecclesiastica, 3.6.1 Mynors, 230, 244-46, 250-52.
1,
12: Bede's Ecclesiastical History, ed.
Colgrave and
GALE
98 was enshrined St.
in a silver casket at St. Peter's
Aidan's prophecy
"May
this
R.
OWEN'CROCKER
Church, Bamburgh,
fulfilling
hand never perish" made on the occasion
of Oswald's extreme generosity to the poor at an Eastertide some time be-
tween 636 and
his death.
As Hrothgar laments
for /Eschere,
whose
sev-
ered head will shortly be found, he makes reference to the generous hand (of /Eschere, presumably)
which now
lies
the St. Oswald legend. This dead hand
dead, perhaps a reminiscence of
is
part of the recurrent
hand/arm
poem and which includes the devoured victim who is called Hondscio ("Hand-shoe" and hands of Grendel's
imagery which threads through the feet
or "Mitten", lines 745, 2076), and Beowulf s legendary strength of
both in battle (hondgemotla],
line 2355)
and
arm
in carrying thirty sets of battle
gear away from Frisia (lines 2361-2362), coming to greatest prominence in
hand-to-hand
the
fight
between monster and hero.^® "Head" and
and retribution. "hand" Anglo-Saxon biblical and moral narratives include several instances of decapitation, which were well known,^' and many of which were depictimagery interlock in a complex pattern of offence
ed graphically in illustrated manuscripts. Characteristically, the ostensibly weaker combatant beheads the stronger, the good conquers the evil: the
woman
Judith decapitates Holofemes, the boy David decapitates Goliath,
the Virtue Humilitas (Humility) decapitates the Vice Superhia (Pride) in Prudentius's allegorical
poem Psychomachia.^
In order for this to be ac-
hieved, the victim must be already stunned or unconscious: Holofemes
drunk, Goliath felled by a pebble hurled from a
sling,
bled from her horse. Grendel, of course, comes into this category as he lying dead in the monsters'
Beowulf
is
lair
when Beowulf cuts
not weaker than Grendel
is
and Superbia tum-
off his head.
is
Though
— the poet makes the gear which balances general has men — mankind explicitly
point about Beowulf carrying thirty sets of battle
Grendel's having the strength of thirty
in
proved weaker than Grendel until Beowulf s
arrival,
and
his decapitation
'*
Owen-Crocker, Four Funerak, 186.
"
Prudentius's Psychomachia, for example, includes reference to Judith's decapitation
of Holofemes: H.
1949-1953),
2:
J.
Thomson,
trans., Prudentius,
Loeb
Classical Library, 2 vols. (London,
282.
^ As Bremmer points out ("Grendel's Arm and the Law," 124-25) decapitation followed by exposure of the head as clear evidence of victory, in the cases of Goliath Samuel 31:9-10) and Holofemes (IVulgatel Judid\ 13:19). The head of Superhia
is
(1 is
displayed, in addition to the decapitation scene, in the illustrated Prudentius manuscripts (e.g.,
Cotton Cleopatra
C
viii, fol.
17r:
Ohlgren, Textual
lUustration, 495).
Horror
is
Beowulf
in
a triumph of the
umph
for
Good
_____^
human
99
over the monstrous.
It is
also a resounding
tri-
over Evil.
Other victims of decapitation
in
Anglo-Saxon
art are
bound
or at least
compliant, like Isaac in the opening to the Psychomachia in London, Brit-
MS
ish Library,
bound behind ham."^
This
^
Cotton Cleopatra
his back,
bows
viii, fol.
4r,
who, with hands un-
head to the sword wielded by Abra-
a standard position for execution as depicted in art, from
is
at least the second-century
shows Germanic Harley Psalter
his
C
(c.
Roman Column
of Marcus Aurelius,
soldiers being forced to execute
one another, through the
Bayeux Tapestry, which was probably made
1000), to the
in the 1080s: the victim bends forward unsupported,"^^
by the tion
hair, offering
which
is
no
resistance. (This holding
meted out to Grendel's head,
rot, line 1647.)
is
mother
and
by the hair
too, as
Decapitation in pitched battle
feat in achieving this against Grendel's
umph
which
it is
is
often held
is
brought into Heo-
clearly unusual. (lines
a humilia-
Beowulf s
1557-1569)
is
a
of opportunism and speed: he sees the gigantic sword and acts
We must not underestimate Our own movie
culture has
industry,
this industry
is
become immunised is
satirising itself
until recently, rang out
tendency to treat past
anew
to effects of violence by the
instantly repairable, to the extent that
and '*Oh
my God,
they killed
Kenny"
in each episode of South Park; but the
atrocities as black
and detectable
fast.
it.
where mutilation
now
tri-
comedy, characterised by Horrible
some more academic
studies too, should
not
be allowed to disguise the horror and disgust which was undoubtedly
felt
by a contemporary audience to gushes of blood (which could not be
re-
Histories^^
in
placed with transfusions), mutilation (not repairable with plastic surgery),
and
violent, unanaesthetised death.
^'
Ohigren, Textual
^^
Reynolds ("Law
*^
A
Illustration,
Dismemberment and decapitation
473.
Landscape," 163) cites the imminent decapitation of Isaac by Abraham in the Old English Hexateuch, BL MS Cotton Claudius B iv, fol. 38 as "significantly earlier evidence for the use of a support for the head [of the victim of decapitationl than previously known [14501"; it seems to me, however, that Isaac bends over an altar (in the usual position) rather than rests on what Reynolds identifies as a "block". Isaac does not touch the table, which is draped with a cloth. The table certainly does not support his head. His father does this by holding his hair.
London. Vikings.
in the
very popular series by Terry Deary, published by Scholastic Children's Press, Its titles
include The Rotten Romans, The Smashing Saxons, and The Vicious
GALE
100
R.
OWEN-CROCKER
were recounted of martyrs because they were horrific.^ Sanctity might turn execution into a miracle and overcome dismemberment/^ but the
twentieth' and twenty-first-century perception of the conventional nature
of saintly suffering should not sanitise our response to details which must
have shocked Anglo-Saxon
recipients.
The
threat that proper burial could
be denied and that one's body might be hung out
was no laughing matter:
was surely an
it
municable sin and criminal
activity.
The
for the birds to
effective deterrent
peck
at
from excom-
BcowuIf-poet constantly plays
on
these sensitivities. That Beowulf, and Wiglaf, conjure up the horrors of
death by monster and face them with equanimity both gives the audience a satisfying burst of horror, and portrays the heroes as masters of Anglo-
Saxon "cool".
^ Although, ironically, saints' body parts were distributed post mortem as holy relics. "We should not imagine that the saints were conceived abstractly as disembodied spirits. Theirs was a physical and palpable presence: that is to say, the saint was physically presa bone, a ent in each shrine insofar as that shrine contained a relic of his/her body fingernail, a lock of hair, whatever", Michael Lapidge, "The Saintly Life in Anglo-Saxon
—
England," in The Cambridge Companion to Old En^h and idem (Cambridge, 1991), 243-63, here 243. *'
It
oman
of deal>e, l)eah
wildeor abiton,
t>e
hie
o\)\)c fiiglas
aer eort>e
tobaeron,
Malcolm Godden
body it would rise on the seventh day accustomed form: "ond awecceat> ealle \)b lichbewrigen haefde, ol)t>e on waetcre adruncan, o\)\)C
was believed that whatever the
of the Apocalypse to face judgment in
Literature, ed.
fate of the
its
ol)l>e fixas toslitan, ot)|>e
on
aenige wisan of
l>isse
worlde gewiton, ealle hie sceolan lx)nne arisan ond fort>g&n to l)am dome, on swylcum heowe swa hie aer hie sylfe gefraetwodan" [and [St. Michael] will raise up all bodies firom death, even though earth had previously covered them, or they drowned in water, or wild animals tore them apart, or birds carried them off, or fishes ripped them, or they departed in any way from this world, they must all then arise and go forth to the judgment in the same appearance as they adorned themselves before): Blickling Homily for Easter Sunday: R. Morris, ed.. The Blickling Homilies of the Tenth Century, EETS o.s. 58, 63, 73
(London, 1874-1880;
repr. as
failed to praise Christ
would have been
day.
1
vol. 1967),
95 (my translation). Note that those who punishment the previous
carried off to eternal
ALEXANDER
R.
RUMBLE
Interpretationes in latinum:
Some Twelfth-Century
Translations
of Anglo-Saxon Charters
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN Old English and Latin text, of great importance to modern research on Anglo-Saxon topics, has been a subject of some tension since at least the early seventh century when King y^thelberht and his advisers deemed it expedient and sensible to retain the formulaic vernacular prose used to record existing oral legal custom when having the laws of the Kentish people committed to writing.^ Although
*
Compare
Century, vol.
The
1,
Patrick
Wormald, The Making of
Legislation
and
its
English
Limits (Oxford, 1999),
Law: King Alfred to 93-101, esp. 101.
following abbreviations are used in the present paper:
Saxonicum:
A
BCS =
Collection of Charters Relating to Anglo-Saxon History, ed.
Birch, 3 vols, and index (London, 1885-1899);
BL = London,
=
the
Twelfth
Cartularium
Walter de Gray
British Library;
Campbell,
Charters of Rochester, ed. A. Campbell, 1973); CCCant = Christ Church, Canterbury;
Rochester
Anglo-Saxon Charters 1 (London, CCCC= Cambridge, Corpus Christi
CW + number = number of document in the descriptive
list of contents of the Davis = G. R. C. Davis, Medieval Cartularies of Great Britain: Short Catabgue (London, 1958); Harmer = Anglo-Saxon Writs, ed. and trans, by F.E. Harmer (Manchester, 1952); Kelly, Abingdon = Charters of Abingdon Abbey, ed. S. E. Kelly, Anglo-Saxon Charters VII-VIII (Oxford, 2001); Macray = Chronicon abbatiae Rameseiensis, edited by W. Dunn Macray, Rolls Series 83 (London, 1886); MS = Manuscript; Monasticon = William Dugdale, Monasticon AngUcanum, ed. B. Bandinel, J. Caley, and H. Ellis, 6 vols. (London, 1846); Pelteret = David A. E. Pelteret, Catalogue of English Post-Conquest Vernacular Documents (Woodbridge, 1990); Rumble
College;
Codex Wintoniensis
in
Rumble 1980, appendix
A
1;
ALEXANDER
102
both in Kent and in the other Anglo-Saxon kingdoms
R.
after their conver-
sion Latin immediately attained the status of the official written
than the codification of law,
for purposes other
the Vulgate Bible, the Christian
liturgy,
RUMBLE
medium
as befitted the language of
and the Roman church, already
ninth century a decline in Latin scholarship caused King Al-
by the
late
fred to
bemoan the
lack of learning in England in his (vernacular) prose
"preface" to the translation of Gregory the Great's Cura Pastorcdis} Significantly,
pended
it
should be noted that his scheme for the revival of Latin deof
first
all
on the teaching of vernacular
one very important
effect of the tenth-century
literacy.^ Later,
although
Benedictine Reform in Eng-
land was to improve the latinity of the monks,"* resulting in the production of
new
texts in Latin, monastic writers also
produced new vernacular
works, as well as translations, and bilingual versions, since they too, like
King Alfred before them, appreciated the impracticality of attempting any great expansion of intellectual activity in England while ignoring the national vernacular.^
Our
appreciation of the constantly intertwined relationship between
Latin and Old English
An^cySaxonici
Pontes
texts
and sources
project,
co-founded and co-directed by Donald
its
progress.
and Latin sources
for
Old English
Sometimes
it
is
being greatly enhanced as the
Both Latin sources
Scragg, continues
project.
is
for
Anglo-Latin texts
texts are being identified through this
also possible to study the use of
Old English
=
Alexander Richard Rumble, "The Structure and Reliability of the Codex WmtoMuseum (now British Library] Additional MS 15350; the Cartulary of Winchester Cathedral Priory" (Ph.D. diss., University of London, 1980); S + number = number of document in P. H. Sawyer, Anglo-Saxon Charters: An Annotated List and Bihho' graphy, Royal Historical Society (London, 1968), as revised by S. E. Kelly (privately circulated, 1994); s. + roman numeral = saeculo (for dates of manuscripts; suprascript 1 = med. = middle of; first half of century; suprascript 2 = second half; in. = beginning of ex. = end of).
1980
niensis (British
;
^
Dorothy Whitelock,
1955), ^
^
817-19
(no.
ed., English Historical
Documents, vol.
1, c.
226A). Compare the paper by Szarmach in
En^fish Historical Documents,
1:
500-1042 (London,
this
volume.
819.
See Michael Lapidge, Anglo-Latin
Literature
900-1066 (London,
1993), passim.
educated at the Old Minster, Winchester, under Bishop i^thelwold, is a prime example of the first fruits of the Benedictine Reform. For a bibliography of his works, see L. M. Reimsa, /Ci/ric: An Annotated Bibliography (New York and '
The work
London. 1987).
of
i^lfiric,
Twelfth-Century Translations
103
sources for Anglo-Latin texts.^ In addition, in the case of pre-Conquest
documents, particularly where bilingual versions have survived,
be noted that
it is
occasionally possible to
mas were productions secondary It
show that
it
should
certain Latin diplo-
to their vernacular counterparts.^
should not be forgotten, however, that the tension in the relation-
ship between English and Latin continued in the centuries after 1066 as later historians
and administrators, of varying
linguistic
backgrounds and
competence, tried to make sense of the relevance of pre-Conquest texts
and
institutions to a society
place as the
first
where Norman French
the royal government of William
than English
as the
had a privileged
One
Norman Conquest was
mediate change brought about by the
made by
also
spoken language of the new aristocracy.^
I (?
almost im-
the decision
in 1070) to use Latin rather
language used in the writing of writs. ^ This
surviving (highly formulaic) pre-Conquest writs even
made the
more unfamiliar than
they might otherwise have been to people in subsequent generations wishing to use their evidence (particularly those writs issued by
Confessor
whom
was one factor
the
Norman
Edward the
kings treated as their legal antecessor) .^^
It
in the production of translations of writs into Latin in the
twelfth century,
on which the
first
part of the present paper will mainly
concentrate. Besides writs, however, other categories of Old English docu-
ment which can be placed under the
*
general designation 'charter" were
Thus both Asser and y^thelweard made use of versions of the Anglo-Saxon Chroni' See Alfred the Great: Asser's Life of Alfred and Other Contemporary Sources, trans. Simon Keynes and Michael Lapidge (Harmondsworth, 1983), 55-56; and The Chronicle ^
cle.
of y^theliveard, ed. A. Campbell (London, 1962), xxi-xxxiv. '
This appears to be the case with S 817
{CW 27-28,
where the retention of the Old
English genitive form Cyltancumhes for the place-name Chilcomb, Hampshire, occurs in
the Latin); and S 1376
{CW
21-22, where the Old English formulae are more natural
than the Latin). ®
See C. Baswell, "Latinitas," in The Cambridge History of Medieval English Wallace (Cambridge, 1999), 122-51, esp. 123-28. 132.
Literature,
ed. D.
' Although the diplomatic structure of the Anglo-Saxon writ was retained and soon expanded to form the basis of royal medieval charters and letters patent and close. See
Facsimiles of English Royal Writs to A.D.
by T. A. M. Bishop and
Royal Documents: King )ohn-Henry VI,
Saxon *°
in
writ, see
The
1
100 Presented
to
Vivian Hunter Galbraith, edited
P. Chaplais (Oxford, 1957), xiii-xv; J
and
Pierre Chaplais, English
199-1461, 4-20. For the formulae of the Anglo-
Harmer, 61-92.
reign of Harold
Domesday Book
Harmer, 543-45.
II
(Godwineson) was ignored by the Normans. For quotations
of writs of Edward the Confessor as evidence for land tenure, see
ALEXANDER
104 also translated at this time,
where
and some of these
will also
RUMBLE
R.
be discussed below
relevant.'^
L Twelfth-century Translations of Charters FROM Old English into Latin The
small group of texts under discussion
is
part of a larger corpus of ex*
tant later versions of Anglo'Saxon charters, but their relative closeness in
manuscript date to the Anglo-Saxon period makes them eminently worthy of study, even where the originals survive, since the twelfth-century texts
belong to the generation of the grandchildren of those Hastings in 1066.
The
placing of
historical contexts allows
them
who
fought at
in their archival, manuscript,
and
something to be said of both the immediate and
the more general purpose of such translations.
The
existence of a
number
of dual-language versions allows a comparison of Latin and vernacular texts of the
same document and
reveals varying degrees of accuracy in the
Latin translations, particularly of Old English legal and administrative vocabulary.
The
translations
under discussion
fall
into three
categories
(1-3,
below).
1.
Dual-language Texts, Apparently Constructed in the Twelfth
Century, Surviving in Twelfth-century Cartularies
These
texts survive
from the following monastic archives: Abingdon,
Bury St Edmunds, Christ Church Canterbury,
Ely,
and Rochester.
Abingdon
Two relevant cartularies survive in the Cotton collection in the British Library.
One
(Claudius C.
the other (Claudius B.
vi:
ix:
Davis
Davis 4)
is
3)
is
datable mainly to before 1170,
late thirteenth century.
The
latter
an expansion and recopying of much of the same material found former, but in a different order.
''
That
On
'^
documents recording land transactions in Anglo-Saxon England, including letters, leases, writs, wills, memoranda, listed in S. the two cartularies, see now Kelly, Abingdon, liii-lxiii. is,
diplomas, writs,
"
is
in the
Twelfth-Century Translations
105 writs (S 1065-
ix: two and one record of the
Four dual-language texts occur in Claudius C. 1066);
one note of grant
1216).
The
(S 1208);
sale of land (S
writs are as follows:
S 1065, Harmer 4, Kelly, Abingdon 148 (Edward the Confessor, 1052 x 1066). Both Old English and Latin texts survive, where the Latin seems to be a genuine word-for-word translation of the vernacular
and
probably to be ascribed to the twelfth century.
is
lary-text
given the rubric:
is
lated, lish
not merely
latinised,
and Latin words
numerals in each quisitio,
l^eof
iii.
is
captus
5, Kelly,
indicated by the use of interlinear
latro,
Bury
St.
i.
**sacu" litigium,
ii.
roman
**socn" ex-
vi.
is
domus
*'hamsocn"
viii. ''foresteall"
assaltus,
is
The same
rubric
is
given as in S 1065,
of similar type, but does not use interlinear
legal terms given, the translation of *'socn" dif(appropriatio),
while the Old English word
rendered by pladtum.
one dual-language writ in the
versity Library,
Harmer
MS Mm.
4.
19
(s.
Cambridge Uni-
earliest part of
xii ex.-s.
xiv
;
Davis 118). This
12 (Edward the Confessor, 1044 x 1065).
lond inne ligged"
is
t>er
terram.
Church Canterbury
The I,
S
rendered as de uniuersis prouindis ubicumque Sanctus
/Edmundus habet aliquam
Christ
is
Some expansion
occurs in the Latin text: thus the vernacular phrase "on t>am schiran ]pe
vii.
obuiatio.
Edmunds
There 1072,
Of the
is
from that in S 1065
"gemot"
trans-
Abingdon 149 (Edward the Confessor, 1053 x
1055 or 1058 x 1066). above, and the text
fers
have been
and the equivalence between Old Eng-
text, as follows:
**gri6bryce" pads infractio,
numerals.
legal terms
"toll" tebneum, iv. **team" appropriation v. ''infangene-
infra
S1066, Harmer
cartu-
Latinum. Within the
Interpretatio in
body of the document. Old English
The
note of a grant by /Ethelred
11, no. 38) survives in English
II
(S 1636, incomplete; Monasticon^
and Latin versions added
century to the flyleaf of the eleventh-century gospel book John's College
MS
in the twelfth
now
Oxford, St
194 (Davis 180). Although the terms of the grant
ALEXANDER
106
(dated 979 in the English version) are basically the sions, the Latin text
tion.
The
royal style differs: in the English, /Ethelred
England and monarcha.
all its
The
appurtenant islands; in the Latin he
Old English
use of
"Three Burdens" clause
in the
were probably constructed
One
in the
RUMBLE two
ver-
and omits the saving clause from the sanc-
shorter
is
same
R.
"castel"
and
its
called king of
is
is
totius Brittanniae
Latin equivalent castra
are equally anachronistic.
Both versions
in the twelfth century.
should also note the existence of a series of dual-language writ-
charters in the name of the Anglo-Norman kings in favour of Christ Church Canterbury, whose English parts were probably adapted from a writ of Cnut (S 1088, Harmer 33).^^
Ely
One Anglo-Saxon
writ in Latin
bridge, Trinity College
the Liber
Eliensis),
This
MS is
0.2.1
(s.
and English versions occurs xii ex.,
in
Cam-
Davis 366; one manuscript of
S 1100, Harmer 47 (Edward the Confessor, 1045
X 1066, ?1055 X 1066).'^ Here the Old English legal terms are retained in the Latin text, unlatinised.
Some
lack of equivalence
is
shown, how-
ever, with the translation of the vernacular formulaic phrase "sitte. his
man
he
t>er J^ar
forisfacturas
sitte.
wyrce.
\)2et
que emendabiles sunt
he wyrce" which in terra
is
rendered omnes
alias
sua super homines suos.^^
Rochester
There sis
is
one dual-language document of this type
(Rochester Cathedral
MS
A.
3. 5; s.xii';
Campbell, Rochester 35 and 35b, the 987),
and the Latin
pansions.
•'
The
Henry
I:
is
in the Textus Roffen-
Davis 817). This
will of Byrhtric
is
S 1511,
and /Elfswith (975 x
a fairly close translation with
some minor
ex-
Latin version has an additional rubric listing those estates
Pelteret,
46-48. Stephen:
Pelteret, 50.
Henry
II:
Peltcret, 51, 54.
See
further Harmer, 174-75. **
2,
E.
O. Blake,
ed.,
Uber
Eliensis,
Camden
Society, 3rd ser. 92 (London. 1962),
book
chaps. 95 and 95a (164-65).
Blake (Liber Eliensis, 165, n. 1) suggests that the Latin of this formula was taken from the confirmation charter of the customs of Ely, issued by William I (chap. 1 17, pp. 199-2(X); Re^c5ta Regum Anglo-hiormannorum: The Acta of William I (1066-1087), ed. David Bates [Oxford, 1998], no. 122); the draftsman of this had himself used the Old English text of S 1100 as a source (Blake, Uber Eliensis, 419). ''
Twelfth-Century Translations
which were relevant
107
to Rochester.
As
we
at Canterbury,
should note too
the existence of dual-language grants for Rochester by Henry
2. Latin Translations
made
in the Twelfth
Old English Documents Which than the Twelfth Century
Some Old
Still
11.^^
Century of Freestanding
Exist in Manuscripts Earlier
English texts survive in manuscripts which probably formed
the exemplars for the vernacular part of bilingual texts in cartularies from Christ
Church Canterbury and Rochester.
Christ
Church Canterbury
The 1090);
two Anglo-Saxon
texts discussed here comprise
and one grant
writs (S 1089-
(S 1211-1212).'7
51089, Harmer 34 (Edward the Confessor, 1052 x 1066). version
is
extant in the twelfth-century cartularies
and Canterbury Cathedral, Reg terbury Cathedral, Chart
Ant
The
P; the English single sheet
C
3 of
s.xi/xii.
Latin
CCCC MS
None
is
189
Can-
of these was
used by Harmer, but her work from later manuscripts suggests that
the Old English text has some post-Conquest formulae. ^^ In the
Old English
Latin version
Old English
titles
of rank or office are translated but
legal terms are retained.
51090, Harmer 35. Edward the Confessor's confirmation of a grant by
Sigweard and his wife (1053 x 1061).
an addition (Davis 178).
from the tions
and
(s.xi ex.)
The
Pelteret 52-53, 55.
There
English version
(as
is iii
printed by Harmer, but not
apparently makes several altera-
excluded from the
one memorandum of a grant
1530). '»
is
C'aelc JDaera Singa") are
•^
also
MS)
The Old
book BL Cotton Claudius A.
additions, as follows:
*^
is
Latin version
earliest surviving
Earl Harold
nances
to the gospel
Harmer, 175-78.
more
first
clause; the appurte-
precisely delimited {pratis,
(S 1389)
and one record of
a bequest (S
.
ALEXANDER
108 siluw, marascis [sic]);
tion
is
Sigweard's wife
added; a statement
made by Sigweard
is
named
RUMBLE
R.
as Mahtildis; a sanc-
added that the original grant was
is
pro salute anime 5ue\ the grant
is
specified as to
be held ad opus monachorum; the grant of "sacu" and **socn" excluded, and so
d6m
stande
\)c
is
is
a reference to legal judgment ("ic wille \>xt se
mine 5egenas ged6mdan").
S 1211-1212, BCS 1064-1065, Queen Eadgifii grants Cooling and Osterland, Kent, to Christ Church Canterbury (c. A.D. 959). The Old English version survives in a manuscript of s.x med.; the Latin is in both CCCC MS 189 and Canterbury Cathedral, Reg P. The Latin text, as printed in BCS from the thirteenth-century Lambeth Palace MS 1212, apparently adds a paragraph with a statement regarding the
961 of various estates to Christ
gift in
Church, including Cooling, and changes the grammatical person from 3rd person singular to
1st
person singular.
Rochester
S 1458, Campbell, Rochester 34 and 34b. An account of the history of Wouldham, Erith, Cray, and Eynsford, Kent, up to the time of Archbishop Dunstan.
OE
The
text
is
in a manuscript of s.x^. It
was copied into the
The
Textus Roffensis (Davis 817) where a Latin version also appears.
expands the text in
However,
his
parts, e.g., prohus
=
glossed as iudex comitatus
"morning-gift"
do earn primum
is
I
One
Latin
added to describe /^Ifstan. of Heahstan"
omitted.
is
(apparently a judge in the shire-court)
iudex prouinci^.
The
legal
correctly explained as tantum quod
term "morgengifii" ei
dederat
.
.
quan"
accepit uxorem.
3. Latin Translations Apparently
Which No
is
byname "Heahstaninc" = "son
The term "scirman" = "shire-man" is
homo
made
in the
Twelfth Century for
Respective Old English Texts Survive
example survives from Abingdon and one from Evesham. Both at
Ely and at
Ramsey more
narrative framework, using
unknown.
substantial translations
Old English
sources
were made within a
which
are
now
otherwise
Twelfth" Century Translations
109
Abingdon
S 1404, Harmer ter of
3, Kelly,
Abingdon 143. This
is
the Latin text of a
let-
Bishop Siward to the shire-court of Berkshire (1045 x 1048), surviv-
ing in BL Cotton may be noted.
Claudius C. ix (Davis
The
3).
use of nobilis for '*t)egn"
Ely
The Latin text of the narrative of the tenth-century refoundation {the UbeUm j^thelwoldi episcopi^ surviving only as part of the Liber Eliensis) was made in the early twelfth century. It either was translated from an existing vernacular narrative or was constructed de novo from a
number of individu-
Old English memoranda. ^^ It has been said that "with due allowance for embellishments and rhetorical flourishes and the benefit of hindsight, al
the Latin reproduces the Old English in a broadly accurate form."^°
Evesham
S 991, Harmer 48
(the Latin text of a writ of Cnut, 1017 x 1030), in
the twelfth-century cartulary
BL Cotton Vespasian B.
though some of the phraseology **t>egn"),
is
post-Conquest
xxiv (Davis 381). Al-
(e.g.,
the authenticity of the transaction recorded
the use of baro for
may be
genuine.^^
Ramsey
S 996-997 and 1106-1110 are Latin texts of writs of Harthacnut and Edward the Confessor. They are found in the fourteenth-century copies of the Liber Benefactorum (Davis 788d and 790), a narrative which was probably
first
A
translated or
composed 1160 x 1170.
general statement of the rationale for translating English texts
is
given in the preface to the Liber:
.
.
.
cartarum nostrarum privilegiorum quoque
et
cyrographorum cedulas,
de antiquitatis strue recollectas, omnes in volumen
unum
(quce
An^ice
'^ See Alan Kennedy, "Law and Litigation in the LibeUus /^thelwoldi episcopi,** 24 (1995): 131-83, esp. 131-34. For the text, see Blake, Liber Eliensis, 73-117.
^° 2'
Kennedy, "Law and Legislation," 133. Harmer, 227.
ASE
ALEXANDER
110 scripUB fuerant in Latinum ydioma conversas)
rum
et legentium notitiam
.
.
R.
RUMBLE
ad cautelam futuro'
.
censuimus congerendas.^^
Several individual documents firom the Uber are stated in their rubrics
been
to have
translated:
[cyrographum]
.
.
.
quod de An^ico Latinum fecimus^^
Icyrographum] quod de An^ico convertimus carta
.
The
.
.
quam
stated policy of translating
adhered
sally
all
English documents was not univer*
however, as elsewhere the Uber
to,
Saxon documents which had not been Dedit
.
quam,
.
.
Latinum^^
in
de An^ico in idioma Latinum mutavimus^^
Oswoldus quinque
hidas
sicut in vetustissimis scedulis
dam Edwynus nomine, }^ piscopo Odono .
filius
refers to
other Anglo'
translated, merely summarised:
apud Burwelle
.
.
.
Hoec
est ilia terra
An^ice scriptum reperimus,
vir qui"
Othulfi, venerabili antea concesserat archie-
.
This group of Latin texts cannot be compared with any Old English versions as
none has
IL
The
latter
were perhaps destroyed, or at
translated.
The Translation of Old English Technical Terms
Something can be translators
"
survived.
once they had been
least neglected,
shown by twelfch'century
said of the degree of accuracy
from Old English to Latin from a study of those texts where we
"Wc have resolved that all of our charters documents of privileges and chirographs, gathered from the heap of antiquity, should be collected together in one book for the knowledge of readers and for the security of future people; those which were written in English having been converted
and
Macray,
4.
I
translate this as follows:
also (all of) the
into the Latin language ..."
" "
Macray, 57; S 1810. Macray, 82; S 1371.
"Macray,
"
167;
S 1110.
Macray, 49: "Oswald gave
we have discovered
in very old
five hides at
Burwell
documents written
.
.
.
This
is
that estate which, as
in English, a certain
man named Odo
wine, the son of Othulf, had formerly granted to the venerable Archbishop
.
Ead." .
Twelfth^ Century Translations
111
have versions in both languages to compare. confusion, and sometimes inaccuracy
is
A
certain
amount of variety,
shown, particularly in the follow^
ing two categories of word:
! Words Denoting Rank or Office =
"kynehlaford"
**the
king":
naturalis
dominus
sum
rex
1511,
(S
Rochester)
"seo hlaefdige"
=
"the Lady"
(i.e.,
the king's consort): domina sua regina
(S 1511, Rochester) '•eorl"
=
''earl":
(S 1072, Bury;
=
"ealdorman"
haro (S 1100, Ely), comes, procer (S 1089,
CCCant), dux
S 1089, CCant) ''ealdorman": princeps (SI 2 16, Abingdon), senator (S
1208, Abingdon)
"tegn"
=
"thegn": haro (S 1065-6, Abingdon; S 1072, Bury),
"lover" (S 1090, CCCant),
fidelis
(S 1089,
CCCant; S
dilector
1100, Ely), prin^
ceps (S 1208, Abingdon)^''
= "sheriff': vicecomes (S 1089, CCCant) = "shire^man": id est iudex comitatus iudex
"scirgerefa"
"scirman"
I
prouinci^ (S 1458,
Rochester)^®
"motgerefa"
"wicnere"
2.
=
=
"moot'teeve": prepositus (S 1066, Abingdon)
"official": minister (S 1089,
Words Denoting Types
The
translations
CCCant)
of Will
from Rochester of such words seem more
like explana-
tory glosses, their length suggesting that the terms were expected to be unfamiliar, at least to future readers of the Textus Roffensis,
"cwide"
=
"will": commendatio uel distributio rerum
ester), donatio (S
^'
Note it is
suarum (S1458, Roch-
1511, Rochester)^^
TTie Latin equivalent of "l)egn" in the Anglo-Saxon period
is
normally
minister.
S 1404 (Abingdon), where the Old English text has not survived but from the diplomatic context that "l)egn" is meant.
also nohiUs in
clear ^*
Used with reference
to Wulfsige presbyter "the priest", a judge in the shire'court
of Kent. ^^
Note that
in the Latin version of
S 1089 (Harmer 34) donatio
is
(correctly)
used as
^
ALEXANDER
112 "nihsta cwide"
wm
pro
=
Deo
"deathbed bequest": ultima commendatio
distributio
.
.
.
R.
siue
RUMBLE
rerum sua-
appropinquante die mortis eorum (S 1511,
Rochester)^^
III.
The ExposmoNES Vocabulorum
During the twelfth century a glossary began to circulate which contained
Old English terms relating to profits of justice and land tenure, such as those which were used in Anglo-Saxon writs, together with their Old French equivalents or explanations. By the end of the century the glossary also included Latin equivalents, and some of these are as follows (with the
OE
term added in brackets):^
"Sachke" [=
OE
"Infangentheof
*
"sacu"], interpretatur jmisdictio
[OE "infangenej^eof '],
comprehendere furem
"Sochne" [OE "socn"],
The ander,
vel
the glossary
Salisbury
half of the twelfth century.^^
when
centuries
its
It
and
may have been composed by Alex-
later
Bishop of Lincoln, in the
first
was considerably expanded in subsequent
need
for
all
any further translation of the Old English
gave a better understanding to landowners and lawyers of the
rights given in pre-Conquest writs, while in it
suum fundum
existence and continuous circulation obviated for
practical purposes the writs. It
infra
interpeUatio majoris audientiae
earliest version of
Archdeacon of
interpretatur
reum
documents
allowed the use of either the Old English word
issued thenceforth
itself
or of latinised,
rather than translated, versions of these terms.
the equivalent of "cwide** in the OE, as the vernacular teim is used here in a context which indeed requires (pace Harmer) a broader meaning than "bequest".
^ Note also the equivalence of "cwide": suarum rerum ustamentum m cxtremo in S 1488 (Abingdon), where the Latin version is s. xii but the Old English one only survives in London, BL, MS Cotton Claudius C. ix (of s. xiii). '' Forms taken from MS A (London, BL Royal MS 14 C. II, s.xii ex.: Roger of Howden) as quoted in the footnotes in The Red Book of the Exchequer, edited by H. Hall, 3 vols., Rolls Series 99 (London. 1897), 2: 1032-39; sec also ccclviU. "
Hall,
Red Book, cccbciii-bcv, and 1032
(title).
Twelfth'Century Translations IV.
113
The Case of Winchester Cathedral Priory
Although Winchester Cathedral is
omitted from the above
lation of
lists
priory (earlier
known as
the Old Minster)
of monasteries where twelfth'century tranS'
documents from Old English to Latin occurred, two observations
may be made.
although some duaWanguage texts (none of them
First,
were copied into the twelfth-century parts of the Codex Wintoniensis
writs)
(BL Additional
MS
15350; Davis 1042),^^ these have been excluded from
the present discussion as several
some of them
period,
may have been made
in the
Anglo-Saxon
in the later tenth century under the influence of
Bishop /^thelwold.^'^ Second, one might, at a stretch,
class
the updating of vernacular orth-
ography from Old English to ''Southern" early Middle English in docu-
ments
in those parts of the
1129 and 1139
as a
Codex Wintoniensis copied by scribe a between
form of
''translation", although
it
represents
an
inter-
pretation between different stages in the development of English rather
than between the vernacular and Latin.^^ Besides estate-boundaries pas-
some
sim,
Anglo-Saxon
quite long
Middle English form instead
of, as
texts are thus preserved in
an
early
happened elsewhere, being translated
into Latin. For example; the wills of /Elfgifu, Ealdorman /Elfheah,
and
CW
187,
/€thelstan the .€theling (S 1484-1485 and 1503; respectively, 185, 93,
^^
and
Both
102);
and
estate
memoranda
associated with Taunton, Somer-
1129-1139, which I have desand into the part written by scribe h (s. xii med.) within the continuation Cod. Wint. U. See Rumble 1980; and idem, "The Purposes of the Codex Wintoniensis,** in Proceedings of the Battle Conference on Anglo-l^orman Studies IV (1981), ed. R. Allen Brown (Woodbridge, 1982), 153-66 and 224-32, here 153-65. into the primary part of the cartulary, datable
ignated as Cod. Wint.
'^
These documents comprise
respectively,
1444;
I,
CW 168-169,
six
diplomas (S 312-313, 427, 693ab, 806, 817, 976;
183-184. lllab, 58 and 60, 27-28, and 231), one
CW 188-189), one will (S
1513;
letter (S
CW 151-152), and one memorandum (S
1376;
CW 21-22). For /Ethelwold's connection with S 817, see Alexander R. Rumble, Property and Piety in Early Medieval Winchester: Documents relating to the Topography of the AngloSaxon and 'Norman City and its Minsters, Winchester Studies, 4.3 (Oxford, 2002), document V, iii. For S 1376 (an exchange of land to which /Ethelwold was a party), see Rumble, Property and Piety, document VIIl. ''
See Rumble 1980,
1:
242-54, and
2,
appendix
3:
the results of my collation of the
Nine of these
survive for Cod.Wint. I. Varying amounts of updating of English spelling (and sometimes syntax) seem to have occurred in other twelfth-century cartularies, but usually not enough exemplars survive to allow positive statements to be made through collation. cartulary text with the surviving exemplars.
ALEXANDER
114
set,
and Hurstbourne
65,
and
Priors,
142a). Doubtless
it
RUMBLE
R.
Hampshire (S 1242, 1819, and 359; would have been
such as these into Latin, but perhaps
CW 61,
difficult to translate texts
was not thought necessary provid-
it
ed that contemporary or future Winchester monastic administrators were able to read the documents in a written version of the local vernacular
more
familiar to
V.
them than the
original
Old
English.
The Palaeographical "Interpretation" of in the Twelfth Century
Anglo-Saxon Scripts Transcription, other,
is
did not
when
entails the transfer of text
it
from one
script to an*
a form of visual interpretation. Twelfth-century cartulary scribes
make
remembered
them
facsimile copies of their exemplars, but converted
modified forms of their
own contemporary
bookscripts. First,
that, before the introduction of Caroline
it
into
should be
minuscule in the
mid-tenth century, Latin texts in England were normally written in insular
some of them very
varieties of script,
many
cursive.
Second,
it
is
readers in twelfth-century England would have found
generally unfamiliar as a written language and even as well as to understand,
when
more
likely that
Old English
difficult to read,
written in insular or Anglo-Saxon minus-
cule rather than in protogothic minuscule (the twelfth-century script
which developed from
The major minuscule
Caroline minuscule).
differences
scripts
between Anglo-Saxon minuscule and Caroline
were variant forms of the
the use in Anglo-Saxon minuscule of the
wynn. Unfamiliar ity with English sey
Chronkkj and
is
usitati,
pore ejusdem in
h, r, s
is
and
and
noted in the Ram-
given as the reason for rewriting pre-Conquest texts:
minus regis
/, g,
letters ash, thorn, eth,
letter-forms (apices)
Quia vero post domirmtionem hlormannorum minus
letters a, d, e,
in
An^ia hujusmodi apices
cogniti habentur, cartas et cyrographa quce in tem-
[Edward the Confessor] nobis facta sunt de An^ico
Latinum ad posterorum notitiam curavimus transmutare?^
^ Macray, 161. "Since indeed after the mle of the Normans in England letter-fonns of this sort have been less used [and] less known, we have taken care to change the charters and chirographs which were made for us in the time of the same king [Edward the Confessor] from English into Latin
[script] for
the understanding of posterity."
Twelfth-Century Translations
1
15
and:
LJniversis itaque cartis et cyrographis quce in archivis nostris Anglica
barbaric exarata invenimus
mutatis
non
sine difficultate in Latinos apices trans-
.^^ .
.
Often the resulting ''interpretation" was a personal one, and can there^ fore
sometimes be of use
scribes at this time. In
evidence for the identification of individual
as
Anglo-Saxon
texts copied in the protogothic scripts
of the twelfth century one finds different combinations of the Anglo'
Saxon
letter-forms being
employed consistently by
different scribes,
even
within the same manuscript. Looking, for example, at those twelfth-century cartularies
Saxon
which each contain more than twelve copies of Anglo-
charters (those from Abingdon, Bath,
CCCant
(x 2),
Evesham
(x 2),
Peterborough, Rochester, Sherborne, and Winchester Cathedral: respectively,
Davis
3, 23,
163, 163A, 82, 381-382, 754, 817, 892,
one
finds a variety of usages. Thus, scribes in the
and
in the
1042),
Codex Wintoniensis both use several Anglo-Saxon letter-forms
but retain the Caroline form for a/^
and wynn to W, uUy or
we
u,^^
scribe of
Reg P (CCCant)
uses th,
while in the Peterborough cartulary (the
Li-
number
find a
A
changing thorn and eth to
only ash of the special vernacular
ber Ni^er),
and
Bath Abbey cartulary
letters,
of Anglo-Saxon letter-forms in use but not
that for the letter g.^^
Whether one can
correlate the degree of retention of
to translate them, might be
^^
an area
Anglo-Saxon
Old English
letter-forms with a scribe's linguistic ability to update
texts, or
for further study.
Macray, 176. "All of the charters and chirographs which we have found in our [script] we have therefore, not without difficulty,
archives written barbarously in English
changed into Latin '*
Bath:
letter-forms."
CCCC MS
111, the scribe of pp. 57-92;
both Anglo'Saxon and Caroline forms of/, h, niensis: scribe a; see Rumble 1980, 1: 57-59. ^'
Canterbury Cathedral, Reg
P, fols.
r,
and
s
he was
also inconsistent in using
in vernacular text.
Codex Winto-
11-29.
London, Society of Antiquaries MS 60, fols. 25v-73. A similar preference for Caroline g is shown in the Second Continuation of the Peterborough Chronicle (1 132-54; written s .xii mcd.): Oxford, Bodleian Library MS Laud Misc. 636, fols. 88v-91v. ^°
.
ALEXANDER
116
R.
RUMBLE
VL The
Signihcance of these Various "Interpretations" in a Twelfth-century Context
The
twelfth-century copying and translation of pre-Conquest documents
was sometimes, restore
lost
as at
Winchester Cathedral, associated with attempts to
endowment
Anglo-Saxon
of the
parts
church/' Another reason might have been
of a
particular
as a safeguard against future
alienation, taking a lesson from events during the so-called "anarchy" of
Stephen's reign.^^ this
It is
clear that copying of
time was not an antiquarian pursuit, as
medieval period,^^ but a pragmatic one.^
Anglo-Saxon documents
it
was to become in the
at
later
—
Each of the processes described above translation into Latin, updating into contemporary English, and transcription into contemporary script
—
reflected a growing uncertainty
about the
trators
records in
Old
part of twelfth-century adminis-
cope with Anglo-Saxon
English. This worry was eventually obviated by the limiting
memory
of legal
on the
ability of their successors to
twelfth century
it
to 1189 by statutes of 1275 and
was
still
a real concern.
It is
1293,^^ but in the
relevant that there was
absolute agreement between different twelfth-century translators
equivalents for
Old English
no
on the
legal or adminstrative terms. Probably at
some
places their exact significance was not understood in the post-Conquest
period until after the development and circulation of the Expositkmes
Vocabulorum.
The
twelfth century was a period
Conquest documents was
still
when
the content of these pre-
legally important,
but
when
their
form
(lin-
*• Cod. Wmt. I was probably written 1129-1139 and is to be associated with King Stephen's Oxford Charter of 1136, one clause of which promised that the king would give judgment on any loss of the Church's temporal possessions held before the death of
William
I
(1087). See
Rumble. "Purposes," 156-64.
*^
See Antonia Gransden, Historical Writing 1974), 279-80. For Ramsey, see also Macray, 4. *'
in
England
See Antonia Gransden, "Antiquarian Studies ]oumd 60 (1980): 75-97.
c.
550-c. 1307 (London,
in Fifteenth-Century
England,"
Antiquaries
^ Compare
R.
W.
"The Place of England in the Twelfth-Century RenHumanism ar\d Other Studies (Oxford, 1970), 158-80, here
Southern,
aissance," in idem, Medieval
160-62. *'
M. T. Clanchy, From Memory
ford, 1993), 42. 152.
to
Written Record: England 1066-1307,
2nd
ed. (Ox-
117
Twelfth'Century Translations guistic or palaeographical)
had to be changed to allow a
or appreciation of the title-deeds relating to a church's
full
understanding
Anglo-Saxon en^
dowment. Scribes and compilers of cartularies at this time are to be seen in more than one way as "interpreters", some more successful than others, of these vernacular texts for future use by their colleagues and their successors.
CAROLE WEINBERG
"Hende" Words
in
La3amon's Brut
LA3AMON'S VERNACULAR HISTORICAL POEM, thought ten
A.
1200,
c.
ix
is
to have
been
writ-
extant in two British Library manuscripts, Cotton Caligula
and Cotton Otho
C
xiii.
Although palaeographical examination has
assigned both manuscripts to the second half of the thirteenth century, the
Caligula version differs radically from the Otho.^
The
seemingly Old Eng-
nature of the lexis in the Caligula manuscript of the Brut (there are
lish
few French-derived words) and the preservation of more traditional metrical patterns
the part of ter felt to
have been explained
La3amon
as a consciously archaizing strategy
in order to imprint
be appropriate to
its
upon
and wonene heo comen/t>a Englene londe called
his
historical subject,
and whence they came who
first
aerest
on
work an archaic charac"wat heo ihoten weoren ahten" [what they were
possessed the land of England].^
Cited as contributing significantly to this sense of archaism in Caligula
*
^oise
For a detailed discussion of die two manuscripts and questions of dating, see FranBrut: The Poem and its Sources (Cambridge: Boydell and Brewer,
Le Saux, La^amon's
1989), 1-13. ^
All quotations from the Caligula manuscript of the Brut are from La^amon's W. R. J. Barron and S. C. Weinberg (Harlow: Longman, 1995).
"Brut'\ ed. and trans, by
The Otho text can be found in La^amon: "Brut", ed. by 0. L. Brook and R. Leslie, BETS o.s. 250, 277 (Oxford, 1963 and 1978). E. G Stanley discusses the archaic nature of La3amon's diction in "La3amon's antiquarian sentiments", Medium /Evum 38 (1969): 23-37.
CAROLE WEINBERG
120
is
the presence in the text of compound words reminiscent of those in the
corpus of Old English poetry. In his investigation of these words,
Oakden
identified 411 in the category of
P.
J.
nominal compounds:
of the 411 compounds, 183 are found alike in Old English prose
and poetry; of
these, 131
were
in
Old English prose works, though
often occurring in poetry also; the remaining 52 comjMDunds were exclusively poetic.^
Oakden*s study went on to show, however, that about a third of the com-
pound words
in the Brut are found in other alliterative texts extant
from
the early Middle English period (alliterative verse and prose and the Ancrene Riwle),^ suggesting to both Fran^oise their studies of
La3amon's vocabulary that many of the compounds could
have been current
gument the
for the
Le Saux and Jane Roberts in
Middle English period.^ Adding to the
in the early
ar-
Middle English context of much of La3amon's language
comment by
E.
Brut seems very Middle English," though he does admit that this view
no more than an impression, and two versions is required."^
The
is
G. Stanley that "the syntax of the two versions of the that an "analysis of the whole of the
original audience for the Brut
reasonable to assume that
La3amon used to make may show a knowledge
it
is
is
a matter for conjecture, but
it is
would have shared enough of the vocabulary
his language understandable.
of the
Old English
Although La3amon
style of writing
— and
studies
of his lexis have been largely concerned with establishing parallels with
Old English
poetic usage
La3amon's vocabulary
'
J.
P.
Oakden,
— what has been
as early
Alliterative Poetry
lacking
is
Middle English. In
m
Middk
Engiiih, 2 vols.
any detailed study of this paper,
1
wish to
(Manchester, 1930, 1935),
2: 131. *
Oakden,
AUiterative Poetry. 2: 132.
Le Saux, La^amon's Brut, 191; Jane Roberts, "La3amon's Plain Words," in Middk Erxi^h Miscellany, ed. by Jacek Fisiak (Posnan, 1996), 107-22 (here 109). Roberts comments that for "far too long La3amon's vocabulary has been examined in the light of Anglo-Saxon poetry" (1 19), and her paper, in looking at La3amon's use of terms for military equipment, raises questions about his vocabulary in relation to possible Old and '
early Middle-English prose usage. * E. 0. Stanley, "La3amon's Un-Anglo-Saxon Syntax," in The Text and Tradition of Layanwn's "Brut", cd. Fran^oise Le Saux (Cambridge, 1994), 48.
"Hende" Words focus
on one
La^amon's Brut
in
Middle English word, the adjective hende, which occurs
early
Not only
frequently in the Brut. its
is it
semantic range in the Brut links
and
which
corteisement
Roman
121
of interest
it
itself as
a lexical item, but
closely to the terms corteis, corteisie,
La3amon's main source, Wace's
are found in
de Brut.
Wace's Roman de
an Anglo-Norman history of the
Brut,
and
rulers written in octosyllabic couplets,
itself
early British
a translated version of
Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia, was presented to Eleanor of Aquitaine, wife to
Henry
in 1155:
II,
we
La3amon
are told this by
in the preface to
his English adaptation of Wace (19-23). Judith Weiss, the
Roman
tor of the
de Brut,
comments
chronicle (and they are considerable) of epic but, as has long
that
''in
Wace
is
most recent
edi-
the martial portions of his .
.
.
still
firmly in the world
been recognized, in other respects
his
work
pro-
newer world of twelfth-century romance. The words
vides a bridge to the
curteis, curteisie, curteisement are
attached to his characters as they were not
in Geoffrey."^ In a detailed analysis of these terms as used in twelfth-
century French literary texts, Glyn Burgess identified a range of meanings,
extending from military qualities to
world of romance and
lai:
all
the values/qualities essential to the
beauty, prowess, wisdom, duty, love, and so on.
Burgess summarizes the results of his analysis as follows:
medievale
Bref, la cortoisie realise
dans
voyance
le
courage,
et sans
le
est
sens
une manifestation de
commun,
doute aussi dans ce que
la
savoir-vivre
comprehension,
le fran^ais
moderne
la pre-
appelle
la "courtoisie".^
[In brief,
medieval
cortoisie
is
a manifestation of savoir^ivre dis-
played in courage, commonsense, understanding, forethought, as well as
what modern French
calls 'courtoisie'.j
Fran9oise Le Saux, in tracking the semantic range of the occurrences
of
curteiSy curteisie,
and
curteisement in
Wace's Rorrmn de
Brut,
noted that
these terms were "restricted to manifestations of breeding and wealth; gen-
'
Wace's Roman de Brut:
A
History of the British, ed.
1999), xxiii. All quotations from *
Glyn
Burgess, "Etude sur
le
and
translations of
terme
cortois
dans
and
Wace
trans. Judith
Weiss (Exeter,
are from this edition.
le fran^ais
de Unguistique et de Philobgie 31 (1993): 195-209, here 205.
du XII'
sifecle",
Travaux
122
CAROLE WEINBERG
erosity, splendour, education, military valour for
In short, she concluded that "courtoisie" in
men, beauty
Wace
for
quality required to be socially acceptable at a royal court."' also at
La3amon*s practice
women."
"quite literally the
is
She looked
French terms, and came to the
in rendering the
conclusion that "in the absence of a correspondingly general term in Eng-
La3amon avoided the problem
lish,"
French by "focussing on the
qualities associated
with noble birth and good breeding appear to be
La3amon
the context in Wace,
is
more
We
are told in
Wace
daughters.
The most
talkative daughter
usage.
which Wace chose to
the 'courtliness' of a given character." '° Thus, for example,
illustrate
where
of providing an equivalent for the
specific 'courtly' virtue
plus corteise" (1567).
specific in his terminological
that Ebrauc, an early British king, had thirty
La3amon
was Innogin, while "Anor
renders plus concise
weren gode"
"aire best itowen, hire tuhtlen
more
fu la
specifically as
[the best educated of
them
her manners were good] (1360). Later on in the narrative, in de-
all,
scribing Arthur's court,
who
nobly bom,
himself "three times in version
Wace
could win a
"^a wifmen heh3e iborene", "the
it is
man
an equivalent English usage; the
terminology,
lish
when
values
which appear
much
in
common
English literature.
in
availability
is
who
Wace and La3amon and
and
fit
of such Eng-
from the fact that those
described as courtly have
with the qualities ascribed to noble characters in Old
The
choice of
lexis deriving
grid of the
French
from the Old English
means of penetrating the
tradi-
linguistic
text.
An extensive reading of the English Brut reveals, jective hende
of high birth"
renders the specific courtly
scrutinized, derives largely
tion provided the English poet with a
and conceptual
women
unless he has proved his worth in this
way (12,307-12,312). There are many instances where La3amon quality by
was no knight, however
dame a amie unless he had proved knightly combat" (10,511-10,516). In La3amon's
not take as husband any
will
states that there curteise
however, that the ad-
often used, either to render specifically, depending
on the
context, one of the qualities associated with the concept of courtesy, or as
an overall term expressing the "courtliness" of a given character. Hende
'
W.
R.
J.
ion literature '°
Barron and Fran^ise Le Saux,
'Two
9 (1989): 25-56, here 47.
Barron and Le Saux,
'Two
Aspects," 49.
Aspects of La3amon's Art", Arthur'
"Hende" Words is
La^^amon's Brut
in
123
used to describe handsomeness of appearance linked to noble birth in
t>u aert hende and \)u art haeh iboren" [Brenne, you are handsome and you are nobly bom] (2452). At the infamous banquet during which Uther takes a fancy to Ygerne, wife of Gorlois, Earl of Corn-
the line "Brennes
wall,
we
mult
esteit
are told by
Wace
that Ygerne
the simple phrase ''Igaerne early
who
hende"
t>ere
Anglo-Saxon king of Mercia,
sele" in
Wace
"curteise esteit e bele e sage
/
nan
says of her that **nis
on no
Military valour,
Wace,
is
"ane
suster
hende"
wise,
men
and to Beof,
of high birth and very dear
summons them and
cnihtes hende"
J^reo
demand
concept of
qualities incorporated in the
men and
''\>^s
La3amon,
in
wifmon t)a whit sunne seined on" woman] (15,516-15,517).
to the king" (13,094-13,095). Arthur
gether with Gawain,
Penda, an
sister of
ascribed to Gerin, the earl of Chartres,
the earl of Oxford, "noble
knights] (13,101), to
The
feirure
lovelier
one of the
is
(9249).
e is
''mult bele,/ gente e curteise dami-
is
(14,389-14,390); she
[the bright sun shines
courtesy in
is
de grant parage" (8575-8576); the equivalent in La3amon
of the emperor of
sends them, tothree valiant
[these
Rome
that he should not
lead his forces into France:
For6 Jjat
[)a
ibumed and ihelmed and
godliche kempen,
cnihtes wenden,
and Walwain
weoren Gerin and Beof Ipe hende
aelc
\)e
balde,
an hae3en heore steden;
weiede an sculdre
sceld swidne godne.
(13,113-13,116)
[The knights, brave warriors,
and the bold Gawain,
in
set out, the valiant
helmet and armour on their
each bearing a good shield on Gorlois, Earl of Cornwall,
mired
mult
for his military ability.
saives,
tributed
wis" wis
is
valiant
mon, of all
another nobleman in the Brut
Where Wace
describes
him
t>inge
lines.
At 9159-9160,
man] and "wel idon" wel idon"
[a
Gorlois
[able]; at
is
who
more
as
"hende cniht
hende
we
fuliwis" at the
ad-
pruz, dis-
is
mon
fuli-
is
a "swide
all
matters].
are told, in
fuliwis" (9171). Gorlois
banquet where
Ygerne, attracts the notice of King Uther (9246).
is
"mult
"ocht
very shrewd man, skilled in
a descriptive summary, that "he wes
tiful wife,
as
9162 he
lines further on, just before Gorlois himself speaks,
scribed once
tall steeds,
his shoulder.]
mult corteis" (8466), La3amon's equivalent description
between several
[a truly
A few
Gerin and Beof
is
de-
his beau-
CAROLE WEINBERG
124
clear
It is
from the narrative context that La3amon
is
using heruie with
the meaning "valiant" in the description of Arthur and his army embark-
on
ing
a campaign against the emperor of
a hundred thousand valiant this
(o/itc)
Rome. From many
lands
"came
warriors" (12,688-12,689), and "from
fifty thousand soldiers, men keen and brave and ohu) in battle" (12,699-12,700). Arthur entrusts to Mordred "all
country Arthur mustered
{kene
that he possessed, his land and people and his beloved queen" (12,73512,736), fril
and "se6den he
nom
his ferde of folken swi6e
hende
/
and ferde
sone touward Su6hamtune" [and then he took his army of most valiant
men and
straightway marched towards Southampton] (12,737-12,738). In
this instance the
Otho manuscript
stances where the context hende,
and Wace
is
of
no
is
help, the
Otho manuscript
jective staleworde, "brave", for Caligula's hende (1903
That the
two other
also has /lende, but in
in-
unhelpful for ascertaining the meaning of
adjective hende serves as a general term
substitutes the ad-
and
7185).'*
which encompasses
the accomplishments and modes of behaviour befitting those at court
evidenced most
clearly, perhaps, in the description in the Brut of
a pre- Arthurian conqueror of
Rome.
We
are told in
Wace
is
Brenne,
that
Brennes parlout corteisement Si ert de grant afaitement;
De
bois saveit e de riviere
E deduz de mainte maniere, Gent cors aveit e bel visage; Bien semblout home de parage. (2659-2664)
[Brenne spoke courteously and possessed
many
about hunting and hawking and
of pastimes.
handsome body and
La3amon
a fine face
all sorts
skills:
he knew
He had
a
and certainly seemed nobly bom.]
renders these lines as follows:
" In the majority of cases where hende occurs in the Caligula manuscript and die equivalent line survives in the Otho manuscript, Otho retains hende; see, for example, lines 1570, 1608.
2443, 2452. 9171. 9246. 11.096. 11.098, 12,737, and 14.060.
"Hende'' Words
in
La^^amon's Brut
Brennes wes swide hende Brennes cube on hundes,
he cu6e mid
his
honden
—
125
his
hap wes
betere.
\>e
Brennes cuSe an hauekes; hanlie
Jje
harpe.
hired-men hine leouede.
I^urh his haende craftes
(2443-2446)
[Brenne was highly accomplished
—
that stood
him
in
good
stead.
Brenne had knowledge of hounds, Brenne had knowledge of hawks; he knew
how
The
to play the harp.
courtiers valued
him
because of his accomplishments.] In this extract from the Brut, hende renders Wace's term corteisement, but
La3amon
has severed the French word's connection with the specific
quality of courteous speech
and seems to be using
heruie
here as a more
generalized and defining term for the courtly accomplishments
then individually
listed. ^^
A
which
similar generalized usage for hende as a
are
term
for the
appearance and conduct of one defined as truly noble appears ear-
lier in
the narrative, in connection with King Lear's daughter, Cordelia.
Wace
states simply that the
French king
marriage has heard that she was
expands
much
who
sues for Cordelia's
praised (1798-1799),
hand
in
La3amon
this brief reference:
Feor haueden liSende fei3ernesse
men
and freoscipe
of hire mucla faeira wlita,
ispeken of t>an maeidene atforen JDan Frensce kinge,
of hire muchela monschipe,
of faeire hire J^eaewen, hu heo wes t)olemod, nan wifrnan al swa hende. t)at nes on Leir kinges lond
(1566-1570)
[For travellers
had spoken of the maiden
in the presence of the
French king, of her loveliness and nobility of character, of her
most
'^
"The
fair
countenance, her great worthiness,
Rosamund
how
Allen, in her verse translation of the poem,
patient she was.
comments of this
passage:
and perform courtly repeated by Lawman (who
courtly qualities of Wace's Brennes, his ability to hunt, hawk,
amusements and speak corteisment and his gent cors ... are adds harping, making Brennes resemble the romance hero Horn very closely indeed); it is significant that Lawman does match Wace's terms for courtliness in his use of hende (1. 2443), which I translate 'gifted'." See R. Allen, Uwman: Brut (London, 1992), 422.
CAROLE WEINBERG
126 ^
of her gracious conduct, saying that there was
no woman
in
King
Leir's land so truly noble.]
When
the French king sues by letter for Cordelia's hand in marriage, he
requests Lear to send
An is
interesting
him
"his dohter
(je
waes hende" (1608).
example of the equivalence between cwteise and hende
found in the description of Guinevere, chosen to be Arthur's
Wace
is
wife.
fulsome in his praise of her:
Bele esteit e curteise e gent,
E
as nobles
Mult
Romains parente;
fu de grant afaitement
E de noble cuntienement. Mult
fu large e
buene
parliere,
Artur I'ama mult e tint chiere. (9647-9656)
[She was beautiful, courteous and well-bom, of a noble
Roman
Her manners were perfect, her behaviour noble, and she talked freely and well. Arthur loved her deeply and held her very
family
.
.
.
dear.]
Likewise,
La3amon
highlights those qualities
which make Guinevere
suita-
ble to be Arthur's wife:
Heo wes naes in
monnen; maide nan swa hende
of he3e cunne
nane londe
of speche and of dede,
of Romanisce
and of tuhtle swi6e gode (11,095-11,097)
[She came of a noble
Roman
family; in
no land was there
a
maid
so gracious in speech and behaviour, and so refined in bearing.)
But unlike Wace, who names Guinevere fore describing her,
La3amon
tells
us at
as Arthur's prospective wife be-
first
that Arthur
exceeding beauty" in Cornwall (11,090-11,091) as above, following
wifmonne hcndest"
whom
"met
a
maiden of
he then describes
with the revelation that "heo wes ihaten Wenhauer, [the
most gracious of women, she was called Guene-
''Hende" Words
in
La^amon^s Brut two
vere] (11,098). In the next
lines
127
we leam
wedded
wife and loved her very deeply; he
this
that Arthur "took her to
maiden and took her to
his
bed" (11,099-11,100). The narrative interlude describing Arthur's love for and marriage to Guenevere then concludes with the statement that Arthur
was in Cornwall dearest of
all
women"
winter,
"and
all for
love of Guenevere, to
(11,102).
Hende can be used, qualities, aspects of
thus, as a general
term encompassing those virtuous
appearance and accomplishments, which typify an
of courtliness. Arthur's kinsman, Howel,
ideal
hende, hahst of Brutlonde
man
Howel, the greatest
/
is
described as "l)ene
widuten Ardure, adelest kingen" [the gracious
in Britain save for Arthur, the noblest of kings]
(10,896-10,897); clearly the alliteration appealed, since
hah mon
him the
of Brutene"
is
repeated at 12,541.^^
The
"Howel
tached to Arthur, expressing his worth as the best of kings,
(which makes for a good 14,060 with "Ardur
J)a
alliterative phrase),
hende,
t»e
adjective normally at'
but there
is
a^elest
is
a variation at
cleopede, hendest aire Brutte" [Then Arthur, no'
blest of all the Britons, called out].
And
the same adjective
is
applied at
15,603 to Osric, the youngest son of the early Anglo-Saxon king, Edwin.
We
are told that "wellen
henden wes
name, he was a most noble man]
The
J^e
mon, Osric ihaten"
instances of the adjective hende in the Brut suggest that
tioned within a grid of meaning similar to that of the terms sie,
and
[Osric by
(15,603).
corteisement in the
Roman
senses, not all of
func-
corteise, cortei-
de Brut; the use of the term by
encompassed a discernable range of
it
La3amon
which conform to
the modern concept of courtesy, but which in both the Rcnrian de Brut and the Brut defined the approved courtly qualities of nobly-born personages.
The
range of meanings for hende includes,
specifically, "beautiful",
"hand-
some", "well'bred", "well-spoken", "accomplished", "brave", and "gra-
and embodies
cious", nobility
which
is
overall as a general term
an
ideal of courtliness, a
characterized by the presence of such "courteous"
qualities.
The
'^
Middle English Dictionary gives the derivation of hende as the Old
Allen translates the adjective
/lende as
"courteous" and then "gracious" in describ'
ing Howel, and these are the two meanings she normally gives to hende in her translation.
Ray Barron and
modem
1 felt
connotations than
that the translation "courteous" would carry with justified
it
more
by the term in the poem, and so we chose to use
"gracious" or "noble" in most contexts.
CAROLE WEINBERG
128
English adjective ge-hende which, according to Bosworth and Toller in their
An^Saxon
Dicticmary,
ing "neighbouring, next".
is
found in Old English texts with the mean-
La3amon
is
clearly using the
English meaning at the p)oint in the narrative
word with
its
when Hengest and
Old
Horsa,
Saxon chieftains invited to join the British ruler, Vortigem, draw up on land and set out for Vortigem 's hall:
their
ships
Ford wenden dringches
to
biuoren wende Hengest
and Hors him
seodden
\>2l
Alemainisce
Vortigeme
men
\)2i
t>an kenge; aire haendest,
aSele weoren an deden.
(6972-6974)
[The warriors
set out towards
King Vortigem;
head went
at their
Hengest and close beside him went Horsa, next went the Germans
who were
valiant in action.)
However, there
La3amon
is
is
^^
one other occasion
using the word with
its
in the
poem where
Old English meaning;
ter on, in the post'Arthurian section of the narrative,
that the British king, Cadwallan, has killed
all
it is
this
likely that is
much
when we
la-
are told
but one of the descendants
of King Edwin:
al t>at l>er
wes hende
he wes ihaten Oswald,
wiSouten ane monne; under Drihtene bald. (15,617-15,618)
While Ray Barron and ble birth, except for
I
translated the line as "all those
one man", Rosamund Allen
accurately in this context, "all those
who were
who were
of no-
translates, perhaps
more
close relatives, excluding
one", a translation which gives hende a meaning nearer to the Old English sense of " being close or next to".
just
The in
adjective an-hende, "one-handed, lame, imperfect, weak",
Bosworth and Toller, and the meaning "weak
militarily"
priate for the sole instance of unhende in the Brut
when
is
may be
cited
appro-
the adjective
is
•* The variant Vortiger, for the better-known Vortigem, is the form more commonly found in the Brut. In the use of Arthurian names I have kept to the most widely used forms, except when translating from the Brut.
"Hende" Words
129
La^^amon^s Brut
in
men who
being used to describe the type of
did not dare
come
to court
during the reign of King Malgus, a British successor of Arthur:
And J)at
swa
nom
seodden
was
widuten
hoc us sugge6
t>es
al
\)e
Adam
re3e;
and Absolon
aeuere iboren weore.
l^a
hired dihte
t>es lette his
t)uhten alle
Malgus
riche
mon
\)e faireste
alse J^e
J^as
wi6 ohte cnihten:
swulche heo weoren
sweines
haueden all his hired'Cnafe ne durste nauere nan vnhende mon
J^eines;
aelches godes sweines la3e;
He biwun {)a
wes
londes alle
t>a
Bruttne
al {^as
\)b.
[)as
kinges hus isechen.
stoden him an honde;
afeolled
mid
blisse.
(14,379-14,387)^5
[And then the mighty Malgus succeeded the handsomest
about
man
whom the Book tells
but the bravest warriors; chieftains; every
a good warrior; hold.
He
all
us.
Adam
He maintained
he was
and Absolom,
a household of
the men'at'arms seemed as
if
none
they were
one of his youthful attendants had the bearing of
no ignoble person ever dared
was in possession of
ly his; at that
to the kingdom;
ever born, except for
all
cross the king's thres-
the lands which were rightful-
time the whole land of Britain was
filled
with con-
tentment.]
Our
translation of the adjective here derives from the form unhende cited
in the
MED with the meaning
the earliest date given
is c.
"discourteous, impolite, unkind, ignoble";
1250.
It
could be argued that in this instance,
given the context of the passage, which extols the bravery of the served Malgus, those
The
who
approbatory meanings for the adjective hende within a secular
courtly context are not present in Bosworth
''
the
men who
are designated as ignoble lack military valour.
What
is
interesting
noun hond "hand",
is
and
Toller,
and the
MED
the semantic connection between the adjective hende and form of which in Old English is hende (cf. Old Icelandic
a dative
MED {hond)); it seems clear that the Old English adjective anhende "one-handed, weak, lame", derives from this latter form. (In Bosworth and Toller, /Elfric has unimanus as the Latin equivalent for anhende.) Also relevant, it would seem, to the form and meaning of hende in the Brut is the Bosworth and Toller citation of the Old English adverb, gehende "near, at hand", and the noun handcrceft "skill or power of the hand, handicraft". dat. sg. hendi, according to
CAROLE WEINBERG
130 cites the Brut as the text
with the
earliest
recorded usages.
ing approbatory sense contemporaneous with the Brut cious, merciful, loving"
and
lexis in early
make
possible to
only exist*
with reference to God, Christ, or the Virgin Mary,
"virtuous** with reference to
with
The
the meaning "gra-
is
men (MED
Middle English
is
2(a)
and
(b)).
The
difficulty
the sparsity of evidence, and
it is
not
a definitive statement about the extent of lexical innova-
tion in La3amon's use of the term /lendc, though there
is
clear evidence for
a self-conscious and inventive use of lexis in the Brut.^^
commented upon, however,
is
What can
be
the frequency with which he employs the
adjective herxde as a native equivalent for those aspects of courtly behavi-
our understood by the terms
corteis, corteisie,
and
Wace*s French
perfectly," ^^
Wace. As La3amon understood
corteisement in
has been recognized, "with very rare exceptions
and with the English word hende he
the conceptual framework of the French words, and embeds
taps into in the
it
native idiom.
La3amon's Brut may be the ticular itself
earliest text cited in
the
MED for the par-
meanings of hende which have been discussed above, but the term
and
its
range of meanings continues in poetic use throughout the
Middle English period, predominantly but not romances.
Among
solely in texts classified as
the better-known Middle English romances which em-
ploy the adjective hende with one or more of the meanings found in the Brut are King Horn, Ywain and Gawain, Sir Gawain and the Green
fCnight,
and the stanzaic Morte Arthur. Throughout Ywain and Gawain, a
four-
teenth-century English adaptation of Chretien de Troyes* Yvain, or Le Chevalier au Lion, the poet uses either curta-jse or hende\ they appear along'
'* The Old English flavour of La3amon's diction and the seeming avoidance of French words presupposes, as has been recognized, a deliberate and self-conscious approach to the choice of vocabulary in the Brut. And according to Oakden "it is not likely that La3amon used 200 compounds (the majority of them poetic) which existed in Old English but were never recorded; it seems certain that La3amon created many of them himself' (Altteraovc Voctrj, 2: 132). Derek Brewer discusses La3amon*s inventiveness in "The Paradox of the Archaic and the Modem in La3amon's Bmt," in From Arxgio-Saxorx to Early Middle English: Essays Presenud to E .G. Stanley, ed. Malcolm Godden, Douglas Gray and Terry Hoad (Oxford, 1994; repr. 1998), 188-205. For examples of die conscious utilisation of the lexical resources of early Middle English in the Bmt, ranging from the very simple to the very complex use of wordplay, see Carole Weinberg, **Pat lcm«unirde bed [a bed fit for a king]: Thematic Wordplay in Lawman's Brut'\ Arthuriana 8 (1998): 33-45.
" Derek
Brewer,
"The Archaic and
the
Modem
in
La3amon's Bmt," 195.
"Hende" Words
La^amon's Brut
in
131
each other at Une 862 and would seem to be synonymous. ^^
side
but not
least,
Chaucer
And
last
mocking the courtly
uses the adjective subversively,
pretensions of clerks in the Miller's Tale, signalling thus that by the end of
the fourteenth century the adjective had become sufficiently stereotypical in literary texts to be used in this parodic
manner. ^^ By the end of the
fifteenth century the adjective has ceased to be used,
though the
OED
does cite occasional, clearly archaic, later occurrences. Frederic
Madden, whose 1847 three-volume
edition of the Brut
the beginning of the modern study of the poem, described
its
marked
language as
belonging to that obscure transitional period of **Semi-Saxon", which he
between 1100 and 1300,
dates
phasized
its
writers. "^°
Old
adherence to "the
There
is
but, like spirit
many who
and
style of
the earlier Anglo-Saxon
no denying that La3amon's English has
English: as Roberts has noted,
past that the point needs
of the terms used by
no
"he
is
is
with
further labouring. "^^ But her investigation
La3amon
equipment reveals that they
for military
still
with us."^^
The
an important transitional text in the development of Old into Mid-
dle English,
and there
is still
us about the continuity
tell
links
so obviously in contact with the
"are the everyday words of his time" and "mostly Brut
followed him, he em-
the history of English
lexis.
much which
and
a study of his vocabulary can
differences
between these two periods in
^^
'® Ywain and Gawain, ed. Maldwyn Mills (London, 1992). J. K. Holland discusses die occun-ence of the adjective hende in Ywain and Gawain, and argues that the theme of courtesy "can be traced throughout the tale, not merely as a theme implicit in the action but as one made explicit by the author's use of vocabulary and the careful balancing of the poem's narrative and thematic structures. See "Hende Wordes: The Theme of Courte-
Ywain and Gawain", Neophilologus 78 (1994): 655-70, here 669.
sy in
'^
See
E.
Talbot Donaldson, "Idiom of Popular Poetry in the Miller's Tale", in
Speaking of Chaucer (London, 1970), 13-29. ^°
La^amon's "Brut", ed. by Frederic Madden, 3
^'
Roberts, "La3amon's Plain Words," 107.
" ^^
vols.
(London, 1847),
1: vi, xxiii.
Roberts, "La3amon's Plain Words," 113.
would like to acknowledge the valuable help of Glyn Burgess and Ray Barron in the preparation for publication of this paper, first read at the British Branch of the InterI
national Courtly Literature Society Conference in April 1999.
THE EDITING
AND TRANSMISSION OF TEXTS
PAUL
E.
SZARMACH
Editions of Alfred:
The Wages
JUST AS A
GOOD
of Un-influence^
EDITION can direct study and the development of knowl'
edge, the absence of good editions can have a chilling effect
on
a text or
a system of texts. This paper will consider the lamentable state of the texts that comprise the Alfredian corpus. cle)
is
start
Why the output of Alfred (and his cir^
not a major industry within Anglo-Saxon
about one hundred years ago,
may
causes, but the central contention here
studies,
given
its
strong
reflect several likely contributing is
that the failure of literary schol-
ars to rise to the primary task has seriously blunted any
movement towards
A
first version of diis paper was presented at the 1999 meeting of the Modem Language Association. For bibliography, mainly in history, see Simon Keynes, Anglo'Saxon History: A Select Bibliography, 3rd rev. ed. (Kalamazoo, 1998), esp. 66-70 (items F50-F289), which is available online as http://www.wmich.edu/medieval/rawl/keynesl/index.html. Nicole Bibliography with Special ReferGuenther Discenza has compiled "Alfred the Great: ^
A
ence to Literature," in Old English Prose, ed. Paul E. Szarmach (New York, 2000), 463502. Simon Keynes and Michael Lapidge, Alfred the Great: Asset's 'Life of King Alfred' and Other Conumporary Sources (Harmondsworth, 1983) offers a selection of primary sources in translation. Janet M. Bately provides an important overview in "Old English Prose Before and During the Reign of Alfred," ASE 17 (1988): 93-138. For a quick overview of Alfred and Alfredian issues see Janet M. Bately and Janet L. Nelson, "Alfred the Great," in Medieval England: An Encycbpedia, ed. Paul E. Szarmach, M. Teresa Tavormina, and
(New York, 1998), 18-22; and Bfarbara] A. E. Yorke, "Alfred," and Nicole Guenther Discenza, "Alfredian Texts," in The Blackwell Encyclopaedia of AngloSaxon England, ed. Michael Lapidge, John Blair, Simon Keynes, and Donald Scragg (Ox-
Joel T. Rosenthal
ford, 1999)
27-28, 29-30 respectively.
PAUL
136 an understanding of the
While
cle.
literary
and
a review of editions in
cultural record of Alfred and his cirhand and why they now impede knowl-
edge will be necessary, the more important emphases state of the question tells us about the ends, purposes,
the
we
field.
What we
SZARMACH
E.
read and what
we
be what
will
this
and assumptions of
study both leads and follows
what
read and study in a reciprocal relationship that, in Alfredian studies,
could and should be more It is
no
fruitful.
quibble to ask at the outset: what
is
an edition? Thanks to the
disappearance in
many
very obvious
answer has to be that the laconic question
first
graduate programs of the bibliography course, the
for there are several kinds of editions,
and that the more
tion might pursue the sub-varieties of the genre viate the discussion, let
me
offer a response
and
Beowulf has served
tion. Klaeber's edition of
erations since
its
as
is
imprecise,
profitable ques-
their aims.^
by example.
envisioned for Alfredian texts as the benchmark
is
The
To
abbre-
edition here
the "full-service" edi-
such for some two
full
gen-
1922 publication, until recent attacks that have discov-
ered Klaeber's decisions on textual matters to be faulty and his moves into interpretation patriarchal, or too realistic, or too insensitive, or unpres-
cient (in not anticipating the scholarship of orality).^ textual,
ond
is
fault,
The
first fault,
the
more the accumulation of the weight of commentary; the
sec-
the failure of interpretation, literary fashion; the
first
a
more
healthy result of the scholarly dialogue inspired by scholarship, the second Klaeber's failure to read the future.
There
is
— and only
recently
— only one benchmark
or full-service
edition of the four, relatively confirmed Alfredian works, and only
one
further edition that possibly seeks to approach authoritative status, the
^
Some
Ush, ed.
is apparent in The Editing of Old Eng' Szarmach (Cambridge, 1994), where several contributors
sense of the possible variety of editions
D.G. Scragg and Paul
E.
Among others there are: Marilyn Deegan and Peter Robinson, "The Electronic Edition," 27-37; David N. Dumville, "Editing Old English Texts for Historians and Other Troublemakers," 45-52; Clare A. Lees, "Whose Text is it Anyway? Contexts for Editing Old English Prose," 97-114; Hugh Magennis, "Old English Texts for Student Use," 115-23. directly or indirectly describe various kinds.
' Complaints about Klaeber and his edition surface regularly on ANSAXNET, the archive of which one may search for particular points of grievance. See, e.g., Josephine Bloomfield, "Diminished by Kindness: Frederick Klaeber's Rewriting of Wealhtheow,"
Journal of Engjish and Germanic Philology 93 (1994): 183-203. Robert Bjork, Rob Fulk, and Jack Niles have announced the fourth edition of Klaeber, to be published by Hough-
ton Mifflin.
Editions of Alfred
ASPR
137
edition of the Metres, about
which more
be no greater disappointment in the
W.
fred's Boethius,
].
field
later.
Certainly there can
than the current status of Al-
Sedgefield's edition has celebrated
centenary, as
its
has his translation, which has served as the pony for three generations of Anglo-Saxonists."^
It is
unseemly to berate the dead and the
to interject here, but the fact
some
cient for quite
is
past,
I
hasten
that this pioneering pair has been insuffi-
time. Sedgefield's translation, inflated in diction by
Victorian high seriousness meant undoubtedly to reflect the tum-of-thecentury view of Alfred as a philosopher-king, ble, if
not downright inaccurate.^
The
Though he
cution and conception.
is
itself
is
sometimes impenetra-
edition itself poses problems of exe-
working with only two manuscripts,
the damaged London, British Library, Cotton
Otho A.
vi
and Oxford,
Bodleian Library, Bodley 180, and the Junius transcript of Bodley 180 (with notes based
on Cotton Otho),
The Cotton manuscript
is
Sedgefield's printed text
his base presented in
Roman
font,
proves injured or illegible" Sedgefield prints Bodley in *
seems easy enough, but
tice
it is
is
very busy.
and when
italics.
C
This prac-
complicated by the use of brackets and
footnotes to supply readings, either to remedy defects or to supplement in-
formation, and overlaid with the need to represent the Junius transcript. Sedgefield himself seems uncomfortable with his presentation,
for,
having
gone through an explanation that resembles one of those multiple
logical
problems
(if
A
then B, but
tion but never CD), as sis:
"In short,
it
if
if
not A, then
in exasperation
may be assumed
that
all
C
he
or
offers,
words
otherwise noted in the footnotes.''^ Sedgefield
D
is
or
E
some combina-
or
with
italics for
empha-
from B, unless
in italics are
doing his best to cope with
the limited options afforded by the ancient hot type process. In the soonto-be realized paradise of cyber-editions,
^
Walter
J.
where options only
Sedgefield, ed., King Alfred's Version of Boethius'
De
dazzle
and
Consolatione Philo-
sophiae (Oxford, 1899); Sedgefield offers a translation in his King Alfred's Version of the
Consolations of Boethius
Godden
Done
into
Modem
English, with
an Introduction (Oxford, 1900).
"one of the minor tragedies of AngloSaxon literary scholarship" and discusses the problems facing an editor in his "Editing Old English and the Problem of Alfred's Boethius," in The Editing of Old English, ed. Scragg and Szarmach, 163-76, here 163. Mfalcolm] R.
'
describes the edition as
Malcolm Godden, "King Alfred's Boethius," in Boethius: His Life, Thought and Influ^ Gibson (Oxford, 1981), 419-24, here 423 n. 10: ". free and unrelia-
ence, ed. Margaret
ble in matters of detail." ^
Sedgefield, ed., King Alfred's Version, xviii.
.
.
PAUL
138
SZARMACH
E.
never confuse, Sedgefteld could have solved the busy-ness of his edition in
a multi'color presentation or clicks and "pop-ups." Even that fourth witness to Alfred's Boethius, that pesky fragmentary leaf from Oxford, Bodle* ian Library, Junius 86 that Napier saw
and transcribed but incredibly was
"temporarily mislaid," might regain some shadowy
life.^
Godden
has
promised an edition "when he has completed the long-delayed volume of
—
which volume is now pubcommentary for his edition of i^lfiric" lished.® Technology might have come of age in time to assist Godden in
one of the
difficulties
he
anticipates,
vi?.,
the
illegibility
of the Cotton
manuscript.^
However hard to follow in matters of presentational detail Sedgefield's may be, there is a singular matter of conception that has had a profound effect on the interpretation of the work. Now it is well known that Boethius 's De Consolatione is a prosimetrical work: a meter or poem Boethius
(in
the Latin aggregate, offering a dazzling metrical variety)
a prose passage. In his mainline text, whose base field prints prose only,
followed by
Cotton Otho, Sedge-
detaching the Metres, which appear in their correct
place in Cotton Otho, and placing if
is
is
them
after
the entire prose Boethius, as
they were an Appendix and not an integral part of Cotton Otho.'^
Krapp's
who emphasizes
fiths,
OE
ASPR edition self-evidently prints the Metres
only, while Bill Grif-
that the meters "were intended to be in place in the
prose translation,"'
'
can only, because of evident space limitation,
Ker, Catalogue, no. 337, 411-12.
7
Godden, "Editing Old English," 172 n. 17. In e-mail conununication and subsequent conversation (14-16 November 2000), Malcolm Godden has reiterated his interest in editing the Boethius. The reference to the /^Ifric commentary is to volume 3 of the "/Elfric project," which appears as j^lfrk's Catholic Homilies: Introduction, Commentar/ and Glossary, EETS s.s. 18 (Oxford, 2000). (Since the writing of this paper, two major scholars have launched funded projects to edit Alfred's Boethius: Malcolm Godden, "Alfredian Versions of Boethius's Consolation of Philosophy," funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Board (U.K.); Kevin Kieman, "Alfred the Great's Boethius: An Electronic Edition," funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities (U.S.).J '
'
Sec note 12 below
for
Kevin Kieman's
digital research.
Anglo-Saxon Version of Boethius' De Consolatione FhHosophiae (London, 1864; repr. New York, 1970) offers OE prose and translation en face, but thanks Martin Tupper for a poetical translation ("an English free translation"), which he evidently substitutes for his own and places at the end. '°
Samuel Fox, King
»'
Bill Griffiths, ed., Alfred's
esp. 11.
See
"Old English
P. E. Issue:
Alfred's
Metres of Boethius (Pinner, Middlesex, England, 1991),
Szarmach, "Meter 20: Context Bereft."
Textual Scholarship," guest ed.
J.
ANQ
R. Hall).
15 (2002):
28-34 [=
139
Editions of Alfred
the Metres with the prose base in Bodley 180 at the foot of the page
offer
as "prose source." In short,
no modern
editor observes the manuscript
context for this work. Kevin Kiernan, commenting on Sedgefield and Krapp, says sharply that their editions
''radically
misrepresent the prosi-
metrical manuscript [= Cotton Otho] that preserved the text" and goes
on to describe in detail how the separation came about from the way in which Junius originally set out on his originary editorial task and which, in a sense,
Rawlinson completed.*^ The contemporary reader-scholar
who
wishes to get back to the manuscript must, then, de-layer or reverse the editorial process in order to get
someone
back to the manuscript. Before too long
have to put Alfred's Boethius back together again, with the
will
likely result that
the interaction of translated prosa and translated metrum
will force a reconsideration of the local relations of these sorts of texts. It
in the Metres
^
may
also
two
which, to be merely suggestive, seems an almost inevitable
future development. Allan
A. Metcalfe
suggests
some
potential signifi-
cance for the reunion of prosa with metrum in his monograph. If
may
the **full'Service" concept of an edition
is
work
is
It is
makes mention of the commentary it
new
edition of
doubtless that the context for understanding of Alfred's
the active Latin commentary tradition.
tion from
^-^
germane here, then there
very well be an invitation to madness in any call for a
the Boethius.
different
be easier to see a rationale for themes and motifs
tradition
To
his credit, Sedgefield
and adduces some informa-
to the Alfredian translation, especially the
list
of ''Alfred's
notable comments and additions" given in his translation, which offers a practical
start
to the problems. ^"^ But knowledge
Boethian commentary has
now advanced
in
the sub-field of
well beyond the material availa-
ble to scholars at the turn of the century. In fact, the complexity of the
material and the enormousness of the tradition seem insurmountable obstacles.
'^
Joseph Wittig's
classic study of the
Orpheus and Eurydice
story,
Kevin Kieman, "Alfred the Great's Burnt Boethius,'* in The Iconic Page m Manu" and Digital Culture, ed. George Bomstein and Theresa Tinkle (Ann Arbor,
scripts, Print,
1998), 7-32, here 7, with developing discussion through 14.
As noted above, Kieman is Otho
preparing an electronic edition, which should triumph over the badly burnt Cotton A.vi. '^
Allan A. Metcalfe, Poetic Diction in the Old EngUsh Meters of Boethius (The Hague, "On the Authorship and Originality of the Meters of Boethius," Neuphilobgische Mituilungen 71 (1970): 185-86. 1973), See also idem,
'^
Trans. Sedgefield, xxxi-xxxii.
PAUL
140
E.
SZARMACH
Old English courses, is exemplary in trotting out the many manuscripts of the commentary tradition, suggesting some of their intricacy, and then arguing that the more information
that sometime old chestnut of beginning
about the commentary tradition
we
have, the more, at least in this case of
the Orpheus and Eurydice story, Alfred appears relatively independent of it.'^
(From another view Wittig may be actually saying that the commen-
tary Alfred followed has not yet
Remigian
been discovered.)
in his rendition, for example,
When
Alfred seems
one has to remember that Alfred
died a decade earlier than Remy, and that the usual, hoped for chronological flow of influence its
place in the
is
muddied'^
commentary
as a result.
tradition
is
The
Alfredian Boethius and
a necessary, but problematical,
element in any future edition.
One
does not, however, need to go back a
of an edition-translation that studies.
Thomas A.
now
full
century for an example
does not materially advance Alfredian
Carnicelli's 1969 edition of King Alfred's Version of
met with
Augustine's Soliloquies
a cool reception
when
it
appeared.
St.
How-
ever unsatisfactory Carnicelli's introductory language sectioiw might appear to the hardcore philologists
who
reviewed his work, his introductory
overview of sources, authorship, and the interconnections with other Alfredian works
seemed
useful for his time. Inexplicably, Camicelli offers
no
Latin text of Augustine's work either en face or in footnotes,*^ though
some of his explanatory notes rely very heavily on the Latin tradition, where his commentary can be extensive. The absence of a Latin text for comparison
32
—
it
presumably would have been the text in Patrologia Latina
— would seem
to be a retrograde
move when one
recalls that
Endter gave that text as part of his 1922 edition for the
'^
tion,**
Wilhelm
series Bibliothek
A
ReconsideraJoseph S. Wittig, "King Alfred's Boethius and Its Latin Sources: ASH 11 (1981): 157-98. See, for Alfred's Boethius within the context of the com-
mentary
tradition, P. E.
Alfred die Wise: Studies
Szarmach, "Alfred's Boethius and the Four Cardinal Virtues," in Honour of Janet Bauly, ed. Jane Roberts and Janet Nelson with
m
Malcolm Godden (Cambridge,
1997), 223-35; idem, "Alfred, Alcuin,
and the Soul," in PA,
Manuscript, Narrative, Lexicon, ed. Robert Boenig and Kathleen Davis (Lewisburg,
2000), 127-48. '*
One might compare
SaecuU Noni Auctoris
in Boetii Corxsolationem
PhUosophiae
Com-
mentarius, ed. E. T. Silk (Rome, 1935). '^ Thomas A. Camicelli, ed., King Alfred's Version of St. Augustine's 'Soliloquies' (Cambridge, MA, 1969). Stanley B. Greenfield and Fred C. Robinson, A Bibliography of Publications on Old English Literature to the End of 1972 (Toronto, Buffalo, and London, 1980). #5459 (314) list the reviews.
141
Editions of Alfred
der angelsachsischen Prosa.^® of this edition
What
is
that Carnicelli relied
is
a further difficulty in the genesis
on
photostats. C.
J.
E. Ball explains
the hazards involved in this procedure for London, British Library, Cotton
A.
Vitellius
one of
xv, pointing out that Carnicelli misses
his readings,
risks regarding capitalization
come
to terms with
two holes that
is
and punctuation.^^
What
is
more
difficult to
Carnicelli's omission of the prose extract of the So-
liloquies
that occurs in London, British Library, Cotton Tiberius A.
was the
first
by about a
to identify this piece,
Carnicelli does not cial to
which antedates Cotton
century, and Ker gives notice of
full
affect
can say nothing about rubrication, and runs many
seem to know
it.^°
The
it
iii.
Vitellius
Jost
A. xv
in his Catalogue^ but
Tiberius extract
is
surely cru-
an understanding of the meaning and an understanding of the mere
existence of an Anglo-Saxon translation of one of Augustine's minor, early
works, which, as
often observed, seems an unlikely candidate for trans-
is
lation by anybody.^ ^
relation
Without going into great
between the Tiberius extract and the
detail in
working out the
Vitellius version,
one can
point out one emendation of Vitellius that Tiberius "authorizes." In a rect address to
du wisesta
.
.
God, the speaker
.";
says in Vitellius: *'Du, se aldsta feder,
where the Latin
gives "pater sapientissime et
di-
and
optime"
Carnicelli explains "se aldsta" as an adjective used in the sense of "great-
most eminent. "^^ Tiberius
est,
now
gives "selesta," not "aldsta," the latter
appearing more likely as some sort of aural-oral mishearing by the
scribe.
As with
Latin scholarship on Boethius, moreover, our colleagues in
Augustinian studies
have now made progress in elucidating
sive text of the early Augustine. text;
•*
There are now
Gerard Watson has produced a very
Wilhelm Endter,
ed.,
this very elu-
critical editions of
useful translation
the
and commen-
Konig Alfreds des Grossen Bearheitung der SoUloquien des
Augustins, Bibliodiek der angelsachsischen Prosa 11 (Hamburg, 1922; repr. Dannstadt,
1964). '^
C[hristopher]
Aeimm 39 ^°
J.
E. Ball, review of Carnicelli, ed., King Alfred's Version, in
Medium
(1970): 174-76.
Karl
Jost, Wulfstanstudien,
Schweizer Anglistische Arbeiten 23 (Bern, 1950), 208.
Ker, Catalogue, no. 186, 244 notes Jost's discovery. ^*
See Franz Romer, Die Handschrifdiche VberUeferung der Werken des Heiligen Augusti-
Band
nus,
2.1-2: Grossbrittanien
und
Irland, Sitzungsberichte der Osterreichischen
demie der Wissenschaften, Philosophisch-historische 169-72, 2: 314. ^^
line.
Klasse, 276,
Aka-
282 (Vienna, 1972),
1:
Ed. Carnicelli, King Alfred's Version^ 55 line 24, and discussion, 55 in note to the
PAUL
142 and Heinrich Stimimann has produced a
tary;
work
flects
is
it
fits
SZARMACH
study, fruitful for
by hinting that Augustine's prose
lish scholarship
Alfred's
E.
Old Eng'
rhythmical.^^
is
How
into the Augustinian tradition of the Soliloquies and re-
a chapter of the Alfiredian revival as important as a reliable
text.^^
Alfred's oft-studied
and oft-taught "Preface" to the Cure
rightfully continues to enjoy a reputation as
the subject, available in
many
Pastoralis
one of the key prose
of the school grammars.
texts in
Henry Sweet's
edi-
tion of the entire text of the Cura Pastoralis with en face translation, based
on Oxford, Bodleian
Library,
ton Tiberius B.
four generations old. Ingvar Carlson was able to edit
xi, is
Hatton 20 and London,
only London, British Library, Cotton
Otho
B.
ii.
British Library, Cot-
There
are six extant
manuscripts, of course. There have also been advances in the study of
Gregory's Cura Pastoralis notably the edition in the series Sources Chr^j
tiennes,
and Richard Clement's research with an Anglo-Saxon view,
which places
Alfred's translation closer to
study of Gregory, as in the Patrologia tal
its
Latiruiy
found
its
scholarship were often askew. ^^ Anglo-Saxonists
The new
early
ground in continen-
manuscripts, and so assessments of Alfred's translation
^^
The
Latin tradition.^^
skills
using early
for their part,
it
seems.
editions of Augustine's text are: (1) SeJbstgesprdche von der UnsterbUchkeit
der Seek, ed. Harald Fuchs with introduction, translation, commentary,
and notes by HanS'Peter Miiller (Munich and Zurich, 1986); and (2), SoUloquiorum Ubri Duo, ed. Wolfgang Hormann, in Sancti AureU Augustini Opera 1.4, CSEL 89 (Vienna, 1986). Gerard
Watson quies
offers
Latin text, en face translation, and commentary in Saint Augustine: SoUhthe Soul (Warminster, 1990). Heiruich Stimimann, Grund und
and Immortality of
Griinder des Alls (Freiburg, 1992) studies Augustine's prayer in the Soliloqtues (1.1.2-6).
See Joanne McWilliam, "Soliloquia," in Augustine Throu^ al. (Grand Rapids, 1999), 806-7.
the Ages, ed.
A. D.
Fitzgerald
et
one of the few studies of the Alfiredian Soliloquies Milton McC. Gatch observes: is one of the most-edited OE prose texts, yet it remains intractable"; see his "King Alfred's Version of Augustine's Soliloquia: Some Suggestions on its Rationale and Unity," in Studies in Earlier Old EngUsh Prose, ed. Paul E. Szarmach (Albany, 1986), 17-45, here 42 n. 29, in which note there is a concise survey of earlier scholarship. See also the literary study by Ruth Waterhouse, "Tone in Alfred's Version of Augustine's Sch ^^
"The
In
Sohioquies
hloquies," in Studies
m
Earlier
Old English
Prose, ed.
Szarmach, 47-85.
^'
Gregory the Great, Rigk Pastorale, ed. and trans. Bruno Judic, Floribert Rommel, and Charles Morel, Sources Chr^tiennes 381-382 (Paris, 1992); Richard W. Clement, "King Alfred and the Latin Manuscripts of Gregory's Regula PastoraUs,'' Jouvnal of the Rocky Mountain Medieval and Renaissance Association 6 (1985): 1-13. ^*
See the
dispiriting study
by William H. Brown, Jr., "Method and Style in the Old En^h and Germanic Phihlogy 68 (1969): 666-84.
English Pastoral Care," Journal of
H3
Editions of Alfred
never get beyond Alfred's so-called Preface to study one of the basic
will
books of the Middle Ages, which everyone, or at to read as a sort of administrator's manual.
least every bishop,
Bruno Judic sketches the
had
diffu-
sion and influence of the Cura Pastoralis^ especially in Carolingian circles
where once again Alcuin, who was
influential in the dissemination of
more than
Boethius, played a major role.^^ But Alfred offers trot for bishops in this
book most needful
not the only point to be made, nor
is
to
a
pony or a
know. Again, aesthetics
is
administrative history the only locus
of investigation. Close attention to Alfred's Pastoral Care reveals Alfred's struggle with the Christian psyche (as Gregory struggled), the construction
of the subject, the idea of kingship: but in order for these vestigation to
move
new
topics of in-
more complete account
forward, there needs to be a
of the evidence of the Alfredian text and an openness to
its possibilities.
made the case, once again, and now more or less uniaccepted on her authority, that the prose psalms of the Paris
Janet Bately has versally
Psalter should be included in the Alfredian canon.^^ Heretofore the only
serviceable edition of this
and Robert
work has been the 1907 one by James
Ramsay,^^ but at long
L.
last a
new,
W.
Bright
fiiU-service edition
by
Patrick P. O'Neill has been published.^^ There are seven major parts:
The
Manuscript,
The
Latin Texts,
The
Prose Psalms,
The
Edition of Prose
Psalms, Commentary, Bibliography, Glossary. Found in the mid-eleventh-
century manuscript Paris, Bibliotheque Nationale, the
Roman
threefold
version of the Psalter, the
and
lat.
Old English
fourfold systems of interpretation.
8824 and based on translation features
As one might expect
in
Alfredian translations, there are additions and interpretations drawn from Latin commentaries, with the main source being the commentary of Julian of
Eclanum and an epitome
thereof,
which
for the
most part are preserved
in manuscripts of Irish provenance. O'Neill accepts Alfred as the likely
" Bruno ^*
Judic, in Regie Pastorale
1:
88-102.
Janet Bately, "Lexical Evidence for the Authorship of the Prose Psalms in the
ASE 10 (1982): 69-95. W. Bright and Robert L.
Paris Psalter," ^^
James
Psalms, Being the Prose Portion, or the
Ramsay,
eds., Liber
'Pirst Pifty'
Psalmorum: The West-Saxon
of the so-called Paris Psalter (Boston,
1907). ^° I
am grateful
to Prof. O'Neill for his great kindness in providing
tion about his edition (April, 2000) before publication. tion
is:
The complete
me
with informa-
citation for his edi-
King Alfred's Old English Prose Translation of the First Fifty Psalms, ed. Patrick P. Academy Books 104 (Cambridge, MA, 2001).
O'Neill, Medieval
PAUL
144
E.
SZARMACH
author because of lexical evidence and numerous agreements in contents and expression between the Prose Psalms and the known works of King Alfred.
The
evident
commitment
tion, notably the sources
to the intellectual context of the transla-
from the Latin
tradition,
and the grounding
in
manuscript context as well, suggest that the O'Neill edition will be the full-service edition of our time.
Around
this
"Alfredian" canon of now four works has swirled the issue
of Alfredian authorship. Lexical evidence, recurrent themes and images,
and comparable contents and concerns, all extant in abundant number, have provided the criteria and the methodology for the linkages between and among these four works. Similar verbal evidence establishes easy links laic theory,
which
tional verse craft;
between poets and
stresses it
common
in poetry
no longer
their work, thanks to oral-formu-
vocabulary in the tradition and tradi-
has been a long time since anyone has claimed that
the Maldon-poet wrote Beowulf because the half-line har hMerinc occurs in
both poems. Does prose poetry?
The
participate, in
any sense, in a tradition similar to
Alfredian literary output should, moreover, be a challenge to
recent theories on authorship. This challenge should go beyond whether
the term
'*
Alfred" signifies the historical figure or a
a committee of variable membership, an issue theories of authorship,
left
man
in his circle or
over from Romantic
and consider the idea of the author-function and
whether the Alfredian authorial perplex
is
an
early instance validating
post-modem suggestions about authorship or, alternatively, post-modem conception of it. Contemporary, anti-humanist
a test of the
theories have
sought to eliminate the "author" from any centrality in the discussion of literature. Foucault, for
thor,
which he
example, challenges the construction of the au-
believes began with Jerome
and which, arguably, may be
seen to continue in later literature based in Christianity.^*
The
fourfold
Michel Foucault, "What is an Author?" in Textual Strategies: Perspectives in Post' and trans. Josu6 V. Harari (Ithaca, 1979), 141-60; repr. in The Foucault Reader, ed. Paul Rabinow (New York, 1984), 101-20. See also Roland Barthes, "The Death of the Author," in The Rustle of Language, ed. and trans. Richard Howard (New York, 1986), 49-55, and "From Work to Text," 56-64. Some of Barthes's comments seem very useful to the discussion of medieval literature, among other points his '*
Structural Criticism, ed.
analysis of "I" in the earliest poets.
As
and Barthes
this essay. Foucault's four criteria are:
beyond the scope of
is
readily apparent, a full discussion of Foucault
among several books attributed to an author one is inferior to the others, must be withdrawn from the list of the author's works (the author is therefore
(I) if it
is
145
Editions of Alfred
charge against the idea of the author would presumably apply to transla-
—
tion as well
the
"name"
would
or
it?
when he
Foucault seems right
of the author becomes a
way
to classify a
observes that
work and, broadly
speaking, the pursuit of this classification becomes in effect a deflection
from the discussion of
more
texts
and
their relations. This observation needs
analysis relative to "Alfredian," but let
me
suggest here that a suc-
Foucauldian analysis might be the way to rejoin the four works
cessful
dis-
cussed above with the other ''Alfredian" translations, such as the Old
and the Old
English Bede
English Orosius, so as to
form a system of
texts.
Perhaps traditional methodology can do the same for broadly "Alfredian" texts,
but Foucault gives the theoretical basis for a way to sidestep the
issue of
who wrote what. Along with this new view come a new view of the idea
tion should probably
of the authorship quesof the "text."
Though
Anglo-Saxonists have been at the leading edge of the discussion regarding
and written
oral literature
literature,
they have not quite pushed the mar-
gin in the theory of editing to incorporate notions of the instability of texts or texts
mouvance?^ The clash between Christian
may be
less a
classics
and vernacular
clash of Christian versus pagan than between lettered
consciousness and unlettered consciousness. Ultimately for textual meth-
defined as a constant level of value);
(2)
the same should be done
if
certain texts
contradict the doctrine expounded in the author's other works (the author
exclude works that are written in a different
style,
(3)
sions not ordinarily found in the writer's production (the author
ceived as a
stylistic unity); (4) finally,
is
one must also containing words and expres-
thus defined as a field of conceptual or theoretical coherence);
is
here con-
passages quoting statements that were
made
or mentioning events that occurred after the author's death must be regarded as interpolated texts (the author is here seen as a historical figure at the crossroads of a certain number of events).
Mark Vessey and that
an article by K. K. HuUey and cited Jerome's De uiris illustnhus mis-
suggests that Foucault took these ideas from
in the process
he garbled some
ideas
leadingly as the source, for Jerome's principles are in a range of works, "notably the pref-
Mark Vessey, "The Forging of Orthodoxy Study," Journal of Early Christian Studies 4 (1996): 495-513, here 506-9, and esp. nn. 30 and 31; Karl Kelchner Hulley, "Principles of Texace to Jerome's Commentarj on FMemon.'' See in Latin Christian Literature:
tual Criticism
Known
A Case
to St. Jerome,"
Harvard Studies
in Classical Philology
55 (1944): 87-
109. For a consideration of Foucault's "fourfold" interpretation see P. E. Szarmach,
The Lives of Martin and the Idea of the Author," forthcoming in the memorial volume, ed. Katherine O'Brien O'Keeffe and Mark Amodio.
"/Elfric Revises:
E. B. Irving ^^
1999).
See B. Cerquiglini,
In Praise of the Variant, trans. B.
Wing
(Baltimore and London,
PAUL
146
SZARMACH
E.
we need not ascertain Alfred's ipsissima et ukissima verba auctoris, rather we may need only to describe the evidence in our editions.
but
od,
to
These problems and insufficiencies in the some serious distortions in the literary and
editions of Alfred have led cultural record. Let
me
sug'
gest major problem areas in the entire subject:
1.
The
disciplinary divide.
Alfred
is
History's darling, not Literature's.
to see Alfred as a special figure
The preponderance historical figure,
It is
on the horizon of
not Victorian excess
early medieval culture.
of scholarship on Alfred, however,
man
not as a
of letters. History has
is
on Alfred
moved along
as a
in
its
understanding of the ninth century, the role of kingship, the continental
among
connections, the internal politics of the House of Wessex,
other
re*
search areas. Literary scholars have yielded the turf of study, relying on
outdated editions that trap them in repetitious formulations that often
prove no longer
fiiiitfril.
Even when Alfred Smyth challenges
orthodoxy, his description of Alfredian literature
The
is
historical
quite conventional.^^
disciplinary divide has proven very unhelpful.
2* Alfred as a poet.
Up
to the
Norman Conquest we know
cians,^^ but conventional
mon and
the names of some eight physi-
name among the
literary histories
Cynewulf. James
W.
Earl
is
only two poets: Caedfirst
to
make
a serious
case for Alfred as poet and for the significance of his work, with attendant theoretical implications.^^ Perhaps
now
that formalism
is
on the
can admit Alfred's name to the small number of "names" pantheon.
Once we let Alfred may not be far
that Wulfistan
run,
we
in the poetic
into the neighborhood (and do not forget behind!), so to speak, the conception of
what was Anglo-Saxon poetry will have to change and aesthetics will have to make room for cultural meaning. The boundary between verse and prose will become less sharply defined, as suggested above, if the Metres of
" ^
Alfred P. Smyth, King Alfred the Great (Oxford, 1995), csp. 527-66.
Stanley Rubin,
land, ed.
"
"The Anglo-Saxon
Physician," in Median*
Marilyn Deegan and D. G. Scragg (Manchester, 1987;
James
W.
Earl, Thinking
m
Early Medieval Eng'
corr. ed. 1989), 8.
About "Beowulf (Stanford, 1994), 87-99;
this section
of
the book, "King Alfred's Talking Poems," appeared earlier in Pacific Coast Phiiology 24 (1989): 49-61.
Editions of Alfred
147
Boethius are reunited with the prosae. There are to ask about Alfredian poetry: whether
wrought urn or a thorns of
crisp
to bleed
life
it is
many
cultural questions
aesthetically pleasing as a well-
baked cake or whether he has
seem
less
important issues
fallen
upon the
now than how
aggressive attitudes towards literacy reflect his political aims.
It is
Alfred's
perhaps
easy to see literacy in the service of public policy and power politics; was
poetry the crown jewel in this setting as well?
3.
The
possibility of speculative
The
man
thought in ninth'century England.
standard conception of Alfred
of affairs
that he was very
much
a practical
expertise did not finally extend to baking, but rather
and woodcraft. Yet the heavy philosophical content of
to statecraft translations
whose
is
and
their indebtedness to Christian cultural concepts are ap'
Somewhere and somehow Alfred came to accept the notion reflection upon great thoughts was a good thing, and he was able to parent.
a place for these reflective possibilities in his royal
have never found an easy way to describe Alfred's
life.
that find
Anglo-Saxonists
interest in speculative
thought, and a good edition can help pave the way. (Malraux, after
knew how
his
to use a parachute
early model, to be sure,
—
whose
or thought
he
cultural interests
did.)
all,
Charlemagne was an
would seem to have been
within the shadow of Alcuin. Did Alfred organize his cultural responses similarly?
4.
The
idea of an edition.
In classical studies for
model of the
some generations now there has been
a working
enterprise that seems pretty straightforward: establish the text
and then begin
interpretation.
Much
like
the rule in chess that says "knights
before bishops," the rule meets the Cartesian test for the clear and the dis-
but in their textual practice Anglo-Saxonists have only recently shown
tinct,
some measure of reflection. There has cal discussion of editing in
praxis. first
Old
actually never
English.
been a
full-scale theoreti-
There have been many
discussions of
In this age of theory perhaps Anglo-Saxonists should begin with the
question
I
posed here, at
least to clarify their
As come unmediated.
aims and intentions.
other fields of study have also learned, editions do not
Some
sense of where the discussion
ferred
from Rob Fulk's discussion of editing theory and Beowulf}^
^^
Rob
Fulk, 'Textual Criticism," in
A
on Alfrediana might go can be
Beowulf Handbook, ed. Robert
E.
in-
Bjork and
PAUL
148 Douglas Bush once said in
SZARMACH
E.
was very much
class that a scholar
like
a
foghorn: a foghorn calls attention to a problem but does nothing to solve it.
At
first
glance
ry scholarly role
it
may seem
tion in the cultural record.
on the run and vogue:
it
possible to effect a reversal in this customa*
whereby Alfredian
its
By
all
up a more suitable
literature takes
accounts, old-style formalism
privileging of the short
poem seems
posi-
indeed
is
no longer
to be
in
hard to hear a paper on The Wanderer at the International
is
Congress at Western Michigan University (Kalamazoo) or at the biennial
meeting of the International Society of Anglo-Saxonists, or meeting of the Modern Language Association. Then,
new
theory and in cultural studies (note
at the Dictiormry of
Old
And
quiet use of the phrase "cul-
But do not take an option on the
free, all-inclusive,
New Jerusalem
of the deal are in place, some seem to be missing, and
much
Old English tends
of theory in
what works
is
el of interpretation
Jauss's phrase).
The computer
old-time philology and
no
is
pieces
always be.
Too
whereby
some major
its
mod-
pomps and works
are al'
what
it
means, and so the devaluation of
decline do not seem to offer sunny prospects for
That necessary bridge between the
Latin tradition furthermore seems to be crumb-
points. Like
it
cure-all, for its
Alfrediana.
should, perhaps, press focus
literature. In this
the case that what a manuscript page says
It is still
new age of editions in Old English text and the a
With more
easy-to-
the Middle Ages never offer a "resisting reality" (in
or might say has to be a part of
we
may
and
While
to be of the applique variety,
seen to work for early medieval
most always oversold.
Starr
yet.
for the interpretation of twentieth-century or twenty-first-
century literature
ling at
files
indeed the boom, woof, and tweet of
the computer promise editions that will be access.
annual
more encompassing view of the
tural record" above) augurs well for a Engiis/i.
my
at the
too, the interest in
would be
Micawber and Special Prosecutor Kenneth
on because something might
better,
however, to
just turn up.
move on towards
laying
the foundation for the next generation by developing and extending those areas of issues
knowledge that we can,
and the problems. There
is
as a field, see
now. Let us formulate the
no Alfredian Klaeber
pect, and the current structure of scholarship
is
not
at present or in pros-
likely to support
one.
Jack Nilcs (Lincoln, NE, 1997), 35-54, csp. 48-52, where the consideration of textual criticism, contemporary and outside of Old English studies but perhaps relative to Beowulf,
may be
suggestive.
H9
Editions of Alfred
In the United States, at least, academic practices seem to augur
the edition as a career-making genre for the untenured. In
as
for
at
nation between the last
ill
a depart-
many a dean's level personnel committee "editing" is viewed 'service." Above the departmental level there may not be any discrimi'
ment and *
many
effort to
assemble papers in polymer chemistry from
summer's regional symposium and the creation of meaning out of a
burnt Cotton manuscript. Such a misreading occurs particularly
when
a
dean or provost comes from the hard sciences. Within a department it has happened that a worthy young editor may see an excellent edition for a prestigious series
downgraded in favor of a book applying
literary
theory to
the same
or similar material. This ''academic'political" dimension of edit-
ing takes
its
is
practical seat at the table considering the theory of editing. It
another negative that must be recognized.
JANET BATELY
Book
Divisions and
Chapter Headings in the Translations of the Alfredian Period
OPEN ANY EDITION OF AN Old English
prose translation attributed to, or
generally associated with, King Alfred,^ and clear. First of all,^
the use of
ment
^
incipits
we normally
and
explicits.
of the Latin source and
overall structure seems
marked by
These sometimes contain an acknowledge'
—
For the Alfredian canon and
its
find a subdivision into books,
its
just
once^
— the name
associates see
Greg Waite,
of the translator.
OE
Prose Translations
of King Alfred's Reign, Annotated Bibliographies of Old and Middle English Literature 6 (Oxford, 2000), Editions used are: King Alfred's West-Saxon Version of Gregory's Pastoral Care, ed. by Henry Sweet, 2 vols., EETS o.s. 45, 50 (London, 1871) [PC]; King Alfred's Old EngUsh Version ofBoethius' De Consolatione Phihsophiae, ed. Walter John Sedgefield (Oxford, 1899) [Bo]\ King Alfred's Version of St. Augustine's Solibquies, ed. Thomas A. Camicelli (Cambridge, MA, 1969) [So/iTj; King Alfred's Old English Prose Translation of the First Fifty Psalms, ed. Patrick P. O'Neill (Cambridge, MA, 2001) [Psj; The Old English Version of Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the EngUsh People, ed.
Thomas
Miller,
EETS
o.s.
95, 96, 110, 111 (London, 1890-1898), [Be]; BischofWcerferths von Worcester Obersetzung
Hans Hecht (Leipzig, 1900, Hamburg, 1907; repr. Darmstadt, 1965) [GD]; The Old English Orosius, ed. Janet Bately, EETS s.s. 6 (Oxford, 1980) [Or]. Manuscript sigla are those of the editions and Waite, Translations.
der Dialoge Gregors des Grossen, ed.
^
After prefatory materials in prose and verse in PC,
Solil.
^SoW
97.17.
GD
and Bo, and
(prose only)
JANET BATELY
152 So, for instance,
Be 92.26-27 Her endad sec
Or
aereste
boc 7 onginned seo oder
83.6-7 7 her enda6 sic J?ridde boc 7 ongin6 seo
Bo 103.21-22 Her endad nu
feorj^e
boc Boeties, 7 onginned
sio jDridde
sio
fiorde^
GD
259.20-23 Her endad seo
boc
{^ridde
jjaes
apostolican weres
sancte Gregorius gespraeces 7 Petres his deacones, 7 her
aefter
onginne}? seo feorde boc gefraetwedu 7 awritenu mid wislicum
wordum
7
on gespraecum
Sold 83.13-14 (H)er endia6
ongind seo gadorung Solil
92.13 (H)aer endiad
{)aere \)z
witena
t>ara ilcena
\)^
blostman
blostmena
blostman
Jjaere
forman boce. (H)er bee.
[jaere aeftran
bee
Jjaere aeftran
|)e
we hatad
Soliloquiorum
Apart from ception
Ps,
where the basic unit
of course the psalm, the only ex-
is
provided by PC, though this does
is
source in
prefatory materials.^
its
into books in this case
is
name
title
of
its
explained, quite simply, by reference to the tex'
tual history of that source, the four ''partes'' of
modem
editions of GregO'
work^ not being a feature of the group of Latin manuscripts to which
ry's
Alfred's exemplar belonged.^ Second, all
author and
However, the absence of any division
we
find in the
modem
editions of
but the Soliloquies a further division into numbered subjections or
"chapters".^ Third, and except for
been
and
our
lost,
lations of
modem
Solil,
and
Ps,
editions include contents
Gregory the Great's Cura
lists.
Fourth, in the trans-
and and Dialogues (Books
Pastoralis
and (along with argumenta and other
11),
whose openings have
1
material) the psalms, each
chapter begins with a heading or capituiy
^
Sedgefield's edition does not foreground Bo's book-divisions.
5
PC
*
Grigpire
Morel, 2
7.19 and 9.10.
tatione liber '
k
Grand, Rigle Pastorale, ed. Bnino Judic, Floiibcrt Rommel, and Charles Sources Chr6tiennes 381 (Paris, 1992), 1: 124, "Quadripertita uero dispu-
vols..
iste distinguitur."
Pastoraiis,*'
See
also
Migne's
comment (PL
77. 13-14).
W.
Clement, "King Alfred and the Latin Manuscripts of Gregory's Regula Jourrud of the Rocky Mountain Medieval and Renaissance Association 6 (1985),
Richard
1-13. * Ps's
'
numbered
Sec Ps
2,
divisions are those current at the time.
heading, "Daes aefteran sealmes capitul
is
gecweden psalmus Dauid";
GD
Translations of the Alfredian Period
From
this
it
might seem that
153
for Alfred
and
his
contemporaries there
was an established sequence of verbal and numerical,
opposed to purely
as
way around lengthy prose glance at the manuscripts on
visual, signposts to assist readers to find their texts, a "house-style".
which the
But even a cursory
editions are based reveals that the impression of conformity
misleading. Agreement does not extend even
ing of chapter numbers.
to the entering
is
and position-
^°
L Book and Chapter Divisions Absence of any agreement in usage among the five surviving manuscripts means that we cannot claim that formal incipits and explicits, whether Latin or vernacular, were necessarily present in the archetype of the
— though
clear visual indications of the beginning of
the norm, in the shape of enlarged, elaborate and/or coloured of spaces
on the
toria Ecclesiastica,
Books
and
I
initials
and
page, and the divisions mirror the practice in Bede's His-
which,
as
Bede himself states (HE V.xxiv), he composed
Contemporary chapter numbers
in lihris V.
for
OE Bede^^
each new book are
II
sions, otherwise indicated only
MS Ca
and,
T. Chapter
divi-
are found only in
(though subsequently erased), in
MS
by visual features, generally correspond to
those of Plummet's Latin C-type.^^ However, there are a ceptions. So, for instance, in
Book
I,
number
of ex-
instead of breaking at Be 56.22,
spans
HE I.xxv begins, the OE version divides at Be 56.25. Be Ill.xiv HE Ill.xvi-xx, while HE Il.xvi has been split in two to form Be
Il.xiii
and the greater part of
where
number of
Il.xiv. It
94. 9
behind
(MS
hard to find a rationale for a
these modifications which, significantly, seem to "have gone
further in Z, the archetype of C, scripts
is
H),
T
O and Ca, than
[they]
had
in the
manu-
and B."^^ However, some may already have been
"Her endiaS ^a
capitulas taere aefixan boce." For
Bo
capital,
pres-
"chapter",
see below, 158. '°
A similar absence
of confonnity
is
to
be found in manuscripts of die Latin
texts.
''
For details see Miller's edition and Ker, Catalogue. For incipits and explicits in contents lists see Miller's edition and Dorothy Whitelock, "The List of Chapter-Headings in the Old English Bede," in Old English Studies in Honour of John C. Vope, ed. Robert B. Burlin and Edward B. Irving,
Jr.
(Toronto, 1974), 263-84, here 267.
*^
Venerahilis
*'
See Whitelock, "Chapter-Headings," 272-75, here 270. Possible explanations are
Baedae Opera
Historica, ed.
Carolus Plummer (Oxford, 1896),
xciii
ff.
JANET BATELY
154
cnt in the translator's Latin exemplar, as in the case of Book incorporates HE's
both Be and HE,
in
Ill.ii
MS
Ill.i,
which
C;'^ others are associated
with the omission of epistoke.^^ In manuscripts of Bede's Historia Ecclesiastica, the only verbal indica*
between books are formal headings, with
tions of divisions plicits.
embedded
called discursive markers, UheUi
the
incipits
and
ex-
In the JJbri Septem, in contrast, Orosius employs what might be
(libri
OE
and volumina) very
in the text,'^ with the division into
Of
clearly signposted there.
(OH
version retains only two
these six links,
and VWII), the remainder
II/III
having been dropped in the course of modifications by the translator to the content of that part of the text in which they occur. There bal recognition at
Or
in
all
of
ever, formal vernacular explicits
sions
between Books
OH
sion at
and
and
II
incipits
(in
L
have been supplied
only)
III
and
is
no
ver*
and V/VI. How-
divisions at FVA^'^
for the divi-
IV,*® while the divi-
VI/VII (Or V/VI) combines the discursive and the formal.'^
It is this last
that
is
of greatest interest. For though neither
any division between
numbering
and
I
OH's
OH
Books
V
and VI, and,
continuous at this point, leading
is
as
we
L nor
C marks
shall see, chapter
modem
editors to treat
Book VII as a final book. Or Book VI, MS L introduces this new Book 6 with the words **[Nu) ic wille, cwaed Orosius, on foreweardre \>isse
Orosius's
bee gereccean
seofel>an
."^° .
.
the translator.^* However,
book marker,
it
like that linking
OE
failure in a Latin or
Campbell considers
this to
be an error by
must be remembered that
this discursive
Books
exemplar to begin
a
II
and
new
III^^ is
a rendering of a pas-
chapter on a
new
line, or misapplica'
tion or misinterpretation of an enlarged letter within a chapter.
" See HE, *'
See,
'^
A
opening
ed.
Plummer, 128,
Be
e.g.,
n. 6.
Il.ix.
number of
MSS
also
have formal
and merits
expUcits
as well as impressive
initials.
" For C's
Both manuscripts
contents-list at this point see below, 161.
book visually. " MS C reads of a vernacular
instead "incipit liber quartus".
mcipit,
naming the work
at the
It is
signal the
also exceptional in
beginning of the
its
new
inclusion
text.
OH
"
In MS L the formal links lAl, IlIAV and VWII (Or WNl) are in smaller with some differences of aspect and spelling from their surroundings. For the spelling nd for nd {endad, enjxoJ) cf. Psalter Gloss E (Harley) 60 3 ende.
script
^°
Or 132.24-25. See
also
Or 132.22-23, "Her
enidjaj) sio iixu boc, 7
ongind sec
siofodcr ^' The ToUemache Orosius (British Museum Additiorud Manuscript 47967), ed. Alisuir Campbell. EEMF, 3 (Copenhagen, 1953), 15. MS C has the numerals v, vi and vi.
^ OH
II.xix.l6,
"Et quoniam uber dicendi materia
est,
quae nequaquam hoc conclu'
Translations of the Alfredian Period
155
sage in the Latin original, composed in the
first
person, and
OE
intended to relate to the structure of the
sarily
is
in any case hesitate before concluding that the author himself
an
editorial decision to
OH V
not neces'
And we
text.^^
should
had taken
At
modify the overall shape of his source.
the
on either side of the divide has been left unrendered in the OE version, which leaps from OH V.xix.9 to Vl.ii.l, via just ten lines of (printed) text. That no new
point where
book
begins, a large section of the Latin
signalled here
is
may be
previous one
OH's sion,
divide
— the — perhaps
(or
unaware) that he has
is
subject of the Mithridatic wars after
or
,
and
either because the translator, cutting
paraphrasing ruthlessly, has forgotten
on
quite simply because
the
left
all also
spans
this particular occa^
not translating the material at the transition point, he has no reason to
report
what
'Orosius
said',^"^
or to note that in
OH a new book has begun.
Certainly in the two surviving manuscripts,^^ chapter numbering supports a
six-,
not a seven-book work. But what weight
we
should place on
the evidence of Or's chapter-divisions must depend on our view of
was responsible
for these
must be noted that there ization
is
at
and that of Zangemeister's edition or indeed of those Latin manu-
scripts closest to
Or. In the Old English the determining factor appears to
"^r
be the presence or absence of the formulaic timbred waere", and possibility ter
who
what stage in transmission.^^ And it virtually no correlation between Or's sectionaland
''^^fter Jjaem t>e
t>aem
Romeburg
t>e
Romeburg getimbred
cannot be ruled out that whoever was responsible
numbering
relied
on
this
and a handful of
di libro potest, hie praesentis uoluminis finis
sit,
ge-
and the
waes",
for Or's
chap-
similar contexts for his sel-
ut in subsequentibus cetera persequa-
mur." See Pauli Orosii Historiarum adversum paganos hbri VII, ed. by Carolus Zangemeister (Leipzig, 1889) [OH]; Or 53.4-6, "Ne wene ic, cwaed Orosius, nu ic longe spell haebbe to secgenne, \>a£t ic hie on jjisse bee geendian maege. Ac ic ot)ere anginnan sceal." ^^
Based on
OH VI.xxii.9-11,
fine concluserim: ut genninantia
"Quamobrem
.
.
.
hunc quoque sextum
tempora Christiana
.
.
.
septimo
libello
libellum .
.
.
hoc
compre-
hendam".
The " The
^^
division should
have come
at
Or
125.14.
fragment, Oxford, Bodleian Library, Eng. Hist.
e.
49 has chapter numbering
but does not cover the part in question. In MS L chapter numbers are initially entered in the middle of an otherwise blank between chapters; subsequently they are located in the left-hand margin of the first line of a new chapter. In MS C numbering (from Ill.iii) is nonnally entered at the end of the last line of the previous chapter. A marginal number for I.xiii, unmentioned by Ker, Catalogue, is probably not in the hand of the text. Ker also fails to note an original ^^
line
number
ii
in the
list
of contents.
JANET BATELY
156 ection,^^ rather tion.
than on an authorial decision made at the time of transla^
This can be no more than conjecture. However,
perhaps worth
it is
noting one interesting feature that both hnks and separates the two manu' scripts.
an
In the middle of
FV.iv
MS
L has
a
new
paragraph, opened by
extra-large decorated *N' offeet in the margin, in identical size
pearance to the
we
(88.14 **Nu
both is
Or
initial letters
A
or
sculon fon, cwaed Orosius ...").
this and, exceptionally, the
and ap-
/t that open the numbered sections
MS C
at this point has
heading be cartaima gewinne}^ Neither
accompanied by a chapter number. In the Dialogues, in contrast, there are regular verbal links between
books, with a variety of
explicits
a set of figurative openings, as
godcundan
t)aere
spraece,
se
prynges."^° However, there
is
and
incipits
GD 94.12-15, cymd
of
and English,^^ and
in Latin
"Her ymd up
t)aere
rynelan
se aeftra stream
J)aes
gastlican aes-
a major difference between the practice of
MSS C and O and that in the revised version in MS H with respect to a further subdivision into chapters, reflecting the dif-
the "original" text of
ferent (Latin) manuscript traditions behind them. So, as Yerkes observes,
MS C
(which
like
nated numbers
O
IIII
normally lacks chapter numbering) "has the illumi-
and VIII
twelve-chapter division
[originall
Book [of the Dialogi Book
at the places in
tax bridges the former chapter break
C
and
O
does so."^^
(originally
Latin
^'
MSS
MS
unnumbered)
H,
.
.
.
I
II",
though "O's syn*
and elsewhere the syntax of both
in contrast, sets out
Book
1
in thirty-four
sections, reflecting the divisions in the group of
closest to that used
by the
reviser.^^
See Or Il.ii (with dating from the fall of Troy), Il.iv and IV.v (both beginning and the book-openings Or II. i and V.i (Ic), and VI. (Nu ic).
j^fter l>ctm),
i
^*
Sub-headings of
^'
For
full details
^ Simeon and
appropriate for the
Potter,
this sort are a feature of a
number of manuscripts of OH.
see Hecht's edition.
"On
the Relation of the Old English Bede to Werferth's Gregory
to Alfred's Translations," in Vistnik krdlovslU ^eski spolednosti nauk, ed.
I.
(Prague, 1930; separately printed, 1931), 7, appears to assume that these passages are
bellishments by the translator. However, they could be based
on headings
Roc em-
in the lost
Latin exemplar.
" David Yerkes, The Two Versiorxs of Waerferth's Trarulation of Gregory's Dialogues: Old English Thesaurus (Toronto, 1979), xix. In MS O text is entered continuously for Books I and II, but in paragraphs for Books III and IV. " These have thirty-five chapter-headings. See David Yerkes, "The Chapter Tides for Book I of Gregory's Dialogues," Revue Benedictine 89 (1979): 178-82, and idem, "The Translation of Gregory's Dialogues and its Revision," in Studies m Earlier Old English Prose, ed. Paul E. Szarmach (Albany. 1986). 335-43. here 341.
An
157
Translations of the Alfredian Period
In the case of the Pastoral Care, which, as
we have
seen,
is
the excep-
tion in not containing divisions into books, chapter numbering
not universal. So, bered in
MS U,
for instance, individual chapters in the text are
but
H
labels
them
I
to
LXV
as in
the
'*first
is
again
unnum-
recension" of
the Latin text.^^ However, the very clear and logical compartmentalism that
is
tion to
a feature of Gregory's its
work and the
relative fidelity of the transla-
source have combined to ensure that divisions between sections
are neither blurred nor removed.
A more complicated situation obtains Alfred's Boethius.
Both indicate a
in the
two surviving versions of
division into five books, as in Boe-
However, only two of these book markers coincide with a
thius's Latin.
MS B,^"^ The V occurs part-way through chapter xl, perhaps sig(confined to MS C, where
chapter division in the Old English version as found in
change-over from Book IV to Book while the marker for Books nificantly occurs at the
I/II
it
bottom of a
recto) falls
more than half-way
through chap, xvi (Sedgefield 38/5-6) and interrupts an otherwise coherent argument. Moreover
it
also
comes
at a point
where Alfred
section of the Latin text, which, far from ending
located well
into II.pr.6. It
seems
is
CPh Book
translating a I,
is
actually
likely that its incorrect position
is
the
work of an incompetent scribe, seeking to make good a perceived deficiency. At the same time the first book marker to be found in both manuscripts, that between Books II and III, is unusually full of information of a kind which, today at
least,
through a translation of
{Bo 50.5-7) l)ridde.
toga
we might not have expected
Her endad nu seo
to find part-way
and content:
this type
aeftre froferboc
Boeties 7 ongind sio
Se Boetius waes odre naman haten Seuerinus;
se waes here-
Romana.
The statement that Boethius was a Roman heretoga had of course been made already in the opening chapter, as an explanation of the term consul. The detail that his second name was Severinus occurs nowhere else in the text. However, we may compare CPfi's book explicits and incipits beginning
"
See Judic,
'*
See Bo 50.5-6 and 103.21-22.
ed., Rigle Pastorale, 1:
114-23.
158
JANET BATELY
"Anicii Manlii Severini Boethii losophiae consolationis
liber.
.
.
.
exconsulis ordinarii atque patricii phi-
"^^
At
the same time a reference to capitulan^^ in the text of both manu-
scripts
seems to indicate that sectionalization was part of the original de-
However, whether or not these "chapters" were numbered in the master-copy, and what their intended parameters were, must be a mat'
sign of Bo,
MS
ter for speculation. In
C, with
its
mixture of prose and verse, there
is
no division into numbered chapters, but each of the verse meters opens on a new line, with a large space left for an initial capital that was never entered.
The arrangement then
quite simply that of the Latin, with
is
ternation of verse and prose grouped in five books (though the Bks.
incipit for
I/II is,
B, in contrast, the text
by
Roman
we have
as is
line.
ground to the work.
explicit/
seen, misplaced).^^ In the all-prose
MS
divided into forty-two chapters, usually identified
numerals entered
and on the same
its al-
The
0{ the
word of the preceding chapter
after the last first
chapter gives an account of the back-
remaining forty-one chapters only sixteen
(ap-
proximately 39 percent) correspond exactly to either proses or meters in
the Latin. Another seven (chaps, xvi, xxvi, and xxix-xxxiii) reduce to a single entry material
two
(xxxvii
more
result
and
from a Latin prose and
xxxviii)
combine
a meter
from the opposite practice, the
(the cluster chaps, ix/x, xiii/xiv,
and
its
accompanying meter, while
and the following
splitting in
xvii/xviii).
two of a Latin prose
The remaining
between them contain material from no fewer than
ters
and meters
in the Latin and, with
mation
usually of three or
—
ten chap-
thirty five proses
one exception, are the
more items
prose. Six
result of
in the Latin,^®
with a
amalgasignifi-
cant concentration at the end of the work. Bolton, observing that there
is
**no coiwistent structural relationship to [the Latin] source", explains this
'^ AnicU Manlii Severini Boethii Philosopfuae Consolatio, ed. Ludovicus Bieler, Coqxis Christianonim Series Latina 94 (Tumhout, 1957), 35 [CPhj.
^ Bo
73. 14-15,
"on
dxm
ende
J)isses
capitulan";
CPh
III.8.12, in
summam.
Gcxlden, in an important article on the Boethius, calculates that the now fire-damaged text was originally "divided up into some sixty-three sections": see M. R. Godden, ^^
"Editing Old English and the Problem of Alfred's Boethius," in Editing of Old Eng^h: Pa1990 Manchester Conference, ed. D. 0. Scragg and P. E. Szarmach (Wood-
pers from the
bridge. 1994), 163-76, here 166.
^
See,
e.g.,
CPh
Il.pr.3,
2, in
chap.
the vii.
chap. xxxv. first
part of
The
exception
which
is
is
chap,
viii,
formed from the second part of 1 and 2 and meter
incorporated, along with proses
Translations of the Alfredian Period
159
in terms of "literary strategy": "Alfred's greatest alteration
casting of Boethius' five books and
many
chapters and sections of prose
.
original highly literary
.
.
proses
was the reand meters into forty- two
Alfred's version dispenses with the
form in favor of a pedagogical form, a preface and
a set of 'lessons'. "^^ Constraints of space prevent a detailed response
However,
here.
it
should be noted that Sedgefield's edition, with
its
num-
bered chapter divisions and paragraphing, ignoring the change-of-book
no means provides either an accurate or a fair representation of the layout of MS B from which he supposedly takes them.'^^ I find no reason to suppose that either the number of chapter divisions, or the locamarkers, by
numbers (only
tion of the chapter
by Alfred himself. Linguistically the text
sarily reflects a decision
we have
very carefrilly signposted, with, as
but the
first
identified in
of the type
book
irregularly entered in the MS),"^^ neces-
seen, explicits
and
and with Boethius's meters normally
division,
itself is
incipits for all
clearly
both manuscripts by introductory and closing verbal markers
"Da
se
Wisdom
7 t^us singende cwaeS
.
.
."
t^a Sis spell
asaed haefde,
"Da
(Bo 48.21-22) and
asungen haefde, 5a ..." (Bo
t>a
se
47.3), the great majority
ongan he giddigan
Wisdom
Jja J^is
leod
without precedent in
the Latin. (A handfril of modifications disruptions?] of Boethius's structure as recorded in
by the
MS
translator.)
B
are the result of omission of these verbal markers^^
This signposting
is
reinforced visually in
use of enlarged coloured capitals, or of spaces
left for
such
MS B
with marginal guide-letters for a rubricator and entry on a new ing up the
work more
clearly
and demonstrating that the meters as separate
^'
W.
F. Bolton,
entities.
and
logically
by the
capitals,
along
line, divid-
than does the numbering,'^^
scribe of the text recognized the (identifiable)
As
"How Boethian
is
for the
book
explicitslincipits,
these are
Alfred's Boetkiusl," in Studies, ed Szarmach,
153-
68, here 153, 158. ^°
For warnings about Sedgefield's text see Godden, "Editing," 169.
^'
Ker, Catalogue, 359, cautiously
in the ink of the text."
which
I
(as, e.g.,
^^
e.g.,
would suggest
Some is
in fact
in the
comments
may
hand of
Junius, a transcriber of the manuscript. Others
chaps, iv-vii) remain unnumbered.
So,
e.g.,
CPh
l.m.6 (Bo 12.7-1
1),
Bo 116.34. For the omission of an ^'
numbered number 35,
that the chapters are "usually
well be later additions, as chapter
The
and (with omission only of the closing entire meter, see chap.
tag), see,
vii.
new chapter to a "song" seems to be whim. Moreover, the introductory formulae sometimes precede the chapter division and sometimes follow it: see, e.g., chaps, ii, iv, xxxix, xli, beside chaps, decision whether or not to allocate a
entirely a matter of
ix, xii,
XV, etc.
JANET BATELY
160 carefully highlighted
by an enlarged opening
guide-letter. In the case of
Books
printed by Sedgefield after the
MS
II/III,
initial or large
B's chapter
expUcitJincipit, in fact
space and
number
xxii,
precedes it.^
In addition to identifying shifts to and from meters and book divisions,
the enlarged and coloured
initials (or
spaces
left for
them) also on a num-
ber of occasions signal a major change of speaker. Most, but not
all,
of
new chapter number. So, for instance, chaphave been formed from CPh II.pr.7, the break coming
these are accompanied by a
and
ters xvii
immediately
and being
xviii
after
initial letter,
logue.^^
an important addition by Alfred on
(unnumbered
xi
II.pr.4,
change of speaker only a few
viii,
initial
lines earlier
Sedgefield does not even afford
it
in the manuscript)
a
is
new
which opens with a speech by
on
a
new
begun a paragraph
earlier,
line.
However, a
also similarly signalled,
paragraph.
Mod
"^^
We
though
may compare
and a marginal number of
doubtful authenticity. In this case the translation of fact
have simi-
with the break at a change of speaker,
marked by an enlarged and coloured
chap,
needs as a king
followed by an enlarged red E, opening the ensuing dia-
Chapters x and
been formed from CPh
larly
his
signalled in the manuscript by a gap sufficient for a two-line
CPh
II.pr.3
had
in
without highlighting and containing no
change of speaker. Cumulatively these features seem to indicate that chapter numbers
were inserted B,^*'
after
by someone
completion of the translation, in an ancestor of
who was
markers for proses and meters
which a his task
rubricator
— and
MS
not especially scrupulous in observing verbal
—
possibly of course using a manuscript in
had either not yet been
at
work or not yet completed
looking, not particularly carefully, for verbal indications of
a major change of speaker.
^ Carelessness by the scribe of a manuscript behind MS B in entering chapter numbers or inconsistencies in the distribution of enlarged and coloured initiab is perhaps the best explanation for the varied placing of the location of the "began to sing" tag, sometimes at the end of the preceding section, sometimes as part of the new one. ^'
Significantly, as
Godden
notes ("Editing," 166),
MS C
has a "slightly enlarged
where chapter xviii begins, suggesting that the Cotton arrangement goes back ultimately to a copy containing something like the Bodley manuscript's organization." capital within the manuscript line ... at the point
^ *^
See
also, e.g., chaps, xxii
Unlike
MS
and xxvi.
B, this manuscript presumably contained a full set of numbers
haps a numbered contents
list.
and
per*
Translations of the Alfredian Period
However, any discussion of the
161
relative status of the chapter divisions
also take into account the status of the
must
list
of contents that opens
the manuscript.
Contents
11.
Lists
we have
Lists of contents, as
and Chapter Headings
seen, are to be found in
survey apart from the two whose openings have been
all
the texts in our
lost,
while the two
translations of the works of Gregory also contain headings to individual
chapters. In the case of the Pastoral Care, Alfred faithfriUy following his Latin source.
PC,
MS
contents
Not (in
once more
at first sight
However, chapter headings are actU'
absent from the oldest surviving Latin manuscript,"^^ while that those
ally
in
is
H, are almost
letter-for^letter duplicates of
the entries in the
suggests a single act of translation for the
lists
unusually for rubricated material, these headings in
Old
H
English."^^
were entered
red ink) after the text had been written, in gaps between the end of
one chapter and the beginning of the next. There
is
often
no
correlation
between the amount of space needed and that provided. However, exten^ sive
and complex space-saving involving both text and headings may
indi-
cate the presence of the latter already in H's exemplar.
Also problematic
and contents
the relative chronology of the translation of text
is
list/chapter headings
and the possible
role of Alfred's
amanu-
enses in preparing "apparatus". In the standard Latin text the contents
and headings
list
for the series of admonitions, chaps, xxiv-lix, agree virtually
word-for-word with a summary that forms the second part of chap, xxiii (Part
III,
chap,
i
in
modern
editions).
At
the same time each entry dupli-
cates the opening sentence of the chapter to contrast, there are
some
which
it
refers.
substantial differences of wording
In PC, in
between the
translations in each case provided, with important implications for our un-
derstanding of the history
of,
and background
to,
the translation. So, for
example,
^®
See Judic,
among
and
a table ^'
ed.,
Rtgk
Pastorale, 1: 128, note.
Clement, "King Alfred," 8 notes that is "unusual" in having both
the Latin manuscripts of Anglo-Saxon provenance, F (for
Bk.
Ill
See below. 162.
only) chapter nibrics.
JANET BATELY
162
CP
(contents Ust, heading,
ammonendi
summary and
cum
sunt qui
humilitate formidant;
[Quod]^® aliter
text) xlviiii:
praedicare digne ualeant, prae nimia
[atque)^'
aliter
[ammonendi
a praedicatione imperfectio uel aetas prohibet, et pitatio impellit
PC
(contents
(CP
120. 4-7; 264.3-6; 428.1-4
and heading
list
sunt]^^
tamen
quos
praeci-
and 5-8)."
Daette on o6re wisan sint to
xlviiii:
monianne da 6e medomlice cunnon
& deah for miclum
laeran,
& for miceire eadmodnesse forwandiad; &l on odre wisan 5a & deah
ege
de danne giet to daem gewintrede ne beo5 ne gedigene, for hraedhydignesse
minor
PC
heo6 to gegripene (PC 19.7-11 and, with
spelling variants,
(summary)
xxiii;
PC
375.12-16).
ond on odre wisan da 5e fuUfremede ne beod
& deah for hraedwil& on odre wisan da de medomlice & wel magon
nohwaeder ne on ieldo ne on wisdome, nesse to fod,
him deah ondraedad dy forlaetad (PC 177.14-17). laeran, &l
PC
(text) xlviiii:
laeran
On
magon,
eadmodnesse, daet hie hit
for
odre wisan sint to maniane da de medomlice
& deah for miceire eadmodnesse him ondraedad;
on odre da da de unmedome biod odde
for
unwisdome,
Full discussion of these
to daere lare odde for giogude
& deah for hire fortruwodnesse & for hira
hraedwilnesse beod to gescofene
must be reserved
for*
and the
(PC 375.17-21).
attitudes to translation that they display
However,
for a later occasion.
it
should be noted in the
context of this paper that the most satisfactory explanation of agreements
and disagreements
is
that contents
isted in Alfred's Latin exemplar,
list
and chapter headings,
if
they coex^
were not separately translated; that
differ-
ences between chapter headings and text seem to indicate that these were
not translated on one and the same occasion; and that the chapter headings
were drawn from the contents
list.^^ It is
tempting to explain this
difference as the result of delegation by the king.
^
Contents
list
and heading only.
" Summary omits. " Text only. '^
^
The Cf.
text begins with Aliter.
MS CC
with chapter heading xv a duplicate of chapter heading v.
163
Translations of the Alfredian Period
In the case of the Dialogues, in contrast, there
the original translation included either a ings.
no evidence
at all that
of contents or chapter head-
modern edition is taken from the now defecversion of Books I and II that makes up MS H^^ and, like
What we have
tive revised
list
is
the text that
in our
accompanies,
it
reflects a different
Latin tradition from that
behind the "original" version. Only minor verbal differences separate
lists
and headings.
Old English Bede, Latin contents lists are again the Old English MSS, though with some modification.^^ MS Ca has a list of capitula, separately numIn the case of the
source of those entered in two of the surviving
MS
bered for each of the five books. In
B, in contrast,
numbering
secutive in a single series, ^^ though, as in Ca, the sequences are
up by vernacular
explicits
and
And
once again the
the translation of the Old English contents has
come under
view was that translator
close scrutiny from
this list
may have been made,
to a pupil or colleague. "^^ J.
However, a
cannot assume that
archetype, for the
B and Ca
the
is
list
or at least begun, before the
list
Ca, since of this
different interpretation
given by
is
B
one stage
earlier
now
.
.
is
list
.
in
than the
contains some better readings.
that the
Each book
The most likely theoB was added to it from a common exemplar of C and
texts or their predecessors.
A possible
of chapter headings was
prefixed by
its
contents
" See further Whitelock, Bk.
Ill
implication
made from
a faulty
list.
See Dorothy Whitelock, "Chapter-Headings," 263-84, gives variants from a now lost list in MS C.
'*
is
back to the
this table of chapters goes
^^
for
may
to his translation of the rest
could have been added at a later stage into
that the table of contents
text at least
'^
Dorothy Whitelock's
Grant:
One
ry
and the body of the text
in his Latin source to omit. **He
then have entrusted the task of adding the
R.
list
relative chronology of
modem scholars.
had decided what material
con-
mark the endings and beginnings
that
incipits
of the headings for each book.
is
broken
esp.
272-75. Wheloc also
"Chapter-Headings," 265-66. For the omission of headings
chaps. 17-20 see Whitelock, "Chapter-Headings," passim.
Whitelock, "Chapter-Headings," 277.
JANET BATELY
164 copy and then added to more than one OE Bede
The
one
a perfect text
which
in a scriptorium in
was being prepared.^'
Grant are wholly convincing. How-
theories of neither Whitelock nor
we cannot as we have
ever, they serve very well to highlight the significant fact that
be sure it
No
form.
B in
at precisely
the contents
it is
less
list
what point
in the
was drawn up or
problematic
development of the text
at
Ca
located before Bede's preface, in
MSS each book has
and we cannot
own
its
what point
achieved
it
current
its
the original position of that contents
is
after
it.
However,
set ofcapitula, placed
rule out the possibility that
list.
some
for authorship,
noted that the bulk of the vocabulary of the contents
list is
it
sort
In
Lat'
immediately before
an arrangement of this
As
to be found in the translator's exemplar.
in
it,
was
should be
that of not
only the Bede but also other texts of the period, notably the Dialogues and the Pastoral Care.
At
the same time, there
is
Some
elsewhere in the Old English Bede.^°
a handful of terms not found
of these are hapax legomena,
translating Latin terms in capitula for entries not represented in the body
of the translation. However, others are for Latin terms which are ently rendered there
a theory of translation by another individual.
A very different situation obtains with respect to the lists
— of contents
in the
Old English
Orosius.
Books
V
ever, whereas the
Latin capitula^ the
— not
and VI
list
—
or rather
MS
repeats the ca-
at the appropriate points in the text.^^
Old English Bede, in the
very intelligently
list
like
GD,
MS
Old English Orosius
— from
its
for
Here the two manuscripts
are generally in agreement, though the later, Cotton, pitula for
differ-
and might be considered to provide some support
How-
H, was making use of is
accompanying
quite clearly derived
text. So, for instance,
the contents not only normally pick on opening words of a chapter, but also
where they add
a haphazard fashion.
details
And
from
later in that
the selection
downright misleading, with,
is
chapter this
often
for instance, entries locating events
" Raymond J. S. Grant, The B Text of the Old English Bede: (Amsterdam, 1989). 399-400.
^
is
done
in
sometimes unhelpful, sometimes
"under
ii
A Linguistic Commentary
See Whitelock, "Chapter-Headings," 275-77. She concludes, however, that the list was probably also the translator of the rest of the work.
translator of the **
Sec further Bately, Old
English Orosius, xxxvii.
^•^
Translations of the Alfredian Period
consulum" or
referring to the birth of
while in contents
we
V.xii
list
Pompey
Gaius and to
him
three times (the text
one and the same
lulius are
then
Gaixise luliuse,
first as
In the Boethius, too, the list
and text
(i.e.,
Romans gave
126-27, makes
itself,
''Gaiuse
it
and
clear that
individual, Julius Caesar, referring
as lulius).
between the
fit
Siamese twins), ^^
"Julius" besieged Torquatus
at times uncomfortable.^^
is
cM
an
are told that the
and that
l^aem consule" seven legions
fought
165
all'prose version's contents
Some composite
chapters are
represented by only a few words and phrases drawn from their opening passages, while for others the reasons for selection of sub-entries clear.
We may
is
often un-
compare Sedgefield's summary of the contents of chap,
with the corresponding entry in the
Philosophy
Sedgefield:
Bo
tells
Hu
se
Wisdom
saede l)am
Boethius that what he once
Mode
accounted happiness was not
naere t>onne hit forloren haef-
first
he
not the
de
to suffer a reverse of for-
to
really such; that
is
ceitful.
Fortune changes, and also
her. Boethius
^2 ^^
Cf. I
Or
his misfor-
sceolde; 7 be
segle, 7
ealra
^"^
III.x
xi
and
hu
his
l)aes
scipes
godena weorca
wolde her on worulde
habban
and
aer
sceolde gif he heora t)egen
tune to his desire for worldly happiness.
him naht swidor
woruldsaelda ^e hit
t>a
beon
change with
owes
J)aet
gewunod haefde; 7 saede him bispell hu he hit macian
tune; that worldly joys are de-
men must
vii
list:
lean.^^
V.ii.
and his arguments for Alunconvincing. See Kurt Often, Konig Alfreds
find Otten's justification of the selection of details in,
fredian authorship of, the contents
list
Boethius, Studien zur englischen Philologie,
neue Folge, 3 (Tubingen, 1964), 11-13; and
Old English chapter-headings are brief and uninformed, often being no more than a catch-phrase from the Old English text of that chapter, and may therefore have little textual authority." ^ Walter John Sedgefield, King Alfred's Version of the Consolations of Boethius, done
Griffiths, Alfred's Metres, 15 n. 17: "in general the
into
modem ^5
begins a
which
English, with
Bo 3.12-16.
Cf.
an introduction (Oxford, 1900),
Bo 15.1-2.
new paragraph
in the text,
also forms part of the chapter,
liii.
and 22, 16.29, 18.24-25. None of rfiese entries and material from CPh II.m.2 and pr.3 (opening),
16.3
is
not covered.
JANET BATELY
166 This, coupled with the fact that
no
similar
script that supplies a verse rendering of
tempting to see the self.^ In
which
list
case,
its
list is
provided in the manu'
CPh's meters, makes
it
once again
made up by someone other than Alfred himpresence in MS B cannot be taken as sup|x>rting as
a theory of an authorial sectionalization of the text into forty-two chajy
may be accepted
while the book divisions
ters,
structural importance
than Sedgefield in
of
Or
first pair)
did with those of
laborator.
list
explicits
and
them. Alfred
incipits
What divisions
not
all
(apart ap-
or he could have delegated the task to a colafforded to the chapter
numbering and
(un-
by Sedgefield in his edition serves merely to ob-
scure the fact that Alfred himself seems to have composed a structure, like that of
far greater
in the course of his translation, as the author
OH\
The prominence
numbered) contents
having
his edition affords
himself may have chosen to report Boethius's parently from the
as
PC, follows
general conclusions,
and chapter headings
if
fairly faithfully
any,
work whose
that of Boethius himself.
may we draw from
this study of
book
in texts of the Alfredian period? First, that
modem
the book and chapter divisions in our
editions
would ap-
pear to be authorial, or even the work of the main scribe of individual manuscripts. Second, that the scribes themselves often seem to have
tached
little
contents
lists
or
no importance
to the
need
are clearly of varying quality
and authority. In
though we may think we can reconstruct the
at-
such divisions. Third, that
for
*
short, that al-
'original" layout of Alfred-
ian translations, this cannot be done with any great degree of certainty.
**
I
shall
be dealing with the
issue
of lexical diflferences elsewhere.
t PHILLIP
The
PULSIANO
Passion of Saint Christopher
"THE PASSION OF SAINT CHRISTOPHER"
comprises folios 94r-98r in Lon-
don, British Library, Cotton Vitellius A. xv (the Beowulf codex). is
The
text
acephalous, beginning at the exchange between the saint and Dagnus
The text that has come down to us represents perhaps a third of the original text, estimated on the basis of the Latin text printed in the Acta Sanctorum,^ with which that subsequently leads to Christopher's martyrdom.
the Vitellius text agrees in the main, although this version cannot be said to constitute the source for the
Old English
was included in London, British
much damage
that suffered as
Ker notes,^
plicit
is
he records
7
Another copy of the
Cotton Otho B.
Cottonian
fire
x,
of 173 L
text
a manuscript
The
evidence,
provided by Wanley in his 1705 catalogue, where the exfor a
homily **De Sancto Christophore Martyre" corres-
ponds to the ending of the
nu blowa6
Library,
in the
text.
growaS
eallre sibbe 7 gefean
his
Vitellius text, lines 113-116: *Torl)am \)e
da halgan gebedu and
and
{)9er is
gebletsod crist
J)aer is \>dds
drihtnes herung
t)aer
mid
lifiendan godes sunu se
mid faeder 7 mid sunu 7 mid t>am halgan gaste a butan ende on ecnysse. Amen."^ The homily apparently did not include Christopher's
rixad
'
AASS
ginning at 1766.
lul.
p.
VI
(1868): 146-49.
The Old
148 at the bottom of the
first
English corresponds to the Latin text be-
column. The version printed here
is
BHL
^
Ker, Catabgue, no. 177,
^
Humfrey Wanley, Lihrorum Veterum SeptentrUmaUum Catalogus (Oxford: Sheldonian
Theatre, 1705), 191, item X.
art. 11.
PHILLIP PULSIANO
168
who
final petition that those
read his passion receive eternal reward.
The
beginning of the homily agrees with the Latin of the Acta Sanctorum version, but quickly departs from
Menn tide
Jja
on
le[ofstan.
wees geworden
\>e
l>cere
Dagaus
cync rixode on Samon ^cere
se
ceastre. \)2et J5a
sum man com on
ceastre se waes healf hun^
disces
manncynnes. ac he ne
cude nan
{)inge to Jjam lyfien-
dan gode ne cigde.
his
naman ne
ta waes him aetywed
fram urum drihtne
he
t>aet
sceolde fuUuhte onfonj.
it:
In tempore iUo, regnante
Samo,
in civitate
de
homo
Dagno venit
genere Caninea*
insula,
rum, et ostensum est
ei a
Do*
mino, ut baptizaretur baptiS'
mo
quem
sancto;
Dominus
Jesus
seculo sua
.
.
ostendit
Christus
in
ecce nebula de
.
caelo descendit, et inluxit su*
per eum: et venit ei vox de caelo,
dicens;
Serve
electe
Dei: ecce accepisti baptismum in
nomine Domini
et sanctae
Trinitatis.
Ker suggested that the version closely related to
rum,
BHL
1766.^
BHL
seemed more
1768 or 1769 than to the text of the Acta Sancuy
BHL to BHL
Both
record of the explicit
in the Vitellius manuscript
1768 and 1769 remain unprinted, but the 1769 made by the BoUandists suggests that
attention might be accorded to this version, for uttered by Christopher that
is
it
includes the final prayer
omitted from the homily: "Domine Deus
bonam mercedem praesta scribentibus et legentibus Passionem meam."^ The prayer in the Acta Sanctorum version is similar, but significantly reads "Domine lesu Christe" for "Domine Deus omnipotens." Compare the Old English: "Drihten min God syle gode mede t>am J)e omnipotens,
mine Jjrowunga
awrite 7
\>a
ecean edlean Jjam
\>c
hie
mid tearum
raede."
Apart from the addition of "mid tearum" and the omission of "omnipotens," the prayers in
BHL
1769 and the Old English agree
closely.^
The
art. 1. Although Ker does not state the reasons for his he most likely noted the explicit in AASS. 5 AASS lul. VI (1868): 1.42, para. 98. * While not enough of the incipit is printed to allow comparison with die beginning of the Old English homily, the agreement is nevertheless close: "In tempore illo, quo Dagnus rex regnabit in civitate Samon, venit illuc homo ex genere Cananeus." ^
Ker, Catalogue, no. 216,
suspicions,
169
The Passion of Saint Christopher source of the Christopher text(s) cannot be ascertained until a is
full
survey
undertaken of the Latin texts circulating in Anglo-Saxon England and
BHL
until
1769
printed;
is
and even then the exact source may remain
unknown.^
'The times, by
number
Passion of Saint Christopher" has been edited a
G. Herzfeld
and
in 1889,^ E. Einenkel in 1895,^
S.
1924.^° All three editions betray certain limitations, although
be unfair to group them together. Einenkel's edition
is
while Herzfeld's markedly better edition contains
own
Rypins's edition
is,
for the
modern
on the
it
would
wholly unreliable,
somewhat
student,
vides a semi-diplomatic transcription
its
of
Rypins in
and not an edited
share of errors.
taxing, as
it
pro-
text. Scholarship
text remains weakly represented, as only a couple of publications
can be added to those items
listed in
the Greenfield-Robinson bibliogra-
phy.^^ Studies of the Christopher legend broadly are
more numerous,
al-
though these pertain, in the main, to the development of the Christopher legend in the Middle Ages.^^
Another account of the Christopher legend occurs
^
in the
Old English Martyrohgy.
The account includes colorful details of the dog-headed saint's awesome countenance: "He haefde hundes heafod, ond his loccas waeron ofergemet side, ond his eagon scinon swa leohte swa morgensteorra, ond his tej) waeron swa scearpe swa eorores tuxas" (Gvinter Kotzer, ed., Dos altengUsche Marty rologium, Abhandlungen der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Philosophisch-historische Klasse, n. F. 88 [Munich, 1981]; for Christopher, see 2: 68-71).
Legende," EngUsche Studien 13 (1889): 142-45.
*
G. Herzfeld, "Bruchstuck einer
^
[Eugen] Einenkel, "Das altengUsche Christoforus-fragment," Anglia 17 (1895): 110-
ae.
22. '°
Stanley Rypins, ed.. Three Old English Prose Texts
EETS, '•
o.s.
in
MS. Cotton
VitelUus
A
xv,
161 (London, 1924; repr. Millwood, 1987).
A
BibUography of Publications on Old Stanley B. Greenfield and Fred C. Robinson, End of 1972 (Toronto, 1980), items 203, 5388, 6447, and 6448.
English Literature to the
The
last item,
by Werner
J.
Soell ("Sao Cristova
na
literatura anglo-saxonica," Estxidos
32 [1972]: 42-45), flagrantly appropriates from K. Sisam, "The Compilation of the Beowulf Manuscript," repr. in idem. Studies in the History of Old English Literature (Oxford, 1963), 65-96, esp. 70-72. Recent studies are Jill Frederick, " 'His ansyn waes swylce rosan blostma': A Reading of the Old English Life of St. Christopher,'* Proceedings of the PMR Conference 12-13 (1989): 137-48; and Andy Orchard, Pride and Prodigies: Studies in the '^
Monsters of the Beowulf'Manuscript (Woodbridge, 1995), 12-18.
Of interest
are:
Russie," Mimoires de
mon,
M. H. Gaidoz, "Saint Christophe la Societe
des Antiquaires de France
de chien en Irlande et en 76 (1924): 192-218; John Sal-
k tete
and Life," Journal of the British Archaeo' 41 (1936): 76-115; Hans-Friedrich Rosenfeld, Der hi Christophorus: Seine Verehrung und seine Legende, Acta Academiae Abonensis Humaniora, 10 (Abo, "St. Christopher in English Medieval Art
logical Association
170
PHILLIP PULSIANO
The The use
following edition was prepared from the original manuscript.'^
of fiber-optics and ultraviolet light has allowed the recovery and
confirmation of
many
letters
hidden by the paper frames in which the
leaves are mounted. Punctuation has been supplied, but with an attempt
to adhere to the pointing of the manuscript. Capitalization for the most part follows that of the manuscript, with departures indicated in the notes;
proper nouns are not capitalized in the manuscript. the Acta Sanctorum sages indicate
tion
is
is
Latin text from
where the Old English text departs from the Latin. The
accompanied by modest notes and
1937). In addition, see (1913): 307-25,
The
provided for the reader's reference; italicized pas-
J.
where he
Fraser,
edits
Mussafia, **Zur Christophlegende.
Classe der Kaiserlichen
"The
and
frill
Passion of St. Christopher," Revu« Celdque 34
translates a version in the Irish
I.,"
edi-
glossary.
Leabar Breac, and A.
Sitzsungsberichte der Philosophisch-Historischen
Akadcmie der Wissenschaftcn, 129 (Vienna,
1893), 9: 1-78.
an Old French version of the legend. For the Christopher legend generally, readers can consult any of a number of encyclopaedias, such as the Bibhotheca Sanetomm, 4: 350-64, and Encklopedia CattoUca, 4: 922-26. See David Woods, "The Origin
where he
edits
of the Cult of St. Christopher," available at http://www.ucc.ie/milmart/chrsorig.html.
" Joseph
A
full
edition of the three prose texts in the Beoundf by Phillip Pulsiano and
McGowan
is
being completed by the
latter.
The Passion of Saint Christopher
17
1
The Passion of Saint Christopher *.
.
.
mines dryhtnes haelendes
unsnotor,
handa
his
\>]
8
waelhr<eowlice>]
I I
Cristoforus] underlined in pencil. cynin]
split horizontally,
MS
H,
MS
lost.
n
split b^f tear in leaf;
cynige] cyn[ing] his] [his] E.
cristes
E. ac
:::
H, cyni[ng]
;:
\)
<eart>]
left leg
E, cyninge
M^.
M^
on
and shoulder ofv^
om. HE. ac
t»a]
handa] [handa] HE, [handa] R, h[anda]
mi] [mid] E. isernum]
hea/[de]
right.
see notes.
cristes] cristes
4
on
waer. gyf] curled due to shrinkage.
dryhten] dryh[ten] H, dry[hten] E, dryht[en] R, dryhten
3
partly cropped
^ry weras; see notes.
1
6
yrre ge-
Se halga Cristoforus cigde to t>am cynin 7 cwae5,
2
H.
t>a
weras acwel-
t>a
\i\x
ea[xx\
visible.
MM^.
M^
om. HE.
M^ hys] his H,
[his]
E. hyne] hine
[is]emum E. on his heafde] [on] mi[dda]n E, on his
his heaf[de] R.
swungon] [swencton?] H, sw[ungon] E.
6-7 cwaedon] cwaedon HE, g[e]cwaedon R. du HE, waer
R. Dagnus] d[a]g nus E.
7
waer<e> du] waere
8
waelhr<eowiice>] wael [hreowlice]
9
cempa] cemp[an] H, [cempan] E. cyninge] cyninge H.
b\x
H, wae [Ihreowlice]
gyf] g[if]
E,
[grimlice] R.
10 he he me synt swettran t)onne
hwylce maran witu be
\>u
do du
fordon
\>aiy
t>ine
huniges beobread.' Se cyningc
scamol se waes emnheah
15
\>^
het bringan isenne
marines upwaestme ^aet waes
t>aes
twelf faedma lang, 7 he hyne het asettan
onmiddan
ceastre 7 lx)ne halgan Crist forus he het
t>aer
|
dan 7 he het beneodan him mit ty 20
t>aet
Ug on
\>xs fyre<s>
t>e
unmaetoste
wolde
\)t
[)a
\>t
94v
maestan haeto waes he
t>aere
re5re waere 7
haeto
f.
onaelan 7
fyr
man. Se halga Cristoforus
J)aet l^aes fyres
{x)ne halgan
|>a
to gebin-
ofer het geotan tyn orcas fulle eles \>xt
l^aer
PULSIANO
ablaestre
he
on
onmiddum
tarn redestan 7 \>^m unmaetostan liges baele he cigde to
Drihtne beorhtre 25
tintrego
*t>as
\>e
<s>tee
dam
7 he cwaed to
me
du on
<s>cyndnesse 7 to [)inre forwyrde becumaS, 7 ic
ne ondraede ne \)m
t)ine tintrego
t>is
him waes geworden
12
ge{x)ht] see notes.
14
beobreadl ascender of d
25-26
ge<s>cyndnesse]
MS
And)
27
yrre.'
cwaed se halga on middes
scamull
H,
7.
12
gelx)ht] ge
13
tintxeg«o>l tintre [go]
\>is]
MS
eall
And
Jjaes fyres
me
naefre
mit ty
Jjc
maenigo se
swa gej^ywed weax.
t>a
lost.
gecyndnesse; see notes.
bowl of
\)
partly lost.
g[eani) E, ge^olhlt
H,
cyninge:
bringan hehst to ^inre ge-
M.
[tintrego] E, tmtre[go] R, tincreg(o]
M.
14 beobread) beo bre[ad) E. 15
scamol) scamol
16
asettan) aset[tan)
17
halgan) halg[an) E. cristfonis] cristoforos
18 onaelan) 19
on
HER,
aelan
fyTe«s») fyre[s)
20 tee) [stefhe)
:::
H,
25 be)
We
22-23
[>e us
E.
/>e
H.
M. het R.
[stefh)e E, [s)tclfh)e
R.
H,
]pc t>is
E.
waes) w[aes) E, wees R.
M.
HE.
fyres
HE,
asettan
R.
HMM^,
[cristo]foros E, cri5t[o)fbms
R.
173
The Passion of Saint Christopher geseah Dagnus se cyningc t>one halgan Cristoforus on
30
middum
\>am fyre standende 7 he geseah
Myt
waes swylce rosan blostma.
on miceles modes wafunga
waes
swa abreged
waes
he
ty J^e
7 for
his
geseah he
t>aes
eges fyrhto he
he gefeol on eordan 7
{5aet
ansyn
J^aet
\)2et
laeg
]p3£T
I
fram
35
t>aere aerestan tide
myt
ty
tide.
he uparas he him to cwae5: *^u wyrresta wild-
t>e
hu lange
deor,
ob 5a nigot>an
geseah se halga Cristoforus he hyne het uparisan,
{>aet t>a
7
t>aes
daeges
swa
tyhtest
l^aet
dyrstlaecest J)u \>2et
him
fram
me
minum godum
on-
5u
nis alyfed J)aet hi
folc
l)is
secgen?'
40
Se halga Cristoforus hi<m> andswarode 7 cwaeS: 'Nu micel folces maenio Jjurh
git
Haelende Crist 7
aefter t>on t>u selfa.'
andswarode bysmerigende 45
l^aet
3u
bidde 7
him
7 ic gedo
33
wafiinga] rest of
37
hi]
is
Se cyninge
to cwae5:
'Is
l)onne
\>ddt
l)aet
35
nigot)an] nigot>[an]
Jje
38
t»in
nama
of
line eras.
see notes.
Cristoforus] cristo(/]onis R.
HE, nigojjah] R.
to]
[him
H.
to]
dyrstlaecest] dyrst[laecest]
H, dyrst
39 hi minum] himminum E. 39-40 onsecgen] onsecgen ::::::::
42 gelyfad] gelyfad
flaeste?]
44 bysmerigende] bysmerige[nde] 45 maege] m[aege]
E,
48
R.
[ad] E, gelyfad
R. ^u]
\p\i]
E, bysmerige[n]de R.
maege R.
46 widsace] wid sace 47 sylfan
laec[st] E, dyrstlaecest
E.
H, gelyf
E. ]pu] /)u R.
tide] sylfan [stede?]
byst] [byst] E, best
M.
H,
sylfan
:::
god
ge-
5ys mergen-
36 hyne] hline] HE, hyne R. 37 him
him wen
wrece minne teonan on
seah E.
32
l^a
t>aes
l^aet ic t>ne
5u byst forloren 7
t>aet
MS hin. t)inne] MS t^one;
30 cyningc] cyning H.
sylfan tide
t>isse
\>tj
geseah]
7
me swa beswican maege minum widsace? Wite \>u
lican daege aet
45
me gelyfaS on minne Drihten
E, syylfan
tli]ci[e]
R.
H.
t>ys ge-
f.
95i
PHILLIP
174
mynde bysen
50
7 of {5yssu<m>
Jjara \>c
durh
Odre daege
him
to
adilgod, 7 \>u scealt
on dinne god
wesan
ealra
gelyfaS.'
se cyningc het Jxjne Kalgan Cristoforus
t>a
gelaedan 7
life
\>e
PULSIANO
him
minum godum
to cwaed: 'Ongit
min word
7 on-
|
f.
95v
on swa manegum tintregum ne swa gegearwode forweorde de synt.' Se halga him andswar-
saga
j^aet d\i
ode 7 cwaed: 'Symle
55
for{x5n
l^e
minne
on fulwihte
t^ine
goda
geleafan ic
onfeng.* <Se> cyningc ^yder
unmaetre micelnesse treow
mannes lengo 7 he he hyne het
60
ic ladette 7
|?aet
t>a
od
on
t>e ic
het bringan t>aes
halgan
behead \)xt dry cempan
J)a
\>xt
scotedon fram
Se cyningc
t>a
he waere acweald.
t>aere aerestan tide j^aes
wende
\)xz ealle t>a straelas
lichaman gefaestnode waeron ac ne furjxjn an his
lichaman ne gehran, ac Godes maegen wae
65
49
his
aefen.
{x)ne
hit het asettan beforan t>aere healle 7
t>aeron gefaestnian 7
cempan hyne
t>a
waes efnheah
hyne scotedon mid hyra straelum o6
daeges
him teonan d6,
unwemne geheold
with no erasure evident.
57
onfeng]
65
] supplied; see notes. wae]
rest
of
line blank,
MS
waes; see notes.
Jjyssum H. t>[y]ssu[m] E, ^yssum R,
of) [of] E. t)yssu«m>]
M
is
able to read die 'very
top* of urn. ealral ealra R. j^ara] t>ara R.
51
het) Kelt] E. Cristoforus] cr[isto]focus E, cristoforus R.
52 Ongit min] on
52-53 onsaga]
min] E, Ongit mi[n] R. word] w{olrd E.
[git
(o]nsaga E, onsaga R.
53 tintregum] tintregum R. 54 gegearwode] ge gear(wode] H,
55
Symle]
56
for|x)n] [for] t>on E. ic] c
leall?Je
E, gegear[w]ode R.
leall]e E, (s^mlje R. d6]
do
E.
H.
57 <S»e]SeM.
58 micelnesse]
[mi] celnesse E, m[i]celnesse R. efnheah] efen
59 mannes] mannes R.
60
7]
62
H
7 R. dry] dry H. [ba] H, l>a
R.
63 cyningc] cyninge H.
heah H.
175
The Passion of Saint Christopher on 3am winde hangigende
aet t>aes
sunnan setlgange he sende to
healfe; 7 se cyningc t>a aefter
5am cempum
7
he bead
geornlice heoldon
t>aet
\>y
rus 7
him
he 7
cristene
mergenlican daege.
t>e
minum handum
gefreolsode of
myt
t>a
com
7 of J^yssum egesli-
he
ty t>e
twa flana of t>am straelum scuton on
t)as
l^as
word gecwaed
cyninges eagan 7
t)urh t>aet waes ablend. l>aet J^a geseah se halga Cristo-
he him to cwae3: 'Pu waelgrimma 7
forus
\>u t)aet Sis
mergenlican daege
minne
daeges ic onfo 80
|)aet t>aet
to cwaed: 'Hwaer ys t>in god? Fhwon ne
can straelum?' Hra5e
he
96r
cyningc waes utgangende to t>am halgan Cristofo-
t>a se
75
f.
hyne swa gebundenne
hi
for5on he wende
hyne wolde onlysan
folc
70
|
halgan marines swy5ran
men cumaS
cristene
t)aet
on da stowe
gesettaaere
Dryhten
descender of
\i*u>]
aetywed] ascender of
]p
me
t>aes
waes aetywed 7
hyne waes.
on gemartyrod
79
eahtoSan tide
sylf
mines lichaman
minum lichaman
77
dysega wite
him fram Drihtne aetywed
7 onfoS
{)e
Ipu
waes 7
7 ny<m> t>aere eordan
meng wid min blod
7
lost.
d bsL
66 swydran] swiSran H. 68 hyne] hine H. 70 hyne] hine H. wolde] wol[de] 71
se cyningc] se
72 Fyssum
aer
wisdom
of gedwolan gehwyrfdest 7 godne
t)am
wordum
he ongan gebiddan 7 cwejjan: 'Drihten /Elmihtig
90
ealre
|
gehaeled fram t)inra
\>xt seo e
\>u gelyfst
sylfan tide \>u
\>u
de
gelaerdest
t>eow nu on J^ysse tide \>t bidde gearwa hyt me on swa hwylcre stowe swa mines hchaman aenig dael
Jjaet is t>in
l)aette
sy 95
ne sy
JDaer
ne waedl ne
fyres broga; 7 gif baer
untrume men 7 hig cumon
to [jinum J)am halgan temple
7 hig Saer gebiddon to
of ealre heortan 7 for t>inum
naman
hi ciggen
\>e
minne naman
gehael t>u Drihten fra<m>
swa hwylcere untrumnesse swa hie
'Cristoforus,
min
lichama ne sy on
88
MMSty.
97
\>\i\
98
And!
84 tine] tine
t)eow, JDin gebed ys l)aere
MS \iu t>one. MS 7.
H, bine R.
[twa]
And on him cwel>endu:
forhaefde.'
daere ylcan tide stefn waes gehyredu to 100
neah syn
gehyred |)eah
Fra<m>l
MS
fran.
of] (of]
HE,
o\f\
jjin
|
stowe; swa hwyllce geleaffuUe
men
R.
85 fram] [f]ram E, /ram R.
H,
86
inum geearningum hig hyt swa
105
l)ines
onfoS.'
Mit
ty {^e t>eos wuldorlice spraec of
gehyredu 7 gefylledu hrade fram t>am
on
slegen 7 he
maestan
t>aere
dre he ferde to Criste, 7
t>aet
blisse 7
waes
heofenum waes
cempum he
wundor
t>aes
folces t>e se
halga Cristoforus t>urh his lare gode gestrynde. 110
manna
eaht 7 feower t>usenda Ot>re daege
gangan
And
7
t>aet
waes
7 hundteontig 7 fiftyne.
se cyningc cwaeS to his J^egnum;
t>a
waes
unasecgendlican wul-
*Uton
t>a cempan h gesett habbon.' becomon to ^jaere stowe t>aer se halga
geseon hwaer
mit ty
t>e
hie
lichama waes.
Se cyningc cigde micelre stemne 7 cwaeS:
115
aetyw
me nu
Godes
t>ines
genam
hyne'; 7 he
|
soSfaestnesse 7 ic gelyfe
120
naman
7 sette
Cristoforus
eorSan
dael {^aere
t>aer t>aes
medmicel
martyr waes on Jjrowigende 7
mengde tosomne
'Cristoforus,
on
Cristes
Ipxs blodes 7
on
his
eagan 7 he cwae5: *On
ic
t>is
d';
Godes
7
hraSe on 3aere
ylcan tide his eagan waeron ontynde 7 gesibj^e he onfeng
102
] supplied; see notes.
106
gehyredu] hole
113
And]
118
martyr] e eras, after
120
dl
MS
MS
in leaf after ge.
7.
dem;
r^.
see notes.
102
gebedum beod] gebedum
103
hyra] hyr[a] E, hyr[a] R.
104
for'] lf]or E, /or
109
lare] lar[e] E, lare
111
cwaed] cwaej) H.
112
h] hy[ne]
117
he genam] hege [nam]
118
t)rowigende] l5rowigende R.
119
cwaed] cwaet» H.
120
Cristoforus] cristoforus R.
hie beod H.
R. R.
HE, h^n[e] R. E. dael] [an?] dael
on
3aere]
on
H.
\>XTe
H.
f.
97
178
PHILLIP
PULSIANO
7 he cigde micelre stemne 7 he cwae5 beforan eallum J>am folce: 'Wuldorfaest ys 7 micel cristenra
manna God
\>xs
wuldorge<wor>ccs nane mcnnisce searwa ofcrcuman ne
magon.
125
Ic lx)nne
nu fram Jjyssum daegenlican daege
sende mine bebodu geond
mln
eall
rice {jaette
nan
to mines rices anwealde belimpe ne gedyrstlaece
do 6ngean
heofonlican Godes willan
l^aes
man
beeode. if t>onne aenig Ixjn beswicen sy
130
jjaet
t>aet
nan
butan
hyt gedyrstlaece
And
swa
ic
on
^aere ylcan
nu sodlice wat
t>aes
eadigan Cristoforus
|)aette
|
se cyningc gelyfde se waes aer deofles willan full
135
Godes
waes geworden |5urh
l^a
geearnunga
JDurh
Cristoforus
t>e
nan gebrosnodlic nys noht
eordlic anweald ne
his anes.'
miht 7
nan wuht
deofles searwa to
\)UTh.
he mid swyrde witnode: forjxjn
tide sy
ic
mon J>e
j^aes
eadi-
gan Cristoforus. Wuldorgeworc synd nu lang to asecgane l)e
Dryhten
{jurh
hyne geworhte to herennesse
7 nu od Ijyssne daeg wyrcd, forlx)n
growad
123
his t^a halgan
gebedu 7
122
eallum] hole after word.
124
wuldorge<wopces] wor
129
ifl
fragment of
G
naman
nu blowad 7
ys Drihtnes hyrnes
lost to stain.
visible.
130
l supplied.
133
And]
136
Cristoforus] o^ altered from u.
MS
\>e JDaer
l^aer
his
7.
ys 7] 7 (ece?] ys 7 H.
124
wuldorge<wopces] wuldorge
126
min] min E.
128
do 6ngean] doongean HE.
129
es
in .
.
.
.
.
.
ys
aer]
ar E. willan] will[an]
blowad H, blowad
H,
HEM^.
Wuldorgeworc] wuldorgeworc
ys E.
E.
.
.
.
H.
f.
98r
179
The Passion of Saint Christopher 140
mid
ealre sybbe 7 gefean 7 t>aer ys gebletsod Crist
sun lyfigendes se rixaS
mid Faeder
7
mid Suna
Codes 7
mid
l^am Halgan Caste a butan ende. Pyses eac baed se halga Cristoforus o tide aer 145
syle
he
gode mede t>am
edlean t»am
146
onsende
his gast
t>e
tear]
hie
left
kg of u
140
7 gefean] 7 [mid ge]fean
141
sunl
143
ol
146
raede] raede. 7
sunu M^.
on H, on
M^
t»e
mid
of R.
H.
t>aere
7 cwaeS: 'Drihten
mine J^rowunga awrite 7 tear raede.'
visible.
H, fean
E, gefean R.
nihstan
min Cod t>a
ecean
180
phillip
pulsiano
Notes I.
Malone ("Readings," 256)
ac tu eart]
reads
''ea at
the edge but not
with certainty." 5-6.
he het asettan on
his heafde fyrenne
his heafde \)Ty weras."
The
text
lacuna in the exemplar after heafde. a fiery or burning hot helmet
MS: "he
helm]
het asettan on
evidently corrupt here, with a
is
The
Latin text makes clear that
placed on the saint's head
is
{et mitti in
caput eius cassidem igneam) and that the three cempan are Dagnus's
counselors
The OE exemplar may have
ex consilihm).
(tres
het settan on his heafde fyrenne helm.
read "he
\)^ de hyne swungon" (omitting "t>a cempan"); or "t>a cempan t>a hyne swun^ gon" (omitting "l)ry weras"). McGowan ("Notes," 452) suggests
cempum cwaedon to Sam cyninge." Sisam who first suggested emending to "fyrenne
weras of t>am
"t)ry
weras
I>a t>ry
.
.
.
("Compilation," 69),
helm", remarks that
"t>ry
weras" "represents the subject of the next
sentence." Einenkel (112) omits "on his heafde" and misreads the
MS: "7 he het 6-7. gecwaedon]
not g."
set tan [on]
mi[dda]n
Malone ("Readings,"
In
facsimile
his
"cwaedon."
McGowan
256):
edition
weras."
"The
makes good sense
*to protest;'
the three counselors are not in a
A
mark
that the e
ink point for the
is
i{
tres
is
taken here in the sense strict
sense replying to
ex consiUbus.''
may be
before du
8
[line]
is
Malone
doubtless
("Notes," 452) writes: "it seems possible
in ligature to
second
oncwedan
"The ink mark
McGowan
is
suggests
in ink after the word. Rypins reads "waer".
(Codex, 32-33) notes: accidental."
swungon
Malone
32),
'^oncwcedon
waere]
letter after
{CodeXy
("Notes," 452) notes that the reading
Dagnus: compare tunc dixerunt 7.
J^ry
both the preceding
accidental;
it
pers. subj. sing,
may
also be a
r
d.
The
any
rate,
and following
cramped
one would expect
e;
wcere,
at
and wcere du
seems the better reading." 8.
waelhreowlice]
who
The
notes that hr
reading
is
visible
is
provided by
McGowan
under ultraviolet
(pers. corresp.),
light.
10-11. acwellan] Herzfeld sees an erasure after the word; Rypins records
seven
letter spaces;
Einenkel
is
correct:
"H
Rasur steht, kann ich nicht finden." There
aaveUan, dass dies auf
is,
however, a point
after
the word, which Malone notes. II.
cyninge]
Malone comments: "Of the
last
two
letters
only traces
The Passion of Saint Christopher
181
remain, covered with transparent paper" (''Readings," 256). 12.
get>oht]
The
McGowan
reading confirmed by
(pers. corresp.).
The
oh
are obscured, appearing only as letter fragments to the eye, but are
confirmed by fiber-optics and ultraviolet 23.
light.
erased after word at line end; Einenkel records
unmaetostan]
lyges
''[lige] liges,"
with a note on the erasure.
25-26. gescyndnesse]
As Sisam
suitable; for a saint
Read
notes, the
MS reading gecyndnesse
un-
"is
would not threaten such vicarious punishment.
gescyndnesse 'to thy confusion', with the fair certainty that
tua) confusione
was in the Latin text used" ("Compilation,"
Herzfeld and Einenkel also call attention to the reading.
The
(in
69).
version
printed by Mombritius [BHL1767] reads "in tua erubescentia et confusione ac diis tuis retorquebuntur" (366). 33.
After wafunga, rest of line erased
92 mm.), with wafunga as the
(ca.
only word at the beginning of the
line.
The
erased section does not
undermine the grammatical structure of the scribal editing to eliminate
an
39.
minum] Einenkel mistakenly
45.
{)inne]
this
to
and
line,
this suggests
error in copying.
records an erasure of 9-10 letters after
word.
As Sisam ("Compilation,"
l)ne
69) notes,
lends better sense to the line;
emendation of
cf.
MS ^one
40 "on 5inne god
I.
gelyfad".
46.
minum
60.
6ry cempan]
wiSsace] Herzfeld suggests that
minum] however, no emendation
after
and does not 65.
An erroneous specify the
godum may have dropped out is
necessary.
translation; the Latin reads temas sagittas
number of soldiers.
ac durh Codes maegen waeron
hangs in the wind, but the
.
.
.
healfel It
is
soldier's arrows.
not God's power that
The
line thus requires
the addition of durh and the emendation of wees to
tuaeron.
See
Sisam, "Compilation," 69. 69.
A second fordon as a
76.
hand
at the
bottom of the
leaf
two
let'
catchword.
ablendl Herzfeld ters
written in Nowell's
emends
to ablendod, stating that the final
were erased. While there
can be detected; the past
is
an erasure
after
the word, no letters
participle of ahlendan
is
grammatically
correct.
84.
tine]
Malone ("Readings," 258)
writes:
"There
the end of the line and what looks like traces of
room for twa wa can be seen
is
at
in
PHILLIP PULSIANO
182
the MS., but the photograph shows nothing after
l>ine
and R's read-
ing must be accepted." 86.
88.
Malone ("Readings," 258) notes that "the right-hand can be made out and the d is partly visible."
tid]
part of the
ligature
ti
[jyl
A
point follows drihtne in the
MS, and
written as a majus-
is
/)
cule.
94.
Einenkel detects an erasure before broga, and suggests
fyres broga]
gebroga as the original form. Rypins correctly notes show-through
from
fol.
96r
I.
13 drihten.
100. Herzfeld mistakenly indicates
102.
gebiddon]
omission, as
McGowan
from a haplographical '
112.
'
•
fol.
97r as beginning with l^eah.
A verb wanting. Herzfeld suggests gemunon
[84]
.
.
("Notes," 454) suggests,
error. .
Note the
The
(144,n. 4).
may have
resulted
possible tricolon, [78] gebiddon
biddaj).
hyne] Malone ("Readings," 259) writes: "Leaf torn between y and
damaging
y
somewhat; ne shrunken and part of c gone,
rest
n,
covered
but visible through paper." 120.
do]
It is
line
130.
hyt]
>
vs. "I
The emendation
dem.
and follows the
God"
Latin: "I
judge this
.
.
.".
do
as a
offers better sense to
this in the
name
the
of Christopher's
See Sisam, "Compilation," 69-70.
Herzfeld supplies he before the word; although not strictly
needed (note Einenkel 121, tax
and an accent
possible that the scribe mistook o for e
macron, thus do
ist
n. 145:
"nach den Regeln der
die Setzung desselben hier geradezu falsch"),
it
ae.
Syn-
serves to bal-
ance the second conditional clause, "sy he mid swyrde witnod"; see
McGowan, "Notes," 143.
on]
454.
Malone ("Readings," 259)
certainly / rather than n.
and only part of reads on,
which
its left
is
98 on daere ylcan
It
of:
"The
last letter
is
almost
was badly damaged by a tear in the
side remains." In his facsimile edition
what the tide;
reads
1.
clause requires;
106 on
l)aere
cf.
I.
75 on
he
J)ysse tide;
ylcan tide. See
I.
McGowan,
"Notes," 454. 146. raede) Herzfeld takes the end-punctuation as a tironian
leaf
et.
The Passion of Saint Christopher
183
Additional Bibliography Leinbaugh, Theodore. "St. Christopher and the Old English Martyrology: Latin Sources." Notes and Queries 32 (1985): 434-37.
Malone, Kemp. "Readings from Folios 94 to 131: MS. Cotton
Vitellius
A
XV." In Studies in Medieval Literature in Honor of Professor Albert CroU BaugK ed. MacEdward Leach, 255-71. Philadelphia, 1961. [= M] ed. The NotueH Codex: British Museum Cotton Vitellius A. XV, Second MS. Early English Manuscripts in Facsimile 12. Copenhagen, 1963. [= ,
M^]
McGowan,
Joseph. "Notes
on the
OE Version of the Vita Sancti Christo-
phori." Neophilologus 75 (1991): 451-55. .
"Readings from the Beotuul/ Manuscript,
fols.
94r-98r (The St. Christo-
pher Folios)." Manuscnpta 39 (1995): 26-29.
Mombritius, Boninus [Bonino Mombrizio], ed. Sanctuarium sen Vitae Sanc-
Rev ed. Paris, 1910. Sisam, Kenneth. "The Compilation of the Beowulf Manuscript." torum, Vol.
1.
Studies in the History of
Old
In idem.
English Literature, 65-96. Oxford, 1962.
184
pulsiano
phillip
Latin Text from the Acta Sanctorum [Numbers
in brackets indicate the corresponding section in the
Old
English]
sum
[1-16] Ego non
sum
sed
stultus,
non
stultus es, et insipiens, qui
cius, et caedi
ad virgas
ferreas: et mitti in
tormenta
talia
Tunc
et pedes
si
natus
non
iussit
fuisses,
quo^
eos decollari.
sanctus Christophorus dixit ad eum: Si amplius potueris tormenta
mihi facere, fac rex
stuke;
mihi
favum tormenta
Tunc
iussit
tum eius.
tua.
Et venerunt
duodecim. Et factum
dium
manus
caput eius cassidem igneam. Tunc
famulo Dei. Iratus rex
fieri iussisti
autem
lesum Christum, sed
iratus rex iussit Ugari
dixerunt tres ex consilibus: Beatus fueras Dagne,
niam
lesu Christi; tu
Dominum
confiteris
satanam patrem tuum. Et
confiteris
Domini
servus
civitatis,
[et]
aetema
vita
rex
fieri
artifices et tulerunt
est
mensuram
secundum iussionem
eum
iussit
rex
est, et
dulciora super
mel
scamnum ferreum secundum eius,
regis, et
ibi ligari,
et
et
sta*
quae erat cubitorom
posuenmt eum
ignem supponi,
in
me'
et iussit
quadraginta orcas olei mitti super eum. [17-38] Respondit sanctus Dei de
medio
igne; et dixit:
Haec tormenta
dine, et diis tuis consumentur.
menta
tua,
scamnum
factum
illud
eius
tamquam
magno
haec
tamquam
est
sanctum Christophorum
Ego semel
Cum
nee iram tuam.
in
eum
quia
non timebo
tor*
de multitudine flammae,
dixisset
cera.
Veniens autem et
orantem
rex, et videns (et erat facies
a timore
ab hora prima usque ad horam nonam. Postquam vero
surrexit,
rosa nova) videns
et
fecisti,
traxisti
ad
non
rex, cecidit in faciem
non
credere habent
mavit rex eum, et tuis malefaciis
[in]
dixit
animarum,
omnem populum
Dominum
Adhuc multae animae
lesum Christum,
iratus valde rex dicit si
et tu ipse. Et blasphe^ vis in
ista
hora perdidero
te
faciam prevenire. Alia
sanctum Christophorum:
et
cum
venisset ante con-
diis et intellige
verba mea, ut non
ad eum: lam sacriftca
feci;
me
ad sanctum Christophorum:
non crastina
per multa tormenta pereas. Sanctus Christophorus dixit: Ego
abominationem
per
exemplum omnium
[39-57] et ad
eius, dicit
dixit:
ad sanctum Christophorum: Numquid et
adducere? Et
die iussit adduci
spectum
sufficiunt peccata
permisisti sacrificare diis; sed
Sic mihi faciant dii mei, et sic mihi reddant,
animam tuam,
tibi
te?
Respondit sanctus Christophorus, et
autem
tibi dixi:
facis in tua turpitu-
suam
quas errare
me
quae mihi
medio igne stantem
dixit sancto Christophoro: Fera mala,
meum
tua,
quia fidem
meam
habeo,
quam
in
diis
tuis
baptismo accepi.
The Passion of Saint Christopher
Tunc
magnum secundum
rex exhiberi lignum
iussit
185
ante palatium; et vocati sunt milites, et
ad lignum
adligari.
statum
poni
eius, et
famulum Dei Christophorum
iussit
Et venientes milites secundum ordinationem regis
ter^
nas sagittas sagittaverunt super eum, ut citus interficeretur famulus Dei. Et dixit rex:
Videamus,
meis, et de sagittis
decimam; ex
his.
Dominus
Et sagittaverunt
his
[58-76] Alio vero die
eum
bus meis, et de
oculum
Et post
tetigit.
autem populus exspectahdt
veniens ad
eum
ne
dixit ei:
a vento a dextris atque solis
duo
occasum,
iussit
sinistris eius:
eum
rex dimitti
nocte solveretur. Multus
excipere corpus eius.
Eamus
dixit rex:
Ubi
sagittis his.
si
de manibus
sagittae in corpore eius fixae
forte a Christianis
Deus
est
et
videamus ilium maleficum. Et
tuus? Veniat et liberet te de mani'
Statim exsilens una de
regis et excaecavit
dico, tyranne stulte,
eum
ab hora prima usque horam
quod totae
autem suspendebantur
corpus eius
ligatum, et custodiri eum,
in
eius potest venire, et liberare
et putabat rex stultus
essent. Sagittae et nulla
si
eum,
sagittis ipsis ingressa est
et dicit sanctus Chris tophorus: Tibi
ego crastino, hora octava, accipio
credis:
meam
co-
omni bono. Et hoc mihi Dominus ostendere dignatus est. Veniunt multi Christiani, et accipiunt corpus meum, et ponunt illud in lo*
ronam
cum
in
orationis; tu
mine Domine
autem veni
in illo loco, et fac
nostri lesu Christi; et
pone
in
lutum cum sanguine
oculum tuum,
et salvus
in no-
fiieris.
Et
tunc adpropiavit hora, ut coronaretur sanctus Dei. Aperuit os suum in ora^ tione et dixit:
banc, quod
non
ibi
Domine Deus meus,
qui eduxisti
te rogo, praesta mihi: et in
[77-99] ingrediatur grando,
talitas: et in civitate
ilia,
et in
illis
non
locis, si
ira
de errore in scientiam
flammae, non fames, non mor-
fuerint
et veniunt et orant ex toto corde, et propter
men meum
me
quo loco posuerint corpus meum,
ihi rruileftci,
nomen tuum nominant
in suis orationibus salvi fiant. Et venit ei
Chris tophore. famule meus, ubi
est
aut daemoniaci,
nO'
vox de caelo dicens:
corpus tuum, et ubi non
est;
commemo-
nomen tuum; quidquid petierint, accipiant, et salvi autem suum martyr ium bonum, coronatur mense lulio viii Complens fiant, kal Augustas. Sunt autem numero, qui crediderunt in nomine Domini lesu Christi per sanctum Christophorum, millia hominum quadraginta et octo, et rantur autem in oratione sua
animae centum undecim. Alia vero dixit rex: Eamus, et videamus, ubi posuerunt eum. Et veniens in ilium locum clamavit voce magna, dicens: Chris* tophore, famule Dei, ostende mihi virtutem Dei
eum. Et
tulit
et posuit in
ut et ego
credam
in
ubi passus est, cum modico sanguine eius, nomine Dei Christophori: et in ipsa hora Tunc rex clamavit voce magna dicens: [100-119]
terram de loco
oculum suum
aperti sunt oculi eius.
tui,
illo,
in
186
PHILLIP
Gloria
tibi,
Deus Christianonun; qui
facis
PULSIANO
voluntatem timentibus
te, et
ego
meum in omni populo, et in omni linDeum Christianorum, gladio percutiatur.
ab hodiemo die [ponam] praeceptum gua;
[ut]
quisquis blasphemaverit
Hanc orationem constituit sanctus Christophorus: Domine lesu Christe praesta bonam mercedem scribentibus et legentibus passionem meam: qui regnas cum Patre, et Spiritu Sancto, in saeculo saeculorum. Amen.
The Passion of Saint Christopher
187
Glossary a adv. forever, always. 142 ablaest adj. furious. Is. compar. ablaestre 21
ablendan abregan
1.
blind, p. ptc. ablend 76
alarm, frighten,
1.
ac conj. but, however.
acwellan
ac weald 61, 89
9; pret. 3 sg.
1. kill. inf.
abreged 34
p. ptc.
64, 65
1,
adilgian 2. blot out, abolish, p. ptc. adilgod 49
aefen m. evening,
a.s.
63
aefter adv, after. 67; aefter Jjon. afterwards.
43
aelmihtig adj. almighty, n.s.m. 90 aenig adj. any.
n.s.
93, 129
aer adv. before. 135, 144; aer j^am Jje
aerest adj.
first, d.s.f
aet prep.
w.
aetywan
1.
alyfan
an
47, 66, 78
d. at.
reveal, show. imp.
permit, allow,
1.
88
aerestan 35, 62
sg.
p. ptc.
aetywed 79, 81
alyfed 39
p. ptc.
adj. alone, only, g.s.m.
aetyw 116;
ones 133
an num. one. 64
and
conj. and. 1, 3, 4, 5, etc.
andswarian
1.
answer
3
pret.
ansyn/face, countenance,
sg.
anweald m. power, authority, asecgan
3. tell, say.
asettan
1. set,
awritan
1.
put.
infl.
inf.
inf
andswarode 41, 44, 54 31
n.s.
jurisdiction, n.s. 132: d.s.
anwealde 127
asecgenne 136
59
write, record, suhj. 3
sg.
awrite 145
bael n. fire, flame, d.s. baele 23
be
prep. w. d. concerning. 12
II. command, pret. 3 .sg. bebead 60 command, decree, a.p. bebodu 126 becuman IV. come, befall, pres. 3 pi. becumad 26; pret. 3 pi. becomon 113 gehed n. prayer, n.s. 100; d.p. gebedum 102; a.p. gebedu 139
bebeodan bebod
n.
beeode -^ began* beforan prep. w.
d. before. 59,
began anom?. honor, belimpan
III.
pret.
3
pertain, pres. 3
122
sg.
sg.
beeode 129 belimpe 127
188
PHILLIP
beneodan beobread
beodan
prep. w. d. beneath. 18
(honey')comb
n.
1 1
command,
.
beon'wesan anom.
sg.
bead 68
sg.
eart
3
be. pres. 2
synd
byst, bist 48, 85; 3
1;
13, 54, 136; 3
sy 94, 101, 130, 131; pres.
sg.
pi beo6 102;
sg. ys, is 3,
pret.
3
sg.
pi waeron 64, 65, 121;
10, 15, 19, 29, 32, 33, 34, etc.; pret.
3
14
'bec'breacl']. a.s.
[lit.
pret.
72, etc.; 3 pi synt,
waere
PULSIANO
subj.
syn 94;
3,
pres. subj.
3
.sg.
naere 8; with neg. pres. 3
.sg.
3
7, 21, 61, 89; pret. subj. 3 sg. neg.
44,
waes
pi.
pret.
subj.
nys 39, 132
nis,
beorht
beohtre 24
adj. bright, clear, d.s.f
geberan IV. bear, bring forth,
pt. ptc.
beswican
inf.
deceive, ensnare,
I.
gebiddan V. pray, ask. pret.
3
inf.
45: p. ptc. beswicen 130
90; pres.
baed 143; pres.
sg.
geboren 8
I
subj.
sg.
bidde 92; sg.
I
pres. .3
gebidde 46;
pi bidda[) 104;
pres.
subj.
3 pi
gebiddon 90, 96, 102 gebindan
bind, inf 4, 17;
III.
p. ptc.
gebundenne
a.s.m.
68
gebletsian 2. bless, p. ptc. gebletsod 140
blindnes
/.
blindness,
/.
bled
n. blood, g.s.
bringan
1.
broga m.
blindnesse 86 d.s.
blodes 118;
blostma m. blossom,
biowan VII.
d.s.
happiness,
bliss
bliss, joy,
n.s.
a.s.
terror, n.s.
gebrosnodlic
blowad 138
57
14, 25,
inf.
83
32
flourish, pres. 3 pi.
bring,
blisse 107
94
adj. corruptible, n.s.m.
132
butan
prep, except, without. 133, 142
by sen
/.
example, model,
bysmerian
2.
ceaster / city.
cempa m.
cigan cigde
a.s.
II.
50 bysmeriende 44
ceastre 17
cempan
9; n.p.
cempan
6, 60, 62, 112; d.p.
68, 89, 106
chose, n.s.m.
1. call. pret.
—>
n.s.
pres. ptc.
soldier, warrior, a.s.
cempum geceosan
mock.
3
sg.
(subst.)
gecorena 87
cigde 11, 23, 115, 122; pres. subj. 3 pi ciggen 97
cigan.
gecorena —> geceosan. Crist m. Christ,
g.s.
Cristes
1,
117;
d.s.
Criste 108:
a.s.
Crist 43
189
The Passion of Saint Christopher
cristen adj. Christian, n.s.n. cristene 69; n.p.m. cristene 80; g.p.m. cris'
tenra 123 Cristoforus
11, 22, 30, 36, 41, etc.; d.s. 71; g.s. 120, 134, 136; a.s. 17,
n.s.
51
cuman
cumad
IV. come. pres. 3
pi,
cumon
95
82: subj. 3
pi.
cyninge. cyningc m. king.
cyninge
say.
3, 9,
com
72; imp. 2
sg.
cum
14, 30, 43, 51, 57, 63, 67, etc.; d.s.
cyninges 75
8, 11, 24; g.s.
cwedan, cwejjan V.
n.s.
80; pret. 3 sing,
inf.
90; prer. 3 sg
.
cwaed
11, 24, 28, 37, 41, 44,
52, 55, etc.; pres. ptc. cwe[)endu 99
g^ecwedan V. say.
cwaed
—>
pret.
3
gecwaed 74;
sg.
pret. 3 pi.
gecwaedon 6
cwedan.
daeg m. day.
daege 51, 125; g.s daeges 35, 63, 79;
d.s.
a.s.
daeg 138;
i.s.
daege 47, 78, 88 daegenlic adj. daily, of this day. d.s.m. daegenlican 125 dael
m.
part, portion, n.s. 93, 117
Dagnus
n.s. 7,
30
deofol m./n. devil,
don anom.
do. pres.
^edon anom. do.
deofles 129, 135
g.s. I
pres.
do 55, 128; imp.
sg. I
sg.
dryhten, drihten m. lord, the Lord. 24, 81, 88;
gedyrstlaecan
a.s. 1.
sg.
do
13; suhj. 3 sg.
do 120
gedo 48
dryhten, drihten
n.s. 78, 90, 97,
2,
dare, presume, pres.
42;
2
g.s.
sg.
137, 144; d.s. drihtne
dryhtnes
1,
139
dyrstlaeccest 38; subj.
3
sg.
gedyrstlaece 127, 130
dysig adj. foolish, n.s.m.
1, (suhst.)
dysega 77
eac adv. also. 143 eadig
cage
adj. blessed, n.s.m. 6; g.s.
n. eye. n.p.
eagan 121;
eadigan 134, 135
d.p.
eagan 84, 119;
g.p.
eagena 86;
a.p.
eagan
75 eaht num. eight, n.p.m.
eahtoda num. eighth,
1
10
d.s.f.
eahtodan 78
call adj. all. a.s.n. 126; g.p.m. ealra 2; d.s.f. ealre 84, 96, 140; d.s.n.
122; ealle n.p.f. 63; g.p.f. ealra 49; used adverbially, entirely.
geearnung ece
/.
favor, d.p.
adj. eternal, a.p.n.
geearningum 104;
ecean 145
a.p.
geearnunga 134
eallum
PHILLIP PULSIANO
190 edlean
reward, a.p. 146
n.
efnheah cge m.
adj. equally high, a.s.n.
58
33
fear, terror, dread, g.s.
egeslic adj, fearful, dreadful. d.p.m/f. egeslicum 73
ele m.
eles
oil. ^.5.
emnheah
ende m. end. eordan
20 high, n.s.m. 15
adj. equally
142
d.s.
earth, ground. d.s. 34, 82;
/.
g.s.
117
eordiic adv. earthly, n.s.m. 132
faeder m. father.
^efaestnian 2.
141
d.s.
fix, fasten,
faedm m. fathom,
g.p.
secure,
d.s.
gefeallan VII.
3
feran fet
->
pi.
gefaestnode 64
sg. 1
gefean 140 gefeol 34
10
ferd 88; pret. 3
sg.
ferde 108
sg.
fot.
fiftyne flan
fall. pret.
four, n.p.m.
go. pres. 3
1.
60; p. ptc.
faedma 16
gefean m. joy, gladness,
feower num.
inf.
num.
fifteen, n.p.m.
110
dart, n.p.f. flana 75
/.
folc n. people, n.s. 70; a.s. 38; g.s. folces 42, 108; d.s. folce 123
for prep.
forhabban
forhwon
forwyrd m.
on account
/.
III.
die, perish, subj.
2
forhaefde 98
48
4
w
d.
fram, from prep,
adj.
frill.
fulwiht m.
/.
forlwn
forweor6e 54
sg.
destruction, demise, ruin.
foot, a.p, fet
d.s.
forwyrde 26
from, by. 35, 38, 62, etc.
gefreolsian 2. free, liberate, pret. 3
fuU
33, 96, 104
why. 72 destroy, p. ptc. forloren
II.
of.
conj. because, for, therefore. 13, 69, 131;
forweordan
fot
of, for,
3. restrain, pret. subj. 3 sg.
adv.
forleosan
fordon
because
iv. d.
sg,
gefreolsode 73
n.s.m. 135
baptism.
d.s.
fulwihte 57
fur[)on adv. even 64 gefyllan
1. frilfil. p. ptc.
fyr n.
fire. g.s.
fyren
ad^. ftery,
gefylledu 106
iyrcs 19, 21, 29;
d.s.
fyre 31; a.s, fyr 18
burning, a.s.m. fyrenne 6
fyrhto/., indecl in
sg. fear, terror,
dread. 33
Jjc
56, 138
The Passion of Saint Christopher gangan VII. go.
Ill
inf.
gast m. ghost, spirit,
gearwa
191
gaste 142;
d.s.
a.s.
gast 144
adv. readily, clearly. 92
prepare, p. ptc. gegearwode 54
gegearwian
2.
geboren -^
g^eberan.
gescyndnes, ^se
confusion,
/.
gescyndnesse 26
d.s.
gecwaedon -^ gecwedan. g^edwola m. error,
d.s.
gedwolan 91
geleafa m. faith, belief,
gemynd geond
memory.
n.
geleafan 56
a.s.
gemynde 49
i.s.(?).
126
prep. w. a. throughout.
geornlice adv. eagerly, zealously. 69 inf.
20
getoht m. thought,
a.s.
geotan
II.
pour.
12
geworden —> weordan. gif,
gyf conj,
7, 12, etc.
if.
42
git adv. yet, still.
God
m. God.
god
n.
god
adj.
123, 144;
n.s.
(pagan) god. d.p.
growan
good, a.s.m. godne 91; VII. grow. pres. 3
gyrd / rod.
habban
g.s.
godum
3.
d.p.
gyrdum
have.
Godes
9, 65, etc.; a.s.
God
50, 84, etc.
39, 53; a.p. goda 55 a.s.f.
gode 109, 145
growad 139
pi.
5
pres. subj.
2
sg.
haebbe 12;
pres. suhj. 3 pi.
habbon 112
haebbe —> habban. gehaelan
1.
heal, save. imp. 2
gehael 97; pres. pre. n.s.m. gehaeled 85;
sg.
n.p.m. gehaelede 103
haelend m. Saviour. Healer, haeto/, indecl. heat.
d.s.
haelende 43;
g.s.
haelendes
1
21; d.s. 19
n.s.
halig adj. holy, n.s.m. halga 11, 22, 28
(suhst.),
54, etc.; d.s.m. halgan 71,
142; g.s.m. halgan 58, 66; a.s.m. halgan 17, 22, 30, 51; d.s.n. halgan 95; a.p.n. halgan 139
hand
/.
hangian
hand. 2.
d.p.
hang.
handum
pres. ptc.
73; a.p.
handa 4
hangigende 66
hatan VII. command, order,
pret.
2
sg.
hetst 8, 25;
pret.
3
sg.
het
3, 4, 5,
10, 14, etc.
he, hit pers. pm. he, 4, 5, etc.; d.s.m.
it.
n.s.m.
him
he
4, 5, 10, 16, 17, 18, etc.; g.s.m. his,
18, 29, 39, 41, 43, etc.; a.s.m. hine,
hyne
hys
6, 16,
PHILLIP PULSIANO
192
36, 60, etc.; a.s.n. hit, hyt 20, 59, 92, 104, etc.; n.p. hig, hi, hie 39, 68, 95, etc.; d.p, hyra 61; g.p. heora 102, hyra 103; d,p.
him
54, 77;
hie 103, 146.
a.p.
heafod
head.
n.
heafde 5
d.s.
gehealdan VII. hold, keep.
pres.
I
sg.
geheold 56;
pret. svibj.
3
pi.
heoldon
69 healf
67
side. d.s. healfe
/.
heall/. hall.d.5. healle 59
helm m. helmet, heofonlic
heorte
adj.
6
a.s.
heofon m. heaven.
heofenum 105
d.p.
heavenly, a.s.m. heofonlican 128
heart, d.s. heortan 85,
/.
/.
praise, d.5.
^ehieran
1.
hear. pret. 3
hrsdlice adv. quicldy,
96
herennesse 137
hereness
gehyred 100;
sg.
p. ptc.
gehyerdu 99, 106
swiftly, forthwith. 12
hrade adv. quickly. 74, 106, 120 i:ehrinan
hu
I.
touch,
pret.
3
gehran 65
sg.
how. 38
adv.
hundteontig num. one hundred twenty, n.p.m. 110
hunig
n.
honey,
huniges 14
g.s.
hwaer adv. where. 72, 112 gehwierfan
1.
hwylce
some, any.
adj.
hymes /. ic
pm.
I.
turn. pret. 2
obedience,
n.s.
sg.
n.s.
gehwyfdest 91 12
a.p.n.
139
26, 45, 48, 55, 56, etc.; d,s,
me
45, 91
isen adj. iron, a.s.m. isenne 14
isem
adj. iron. d.p.f.
isemum
gelaedan
1.
lead, bring,
gelaeran
1.
teach,
inf.
2
pret.
5
52
sg.
gelaerdest 91
^eleafful adj. faithful, n.p.m. geleaffulle 101
lam
n. clay,
lang
mud.
a.s.
adj. long, n.s.n.
83 16; n.p.n. lang
136
lange adv. long. 38 lar
/.
teaching,
ladettan
1.
d.5.
lare 109
abominate,
pres.
I
sg.
ladette 55
12, 13, 25, 26, etc.; a.s.
me
The Passion of Saint Christopher lengo
iruiecl
length,
f.
193
59
d.s.
lifian 2. live. pres. ptc. a.s.m. lyfigendes
licgan V.
3
lie. pret.
lichama m. body.
101, 114;
n.s.
141
34
sg. laeg
lichaman 93;
g.s.
lichaman 64, 82;
d.s.
a.s.
lichaman 65, 80 49
lif n. life. d.s.
geliffaestan lig
1.
m. flame,
gelyfan 3
maegen
n. strength,
pret. pres.
manig
adj.
pret. pres.
m. man.
d.p.m.
be
men
gemartyrian
suhj.
manegum
2
maege 45
53
able, can. pres. 3
pi.
126, 129;
manna
80, 101; g.p.
19, 107
sg.
magon 125 mannas
g.s.
1.
15, 59, 66; a.s.
man
110, 123
maran
12
118
n.s.
martyr,
gemartyrod 83
p. ptc.
ic.
mede/. reward,
medmicel
a.s.
adj. little,
mengan
1.
mennisc
adj.
87, 145
small amount, subst. 118
mix, mingle, imp. 2
mergenlic
human,
adj.
micelnes
n.p.f.
sg.
meng
83; pret. 3
sg.
mengde 119
mennisce 124
of the morrow,
adj. great, large,
d.s.f.
mid
maestan
d.s.f.
mon, man
n.s.
martyr m. martyr,
micel
gelyfst 84; pres.
maenigo 28
a.s.
{compar. o/micel). greater, more, a.p.n.
adj.
me —>
sg.
65
a.s.
be able, can.
many,
22; n.p.
mara
88
gelyfe 116; pres. 2
sg.
I
msenio 42;
n.s.
most,
adj. greatest,
mann
power,
multitude,
/.
magan
magan
geliffaested
gelyfaj) 42, 50; pret. 3 sg. gelyfde 135
maenigo maest
life. p. ptc.
19; g.s. liges 23
believe, trust, pres.
1.
pi.
bring to
n.s.
much,
i.s.m.
mergenlican 46, 70, 78, 88
n.s.m. (suhst.) 123; n.s.f. 42; g.s.n. miceles 33;
miceire 115, 122 /.
greatness,
g.s.
58
prep. w. d. with. 5, 61, 131, 140, 141, 146; adv.
mit ty
(^e)
when,
after this, then. 19, 27, 32, 37, etc.
midd adj. middle, amidst, d.s. (on) middum 22, 30 midd adv. in the middle of, amidst, on middes 28 miht /. might, power, a.s. 134
min
poss. adj.
minum
my, mine,
82; a.s.m.
n.s.m.
minne
100, 144; g.s.m.
42, 56, 97; g.s.n.
mines
1,
mines 127;
80, 93; d.s.m. a.s.m.
min
52;
.
PHILLIP PULSIANO
194
mine 145; mine 126
a.p.m. a.p.n.
minum
d.p.m.
39; d.p.n.
minum
52; d.p.f.
minum
73;
mit ty -> mid.
mod
n.
mind.
modes 33
g.s.
naefre adv. never. 8, 26
naere —> wesan.
nama
m. name.
48:
n.s.
d.s.
naman
97, 104, 120; a.s.
n.s.m.
126, 127, 132: n.p.f.
nan (= ne an) adj. not any. ne adv. not, nor. 2, 27, 64,
72, 94, 101, 124, 127;
naman ne
97, 102, 137
nane 124 ..
.
nc neither
.
.
nor 94
neah
adv. near. 94; adj., superl d.
nealecan
1.
draw near.
nigot^a adj. ninth,
a.s.f.
3
pres.
nihstan 143
.s.
.sg.
nealseced 86
nigol)an 35
nihstan -> neah.
geniman IV. nis
(= ne
noht
nu
take. imp. 2
is)
—>
adv. not at
adv.
nym
sg.
82; pret. 3
sg.
genam 117
beon^wesan. 132
all.
now. 41, 92, 117, 125, 131, 136, 138
oiprep. w.
d.
from. 48, 49, 73, 75 (with), 91, 96; w.
i.
(usually w. d.) from.
91 ofer prep.
vu. a.
20
over.
ofercuman IV. overcome,
on
upon,
prep. w. d. on,
inf.
121
in, into. 5, 18, 19, 21, 25, etc.;
w.
a. 33,
47, 50,
75, etc.
onaeian
end
set fire.
1.
inf.
18
see and.
ondraedan VII dread,
fear,
be
afraid, pres.
sg.
I
ondraede 27; 2
sg.
ondraetst 2
onfeng -> onfon.
onfon VII.
receive, accept, pres.
80, 105; pret.
ongean
I
sg.
I
onfeng 57;
prep. w. a. against.
sg.
onfo 79; 3
pret.
onlysan
III.
1.
onmiddan onsecgan
begin, pret. 3
liberate,
sg.
sg.
onfehd 87; 3
onfeng 121
128
ongietan V. understand, perceive, imp.
onginnan
3
sg,
sg.
ongit 52
ongan 90
redeem, inf 70
prep. w. d. in the
middle
of,
3. sacrifice, inf 40; imp. sg.
amidst. 16, 22
onsaga 52
pi.
onfod
The Passion of Saint Christopher onsendan
ontynan
1.
send forth,
open.
1.
od
prep.
oder
od
until. 35, 63, 138; conj.
read. suhj. 3
1.
l)aet
until 61
kingdom,
a.s.
raede 146
sg.
compar.,
adj. fierce, cruel,
rice n.
orcas 20
a.s.
next, d.s.m. odre 51, 111
adj.
rsedan
rede
If. a.
onsende 144
sg.
ontynde 121
p. ptc. pi.
ore m. flagon, vessel,
3
pret.
195
126;
redre 21; superl.,
i.s.
d.s.n.,
redestan 23
rices 127
g.s.
rihtlice adv. rightly, justly. 103
ricsian 2. rule, reign, pres. 3 sg rixad 141
rose f rose.
g.s.
scamol,
'ull
sceotan
11.
scotian
rosan 32
m. bench,
shoot, pret. 3
2.
sculan
pret. pres.
scuton
—>
dem.
of?); d.s.m.
51, 56;
i.s.
l)am
(2x), 62, 112; d.p.m.
\>am 23
sg.
scealt
49
that, n.s.m. se 2, 3,
15, 28, 33, 35, 58, etc.
(through the
by that) \>e2\
(2x), i.s.m. Jjy 70, 88; n.p.m.
l>am 68, 75, 89, 106; a.p.m. ^a 10;
n.
s.
63; g.p. l>ara craft, art,
n.
^aes 19, 21, 45 (used adverbially), 108, 117, 128;
(2x), 31, 95; a.s.n. l)aet 15, 18, 32, 36, 76; a.p.n. Jjas,
74, 75, 139, 145;
/.
2
7, 10, 23, 66, 71, etc.; a.s.m. Jjone 17, 22, 30,
n.s.f.
seo 86;
85, 101, 107, 113, 120, 130; J)a
to. pres.
who, which, the one
\>2ds
(w. compar., the,
taet 69, 108; g.s.n.
searwe
scotedon 61
pret. subj. 3 pi.
3
n.s.
prn., def. art.
agency
d.s.n.
ought
to,
14, 22, etc.; g.s.m.
11,
6
scotedon 62;
must, have
scyppend m. creator,
l)a
pi.
15
s.
scuton 75
pi.
sceotan
se, sec, Jjaet 9,
stool, n.s. 29; a.
shoot, pret. 3
d.s.f.
^aere 10, 19, 35, 59, 62, 78, 82,
^aere
g.s.f.
^a
HI;
a.s.f.
^a
16, 35, 81; n.p.f.
50 contrivance, n.p. searwa 124; a.p. searwa 129
self prn., adj. self, n.s.m. selfa 43. [see sylf]
sellan
1.
sendan
give. imp. 2
1.
^eseon V.
send. pres. see.
inf.
sg. I
syle 145
sg.
sende 126;
112; pret. 3
sg.
pret.
3
sg.
sende 67
geseah 30, 31, 32, 36, 76;
p. ptc.
gesett
112 setlgang m. setting (of the sun), settan
1. set,
gesett 112
put. inf 5; pres. 3
d.s. sg.
setlgange 67 sette 119; imp. 2
sg.
sete 84; p. ptc.
PHILLIP PULSIANO
196 gesettan
put, place. 3 pi gesettal) 81
1. set,
sigor m. victory, ^esihl)
f.
79
a.s.
sight, a.s. gesihjje 121
slean VI.
kill, slay. p. ptc.
so5faestnes
/.
slegen 107
truthfulness, a.s. sodfsestnesse 116
sodlice adv. truly. 131 spraec
speech, utterance,
/.
standan VI. stand, stefn
voice,
/.
stemn
/.
voice,
d.s.
d.s.
standende 31
99; d.s. stefne 24
n.s.
stow/, place,
105
n.s.
pres. ptc.
stemne
115, 122
stowe 113;
a.s.
stowe 81
strael m./f.
arrow, n.p. straelas 63; d.p. straelum 61, 74, 75
strynan
1.
obtain, pret. 3
sunne
/.
sun.
g.s.
sunu m.
son.
d.s.
swa
sg,
gestrynde 109
sunnan 67 suna 141; a.s. 141
adv. thus, so. 34, 39, 45, 53, 54, 68, 133; conj. as. 29;
.. swa whatsoever 101; swa hwylc(e)re swa hwaes swa for whatsoever 103 sweord
n.
swette
adj.
swingan
sword,
d.s.
3 pi
swungon 6
32
like.
adj. right, d.s.f.
swy3ran 66
sybb
peace, concord,
d.s.
sylf
pm.
93, 98;
sweet, compar., n.p. swettran 13
swydra /.
. swa whatsoever
swyrde 131
III. flog. inf. 4; pret.
swylce adv.
swa hwyllce
sybbe 140
himself, n.s.m. 79
syli adj. same,
sylfan 47,
d.s.f.
85
symle adv. always. 55
synn
/.
sin. d.p.
synnum 103
synt -^ beon-wesan.
tear m. tear. d.p.
tearum 146
tempi
d.s.
n.
temple.
teona m. harm,
temple 95
injury, a.s.
teonan 47, 55
tid/. time. n.s. 86; d.s. tide 10, 35, 47, 62, 78, 85, 92, 99, 121, 131, 144; a.s.
tintreg
tide 35
m. torment,
n.p. tintrego 13, 25;
tintregian 2. torment, torture, inf 8
dp. tintregum 53;
a.p. tintrego
27
The Passion of Saint Christopher to prep. w.
d. to. 7,
U,
197
24, 25, 37, etc.; w.
inf.
17, 52; w.
infl.
136; to
inf.
l)on so that, in order that 129
tosomne treow
adv. together. 4, 119
58
n. tree. a.s.
twegen num. two.
twa 75
n.p.f
twelf num. twelve. 16
tyhtan
1.
incite, urge, persuade, pres. 2 sg. tyhtest
39
tyn num. ten. 20
\>2L
adv. then. 3, 6, 9, 13, 14, 36, etc.; conj.
22, 29, 71
where 113, 117
\>xr adv. there. 17, 20, 34, 96, etc.; conj.
60
l)aeron adv. thereon. Jjaet conj.
when
that, so that. 18, 20, 32, 34, etc.
taette conj. that. 93, 126, 134
who, which,
|>e indecl. rel. part,
that. 3, 6, 8, 19, 25, etc.
J)eah adv. although. 100
l)egn m. retainer, warrior, d.p.
J)eow m. servant, l)es
m., l)eos/.,
n.s.
92, 100
n.
dem. pm.
t)is
i.s.m. J)ys> 5is 46, 78; d.s.n.
38, 120;
n.s.f.
[jegnum 111
this, d.s.m. l)yssutn 125; a.s.m. J)yssne 138;
t>issum 49; g.s.m. J>yses 143; a.s.n.
l)is
28
]peos 105; d.s./. l)isse, Jjysse 47; i.s.m. l)ys 48; n.p.m. J)as
25; n.p.n. l)as 74; d.p.mlfln. l)yssum 73, 89
tin poss.
flinra 85; a.p.n. {jine
55
compar. than. 13; adv. then. 46, 82, 84, 125, 129
suffering, a.p.
adj. three,
trowigende 118
trowunga 145
a.m. try 60
tu prn. you. n.s. 1, 2, 7, 8, 12, etc.; d.s. te 50, 56, 96; turh prep, through, by means of. 42, 50, 65, 76, etc. tus adv. thus. 8
tusend num. thousand, n.p.m. tusenda tyder
d.s.n.
^ine 13; a.p.m.
2
2. suffer, pres. ptc.
trowung /.
n.s.n.
l)inre 25, 26; n.p.m.
adv. thither. 57
tyllic adj. such, a.s.m. tyllicne 9
1
10
a.s. \>e
73, 92
198
PHILLIP
{)ywan
gejjywed 29
press, p. ptc.
1.
unasecgendlic
umnaete
adj.
unsnotor
adj.
unimaginable,
immense,
adj.
unmaetoste
PULSIANO
enormous,
18; superl, d.s.n.
unasecgendlican 107
d.s.n.
unmaetre 58;
g.s.f.
superl.
a.s.n.
unmaetostan 23
unwise, n.s.m. 2
untrum adj. sick, infirm, n.p.m. untrume 95 untrumnes /. infirmity, d.s. untrumnesse 98
unwemme uparisan
adj.
without blemish, undefiled. up.
1. rise
upwaestm
36; pret 3
inf.
uton
(1 pi. suhj.
waedl
/.
utgangende
pres. ptc.
o/witan w.
want, poverty,
waelgrim(m)
a.s.
unwemne 56
uparas 37
upwaestme 15
n. stature, d.s.
utgan anom. go out.
sg.
n.s.
71
Ill
inf.) let us.
94
waelgrimma 77
adj. cruel, n.s. (suhst.)
waeihreowlice adv. cruelly. 8
waer -> beon'wesan. waes -> beon'wesan.
wafung /. amazement, wonder, weax n. wax. n.s. 29
wafunga 33
a.s.
wen /. hope, expectation, n.s. 44 wenan 1. think, expect, pret. 3. sg. wende weordan
III.
become,
p. ptc.
geworden
63, 69
3, 10, 29,
133
wer m. man. a.p. weras 10 wesan anon. be. inf. 49. —> been. wiht f/n/ creature, n.s. wuht 127 wilddeor
n.
wild animal, wild beast,
willa m. will, desire,
a.s.
willan anon, wish, desire,
wind m. wind. gewinn
d.s.
witan wite
1.
n.
witnian
wid
will. suhj.
n. struggle, fight, labor, g.p.
pres. pret.
depart.
a.s.
know.
—>
punish,
3
sg.
wolde
21,
70
gewinna 87
91
pres.
I
sg.
wat
131; imp. 2
uton.
torment, punishment, 2.
37
winde 66
wisdom m. wisdom, witan
n.s.
willan 128, 135
pret.
prep. w. a. with.
83
3
sg.
a.p.
witu 12
witnode 131
sg.
wite 46, 77, 86
199
The Passion of Saint Christopher widsacan VI
(tu.d.).
renounce, forsake,
word
word n. word. a.s. wrecan V. wreak, avenge,
wuht -> wuldor
prss.
reject, suhj.
word
52; a.p. I
sg.
74; d.p.
I
sg.
widsace 46
wordum 89
wrece 47
wiht.
n. glory. d.s.
wuldre 107
adj. glorious, n.s.m.
wuldorfaest
wuldorgeworc
n.
(suhst.)
glorious work.
g.s.
123
wuldorgeworces 124;
n.p.
wuldor-
geworc 136 wuldorlic
wundor
adj.
wonderful,
n.s.f.
n. wonder, miracle,
gewyrcan
1.
wyrsa comp. ylcanpm.,
wuldorlice 105
n.s.
108
perform, make. pres. 3 adj.
adj.
yrre n. anger,
sg.
wyrcd
138; pret. 3
worse, superl. n.s.m. wyrresta 37
same,
d.s.f
ylcan 130
n.s. 8, a.s. 3,
27
sg.
geworhte 137
JANE ROBERTS
Two
Readings in the
Guthlac Homily
THE EDITORIAL HISTORY OF Homily XXIII
Don
recently edited by
princeps of the Life of
MS Vespasian
ton
D.
Scragg/ goes back to C.
W.
Goodwin's 1848
editio
Guthlac contained in London, British Library, Cot' xxi.
Goodwin was
able to cite in his notes
first
**all
the
Benjamin
variations of importance," thanks to the ''kindness of Mr.
Thorpe,"^ but the
most
of the VercelU Book,
printed text of the Guthlac homily did not appear
until P. Gonser's 1909 edition of
both
Life
and homily.^ Gonser
prints
the homily in parallel with the corresponding chapters of the late eleventh'century
Life,
including at the foot of the page selections from Felix's
Vita sancti Guthlaci chosen to display their source. His comparisons of the
English texts with one another and with the selections from the that a fuller and
much
different original translation lay
vita reveal
behind the
Life.
His collations show that words, phrases, and even sentences have disappeared from
it
and from the homily, and, on the evidence of the
parts, at different times
'
D. G. Scragg,
ed.,
and to
different ends. Clearly, the Life
The VercelU HomilUs and Related
Texts,
EETS
o.s.
parallel
and homily
300 (Oxford,
1992), 383-92. ^ Charles Wycliffe Goodwin, ed., The AngbSaxon Version of the Life of St, Guthlac, Hermit of Crowland (London, 1848), v. ^ Paul Gonser, ed., Das angelsdchsische Prosa-Leben des hi Guthlac, AngUstische For-
schungen 27 (Heidelberg, 1909).
202
JANE ROBERTS
have undergone separate and considerable
revision, but together they im-
ply a fuller original translation than could be surmised tant.
The
by the
last
decades of the tenth century,
the central events of the legend. text,
if
only one were ex-
homily, which must have reached the form in which is
survives
it
obviously a popularisation of
has the feel almost of a performance
It
syntax to a great extent freed of the Latin-hugging sentence struc-
its
tures that
The
can be
still
more
clearly seen in the Vespasian Life.
curious result of the independent shaping of these
two
texts
is
that
each preserves structures modelled upon the Latin where the other shows simplification or
an attempt
be invoked to explain
at simplification.
loss or
Although
carelessness
change in the homily, the
may
parallel parts of
the Vespasian Life suggest that an old-fashioned text was subjected to thoughtful revision, to bring
it
more
norms of
or less into line with the
West Saxon. Evidences remain, both in vocabulary and more northerly original,"^ but the words and syntactical forms unnatural to late West Saxon are generally replaced by others more familiar, and unusual dialect forms and spellings were for the most part covered over by late West Saxon characlate eleventh-century
and
in morphology, of the underlying older
teristics. Difficulties
were rationalized, or discarded. Indeed, but
existence of the Vercelli homily, radical
the
an overhaul had been undertaken.^
Homily XXIII was iary to the
Vespasian
first
edited in
Life,
its
own
right, rather
by P. Szarmach,^ whose
than
for
those homilies not edited by
M.
as
an
auxil-
Vercelli Homilies
XXIII gave the Toronto Dictionary of Old English project texts
for
would be impossible to guess that so
it
Forster.^
reliable
IX-
working
Szarmach's text
sparked off H. Pilch's "sentence-analytical edition" which, by confronting
"the mixture of syntactic and asyntactic modes of cohesion," seeks to avoid "a number of unexplained cruces and the need for
many emenda-
tions" he finds "gratuitously" produced in conventionally edited texts.^
^ Jane Roberts, "Traces of Unhistorical Gender Manuscript," English Studies 51 (1970): 30-37. ^
^
in a Late
Old English
Jane Roberts, "The Old English Prose Translation of Felix's Vita sancti Guthlaci'' in
Studies in Earlier ^
Congmence
Old English
Paul E. Szarmach, ed.,
Max
Prose, ed. Paul E. Vercelli Homilies
Szarmach (Albany, 1986), 363-79.
IX-XXUl (Toronto,
Forster, ed., Die VercelU-Homilien: I- VIII.
Buffalo,
London, 1981).
HomiUe, Bibliothek der angelsach-
sischen Prosa 12 (Hamburg, 1932). *
A Sentence Analytical Edition," in and Phibbgy, ed. Jacek Fisiak (Berlin and New York, 1990), 297-336,
Herbert Pilch, "The Last Vercelli Homily:
Historical Linguistics
here 302.
Two
Readinfjs in the Guthlac
Don
Scragg's definitive The Vercelli Homilies, in giving us a fully edited
makes
text supported by glossary, this
paper
I
my
which appeared while
discussion
possible to read the homily afresh. In
some consideration of
made
in his
Pilch's edition,
Scragg's was in press.
"big fer[c]ede" (Unes 81-82)
In Scragg's edition the
myclan anJleofone,
t>aet
feorh big ferlcjede" and to
it
should like to re'cxamine two of the emendations
edition, drawing into
1.
203
Homily
l>am
medmycclan
fuller
context runs "ac
l>a
feng to
l)aere teala
waes to \>2m berenan hlafe, 7 t>one gel^ygde 7 his is
to be
bigleofan,
compared with the Vespasian "ac
J)a
feng
waes to \)am berenan hlafe, and l)one
J^aet
Each passage
some remove
[jigede
and
Felix's
"tunc adsumpta ordeacei panis particula victum suum cotidianum
his
vesci coepit."^°
lif
bileofode."^
The
differences in wording
relates at
can be put down to the
fering transmission history of each version, yet their clear
from the phrasing of the
The Vespasian struction
reading
Life, in a
"lif
two
common
bileofode" presents
he
is
no problems. The con^
passage not present in the homily:
he nawiht ne onbyrigde buton berene hlaf and t>onne sunne waes on setle, l)onne l^igede he f)a [MS Jje
ancestry
clauses.
l^aet
fene,
dif-
well attested, and indeed occurs once earlier in the
hi libhan is
Vespasian
final
to
waeter; l)aes]
and
andly^
bigleofode.^^
Goodwin, followed by Gonser, chose to emend the Vercelli homily's "gemetegung" into the preceding
clauses of the Vespasian Life, arguing
that the phrase "to gereorde" of the homily "does not agree with the original,
and
is
tautologous."^^
It
is
interesting to place the
two passages
alongside Felix's wording, but with the manuscript reading "to gereorde" reinstated in the
life
and the interloping Vercelli "gemetegung" dismissed:
' Gonser, Guthlac, 126, from Goodwin's edition. *°
Bertram Colgrave,
lines
84-88, with "to
ed., FeUx's
Life,
l)am**
an
editorial addition
adopted
of Saint Guthlac (Cambridge, 1956; repr.
bridge, 1985), 100 (§ xxx). ''
Gonser, Guthlac, 118, lines 29-30 to 119, lines 1-2.
'^
Goodwin, The Anglo'Saxon
Version of the Life of
St.
Guthlac,
HI.
Cam-
JANE ROBERTS
204 Vespasian Life
Felix's vita
Cotidianae ergo vitae
temper
tanta
ipsius
rantia
fuit,
JElcQ daege
vt ab
illo
heremum
tempore, quo
ordeacei
cepta
usibus
Nam cum
westen
l)aet
waeter;
tide,
ne
swylc
he
Ipe
westen
Jjaet
nawiht
berene
J^aet
aerest eardi'
gean began
.^^ .
.
buton and
hlaf
and
t'onne
sunne waes on
nullius alicuius alimenti
he
tide,
t»9ere
onbyrigde
occasum,
solis
gemetegung of t>aere
he
panis
poculamento
aquae post
ondleofenes
reorde of
cardigan ongan,
lutulentae
particula et
/Elce daege waes his
bigleofan swylc to ge-
t»e
habitare coeperat, ex-
Vercelli homily
waes his
setle,
t)onne j^igede he pa
vesceretur.
andlyfene,
sol occiduis
finibus vergeretur, tunc
he
Ipe
big-
leofode.^"^
annonam parvam morvitae cum actione
talis
gratiarum gustabat.^^
Certainly "gemetegung" answers to the **temperantia" of Felix's
was therefore very it
likely the choice of the original translator,
be emended into the
chapter of the
vita,
later text?
Old English
temperantia
is
Life,^^
rendered loosely.
but should
omnium temperantiam,
temperantia, but there
and
is
The noun
cunc'
nothing corresponding
Felix's only other instance of the ^^
and
phrases used by Felix in an earlier
"utriusque sinceritatem;
torum suavitatem" include in the
Some
vita
noun
gemetegung occurs elsewhere
Felix's Life of Saint Guthlac, 94 (§ xxviii). Note how close this text is to xxx (above n. 10). This is a "desert father" topos, as in Cassian CoU. 1.8.1 (PL 49. 712C) and Jerome, Vita Pauli Eremitae 6 (PL 23. 21B ). *^ Gonser, Guthac, 118, lines 24-30 to 119, lines 31-32. ^^
Colgrave,
that in section
'^
Gonser's parallel text for the homily
Homilies, '^
382-83,
at this point inserts
Colgrave, Felix's
Life
is
cited here.
Note that Scragg,
Vercelli
Vespasian material into his edition of the homily.
of Saint Gut/i/ac, 86 §
xxiii;
compare Gonser, Guthlac, 112,
line 102. '''
lines
Colgrave, Felix's Life of Saint Guthlac, 84 87-91, where the notion of moderation
metfaest".
§ xxi; is
compare Gonser, Guthlac, HI,
implicit within the adjective "ge-
Two
Readings
in the
205
Guthlac Homily
in the Vercelli homilies, ^^ so
it
if a word current in the some reason discarded by the redaC'
rather looks as
latter part of the tenth century was for
tor of the Vespasian Life. Conversely, should the Vespasian text
upon
be called
to suppply material absent in the earlier excerpted homily? In this
passage Scragg emends clauses from the later Life into the homily, noting
the likelihood of homeoteleuton. By contrast. Pilch,
who
does not look to
the Vespasian text for clarification, accepts the homily text as
it
stands
and finds the focus to be "on Guthlac's decision as regards his clothing."^^ is
how
A
major problem presented by the Guthlac homily to
far
Life shares
with
his feorh big fer[c]ede."
both
comment
in
and homily,
Life
Goodwin
his notes, ^° it
is
the verb of the homily clause
but for Gonser, charged with editing
proved a stumbling-block.
(a
He
could find
no other
emendation adopted by Scragg was
put forward by Otto Schlutter, and
"to support"
**7
records the parallel Vercelli passage
example of a verb "bigferede".^^ The first
editors
Felix's vita.
But the problem under discussion without
its
should be emended according to the content the Vespasian
it
rests
on comparison with
fercian
verb which Schlutter gives a long vowel, comparing
it
with feran)}^ Schlutter also advances a possible comparison with the German construction ein Leben fiihren, but, unable to find in Old English
any use of /or
in the sense "food" to parallel
OHG fuora and MHG vuorey
this explanation. Ida Geisel, in her glossary for
abandons
lac texts, identifies a
may owe
as
much
weak verb
higferian
the prose Guth-
"ernahren",^^ a meaning that
to the phrasing of the Vespasian Life as the preceding
discussion. Criticizing Schlutter's linking o{ fercian to feran, J.H.
gues for "big ferede",^"^
and Dutch phrases
German
to lead
ar-
a
life
and een
leven leide in corroboration of the
construction Schlutter saw as comparable. F. Holthausen also
'®
Scragg, Vercelli Homilies, 137, lines 113, 115.
'^
Pilch,
"The
Last Vercelli Homily," 315-16.
seem not to have been used by Pilch. ^° Goodwin, The Anglo-Saxon Version of 2'
Kern
identifying the verb as ferian and adding English
tJie
The
editions of
Goodwin and Gonser
Life of St. Guthlac, 113.
Gonser, Guthkc, 183.
" Otto
B. Schlutter,
"AE.
hyri> 'pdlis'
=
hocfeU;' Englische Studien
46 (1910): 323-
28, here 324. ^^
"
Ida Geisel, Sprache und Wortschatz der altenglischen Guthlacubersetzung (Basel, 1915). J.
H. Kern, "Altenglische Varia," EngUsche Studien 51 (1917-1918): 1-15, here
7.
206
JANE ROBERTS
counters Schlutter's connection of fercian with feran, suggesting that "bigferede" should be related to ferian}^ Pilch
and
l)one gel)ygde
[and ate
it
and
saving his
his
offers:
feorh biferede
life^^J
thereby accepting some such sense as "support, sustain". Such a metaphoextension
rical
is
paralleled in the phrase '*synd geferude" used
Of
gloss "nituntur".^^
the two verbs
and
(ge)fercian
(ge)ferian,
once to
(ge)ferian
is
the commoner, with 260 or more attestations for Old English, overwhelm-
movement and
ingly involving
should emendation to
(or eleven, fercian.
transport.
By
/erfcjede
contrast, there are only ten
be accepted here) instances of
Although transport and movement
are again
among
the senses
covered, the preponderance of forms have the meaning "to support tain
/ nourish". ^^
Nevertheless
the reading of the manuscript. fercung in
my
inclination
The
Old English would seem
is
/
sus-
conservative: to retain
limited distribution of (a)fercian
and
to reinforce this choice.^^
2. *[h]recetunge* (line 126)
The second emendation
I
have chosen to discuss appears in a passage
without parallel in the Vespasian
7 nalas
\)cet
geseah,
[ac]
an
t>aet
eac
{^a
he
t>aer l)a
fiilan
Life:
leglican
hyde
daes fyres upt>yddan
[hjrecetunge swefles
t'aer
geseah up-
geotan.^°
"
F.
Holthausen, "Zur englischen Wortkunde.
Ill,"
Beibktt zur Anglia 32 (1921): 17-
23. here 21. ^^
Pilch,
"The
Last Vercelli Homily," 324-25.
The
text
and translation here follow
Pilch's presentation. Szarmach's text, 98, line 63, reads "7 t^one gejjygde 7 his feorh
bigferede." ^^
Cited from Dictionary of Old EngUsh: Old English Corpus (
[email protected]): 53.2 6.
OccGl
^* The cognate noun is recorded once in /Elfric of "food, provisions, sustenance" and twice in the Rule ofChrodegang of "sustaining, support". I am indebted to Professor Healey and her colleagues for access to materials currently being edited at the Dictionary. ^^ The form afercian is attested once only. ^^ Scragg, Vercelli Homilies, 390, lines 125-127. MS: "7" for "ac"; "receastunge" for
"[hlrecetunge".
Two The
Readings
cut,
sion, is
is
in the
and cut
Guthlac Homily
would assume
I
it is
207
rather than a case of careless omis-
in line with a tendency towards the simplification of narrative that
noteworthy in the Vespasian text when
text of Felix's
vita.
The
it is
placed alongside the
full
corresponding clauses in Felix are impressively
ornate:
Non
solum enim fluctuantium flammarum ignivomos gurgites
turgescere cerneres,
immo
etiam sulphurei
vortices, globosis sparginibus sidera
[For
glaciali
illic
grandine mixti
paene tangentes videbantur;
not only could one see there the
fiery abyss swelling
with surg-
ing flames, but even the sulphurous eddies of flame mixed with hail seemed almost to touch the stars with drops of spray .]^^
The
compiler behind the Vespasian Life
either because of
its
may have
cancelled this passage
complexity or because of the density in
cent words. Curiously, the text cited by Goodwin, "and eac lan swefles
t>aer
icy
it
of obsoles-
\>di (r.
t>aes) ful-
geseah upgeotan," seems to have suffered a striking degree
of rationalisation: perhaps Thorpe already saw the need for emendation.^^
replacing of '7" by "ac" goes back to Gonser, a piece of tidying
The
that brings the passage into line with two places where the homily retains
ac in succession to nakes ^cet (an for
The tendency
l>cet)?^
to substitute
*7"
is a well-marked feature of both the homily Arguably, therefore, "7" should not be emended here but
more complex connectives
and the
Life.^"^
retained as better reflecting the choices of the homily: the emendation of ac into the text seems prescriptive, as
if
foisting
on the homily the more
formal structures of the antecedent translation. For the manuscript
*'re-
ceastunge" Gonser prints "receas tunge" in his text and, noting the
diffi-
culty of understanding "tunge" in this context,
emend
makes no attempt to
the text.^^ Schlutter puts forward hrcecetungy which he explains by
of Saint Guthlac, 104-5.
^'
Colgrave,
^^
Goodwin, The Anglo-Saxon
"
Gonser, Guthlac, 121, lines 91-93 and 123, lines 20-21 to 124, lines 22-25.
^*
Keiko Ikegami,
Felix's Life
"On
Version of the Life of
Syndetic Parataxis:
Its
St.
Guthlac, 116.
Tentative Analyses and their Applica-
tion to The Life of Guthlac,'' Seijo Tankidaigaku Kiyo 18 (1987): 1-51, here 47, points out that the "[ajbundant use of 'and's would not make the expression clumsy or primitive
but easy to understand."
"
Gonser, Guthlac, 183.
208 '
JANE ROBERTS
Vomitus",
lay ly
behind
as suitable contextually, suggesting that
some such form
passage looks like a translation
Neque solum
He argues
as *receaetunge.
tunge"
of:
flammaticas ignis undas turgescere
ibi
*'receas
imaginatively that the homi-
vidit,
sed etiam
foetidos sulphuris vomitus spargi in aerem.
Conveniently, this rewriting of Felix allows him to speculate that the translator
had vomitus before him rather than "vortices", or
that, thinking
that he saw vomitus, the translator simply omitted to translate the phrase "glaciali grandine mixti."^^ Geisel enters
"receastunge" as one word
under the headword
its
rec
without identifying
case or number, equating
the form with **hraecetunge" and referring the reader to Schlutter. Holthausen, objecting to Schlutter's explanation of the form, suggests that be-
hind "tunge" lay "steorran getenge", an ingenious solution that has in favour
its
reference to the wording of the vita rather than to a
tence composed to
new
an emendation.^^ The manuscript "7"
justify
stated in Szarmach's text,
and he
is
its
senrein-
tunge" without com-
prints "receas
ment.^^ Pilch, again setting himself the task of working from the homily
seems
as in the manuscript,
— and up pyddan —
nalces t)aet
geseah,
tunge swefles
l>cer
[
an
J^aet
he
\>cEr
^a
and eac pa fulan
—
geseah up-geotan
— and
at first sight to
just that
have tumbled on a solution; hyde dcBs fyres
leglican
receas
—
one thing (he was aware
of,
he saw "thud up" the burning height of the (Felix: ignivomos gurgites),
—
and
a tongue of sulphur indeed
he saw creep
namely) that
fire
also the foul vapours
—
up.]^^
=
^^
Schlutter,
^'
Holthausen, "Zur englischen Wortkunde.
3»
Szarmach, VercelU HomUks IX-XXIU 99,
^^
Pilch,
"AE.
hyrl) 'pelHs'
hocfeUr 324-25. Ill," 21.
lines
98-99.
"The Last VercelU Homily," 330-31. Pilch notes (314) his use in his Old English text of roman type for "those sentential particles and bearers of lexical relations which we focus on." In accordance with the overall book design, there are no length marks throughout
my
paper.
Tit^o
Readings
in the
Guthlac Homily
Pointing out that the focus
and
receas"
is
''lunge swefles'' as
on what Guthlac
sees, Pilch takes
'*/>d
fulan
"a co-ordinate group" within a larger group
of clauses in which the verb ''hyde'' as *'a
209
passing the simpler possibility that
it
He
occcus four times.
''geseah'^
spelling for hiehl)e (nom.pl.) with loss of
may
interprets
altogether by-
/i,"
represent yde ''waves" with init-
ial h-.
Scragg very sensibly points out that the manuscript reading "makes no sense since tunge (nominative singular)
is
stranded grammatically."
He
ar-
gues that the context misled the scribe "into expecting 'fumes' after the adjective fulan'
content
'fiery
and that
stead of "[h]recetunge"
tunge".
To
don the
-s-
"[floul
'
vomiting of suphur' parallels in form and
surges of flame' in the previous clause. '"^^
the eye
it
in-
should like to advance the reading "raesce-
I
has
However,
much
to
commend
in the manuscript reading;
it:
there
and the same
is
no need
to aban-
justifications, either
of fronting of the stressed vowel or of expectation of a plural form of the
word
reCy
can be advanced
for
it
as for [hJrcEcetunge,
should the form
resce-
tunge be thought preferable. Moreover, the equation of hrcecetung with
vomitus seems to be supported only by Schlutter's reading sage: the
word
typically occurs in medical contexts
it
into this pas-
with meanings analo-
gous to "retching". Semantically rcescetung "coruscation, gleam of light-
ning"
is
therefore
Cognate with and
etc.",
more appropriate
rcBsc
"a heavy shower",
rcescan "to
move
rcescetung occurs in glosses
of the
compound
Judgement Day cate" twice:
^
ligrcEsc
and
ligetrcBsc
both in simplex form and
Old
as
noun
the second element
English."^* Interestingly,
the related verb rcescettan "to crackle,
of hell
"lightning,
quickly" and rcescettan "to crackle", the
ligrcescetung in
U uses
first
to Felix's heady description of hell.
the poet of
flicker, corus-
fire:
Scragg, VercelU Homilies, 394.
Dictionary of Old English citations: The simplex is found in: AldV 1 (Goossens) C31.1/ l.[4294 (4301)] comscationes raescetunga Comscatio hraescetung; AldV 10 (Nap) C31.10 / l.[0328 (328)] comscationes raescetunge; AldV 13.1 (Nap) C31.13.1 / l.[4431 (4423)] comscationes raescetunga; and the compound in: PsGlI (Lindelof) C7.ll l.[2359 (143.6)] Onaeletu ligetu lyghraescetunge ligraesc t>u todraefst 6u tostaencst hig asend flana t»ine &L ]p\x todraefest hig Fulgura chomscationem et dissipahis cos emitte sagLitas tuas et conturhahis eos; PsGlI (Lindelof) 07.11 / 1.(0196 (17.15)] he asende flana his he tostencte hig ligettas ligrescetunga he gemaenifylde &. he gedrefde hi Et misit sagitias suas et ^'
&
dissipauit eos fulgura multiplicauit et conturhauit eos.
&
210
JANE ROBERTS
Donne
fyren
blaw<e>d and brasla6,
lig
read and reSe,
hu he synfuUum and again of the
raescet fyre
baernd 6a earman saula
biterlice
it
horxlice wyrmas,
ceorfa6 and
synscyldigra,
rate
end of the world:
terrible torrent at the
and heora heortan
At any
efested,
susle gefTem<m>e-/^
Dt rede flod
and
and
raesct
rather looks as
slitad."^^
both rcescetung and
if
rcBscettan
were suitable
for hell contexts.
In a birthday paper for
two perplexing readings text
where our
Don
Scragg
it
seemed appropriate to reconsider
Guthlac homily of the Vercelli Book, the
in the
interests coincide
most
closely.
So
far as
cerned, frequencies indicate that his editorial decision right.
With
the second,
who can
through an exploration of varied
say?
But
tactics
1
is
the
con-
first is
very likely in the
hope to have entertained him
adopted in both cases and by
ar-
guing, in the case of the second, for a reading perhaps simpler to envisage in copying terms than the *'[h]recetunge" of his edition.
^^
lines
Graham D.
Caie, ed., The Old English
152-155, which he
and angry;
it
will crackle
translates:
Poem
"Tlien the
and hasten
|
'Judgement
fiery
to prepare
Day IV (Cambridge,
2000),
flame will blow and crackle,
punishment
|
red
for the sinful."
^^ Caie, The Old English Poem 'Judgement Day 11', lines 166-169, which he translates: 'The raging flood will crackle with fire and severely bum the wretched souls, and |
serpents will swiftly
|
tear
and
slit
the hearts of the sinful."
|
LOREDANA TERESI
Be Heofonwarum 7 be Helwarum:
A Complete Edition^
BE
HEOFONWARUM
7 BE
Judgment Day preserved
HELWARUM in
MS
Cotton Faustina A.
twelfth century and
K
a short
Old English homily on
two manuscripts from the transition period:
Cambridge, Corpus Christi College brary,
is
MS
302 (K) and London, British
Li'
Q)} Ker dates ] to the first half of the to a period between the end of the eleventh century
and the beginning of the
ix
twelfth.^
The two manuscripts are related copies of an /Elfirician temporale, to which some anonymous items have been added. In K there are six anony-
'
This edition
is
the
fruit
of a Master's thesis completed in 1994 under the direction
of D. G. Scragg (see below, n.
3). I
am honoured
to offer this
work here
in dedication to
Professor Scragg.
Two Apocrypha in Old English 30 (Leipzig, 1935), and by T. C. Callison, "An Edition of Previously Unpublished Anglo-Saxon Homilies in MSS. CCCC 302 and Cotton Faustina A. IX" (Ph.D. diss., University of Wisconsin, 1973). Willard printed ^
The homily has been previously
edited by R. Willard,
Homilies, Beitrage zur englischen Philologie
only part of the homily, since his interest in the text lay in only a few passages, while Callison's edition was never published. The sigla are those provided by D. G. Scragg, "The Corpus of Vernacular Homilies and Prose Saints' Lives before /Elfric," Anglo-Saxon
England 8 (1979): 223-77. ^
Items 56 and 153 in Ker, Catalogue, 95-99 and 190-93. For further details see E.
M. Trehame, "The Production and
Script of Manuscripts Containing English Religious Half of the Twelfth Century," in Rewriting Old English in the Twelfth Century, ed. M. Swan and eadem, Cambridge Studies in Anglo-Saxon England 30 (Cam-
Texts in the
First
bridge, 2000),
1
1-40, here 14-24; and Loredana Teresi,
and he Helwarum'* (M.Phil,
diss.,
"An Edition of Be Heofonwarum
University of Manchester, 1994).
LOREDANA TERESI
212 mous homilies in
(items 4, 5, 6,
J
and
(items 10, 11, 12, 27, 31,
and
is
Sunday is
item 10 in
after
four appear also
K also contains
a
and
27), to-
homily by Wulf-
discrepancies between the two manuscripts are cer-
due to accidental
tainly
which
J
Some
5).
which
24, corresponding to K's 10, 11, 12,
gether with an additional one (item 23). Stan (item
33), of
K
of material."^ Be heofonwarum 7 he helwarum,
loss
and item 4
Epiphany in
K
in
J,
was meant to be read on the third
and on the
fifth
Sunday
after
Epiphany in
J.
a collection of homilies for Sundays and festivals other than saints'
days, starting
from the second Sunday
after
Epiphany and covering the
half of the year up to Pentecost; but leaves are missing at the begin-
first
ning, as well as at various other points, and
that in origin
it
place of origin
it
seems reasonable to think
must have begun with homilies
unknown, although many
is
Advent,
for
scholars agree
like K.^
on
The
a probable
south-eastern provenance.^
The manuscript the
contains 197 leaves, 195 of which are original.
two leaves were added
first
first foliation,
in the sixteenth century,
The
and were ignored by
running in black ink in the top right corner of rectos.
Pencil foliation, including the second parchment leaf as
placed the ink one.
The
fol.
1,
later re-
various folios are arranged in twenty-five quires
of generally eight folios each.^
One
quire
is
missing,
unfoliated leaves in place of missing ones (between
and there are blank, fols.
89-90 and
fols.
160-161). According to Pope "leaves are missing at the beginning, probably nine leaves after
fol.
50,
one
after fol. 102,
one
after fol. 159,
probably
The page measures 230 x 150 mm. The text is arranged in a single column of twenty-four lines. The written space measures 190-95 x 111 mm. The bottom margin is always wider none containing
writings at the end."^
than the upper one, while the internal margin
is
sometimes wider and
sometimes smaller than the external. Edges are very neat: they have obvi-
been cut and trimmed.
ously
The
script
^
See below.
^
See below.
^
is
twelfth-century protogothic minuscule with
some Anglo-
See Pope, Supplementary Homilies, 50-51; Scragg, "The Corpus of Vernacular
Homilies," 246. '
One
contains four
folios,
and die
last
three have been cut away. ®
Pope, Supplementary Homilies, 48.
quire originally contained twelve, but the last
Be Heofonwarum 7 he Helwarum
Saxon
forms
letter
"untidy
.
.
.
r,
(f,
s,
ce,
J),
213 and
d, u;,
cl).
Ker describes the hand
lacking character, probably the same throughout, but
as
be-
it
comes smaller at fol. 166."^ Actually the dimensions of letters change frequently, and some letters have different shapes in different parts of the manuscript, mainly g and s, so much so that there seem to be two scribes one to
at work, folios ters
9
91v and the other from
fol.
92r to the end.*° In the
fol.
containing Be heofonwarum 7 he helwarum individual minuscule
with ascenders or descenders measure about 5-6
mm,
while
letters
mm in height,
without ascenders or descenders measure 3
let-
is
j)
8-
mm.
colour of the ink changes frequently, showing different hues of
The
dark brown. Titles are in red, and some sentences begin with a capital a variable colour, from bright to dark, nearly
letter filled
with red.
brown
Each homily begins with a big decorated
red.
It is
bright green or red or both; the various initials are
The
a variety of styles. instances
example
(for
aged.
The
in pencil,
21v
in
is
pricking
of
ruling
the
22r
fol.
evident in some
fol.
21v,
visible in the
extreme
left
I.
left
8
(in
the third
corner
margin.
The
is
dam-
ruling
is
of one vertical line at each edge of the page, with hori-
made up
been excised
is
and display
21v, 37v).
good condition, but the bottom
is still
zontal lines going across
comer
capital, coloured in
different
outer margin has been cut, as
fols.
Be heofonwarum 7 he helwarum begins on quire). Fol.
all
is
(as is
past
them on both
damaged; the ruling
the case for
and pricking are
last four lines
them and
visible
fol.
is
sides.
The bottom
visible but the pricking has
22 v). Fol. 23
is
on both recto and
in excellent condition: verso; fol.
23v contains
of the text, followed by the beginning of the next
homily.
The
rubric
is
in
brownish red
ink,
with the Latin in
rustic capitals
the vernacular in a more rounded script than that of the text.
through two
and the ial.
This
lines:
line below, partly covered is
^
is
last line
It
runs
of the preceding homily
by the upper part of the decorated
init-
a nicely decorated capital
m with brownish red curled branches
and
at the sides (probably representing a
and green leaves vine). It
the empty part of the
and
20
in the middle
mm high (33 mm with the descender) and 33 mm wide. The
Ker, Catalogue, 193.
See Callison, "An Edition of Previously Unpublished Anglo-Saxon Homilies," 23 and independently Teresi, "An Edition," 13-14. '°
LOREDANA TERESI
214 margin
left
letters letters
—
redad,
1.
due to
cut,
is
(ENDA) filled
with red —
22; Ponne,
36; Pa, I 38; Se, 63; Sunne,
1.
later
1.
1.
in the text are: Lire,
26^ Ponne,
44; He,
We,
68;
The Tironian
I.
1.
49;
29; Ponne,
1.
Wa,
1.
53; Par,
1.
following four
1.
The
capital
13 in this edition; Ab-
31^; Sanctus Michahel, 1.
56;
Men,
59;
1.
L/te,
abbreviated with a /-shaped stroke, and
curved stroke above u or
The word
a.
stroke across the ascender of letters scs
h,
and
is
'TTi
drihten
sanctus
is
is
j);
the final
is
abbreviated
-e
in \>onne
lif,
abbreviated in nomen sacrum
with a stroke above.
Word
division
generally
is
and prepositions are
and
ivop.
They
also appear in
punctuation marks.
The main
point
what pyramidal
position,
downwards.
always followed by
urum,
us, ure,
and
l)ursL
tus elevatus)
can be described tail
ple dots (punctus simplex),
wcerlice, witunc-
made up
is
as
a capital letter in-filled
two
They
going
mark
of
syntac-
them
{punc-
The remaining marks
and one
at
mid
height.
are sim-
On
23r there are two hyphens marking word division at the end of a line mestan, bu-tan); and another one
words are
split
is
without indication.
on
fol.
No
The
one on top of the other, the
dots,
line
tail
with red.
all
The more complex
going upwards.
one on the
different
of three dots in a some-
one of which has a long, s-shaped
psychological, or breathing pauses.
upper one having a tiny
wa,
There are four
other marks do not seem to have differing functions. tic,
fol'
words with original short vowels, such
as dceg, gehnipes, hunger, mceg, storma,
It is
at'
agan, aspiwd, apystrod, ece, fyr, gode, he, her, hus, gelcedad,
gelyfan, Satanas, stowe, tacne, tocume,
stow,
is
abbreviated as driht with a
tached to the following word. Accent marks appear sparingly on the cer,
1.
abbreviated by means of a
regular, although occasionally pronouns, articles,
lowing words:
1.
75; Syllan, I 11,
nota replaces and in most instances; ^(Zt
with the usual stroke across the ascender of
form using the
The
binding and trimming.
are in rustic capitals filled with brownish red.
23 v
(go-des).
fol.
(yte-
In other instances
corrections, glosses or marginalia
are visible.
Cambridge, Corpus Christi College 302
same items
as
],
to Rogationtide.
with a few variations.^ It
^
It
(K, xi/xii) contains almost the
covers the year from
also includes a version of the
Advent
Hexameron, and the
Item 56 in Ker, Cambgue, 95-99. For further details see Trehame, "The Producand Script of Manuscripts," 14-20; H. Tristram, Vkr altengUsche Predigten aus der heterodoxen Tradition, mil Kommentar, Ohersetzung und Glossar sowie drei weiteren Texten im Anhang (Kassel, 1970), 99-103; and Teresi, "An Edition," 21-27. '*
tion
Be Heofonwarum 7 be Helwarum
215
homilies for St. Stephen and St. John the Evangelist.
It
to Corpus Christi College by Archbishop Parker in 1575.
of origin argued.
is
unknown, but a
similar
was bequeathed
The
exact place
provenance to that of
has been
J
^^
The manuscript original
made up
is
Old English
of fourteen quires of eight folios each.
text begins
on
with a decorated capital
p. 11
The and
i
on p. 232.^^ The page measures 253 x 168 mm. The written space is210x 111 mm (117 if the space between the two vertical lines on the right edge is included). The text is arranged in a single column of 31 lines (26 in the supply leaves at the end). The pricking runs on the extet'
finishes
nal margins.
It
In some pages
consists of 31 holes, the exact
has been cut away.
it
pages containing Old English across
and
straight
on each
script.
The
Here
number needed
ruling
is
for the text.
in hard point in the
consists of double lines going
it
side of the page,
with parallel horizontal
lines
on the line, but The writing goes beyond the first verti'
linking the internal pair of vertical lines (never stopping
never reaching the following one).
cal line of the right pair, but tends not to reach the
ing was done contemporaneously starting
The forms
from the script
first
on facing
pages,
The
second one.
on every other
rul-
pair,
page of each quire.
protogothic minuscule with some Anglo-Saxon letter
is
(dy p, h, r, g,
w,
/, cb,
d,
and occasionally
a). It is
very neat, tidy, and
respectful of the margins: words never run over the line. In Ker's opinion it is
in a single hand, apart from
"klar,
II.
1-8 on
p. 29.
Tristram describes
aufrecht, verbal tnismaftig eng."^^ Ascenders sometimes
split top. Letters
The
ink
is
as
without ascenders or descenders measure 3-5
mm;
letters
mm
and
letters
with ascenders 4-5 with both 7-8
it
have a
mm;
letters
with descenders about 6
mm. dark brown, but
is
not uniform throughout the manuscript,
not even throughout the same page or word. leaves. Rubrics are in red ink.
The
first letter
It is
black in the supply
of each sentence
is
consis-
tently in-filled with colour, mainly red, but also brownish-red with silver-
purple and, at the beginning and at the end of the manuscript, grey-purple
and
red. Initials are in red, grey-purple, green,
mauve, or green and mauve.
'^
See Pope, Supplementary Homilies, 52, and below.
'^
The
'^
Tristram, Vier altenglische Predigten, 99-100.
first six
and the
last
eight folios were added in Parker's time.
LOREDANA TERESI
216 Be heofonwarum 7 he helwarum
on
quire, starting
The
p. 71.
two
in the last
is
rubric begins
on
1.
the fourth
folios of
and here too covers two
7,
the blank part of the concluding line of the preceding text and the
lines:
line below, the beginning of which contains the upper part of the enlarged
with which the text begins on
initial
I.
English are written in a half'uncial script. It
9.
Both the Latin and the Old
The
initial
in bright red ink.
is
has a simple, straight appearance^^ and runs through four
lines. It is
27
mm high and 30 mm long. All the letters in the
first line
with red (apart from the
capital letters in the text
(Ure, Se,
L/te,
13; Abredad,
I.
I.
63; Fordam,
1.
Syllan,
1.
77).
I.
1.
and so are
2Vl),
22; Ponne,
44; Swa, I 46; He,
1.
initial
65; Sunne,
Some minuscule
53; Peer,
I.
1.
Da,
I.
38;
Men,
1.
59;
75; Swa,
1.
76;
23^; donne,
I.
28)
26, 29, 33; Sanctus, I 36;
II.
Wa,
49;
all
of text are filled
68;
We,
letters (he,
I.
I.
54; Dar, 75; Eal,
1.
2; l)onney
I.
1.
1.
56;
and most occurrences of the Tironian nota
are also filled with red,
when
(for
they do not mark a syntactic pause
7wyrt hyre
while Se
se deofol or he in Se
is
not
filled).
The
f)e
gelyfan
wyk, he
bid gehealden
The is
not understand
conjunction and
is
it
was not reading the text
properly.
abbreviated by means of the Tironian nota; pcet
abbreviated with a stroke across the ascender of
ation
mark
for
-m
a kind of s-shaped horizontal
is
more exaggerated than the with a stroke above, and a
Word
through the homily.
though most
on heofonan,
syntactic inconsistency of the coloured initials
leads to the conclusion that the decorator either carefully, or did
right.
The word
single
M
division
while the abbrevi-
mark with the
sanctus
stands for is
f);
Men
is
left curl
again found as
j?a leofestan
scs
halfway
generally clear and consistent,
al-
prefixes are treated as separate words (ge-healden, on-fon, to^
cymd, he-tweonan, 7-wyrt, widAnnan, ^urh^faran, for-swelhd, un-^hte, aspiwdy asecgan, awended,
pounds
even
example 7wyrt in Ponne
etc.),
iyfel-dceda, sod-fcestan, race-teagum,
appear only on
satanas,
setle,
point at the mid-line.
As
and
etc.,
but
members of some comgrist-hitung, etc.). Accent marks
as are the first
lif.
Punctuation marks consist solely of a
Tristram explains,
it
"steht bei Sinnabschnitten
oder voUigem Themawechsel, gelegentlich auch an anderen Stellen, die
man
moglicherweise
ansehen konnte."^^
als natiirliche
Word
division
Atempause beim Vortrag der Predigt marks at the end of lines are used
the manuscript are more decorated.
*^
Odier
^^
Tristram, Vier altengUsche Predigten, 103.
initials in
Be Heofonwarum 7 be Helwarum
217
consistently, but appear in slightly lighter ink. Perhaps they
They tend
later.
to slope upwards.
godes with initial d
On
and then corrected
p. 72,
The word sede has a faint The decorated M and some
it (1. 9).
which may indicate a later addition. p. 71 show through slightly.
accent,
were added
the scribe wrote the word
ink from
The
on
text ends
p. 73,
1.
14.
The
rest of
the page
is
taken by the
fol-
lowing homily. Here there are a few holes, but they do not damage the text since the scribe has avoided them.
Scholars agree on the fact that
and
J
K
represent a
common
line of
transmission as far as both the /^Ifrician and the anonymous texts are con-
common
and K's
cerned.^^ J
ancestor probably originated in the south-
although the two manuscripts rarely deviate from standard late
east, since
West Saxon (IWS) orthography, they back to east.^®
their
common
share
some
spellings that
must go
antecedent, and that seem to point to the south-
Clemoes notes that the
affiliations of
the supplementary items
point to the south-east, since they show associations with manuscripts written at Canterbury; he therefore concludes that
J
and K's ancestor must
have been a Canterbury compilation,^^ while Godden adds Rochester
as
a further possible place of origin.^°
The
language of the text mainly displays standard
features, as less
of
its
would normally be expected in a
A
origin.
few deviations from
most part they seem to
reflect the
late
IWS
IWS
Old English
orthographic text, regard-
can be found, but
for the
language of the manuscripts rather than
CH
i, 69-70; idem, 'The Chronology of /Elfric's Works," in The Some Aspects of their History and Culture presented to Bruce Dickins, ed. idem (London, 1959), 212-47, here 228; Godden, CH 2, 1; and Scragg, "The Corpus of Vernacular Homilies," 245-47. According to Clemoes, however, although the two manuscripts certainly derive from a common ancestor, "there is likely to have been at least one intervening copy between N's and O's last common source and each of them": '^
See Clemoes,
AnglcySaxons: Studies
Clemoes,
CH
I,
in
152.
See Pope, Supplementary Homilies^ 50-52 and 181; Scragg, "The Corpus of Vernacular Homilies," 246; and Loredana Teresi, "A Computer-Assisted Analysis of Spellings in Two Vernacular Manuscripts of the Transition Period: MS Cambridge, Corpus Christi College 302 and MS London, British Library, Cotton Faustina A. ix" (Ph.D. diss.. University of Manchester, 1998), 123-26, 215-17. '*
•^Clemoes, ^^ "It
CH
looks as
like that in
if
I,
N
152-53. is
a fairly faithful
copy and
M, covering mainly Sundays up
O a more selective one of a collection
to Pentecost, but interpolated at Rochester
or Canterbury with other homilies not by /Elfric":
Godden,
CH
2,
li.
a3:
agan
t>a
sawle for'
t>am heo nolde of hyre woruldgestreonum aelmessan dae^ Ian". t>onne
20
wep3 Sanctus Paulus swi5e
biterlice for t>ara
sawla geomerunge. E>onne cwed
sum
otrum
deofol to
deofle:
"Abredad
sawle grimlice of t>am lichaman 7 gelaedaS hy to wite wyrste 7 to egesfulre stowe.
Heo
J^a
\>cet
t>onne onfint ealle hyre
25
yfeldaeda."
30
Ponne cwe5 seo sawle: "Her is mycel nearunes." t>onne cwe5 sum deofol: "Mare t>e is toweard t>onne \>u gesyxt t>one ealdordeofol ^e li3 on baec gebunden on J^aere neowelnesse hellegrundes." t>onne cwe5 seo sawle ot>re si5e: "t>is sindon micele t>ystro." I>onne cwed sum deofol: synd toweard." t>onne cwe5 seo sawle: "^is is grimlic hus." t>onne andwyrt hyre se deofol 7 cwe5: "7
"Maran
grimra
t>e
t>e is
toweard, butan aelcum tweon, t>onne
on
syxt hwaet t>u
mihtig waere, 7
35
t>u
eort>an lufadest, t>a Ipu
unrihta synna
Sanctus Michahel
beforan Godes
weorc sawle
J)e
nim3
t>a
/
f.
22v
soSfaestan sawle 7 gelaet hi
heahsetle, 7 ^aer
to hylle, 7
life
lufadest."
heo gesyh5
heo to gode dyde her on worulde.
man laet
\>u ge-
on \>'mum
ealle hyre t>a
earman
man mynegaS hy hyre yfeldaeda.
19
woruldgestreonum] worulde gestreone K.
21
geomerunge] geomerumge K.
22 otrum] ddrum K. 23 hy]hiK.
26 cweS] cwyd K. sawle] sawl K. mycel] micel K. 27
cwed] cwyd K,
28 on
t»aere]
p. 72.
in Jjaere K.
29 cwed] cwyd K. sawle] sawl K.
30 sindon] syndon K. cwed] cwyd K. 32 cwed] cwy6 K.
34
lufadest] lufedest K.
35
unrihta] unrihte K. lufadest] lufedest K.
37
baerll^arK.
39 man']
me
K. hylle] helle K. man^]
[saenne ealle hyre yfela daeda K.
ma
K. hy] hi K. hyre yfeldaeda] hyra yfeldaeda
J,
LOREDANA TERESI
228 40
7
onbutan helle syndan
nende readum wituncstow
cuman.
fyre. 7
ysene weallas
xii
sawla t)urhfaran sculan
t>e t>a
dracan syndan in {jam
7 xii
mid readum
ealle afylled
\>a
synd
wiSinnan aelcum wealle
lige 7
xii
aer
is
ealle byr-
synderlic
hy to helle
weallum 7 hy synd
mid fulum
staence.
Se
aeresta draca forswelgcJ t>a arleasan sawle 7 aspiw5 t>am
45
on mu5. Swa heora
ot>rum
aelc
sawle, 7 eft aspiwd aelc ot)ruTn
heo bi5
7 syj)t»an
He
is
7
on aelcum
He
arleasan
an hund heafda 7
haef[5]
hund tungan
fingre
t>a
gelaed to Ipam ealdordeofle Satanas.
swyt>e andryslic.
haefda gehwylc an
50
hy forswelhd,
on mu3.
hynd
7
clifra.
he haef5 egeslice Se
li5
t>ara
fingras
innan helle
ge^
bunden on baec mid fyrenum raceteagum.
Wa
mannum
JDam
sian, fort>i
on
bid hunger 7
55
gon
\)t
j^urst. t>aer
syJDan hattre {)onne
ytemestan gode.
J^ystro
Ne man
40
weallas] waeallas K.
41
wealle] waealle K.
nellaS for heora
helle bid eagena /
wop
bid ungemet cyles 7 haetan, ni-
domes daegges
butan leohte.
t>aer
Drihten ne nemnad.
43 syndan] syndon K. hy] hi K. staence] stence K.
46 hyJhiJC. 48
gelaed] gelaedd K.
49 haefd]haefj, haefdK.
50
haefda] heafda K, gehwylc] gehwilc K.
51
hynd] hund K.
54
forl)i]
7
J, forl)i
K.
eagena] eagana K.
55 bid hunger] byd hunger K.
55-56 nigon]
ix
K.
56
syl)an] sidan K. hattre] hatre K. daegges] daeges K.
57
baer]
^ar K. bid] byj) K. ylde] yld K.
fyr. t>ar
syndan
t>a
bid ylde butan geO'
42 sculan] scylan K. hy] hi K.
44
synnum reow'
7 tot>a gristbitung. t>aer f.
23r
Be Heofonwarum 7 be Helwarum
Men t>a
leofestan, t>eah
229
aenigman haefde hund heafda,
hund tungan,
7 t^aera haefda aeghwilc haefde
60
fram frymSe
ealle isene, 7 ealle spraecon
ende, ne mihton hi asecgan
[magon]
Ipcet lif
alesan aer
65
Ipcet
yfel \)e
on
us warnian wiS helle tintregum
Ute
domes
habban
7 ^a
l)ing J^e
7 hi waeron
t>ysse
worulde o6
helle
{^a
is.
hwile
Ipe
we mid magon
we us
daege, forjjam hit bi5 andrislic daeg, 7 un-
rotnessa daeg, 7 sorga daeg, 7 dimnessa daeg, 7 storma daeg, 7 wracena daeg, 7 fyres daeg, 7 nearunessa daeg, 7 gehnipes
Sunne bi3
daeg, 7 tystro daeg.
mona eall
70
ajjystrod
on
\>dm daege, 7
his leoht ne sylle5. 7 steorra feallaS of heofonum, 7
heofena maegen bi5 awaended 7 arered. 7 Drihten
cym3 mid eallum
his englum, 7 eall
mancyn bi5 awreht of Godes tocume. 7 he
deaSe, 7 ealle gesceafta forhtiad for
demed aelcum men be his gewyrhtum, swa he her node on t)isse worulde. We gehyrdan eac on bocum secgan: **eall swa
75
adwaesced
fyr,
swa maeg
/
we synnum on Godes naman: He a
J^a
f.
23v
us syllaS ece
lif
on heo-
butan ende. Amen.
59
Men
60
haefda] heafda K.
61
l)ysse] {jyssere
63
us] p.
t>a leofestan]
M
K. hund] c K.
hund] c K.
K.
73 K.
64 magon] 65
waeter
seo aelmesse adwaescan
ure aelmessan rumheortlice for urum
synna". Syllan
fonum
geear-
om
J,
magon
K. t>ing] ^inc K.
alesan] alysan K. andrislic] and-yslic K.
66 dinuiessa] dymnyssa K. 67
7 wracena daeg] 7 wracena daeg, 7 dimnyssa daeg, 7 wracena daeg K. gehnipes] genipes
K.
70 heofena] heofona K. awaended] a wended K. 71
eall] eal
K. mancyn]
mancynn
72 tocume] tocyme K. 73
demed]demdK.
73-74 geeamode] eamode K. K.
74
jjisse] l)issere
75
eall] eal
78
syllad] sylld K.
K.
K.
arered] araered K.
LOREDANA TERESI
230
Commentary 5
onfeng deades. The verb dat.,^^
is
onfon,
which can be followed by ace, gen. or
consistently followed by the gen. See also
11.
and
7
8.
8 gepaencan. K's reading ge^czcnan does not seem to occur anywhere 9 deade.
K has
dead.
probably dat.
It is
sg.,
since
it
else.
follows the prep. o/(in
both manuscripts read of deade on I. 72). It is possible that ^e has been omitted by mistake. It might also be an instance of what Camp-
fact
bell calls *'an endingless loc. sg. like that of the a-stems" that
found in lOE.^^ More
however,
likely,
it
English form, showing the falling together of ace. and dat.
awrecced, see Mosse is
§ 93,
where he
As
for K's
Middle English
states that in
the ending used in the south for both the 3rd person
pl.^"^
can be
could be an early Middle
-ef)
and the
sg.
See, however, Campbell § 752.
zvile ure stal gehyran pe we sculan astellan heforan helle deofla. The clause is ambiguous because of ptisendan pam Jif
W-Vhforpi he
the uncertain semantic value of rect object of gehyran, that
''charge",
"accusation", ^^
lently standing trial before tions.
The
verb
astellan,
gestal
and
(
onfint.^^
has the correct
31 also in K).
J.
o.
-e final
§ 55 (remarque):
"Du
point de vue de
(muet) tend au contraire a s'etendre, et
DOE. A,
s.v.
R. Clark Hall, ed.,
A
&stelkn,
Ton
ecrit
I.
Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary (Cambridge, 1970),
+stdl.
diPaolo Healy, Callison,
"An
DOE. A,
s.v.
&steUan, 3.
Edition of Previously Unpublished Anglo-Saxon Homilies," 249.
Cf. Campbell, Old English
Grammar,
§ 732.
.
LOREDANA TERESI
232 wyfe *'femme" et finalement stone Either
common
was saivk in the
it
twice to sawl, or
it
was
so did K's scribe once (or
28-29
on ptere
more
and
sawl,
comme
ancestor,
J's
scribe
ende, souk, name, etc."^^
and K's
changed
it
K
has the prep,
in instead.
chain).
See above
for a
detailed discussion of the feature. § 342:
"As with the l)cet
mula, a plural complement requires a plural verb, wceron ealk Greca leode and
Modern German Das
32 andzvyrt. See 33 grimra.
sind
onfint above,
The masculine
CP
1.
.
453.8 Dis
sint
e.g.,
nu da
Or
Cf.
.
24.
ending does not agree with the neuter
sg.
Bodleian Library, Hatton 114),
ance
is: ''l>is is
grimlic sidfcBt ^e
we on
of the Latin versions.
iter''
l)iss
."^"^ .
.
ford,
''asperum
for-
100.13
lara
This could maybe be explained by comparing the text with
hus.
it
and
into sawle,
somebody along the transmission
neozvelness.
30 pis sindon tnicele pystro. Cf. Mitchell,
also
scribe corrected
104r,
fol.
where the
sb.
O (Ox-
third utter-
syndon!'\ in accordance with the
The
devil's
answer following the
utterance contrasts the dwelling of the wicked with that of the pious souls,
and contains the word
hus: ''Be
gesihst J?a grimnesse l)ines sidfcetes,
men and du
and du
sidfcet (m./n.)
correct the adj.
It
devil's speech, leaving
in the utterance,
l>u
hyst ^cera sodfcestra husa henu-
hyst gelceded in l>a witu hellecarcemes,''^^
might have compressed the stead of
mycle grimlicre toward l)onne
is
Our compiler
the word hus
(n.) in-
and then, perhaps, he forgot to
could just as well be, however, simply a case of
lOE
inflectional disruption.
33-3^ gesyxt
i
64
OU
pa
46-47
59 In
For the use of the dat. without a preceding preposition,
K
is
an expansion of the pronoun
13:50:
fletus et stridor
''ihi exit
h}/
in
I.
46.
dentium'\^^ K's
certainly suits the logical structure of the passage better.
the whole address
magon.
Either
it
is
abbreviated.
has been omitted in
scribe to account for the "infinitive" fallen together
with the
infinitive
J,
or
it
has been added by K's
which might
due to
actually be a subj.
Qwshhen
late spelling
>
hahhan),
65-68 Cf. Zephaniah
1:15: ''dies irae dies
dies calamitatis et miseriae,
dies
ilia,
dies trihulationis et angustiae,
tenebrarum
et caliginis,
dies nebulae et
turbines. "^^ Cf. also Joel 2:2: ''dies tenebrarum et caliginis, dies nubis et turbinis.^^^^
67 K's scribe accidentally recopies two attributes twice.
68-70 Cf. Matthew 24:29: "Statim autem
post tribulationem dierum illorum
of the English Unguage, 3 vols. (Leiden, 1963-1973),
Syntax ^'
in
tained in
^
vols.
1:
§§ 698-99 and
(Bonn, 1894-1901),
J.
E. Wulfing. Die
1:
§ 117.
Three Utterances in a homily for Rogationtide conOxford, Bodleian Library, Hatton 114: Bazire and Cross, Eleven Old English RoHomilies, 111, 11. 40-49. Symmetry, logic, and consistency, however, are not
See
gationtide
among
den Werken Alfreds des Grossen, 2 also the version of the
the strongest assets of the text.
Bihha Sacra iuxta Vulgatam versionem, 3rd. ed., 2 vols. (Stuttgart, 1983), 2: 1546-
47. *9 Biblia
Sacra, 2: 1412.
70 Biblia
Sacra, 2: 1385.
LOREDANA TERESI
234 sol obscurabitur et
virtutes
luna non dabit lumen suum,
et stellae
cadent de caelo, et
caelorum commovebuntur.''^^
69 steorra.
It
Campbell
might be an
Middle English
early
"INorth has
§ 617:
however,
spelling; see,
loss of -n always,
Rv} usually"^^ and
Brunner § 276. A6: "Im Nordh fehlen durchgehend, desgl. in R^ zum grofteren Teil, die auslautenden ^n, und die Vokale der Endsilben
schwanken
vielfach."^^
Callison
wrongly
considers
a
it
singular
because of comparison with Revelation 8:10, but the text clearly follows
Matthew
24:29.^^
75-77 Cf. Ecclesiasticus 3:33: ^Hgaem ardentem
extinguit
aqua
et
ekmosyna
resisdt peccatis^'J^
78 syllad. The form recced,
1.
is
singular.
On
the inflection see
comment on aw-
10.
'•
Biblia Sacra, 2:
^^
Campbell, Old English Grammar.
^^
Brunner, Altenglische Grammatik.
'^
Callison,
"
Bibha Sacra,
"An 2:
1564.
Edition of Previously Unpublished Anglo-Saxon Homilies," 274.
1033.
Be Heofonwarum 7 be Helwarum
235
Glossary Lemmata
are listed in alphabetical order according to the form of entries
in Clark Hall. In the
list ce
follows ad,
and d follows
t;
the prefix ge^
is ig-
nored in the alphabetical arrangement. Cross-references are given throughout to facilitate finding inflected forms or different spellings. In each entry the
lemma
is
followed by a general grammatical descrip-
tion, a translation relevant to the text,
and a
list
of the forms contained
in the text, each followed by grammatical information.
The
following ab-
breviations are used:
a
=
= Latin = m masculine n = nominative, neuter num = numeral p, pi = plural pers = personal poss = possessive pp = past participle prep = preposition pres = present presp = present participle pret pres vb = preterite present pron = pronoun rel = relative s = singular subj = subjunctive sup = superlative sv = strong verb wv = weak verb * = reconstructed form < = came from Lat
accusative
= abbreviated = adjective adv = adverb anom vb = anomalous art = article athem = athematic card = cardinal comp = comparative conj = conjunction d = dative def = definite dem = demonstrative f = feminine g = genitive imp = imperative indecl = indeclinable indef = indefinite inf = infinitive interj = interjection interr = interrogative
abbrev adj
verb
a adv forever 79
abregdan sv 3 draw, pull out, take away. abredaS imp 2pL 22
acennan wv
I
adwsescan wv
create, acenned, acaenned pp. 4 I
extinguish, adwaesced pres 3s\ adwaescan
inf,
76; 76
verb
LOREDANA TERESI
236
aeghwilc indef pron every one, each, aeghwilc nsn. 60
and pron each, any.
aelc indef adj
aelmesse fon alms, aelmesse
aenigmon
indef pron
d and
aer prep with
aerest sup adj
afyllan
agan
wv
amen
wv
interj
possess,
agan
pres pi. 17, 18
inf.
65
amen. 79
an card num
and
own,
I
44
redeem, alesan, alysan
I
65
aeresta nsm. 4, 45
afylled pp.
pret pres vh
allesan
aelmessan ap, 76; 19, 77
ns\
some one. aenigman nsm. 59
conj. before. 7, 8, 42,
first, fill,
I
nsm; aelcum dsm. 46, 47; 33, 41, 51, 73
aelc
adj one.
an
asn. 49,
conj and. ahhrev as 7.
50
1, 3, 5, 6, 7, etc.
andryslic see ondrysenlic.
andwyrdan wv araeran
wv
arlsan sv
I
answer, andwyrt pres
1
raise, arered, araered pp.
I
arise,
arysan, arisan
inf;
arleas adj wicked, arleasan asf. 45,
asecgan
wv
asplwan sv
3
asecgan
tell,
inf.
spew up. aspiwd
I
3s.
32
70
arisad pres
pi. 8;
10
46
62 pres 3s. 45, 47
wv set forth, undergo, astellan inf. 12 atellan wv I tell, relate, recount, atellan inf. [12] adeostrian wv 2 obscure. aJ)ystrod pp. 68 awendan wv I upset, awaended, awended pp. 70 awreccan wv awake, awreccad, awrecced pres pi; awreht pp. astellan
I
I
9-10; 71
baec n-a back, baec as. 28, 52
be prep with d by, about, be, beo. 73, rubric beforan prep with d before.
beman, by man been anom vh
see
be.
12,
37
bleme.
been
inf;
bid, byd, byj) pres 3s. See also
2, 14, 14, 48, 54, etc.
beorht adj bright, beorhtre (comp) nsn. 14
betweonan prep with d between, among. 15 bieme fon trumpet, beman, byman np. 9 biernan sv 3 burn, byrnende presp, npm. 40-41 bindan sv 3 biterlTce
adv
tie.
gebunden
bitterly.
20
pp. 28, 51
eom, wesan.
3;
Be Heofonwarum 7 he Helwarum
237
bid see beon.
blawan
sv 7 blow, sound,
blissian
wv
blawad
pres
boc / athem book, bocum dp, 75 butan prep with d without, outside
byrnende
col
of.
33, 57, 57, 79
see biernan.
55
ciele m-i chill, cyles ^s. clifer
pL 9
2 rejoice, blissiad pres pL 17
m^
claw, clifra gp. 51
coal, col ns. 14
n-(j
cuman sv 4 come, cymd pres 3s; cumad cwedan sv 5 say. cwed, cwyd pres 3s; etc.;
pres
pi;
cuman
suhjy pres
pi 71;
6;
43
cwe{)ad pres pL 22, 26, 27, 29, 30,
18
cyles see ciele.
cymd
cuman.
see
daed fi deed, daeda ap.
[39]
daeg m-a day. daeg ns; daeges, daegges
gs;
daege ds. 65, 66, 66, 66, 66, etc.;
56; 7, 9, 65, 68
daelan
wv
19-20
distribute, share, daelan inf,
I
dead adj dead, deade npm, 3 dead m-a death, deades
deman wv
I
judge,
deofol n-a devil
gs;
deade, dead
demed, demd
(< Lat
ds. 5, 7, 8; 9,
72
pres 3s. 73
diabolus). deofol ns; deofle ds; deofla n/gp, 22, 27,
30, 32; 22; 16, 18; 12-13
dimnes fjo gloom, dimnessa, dymnyssa, dimnyssa dom m-a doom, domes gs. 7, 9, 56, 65
don anom vb
do.
dyde past
3s.
dyde
see
eac adv
lord,
66
[67]
38
draca m-'dn dragon, devil, serpent, draca
Dryhten m-a
gp.
ns;
dracan np. 44; 43
drihten n/as. 10, 58, 70
don.
also. 7, 10,
75
cage n-on eye. eagena, eagana gp. 54 ealdordeofol m-^ chief of the devils, ealdordeofol call adj all. eall, eal nsn; ealle
dpm. 70, 71;
3, 40,
npm;
as;
ealdordeofle ds. 28; 48
ealle npf; ealle apf; ealle apn;
44; 61, 72; 24, [39]; 37; 71
eallum
LOREDANA TERESI
238 adv quite,
call
earm
just. eal.
75
adj miserable, wretched,
earnian
wv
earman
apf.
38
2 merit, geearnode, earnode past
3s.
13-1^
ece adj etern. ece asn, 78 eft
adv
after.
47
adj dire, inspiring terror, egesfulre dsf,
egeful
egeslic adj terrible, egeslice apm.
24
50
Elias Elijah the Tishbite. alias ns. 5
embe
ymbe.
see
ende m-ja end. ende
a/ds. 62,
engel m-a angel (< Lat
79
angelus). englas np; engla
gf>;
englum
Enoch Enoch father of Methuselah, enohc, enoch ns. 6 eom anom vb am. is pres 3s; sindon, syndon, syndan, synd beon, wesan. 26, 27, 31, 33, 41,
eorde f-on earth, eordan
eow
71
pres pi. See also
etc.; 30, 31, 40, 40, 43, 43,
56
34
a/ds. 6,
see ge.
feallan sv 7
fall,
feohtan sv 3 fif
dp. 17; 11;
card
num
feallad pres
fight,
pi.
feohtad pres
69 pi.
15
adj five, indecl. 11, 12
finger m-a finger, fingre ds; fingras ap. 51; 50 for prep with dJa for. 20, 53, 72, 77
forhtian
wv
2 be afraid, forhtiad pres
pi.
11
forswelgan sv 3 swallow up, devour, forswelgd, forsweUid pres 3s. 45,
fordam
conj because. forl)am, fordam. 4, 18-19, 65
fordj; conj because. 11,
54
d from. 61
fram prep
with,
frymd
beginning, frymde
f-o
ful adj rotten, foul,
iyt n5
Mcintosh, "Wulfstan's Prose," 111.
Haruko Momma, The Composition of Old English Anglo-Saxon England 20 (Cambridge, 1997), esp. 8-27. *^
Poetry,
Cambridge Studies
in
Vercelli
Homily XXI
249
long-line structure are placed higher than metre; yet while these are cer-
Old English
tainly essential features of
between
distinguish
poetry, they
do not enable us to
texts universally accepted as poetry
and certain
allit-
erative texts generally regarded as prose. Moreover, unlike Mcintosh, she
does not believe that adherence to the rules of any existing metrical *
'school of thought"
is
sufficient to separate the sub-set "poetry"
from the
on features of prosodical upon Kuhn's Laws of sen-
larger set of alliterative texts. Instead, she focuses
syntax, using a hierarchy of word-classes based
tence elements. If studies
such
as these
have attempted to
isolate prosodical criteria
that might help us to define those characteristics that distinguish poetry
from prose, others focusing on vocabulary have shown that while there are indeed
many words whose
attestations are concentrated
on one
side or the
other of the borderline between verse and prose, they do sometimes cross
Words in made a census of "The Mary Richards has even
over. Roberta Frank, for example, has noted a variety of "Poetic
Late Old English Prose," while Eric Stanley has Prosaic Vocabulary of
Old English Verse. "^^
coined the term "prosaic poetry" in reference to a group of late Old English didactic
tradition.
poems that show
and that
standards,
freely
various metrical deviations from classical
employ prosaic vocabulary from the homiletic
^^
Special attention has also been devoted to certain vernacular homilies
whose
alliterative
techniques fric
we
and rhythmic
style
more
usually associate with poetry.
was a poet has
or less closely approaches the
The
debate over whether /El-
largely subsided since the appearance of
John C. Pope's
supplementary edition of /^Ifrician homilies. Although Pope printed these homilies in long verse lines, he unambiguously categorized
them
as "rhyth-
mical prose," which he defined as follows: "a loosely metrical form
sembling in basic structural principles the lish poets,
''
alliterative verse of
re-
the Old Eng-
but differing markedly in the character and range of
its
rhythms
Roberta Frank, "Poetic Words in Late Old English Prose," in From Anglo-Saxon Middle English: Studies presented to E. G. Stanley, ed. Malcolm Godden et al.
to Early
(Oxford, 1994), 87-107; E. G. Stanley, "Studies in the Prosaic Vocabulary of lish
Old Eng-
Verse," Neuphilologische Mitteilungen 70 (1971): 385-418.
Mary Richards, "Prosaic Poetry: Late Old English Poetic Composition," in Old and New; Studies in Language and Linguistics in Honor of Frederic G. Cassidy, ed. Joan H. Hall et al. (New York, 1992), 63-75. '*
English
250
CHARLES
as in strictness of alliterative practice,
rhetoric,
and altogether
and tone."^^ What Mcintosh characterized
stress" prose
rhythm has
cently by
Andy
character
is
Orchard,
also
distinct in diction, as
been the subject of further
who
WRIGHT
D.
Wulfstan's ''two' analysis,
argues that in certain respects
its
most
similar to the oral-traditional style of vernacular verse; but
does not go so far as to
call
re-
formulaic
he
the Sermo Lupi poetry.^°
Beyond the comparatively familiar terrain of these two major AngloSaxon homilists lies the ill-defined grey area of the anonymous homilies, whose
rhetorical landscape
what Otto Funke has
is
sometimes marked by higher elevations of
called rhythmic
and
alliterative prose. ^^
such verse-like outcroppings the most prominent
is
Last Judgment that occurs in variant form in Vercelli homilies
and
in a
sermon
in
Cambridge, Corpus Christi College
edition of selected Vercelli homilies. ''poetically
form" of
Max
corresponding passage in Vercelli
MS
II
and XXI
201.^^ In his
Forster already remarked
heightened" language of Vercelli
this particular passage,
Among
a description of the
II
and on the "metrical
which he printed
XXI was
on the
in verse lines.^^
The
also printed in verse lines
by
Paul Szarmach,^"^ and while Donald Scragg prints both passages as prose
'^
Pope, Supplementary Homilies,
1:
105;
Sherman M. Kuhn, "Was
/Elfric a
Poet?"
52 (1973): 643-62. On the editorial implications, see Paul E. Szarmach, "Abbot /dfric's Rhythmical Prose and the Computer Age," in hJew Approaches to Editing Old English Verse, ed. Sarah Larratt Keefer and Katherine O'Brien O'Keeffe Philological Quarterly
(Cambridge, 1998), 95-108. ^°
Andy
Orchard, "Crying Wolf: Oral Style and the Sermones Lupi," Anglo-Saxon
England 21 (1992): 239-64. ^^ Otto Funke, "Studien zur alliterierenden und rhythmisierenden Prosa in der alteren altenglischen Homiletik," Anglia 80 (1962): 9-36. On rhythmical prose in homiletic texts see also D. R. Letson, "The Poetic Content of the Revival Homily," in The Old English Homily and its Backgrounds, ed. Paul Szarmach and B. F. Huppe (Albany, 1978), 139-56; Herbert Pilch and Hildegard L. C. Tristram, AltengUsche Literatur (Heidelberg, 1979), 86-87, 137; H. Tristram, Early Insular Preaching: Verbal Artistry and Method of
Composition, Sitzungsberichte der Osterreichischen hist. Klasse,
Akademie der Wissenschaften,
Phil.-
623; Veroffentlichungen der keltischen Kommission (Vienna, 1995), 11-15;
Reichl and Harris, "Introduction," in Prosimetrum, 1-16, here 8-10. ^^ For the relationship of these texts, see D. G. Scragg, "The Corpus of Vernacular Homilies and Prose Saints' Lives before i^lfric," Anglo-Saxon England 8 (1979): 223-77, here 229, 232, 251, 260.
^^ Max Forster, "Der Vercelli-Codex CXVII nebst Abdruck einiger altenglischer Homilien der Handschrift," in Festschrift fur Lorenz Morshach, ed. F. Holthausen and F. Spies, Studien zur englischen Philologie 50 (Halle, 1913), 66. ^^
Paul E. Szarmach,
ed., VerceUi Homilies
IX-XXIII (Toronto, 1981), 86-87.
Homily XXI
Vercelli
251 he acknowl-
in his standard complete edition of the VerceUi Homilies,
may have been
edges their poetic form, suggesting that this
the homilist's
Old English
own
style,
and not necessarily evidence of a borrowing from
A
poetry. ^^
a feature of
more
detailed study of this "poetically height-
ened" text has been made by Stanley, who focused on the version in the Corpus Christi College manuscript.^^ Stanley's larger concern was to illustrate
how
prose, but
he edited
difficult it
can sometimes be to distinguish between verse and
he nonetheless decided as a
*
in favour of verse for this passage,
'newly-won" poetic text entitled 'The Judgement of the
Damned." Although Stanley conceded that it
which
its
metre
is ''far
from ideal,"
has been accepted as poetry by scholars such as R. D. Fulk;^^ and while
Stanley did not attempt to slot this
new "poem"
Momma would add
archy of verse types, Haruko
it
into Mcintosh's hierto the exiguous corpus
of "debased verse."^^
even more "poetry," however, accompanying the version of "The Judgment of the Damned" in Vercelli homily XXI. Mcintosh characterized much of the remainder of this homily as rhythmical prose com-
There
is
posed in two-stress phrases; but he was also able to extract from
which he regarded
line passage of classical verse,
wise
lost
as a
it
a five-
fragment of an other-
Old English poem:
we syndon on
deadlice
men
w^urmum
tuorulde tuurdan
and of eordan
eft)
and drihtene
ciaege
aet^iwan eall
to 3ete
ealle arisan
eft
(MS. eor5an we sceolan
on domes
and to duste sceolan
J^aet
Although Mcintosh did have
we to
cer
sylfrim
dydon.^^
make one emendation
in his third line,
this salvaged fragment has been widely accepted as genuine, and was in-
"
D. G. Scragg,
ed.,
1992), 51, referring to
11.
The VercelU Homilies and Related 39-51 of Vercelli II.
^*
Stanley, 'The ]udgemer\t of the Damned.'*
"
R. D. Fulk,
^*
Momma, The
2'
As
A
History of
Texts,
EETS
o.s.
300 (Oxford,
Old English Meter (Philadelphia, 1992), 264.
Composition of Old English Poetry, 13-14.
printed by Mcintosh, "Wulfstan's Prose," 141, n. 29 (= Vercelli XXI, ed.
Scragg, 356.128-131).
252
CHARLES
corporated into Madeleine Bergman's Supplement to
D.
WRIGHT
A Concordance
to the
Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records?^
But
this
Vercelli Leslie
is
not
all.
Mcintosh pointed out that yet another passage in to one in pseudo-Wulfstan homily XXX that
XXI corresponded
Whitbread had
English poem,
An
identified as a prose adaptation of a surviving
Exhortation
to
Christian
Old
Whitbread subse-
Living?^
quently compared what he termed the "prose dilution" of Exhortation in Vercelli
XXI with the
surviving text of the poem, showing that the homily
had preserved a few superior readings even though the poetic form had been seriously disrupted. Whitbread's conclusion that the Vercelli homilist
had borrowed from a variant tioned until
sometimes verse.
.
alliterating, prose
."^^ .
J.
text of the
poem seems
to have gone unques'
E. Cross suggested in 1987 that in fact ''the listing,
This seems to
has been turned with a
me
and
unlikely, however,
little difficulty I
and into
would agree with
who has reasserted the traditional view of the relationship between poem and the homily.^^ Moreover, Scragg further suggests that in
Scragg,
the
^°
Madeleine Bergman, "Supplement
to a
Concordance
to
'The Anglo-Saxon Poetic
Records'," Mediaevalia 8 (1985 for 1982): 9-52, here 15. '^ Mcintosh, "Wulfstan's Prose," 130, n. 7, referring to Leslie Whitbread, "Two Notes on Minor Old English Poems," Studia NeophHobgica 20 (1947-48): 192-98. The passage in question is Vercelli XXI, ed. Scragg, 357.149-55, corresponding to Napier, Wulfstan^ 145.33-146.8 and An Exhortation to Christian Living, 11. 2-15. For convenience I will continue to refer to this poem by its traditional title, although Fred C. Robinson has given strong reasons for believing that Exhortation and A Summons to Prayer, which occur together in the manuscript (Cambridge, Corpus Christi College 201), are in fact a single poem (which he calls The Rewards of Piety). See "The Rewards of Piety*: Two Old English Poems in their Manuscript Context," in Hermeneutics and Medieval Culture, ed. Patrick J. Gallacher and Helen Damico (Albany, 1989), 193-200. For a facsimile of this portion of the manuscript, see Robinson and Stanley, Old English Verse Texts. For qualification of Robinson's view of the manuscript layout of Exhortation and Summons, see Thomas A. Bredehoft, "A Note on Robinson's Rewards of Piety,*' Notes and Queries 243 (1988): 5-8. See also Graham D. Caie, "Text and Context in Editing Old English: The Case of the Poetry in Cambridge, Corpus Christi College 201," in T/ie Editing of Old English, ed. D. G. Scragg and Paul E. Szarmach (Woodbridge, 1994), 155-62. '
^^
James E. Cross, Cambridge, Pembroke College
by Anglo-Saxon Preachers, King's College
MS
25:
A
London Medieval
Carolingian Sermonary used
Studies
1
(London, 1987),
149-50. ^^ Scragg, The Vercelli Homilies, 348, n. 3. In addition to the reasons given by Scragg, would note the improbable serendipity that would have enabled the versifier of Exhortation to construct three perfectly alliterating long lines (11. 4-6, the first two with double alliteration in the on-verse) simply by transposing three phrases that happen to yield metrical "half-lines" yet are all mateless in the prose. It is much more likely that the homi1
Homily XXI
Vercelli
253^
128 through 141 of the homily
lines
—
that
is,
in the passage immediately
following the fragment of classical verse extracted by Mcintosh
—
**Allit'
suggests dependence upon a poem which has been lost."^^ To eration my knowledge there has been no further discussion of this particular pas' .
.
.
Mcintosh stated that the verse "breaks down"
sage.
and whether or not the passage following
isolated,
a lost poem, as
it
stands
it
after the
fragment he
on
ultimately based
it is
does not preserve the degree of coherent
allit'
erative and metrical form as does even the prose dilution of Exhortation some twenty lines later, and it could not readily be turned into verse with-
out
fairly I
think
a passage
the
extensive editorial reconstruction. possible,
it is
however, to recognize poetic form and intent in
which seems generally
to
have been overlooked, a description of
of the rebel angels that occurs immediately between the loosely
fall
literative passage in lines
Mcintosh did not
128-141 and the prose dilution of Exhortation,
specifically discuss this passage.
larger section of the homily which he identified stress phrases,
Wulfstan's. of
which
he seems to have regarded
Nor
al'
it
as
as
Though
it is
part of a
being composed in two^
rhythmic prose similar to
did Whitbread recognize these lines' poetic form,
survives intact to argue that
it,
too,
enough
may be a remnant of a
lost
Old English poem.^^
The
following optimally
emended
verse lineation of the passage
rebel angels does not pretend to be an edition, but
what
reveal
I
is
on the
simply intended to
believe to be the passage's essentially poetic form.
without emendation,
much
of
it
can readily be divided into verse
Even lines
constructed of half'lines with regular caesura and linked by alliteration.
Seventeen out of twenty-six dation,
half-lines
and nine of eleven long
scan acceptably without any emen-
lines alliterate,
although in three of these
disturbed the regular alliteration of these long lines in the syntax into normal prose order. list
^^
Scragg, The Vercelii
"
Homfa,
poem by
recasting their
348, referring to lines 128-141.
G. Whitbread, "Wulfstan Homilies XXIX, XXX and Some Related Texts," Angha 81 (1963): 347-64, stated that the entire section of Napier XXX, 144.29-147.6, •'is phrased in a somewhat poetic manner" (354), but he specifically identified as "verse L.
adaptations" only those passages isolated by Mcintosh, together with the lines based on Exhortation. He argued (360) that the passage corresponding to the Vercelli XXI sequence (i.e., Napier, 145.19-32) was built up by the homilist from a Napier XXIX (134.18-21). The homily's use of poetic epithets for God has been noted, but only in passing (see below, n. 39).
on the
fall
of the angels
single sentence of
CHARLES
254 nine the
alliteration
remain mateless.
A
is
word order
l)urh oferhyg<e>de
aAl
forsceapene to deoflum
Bl
on
helle grund,
Bl
on
iuorulda tuoruld
for
Sam
sigora syllend,
A3
5
Al
rice
J^e
wurdon
has been enabled or
englas iu
7 bescofene eac
Bl
Al
iuitu l)olian,
heofona wealdend
hie forhogedon
7
hie sceolon
{)aer
him
Ac him
mynton.
it
enclosed in angle-brackets.
is
below by angle-
end of the passage. The scansion
given in the margin; wherever
improved by emendation, the notation
below would
Omissions that
lines.
alliteration are indicated
brackets; transpositions are noted at the is
as suggested
one of the remaining two long
would improve the scansion or of each half-line
WRIGHT
imperfect by classical standards, and two half-lines
transposition of
restore alliteration in
D.
sylfiim l)aer
se raed
ne
get>ah,
Al Bl
B2
ac se stiSmoda cyning,
aAl
mihtig dryhten,
10
aii;earp of
6am
t)one
7 of
setle
heofona rices
<mid him>
< Al>
Wiston hie
on Bl
l^aere
t>e
aet
geornor,
byrnendan
wi6 hifaene hie
modigan feond
Bl
6am
Bl
ifuldre eac
ealle J^a \>e
6am
raede waeron.
tuitum besette
hAl
Al
belle,
u^innan ongunnon.
Al
Homily XXI
Vercelli
=
Vercelli XXI,
11.
255^
141-49, with the following transpositions of word
order:
englas
1]
wurdon
9-10] dryhten aelmihtig, awearp of
dam
setle l^one
modigan feond
Hie wiston
12]
[Through pride angels were once transformed into thrust
down
into the abyss of hell,
devils
and
where they must forever
also
suffer
torments, because they despised the ruler of the heavens, giver of victories,
and intended to make
But that plan did not succeed
for themselves a
for
mighty Lord, cast the proud demon from the glory of the kingdom of heaven
all
with him. Placed in torments in burning surely against
To
whom
they had set out to
restore alliteration in
my
lines
phrase l)one modigan feond so that l>am
setle.
line 9
it
it
kingdom
there.
them, but the resolute king, the
9-10
his seat
hell,
and likewise from
who were
those
they
in league
knew the more
fight.]
it is
necessary to transpose the
precedes rather than follows awearp of
This gives an acceptable line 10 with alliteration on w, but in
would
also
be necessary to emend dryhten
celmihtig to mihtig dryhten
to create alliteration with modigan; the only alternative to emendation
here (that
is,
apart from simply accepting a non-alliterating line) would be
to assume that the accent fact
it
sometimes does in
literate
on m.^^ There
rical defects in
where
on the second element of celmihtig, as where celmihtig can
still
remain two isolated
the complete lines
Sievers, Heusler, line 3b,
falls
/Elfric's alliterative prose,
and Pope. The
it falls
on the
—
and some met-
at least according to the schools of
alliteration, for
subject
half-lines
in al'
pronoun
example,
hie,
and
is
defective in
in 14a
one has to
assume h-deletion in hwcene, a rare though not unparalleled phenomenon in
Old English poetry and
^^ ''
in
/€lfric's
alliterative
prose.^^
See Pope, Supplementary Homilies, 1: 118. ed., The Battle ofMaldon (Manchester, 1981), 78,
D. G. Scragg,
A
serious
cites several cases
Old English poems {Christ 1, 1. 188, Judith, I 249, Riddle 73, 1. 29); die first two of these involve the noun hwearf or the verb hwearfian, which may have had byformis, as suggested by Mark Griffith, ed., Judith (Exeter, 1997), 134. Pope, Supplementary in "classical"
CHARLES
256 breach of
classical standards occurs in line 11a,
on the noun can is
rices in
and most of the
vers's system. I
One
WRIGHT
alliteration falls
the second stressed position in preference to heofonli-
(or a restored heofona) in
regular,
where the
D.
the
first.
Elsewhere, however, the alliteration
half-lines scan readily as
Types
A
or
B
in Sie*
could tidy up others with some minor emendations, as
have indicated above. Omitting ond in
line
6a and reading Wiston
hie in-
stead of Hie wiston in 12a, for example, would eliminate irregular anacrusis
on elements other than verbal the words mid him in line
1
prefixes
IX
[see n. 40, below])
syllables in the onset of the
In lines
six.
1
and
particle.
11a, however,
more
would reduce the
hypermetric A-verse from eight to substantial interventions
required to restore the metre, and 3b remains defective even
pronoun
alliteration to the
Many
Omitting
lb (an emendation which receives some support
in a parallel passage from Vercelli
number of
and the negative
if
would be
one
assigns
hie.
of the metrical deficiencies in the passage can, however, readily
be paralleled in such "prosaic poetry" to Christian Living,
and
as Seasons for Fasting,
Instructions for Christians.
example, a heavy preponderance of
A
and B
An
Exhortation
Here too one
finds, for
low proportion of
verses; a
double alliteration in the on-verse; anacrusis on elements other than ver-
and even occasional
bal prefixes or the negative particle;
or whole
such
lines
as in line
wanting 1
are, of course, fairly
forms more closely to verse original such as
isolated half-lines
alliteration altogether. Violations of
common even
classical standards. In the
we have
in
passage immediately following,
An
it is
Kuhn's Laws
in poetry that con-
absence of a surviving
Exhortation to Christian Living for the
impossible to say
how much
of this
could be attributed to faulty transmission; but comparison of the homily's prose dilution of Exhortation shows transpositions of
and
word order have
how
various omissions, additions,
seriously disturbed the
alliterative form, eliminating alliteration
poem and
leaving several half-lines mateless.^^
Homilies, 1: 129, n.
mentary Homily XXI,
1, cites 1.
N. 206 (1961): 165-66. indecisive. Cf. also
530
Lives of Saints XI, L {heiuorht
F. Blake,
:
from several
While
90 {gehwyke
:
and
poem's metrical
it is
lines in the
possible, as
I
wcefer) as well as Supple-
hwitum)] four other possible examples in /Elfric are
"A Note on
'hw' in
Old English," Notes and Queries
See Whitbread, "Two Notes"; idem, "The Old English 'Exhortation to Christian Some Textual Problems," Modem Language Review 44 (1949): 178-83; and idem, "Notes on the Old English Exhortation to Christian Living," Studia Neophibbgica 23 (1951): 96-102. ^^
Living*:
Homily XXI
Vercelli
have
tried to
proaches
257_
show, to reconstruct editorially a text that more closely apthe main point of such an exercise
classical standards,
is
simply
where the passage already conforms to those standards and
to indicate
where and to what extent
deviates from them.
it
moreover, unnecessary to reconstruct or even to posit an unim^
It is,
peachably
classical ''original" in order to vindicate this passage's
claim to
poetic status. For, in addition to having metrical and alliterative form that generally conforms to the standards of late
Old English "prosaic poetry,"
the passage employs variation and uses some distinctively poetic vocabuIndeed, a tabulation of verbal and formulaic parallels with
lary.
lish
poems
and
so-called "rhythmical
la] Vainglory
grund;
cf.
and
II
53a
which
An
24b ac
t>aer is
l^urh oferhygda
4a
B 323b Wite 340b witu
J)olia3;
Christ
]
I
265a, 562b in helle
Andreas 1686a in woruld worulda;
III
Day
II
Genesis
5a
103,29.2a,
103,6.3a,
105,37.2a,
198a on worulda woruld 4b
B 367b and we
Syddan hi
]
cf.
Paris Psalter 106,39.1a
t>e
her forhogdun heofonrices l^rym
Andreas 1381 syddan 6u forhogedes heofoncyninges word 5b Psalter
118,146.2b, Meters of Boethius
B
780a, Christ
II
16b sigora wealdend 6b
ne
me
]
cf.
Phoenix 282b
sylfne
J^aer
7b
Andreas 1074b, Beowulf 2323b him seo
2425a stiSmod cyning; tles
hu
Paris
cf.
B
Gen-
555b heofenes waldend 6a ] Juliana 668a, The
Panther 64a sigora sellend; Juliana 705a sigora syllend;
Psalter 141,4.4b
]
13.6b, 29.70b, Genesis
2387b heofona w(e)aldend; Phoenix 631b heofrma waldend; esis
]
wite t>olien
Ipis
1633 6a
geJ^oliaS
forhogedan; Christ
]
101,25.4a,
110,8.2a, 131,15.2a, Judgment
Juliana
3a
98a secan helle grund; Judgment Day
II
helle grund
Paris Psalter 91,6.6a,
Genesis
are
Exhortation to Christian Living:
and Satan 448b ah in helle grund, 454a hatne
Christ
helle grund; Soul and Body I
The density of poetic diction known to have been borrowed
alliterative prose."
surpasses as well those passages
from Judgement Day
Old Eng'
beyond what might be expected from
yields results substantially
cf.
Christ
]
He
cf.
wen
cf.
his sylfes
Genesis gel(e)ah
A
Exodus
J^aer;
Paris
49a, 1446b,
8a
]
Genesis
B
and Satan 246a, Fates of the Apos-
Dream of the Rood 40a, Beowulf 2566a stidmod; Judith 25a stidmoda 9a cf. Paris Psalter 117,18.2a, 118,174.2a dryhten
72b, se
]
aelmihtig; Paris Psalter 52,6.1b et passim mihtig dryhten; Exodus
262a, Instructions for Christians 67b mihtig drihten 10
]
cf.
Solomon
and Saturn 464a aweorp hine da of dam wuldre; Genesis B 300b
CHARLES
258 wearp hine of t>an hean jDonne
Ipe
geornor
and Satan 704 Wast
Ipu t>e
12
geornor; Juliana 556b Wiste he t)e
wij)
\)i
Christ
cf.
gearwor; Andreas 932b
heo ongunnon wi5 gode winnan;
]
cf.
Christ 111
Wast nu
Genesis
1526a
A J)a
11 aer
gode wunnon; Genesis B 298b winnan ongynned; Meters ofBo-
ethius
Most
]
gearwor; Elene 945b Wite 6u J^egearwor 13
J)3es \>e
WRIGHT
wi3 god wunne; Beowulf 821b wiste
stole
J^aet t>u
D.
25.69b winnan onginnan
striking are the varied epithets for
which,
as
Roberta Frank pointed
the composite Napier Homily dilutes
its
in line
5b
XXX
God
out,^^
quite
common
5-6 and 8-9, most of
(whose version of this passages further
metrical and alliterative form).'^° is
in lines
were rejected by the author of
The
epithet heofona wealdend
in poetry, while the
emended reading
mihtig
^^
Frank, "Poetic Words," 99. Hiroshi Ogawa, Studies in the History of Old English Prose (Tokyo, 2000), 268, citing Frank, refers briefly to these poetic formulas, and also
notes the substitution in Napier woruld. E. G. Stanley,
XXX
o( ecelke for the "apparently archaic" on worulda
"Some Problematic Sense
'Victory*, 'Noble', 'Glorious',
and 'Learned',"
Divisions in
Old
English: 'Glory'
and
in Heroic Poetry in the Anglo'Saxon Period,
Helen Damico and John Leyerle (Kalamazoo, 1993), 171-226, here 182, notes sigora and characterizes the passage as "a rhythmical and alliterative part of Vercelli Homily XXI on the borderland of verse and prose." ^° "Purh 5a ofermodignesse mcEre englas / on heofonum wurdon geo forsceapene to atelicum deoflum 7 besceofene on helle grund, l^aer hi sceolon ecelice witu t>olian, for 3am l^e hi forhogedon l}one ecan drihten 7 him sylfum Jsaer rice mynton. Ac him se raed ne gel)eah, ac se stiSmoda cyning, drihten aelmihtig, awearp of Sam setle J^one modigan feond 7 of 3am wuldre eac \>?es heofonlican rices. 7 ealle l)a 3e mid him aet Sam raede waeron, hi wiston \)t geornor, witum besette on jDaere bymendan helle, wiS hwaene hi winnon ongunnon" (ed. Scragg, 397.54-398.62, corresponding to Napier, 145.22-32; ed.
syllend
italics indicate words not found in surviving copies of Vercelli XXI). Briefer parallels are found in several other homilies: Vercelli XIX, ed. Scragg, 316.19-23: "7 ealle t»a 3e aet 3am raede mid him waeron 7 him aefter besawon, ealle hie wurdon of englum to deoflum J^aer hie on ecnesse witu t>olia3, for 3am t>e hie forho' gedon hira scyppend, aelmihtigne God" ICCCC 162 (hand b) adds: "him se raed ne gC' 3eag ac wer3 swy3e biterlice forgolden him sylfan"; CCCC 303 adds: "him se raed ne gel)ah ac wear3 swi3e biterlice forgo Idan him sylfan"). "The Devil's Account of the Next World," ed. Scragg, 181.M53-59: "Ac hine awearp drihten of heofonum for his ofermet' tum, 7 t>one modigan feond on helle wite, for Ipon he dede hine efenheahne Gode 7 get hegran wolde don. 7 he 3a for t)an gewear^) to deofle awend 7 ealle his geferan 7 eac ealle J^a t>e aet his raede waeron o\)\)e aefter besawan, ealle hi wurdan of t)an engelican hiwe to deoflum awende, 7 gefeollan ]pa heom an helle diopnesse, besuncon ealle togaedere." Pseudo-Wulfstan XXIX, ed. Napier, 134.18-21: "And uton eallon maegne us scyldan wi3 ofermodignesse, for3am \)e by awurpon iu englas of heofonum, and hi wurdon
forsceapene 7 on helle bescofene,
iDaerrihtes to
deoflum forsceapene."
Homily XXI
Vercelli
dryhten in 9a
is
259
paralleled in both the Paris Psalter
Christians; but neither of these
is
exclusively poetic.
ora syllend in line 6a, an epithet
once
More
Instructions for
distinctive
is sig^
also occurs twice in Juliana
The Panther; the only prose occurrence
XXI. The epithet
celli
ic
in
which
and
is
and
in this passage from Ver-
stidmoda cyning in line 8 contains a striking poet-
se
compound from the word-hoard
of heroic poetry.
The word
stidmod oc-
curs 6 times in the poetry, including in the identical epithet stidmod cyning in Genesis
XXI and stan's
A
its
(\.
2425b); in prose, apart from this occurrence in Vercelli
variant in Napier
homily XIX and
parallels,
some
are
more
Homily XXX, the word occurs only
his Institutes of Polity
significant
Of
.^^
and precise than
in Wulf-
the remaining verbal others, but
it is
strik-
ing that the formulaic patterns that are restricted either to the on-verse or off-verse in the poetry all occur in the appropriate half-lines in this frag-
ment. The cumulative weight of these literative
and metrical form and
added to the passage's
parallels,
distinctively poetic epithets for
compelling evidence of poetic intention, even doubtedly the transmission as well)
is
if
al-
God,
is
the execution (and un-
faulty at several points.
In addition to using poetic words, for example, the author describes the frustrated intentions
and plans of the rebel angels
in terms strikingly
iniscent of poetic expressions for defeated expectations in Beowulf
rem-
and
elsewhere. These ironic formulations have been discussed by Richard Ringler,
who
notes
how
the Beowulf poet, in describing Grendel's attack on
Heorot, highlights the contrast between Grendel's prior intentions and subsequent realizations with the verbs myntan and witan.^^ Thus as Grendel approached
^'
ed.,
Heorot he mynte, "intended," to ensnare one of human-
Dorothy Bethurum,
Die
'Institutes
of
ed.,
Polity,
The Homilies ofWulfstan (Oxford, 1957), 254.74; Karl Jost, and EcclesiasticaV Ein Werk Erzbischof Wulfstans von
Civil
:
The occurrences of stidmod (as may explain why the compiler of
York, Schweizer anglistische Arbeiten 23 (Bern, 1950), 53. a royal quality in Polity) in Wulfstan's genuine writings
Napier
XXX
accepted this epithet while rejecting heofona wealdend and sigora
syllend.
^^
Richard Ringler, ''Him seo wen geleah: The Design for Irony in Grendel's Last Visit to Heorot," Speculum 41 (1966): 49-67; repr. in Interpretations of Beowulf: A Critical Anthology, ed.
R. D. Fulk (Bloomington, 1991), 127-45. This pattern was
E. Kaske, "Sapientia et Fortitudo as the Controlling
Theme
first
noted by R.
of Beowulf,*' Studies
in Philology
55 (1958): 423-57, here 439; repr. in An Anthobgy of Beowulf Criticism, ed. Lewis E. Nicholson (Notre Dame, 1963), 269-310, here 289. See also Edward B. Irving, A Reading
(New Haven, 1968), 22-31. Another example of poetic contrast between wenan and witan is discussed by Constance B. Hieatt, 'Transition in the Exeter Book of Beowulf
•Descent into Hell'," hieuphilobgische Mitteilungen 91 (1990): 431-38, here 434.
260
CHARLES
kind in the hall to separate the
life
and upon
712),
(1.
his arrival there
WRIGHT
D.
*
he again 'intended"
from the body of each of the sleeping warriors
731-
(11.
733), Subsequently, after
Beowulf had seized him, he "intended" to
into his fen-retreats
762-764). But at that
(11.
moment he
**knew," that the power of his fingers was in a hateful grip
wiste
geomor, that he had reached the end of his allotted
1)6
823). Similarly, in the passage
angels "intended to
fum
make
geomor
I
surely, against
wi6 hwcene
whom
for themselves in
surely"
821-
life (11.
heaven," him
syl-
and expulsion by God, Wiston
winnan ongunnon, "They knew the more
hie
they had set out to fight."
closely paralleled in a similar context in Christ
commands Satan
764-765),
from Vercelli XXI we are told that the rebel
kingdom
a
nwynton; but after their defeat
l)CBr I rice
hie ]>e
(11.
"knew the more
and, ultimately, after being mortally wounded, he
flee
also wiste
to measure hell, saying that
The
latter
formulation
is
and Satan, where Christ
"You might
therefore
know
the more surely that you fought against God": Wast pu l)onne ^e geomor
wi6 god wunne
\>cet i>u
704)."^^
(1.
A recurring formulaic expression of frustrated intentions in Old English poetry
is
him seo wen
trust in his
used in Beowulf to describe the dragon's vain
geleah,
barrow and warlike power
scribe the cancellation of the
1074b).
It is also
(1.
2323b), and in Andreas to de-
Mermedonian
cannibals' expected feast
(1.
used twice in Genesis A, once (perhaps somewhat incon-
gruously) to describe
Noah's
return to the ark
1446b), but also in a context closely similar to the
Vercelli
XXI
possessing a against
him
kingdom
them
(1.
49a).
is
Compare
quite similar to him seo
also ]uliana,
11.
leased by the saint: "Wiste he
num, hu him on
side
on
u) as
556b-558,
t»i
gearwor,
gelomp." As these
the on-verse or off-verse; but rather than
intended to
make
in heaven, "but that plan did not succeed for
wen
tion would have been facilitated by the
^^
the rebel angels' expectation of
heaven was defeated when God raised his hand So too in the homily we are told, in what appears to
ne ge^ah. Although the wording
metrical form
would
in
this formula, that the angels
kingdom
se roed
how
passage, to describe
be a variant of selves a
(1.
frustrated expectation that the raven
when
in the passage
it
/
is
for
them-
them," ac
different, the syntactic
geleah,
common
and the verbal
and
substitu-
use of forms of the word
after the devil has been humiliated and remanes melda, magum to secgan, / susles t>eg'
parallels
show, the formula
occurs in the on-verse
from Vercelli XXI.
it
may occur
either in
regularly alliterates
on
g,
Homily XXI
Vercelli
reed to describe the
26^
misguided counsels of the rebel angels in league with
Satan.^^
The
poetic vocabulary and diction of this passage are the most com-
pelling reasons to regard
it,
not
just as verse,
but as poetry.
As R. D. Fulk
has noted, "the primary difference between y^lfric's most verselike prose .
.
and
.
classical verse
is
not so
much
the distribution of stressed and un-
'"^^ This stressed syllables as the absence of purely poetic vocabulary.
also the decisive criterion for E.
erative
G. Stanley, who believes that
and rhythmical passage to be
verse, *Ht
cognizable by us as from the language of
go on
if
we
would
I
is
Old English
poetry;
allege that the discourse of this passage
closest
Its
tian Living,
we may then
is
on the
poetical.
'"^^
of the rebel
fall
resemblance not to what Mcintosh called "debased
from which the homilist drew
There are
defects which,
if
An
Exhortation to Chris-
in the immediately following
not due to faulty transmission, sug-
an imperfect mastery of the compositional techniques of
gest
re-
metrical and alliterative
verse," but to the style of "prosaic poetry" such as
passage."^^
is
allit-
wish, and allege that the author too recognized, and inten-
indeed self-consciously ''poetical."
form bears
an
must contain some items
tionally used, these items as a sign that his discourse ...
angels
for
verse; but the diction
"classical"
and tone show evidence of an authentic contact
with traditional poetic idiom. While
it is
possible that such a "poetical
discourse" was within the compositional range of the homilist, the
largely
^^ In Genesis A, for example, the angels are said to have followed the unrced (1. 30) of their leader Satan, thereby abandoning heora selfra reed (I. 24) and finding themselves confined in a rczdkase hof (1. 44). The term reed is also used for the self^delusory counsels
of Satan and the rebel angels in both Genesis
B and
Christ
and Satan. For another varia-
on the pattern, see Juliana, 1. 605-6, in reference to the death-sentence pronounced by Elesius upon Juliana: "Mine se cwealm ne JDeah, / sil)l)an he Jxjne fintan furlx)r cujje." tion
A
^^
Fulk,
^^
Stanley,
History of
Old
English Meter, 267.
'The Judgment of the Damned,'' 368. See "Alliterative Ornament," 210. ^' An element of prosaic or "homiletic" syntax that
also Stanley's
is
comments
in
probably not the result of
the use of the participial construction "wurdon
bescofene" form of hescufan with an active predicate). For a discussion of the divergent uses of prose and poetry in this regard, see Catherine Brown Tkacz, "Heaven and Fallen Angels in Old English," in The Devil, Heresy and Witchcraft in the Middle Ages: Essays in Honor of Jeffrey B. Russell, ed. Alberto Ferreiro (Leiden, 1998), 327-44, here defective transmission (rather
than a
328-32; Tkacz A,
.
.
.
finite
also notes,
however, that the "homiletic" syntax also occurs in Guthlac
633b-34: "scofene wurdon / fore oferhygdum two lines of the Vercelli passage.
11.
first
is
in ece fyr"
which
is
similar to the
CHARLES
262
D.
WRIGHT
composite nature of the homily, and in particular the distorted quotation
from Exhortation immediately following
this passage,
that the homilist was borrowing from an is
now
makes
it
more
likely
Old English poem, of which
this
our only surviving witness ."^^
^® The fragments of lost verse "recovered" firom prose from the publication of ASPR University Press to 1982 are conveniently included in Bergman's "Supplement", to which should be added Stanley's "Judgment of the Damned" and the charter passage noted by Peter Kitson, "Some Unrecognized Old English and Anglo-Latin Verse," Notes
and Queries 232 (1987): 147-51. 1 would like to thank Mary Blockley, Geoffrey Russom, Yasuko Suzuki, and Seiichi Suzuki for their generous help with metrical problems; I remain solely responsible, of course, for any errors.
MARY CLAYTON
An Edition
of ^Ifric's
Letter to Brother
Edward
THE LETTER TO BROTHER EDWARD three sections: the
second
is
first
is
a short text that
deals with prohibitions
falls
naturally into
on the eating of blood; the
an exhortation to "Brother Edward" and others not to abandon
English ways for Danish; and the third consists of a request to Brother Ed-
ward that he
try to
put a stop to the habit of certain countrywomen of eat'
ing and drinking at their beer parties while sitting
was printed by Kluge
as
on the
privy. ^
The
text
an anonymous piece from Oxford, Bodleian
Li-
Hatton 115, in 1885;^ Pope has since quoted the middle section, which is also translated by Dorothy Whitelock in English Historical Docu-
brary,
ments^ and Michael
Swanton
translates the
text in his Anglo-Saxon Prosed
known, however,
as
it
'
The
letter
is
second and third parts of the
text as a
whole deserves to be better
offers a fascinating insight into
person around the
lish
The
last
the views of an Eng-
millennium, reacting to the spread of Danish
referred to in a very lively discussion
on Ansaxnet
in 1991 as the
"toilet letter." ^
F. Kluge,
"Fragment eines angelsachsischen
63. Kluge printed the
first
62unconnected
Briefes," Englische Studien 8 (1885):
section in his footnotes only, as he considered
it
with the second and third sections. ^
Pope, Supplementary Homilies
1:
56; English Historical Documents, Vol.
1,
1042, ed. and trans. D. Whitelock, 2nd ed. (London, 1979), 896. ^
Anglo-Saxon Prose, trans, and ed. Michael Swanton (London, 1975), 29.
c.
550-
MARY CLAYTON
264 ways in England and commenting on the It is,
parties held
by countrywomen.
therefore, reedited here.
Kluge saw the author
having a delicate nature, with a developed pa-
as
and aesthetic sense and a "ruhigere, sinnigere Natur" than Wulfa nature aware of all those things which **einem feinfuhlenden und
triotic
stan,
innerlich gebildeten Angelsachsen in der Danenzeit ein Argerniss sein
we had no
konnten,"^ and he regretted that
other works by the same
hand. Dorothy Whitelock, in a similar vein, says that "nothing of the recipient, and the writer
is
cribed the letter to /^Ifric, with very persuasive arguments, and
Godden
known
anonymous."^ In 1967 John Pope
is
as-
Malcolm
accepts this attribution.'' Kluge 's wish for other works by the
same hand would seem Clemoes, however,
reasons^ while Patrick considers
it
to have
come
true
beyond
rejects the attribution to /^Ifric,
all
expectation. Peter
though without giving
Wormald, seemingly unaware of Pope's
attribution,
the work of an anonymous author commenting on the court
ofCnut.9 Pope's reasons for attributing this text to
/Elfiric
are partly stylistic (he
points out that the second and third sections are in /Elfric's characteristic
rhythmical prose and that
''the plain prose of
the
first
section seems well
within his range of syntax and expression"), ^° and partly based on the close correspondence First Latin Letter to
there
is
no doubt
between the
He
Wulfstan^^
that
all
first
section and a passage in ^Ifric's
thinks that
three sections are y^lfric's, and
it is
ceivable that they are derived from a single pastoral letter in
^
con-
which
Kluge, "Fragment eines angelsachsischen Briefes," 63.
^
English Historical Documents,
'
Pope, Supplementary Homilies
8
Clemoes,
CH
895.
1: 1:
56-57; Godden,
CH 2,
Ixvii
and note
1.
34,39, 41. ^ P. Wonnald, "Engla Lond: The Making of an Allegiance," Journal of Historical Sociobgy 7 (1994): 1-24, here 18: "a fragment of what may be the sole surviving private letter from one relatively ordinary Anglo-Saxon to another." I,
'°
Pope, Supplementary Homilies,
1:
'^
Pope, Supplementary Homilies
1:
57;
Pope
sets
out the second section metrically
on
56. 57. For the First Latin Letter to Wulfstan, see Die
Hirtenbriefe /^Ifrics, ed. B. Fehr, Bibliothek der angelsachsischen Prosa 9
(Hamburg, 1914,
with a supplementary introduction by P. Clemoes, Darmstadt, 1966), 222-27, here 223. See below, 266.
repr.
Letter to Brother Edward
yElfric's
from plain prose to
shifted
y^lfiric
265 he turned
his rhythmical style as
The introductory senan excerptor, who thus acknowl-
to matters that strongly affected his feelings.
tence, however,
edges that he
is
surely that of
and perhaps
selecting from,
is
at first abridging, a
longer composition.^^
While Pope
pastoral letter,
he
also suggests that the
^^ less private letter.
more or
may have been derived from excerpts may have been from
suggests here that the sections
a
Pope's arguments for y^lfric's authorship of
the piece, convincing in themselves, can be added first
a
section: the rhythmical prose,
though perhaps a
to, especially for little
the
shaky, vouches
we do not know of any other that we associate with /Elfric; and
for the second and third parts, given that
author is
who
wrote the rhythmical prose
supported by, for example, the characteristic /^Ifrician word play on
and by the equally characteristic pattern of repetition in "l^aet him an t>ing secge, gif 6u for sceame swat>eah hit him secgan maege; me
fullice
t>u
fullic
I
sceamad
t>earle l^aet ic hit secge be.''^^
The
text
is
found in three manuscripts: R, Cambridge, Corpus Christi
College 178
+
from the
half of the eleventh century;^^ P, Oxford, Bodleian Library,
the
and
S, Oxford, Bodleian Library,
half of the twelfth
first
'^
century. ^^
Pope, Supplementary Homilies,
1:
Hatton 116,
Of
these, only
See
'^
Described by Ker, Catabgue, no. 41a (the
also below,
mentary Homilies,
lies
1:
''
Hatton 115 has
me more
sigla are
letter
is
item
13),
and by Pope, Supple-
letter, in
bits
1:
first
book.
1:
it
(53).
67-70; see also
Script of Manuscripts Containing English Religi-
Half of the Twelfth Century," in Rewriting Old English in the Studies in Anglo-Saxon England
M. Swan and eadem, Cambridge
30 (Cambridge, 2000), 11-40, here 26, who dates century.
the
53-59, describes
of insttuction and admonition"
Ker, Catalogue, no. 333 (item 23); Pope, Supplementary Homilies,
M. Trehame, "The Production and First
plausible, as a
I
sermons and shorter
Twelfth Century, ed.
all
those devised for /€lfric manuscripts by Peter
Ker, Catalogue, no. 332 (item 15); Pope, Supplementary Homilies,
ous Texts in the
377-379, from
CH and adopted by Pope, Supplementary Homilies, and by CH 2. This manuscript consists of two books of twelve homi-
for his edition of for his edition of
as a "miscellany of
E.
62-67. The
each, with, in addition, six shorter pieces, including this '^
fols.
275-77.
'^
Godden
137-138,
57.
Pope, Supplementary Homilies, 1: 57. The latter seems to pastoral letter would not be addressed to an individual. '^
Clemoes
fols.
115, fols. 60r-61r, from the second half of the eleventh cen-
Hatton tury;^^
first
Cambridge, Corpus Christi College 162,
it
to the
second quarter of the twelfth
MARY CLAYTON
266 three sections; ure which
changed
178 has the
two
first
sections, followed
mind
and Hatton 116 has only the
(out of squeamishness?);
of the items in Hatton 115 are by
and a short piece on baptism which Pope all
in
eras-
manuscript contexts of the piece support the attribution to /El-
fric, as all
are
by an
shows that the scribe began to write the third section but
his
The
first.
CCCC
CCCC
him
(if
one counts
this piece
also attributes to /^Ifric)/® as
178 (which also contains these two short pieces), apart
probably from a few sentences, and twenty-four out of twenty-six original items in Hatton 116. All three manuscripts contain a group of short pieces, of
which
this letter
is
one, which, while not identical,
Pope suggests that
ilar in all three.
''it
looks as
if
is
very sim-
someone had made
a
miscellany of /Elfric's pronouncements on a variety of themes," perhaps quarrying /Elfric's
own
literary remains,
on which
all
three manuscripts
drew.^^
The
three manuscripts have been glossed by the "tremulous hand" of
Worcester, and were therefore
CCCC
178
may have been
all at
Worcester in the thirteenth century.
written in Worcester or
its
vicinity or
may
have come to Worcester from elsewhere, but seems to have been there in the eleventh century.^^ Hatton 115 has links with manuscripts from the southeast and
is
in a
hand not
like
the hands of contemporary Worcester
manuscripts,^^ while Hatton 116 seems to have been written in a typical of "twelfth-century manuscripts
hand
from West of England monastic
houses."^^
The
first
section consists of three injunctions against eating blood; a
quotation from Genesis 9:2-6, one from Leviticus 17:10-14, and one tributed to church canons. Because of these
and of similar commands
in Acts 15:20
and
Old Testament prohibitions
15:29, the practice of
ing blood was regarded as sinful and forbidden to Christians.
consum-
As Pope
pointed out,^^ /Elfric also treats the question of eating blood in his Latin Letter to Wulfstan, in terms very similar to the letter:
^®
Pope, Supplementary Homilies
1:
56.
'^
Pope, Supplementary Homilies
1:
57.
20
Ker, Catalogue, 64;
2*
Godden, CH 2, Ixx. Ker, Catalogue, 403; Godden, CH 2, Ixviii.
" Clemoes, 2^
CH
I,
40; see Ker, Catalogue, 406.
Pope, Supplementary Homilies
1:
56.
at-
has
First
Letter to Brother Edward
/Elfric's
267
Sanguinem cum terribili comminatione prohibuit deus in cibos su' mere Noe et filiis eius et similiter in lege Moysi, quia sanguis uita pecorum
est, et
pulo suo
.
omnis qui sanguinem commederit, delebitur de
This, however,
is
only one of several texts in which he addresses this ques'
one which was,
tion,
po
.^"^ .
as
Robinson has shown, an "almost obsessive con-
cern" in Old English prose.^^
/Elfric's translation
of the
first
part of the
book of Genesis again includes the same passage. Genesis 9:2-6, as the first quotation in his Letter to Brother Edward and the allusion in his First Latin Letter to Wulfstan:
Ealle saefixas 7 leofad
syndon eowrum handum betaehte. 7
ealle
eow, but an
blod
ic
ofgange
5am anum bxt aet
ge
The
flaesc
ic
mid blode ne
eallum wildeorum 7 eac
aet
be styraS
hi betaece
eton.
dam men;
ofgange daes mannes }^ swa agyt daes mannes blod, his blod byd agoten.
weres handa 7 his broSor handa
hwa
eal 6aet
beo eow to mete, swa swa growende wyrta
ic
.
Eower of 3aes
lif.
Swa
.
verbal similarity between the last part of this quotation and the Letter
to Brother
Edward ("Swa hwa swa mennisc blod
agyt, his blod
byd agoten")
supports Pope's view of the authorship of the Letter. In the Letter
weard on
the
ing again
Old and
New
on the Genesis
7 se aelmihtiga
God
Testaments
y
/Elfiric
makes the same
point, draW'
passage:
aefter
Noes
flode eallum
mancinne
gemaenlice fisccinn 7 fugolcinn 7 da fiderfetan deor 7
^^ Die.
to Sige-
Hirtenbrie/e y€lfric5, ed. Fehr, 223.
The
forgeaf \>a
him
claenan
allusions in this passage are to Genesis
Deuteronomy 12:23, and Leviticus 17:10. The letter is dated between 1002 and 1005 by Clemoes in Die Hirtenhriefe /El/rics, ed. Fehr, cxlv. ^^ F. C. Robinson, "Lexicography and Literary Criticism: A Caveat," in Philological Essays: Studies in Old and Middle English Language and Literature in Honour of Herbert Dean Meritt, ed. J. L. Rosier (The Hague, 1970), 99-1 10, here 102. See also A. Orchard, Pride
9:4,
and
Prodigies: Studies in the
Monsters of the Beowulf-Manuscript (Cambridge, 1995), 63-65.
The Old English Version of the Heptateuch, Aelfric's Treatise on the Old and New Testament and his Preface to Genesis, ed. S. J. Crawford, EETS o.s. 160 (London, 1922), 106. ^^
MARY CLAYTON
268 nytena
micclan
for his
ac he forbead swa {^eah blod to
ciste;
t>icgenne.^^
^Ifric's second biblical quotation in the Letter to Brother Edward^ Leviti'
cus 17:10-14,
a passage also alluded to in his First Latin Letter
is
to
WulfstanP /Elfric's third
quotation
two previous quotations, ing
on that
it
is
attributed by
echoes the
part of the Latin letter
him
to canons and, like the
First Latin Letter to
Wulfstany draw'
which immediately precedes the
allu-
sion to Genesis 9:
Nam
et
canones docent quod
turi aut aliquod
si
quis abscidat
aurem animalis mori-
membrum, tamen morticinium
erit, nisi uitalis
san-
guis ex intimis currat foras.^^
This passage, and, therefore, that in the leled in
two
Letter to Brother
Irish collections of canons, the Hibemensis
Adomnaniy and
is
Edward,
is
paral-
and the Canones
part of the extensive legislation growing out of the
Testament passages quoted above and other
similar
commands,
Old
as well as
the injunctions in Acts 15:20 and 15:29, governing what could and could
not be eaten.
thought
fit
for
Only animals that had been
human
properly slaughtered were
consumption, and proper slaughter involved killing
the animal in such a way that the innermost blood was allowed to run out.
Animals that had been
killed
died from sickness were
deemed
by other animals or in accidents or that had
blood, thought to be the seat of
Canones Adomnani
^'
^® ^'
^^
says:
Old English Version of See above, n. 20. Die Hirtenhriefe
carrion, unfit for eating, as the innermost life,
had not run
"Animal semivivum
the Heptateuch, ed.
y€ljrics, ed.
out.^^
subita
Chapter 5 of the
morte praeraptum
Crawford, 27.
Fehr, 223, lines 12-15.
See K. Bockenhoff, Speisesatzungen mosaischer Art in mittekdterlichen Kirchenrechtsquellen des lAorgen- und Ahendlandes (Miinster, 1907). Both canons are cited as sources for the First Latin Letter to \f/ulfstan by Fehr, Die Hirtenhriefe y^lfrics, 223. ^^ /Elfric equates the blood of an animal with its life in both this letter and in Clemoes, CH 1, 182, line 109: "heora blod is heora lif". See the discussion in M. Godden, "Anglo-Saxons on the Mind," in Learning and Literature in Anglo-Saxon England: Studies Presented to Peter Clemoes on the Occasion of his Sixty-Fifth Birthday, ed. M. Lapidge and H. Gneuss (Cambridge, 1985), 271-98, herb 282.
y€lfric'5
Letter to Brother Edward
269
abscissa aure vel alia parte, morticinium est'V^
cases
where the blood cannot be
said to
and Chapter 20
discusses
have run out but has instead
lodged in the flesh. Similarly, the Hihemensis, Book 54, chapter
"De
headed:
6,
is
quod omne animal mortuum sine effusione sanguinis mor-
eo,
ticinium est."^^
It
was presumably upon these
canons that
Irish
/Elfric
drew. His clear interest in the topic certainly confirms Pope's views on the authorship of the
The second cestral
ways
Letter.
part of the text objects to the English abandoning their an-
abler edum
on Denisc,
who
*'tyslia6
eow
hneccan and ablendum eagum." 'Tyslian," a
rare
Danish ways and,
for
in particular, to those
word, means "to dress", and this passage must refer to some fashion in
more
clothing or hairstyle; the latter seems
tion. **Ablered," otherwise unattested,
Bosworth and
and
fringe
Toller,
his parish clergy,
**blere,
of hairstyle
is
bald" by
and the bared necks and blinded eyes suggest a long
comment
of the so-called Canons of Edgar, a text by Wulfstan for
which
links dress
waeda 7 dyslicra geraeda
leasra
view of the descrip-
likely in
connected to
possibly very short hair exposing the neck, y^lfric's
Canon 20
recalls
is
and
hair: **riht
is J^aet
man
geswice hig-
This censuring
7 bysmorlicra efesunge."^"^
named ExcerpCanon Law Collection.
in turn related to a passage in the erroneously
tUmes Pseudo-Ecgherti,
now renamed
Wulfstan's
This canon decrees:
Catholicus
si
capillos
alienus habetur et ab
more totonderit barbarorum, ab ecclesia Dei omni Christianorum mensa donee delictum
emendet.^^
^^
Die Bussordnungen der abendldndischen Kirche, ed. F.
1851), 120.
On
similar to this
this see
W. H.
Bockenhoff, Speisesatzungen, 62.
than his Old English
letter
is,
as
it
Wasserschleben (Halle,
Latin is even more mention of the ear.
/^Ifric's
retains the
^^ Die irische Kanonensammlung, ed. H. Wasserschleben, 2nd ed. (Leipzig, 1885), 216: the chapter reads: "Hieronimus ait: Suffocatum aut per manus hominum gentili more, aut
per se ipsum lege mortis aut per bestias aut per ignem aut per
quamcumque efiflisione
mortis causam
from Jerome,
In Ezechielem 1.13,
PL
inlicitum
25:
est,
^'
Wulfstan's 1
Canon Law
Collection, ed.
(Woodbridge, 1999), 97
(cf.
est last
aut per aliquam enim, quia absque part is a quotation
49C-D.
^^ Councils and Synods with other Documents relating to Whitelock, M. Brett, and C. N. L. Brooke (Oxford, 1981),
Texts
aquam
morticinium sanguinis emittit vitam et in quo moriatur anima." The efficitur,
J.
E. Cross
Recension B, 156).
the English 1:
Church, ed. D.
321.
and A. Hamer, Anglo-Saxon
MARY CLAYTON
270 Given the
close connections
between
/Elfric
and Wulfstan,
probable that the former was also familiar with this canon.
the canon
by Bieler
it
is
very
source of
according to Cross and Hamer, the Canones Wallici, edited
is,
as part of the Irish penitentials, but considered
Welsh
early
The
text
(c.
by him to be an
550-650), which had perhaps been brought
tany and reshaped there.^^
/Elfric's
question of hair, and in this
is
point here
is
a wider
to Brit-
one than the
similar to another text that
he probably
knew, Alcuin's Letter to Ethelred, king of Northumbria (written in 793),
where Alcuin
says:
Considerate habitum, tonsuram, et mores principum et populi luxu-
Ecce tonsura quam in barbis
riosos.
uoluistis.
uoluistis?
mane
et in capillis paganis adsimilari
Nonne
illorum terror inminet quorum tonsuram habere Quid quoque inmoderatus uestimentorum usus ultra hu-
necessitatem nature, ultra antecessorum nostrorum consuetu-
dinem?^^
The
context here
is
of a pagan hairstyle
very like that of /^Ifric's is
rendered worse by
departure from old customs
is
its
pose a Latin larities
them
in his
letter. "^^ /^Ifric
and the
own hand;
they
way
to
com-
and the
simi-
as **an aid to training students in the proper
must have known them
too,
between the times of the two king Ethelreds would not have been
on him.^^ Another
lost
that the adoption
lamented. Wulfstan was very familiar with
Alcuin's letters and corrected a collection of
were also used
letter, in
link with an oppressor
possible influence
Pope Hadrian
known
to Wulfstan. This report complains:
^^
The
^'
Two Alcuin
Irish Penitentials,
the report of the papal leg-
the English synod of 786, another document
ates to
after
is
ed. L. Bieler, Scriptores Latini
Hibemiae
5 (Dublin, 1963), 7.
C. Chase, Toronto Medieval Latin Texts 5 (Toronto, 1975), 55; D. Whitelock points to the connection in her brief introduction to a translation of the middle section of the Letter to Brother Edward in her English Historical
Documents ^*
Two
1:
Letter Books, ed.
895.
Alcuin Letter Books, ed. Chase,
3.
Chase, 7-8, on how Wulfstan or an associate underlined and drew hands pointing to passages in Alcuin which had a particular aptness for his own time. On /Elfric's attitude to his own king, see M. Clayton, "/Elfric and /Cthelred," in Essays in Anglo-Saxon and Related Themes in Memory ofDr Lynne Grundy, ^^
ed.
J.
See,
Two Alcuin
Nelson and
J.
Letter Books, ed.
Roberts, King's College
London Medieval
Studies (London, 2000).
y^lfric's
Letter to Brother Edward
Vestimenta etiam tres vestri
vestra,
more
gentilium, quos,
de orbe armis expulerunt,
stupenda; ut
The Canons
27
quorum vitam semper
induitis:
odistis
Deo opitulante,
miranda
exempla
of Edgar or of Wulfstan do not specify
res, et
1
pa-
nimis
imitemini.'^^
what
particular hair-
is indicated, nor does Alcuin, but ^Ifric's "ableredum hneccan and ablendum eagum" seems much more specific. According to Gale OwenCrocker's authoritative survey of Anglo-Saxon dress, Anglo-Saxon men of
style
the tenth and eleventh centuries would usually have worn their hair short
and were commonly clean-shaven
or
had
closely cropped beards,
though
shown with moustaches and full beards."^ Manuscript not show anything resembling /Elfric's description. One source which does show something very like what is described in the Letter is, however, the Bayeux Tapestry, in which many of the Normans kings are generally
depictions of
^
men do
wear their hair shaved
at the
neck and up the back of their heads and pro-
truding out over their foreheads: "with bare necks and blinded eyes" describes very well the hairstyle depicted
on the
tapestry ."^^
of course, are not Danes and the Bayeux tapestry y^lfric,
but some
Normans may
is
The Normans,
considerably later than
well have assumed Danish styles because
of their ancestry and the fashion could have lasted for decades."^^ /Elfric's description seems too specific to be unrelated to contemporary conditions;
although he was probably following centuries-old prohibitions about hair-
^ Councils and Ecclesiastical Documents Relating to Great Britain and Ireland, ed. A. W. Haddan and W. ^*
Stubbs, 3 vols. (Oxford, 1869-1878), 3: 458.
G. Oweri'Crocker, Dress
in
Anglo-Saxon England (Manchester, 1986), 168-69.
See the comment by D. Wilson, The Bayeux Tapestry (London, 1985), 208: "There appears to be some attempt to differentiate English and Nonnan by providing the fonner with long thin moustaches and giving the latter a strange haircut which leaves them clean-shaven over the whole of the back of their heads, but neither treatment is universal. (It is not without interest that there is a remarkable consonance between the barenecked Normans of the Tapestry and a condemnatory description of Danish shaven necks in a late Old English letter.)" For examples of the hairstyle, see plates 9 and following in Wilson, The Bayeux Tapestry. I am grateful to Gale Owen-Crocker for pointing me in the direction of the Bayeux Tapestry. ^^
^^
See N. Brooks, "History and Myth, Forgery and Truth," in Anglo-Saxon Myths; and Church 400-1066 (London and Rio Grande, 2000), 1-19, here 2, who says diat: "By adopting this grotesque style the Normans were in fact proclaiming their Scandinavian 'roots'." State
.
.
.
MARY CLAYTON
272 Styles, therefore,
Memory
the particular fashion must have been a current
of Danish hairstyles as in
some way
athan Wilcox, writing of Wulfstan's response to the ere of
Danes
St. Brice's
Day massa-
in 1002, quotes a thirteenth-century chronicle attributed to
John of Wallingford which
made themselves manners and
one."^"^
distinctive lingered long; Jon-
"The Danes
gives as reason for the slaughter:
too acceptable to the English
their care of their person.
women
They combed
by their elegant
their hair daily
and
'"^^ took a bath every Saturday.
In ter to
its
passionate denunciation of those
Brother
homily dated
who
imitate the Danes, the Let-
Edward can be linked to Pope, Supplementary Homily c.
1009,
which
attacks those English
who go
14, a
over to the
Danes:
Swa
fela
manna gebugaS mid 3am gecorenum
to Cristes geleafan l^aet
hy sume
on
his
Gela5unge,
yfele eft ut abrecaS,
and hy on gedwyldum adreogaS heora swa swa
JDa
Engliscan
men do6
and mearciaS hy deofle and
his
weorc wyrcad,
t>e
to
lif,
dam Deniscan
gebugad,
to his mannraedene,
hym
sylfum to forwyrde,
and heora agene leode belaewaS to
deade."^^
^^ Hairstyles were regarded as a mark of ethnicity in the Middle Ages: see R. Bartlett, The Making of Europe: Conquest, Colonization and Cultural Change 950-1350 (Harmonds-
worth, 1993), 197-98,
who
quotes,
among
other instances, English legislation against the
adoption of Irish hairstyles by English settlers in Ireland ("the degenerate English of modem times who wear Irish clothes, have their heads half shaved and grow their hair long at the back"). See also idem, "Symbolic Meanings of Hair in the Middle Ages," Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 6th ser., 4 (1994): 43-60. In sixth-century Byzantium the hairstyle of violent youths was also long in back and shaved in front, derided as the
"Hunnic"
style:
A. Karpozilos and A. Kazhdau, "Hair,"
in Oxford Dictionary of Byzan-
(New York, 1891), 2: 899. Wilcox, "The St. Brice's Day Massacre and Archbishop Wulfstan,"
tium, 3 vols. ^' J.
in Peace and and the Renaissance, Arizona ed. D. Wolfthal (Tempe, 2000), 79-
Negotiation: Strategies for Coexistence in the Middle Ages
Studies in the Middle
Ages and the Renaissance
4,
91, here 83. ^^
Pope, Supplementary Homilies, 2: 521, lines 128-135. On /Elfric's attitude towards M. Godden, "Apocalypse and Invasion in Late Anglo-Saxon England,"
the Danes, see
in From Anglo-Saxon to Early Middle English. Studks Presented Godden, D. Gray, and T. Hoad (Oxford, 1994), 130-62.
to E.
G.
Stanley, ed.
M.
Letter to Brother Edward
y^lfric's
It
may be
fanciful to
273
connect the phrase "mearcia5 hy deofle" with the
kind of hairstyle attacked in the
Letter to Brother
Edwardy but Pope suggests
"gemearcod Gode," "marked
in his glossary that
for
God,"
in Pope, Sup-
may mean "tonsured", and, ii this is the case, devil" could mean something similar, a hairstyle
plementary Homily 19.209,
then "to mark
for the
Pope
identified with the heathen.
mark
servitude, to
or
The remarks on
who go
over to the Danes. Perhaps
when
the
monk
moribus
anglicis
I
it
Englishness in this passage of the letter were relevant
end of the twelfth century and into the
known
of Worcester
as
working. Opposite the second section of the
"De
of a man's allegiance or
fig.)
hair."*^
in another context at the
teenth
(lit.
(almost brand)," and the text certainly suggests some'
thing visible on the bodies of those
was their
"mearcian" in the passage
glosses
quoted above "with reference to signs
the Tremulous
letter,
thir-
Hand was
he put the comment
relictis.""^^
have not been able to find any
tion of the Letter, with
its
parallels or sources for the third see-
outrage at countrywomen and their parties; and
indeed this section, unlike the other two, which cite the Bible, canons,
and "bee," does not appeal
to any authority other than the oral. /Elfric
here depends on what he "gehyrde oft secgan" and he makes an uncharac-
"and
teristic leap to its truth:
to question
what
is
said
hit
and to
is
yfel so." It
is
far
more
usual for y^lfric
cite written authorities.'^^
He
is
reacting
here to a contemporary practice that alarms and disgusts him, and this pas-
some resemblance
sage bears
Monday, where ^Ifric
to
one
in the
CH
2 homily for Rogation
turns to the subject of intercourse with a pregnant
wife and says:
^^
In signalling a change of political allegiance by a change of hairstyle, the English
of /Elfric's time were not alone in the Middle Ages.
Spoleto surrendered to Pope Hadrian in the
Roman
85-98, here joy
all
I
When
the leaders of the
Duchy
of
(pope from 772 to 795), they had their hair cut
fashion (see E. James, "Bede and the Tonsure Question," Peritia 3 [1984]:
93);
and when
in
1333 the Irishman Dermot O'Dwyer was allowed "to en-
the liberties that the English have in Ireland," he had his hair cut in the English
fashion (Bartlett, "Symbolic Meanings of Hair in the Middle Ages," 46). **
See
in English ^'
W.
and the Worcester Tremulous Hand," Leeds
Studies
W. Busse, "Sua gad da lareowas beforan daem folce, 7 6aet Self-Understanding of the Reformers as Teachers in Late Tenth-Century
See the discussion by
folc aefter:
The
England," in 106.
Collier, "Englishness
26 (1995): 35-47, here 40.
Schriftlichkeit
im
friihen Mittelalter, ed.
U. Schaefer (Tubingen, 1993), 58-
MARY CLAYTON
274
"Ne 5e
laes
eow
Ne nan
saew5 nan yrdling. aenne aecer tuwa;
mid bearne.
wife genealaecan. siddan heo
be hi amyrron. heora gemaene
to gehyrenne. gif
we
wer ne
swaerlice
cild; I>is
is
sceal. his
gebunden
gaed.
swiSe hefigtyme.
hit forsuwian dorston.
ne saede we
hit
eow."50
Here there is the same reluctance to turn to a distasteful practice and an insistence on the necessity of addressing it, while acknowledging that the listener/reader will not
want
to dwell
on
it.
This section begins by talking about women, but continues by saying that
it is
he l)one
meox
ut fram
huru swa in
shameful that "aenig
mud
Old
ufan mid
man
mettum
swa unl)eawfaest beon sceole
J^aet
and on o6eme ende him gange
J^aet
aefre
afylle
and drince l^onne aegder ge
afylle his
English,
fracodan gyfernysse."
j^aet
"Man"
and the masculine pronouns
of course
are in agreement with
it is
hard to read this passage without thinking that
It is
possible that the practice
/Clfric
connects
The second and
it
refers also to
women and focuses
his disgust
first
and then
just "bro6or."
eac de, brodor Eadweard, nu 5u well be /Elfric's
own
on women.
me
The second
t>yses
is
called "broSor
part begins "Ic secge
baede," suggesting that this
may
this
was not
originally the beginning of
an
While Kluge assumed that the section on blood origin^ had nothing to do with the other two sections, which clearly belong
to the
same
come from
text.
text,
Pope
is, I
the text very
much
believe, right in suggesting that all three parts
The
only complete copy, in Hatton 115, presents
as a unit:
both the second and third sections begin in
a single text.
the middle of a
line,
marked only by the kind of coloured
are
numerous throughout the
the
first
two
sections, the
letter, similar to
'°
and
men.
continuation from the passage on eating blood; the
"eac" certainly indicates that independent ally
but
third parts of the Letter are of a very different nature,
and both seem to be addressed to the same person, who Eadweard"
it,
was both a male and a female one, but that
particularly with
it
\>2et he means "person"
ealu ge |)one stencg,
Godden,
apolis, 1999),
is
CCCC
178,
which
which has
marked only with a
capital
others in the text, and begins towards the end of a line,
CH 2,
Belief: Religious
text. Similarly, in
second section
initials
185, lines 181-185. Clare Lees discusses this passage in Tradition
Writing in Late Anglo-Saxon England, Medieval Cultures 19 (Minne-
135-36.
/€lfric'5
Letter to Brother Edward
not at the beginning of one. single text, then, as as if
it
Pope
were part of a
275
letter,
P)
would
also
titles in
have to be
had a
R
they cover only the
The
letter
modem hand
(and in a more
title.^^
which a
greeting with
initial
S and
editorial, as
a letter would not have
are dealing with a
which does not read
could have been the work of whoever adapted
the beginning and cut off at least the
would have begun. The
we
the case that
If it is
suggests, the first sentence,
first
section
in
and
piece edited by Pope as
**Wyrdwriteras" (Pope, Supplementary Homily 22), also found in Hatton
115 and part of the same group of short pieces alluded to above, ^^ simi'
seems to be an extract from a
larly
but
letter,
now
greeting.^^ All three sections probably, then,
also begins without
came from
any
a private letter
written in response to questions about the eating of blood and the adoption of Danish practices, a letter that /Elfric seems to have felt impelled to continue under the influence of the strong emotion aroused by a third
practice
which he
also regarded as disgusting.
We
know
that /Elfric kept
copies of such letters, as the First Latin Letter to Wulfstan, also a private letter
responding to a
series of questions,
MS
Bibliotheque Municipale himself assembled.
"^"^
is
preserved in Boulognc'sur-Mer,
63, a "copy of a collection
While these
which
/^Ifric
texts are private in the sense that they
are addressed to individuals, the fact that /Elfric evidently kept copies sug' gests that
he thought that they could have wider application; the second
section of the Letter to Edward begins
nu du me lice"
'*Ic
baede," but immediately continues
l)yses
and goes on
two sections *4n first
its
and third
P
(in a later
ge dod unriht-
desire to categorise
first
part
is
linked to the other
and assign boundaries" and that
parts are further linked in their ''concern for the sym^
bolic load of bodily secretions
^'
''J^aet
in the second person plural.
Nigel Barley points out, too, that the
the
secge eac 5e, brodor Eadweard,
and
processes. "^^
hand) and S have De sanguine;
other minor differences in
its
R
has
De
text, the original editorial title
The
practice of eating
sanguine prohibito.
As R has
was probably that in P and
S.
" See above, 266. " See Pope, Supplementary mentary Homilies, ^^ fries,
2:
Homilies,
1:
55 and
2:
725-26; the text
is
in Pope, Supple^
728-33.
See Clemoes, "Supplement
to the Introduction," cxxvii, in Die Hirtenhriefe
y^U
ed. Fehr.
" N. 23-24.
Barley,
"The Letter to Brother Edward,"
l^euphilobgische Mitteilungen
79 (1978):
MARY CLAYTON
276 would lead to the mixing of two
blocxl
and, as the seat of this
life
blood (which,
if
life-bloods,
human and
animal,
was considered to be the innermost blood, ingesting
the animal were killed in the correct fashion, would
be allowed to run out) would mix
life-forces; it offends therefore in its
mix-
ing of distinct categories, as well as going against the biblical injunctions.
The adoption
of Danish ways by Englishmen
and equally
gories
is
a similar confusion of cate-
offensive: just as the person
who
eats blood
must be
considered cut off from his people, as Leviticus 17:10 says, so the Eng-
lishman
who
confuses the cultural categories "Christian English" and
''heathen Danish" abandons his
own
people by this transgression.
ley points out, in the third section "dissolving the barrier
As
between
Bar-
inges-
tion and excretion blends oppositions such as inside/outside, top/bottom, before/after, form/formlessness, positive/negative."^^ All parts of the text,
therefore,
can be seen to be linked in their concerns and by the strong
feeling of disgust
which they evoke, and the
probability seems strong that
they belonged together from the beginning.
Against
which "at
this
argument
is
the mixture of ordinary and rhythmical prose,
suggests composition at different times, though
no time
after the
Pope points out that
invention of the rhythmical form does /Elfric seem
to have hesitated to insert a freshly composed rhythmical passage into an early
homily written in ordinary prose
lum to an ordinary prose admonition partly ordinary, partly rhythmical, in
I.
.
to attach a rhythmical exemp-
.],
[...],
or to include an early piece,
an otherwise consistently rhythmical
homily. "^^ All of these cases seem rather different from composing a ter in a
mixture of
sumably composed
styles,
but /Elfric's Old English Letter for Wulfsige, pre-
as a single piece,
is
also partly rhythmical
ordinary prose and so provides a parallel to the Letter
Some
of the texts in
CH 2
are similarly
mixed
to
moes
dates the Letter for Wulfsige
"The
fact that the letter it
among
"The
is
on the
and
in style, as are
basis of this
partly in
Brother Edward.
non-hagiographical pieces in Skeat's edition of the Lives of
not places
let-
some of the
Saints, ^^ Cle-
mixture of
styles:
written partly in a rhythmical style and partly
the works which /Elfric wrote soon after he finished
5*
Barley,
''
Pope, Supplementary HomiUes,
1:
117.
'*
Pope, Supplementary Homilies,
2:
113; Clemoes, "Chronology," 222.
Letter to Brother Edward," 23-24.
Letter to Brother Edward
j€lfric'5
277
the Second Series of Catholic Homilies in 992."^^
ond
until 1002, so the text
may
Godden
well be later than 992. If the mixture of styles
within a text can be used as a means of dating, then the Letter
The
dates the Sec-
and Wulfsige was bishop of Sherborne
Series to 995,^° however,
it
would suggest that
Edward was written around the second half of the 990s.
to
questions of
who
Brother Edward was, and of what kind his
we might
tionship to /^Ifric was, are, as
expect, difficult to answer.
rela-
Ac-
cording to the Dictionary of Old English, the term "brother" can be used of a blood relationship, as a term to designate a fellow-being,^^ or of a spiritual relationship, either as brothers
brothers.
Where
it is
with a proper name,
within the church or as monastic
used elsewhere in /Elfric as a form of address coupled as here in /Elfric's first address,
it
seems to be con-
fined to monastic brothers or fellow-priests, such as **bro5or
CH
2.11^^ or ''brodor deodole" in
However,
priest Theodolus).^^
it
maure"
in
CH
2.18 (Pope Alexander addressing the
does not seem from the Letter
Edward was a monk: the adoption of Danish
hairstyles
is
itself
that
seen as a betrayal
of ancestral English customs, not ecclesiastical ones; one would not expect a is
monk
have been in a position to adopt Danish fashions; and
to
mannum"
(though, depending
on how one
/Elfric's
other work does not support the notion that Edward
was simply a layman with
whom
he was in correspondence: elsewhere he
never addresses his lay patrons, or those other laymen to as ''brother," so
with Edward
as
it
mann, Homilien und on
the
whom
he wrote,
does not seem likely that he was on a similar footing
he was with,
Assmann, Homilien und Letter
may mid wimman-
interprets "oftor," y^lfric
be saying that he himself occasionally was "uppan lande
num"). Yet
^^Ifric
condoned any monk's being "uppan lande mid wim-
unlikely to have
Old and
say,
y^thelweard, Wulfgeat (the addressee of
Heiligenleben,
1),
Sigefyrd (the addressee of Ass-
Heiligenkhen, 2) or Sigeweard (the addressee of the
New
Testaments). In these letters or prefaces
he uses
'^
Clemoes in Die Hirtenbriefe j^lfrics, ed. Fehr, cxliv. See also P. Clemoes, "The Chronology of /Elfric's Works," in The Anglo'Saxons, Studies in Aspects of their History and Culture presented to Bruce Dickins, ed. idem (London, 1959), 212-47, here 222-23.
^ Godden, CH ^'
2, xciii.
In /Elfric's Life of Swithun, for example, Swithun addresses
"brodor": Elfric's Uves of Saints, ed. W.W. Skeat, 4 (Oxford, 1881-1900; repr. as 2 vols., 1966), 1: 462.
« Godden, CH " Godden, CH
2, 95,
11.
2, 178,
1.
97-98. 128.
vols.,
BETS
"sum o.s.
eald l>egn" as
76, 82, 94, 114
MARY CLAYTON
278
"leof" (to i^thelweard in the Preface to Genesis and to the Lives of Saints
and to Sigefyrd form of
Assmann
in
address.^"^ If
2)
or "leof
Edward was neither
a
man" (Letter to Sigeweard) as a monk nor one of y^lfric's usual
lay correspondents, that leaves the possibility of Edward's being either a
secular priest or /Elfric's
own
sibling: if
Edward were a
priest,
one might
expect this to be mentioned, especially in connection with the Danish
fas-
hions, y^lfric's pastoral letters address the topic of the dress appropriate to
was evidently something that concerned him. That Edward
priests, ^^ so it
was a
lay person
is
suggested by the strictures
was evidently someone
whom
y^lfric
about being ashamed, the Letter
than anything ent.
Although
by him, and
else
/^Ifric
me
dress
and customs, and he
well: despite the protestations
very frank and addresses a topic cruder
this suggests a familiarity
seems to dissociate himself from a
with Edward by saying that forlaetad t>e
is
knew
on
'*ge
do3 unrihtlice
t>aet
with the
common
recipi-
ancestry
ge 3a Engliscan t>eawas
eowre faederas heoldon," nevertheless
not seem to
this does
had the same parents.
to be compelling evidence against their having
In becoming a monk, /Elfric has distanced himself from those ancestral English customs and ways, so
second person letter
may
*
plural,
it is
understandable that he should use the
'eowre faederas," rather than the
well, then,
be the only remaining evidence of
munications with members of his
own
family.
me
that
all
In conclusion, fric,
seems to
it
this text, but
presumably
had been going on
^
Old
belongs to the period
when
for the date of
the Danish attacks
then from the second
little later.
English Version of the Heptauuch, ed. Crawford, 76; /^Ifric's Lives of Saints, ed.
1: 4;
Angelsdchsische Homilien
und
Heiligenlehen, ed.
Assmann,
13;
Old English Ver^
sion of the Heptateuch, ed. Crawford, 74. am blode
nytenes lif. Swa metum synd aly^ fede,^^ ageote heora blod on 3a^^ eor5an and swa hwa swa t>aes blodes hent and him to mete macad^^ he losa6 of his folce." Eft we raedad on lenda,^°
aelSeodig, fort>an de
hwa swa fehd
fugel
canonibus
nan nyten
t>aet
oSde deor,
J^e
to
mete
incunde blod 5e anbutan^"^
l^aet
sumum
geblodegod on
swadeah to astorfenum
J^aera
lime and
J^aet
liflice
nu
h\i
geswuteliad
by hter hand
l^aet
in
claenlice acweald,
ut yrne.
is
lufiaci, t>e
eow
t>e
Her
^*
R, S;
^^
nytena
'°
P; inlende
^'
P, S; gesette
'^
da om. S
.
.
.
P
margin P;
{this
S
6aes lifes
"^^
P;
andK and alyfede
abutan S,
R
75
P, R; t)eah \>e hit
'^
S
7'
P;
'8
P; haebera
finishes here
eower
in capitab
R R
P
emendation was suggested by Kluge)
" ded R S
t>aet
ge dod un'
ne unnon, and mid
DE SANGUINE in red S; DE SANGUINE PROHIBITO
margin with signe de renvoie P
in
beo
ge forseoS eower cynn and eowre yldran mid
6ysum] rubricated and
l)aere
buton
hit^^
eowre^^ faederas heoldon
R ^'
Peah
blod ut ne yrne, hit byd
me t>yses baede,
6a Engliscan t>eawas forlaetad
and haedenra^® manna t>eawas
^
ne by6
heortan
to
geteald.^^
Ic secge eac 5e, bro5or Eadweard, rihtlice l^aet ge
dam
mannum
J^e
sceal
j^aere
is J^aes
R
Letter to Brother Edward
j€lfric's
281
Translation It is
revealed here in this writing
eat the blood of each species.
how
God
God forbade mankind Noah after the great flood:
almighty
said to
to **I
give you the fish of the sea and the beasts of the earth as your food,
provided that you do not eat their blood. Truly of the beasts at your hands and
man who
the
is
Egypt.
Do
Whoever
slain.
God
shed." Likewise
shall require
sheds
said to Moses:
**I
human
am
I
shall require the
from
blood
his slayer the life of
blood, his blood shall be
your
God who
led
you out of
not eat the blood of any beast or of birds or other animals for
your food. Every person
he be a native or a
Whoever
I
who
eats blood shall
be
lost to his people,
stranger, because the beast's
life
is
whether
in the blood.
catches a bird or a wild animal, of those which are permitted to
people as food,
let
takes of the blood
him pour out
and
eats
it
will
their blood
be
on the earth and whoever
lost to his
people." Likewise
we
read
in the canons that no beast which is intended as food is killed in a pure fashion unless the internal blood, which is about the heart, run out. Even if it
be made bloody in some member and the
nevertheless I
it is
wrong
fathers observed
give
life
to you
blood not run out,
considered to have died.
also say to you, brother Edward,
that you do
vital
in that you
now
that you have asked
me for this,
abandon the English customs which your
and love the customs of the heathen people who did not and by doing so you reveal that you despise your kindred
282 J)am unt>eawum
/
him on teonan
t>onne ge
Ne
leredum hneccan and ablendum eagum. sceandlican tyslunge^^ buton
mod l)ad
MARY CLAYTON
^__
t>e
haeSenra
mid
J^am.^^
Ic bidde eac
num
manna
J)e,
\>det \)u
drincan and ac hit
man
is
etan
is
my eel
\>?et
sceole etan
nan
ealu ge j^one stencg,
ne maeg
for
sceame
on gange, swa
manna
daera
fiillice
t>aet
t)aet
t'a
Jjaet
beo amansu-
se
{^aet
agen cynn unwui'
his
du
J)earle t>aet ic hit
higeleast
mare embe da
uppan lande mid wimmanfor
sceame swa^
secge 6e. Ic hit
uplendiscan wif wyllad oft
on gangsetlum
and on oderne ende him gange
aegder ge
byst
na^°
J)ing secge, gif
yfel sod, t>aet t>as
fullice^"^
ic
and
his life
\)u
him an
swa unt>eawfaest beon sceole
fernysse. Ic
ded^^
fiirjjon
bysmorlic daed and
aefre
afylle
on
him secgan maege; me sceamaS
gehyrde oft secgan, and hit
secge
us secgad bee
broSor, forJ)am 5e
oftor J^onne ic beo,
jDeah hit
t>aet^^
{)eawas hylt
eow^^ on Denisc, ab-
tysliad
heora gebeorscipum,
aet
and huxlic bysmor
he l^one
meox
ut fram
he huru swa
aenig
and drince j^onne
afylle his
sceandlican daede,
secgan swa hit
t>aet
mud ufan mid mettum
fiillic is,
t)aet
ac
fracodan gyaenig
t>aet
mann
naefre
ne
de deah.
R *°
A
»i
P; tyslinga
®^ ®^
later
iDaet
R
hand seems
om.
to
have added a contraction mark or a u over
R
ends here hut part of a
line
be deciphered
^ *^
first
1
-a.
R
seems
to
be erased
Kluge prints nedeS
P
has been erased: Ic bidde eac
]pt
hro^poT can just about
y€lfric'5
Letter to Brother Edward
and your ancestors by such in
evil
283
customs
when you
Danish fashion, with bared necks and blinded
about this shameful dress except that books
who own I
to
eyes.
I
us that
practises the customs of heathen people in his
life
will say
he
will
be cursed
and dishonours
his
kindred in the process. also ask you, brother, since
often than it
tell
them no more
dress in insult to
1
am, that you say one thing to them,
them on account
often heard
you are up country with
it
said,
and
of shame; it is
an
am
I
if,
women more
however, you can say
very ashamed to say
evil truth, that
country
it
women
to you.
drink and even eat foully on their privies at their beer parties, but
shameful deed and a great
folly
I
will often it is
a
and a contemptible disgrace that people
should ever be so dissolute that they should
fill
their
mouths from above
with foods and at the other end the excrement should come out of them
and that they should drink both the indeed
satisfy their vile gluttony.
ale
On
and the stench so that they may
account of shame
I
cannot
tell
the
shameful deed, that any person should eat on the privy, in as foul a manner as
it is
foul,
but no person
who
is
virtuous ever does this.
JONATHAN WILCOX
The Transmission
of
^Ifric's Letter to Sigefyrth
and the Mutilation of
MS
Cotton Vespasian D. xiv
THE MATERIAL TRANSMISSION OF Anglo-Saxon
homilies has been investi-
gated widely in recent years, not least in the works of Donald Scragg,
whose "Corpus of Vernacular Homilies" mapped the terrain of anonymous homiletic manuscripts, whose ''Corpus of Anonymous Lives" promises to do the same for saints' lives, and whose "Napier's "Wulfstan" Homily
XXX"
shows what can be learned from pursuing one particularly
esting homily in detail.^
Such work
tention to a single manuscript Vercelli
'
Book and the
inter-
often involves giving considered at-
as, for
example, in Scragg's studies of the
Blickling Manuscript.^ Occasionally such study
Respectively: D. G. Scragg,
"The Corpus
of Vernacular Homilies and Prose Saints'
ASE
8 (1979): 223-77; "The Corpus of Anonymous Lives and Their Manuscript Context," in Holy Men and Holy Women: Old English Prose Saints' lives and Their Contexts, ed. Paul E. Szannach (Albany, 1996), 209-30; and "Napier's 'WulfLives Before /Elfric,"
Stan'
Homily XXX:
Its
Sources,
Its
Relationship to the Vercelli
Book and
Its
Style,"
ASE
6(1977): 197-211. 2 D. G. Scragg, "Tlie Compilation of the Vercelli Book," ASE and "The Homilies of the Blickling Manuscript," in Learning and
Saxon England: Studies Presented (Cambridge, 1985), 299-316.
to
Peter Clemoes
on
the
2 (1973):
189-207;
Literature in AngUy-
Occasion of his Sixty-Fifth Birthday
JONATHAN WILCOX
286 work of the
necessitates attention to the
period
who
antiquaries of the early
modern
played a key role in the recovery of Anglo-Saxon texts
example, in Scragg's work on the Casley transcript of The
honour of Donald Scragg,
don,^ In the present essay in
as, for
plan to pursue
I
these various strands to investigate the transmission of one homiletic
with an interesting history, a tract on virginity by
both a
letter
cifically
(Assmann
fric's Letter to Sigefyrth
xiv
11)."^
argument about London,
cological
which
work
/Elfric that served as
and a homily, which has to date been mostly neglected. Spe-
will look at the transmission, adaptation,
I
Mai-
Battle of
me
will lead
and suppression of
In the process
British Library,
I
/El-
will pursue a codi-
Cotton Vespasian D.
and ideology of
to consider the working practice
the sixteenth-century and seventeenth-century users and owners of that manuscript. ^Ifric describes the purpose and context of his Letter informative brief preface that
is
worth quoting in
y^lfric
abbod gret SigefyrS freondlice.
be me,
JDaet ic
taehd, for l^an
alefed, t>aet maessepreostas
wi5cwe6e6
xiv]
ac
lare, t>e se
[Abbot
me
Nu
J^ysen.
len aegne Codes
D.
we
freond, gyf
^
saedest
t)aet Jdu
taehte.
l^e,
leofe
he Codes
Seo
me
and your anchorite
larfe
that at
it is
my writings oppose me to reproach
hateful to
Donald Scragg, "The
Battle
hit seo
t>aet
man,
t>aet
me
is
lab to tae-
MS
riht drif5, [end of
sculen secgen, and forswigigen ne durron,
Haelend
cause he clearly says that
is
gesaed
he swutelice saegS
Ipe
Vesp.
halgen
J^a
maejig ea5e unc emlice semen.^
/Elfric greets Sigefyrth in a friendly
marry and
full:
wel moten wifigen, and mine gewriten
secge ic
that you said about
writings
is
an
o6er taehte on ^ngliscen gewriten, o5er eower ancor
ham mid eow
aet
Me
to Sigefyrth in
I
manner.
teach one thing in
home with you
It is
told to
my
English
teaches another, be-
permitted that mass-priests this.
Now
I
tell
you, dear
any friend of God,
o/MaWon,"
in
The
Battle
if
may
sir,
well
that
it
he promotes
ofMaldon, A.D. 99J, ed. idem
(Oxford, 1991), 2-36. ^ Bnino Assmann, ed., Angelsdchsische Homilien und HeiUgenkhen, Bibliothek der angelsachsischen Prosa 3 (Kassel, 1889; repr. with a suppl. intro. by Peter Clemoes, Darm-
stadt, 1964). '
homily
II,
13-23.
/^Ifric's Prefaces, ed.
Jonathan Wilcox, Durham Medieval Texts (Durham, 1994), my own.
Preface 8d (125). All translations are
Letter to Sigefyrth
y€lfric'5
God's
right,
we must
but
287 and we do not dare
tell
to keep silent the
holy learning which the Lord taught. That learning concile the two of
may
easily re-
us.]
In this preface, /^Ifric crafts a careful rhetorical performance, evident as
can be seen in
his choice of pronouns. After the formality of the third'per-
son epistolary salutation
chime against
and
]?u
and eow.^ Lest the the apposition
and
dialectic
leofe
which ^Ifric balances Sigefyrth), me and ic (the more formal? or strictly plural?) eower
(in
/)e,
man. As
authority of the homiletic
become too confrontational, l>e is qualified by y^lfric warms to his theme he switches to the person plural pronoun (we sculen secgen, and
first
forswigigen ne durron), before trumping
personal one {Seo
lare mceig
.
.
.),
even that voice with a gnomic im-
with which flourish he can bring together
himself and his erstwhile adversary in the Old English dual pronoun (unc).
The ties.
rhetoric of those pronouns enacts a struggle
On the one
hand
is
is
person writer,
between two authori-
His appeal to his
aligned with Sigefyrth,
tained by speech.^
him on
The
his estate,
is
/^Ifric's clear
and
The
On
the other
Sigefyrth's anchorite, apparently
and putting forth
oder/oder that these
tion of clerical marriage.
two
his case orally
authorities clash over
rhetorical care of this preface
is is
main-
through
the ques-
motivated
forceful position against clerical marriage, a position
which he puts forward elsewhere,
^
with his rank
/^Ifric abbod,
characteristic of a claim evident throughout his works. ^
side,
by
first
who aligns himself with l>a halgen hre, f)e se Hczlend own name and his body of authoritative writings
prominently signalled, tcehte.
the
These are probably
plural:
1985), § 253, remarks that
as in
CH 2,
39.^
It is
therefore ironic in
Bruce Mitchell, Old English Syntax, 2 vols. (Oxford, lacks any clear instances of the plural pronoun
Old English
of reverence or rank.
On this aspect of his work, see Wilcox, /Elfric's Prefaces, 65-7 L On anchorites, see Ann K. Warren, Anchorites and Their Patrons in Medieval Englarui (Berkeley, 1985), whose informative study begins after the Old English period. On this ^
®
on /Elfric's recurring preference for coenobitic monasticism over the hereMary Clayton, "Hermits and the Contemplative Life in Anglo-Saxon EngHoly Men and Holy Women, ed. Szarmach, 147-75.
reference and mitical, see
land," in ^
Godden,
CH 2,
327-34. Note
also the statements in y^lfric's pastoral letters, writ-
Old English
ten to control the conduct of
priests, i.e.,
the
Wulfsige, §§ 13-23, or the First
Old English
Pastoral Letter for
Pastoral Letter for Bishop
Archbishop Wulfstan, §§ 77-98: ed. Dorothy Whitelock, Councils and Synods 1.1 (871-1066) (Oxford, 1981), 198200, 277-81. The rhetoric may be the more forceful in light of his observation, echoing
JONATHAN WILCOX
288 the extreme that the foregoing preface should
first
see notice in print in
the context of a sixteen th'century polemic in favour of clerical marriage,
an irony with implications that
will
be explored further in
Following this preface once stood the Letter
and a polemic against
ginity in general
to Sigefyrth,
John the he
Christ,
acteristically
holy orders.
on
vir-
through the examples of
Baptist,
and the
stresses
the difference between the current dispensation
and that under Mosaic to have wives
a tract
marriage in particular.
clerical
/Elfric emphasizes the significance of virginity
this essay.
law,
apostles after they followed Christ. Char-
when
it
was
essential for leaders of the faith
and children since only the family of Aaron could enter
He
cites various biblical injunctions in favour of virginity,
reads the parable of the fruits (Matthew 13:3-23,
Mark
4:3-32) as describ-
ing the relative virtues of the truly married, widows, and virgins, and finally cites
monks
approvingly the celibate examples of good virgin bishops and
(Martin, Gregory, Augustine, Basil, and Cuthbert by name), of
gin mass-priests (Bede, Jerome, and
many
others),
vir-
and of the wise desert
fathers.
Presumably /Elfric considered such marshalling of authority strong
enough
to refute Sigefyrth's anchorite.
Such, at any
rate,
was the probable form of the
ace. It survives in this brary,
form into modern times only in London, British
Li-
where most of the preface
re-
Cotton Vespasian D.
xiv, of
s. xii™^*^,
mains extant, but from which the following title
in the manuscript points
"Emb
Claennysse
chastity Sigefyrth,
is
an
up
tract has
gone missing. The
clearly the polemical nature of the work:
gehadede maen healden scylen" (''Concerning the
t>e
which men
tract following the pref-
in orders should keep").
editorial inference based
The modern
on the
manuscript and the problem posed by the
preface.
I
title. Letter to
will return to this
loss of its text after
considering
the other witnesses to the work.
For preservation of the
tract,
it is
fortunate that the complete item
from Vespasian D. xiv was transcribed in the sixteenth century by
John
Joscelyn (1529-1603), the Latin secretary (and Anglo-Saxon scholar) of
Archbishop Parker, into Vitellius
D.
Paul in
Corinthians 7:25,
1
vii,
his collection,
at fols. 10r-12r.
claennysse healdan" (First
The
London, British Library, Cotton
transcript
was part of the fourth item
"We ne magan eow neadian, OE Pastoral Letter for Wulfstan,
ac
we myngiad eow
j^aet
§85; trans Whitelock,
cannot compel you, but we exhort you that you maintain chastity," 279).
ge
"We
Letter to Sigefyrth
y€lfric'5
in the collection, in ters.^°
ton all
289
which Joscelyn gathered a number of
y^lfric's let'
Unfortunately that transcript was badly damaged in the 1731 Cot' the pages are
fire:
four sides.
now blackened and shrunken with
Enough
survives,
text missing from
however, to recover the
transcribed into Assmann's apparatus
criticus.
tract, carefully
In any case the tract survives
in other forms: y^lfric himself apparently thought the letter powerful
enough
A
to re-use
it.
homiletic reworking of the letter by /Elfric himself survives in Lon-
don, British Library, Cotton Vitellius C. addition written in the
first
v, fols.
182v-184v, where
it is
an
half of the eleventh century to the First Series
Catholic Homilies in that manuscript, serving as the third of three homilies for the
assumption of the Virgin Mary. By chance,
was singed in the
fire
of 1731 with the loss of
enough survives to recover the work, which this version there
is
no
this manuscript, too,
some
text,^^
transcribed by
is
but again
Assmann. In
preface embedding the tract in a particular set of
circumstances; instead, /^Ifric has generalized his letter by augmenting
it
with material on chastity aimed at a broad audience. For example, he ad-
monishes a young layman to remain chaste until marriage
maiden he wishes
to marry;
from enjoying
stain
dren.
^^
A
men
and
/Elfric's
/Elfric's responsibility for
women
on the
talents
just like
the
past childbearing age to ab-
since the purpose of sex
substantial ending
used from the end of
for
is
for bearing chil-
and on the beatitudes
homily on the Virgin Mary, Assmann
the adaptation in Vitellius C. v
is
is
re-
III.^^
evident in
See Thomas Smith, Catalogus Ubrcfrum manuscriptorum BibUotheccB Cottoniance (Ox91-92. The item numbers as listed by Smith are recorded in pencil on repair strips of the recovered manuscript. Humfrey Wanley, Antiquce Uteraturce septentrionaUs Uber alter. Librorum Vett. Septentrionalium qui in Anglice Bibliothecis extant Catabgus His-' torico-Criticus (Oxford, 1705), 239-40 describes the first items in more detail and so describes this as the seventh item. A fuller account of the contents is provided by Judith Sanders Gale, "John Joscelyn's Notebook: A Study of the Contents and Sources of B.L. Cotton MS Vitellius D. vii," M.Phil, diss., University of Nottingham, 1978 (unseen by '°
ford, 1696),
.
.
.
me). ^'
See Ker, Catabgue, no. 220 (285-91).
'2
Assmann
*^
On
this
II,
lines
147-152, 157-161,
homily aimed
at
cf.
also lines
monks and nuns,
see
132-137.
Mary Clayton,
"/^Ifric
and the
Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary," AngUa 104 (1986): 286-315, who shows how /Elfric almost entirely avoids his expressed subject the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin
Mary
—
—
instead providing another discussion of virginity based largely
sancta uirginitate.
on Augustine's De
JONATHAN WILCOX
290 that the added material
is
material in the adaptation. ^"^
away from
phasis
general homily,
suggested by
is
The
y^lfiric's
changes
result of the
re-use of existing is
emmore
to shift the
a polemical tract against clerical marriage into a
"De Sancta
The
in his distinctive rhythmical prose.
all
priority of the version as letter
Uirginitate. uel de tribus ordinibus castitatis"
C 'Concerning Holy Virginity, or concerning the three orders of chastity") as the rubric has it, aimed at a monastic, clerical, and secular audience of
both
sexes.
Contemporary popularity of the homiletic adaptation, perhaps not scripts, s.
London, British
Library,
tract
went
made by
further. It recurs in another
/Elfric, surviving in
Cotton Faustina A.
ix, fols.
two manu-
17v-21v, of
and Cambridge, Corpus Christi College 302, pp. 66-71, of s. xi/ Here the tract is pared down, lacking both the preface and the au-
xii^
xii.^^
dience addresses, reduced to a piece of general edification on chastity good for
any occasion and used in these manuscripts
for
two
different
Sundays
following Epiphany.
This tract on
virginity, then,
had
significant appeal in the late
Old
English period. /Elfric's polemic against clerical marriage circulated in four
manuscripts in three different forms. misfortunes in
D. xiv and the
its
It is
a
work that happened
subsequent transmission with
partial
its
burning of Vitellius C. v and Vitellius D.
most of that depredation was the
result of
chance, the
D. xiv of the most pointedly polemical version of the plaining. Solving the
enigma of that
to suffer
excision from Vespasian
loss
vii.
While
from Vespasian
tract
still
loss requires a closer
needs ex-
look at the
make-up and use of the manuscript, at the evidence of early foliations and catalogues, and at the ideological environment of the antiquarian rediscovery of
Old
English.
Cotton Vespasian D. xiv
is
currently a composite manuscript. Part
one
comprises an Old English homiletic collection from the middle of the twelfth century, written at Canterbury or Rochester, mostly
combined
collection of the
two
two comprises a copy of Isidore's
drawn from a
series of ^Ifric's Catholic Homilies; part
Liher
synonymorum perhaps made
in Italy
authorship and the priority of the letter is recognized by Assmann, Homiand by Clemoes, "Supplementary Introduction," xvii, who, however, sees no evidence for whether y^lfric or someone else incorporated the ending from Assmann III. ^^ Clemoes doubts /Elfric's authorship in view of the manuscript context of nony^lfrician additions to a mainly /Elfric collection: "Supplementary Introduction," xvii. '^
/Elfiric's
Uen, 248,
Letter to Sigefyrth
j^lfric's
in the ninth century it
291
which had
England by A.D. 912, where
travelled to
The two
received additions including a dating formula. ^^
joined at an
The
unknown
date before the
Letter to Sigefyrth was, at
one
homiletic manuscript, although
catalogue of 1621.^^
second item in part one, the
stage, the
was added there
after
the
That manuscript once began with what
tion of that part.
Old English
item, the
it
Cotton
first
'*Distichs of
were
parts
Cato", which open
is
first
organiza^
now
the third
after a cancelled
(blank?) page at the beginning of the third quire with the decorative pat-
tern of an emphatic visual flourish. ^^ Medieval quire signatures surviving later in the
ent
when
manuscript demonstrate that the
the signatures were recorded:
the end of what
119v
(at
foot of if
is
now
129v
(at
is
now
were not
pres-
103v
(at
the foot of
fol.
the fifteenth quire) and
".xiiii." at
the
the end of what
is
now
the foot of
fol.
the sixteenth quire) tally only
the second of those two added quires which first
quires
*'.xiii." at
the manuscript at the time began with what
These
two
**xi" at
the thirteenth quire),
the end of what
fol.
first
is
is
now
the third quire.
It is
of interest here.
two quires contain two items written in what Ker consid-
ered to be the hand of the main scribe writing later than in the bulk of
the manuscript. ^^
First
on the Creation (CH
the scribe added an excerpt from y^lfric's homily I
1)
on
4v-6v,^° where the story ends rather
fols.
See Ker, Catalogue, nos. 209 and 210, and my description of no. 245 in AngloSaxon Manuscripts in Microfiche Facsimile: Volume 8: Wulfstan Texts and Other Homiletic Materials, ed. A. N. Doane and Phillip Pulsiano (Tempe, AZ, 2000). '^
''
London,
British Library, Harley 6018. Viktor Schmetterer, Drei altengUsche
Texte aus der Handschrift Cotton Vespasianus
reU^se
D XIV, Dissertationen der Universitat Wien
150 (Vienna, 1981), suggests that the parts were not joined by about 1560, when Laurence Nowell made heavy use of the first part for his Dictionary without showmg any
knowledge of the second
part, but the inference is unreliable. Marks of Nowell's use are confined to the middle of the first part, while the Latin material of the second part
would have been of little use
for his dictionary
making and
so
would be unlikely
to
have
received his annotations. ^» Ed. R. S. Cox, "The Old English Distichs of Cato." Anglia 90 (1972): 1-42. The heading begins with an enlarged decorated initial in green with red decoration five lines high, while the text begins with an enlarged N, decorated, and written in red. This is similar to the decoration of most items in the manuscript but is more emphatic than the opening two items. The cancelled leaf is suggested by the artangement of hair and flesh in the present Quire III (fols. 7-15), which has the norm of hair outermost if both fol. 15 and its missing conjugate were once present.
M
'^
"Art.
ent style of ^°
The
1
(fols.
is in a somewhat main hand": Catabgue, 271.
4v-6v), although perhaps in the main hand,
script; art. 2 (fol. 6v)
recto of the
is
certainly in the
first folio, fol. 4r,
was originally
left
differ-
blank but was subsequently
JONATHAN WILCOX
292
prematurely with Adam's appointment to paradise and abrupt expulsion.^^
The
ending
faulty
from a deficient exemplar rather than
results
since the homily ends mid-page with the usual signs of comple-
from
loss,
tion,
namely a point and
a blank line, filled with the following rubric.
This homily occupies an opening short quire of a bifolium in a
book made up otherwise of
4-5) with-
(fols.
quires of eight or ten.^^ Perhaps a short
quire was supplied intentionally for this abbreviated item although, after
the blank opening page,
and to
it
overruns this quire by a page and a half
Sigefyrth
on
end of the there
is
fol. 7,
breaking off at the end of the page just short of the
loss,
preface. Fol. 6
**3"
jumps from
now
is
a single folio constituting a quire, but
once began a quire of eight. An older ink on what is now fol. 6 to "11" on what is now
clear evidence that
foliation
6r
14-22, This also ends abruptly, this time
6v, lines
fol.
through physical
(fol.
item comes the preface to the Letter
6v, lines 1-14). After this initial
it
indicating that seven folios have gone missing.
The
absent seven leaves or fourteen pages would have included the rest
of /Elfric's Letter
which
to Sigefyrth,
or so,^^ plus a frirther text or texts six or so pages.
The
likely
now
Letter to Sigefyrth
occupied a
completely
and whatever
pages
frirther eight
lost
on the remaining
text(s)
followed
it
have
been removed from Vespasian D. xiv by dismantling the second quire and removing seven of it
carries of
that the
CH
its
1.
I
removed
leaves.
text
fol.
6 was
left
on account
of
what
must have lacked the bulk of the preface and have
with two Latin prayers in a
filled
Presumably
All the same, the removal was careless to the extent
late twelfth-century
hand with feminine forms which
suggest the manuscript was then in female ownership.
CH
^^ Clemoes, 1, 178-81, lines 1-70. The addition at line 70 was surely made to blunt the abruptness of the ending; another addition at line 45 is harder to explain.
^^
Collation of the medieval leaves in the
I^ (fols. 4-5), Il^wants
IXIO
(fols.
58-67),
X^
2-8
(fols.
(fol.
68-75),
87-94), XlII^+l leaf added after 8
120-129), XVII-XXI^
(fols.
6).
first
Illl^wants
XI^^+l
(fols.
leaf
95-103),
1
part of Vespasian D. xiv (fols.
added
7-15), IV-VIIl^ after
XIV-XV^
10
(fols.
(fols.
is
as follows:
(fols.
16-57),
76-86), XII^
(fols.
XVl^^
(fols.
104-119),
130-169).
eight surviving manuscript lines provide nine printed lines of Assmann's edicomplete manuscript page of 22 lines would have contained almost 25 printed lines and the complete remaining text (225 printed lines total, less 17 from Vitellius C. V only and 9 already written =199 printed lines) would fill about eight frirther pages. The sum is approximate in view of variations in manuscript spacing and in the length of printed lines, amplified by Assmann's choice to represent /Elfric's rhythmical prose in separate lines, but is surely right within a page or two. ^^
The
tion, so a
y€lfric'5
begun
Letter to Sigefyrth
293
in mid-flow, while that preface
following body,
on
allowed to remain,
is
For seeking to identify
who removed
these pages,
Vespasian D. xiv passed through the hands of
Saxon (c.
scholars of the sixteenth
lacking a
many
and seventeenth
significant that
it is
of the leading Anglo-
centuries. Robert Talbot
1505-1558), Anglo-Saxon scholar and sometime chaplain to
Cranmer (archbishop throughout Part ell
now
6v.
fol.
(1530-c. 1570),
owned the
possibly
who worked
(Elizabeth's Secretary of State)
1567, ii^^derlined
made marginal
notes
manuscript.^"^ Laurence
Now-
of Canterbury 1533-1553),
and
1,
Thomas
in the household of Sir
William Cecil
from 1562 until he departed England in
many words on
fols.
52r-142v, which he subsequently
copied into his Vocabularium, along with adding some glosses.^^ His tions
29r-v.^^ Part
work
cita-
from Vespasian D. xiv survive in London, Lambeth Palace, 692, 1
is
also annotated in the
hand of John
in transcribing the Letter to Sigefyrth has already
fol.
Joscelyn, whose
been described. In
addition to these interventions, Joscelyn also transcribed the whole of the preface of the Letter to Sigefyrth from Vespasian D. xiv into the side and
lower margin of Faustina A.
ix, fol.
17v, thereby improving the version of
the Letter contained in that manuscript.^^ In the early seventeenth century, list
Richard James (1592-1638), Cotton's librarian (1625-1638), made a
of the contents of both parts of Vespasian D. xiv
on
fol. 2r,^^
which
corresponds closely to the description of the manuscript in the Cotton catalogue of 1631-1638, London, British Library, Add. 36789, at
^^
script
John Bale is
attributes to his possession a
copy of
/Elfric's
the likely candidate: see Timothy Graham, "Early
homilies and this manu'
Modem Users of Claudius
B.
The Old English Hexateuch: Aspects and ApproacheSf ed. Rebecca Bamhouse and Benjamin C. Withers (Kalamazoo, 2000), 258-59. iv:
Robert Talbot and William
fols.
^^
His activity
is
listed
L'Isle," in
by Schmetterer, Drei
altenglische religidse Texte,
9-17. See,
further, n. 17 above. ^^ Timothy Graham, "The Beginnings of Old English Studies: Evidence from the Manuscripts of Matthew Parker," in Back to the Manuscripts: Papers from the Symposium "The Integrated Approach to Manuscript Studies: A Neu/ Horizon," Tokyo, December 1992,
ed. Shuji Sato (Tokyo, 1997), 29-50, here 40, n. 33.
"
See Ker, Catalogue, 190.
^®
Hand and
layout of the table are like the example by Richard James reproduced in
Colin G. C. Tite, "Lost or Stolen or Strayed:
A Survey of Manuscripts Formerly
in the
Cotton Library," Britbh Library Journal 18 (1992): 107-47 as fig. 4 (133). The identification is made by Max Forster, "Der Inhalt der altenglischen Handschrifr Vespasianus D. XIV," Englische Studien 54 (1920): 46-68, here 46-47.
JONATHAN WILCOX
294 161v-162r.^^ Another
list
of contents, on
in the
fol. 3r, is
hand of a con'
temporary unidentified scribe frequently employed by the Cottons;^°
this
list
corresponds closely to the Cotton catalogue of 1621 in Harley 6018, at
fol.
54r. Sir
Robert Cotton himself (1571-1631) probably wrote the head'
Sermonum
**Opus
ing,
/Elfrici abbatis",
on
fol.
4r.^^
The manuscript
passed with the rest of his collection to Robert Cotton's son and grandson,
then to public ownership ultimately to reside in the newly-founded British
Museum. It was described in the 1696 catalogue of Thomas Smith and in more detail in the 1705 catalogue of Humfrey Wanley, who was the first to record the absence of the bulk of /Elfric's Letter to Sigefyrth.^^
Many
of these early owners were interested in /^Ifric's tract
celibacy. Joscelyn's interest
is
clearly indicated
on
clerical
by his transcription both of
the whole piece and of the preface. Joscelyn's employer, Matthew Parker,
was
also interested in the tract,
which
finds a place in the introduction to
his Testimonie of Antiquitie described below. lish piece
mentioned by name 6v
2r.^^ Fol.
comments
in
itself,
two
tract
is
the
the surviving page of the
Thomas Smith's 1696
|
first
Old Engon fol.
received marginal
tract,
different hands. Besides the rubric in the
ten in ink "Tractatus de in
The
in Richard James's table of contents
sacerdotis C3eli|batu",
margin
is
writ-
which matches the entry
catalogue. In lighter ink a
more shaky hand has
added a note calling attention to ^Ifric's self-naming and authorship of this preface, obtrusively written over the decorative
At
text.
the foot of the page perhaps the same hand adds a note pointing
out that this
The
^^
/E and some of the
is
a tract against priestly marriage.
issue of clerical marriage
This catalogue
was of particular
may have been made
in
interest in the charged
1631-1632; see Colin G, C. Tite, "The
Early Catalogues of the Cottonian Library," British Library Journal 6 (1980): 144-57.
Hand and
^°
or Strayed,'
fig.
layout are like those in the example reproduced in Tite, 'Lost or Stolen 5 (134).
^' See Colin G. C. Tite, The Manuscript Library of Sir Robert Cotton, The Panizzi Lectures 1993 (London, 1994), 43-45, for Cotton's practice of providing headings in his
manuscripts. ^^
Smith, Catalogus, 114-15, and Wanley, Antiquce
literaturcE,
202 (both
as n. 10).
the Old English items in an omnibus heading as his third item in the manuscript, following the two Latin prayers added on fol. 4r, i.e., "3 Miscellanea .'. His principle of seSaxonica in quibus De sacerdotum nuptiis. De Decalogo Moysis ^^
James
lists all
.
from
CH
items.
1.1
.
which thereby excludes the opening item or the "Distichs of Cato," although he does not include all rubricated
lection seems to be to pick
up rubricated
items,
Letter to Sigefyrth
/€lfric'5
295
atmosphere of the Elizabethan recovery of Old English. Joscelyn's employ' er,
Archbishop Matthew Parker, was
Queen
Parker,
England
as
Old English church to show
way
concerned with the
issue.
first
Anglo-Saxon
in order to recover the doctrine of the
in
true
particularly
head of the newly established Church of Archbishop of Canterbury from 1559 to 1575, was interested Elizabeth's
that Elizabethan reformers were, in fact, recovering the
of the ancient church in England.
As
has been recently well
demonstrated, Parker pursued a limited number of preoccupations across a wide range of reading; specifically, he looked for material
on the
tiation,
issue of clerical marriage.
A
on transubstanand on the
translation of scripture into the vernacular, ^"^
defence of clerical marriage was of personal significance to Parker.
He had
married in 1547, while master of Corpus Christi College,
and
bridge,
his marriage
Cam-
was a principal reason he had been deprived of all
preferments and gone into hiding during the Catholic resurgency of Queen
Mary. Although he was subsequently elevated to the metropolitan see by
Queen opposed
Elizabeth, that
his position
on the marriage of
such a situation, Parker was open to personal embarrassment,
priests.
as in
an
In
inci-
dent reported by the Dictionary of National Biography, Elizabeth,
touched by the grace and courtesy of her reception when on a to
Lambeth
clerical
Palace, but unable altogether to suppress her dislike of
matrimony, took leave of her hostess with the oft-quoted
words: **Madam you; but yet
I
may not
won
which
own
spells
Lawes
a .
.
am ashamed
to call
out the right of bishops, priests, and
discretion. All the same, this
manages, stably sshed by
lande, agaynst
Ciuile
32
that retained Parker's interest. In 1567
priestes
I
out in the formulation of the Elizabethan Articles of
article
deacons to marry at their
of
call you; mistress
thank you."^^
I
Parker's position
Religion, in
al issue
visit
Ciuilian, .
(STC
selfe
Among
was a doctrin-
he published
the imperiall lawes
namying hym 17519).
(?),
of
the
A Defence
Realme of Eng-
Thomas Martin doctour of
his historical
arguments in
work, Parker notes the anti-marriage bias of the tenth-century monastic
^^
See R.
^'
Dictionary of National Biography,
I.
Page, Matthew Parker and His Books (Kalamazoo, 1993), esp. 93. s.v.
Parker, 261-62.
the
this re-
JONATHAN WILCOX
296
formers Dunstan, /Ethelwold, and Oswald, but turns even this into
grist
for his polemic by observing that these "three Monkishe Busshoppes, eX'
pelled secular maried Priestes out of Cathedrall Churches,
dempned not
their mariages, nor separated
Parker certainly
low workers used monie of
it
Anticiuitie
knew
on
/Elfric's tract
in the
famous
first
them"
but con^
(215).
virginity, since
he and
his fel'
A
printing of Anglo-Saxon:
Testis
shewing the auncknt fayth in the Church of England
touching the sacrament of the body and hloude of the Lord here publikely preached,
and
aboue 600. yeares agoe,
also receaued in the Saxons tyme,
autumn 1566 (STC 159 and 159.5), a discussion of printed by John Day transubstantiation including an edition of /Elfric's Easter homily on the eucharist.^^ In the introduction, Parker and his scholarly helpers reconin
structed /Elfric's identity, largely through reference to his prefaces, in-
eluding that to the Letter to Sigefyrth.
What, then,
did Parker
sumably disapproved of
its
make
of y^lfric's Letter to Sigefyrthl
He
pre-
content. Parker notoriously improved his books
by tidying messy openings, cleaning
off or supplying text
where necessary,
around items as he had works rebound, and adding frontis-
moving
pieces.^^ It
is
unlikely, though, that
the text from Vespasian D. xiv.
he
When
is
responsible for the excision of
Parker did remove texts, he exer-
cised considerable care to keep the beginning
and end
tidy, if
necessary
covering over or erasing orphaned part-texts, while getting missing text copied over in an imitative hand. For example, Parker seems to have
moved
a fragmentary homily,
De
virginitate,
re-
from the end of Cambridge,
Corpus Christi College, 198 through the excision of a folio combined with the erasure of some orphaned text on the final remaining verso, while he
had an orphaned
text that was left over from the removal of documentary
material from Cambridge, University Library, paper. ^®
^^
The messy
li.
2.
11 pasted over with
retention of the body-less opening of the Letter
See John Bromwich, "The
First
Book Printed
in
to
Anglo-Saxon Types," Transactions
of the Cambridge Bibliographical Society 3 (1959-1962): 265-91, and Theodore H. Leinbaugh, "/Elfric's Sermo de sacrificio in die Pascae: Anglican Polemic in the Sixteenth and
Seventeenth Centuries," in Angb-Saxon T. Berkhout and Milton
" See
McC. Gatch
Ker, Catabgue,
liii;
Scholarship:
The
First
Three Centuries, ed. Carl
(Boston, 1982), 51-68.
and Page, Matthew Parker and His Books, 46-55.
See Graham, "Beginnings of OE Studies," 43-44, and Timothy Graham, "A Parkerian Transcript of the List of Bishop Leofric's Procurements for Exeter Cathedral: Matthew Parker, the Exeter Book, and Cambridge University Library MS li. 2. 11," Trans^®
j€lfric'5
Letter to Sigefyrth
Sigefyrth has
none of the hallmarks
Rather than removing the aged to neutralize
They
297
/Elfric's
of Parker's mutilation of manuscripts.
treatise,
Parker and his collaborators man-
point in their
A
allude to ^Ifric's preface in
own
polemical use of the tract.
Testimonie of Antiquitie for explicit
evidence that /Elfric was an abbot, and they contextualize
y^lfric's doc-
trinal position:
So vppon this his education in the schooles of ^thelwolde he became afterward to be an earnest louer and a great setter forward of monkery e, and therefore no lesse busie writer and speaker agaynst the matrimonye of priestes in hys tyme.
They then cite the preface point. As it is summarized in sent to one Sygefyrth, with
fended the mariage of
For
all /Elfric's
A
the bulk of If
7r-v)^^
to
make
A
Testimonie of Antiquitie^ y^lfric
precisely the opposite to ^^Ifric's
whom was
an anker abyding, which de-
priestes, affyrming
it
to be lawful,
is all
that
is left
de-
Testimonie of Antiquitie, Parker and his collaborators react to
polemic by ignoring
/Elfric's
Parker did not remove the
foliations.
The
added before the
actions of the
is
standing in this interested re-
tract,
it.
who
did?
The
evidence points equi-
vocally to Sir Robert Cotton. Evidence for dating the loss
the
(fol. 8r)
hard rhetorical work, the anchorite whose position
stroyed by y^lfric's polemic telling. In
(fol.
first foliation,
loss.'^^
A
second
is
number of
provided by places,
was
foliation, also in ink, allows for
the
inaccurate in a
Cambridge Bibliographical Society 10 (1991-1995): 421-55 at 45 1-52. On the movement of an item from Cambridge, G^rpus Christi Qjllege,
puzzling but painstaking
162 to Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, 178, where Parker again scrupulously eliminates orphaned fragments, see Graham, "Beginnings of '^
Citations are from the version of
duction,
i.e.,
A
OE
Studies," 44.
Testimonie of Antiquitie with a foliated intro-
the second edition.
This foliation repeats the pair of numbers 12 and 13, the number 31, omits 35-43 but resumes inaccurately with 40, repeats the number 52, omits the number 72, and repeats the number 136. Max Forster, "Die spataltenglische Ubersetzung der Pseudo-Anselmschen Marienpredigt," Palaestra (Anglica: Untersuchungen zur englischen Philologie) 148 ^°
(1925), 8-69, here 9-10,
and Schmetterer, Drei altenglische religiose Texte, 9, claim that 1, but "164" is entered on the first page of Part 2 (the
the foliation only covers Part present
fr)l.
17 Or), although the distinct form of the 4
may
suggest this
is
a later addition.
JONATHAN WILCOX
298
and proceeds accurately throughout the manuscript. Both
loss,
have been superseded by a contemporary with the parchment
between the
first
flyleaves.
and second
well's word-list in
The
of the Letter
loss
The
foliation.
foliations
foliation in pencil that starts
first
London, Lambeth Palace, 692,
to Sigefyrth
foliation fol.
is
29r-v,
happened
cited in
No^
and so was
place by the 1560s. Yet another foliation, this one in tens written
on
in
eve-
Such foliation is associated with the commission inspecting the Cotton collection in 17021703. This count demonstrates that the missing section had gone by this
ry tenth verso, provides
date.^^
ades
."^^
The second
an outer
full foliation
limit for the loss.
probably post-dates the foliation in dec-
This coincides with the evidence of Wanley: the Letter
had gone by the time of his inspection of the manuscript
to Sigefyrth
prior to his pub-
lication of the catalogue in 1705.
A
more
precise date for the loss
is
provided by the evidence of tables
of contents and catalogues. In particular, the catalogue by Richard James
from 1631-1638, probably 1631-1632, replicating the information he corded on
fol. 2r,
includes mention of the tract with
fragmentary at that time.
The Thomas Smith
no hint that
same inference
for that late time, except that
drawing his information from the frilly
which might lead Smith
earlier catalogues. "^^
recorded in Wanley 's catalogue of 1705,
was
catalogue of 1696 compli-
cates the picture since this repeats a similar description,
to the
it
re-
who
The
is
probably
omission
is
remarks that the tract
"10" occurs on fol. 12v, presumably incorporating a parchment flyleaf subsequentto London, British Library, Royal 13 D.I*. This foliation twice goes wrong, incorporating an extra leaf between 110 and 120 and between 160 and 170, which leads to an inaccurate record on the final page (present 224v) "Cons. fol. 220". On the work and date of the commission, see Tite, Manuscript Library, 37. ^^ The accurate second foliation does not include any flyleaves and does not make the mistakes of the foliation in decades. The second foliator may be the one who corrects the total on fol. 224v to record "221" folios. The suggestion is that of Schmetterer, Drei ^^
ly
removed
altengUsche religiose Texte, 26-27. ^^
the
Like Richard James, Smith gives four main items, namely the two opening prayers, omnibus, and the Isidore, but now the Old English is further itemized:
OE 3.
/Elfrici
Abbatis Homiliae in
festis
diebus Sanctorum; et
nice, viz 1.
2.
3.
De Sacerdotum caelibatu. De Decalogo Mosis De duodecim abusivis
Smith, Catalogus, 114-15.
.
.
.
etc.
alii
tractatus,
Saxo-
299
^Ifric's Letter to Sigefyrth
is
missing after line 8 and that
fols.
4-10 are
missing.'^'^
The
omission,
then, can be dated between when Richard James worked over the manu' script sometime after 1625 and when Wanley or the commission worked
over
it
at the very
Within
when
beginning of the eighteenth century.
that frame, the most probable time for an excision
Robert Cotton was actively organizing
Sir
Cotton had the manuscript bound his
custom throughout
in his
his collection.
own
removed with what came
after
his collection. Certainly
Cotton was
it
early on,
distinctive binding as
was
in the habit of rearrang-
ing his manuscripts, including removing material.^^ tract
is
He may
have had the
for reasons that are
now hard
to
recover. Lx)ss
of the tract
on
virginity
may be backhanded evidence
portance in the seventeenth century, assuming
somewhere
else.
it
for its im-
was excised to be used
After such a flurry of activity surrounding the tract in the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, interest dropped off until the nine-
teenth century. Different political expedients control the treatment of the text by
Bruno Assmann from those influencing Archbishop Parker. In
place of the pressing theological concerns of the English reformation,
Assmann
is
concerned with protocols and
responsibilities of nineteenth-
century philology. Assmann's imperatives have to do with accuracy and
with completeness, in each of which he succeeds admirably: Assmann's end-notes describe well the state of the manuscripts and point to the three distinct redactions, while his
never was.
He
main
bases this principally
text creates for ^Ifric a
on
Vitellius C. v, but
work that
he omits the
distinctive ending of that version (recorded in the textual variants to his
next item) and adds the preface from Vespasian D. hybrid based on Faustina A.
ix/CCCC 302,
What he
main
nysse."^^
creates in this
text
"^Ifric: is
xiv,
Be
while
t>aere
titling this
halgan claen-
neither polemic nor homily
but a recovered old text, decently and vaguely
titled as such.
In the early twenty-first century, such a philological drive to wholeness
*^
Wanley, AntiqucE, 202.
^'
Tite, Manuscript Library, 45, estimates that
volumes, "removing also
Kevin Sharpe,
he rearranged perhaps half of all his from existing volumes to distribute them among others." See Robert Cotton, 1586-1631: History and Politics in Early Modem
articles Sir
England (Oxford, 1979), 68-71. ^^
Presumably he preferred
right language, while
he
this title to Vitellius
C.
v's in that
it is,
at least, in the
also avoids the specificity of the homiletic attributions.
300
JONATHAN WILCOX
has been replaced by a postmodern-inflected appreciation for the fragmentary, so that
the latest editor of the tract's preface, myself, could be willing
to fragment
all
of /^Ifric's prefaces from the works that went after them,
thereby hoping to reclaim attention for an Anglo-Saxon author within a
world where short works
satisfy
most
readers' desires. Still,
taught Old English by an exacting master, this investigation of the
catee,
^' I
essay
Donald
I
having been
have now returned to
body of the text in honour of
this
offer
Scragg.'^'^
wish to thank Timothy Graham for reading and commenting on a draft of for educating me about Parker's normal modus operandi.
and
up
volume's dedi-
diis
MICHAEL LAPIDGE
^Ifric's Schooldays
TO THE QUESTION OF WHERE list,
/Elfric,
the learned grammarian and homi-
received his early Latin training, the answer
in Winchester, as
he
tells
of the venerable bishop
no grounds
^thelwold
There
are
much
evidence to support
which /^thelwold
(in
clear
is
us in the preface to his
scoh AdeluuoJdi
and indeed there
For example, the contents of a
gifted to his
newly refounded monastery
ough^ squares significantly with what can be deduced of
from works that he quotes throughout the works in question
may
at the school
uenerahilis praesulis).
for challenging this statement, it.
and unambiguous:
Grammar,
list
is
of books
at Peterbor-
/Elfric's
reading
his extensive corpus of writings;^
therefore be taken to represent the core of
/Ethelwold's teaching at Winchester, where ^Ifric was his student, and
which he was concerned from Wulfstan's Vita
S.
pleasure in teaching "young
'
The
list is
new
to institute at his
foundation.
We
know
y^thelwoldi that .^thelwold always took great
men
(adolescentes)
and the more mature
stu-
edited by Michael Lapidge, "Surviving Booklists firom Anglo-Saxon Eng-
land," in Learning and Literature
in
Anglo'Saxon England. Studies Presented
to
Peter Clemoes
Occasion of his SixVy-Fifth Birthday, ed. idem and Helmut Gneuss (Cambridge, 1985), 33-89, here 52-55.
on
the
^
See discussion in Michael Lapidge, "/Ethelwold
as Scholar
and Teacher," in Bishop 89-1 17, here
y^thelwold, His Career and Influence, ed. Barbara Yorke (Woodbridge, 1988),
110. The works in question are: Bede's commentary on Mark, Julian of Toledo's PrognoS' tkon (of which /Clfiric prepared an epitome: see Milton McC. Gatch, Preaching and Theology in Anglo-Saxon England: /Elfric
the Hibemo-Latin treatise
and Wulfstan [Toronto and Buffalo, 19771, 129-46),
De duodecim abusiuis
guine Domini by Ratramnus of Corbie.
saeculi,
and the
treatise
De
corpore el san-
MICHAEL LAPIDGE
302
dents (iuuenes), translating Latin texts into English for them, passing on
the rules of grammar and metric, and encouraging them to do better by cheerful words. "^ /Elfric
and
centes
clearly to
is
However, Wulfstan's statement obviously does not
iuuenes.
tain to oblates or pueriy with
And
be numbered among these adoles-
whom
per-
/Ethelwold did not concern himself.
in any case, as a busy bishop of a prestigious see, /^thelwold will
have frequently been away from Winchester attending the
and so on, and
it
king's council,
would probably be appropriate to think of
his teaching
stints in terms of occasional master classes rather than as the day-to-day
and
line-by-line grind
in later
school,
alone,
although /Elfric
texts. In short,
as
an alumnus of y^thelwold's
highly unlikely that he received his schooling from y^thelwold
it is
and
through curriculum
was proud to regard himself
life
certainly not his earliest training in Latin.
Interesting light
is
thrown on the nature of
y^lfric's early
Latin train-
ing by close attention to the wording of the Latin preface to his Grammar.
Because fric, it
this preface has various implications for our
may be
Ego
helpful to quote
/^Ifricus, ut
minus
it
understanding of ^^1-
here and to provide a translation:
sapiens, has excerptiones de Prisciano mi-
nore uel maiore uobis puerulis
tenellis
ad uestram linguam trans-
ferre studui, quatinus perlectis octo partibus
Donati in
isto libello
potestis utramque linguam, uidelicet latinam et anglicam, uestrae
teneritudini inserere interim, usquequo ad perfectiora perueniatis studia.
Noui namque multos me reprehensuros, quod
meum
ingenium occupare uoluissem,
scilicet
talibus studiis
grammaticam artem
ad anglicam linguam uertendo. Sed ego deputo banc lectionem scientibus puerulis,
non
senibus,
aptandam
fore.
in-
Scio multimodis
uerba posse interpretari, sed ego simplicem interpretationem sequor fastidii
uitandi causa. Si alicui
tationem
dicat,
quomodo
tamen
uult:
displicuerit,
nostram interpre-
nos contenti sumus, sicut didicimus
in scola Adeluuoldi, uenerabilis praesulis, qui multos ad buit.
^
Sciendum tamen, quod
Wulfstan, Vita
grammatica multis in
S. /€thelwoldi, c. 31, ed.
bonum
locis
non
imfa-
Michael Lapidge and Michael Winter-
of St /Ethelwold (Oxford, 1991), 46-48: "Dulce erat ei adolescentes et iuuenes semper docere, et Latinos libros Anglice eis sol-
bottom, Wulfstan of Winchester: The
namque
ars
Life
uere, et regulas grammaticae artis ac metricae rationis tradere, et iocundis alloquiis ad liora hortari."
me-
Schooldays
y€lfric's
303
cile anglicae linguae capit interpretationem, sicut
de pedibus uel
metris, de quibus hie reticemus, sed aestimamus ad inchoationem
tamen banc interpretationem
paruulis prodesse posse, sicut
iam
di'
ximus. Miror ualde, quare multi corripiunt sillabas in prosa, quae in
metro breues sunt, cum prosa absoluta nuntiant pater brittonice et malus et
producta
[I
sillaba,
quam
grammaticae subiciendus
arti
quae in metro haben^
Deum
patrem hon-
brittonice corripere, quia
nee Deus
Valete, o pueruli, in Domino."^
est.
an unlearned person, have undertaken to translate
/Elfric,
you young boys these Excerptiones de into your
a lege metri; sicut prO'
Mihi tamen uidetur melius inuocare
tur breues. orifice
sit
similia,
own
language, so that, once you have read through the
eight parts [of speech] of Donatus in this
little
the time being ingest either language (that
is,
book, you can for Latin and English)
into your tender souls, until such time as you progress to
vanced
studies.
realize that there will
I
I
that
lish.
But
is,
I
1
more
ad-
many who will blame me
talent with undertakings of this treatise into
Eng-
consider this exercise to be intended for untutored boys,
know
I
that words can be rendered in
many
ways,
always adopt the straightforward interpretation for the sake of
avoiding tedium.
him
be
by translating a [Latin] grammatical
not for old men. but
my
have wished to occupy
that sort,
for
Prisciano minore uel maiore
say
however,
If,
what he wants about
late in the
way
ble bishop,
who
I
should displease someone,
this
my
translation;
I
am happy
let
to trans-
learned at the school of /Ethelwold, the venera-
many for their own good. For it should be many places [the terminology of] Latin grammar
taught
recognized that in
does not easily lend
itself to translation, for
of metrical feet, concerning
which
instance in discussion I
think
nevertheless at the outset that this translation can be of
some
benefit to youngsters, as
why many
shall say nothing; but
mentioned previously.
I
I
wonder
greatly
people shorten syllables in prose which are metrically
short, since prose
* j^lfrics
I
is
Grammatik und
free
from metrical
Glossar. Text
restrictions.
und Varianten,
Thus they
ed. Julius Zupitza, 3rd ed. with
foreword by Helmut Gneuss (Hildesheim, 2001), 1-2; also ed. Jonathan Wilcox, Prefaces,
Durham Medieval Texts
lation at 130.
9 (Durham, 1994), 114-15, with
modem
y^lfric's
English trans-
MICHAEL LAPIDGE
304 pronounce
pater in the Brittonic
similar words
which
better to invoke
in
God
rather than to shorten
manner, and malus, and other
metre are scanned short.
To me
it
seems
the Father (patrem) with a long syllable, it
in the Brittonic
to be subjected to the rules of grammar.
manner, since
Be
God
is
not
well, youngsters, in the
Lord.]
/Elfric's
statement about his sources here
English a Latin treatise
made up
works of Priscian, which he
and the
—
of excerpts
that he
the "greater" (that
calls
is
is,
the
''lesser" (the Pdrtitiones, presumably), in order to
knowledge of elementary grammar which
will
youngsters from their previous study of the Ars
—
bus Donati)^
is
translating into
drawn from two separate Institutiones)
supplement the
have been acquired by
rruiior
of Donatus (octo parti-
of great interest to students of medieval grammar, and
has naturally attracted serious scholarly interest.^
What
has not attracted interest, however,
the end of the short were,
*'in
In the
first
the curious statement at
which were metrically
the Brittonic manner" Qmttonic^, pronounced as such,
even in prose, whereas lables as long.
is
preface, to the effect that syllables
/Elfric himself
This statement
is
would prefer to pronounce such
of exceptional interest, for several reasons.
place, statements by contemporaries about the pronunciation
of medieval Latin are exceptionally rare, and most of what this subject has to
is
known about
be reconstructed from orthography and from pronunci-
ation of the regional
Romance
languages which succeeded Vulgar Latin.^
It is
thus startling to learn that in the late tenth century, in Wales
that
is
what
syl-
brittonice refers to
—
distinctions of vowel quantity
—
for
were being
observed. Although Britain had been a diocese (including several provinces) of the
'
The Ars
Roman
maior
is
Etude sur I'Ars Donati
Empire, and Latin had been spoken throughout the
ed. Louis Holtz, et sa diffusion
Donat
(IVe-lXe
et la tradition
de Venseignement grammatical:
siecle) et edition critique (Paris,
1981),
603-
74. ^ See especially Vivien Law, "/Elfric's Excerptiones de arte grammatica anglice,'' in eadem, Grammar and Grammarians in the Early Middle Ages (London, 1997), 200-23
(203-6 on die sources of the Excerptiones). recently been published by D.
Latin-Old English ^
On
W,
An edition
Grammar (Cambridge, III.
The Source
for y^lfric's
2002).
the pronunciation(s) of medieval Latin, see
einischen Sprache des Mittelalters
of the unprinted Excerptiones has
Porter, Excerptiones de Prisciano:
now
Peter Stotz, Handbuch zur
Lautlehre (Munich, 1996).
lat-
j^lfric's
305
Schooldays
diocese, the
Anglo-Saxon settlements of the
vented the Latin spoken by the into a
Romance
citizens of
vernacular, and
had the
fifth
Roman
and
sixth centuries pre-
Britain from developing
effect of sequestering the
rem^
now Wales and Cornwall. The been established in Roman times (and
nants of sub-Roman Britain in what are
church in Wales, which had already
thus predated the Augustinian mission by several centuries), held fiercely aloof
from the Anglo-Saxon church, with the
ninth century or
later,
there was
little
itself
result that, until the
contact between Wales and Eng-
land (and, by the same token, between Wales and continental Europe). In
Welsh church and Welsh
this isolated situation, the
schools inevitably
clung conservatively to ancient (and archaic) tradition.^ This conservatism
no doubt have been reflected in the ways Latin was nounced in Welsh schools. Unfortunately, we have very will
dence pertaining to the pronunciation of Latin either in
studied and prolittle
secure evi-
Roman Britain
or
Dark Age Welsh schools (assuming what cannot be proven, namely that there was continuity between them). Various deductions have been made in
on the
basis of Latin
loanwords in early Welsh,^ and one might also point
to Vulgar Latin features in the orthography of St Patrick's writings (fifth
century) ^° and the schoolroom colloquy
But
century?). ^^
this
known
as
De
raris fahuli
(ninth
evidence in sum does not allow us to form a
See M. Lapidge, "Latin Learning in Dark Age Wales: Some Prolegomena," in Pro^ D. Ellis Evans, John G. Griffidi, and E. M. Jope (Oxford, 1986), 91-107. *
ceedings of the Seventh Intematbnal Congress of Celtic Studies, ed.
^
The pioneering discussion
Britain
is
that by
Kenneth Jackson, Language and
History in Early
(Edinburgh, 1953), esp. 76-121. Jackson's conclusion that the Vulgar Latin
spoken in
Roman
Britain was, by continental standards, conservative
and archaic
(see
was vigorously challenged by A. S. Gratwick, "Latinitas Britannica: Was British Latin Archaic?" in Latin and the Vernacular Languages in Early Medieval Britain, ed. esp. 108-9),
Nicholas Brooks (Leicester, 1982), 1-79. Celtic philologists have not wholly accepted Gratwick's criticisms of Jackson's thesis: see, for example, Damian McManus, *'Linguarum
and the Vernaculars in Early Medieval Britain," Peritia 3 (1984): 151-88, concludes that "Gratwick has not succeeded in dismantling Professor Jackson's case for a partially conservative British Latin" (186). Diversitas: Latin
who
'°
See K. Mras, "St. Patricius als Lateiner," Anzeiger der osterreichischen Akademie der in Wien, phil.-hist. Klasse 90 (1953): 99-1 13, and Elena Malaspina, Patrizio
Wissenschaften
e Vacculturazione latina deU'lrlanda •'
W. H.
Stevenson,
has yet to receive the attention
Wales," 94-97.
(Rome, 1984),
esp.
249-334.
ed., Early Scholastic Colloquies (Oxford, 1929), it
The
1-11.
deserves; see Lapidge, "Latin Learning in
text
Dark Age
306
MICHAEL LAPIDGE
clear notion of
how
Latin was pronounced either in
Roman
Britain or in
Dark Age Wales. For these reasons /Elfric's comments on Latin was pronounced "in the
very important.
how
Welsh manner"
in the late tenth century
(hrittonicey'^ are
potentially
is
particularly interesting that, to /^Ifric's ear, the
Welsh pronunciation
of Latin preserved a distinction between short and
It
long vowels, pronouncing, for example, pater and malus ("evil") with short
vowels in the
first
(accented) syllables, exactly as the words would be
scanned in Latin metre.
same vowels
(/Elfric's
preference was to pronounce as long the
in accented syllables in any spoken context that
was non-
hence the maintenance of the distinction between short and
metrical:
long vowels struck him as unnecessarily pedantic, and he was not prepared, as he says, to subject
Now
it is
the Father to the rules of grammar. ^^)
uncontroversially established that the distinction between long
and short vowels in
God
in Classical Latin
and hence was not preserved
was abandoned in spoken (Vulgar) Lat-
in the
Romance
languages. ^"^
That such a
distinction was being maintained in the pronunciation of Latin in tenth-
century
Welsh
schools
may be
a further piece of evidence for the conser-
vative nature of education in early medieval Wales.
The
important question for students of /Elfric, however,
is
why, in the
course of a discussion of elementary Latin grammar, he should advert explicitly to
the
Welsh pronunciation
with the remainder of
his preface,
of Latin. These observations
that they spring from the personal experience of his in other words, did /Elfric
of Latin?
A
come
sit
oddly
and the most obvious explanation
into contact with
plausible hypothesis suggests
itself.
is
own schooling. How, Welsh pronunciation
Some
thirty years
ago
I
'^
See Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, ed. R. E. Latham et al. (Ox1975- ), s.v, "Britannice", where attestations are given inter alia to Asser's De vita /€lfredi, c. 30 etc., but not to the present passage in /Elfric. In any event there is no doubt that by "brittonice" /Elfric meant "Welsh." '^ /Elfric is alluding here to a famous remark of Gregory in c. 5 of the Letter to Leander which prefaces his Moralia in lob: "Non sicut huius quoque epistolae tenor enuntiat, non metacismi collisionem frigio, non barbarismi confrisionem deuito, situs modosque etiam et praepositionum casus semare contemno, quia indignum uehementer existimo, ut uerba caelestis oracuh restringam sub regulis Donati" (ed. M. Adriaen, Corpus Christianorum Series Latina, 143 [Tumhout, 1979], 7). ford,
briefly Stotz, Lautlehre,
5-6
as well as
menlehre (Munich, 1977), 55-57.
The
bibliography on this subject
'^
See
M. Leumann,
Lateinische Laut' is
vast.
und
For'
i^lfric's
Schooldays
307
published some Latin poems which were evidently composed at /Ethelwold's school at Winchester, ^^ and two of these poems, which
and Responsio
Altercatio magistri et discipuli
abrasive but
humorous debate between a master and
the activities of a schoolmaster responds to Welsh lorwerthJ^ at lorwerth
discipuli
is
named
entitled
his students,
concern
whose name evidently
lorue(r)t,
Among
I
and which portray an cor^
the insults which the students hurl
the accusation that in his native land (Wales) he was a
country bumpkin, used to looking after pigs and goats:
finibus in patriis suetus seruare suillos siue referre
qui
domum
lympham
scapulis in nocte capellas;
potare solens lacti sociatam
carnibus hyrcinis postquam satur atque butyro. Oines 19-22)
After a further exchange of
insults,
the students outline the curriculum
which they wish
to be taught by lorwerth, including dialectic
ny
and although they are
(lines 68-82);
accomplishments
utterly scathing about his poetic
26-27, 35-38), they end by asking
(lines
and harmcH
him
to continue
the debate by composing more poetry:
conditione, pater,
tali,
ne
flagito, loruert:
hinc reprimas linguam nimium quod seditiosam, rursus stultiloquam
ne cogas sumere pennam
me, qui mox
mores patriosque notabo.
actus,
sordes parce; precorque iterum mihi talia scribe.
Oines 121-125)
*^
Michael Lapidge, "Three Latin Poems from /Ethelwold's School at Winchester," 1 (1972): 85-137 (repr. in idem, Anglo-Latin Liurature 900-1066
Anglo-Saxon England
[London, 1993], 225-77). '^
Lapidge, "Three Latin Poems," 108-21
(repr. in
Anglo-Latin Literature 900-1066,
name being given twice as 52 and 54) and once as loruert (line 120), and once in the Responsio as loruert (line 11). On the etymology of the name lorwerth, see the remarks of Anthony Harvey in David Howlett and Anthony Harvey, "An Attack on the Welsh Master
248-61). lorwerth
is
named
three times in the Altercatio, the
loruet (lines
loruert,"
name
Archivum
as a
Latinitatis
compound
Medii Aevi 52 (1994): 281-85, here 282,
of Welsh
ior
("lord")
+
who
gu>erth ("value", "worth").
explains the
308
MICHAEL LAPIDGE
Since there
sound evidence that these poems were composed
is
Chester, the implication
come
that lorwerth had
is
"ut fortunatos felix deuenit ad Anglos") from Wales biguously
Welsh
— and was
among
seems to
his
name
for y^lfric's
unam-
is
lorwerth taught at
disparagement of the
which otherwise stands out of thumb. ^^
of Latin,
an unexplained sore
It
—
whom
the students
Winchester, we have a ready explanation
like
Win'
acting as schoolmaster in Winchester in /Eth-
elwold's time. If ^Ifric was
Welsh pronunciation
at
to England (line 23:
his preface
me that ^Ifric's preface provides corroborating evidence for
the presence of lorwerth at Winchester in /^thelwold's time. There are
perhaps several further implications. Although lorwerth was employed by the Old Minster as a schoolmaster to teach Latin grammar to the oblates,
he was not a monk:
name
his
figures
nowhere
monks, covering the period from 964 to
New
the
Minster Liber uitae}^
was a usual arrangement
for
It
is
the sort of scholastic colloquy which
which
I
y^lfric
composed a Colloquium
tiative
was followed in turn by
''
This
is
earlier: for
not to suggest that
the language of the poems
is
far
list
which
is
of
Old Minster
incorporated in it
Anglo-Saxon monasteries to employ laymen not an isolated example. ^^
be interesting to know whether in
mentioned
in the
1030,
would be interesting to know whether
as schoolmasters; certainly lorwerth
also
c.
his teaching lorwerth is
represented by
subsequently in his
own
De
/Elfiric
was the author of the
The
Altercatio
more flamboyant than anything
would
made
use of
raris fabulis
teaching career
to aid in the teaching of Latin, his pupil /^Ifric Bata.^°
It
and
his ini-
lively spirit
and Responsio: and
/Elfric ever wrote,
his recorded attempts at Latin poetry are limited to six lines of rhythmical, not quantita' tive, verse in
ter
W.
the form 6pp
Skeat, ed.,
1900; repr. as 2
+ 6pp which he included of Saints, EETS o.s.
vols., 1966), 2:
312.
It is
more
Wal1881that the Latin poems were com*
in his Life of St. Martin: see
76, 82, 94, 114 (London,
/Elfric's Lives
likely
posed by Lantfired, since in the unique surviving manuscript (Cambridge, University Li' brary, MS Kk. 5. 34) they are preceded by the rubric "uersus .L. de quodam superbo." ^®
New
The
list is
printed in Walter de Gray Birch, Liher Vitae: Register and Martyrology of
Minster and
Hyde Abbey Winchester (London,
Simon Keynes, The lish
,
Liber Vitae of the
New
Minster and
1892), 22-30; for discussion, see
Hyde Abbey
Winchester, Early Eng'
Manuscripts in Facsimile 26 (Copenhagen, 1996), 88-89.
Another example is the (otherwise unknown) tenth-century grammarian /Ethellist of whose schoolbooks survives: Lapidge, "Surviving Booklists," 50-52. ^° See /Elfric's Colloquy, ed. G. N. Garmonsway, 2nd ed. (London: Methuen & Co., 1947); Anglo-Saxon Conversations: the Colloquies of/Elfric Bata, ed. S. Gwara, trans. D. W. *^
stan, a
Porter (Woodbridge, 1997).
309
^Ifric's Schooldays
of these colloquies may owe something to the Altercatio and Responsio which were engendered by lonverth's teaching. In any case, it is possible to form a clearer picture of the context in which /Elfric received his early
Latin training than
is
implied by the simple statement
in scola AdeluvLoldi.
Postscript In the preface to his translation of Genesis, /Elfric mentions a former
who
teacher (magister)
could understand some Latin, but
who
failed to
M.
Griffith,
grasp the implications of the biblical text: see discussion by
**How much Latin did (1999): 176-81. It
is
Know?", Notes and Queries 244
/Elfric's Magister
possible that this magister
is
identical with loruert, but
no decisive evidence in support of the identification. Another problem which has come to bedevil the study of ^Ifric is the answer "Dunstan" given in /Elfric's Grammar to the questions "Who taught you?" and **Who ordained you [as monk]?" (ed. Zupitza, 8). Some scholars there
is
have wondered, in
light of these answers,
been taught and ordained by Dunstan 202).
whether ^Ifric might have
(see
Law,
But the chronology of Dunstan's career
rules out
such a
possibility:
when
/Elfric
as
was a
also
**y^lfric's Excerptiones,''
archbishop of Canterbury
child,
Dunstan was already
archbishop (959-88), and archbishops do not have time to teach Latin to children.
The
correct solution to this problem
is
that /^Ifric was simply re-
peating grammatical examples he had learned in the school of /Ethelwold,
who was ham und
taught and ordained by Dunstan: see H. Gneuss, j^lfric von E^nsseine
Zeit
Mechthild Gretsch).
(Munich, 2002), 12 n. 10 (reporting the opinion of
ANDY ORCHARD
On Editing Wulfstan
IN
THE FIFTY YEARS OR SO
since the
combined
activities of Karl Jost,
Dorothy Whitelock, Dorothy Bethurum, and Angus Mcintosh shed a penetrating light on the writings of Archbishop Wulfstan II of York (who died in 1023) as homilist, legislator, polemicist, political theorist,
(perhaps) poet, there has been an unfortunate but steady arly interest.^
The
in schol-
sheer volume of work devoted to the study of Wulf-
stan's contemporary, y^lfric, over the
same period
is,
ply staggering.^ Yet recent years have seen signs of a
*
and even
waning
The development
by comparison, sim-
much-needed
revival
of Wulfstan studies can largely be traced through the works of
these scholars as follows: Dorothy Whitelock, ed., Sermo Lupi ad Anglos (London, 1939; 3rd ed. London, 1963); eadem, "Wulfstan and the so'Called Laws of Edward and Guth-
mm",
English Historical Review
56 (1941): 1-21; eadem, "Archbishop Wulfstan, Homilist
and Statesman", Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 4th ser. 24 (1942): 25-45; Dorothy Bethumm, "Archbishop Wulfstan's Commonplace Book," Publications of the Modem Language Association 57 (1942): 916-29; Dorothy Whitelock, "Wulfstan and the Laws of Cnut", English Historical Review 63 (1948): 433-52; Angus Mcintosh, "Wulf-
Academy 35 (1949): 109-42; Karl Jost, Wulfstanstu23 (Bern, 1950); Dorothy Whitelock, "Wulfstan's Author-
stan's Prose", Proceedings of the British dien, Swiss Studies in English
ship of Cnut's Laws", English Historical Review 70 (1955): 72-85; Dorothy Bethurum, ed..
The Homilies of Wulfstan (Oxford, 1957); Dorothy Whitelock, "Wulfstan at York," in Franciplegius: Medieval and Linguistic Studies in Honor of Francis Peahody Magoun, ed. Jess B. Bessinger, Jr., and Robert P. Creed (New York, 1965), 214-31; Dorothy Bethurum, "Wulfstan," in Continuations and Beginnings, ed. E. G. Stanley (London, 1966), 210-46. ^
For a sense of the (continuing) explosion of interest in
i^lfric, see, for
example,
Luke Reinsma, /Elfric: An Annotated Bibliography (New York and London, 1987); Aaron Kleist, "An Annotated /Elfrician Bibliography, 1983-1996," in Basic Readings in Old English Prose, ed. P. E. Szarmach et al. (London, 2000).
ANDY ORCHARD
312 in Wulfstan studies, as a
and recent work has tended to
reassert his
importance
key figure in the study of both the literature and history of Anglo-
Saxon England.^ It is,
perhaps, the very eclecticism of Wulfstan's activities that has dis'
couraged closer
interest, for to appreciate the full
range of Wulfstan's writ'
ings one must consult a sometimes baffling array of editions of widely fering quality
and
editorial practice.
and Felix Liebermann
are in
some
The
cases
by
still
tended to
stress
Jost,
and James
the best available, but
far
need now to be supplemented by those of (amongst rum, Roger Fowler, Karl
dif-
old editions of Arthur Napier
Ure."^
others)
Dorothy Bethu-
Recent scholarship has
the extent to which Wulfstan's legal and homiletic works
are closely interdependent, but the former texts have largely been seen as
the preserve of historians, the latter of literary scholars, with overlap of discussion.^
To
focus
on but one aspect
Bethurum's edition of the homilies tory nor complete;^
writings (like so
and the
is still
identification
many Anglo-Latin
Anglo-Saxon England) remains
little
genuine
of Wulfstan's output,
standard, but
is
neither satisfac-
and edition of Wulfstan's Latin
texts essential for the understanding of
a task for the future.^
^ See in particular Jonathan Wilcox, "Wulfstan and the Twelfth Century," in RewritOld English in the Twelfth Century, ed. Mary Swan and Elaine M. Trehame, Cambridge Studies in Anglo'Saxon England 30 (Cambridge, 2000), 83-97; idem, "The Dissemination of Wulfstan's Homilies: The Wulfstan Tradition in Eleventh-Century Vernacular Preaching," in England in the Eleventh Century ed. C. Hicks, Harlaxton Medieval Studies 2 (Stamford, 1992), 199-217; Emma Mason, St. Wulfstan of Worcester, ca. 10081095 (Oxford, 1990).
ing
,
^ Arthur Napier, ed., Wulfstan: Sammlung der ihm zugeschieibenen Homilien (Berlin, 1883; repr. with a bibliographical appendix by Klaus Ostheeren, Dublin and Zurich,
1967); Felix Liebermann, ed., Die Gesetze der Angelsachsen, 3 vols. (Halle, 1903-1916; repr.
ed.. Homilies; Roger Fowler, ed., "A Late Old English Use of a Confessor", Anglia 83 (1965): 1-34; Roger Fowler, ed., WulfCanons of Edgar, EETS, o.s. 266 (London, 1972); Karl Jost, Die "Institutes of Polity,
Aalen, 1960); Bethurum,
Handbook stan's
Civil
and
for die
Ecclesiastical",
Swiss Studies in English 47 (Bern, 1959); James Ure, ed.. The
Benedictine Office (Edinburgh, 1957).
See Patrick Wormald, The Making of English Law. King Alfred to the Twelfth Century. 1: Legislation and its Limits (Oxford, 1999), particularly 330-45; M. K. Lawson, "Archbishop Wulfstan and the Homiletic Element in the Laws of /Ethelred II and Cnut," in The Reign ofCnut, King of England, Denmark, and Norway, ed. Alexander Rumble (Leicester, 1994), 141-64. ^
Vol.
^
See in particular Wilcox, "Dissemination," 200-1. For examples of some of the Bethurum's edition, see nn. 16, 20, 33, and 37-42 below.
errors in '
Much
of the preliminary work towards establishing the corpus has been done by
On
313
Editing Wulfstan
In the relative absence of manuscript attributions connecting Wulfstan
what
to his works, writing)
is
links all these aspects of his writing (even his Latin
the vexed issue of
confusion.® If the extent to
style,
and here too there
is
which Wulfstan recycled and
material in different contexts has
become
wide scope recast his
increasingly clear, there
is
for
own too
a growing realization that he was not the only one to do so: both his con^
temporaries and later authors were evidently not averse to embedding and
embellishing Wulfstan's prose in their identification of Wulfstan's
own
own
works.^ Moreover, the likely
handwriting in a number of manuscripts
so far has only served to highlight the extent to
corrected and well-attested
emended
penchant
his
own
works. ^°
which he continually
This tendency, coupled with his
for repeating formulaic phrases
and themes, and
alongside the existence of several of his works in widely variant versions,
has meant that the whole issue of the comparative chronology of Wulfstan's writings
fraught with problems. Against such a complex back-
is
ground, one would have thought that Wulfstan would have provided a
Tom Hall
Cross, as reported by Hall in his presentation, "Archbishop WulfSermons: An Overview of the Corpus," at the 33rd International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, MI, 1998. » See A. Orchard, "Crying Wolf: Oral Style and the Sermones Lupi," ASE 21 (1992): 239-64, and idem, "Oral Tradition," in Approaches to Reading Old English Texts, ed. Katherine O'Brien O'Keeffe (Cambridge, 1997), 101-23.
and Jimmy
stan's Latin
^ See now Donald Scragg, Dating and Style in Old English Composite Homilies, H. M. Chadwick Memorial Lectures 9 (Cambridge, 1998). '° For the identification of the scribal hand as that of Wulfstan, see N. Ker, "The
Handwriting of Archbishop Wulfstan," in England Before the Conquest: Studies in the Primary Sources Presented to Dorothy Whitelock, ed. P. Clemoes and K. Hughes (Cambridge, 1971), 315-31. The manuscripts in question are Cambridge, Corpus Christi College 190, pt. 1 (s. xi^, iii-xii and 1-294; Copenhagen, Kongelige Bibliotek, Gamle Konglige
Sammlung 1595 38651
(s. xi'"),
4°
fols.
(s.
xi^,
fols.
48r,
65v-66v, and 81r; London,
British Library,
57-58; London, British Library, Cotton Claudius A.
iii (s.
Add.
x/xi^, fols.
31-86 and 106-150; London, British Library, Cotton Nero A. i (Worcester or York, s. xi'"), fols. 70-177; London, British Library, Cotton Tiberius A. xiii (Worcester, s. xi'xi'"), fols. 1-118; London, British Library, Cotton Vespasian A. xiv (Worcester or York, s. xi'), fols. 114-179; London, British Library, Harley 55 (s. xi»), fols. 1-4; Oxford, Bodleian Library, Hatton 20 (S.C. 4113) (890-7); Oxford, Bodleian Library, Hatton 402 (S.C. 4117) (Brittany,
s.
ix^;
France,
s.
x);
Rouen, Bibliothfeque Municipale 1382 (U109),
173r-198v; York, Minster Library, Add. 1 (s. xi'-s. xi^). Facsimiles of a number of annotations in Wulfstan's hand are found in H. R. Loyn, ed., A Wulfstan Manuscript containing Institutes, Laws and Homilies (British Museum Cotton Nero A.I), Early English Manuscripts in Facsimile 17 (Copenhagen, 1971), both on the folios mentioned and as an Appendix.
fols.
ANDY ORCHARD
314
perfect battleground in the recent controversies surrounding the philoso-
phy and tion
politics of editing
on the
deafening. ^^
issue,
The
practical
may account
works
Old
English; yet in
all
the
effiision of publica-
the comparative silence on the subject of Wulfstan
and theoretical
(at least in part) for
is
difficulty of editing
Wulfstan's
the tendency in the
last thirty
years instead to produce facsimile editions of individual manuscripts, as
well as electronic editions and texts that allow easy and direct comparison
between variant versions
to be made;^^ both developments are surely wel-
come, and such
is
activity
basic problem of using texts:
certain to increase. But
and interpreting ageing,
the time seems ripe for a
To
illustrate
some of the
new
issues
we
eclectic,
collected edition.
and
pitfalls
are left with the
and antiquated
^^
surrounding the editing of
Wulfstan's writings, one need only examine the shortest and scholarship lies,
which
195 7.*"^ In
is I
its
any indication) shall call
least
(if
published
regarded of Wulfstan's so-called homi-
Bethurum XXI,
after the
most recent edition of
printed form, the text occupies just thirty-four lines
(a little
over 350 words), and comprises a passionate warning on the conduct of
wicked
rulers,
which
most polished
its
style",
editor describes as a ''short admonitio in Wulfstan's
and which she dates to
"late in his career". ^^
The
text survives in three manuscripts: Cambridge, Corpus Christi College 201 (s. xi'"^'^),
pp. 25-26
and 86-87 [=
C];^^ Oxford, Bodleian Library,
Hatton
^' See, for example, Roberta Frank, ed., The Politics of Editing Medieval Texts (New York, 1993); D. G. Scragg and Paul E. Szarmach, ed., The Editing of Old English: Papers from the 1990 Manchester Conference (Cambridge, 1994); Fred C. Robinson, The Editing
of Old English (Oxford, 1994).
For facsimile editions, see especially Loyn, ed., A Wulfstan Manuscript; J. E. Cross Morrish Tunberg, ed., The Copenhagen Wulfstan Collection: Copenhagen Kongelige Bibliotek Glkglsam. 1595, Early English Manuscripts in Facsimile 25 (Copenhagen, 1993). Electronic editions of parts of Wulfstan's extant corpus have been made available on the '^
and
J.
World Wide Web by Melissa Bernstein (www.cif.rochester.edu/~mjbemst/wulfstan/) and Joyce Lionarons (http://webpages.ursinus.edu/jlionarons/wulfstan/). '^
I
am
in the process of producing just such
low, but including fuller versions of
all
an edition along the lines outlined bewhich are omitted here in the inter-
variant texts,
ests of space. ^^
Bethurum,
ed., Homilies,
266-67 (with notes on pp. 364-65).
'5
Bethurum,
ed., Homilies,
364.
A
Catabgue, no. 49; Helmut Gneuss, "A Preliminary List of Manuscripts in England up to 1100", ASE 9 (1981): 1-60, no. 65; Bethumm, ed., Homilies, 276, notes the text as occurring on pp. 26 and 86; in fact, the relevant rubric is found at the bottom of p. 25, whilst the text clearly continues on to p. 87. '^
Ker,
Written or
Owned
On
M5^
Editing Wulfstan
113 (formerly Junius 99 [S.C. 5210]; Worcester, E];^^
London, British
xi'''),
fols.
Library,
115b-116 [=
l]}^ It
Cotton Nero A. is
90b-91b [=
(Worcester or York,
of special interest that the text
is
s.
copied
CCCC 201, particularly since the two versions
twice by the same scribe in
C and C^;
(which Bethurum terms
xi^), fols.
s. i
I
have preferred to
call
them C^ and C^
respectively in the discussion that follows) differ significantly, both from
each other and the (likewise scripts; the situation
two
is
distinct versions of the
same
scribe
contrast in
on
fols.
modern
variant) texts
is
different) versions in the other
two manu'
therefore directly analogous to the preservation of
same Old English verse
Riddle,
copied by the
108r and 122v of the Exeter Book; and the massive critical
and
editorial attitudes to these various (and
an object lesson in the (often misleading) distinction per-
ceived by modern readers and scholars between Old English prose and verse.
^
19
Unfortunately, even in the case of so brief a text, Bethurum has misre-
ported a number of readings, and in particular has badly mixed up a number of passages from the distinctive versions of the text to be found in
CCCC 201, so rendering her own careful differentiation of what she terms C and C^ utterly misleading.^° Both Ian McDougall and Christine Franzen have
already
expressed
glosses;^ ^ in the case of
reservations
Bethurum's
about
Bethurum XXI, the main
punctuation, and layout
(as edited) are, as
we
reporting
of
text, critical apparatus,
shall see,
not beyond
re-
*^
Ker, Catalogue, no. 331; Gneuss, "Preliminary List", no. 637.
*®
Ker, Catalogue, no. 164; Gneuss, "Preliminary List", no. 341.
^^
For a useful discussion of the different versions of Riddle 30, see R. M. Liuzza, of the Old English Riddle 30", Journal of English and Germanic Philology 87
"The Texts
(1988): 1-15. ^° See Appendix I, below, where Bethurum attributes variants C^2-8, which actually occur in the second version of the text (her C'), to the first version (her C); likewise, she
attributes variants
C^2-6, which By
to the second version (her C').
actually occur in the contrast, variants
first
version of the text (her
C4, C^7-8,
C^l, and
C^lO-18
Q, are
minor variants listed in Bethurum's critical apparatus; in the opening lines, for example, Bethurum misattributes the forms fandian and wise (at 9-10) to the second version of the text (her C'), rather than the first, and does the same at 1 7 with respect to the form geu/ilde. Other confusions in the attribution of forms are give in nn. 33 and 37-42 below. correctly attributed. Similar problems arise with the
^' Ian McDougall, "Some Remarks on Dorothy Bethurum's Treatment of Glosses in MS. Bodleian Hatton 113," American Notes & Queries 8 (1995): 3-4; Christine Franzen, The Tremulous Hand of Worcester: A Study of Old English in the Thirteenth Century (Ox-
ford, 1991),
32-33.
ANDY ORCHARD
316
proach. Moreover, the shortcomings of the so-called 'stemmatic' editorial
method espoused by Bethurum (and other Wulfstan scholars), with its insistence on an 'original' text which must be reconstructed from the deconstructed efforts of successive (and more or less destructive) scribes, are selfevident on closer examination: in presenting her text of this ''admonitio'\
Bethurum what
is
essentially produces a
chimera which not only does not match
found in any surviving manuscript, but relegates to the
critical ap-
which has at least as strong a claim to authenticity as what is printed as main text, with the result that such material has generally fallen outside the purview of subsequent ancillary and dependent
paratus material
scholarship.^^
So, for example, the addition to the rubric in Cotton
(GYME SE but
(it
l>E
appears)
version of
WILLE) is
is
actually added by his
Bethurum XXI
Nero A.
i
not merely characteristic of Wulfstan's style,"
in
CCCC 201
where the other versions break
off,
own
hand;^"^
moreover, the second
(Bethurum's
C^ my
C^) continues
and concludes with a passage that can
be paralleled almost verbatim from the law code VIII /^thelred 36, the
which with Wulfstan has long been recognised.^^ Given the manuscript context of this second version of Bethurum XXI in CCCC association of
201,
which
is
immediately followed by a cluster of
including VIII ^thelred derstandable, and
(as
manuscript context
Old English
^^
is
literature,
itself,^^
we
such an addition
is
legalistic material,
surely eminently un-
shall see) the adaptation of material to
quite in keeping with
what one
not only in verse, but also in
fit
its
finds elsewhere in
prose.^''
In fact, the
Most notably the ongoing Toronto Dictionary of Old English, which in general the main texts of the most recent editions, without recourse to the
restricts itself to
critical apparatus. ^^
2^ ^^
See Appendix II below, at Ker, "Handwriting," 322.
5.
Wormald, "/Ethelred the Lawmaker," in Ethelred the Unready: Papers from David Hill, BAR British Series 59 (Oxford, 1978), 47-80, here 59-60; Wormald, Making of English Law, 208-9. 2^ The parallel passage from VIII /Ethelred 36 occurs on p. 95, 11. 31-34 of CCCC 201, and differs from that printed below as C^lO-18 only in the first and lines, which read And wise wceran worldwitan and gewildan to riht (Liebermann prints rihte); in place of Patrick
the Millenary Conference, ed.
the world' form of 0^12, the parallel passage has worold'. ^'
See, for example, the arguments of Douglas Moffat, "Anglo-Saxon Scribes and
English Verse," Speculum 67 (1992): 805-27.
same
text in
two places
in the
A
frirther case for
Old
the adaptation of the
same manuscript has recently been made by Samantha
On
317
Editing Wulfstan
version of
first
Bethurum XXI
in
CCCC
201 (her C,
my
C^)
is
found in a
cluster of 'homiletic' material, sandwiched between four Napier homilies
XXVII preceding, and Napier XXXV and more importantly presented not as a separate
(with Napier XXIII and Napier
XXXVIII
following), ^^ but
work, but rather as the opening lines to what Bethurum prints separately
homily XIX. Although Bethurum evidently considered the four
as her
Napier homilies
as spurious,
Jonathan Wilcox has recently argued that the
three are certainly by Wulfstan, and the fourth
first
may
C^ my
(her
C^)
is
somewhat
different; there, the text
The
im^
CCCC
201
be.^^
mediate context of the second version of Bethurum XXI in
preceded by a
is
number of homilies (most immediately by Bethurum XVIb and one version of the Sermo Lupi ad Anglos IBethurum XX]), has the rubric
and
is
SERMO
LL7PI,
followed by a cluster of legalistic texts associated with Wulfstan,
namely
Institutes
of Polity 1.1-5 and 16-128, VIII /Ethelred,
I
Edmund,
Canons of Edgar, Gel)yncdu, Nordleoda laga, Mircna laga, Ad, and Hadbot, The manuscript context of Bethurum XXI in Cotton Nero A. i is some
what
similar to that in
of Polity
tutes
law code
CCC
201, with the text being preceded by
Insti-
11.41-57 and a version of Bethurum XX, and followed by the
V .Ethelred and Institutes
of Polity 11.1-9.^°
CCCC 201
therefore
exemplifies precisely the overlapping links between Wulfstan 's homiletic
and
legal writings, comprising as
it
does an interleaved combination of
both types of text, and apparently with both versions of Bethurum XXI ap^ propriately integrated into their surrounding manuscript context.^ ^ In
Hatton 113
(E),
by contrast, the immediate setting of Bethurum XXI
resolutely homiletic: the text
is
preceded by part of Napier
is
XXXVII and by
Zacher, "Shared Passages in Vercelli Homilies II and XXI: Artless Adoption or Artful Adaptation?" (forthcoming). I am grateful to Ms. Zacher for permitting me to read the paper prior to publication. ^* The extent to which this version of Bethurum XXI has been integrated into its manuscript context can to some degree be measured by the fact that its rubric, To eaUum folce, is the last in a sequence of rubrics all reading To foke or To eaUum folce; see Ker, Catabgue, 84.
"
Wilcox, "Dissemination," 200.
'°
See Wormald, Making of English Law, 200-1,
for a useful table
summarising the
for a useful table
summarising the
contents of Cotton Nero A.i. ^'
See Wormald, Making of English Law, 204-5,
contents of
CCCC
201.
ANDY ORCHARD
318 a version of
Bethurum XX, and followed by Napier
XXXV
and the
rest of
Napier XXXVIL^^
Appendix
print below as
I
pears in Cotton
Nero A.
i
I
a simplified version of the text as
it
ap-
with significant additions, omissions, and
(1),
variants listed separately; the vast majority of remaining variants can be
summarized succinctly. The text in Hatton 113
(E)
is
characterized chiefly
by a number of minor (but generally consistent) spelling variants with I,
96;^^
for
-i-
re-
notably woruld- for worold- at 11, 19, 29, 33, 48, 59, 82, and
spect to
58 and 64;
at
-}f-
'7- for
at
-i-
69
(wcerscipes)
and 70; swytol
for swutol at 15; unweordige for unweordie at 30; hyrwede for hyrwde at 43.
Such
variants can easily be paralleled with respect to others of Wulfstan's
works preserved in scribe.^"^
E,
Other variants
and simply
reflect
in the E-text of
the habitual usage of that
Bethurum XXI include the
tution of one particle or preposition for another (on for for at 29; at 41),
J)e
and the
67);^^ again,
(occasional) omission of two-stress phrases (5
comparison with others of Wulfstan's works
substi-
ftcBt
and 66-
as preserved in
E
is
of
C are evident in a number of usages where C^C^ agree against El,
bly
instructive.^^ Likewise, the
-cETid-
predominant spelling habits of the scribe
for -end- in scendan (23)
and gewende
22
^^
[twice],
Note
Wulfstan ^^
25, 27, 29, 30,
39
[i>i\,
nota-
(52), drihtene for drihtne
(53), 'ost for -ast (27), ('')wurd'' for (-^weord- (30, 60,
19,
for
and 90),
-i-
for -y- (18,
45, 78, and 92),^^ swid- for swyl)-
that Wilcox, "Dissemination," 200, reckons Napier
XXXV
to
be a genuine
text.
Bethumm
incorrectly notes the retention in
E of the form worold-
at
48, but the
manuscript clearly reads woruldscame. ^^
in El:
See, for example, the critical apparatus to the version of Bethurum
Bethurum,
^'
ed., Homilies,
But note that
at
XX preserved
267-75, passim.
5 the phrase has been added to
I
later,
apparently by Wulfstan
himself.
Again, analysis of the critical apparatus to the version of Bethurum XX preserved Bethurum, ed., Homilies, 267-75 is revealing: whereas substitution of particles or prepositions does take place, it is interesting to note that the version of the Sermo Lupi ad Anglos in E is characterised above all by the addition of two-stress phrases to the text as found in I; see esp. 11. 9, 34, 40, 70, 94, 123, 161, 162, 163, 165, 180, 182, and 188. In the case of the only significant phrases in I not attested in E, at 11. 74 and 85, it is interesting to note that the phrases in question have been crossed out or otherwise ^^
in EI,
marked '^
for deletion.
hyrwde in C^ (incorrectly reported by Bethurum) at 43, I at 69 and 70, and synna in C^ at 85; see too onhisce in EI at 28, as against onhnysce (C^ and onhysce (C^) (both incorrectly reported by Bethurum). hit
Exceptions to
and
micele in
E
at
this trend are
58 and 64,
-scipes in
On
Editing Wulfstan
and
(22, 29,
45),^«
and -onO
C^C^
variant where
3J_9
23, 52, 56, 71, and 88).^^
for-an(') (7,
E and
generally agree, and
differ
I
noted: both texts in Corpus 201 tend to have world-, where
and
woroU' (11, 19, 29, 48, 59, and
I
where
96).^°
On five
three other texts agree in having
all
E has wondd"
occasions C^ has -a
(33,
-e
One
has already been
50, 89, and 95
Again, the level of consistency of spelling in both versions of
[twice]). "^^
CCCC 201
the text in
seems relatively high (the more so when compared
accuracy of the modern edition), and suggests carefulness in
to the
copying, rather than carelessness.
The pendix
division of the text into predominantly two^stress phrases in
determined according to the principles
I is
and followed, ty ^^
laid
example, by Jost in his edition of the
for
Ap'
down by Mcintosh, Institutes
of Poli-
Despite the objections of (amongst others) Whitelock to such a lay^
out,^^
XXI
it is
abundantly clear that the manuscript punctuation of Bethurum
an arrangement, which, more-
in all four versions supports just such
over, greatly facilitates closer analysis of the text.
and frequency of punctuation pointing
is
commonly found
varies at the
manuscripts,
^®
The
and only
style
between manuscripts, some form of
end of such
Mcintosh pointed out long ago with regard to "^"^
Even though the
two-stress phrases, as
essentially the
same
set of
rarely does pointing occur within the two-stress
exception to this trend
is
swi^ost in
C
at
27
(incorrectly reported
by
Bethurum). ^^
C^
at ^^
Exceptions to this trend are lufedon in I at 57, heonanford in C^ at 9, and utan in incorrectly reported by Bethurum).
87 (both
The exception
to this trend
is
woroldUcre in in C^ at
82
(incorrectly reported
by
Bethurum). ^'
All five examples are incorrectly reported by Bethurum.
^^
See n. 4 above.
^^
Dorothy Whitelock voices her objections
in the course of her detailed review of
Review of English Studies, n.s. 12 (1961): 61-66, at 66, where she claims that: "to stress in accordance with Mcintosh's theory does violence to the natural emphasis, and there are places in [Jost'sl own edition where the arrangement as verse is difficult, and at times it breaks down altogether. While it is undoubted that Wulfstan usu-
Jost's edition in
ally uses short syntactical
phrases containing two
stresses,
the printing of these as verse
rhythms and distract attention from the building up of a personal opinion which others may not share."
lines tends to obscure the subtler
his periods. ^^
Yet
this
is
Mcintosh, "Wulfstan's Prose," 25-26, contains an analysis of manuscript pointing of one section of the Sermo Lupi ad Anglos (Bethurum XX), which is, of course, found preceding Bethurum XXI in three of the four versions of that text considered here; Mcintosh's analysis also includes two other witnesses to Bethurum XX, namely Cambridge, Corpus Christi College 419 (B) and Oxford, Bodleian Library 343 (H). In the five
ANDY ORCHARD
320 phrase.
Of the
my
occurs by
ninety'Six such phrases attested in
reckoning at the end of sixty-seven
cent), but only five times within the phrase.
the
Bethurum XXI
version of
first
I,
six end-points in ninety-five phrases
The comparative
CCCC 201
in
some form of pointing of them (= 69.8 per-
XXI
in
C^), eighty-six end-points in 103 phrases
with three examples of medial pointing;
cent),
figures for
C^) are sixty-
(= 69.5 percent), with two examples
of medial pointing; for the second version of Bethurum
(my C^, Bethurum's
my
(her C,
CCCC 201
(= 83.5 per-
for E, fifty end-points in
ninety-two phrases (= 54.3 percent), with two examples of medial pointing.
The tem of
text in
pointing, and
is
i
(I)
exhibits by far the
most elaborate
therefore perhaps most in need of
more
sys-
detailed
Bethurum's assessment of the manuscript, moreover, that
analysis;
though
Cotton Nero A.
more
originally rather carelessly written, "it provides a
tive text of the homilies scripts","^^
authorita-
contains than do any of the other
it
al-
manu-
seems supported by the fact that the manuscript has evidently
undergone extensive
have been
revision.
Apparently incomplete words and phrases
filled out, generally
gode' at 59; 'sod' at 68;
above the line
(*gyt'
at 1; w'e' at 9; Jor
at 94); misconstrued forms
'sy'
have been
cor-
rected (herede at 41 has been altered from hered); the entire phrase ge-
wunede
.
.
.
leogan (54-55)
is
written over an erasure that evidently hides
a rather longer phrase (presumably similar to that preserved in
C^5-6
or
0^6-7?). Moreover, the fact that Wulfstan himself appears to have annotated the text
shown
is
particularly interesting given the
to have punctuated his
own
way
in
which he can be
material elsewhere ;'^^ as Ker notes:
"[sjentences written by Wulfstan are amply punctuated by
punctus versus
at the
(;)
end of the sentence and
means of the
either a simple point
(.)
manuscripts taken as a whole, points mark the ends of thirty-five out of forty (= 87.5 percent) two-stress phrases discerned by Mcintosh, whereas only six such points occurred in the middle of such phrases, always immediately preceding a tironian et linking the two elements of a doublet. While the cumulative percentage of phrases concluding with a
important to note that the figures for individual manulower: B has pointing at the end of twenty-five out of the thirty-four phrases attested (= 73.5 percent); C: twenty-six out of thirty-four (= 76.5 percent); E: twenty-six out of forty (= 66 percent); I: thirty out of
manuscript point
is
high,
it
scripts are (as in the case of
forty
is
Bethurum XXI) rather
(= 75 percent); and H: twenty out of
^^
Of.
Bethurum,
^^
An
excellent example
see above, n. 12,
ed.,
HomiUes, is
and 323-25).
thirty-four
(= 58.8 percent)
6.
found on
fol.
66 v of Copenhagen
GKS
1595 (on which
On
Editing Wulfstan
321 within the sentence. '"^^
or the punctus elevatus
of the simple type
'.')
which occur
stress phrase-divisions (14,
cide with the
Of
the five points
(all
in the middle of these artificial two-
22, 63, 88, and 90),
end of the manuscript
line,
all but one (at 63) coinwhere perhaps a point might be
inserted by a scribe in mid-thought; by contrast, however,
one might have
expected some kind of pointing at the end of five further two-stress
50
phrases which finish at the end of a manuscript line (11, 26,
end of a
page], 63,
and
end of the manuscript 38, 56, 59, and 86.
That such
65): at line all
all
[also
events, pointing, phrase-ending,
do coincide in seven instances
the
and the
at 5, 9, 34,
two-stress phrases lie at the heart of Wulfstan's composi-
tional technique can be further demonstrated by a comparison of parallel
phrasing in extant Old English. Bethurum notes that lines 15-18 of her text appear to
draw on a
brief passage
from the Sermo Lupi ad Anglos
(Bethurum XX), but gives a reference to only one version of that without noting that in fact the passage in question not only
text,
preserved
is
in all three versions of the Sermo Lupi ad Anglos (as she edits the text), but also that
Bethurum
XX
immediately precedes Bethurum
XXI
extant manuscripts (and in three of the four extant versions). of verbal parallels that links
works
is
in fact far
in all three
"^^
The
tissue
Bethurum XXI with others of Wulfstan's
more complex, as Appendix II below indicates. The list Appendix II is not intended to be exhaustive, but
of parallels given in
rather representative, and to offer
the diction of Bethurum either
composed by or
XXI can be matched more than
stress phrases identified in
The
to
which
elsewhere in a range of texts
closely associated with Wulfstan. Nonetheless,
surely striking that
still
some indication of the extent
it is
two-thirds of the (predominantly) two-
Bethurum XXI can be
paralleled in such a way.
distribution of such parallels again underlines the textual affiliations
of Bethurum XXI: although (perhaps unsurprisingly) the other Bethurum homilies are well represented, particular associations are revealed not only
with the three versions of Bethurum XX, forms of which precede Bethu-
rum XXI
in all three manuscripts (5-6, 11,
*'
Ker, "Handwriting," 318.
^*
The same
14-16, 22, 24, 33, 35, 40,
parallel is noted as a direct source (the only such source indicated) by Stephanie HoUis, citing Bethurum, in the Pontes Anglo'Saxonici database as found on the
World Wide
Web
at http://fontes.english.ox.ac.uk/.
^_^
322
ANDY ORCHARD
46, 48, 50, 78, 87, and 89),^^ but also with Bethurum Xc
(6,
13, 17, 28,
and 74) and Bethurum XIII (6-7, 14, 74, 75, and 87-88). No fewer than twenty Napier homilies are represented: I (24 and 89), XIX (6), XXV (6 and 13), XXVII (6, 14, 67, and 87), XXX (10, 13, 24, 74, and 87),
XXXV
(89),
XXXVII
89), XLIII (6
and
(6
75),
and
XL
13),
XLVII
(6
(6,
and
87, and 89), XLI
15),
L
78, 82, 87, 90, and 0^8), LI (6 and 11), LII (12),
75-76), LIX (6 and 0^8),
LX
(11),
and LXI
(82).
LV
L, LI, LII, LIX,
Of these,
as
ten have been
XXV, XXVII,
I,
LX, and LXI);^° seven have been argued to contain
XXX, XL,
borrowings from Wulfstan (Napier LVII);^^
XLII (6 and LVII (6 and
(6),
argued to have been composed by Wulfstan (Napier
XXXV,
(5),
(11, 17, 40, 67, 69, 71, 75,
XLII, XLIII, XLVII, LV, and
and only three (Napier XIX, XXXVII, and XLI)
are currently seen
having no direct link to Wulfstan beyond that implicit in the selection
of Napier's texts.^^ Particularly noteworthy are the sheer parallels
number of verbal
with Napier L, although in only one case (69)
XXL
question uniquely shared with Bethurum
extent to which the diction of Bethurum
other of the
many
the phrase in
Likewise striking
XXI matches
that of
texts (and versions of texts) edited by Jost
collective title of the Institutes of
examples of
is
Polity. ^^ I
parallel phrasing shared
other of the parts of the
is
the
one or
under the
note some twenty-two separate
between Bethurum XXI and one or
of Polity, appearing in clusters through'
Institutes
out the text (5-6, 8, 11-13, 17, 20, 24, 32, 35, 71, 74-75, 82, 84, 87,
89-91, 93, and 95). Again, the
fact that parts of the Institutes of Polity
actually appear in close proximity to
manuscripts containing the text
is
Bethurum XXI
overlapping of phrasing with Bethurum
law codes and legal texts
(at
in
surely significant.
XXI
two of the three
Other noteworthy
occurs with regard to sundry
4-5, 13-14, 19, 32-33, 35, 44, 57, 71, 74,
78-80, 82, 87, 89, 0^8, and CHO-18), various charters
and 91), and even
(at
specific versions of the Anglo-Saxon
11, 53, 71,
Chronicle
and
^^ For the sake of simplicity, in what follows I restrict my analysis to the ninety-six predominantly two-stress phrases of the version of Bethurum XXI in Cotton Nero A. i (as printed in Appendix I), except where noted.
^°
Wilcox, "Dissemination," 200-1.
'•
Wilcox, "Dissemination," 200-1.
^^ It is
worth noting that
in
none of
these last three cases
is
the phrase in question
uniquely shared with Bethurum XXI. ^^
44.
For the edition, see n. 4 above; Whitelock's important review
is
noted above, n.
On
323
Editing Wulfstan
associated texts (11, 39,
such
parallels
and
must await a
The
especially C^2-3).
fuller edition of all
precise significance of
the texts; their distribution,
particularly with regard to the larger variants, seems particularly revealing
with regard to the way in which the text has been altered in trans-
can shed
mission.^'^ Likewise, the identification of parallels
obscurities of the text, such as the otherwise unattested
apparently a
weak form of the
light
on
certain
form leadan
(56),
perfect of the verb lean ('to blame'), to
judge by the parallel phrasing found elsewhere in the extant corpus.^^ Spe-
mention
cial
might
in this context
of
Copenhagen
texts, since
GKS
1595.^^
made
also be
piece apparently written in Wulfstan's
Although
own
of the longest extant
hand, and found on
brief,
fol.
66v
the text (or perhaps better
the piece was evidently written at more than one
contains several verbal parallels with Bethurum XXI, ^^
is
sitting)^^
generously
pointed, and divides easily into pairs of end-rhymed mostly two-stress phrases, sporadically
words.
It is
ornamented by
hard to date such
alliteration
jottings,
and the repetition of key
come from the same
but they surely
period (and the same impulse) that caused Wulfstan to produce Bethurum
XXI: an edition which would incorporate both
texts
is
surely required.
Division of the texts into predominantly two-stress phrases, as sanc-
tioned both by manuscript punctuation and the identification of parallel
phrasing elsewhere in works associated with Wulfstan, allows detailed analysis of the structure of It is
clear that the piece
Bethurum XXI
and echo to an extent that
^^ It
in
each of
shows a careful concern is
its
variant versions.
for structure, balance,
often obscured in Wulfstan's edited homi-
(so far) no significant Latin source or analogue has XXI, but such an identification would radically affect the interpretation of the parallels shown. On Wulfstan's use of Latin source-material, see now J. E. Cross and Andrew Hamer, ed., Wulfstan's Canon Law Collection, Anglo-Saxon Texts 1 (Cambridge, 1999).
been
should be pointed out that
identified for
'^
'^
I
am
Bethumm
grateful to
David and Ian McDougall
for their
For a facsimile of the passage, see n. 12 above.
The
help in identifying this form. text offered by Ker,
writing," 320, supersedes that produced by Holthausen in 1890,
and includes
"Hand-
a smaller-
scale facsimile as plate VII. ^'
Cf. the
comments of Ker, who notes that: "Tlie writing and spacing suggest that was added to on three or four occasions" ("Handwriting," 320).
the original passage ^*
.
.
.
So, for example, one finds the phrases for gode 7 for worolde (cf. 11, 59, and 96), geomlice smeagean (cf. 93), and /)e godcunde lare (cf. 32), all in a text of little over 150
words.
ANDY ORCHARD
324
A
lies.^^
and
predominant theme of the piece
is
the contrast between secular
spiritual values, encapsulated in the phrase for gode
God's eyes and the
and
world's'),
7 for worolde
('in
through patterned repetition of
stressed
the phrase at the beginning, middle, and end of the text 96); the same technique of patterned repetition
tence (87-96) to highlight the "necessity"
is
(at
11, 59,
and
used in the final sen87, 91, and 95) for
Q)earf, at
change, a need further highlighted by the fact that the word in question appears in the piece elsewhere only at the very beginning of the
(i>earf)
text (at
4 and
8),
so providing a form of '"envelope-pattern" for the text
whole. ^° Other sequences of verbal parallels and contrasts only high-
as a
light the artistry
and balance of the piece
might point to the chiastic sequences C'wrong .
.
.
.
right
.
\vjrwan
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
hyrwde
right .
.
.
by capital
(;),
.
.
whole; .
.
.
so, for
rihte
.
.
example, one riht
.
.
.
.
despise
.
.
.
despise
punctuated in Cotton Nero A.
i,
in
the heaviest mark of punctuation employed,
letters to
.
.
unriht
,
wrong", at 13-14 and 37-38) and herede
herian ("praise
at 41-44).^^ In the text as
punctus versus
.
as a
unrihte
break the piece
down
.
.
praise",
.
which the is
followed
into eight sections (1-5; 6-23;
24-38; 39-46; 47-62; 63-71; 72-86; 87-96),
it is
striking that five of
those eight sections should begin with anaphoric repetition of
Ac
39, 47, 63, and 87),^^ in a fashion reminiscent of the technique
(at
24,
known
in vernacular verse as 'incremental repetition'. ^^ Likewise remarkable
^'
is
Previous attempts to discern structure in Wulfstan's writings have largely been Bethurum XX, the Sermo Lupi ad Anglos. See,
restricted to analyses of various versions of for
example, Stephanie Hollis, "The Thematic Structure of the Sermo Lupi,"
ASE
6
(1977): 175-97. ^° lett.
On the
envelope-pattern in Old English, see, for example, Adeline Courtney Bart-
The Larger
Niles, Beowulf: ^*
Though
Rhetorical Patterns in Anglo-Saxon Poetry
The Poem and
its
(New York,
Tradition (Cambridge,
MA,
1935), 9-29;
John D.
1983), 152-62.
the pattern evidently simply confused the scribe at
CH; he
simply re-
peated 44. ^^
might be noted that the only other example of the word ac in the entire piece likewise preceded by a punctus versus, this time without a following capital letter. At the same point in C^, however, Ac is capitalized (preceded by a simple point), while in E uncapitalized ac is preceded by one of only two examples of a punctus subversus in the text (the other is at the end of 15); there are no examples of a punctus versus (at
It
69)
is
in E. ^'
The term
is
borrowed from vernacular Welsh poetry; the standard study remains in the Early Welsh Englyn" Speculum 16
Kenneth Jackson, "Incremental Repetition (1943):
304-21. For a discussion of the feature in Old English, see Bartlett, Larger Rhetori30-61 (for the poetry); Orchard, "Oral Tradition," 102 (for an example from
cal Patterns,
Alfred's Preface to his translation of the Pastoral Care).
On
Wulfstan
Editirifr
325
the extent to which these self-contained phrases rhyme, albeit
range of endings (predominantly
should be a
is
fairly
occasional
is
is
surely offered
self-contained phrases found only in
seem to
fit
is
(at
on a no
limited
surely
coinci'
6-8), end-rhyme
I
(at
2-5), and there
individual phrases (as at 4, 11-12, 34,
Striking confirmation that such
a deliberate embellishment
text
formula
even evident in the rubric of
rhyme within the
96).^"^
-on): it
constant feature throughout the whole of the rest of the
such end-rhyme
55, and
and -an or
after a fairly standard introductory
dence that
text;
-e
54-
rhyme was recognised
by the fact that
many
as
of the
one or other of the versions of the
the rhyme-scheme of the context into which they are ap-
parently inserted
(see, for
example, C^8, C^2-3, and C^S). Awareness of
the dominant rhyme-scheme at a particular point in the text seems occasionally to
have influenced the choice of scribal
spellings, particularly
with
regard to the choice of endings in -on or -an.^^ Other kinds of sound-play include the artful employment of alliteration, in a
way which can be paralOld Eng-
leled not only in Wulfstan's works, but also elsewhere in extant lish prose;^^
notable sequences include 10-12, 31-38, 39-46, 55-57,
and 59-62.
The
appropriateness of the longest addition to the piece (C^lO-18) has
already been noted
on the
basis of
tively linking this piece to the
of
which indeed
its
more
immediate manuscript context,
legalistic texts
this text apparently borrows.^
'^
style of the addition are also perfectly tailored,
which
follow,
effec-
from one
But the language and echoing in matching
rhyming and rhythmical prose the contrast between secular and
religious
^ One wonders whether the taste for such aural repetition has led the scribe of I to produce the sequence gode syngode at 21-2 (and note that syngode is followed by a rare medial point, often used to indicate end-rhyme at the end of phrases); the other three versions agree in supplying a plural verb at this point. ^^
See above, 319.
^^
See
Angha 113
ftirther
Andy
(1995):
Orchard, "Artful Alliteration in Anglo-Saxon Song and Story,"
429-63.
See above, 316-17. One could make the same point about the first version of in CCCC 201 (my C), since the beginning of Bethurum XIX, which follows immediately in the manuscript without any break, deals with the theme of what awaits those who have loved God and kept his laws, by contrast with those who have angered God and broken his laws (see Bethurum, ed., Homilies, 251); such a theme effectively summarises the whole argument of Bethurum XXI, and it is surely striking how well both versions of the text in CCCC 201 have been adapted to fit their immediate manu*'
Bethurum XXI
script context.
ANDY ORCHARD
326 authority, emphasised at
7
criste
pounds (worldwitan
.
.
,
heart by the alliterative (and rhyming) doublet
its
7 cyninge, which
is
itself
foreshadowed by a brief
godcundan
rihtlagan worldlaga) all
series of
com^
emphasising the
same broad theme.^^ Likewise, the theme of chastisement and governance, highlighted in the lice
styrde
.
.
.
main
swyl)ast to steore
and sound-play
in the
main
DEARFE
.
.
mid
.
hwon wylde 7
(7 to
in the addition by verbal
and C^18]). The
text through both verbal repetition {worold-
woroldlice styrde [18-19]),
echo (foke
.
.
.
gewildan to
is
rihte
[C^13
emphasis on the need for such action, underlined again
the opening sentence (ealswa us pearf
phatically) at the beginning, middle,
utan don swa us ^earf
91, and 95])
[87,
to steore
(£)EODE
text by patterned verbal repetition in the title
[4]),
and 82]) picked up
woroldlicre steore [19, 27,
is
is
is [8]),
TO
and (most em-
and end of the closing sentence (Ac
... to gemcenelican ^earfan ...
7
ealre
peode ^earf sy
apparently further alluded to in the penultimate
phrase of the addition {manega for neode [C^17]).
It
would be quite wrong,
then, to characterize such an addition as a whimsical afterthought part of a careless scribe; rather,
it
is
on the
a thoughtful and carefully crafted
which echoes and develops themes and rhetorical techniques of the text as a whole, and which has a good claim to authenticity. The various (and variant) versions of Bethurum XXI offer a challenge
piece
modern readers and editors who would seek (and have sought) to separate them from their immediate manuscript context, their shared phrasing
to
with other works associated with Wulfstan, and, ultimately, even from themselves. Half a century and more of sporadic study has made it abundantly clear that both Wulfstan himself and other Anglo-Saxon authors
loved to tinker with his prose, evidently with more pleasure and passion
among
more modern
readership. But to read
than he managed to
raise
and
to appreciate the value of works in progress, of works
edit
Wulfstan
is
a
unfinished and amalgamated, works (and words) that have passed through several ears
and eyes and mouths and hands. The same
most surviving Old English
why
literature,
is
doubtless true of
and such a feature helps explain
successive generations of students and scholars of Anglo-Saxon Eng-
^® Such a contrast is, interestingly enough, a recurrent theme in literature associated with the court of King Canute; see further Andy Orchard, "The Literary Background to the Encomium Emmae Reginae,'' The Journal of Medieval Latin 11 (2001): 156-83.
On
Editing Wulfstan
land have
felt
327
the need to edit and re^edit the same texts to meet their
changing needs.
Even from
this brief analysis of
some of the
pitfalls
facing any would-be
editor of even the most minor of Wulfstan's surviving works, clear that with a different
it
will
and more manuscript-centred approach such
be as
that outlined above there remains huge potential for an increased under-
standing not only of Wulfstan's methods and intentions both in the composition of his works
the rary
manner and
and
in their
complex
inter-relationships, but also of
of the transmission and reception of those texts by contempo-
later readers. If the challenge of editing
Wulfstan
is
not to be un-
derestimated, the as yet untapped potential benefits of closer analysis along
the lines suggested surely invite just such an undertaking, and soon.^^
^' I
am
grateful to
David and Ian McDougall, Clare Orchard, and Samantha Zacher
for their help in the writing of this paper.
1
;
ANDY ORCHARD
328
Appendix
I
Bethurum XXI: Text and Literal Translation AFTER BL Cotton Nero a. i (= I), fols, 115v-116r 1
HER
2
RIHTLIC
IS
Here
'gyt'
3
WARNUNG T & SODLIC MYNGUNG
4
DEODE TO DEARFE
5
*GYME SE
and true caution as
;
WILLE'
{>E
6
LEOFAN MEN
7
Utan understandan
8
ealswa us
9
t*cet
t>earf
for
is
let us
as
.
.
7 waerlice
man
is
18
7 to
t>3es
in God's eyes
all
.
24 Ac sod
and the world's
and evident
is Ipcet
too long
just as
.
gode
oftost for
t>as
clear
controlled
one ought
for those
who most often
l^eode
and harmed
;
secge
.
But
it is
this nation.
true
what
I
say
heed who
him take that it may be
25 gyme se Ipe wille 26 Ipcet maeg on {^eode
let
27
mostly for chastisement
.
28 29 30
swyt>ast to steore \)cet
man
J)a
.
onhisce
swyl^e for worolde
7
in God's eyes
have sinned greatly
.
ic
little
and in the eyes of the world restrainted
scolde
swyt>e
it is
and too
19 7 woroldlice styrde
7 scendan
in order
affairs
turn to right
.
hwon wylde
20 swa swa man
23
our
that one has been slack about that
ealles to lange
.
we henceforth put
latode
\)cet
l^e
necessary for us
so that
for
17
22 syngode
is
understand
swutol 7 gesyne
16
21 l^am
will.
and from wrong
to rihte
.
who
wisely and carefully
.
13 7 fram unrihte
15 fort>am hit
take heed
at all times
gode 7 for worolde
14 gebugan
necessary for the nation;
him
Dear people
.
w'e' heonanford fadian
12 wislice
is
let
10 symle ure wisan 1
another
is
proper warning
.
3 1 aeghwar on lande
in this nation
that they are reviled greatly in the world
and paid no honour
hy unweorSie T
will
anywhere in the land,
On 32 33
329
Editing Wulfstan
godcunde
J^a l^e
lare
34 wyrdan 7 scyrdan 35 on aenige wis an 7 l^urh
\)cet
man
gewunian
37 38
man
\)CBt
reduce and diminish
.
in any
40 wide on 41 te man
42 43 44 45 46
Ipcet
earde
man
7 to for5 \>cet
man
that right
.
wyrse
And
.
J)CEt
it
shall
that
hyrwan
scolde
upheld
is
renounced.
therefore
it is
the worse
it
has often been praised
what should be despised
.
hyrwde
and despised too much
scolde herian
what should be praised
;
and hated too much
scolde lufian
what should be loved.
;
47 Ac hwilum J^a hit god waes 48 eal he wear6 to woroldscame 49 se t>e stod on mane .
.
on misdaede
50
7
51
aenige hwile
be ensured
widely in the country
.
herede
7 la5ette to swyt)e
man
is
and wrong
;
is J^e
oft
and through that
sceal
riht healde
hit
t>y
way
.
7 unriht alaete
39 Ac
teachings
and worldly laws
.
.
36
who God's
those
.
7 woroldcunde rihtlage
|
And
once in the good old days
he was entirely disdained
who was
caught in crime
and in wrongdoing
[116r]
at
.
any time
52 butan he gewende
unless
53
the more swiftly to his lord;
to his drihtne T
J)e rat)or
54
7 se
55
Ipoet
and he who was accustomed
gewunede
l^e
he wolde leogan
56
ealle
57 58
\>3i\>c
7 l)a
hine leadan
they
'for
60
wislic 7 weor51ic
61
\>3i
62
7 unriht ascunode
63
Ac nu
64 65
7 mycele
.
gode' 7 for worolde
t>e
.
\>e
.
blamed him
who
and then in
lies
loved God;
it
was in the nation
God's eyes and the world's
wise and honourable
.
riht lufode
\)mc6
all
those
T
hyt waes on {^eode
59
se
to telling
.
.
god lufedon
man
he turned
.
;
waerra
snotera T
5e can mid leasungan
when
right
was loved
and wrong detested. But now he seems the more cunning and much the cleverer
who can with
lies
.
ANDY ORCHARD
330 66 waewerdlice werian 67 7 mid unsode
successfully survive;
T
and with untruth
.
68 69
ac
70
7 ealles
oferswiSan
'sod'
wa him
t>aes
t>aes
riht
but woe to him for that cunning
waerscipes
and
weordscipes
71 butan he geswice
72 La
overcome truth
T
is Ipcet
;
we
Lo
lufian
73 b^ \>e god lufian 74 7 hetelice ascunian l^a \>e
honour
that
right that
who
love
we should
those
T
76 7 naenne gemanan
who
anger God;
and no association
we have with them
77
aer
wid
78
aer
J^am
79
7 geornlice betan
.
and eagerly improve.
80
7 se 5e
.
And
t)a \>e
should
.
hy gebugan
t>aet
nelle
81 ehte
we
82 mid
woroldlicre steore
83
his ealle
before they submit
.
Ac
lest
7 anraede
And
let us
do
as
is
God
with regard to
common
and in addition to
96
for
7 ealre t>eode t»earf sy
needs;
this
eagerly consider
.
fela [^aes J^e raed 'sy'
necessary for us:
and become resolute
t>earfan T
94 95
their punishments.
and maintain God's laws
7 gyt hertoeacan
geornlice smeagan
is
let us please .
weordan
91 to gemaenelican
92 93
Jjearf
.
.
their sins
and afterwards with
utan don swa us
[do] that
him
we have
now with
88 utan god gladian 89 7 godes lage healdan
90
not
any association
.
.
will
persecute
with worldly restraint
.
we habban gemanan
J)e laes t>e
;
87
he who
let us all
.
84 aenigne 85 nu heora synna T 86 7 eft heora wita
love
God
and detest with loathing
god graemian
habban
it is
those
.
75
all
unless he desist.
much that may be advisable and may be necessary for the
.
entire
nation
gode 7 for worolde
;
in God's eyes
and the world's.
On
331
Wulfstan
Editirifr
Significant Additions, Omissions,
AND Variants Instead of 1-5:
C^ 1
C^l
TO EALLUM FOLCE SERMO LUPI
TO ALL FOLK SERMON OF WULF[STAN]
E omits 5 Between 11 and 12: C^2 sume daele rihtlicor
C^3
l^onne
we
aer
in
some
part
more
correctly
than we did before now
didon
Instead of 26:
C^2
l^aet
C^3
7 be heora bysne
maeg be sexena raede
that
may according to the lesson of the Saxons
on
J^eode
and according to
their
example in
nation
Instead of 45:
C^
7
ascunode to swi6e
and shunned too much
Instead of 46:
C^4
\)xt
man
scolde herian
50 and 51: on misdaeda aenige
what should be praised
Instead of
C^5
7
Instead of
C^5 C^6
7 se
and in any wrongdoings
54 and 55: l)e
oftost
wolde leogan
on
his
wordon
and he who would
most often in
his
tell lies
words
Or:
C^6 C^7
7 se
\)e
oftost
wolde waegan
on
E omits 66-67
his
wordon
and he who would deceive most often
in his words
this
ANDY ORCHARD
332 Between 70 and 71: C^8 t^eah he swa ne wene
though he should not expect so
Instead of 72:
C^7 C^9
La
leof riht
is ]pcBt
La
leof riht
is \>cBt
we we
we should is right that we should
lufian
Lo, dear,
it is
lufian
Lo, dear,
it
right that
Instead of 89:
C^S
7 godes lage
After 96:
giman
and maintain God's laws
love love
1
On
333
Editing Wulfstan
Appendix
II
Bethurum XXI: Parallels with Other Texts Associated with Wulfstan 1
HER
IS
[gyt]
2
RIHTLIC WARNUNG
3
7
4
DEODE TO DEARFE
5
[GYME SE PE WILLE]
SODLIC
MYNGUNG
NONE NONE NONE VI/Ethelred40;IICnut
11
Bethurum XI.99 and 187; XVII.14; XIX.82; XXb.ll; Napier XLI.l; PoUty 1.46
6
Leofan
men
(=
11.63);
Bethurum Ib.3;
Cnut 26
I
11.28
and 69;
III.27
and
74; IV.3 and 37; V.8; VI.3, 21, 96, and
214; VII.3, 19, 26, 78, 88, and 104;
VIIa.3 and 17; VIIIc.3, 29, 100, 116,
and 156; Xc.3, 20, 39, 71, 76, 121,
and
141,
196;
X1II.3,
32,
42,
53;
XIV.3, 46, and 53; XV.3, 13, 27, and 69; XVII.9, 63, and 74; XVIII.3, 66,
and
108,
91,
124;
XIX.3 and 41
XXa.3; XXb.7; XXc.7; Napier
XXVII.2 and
XXV.2
28; XIX.30, 73, 97, 173
225; XXXVII.3; XL.2 and 117; XLII.2
XLIII.81 and 109; XLVII.2 and 25 LI.2;
LV.21; LVII.2;LIX.2; Office 8.27
PoUty
11.56,
XVI. 1
(twice),
XIX. 1,
XXIII. 1; Be sacerdan 142
7
utan understandan
8
ealswa us
9
{Daet
t>earf
Bethurum
Polity 1.125
is
we heonanford
VIIIc. 1 20; XIII.55
fadian
10 symle ure wisan
(=
11.231)
SEE BELOW, 10 Napier XXX. 14 (ealle
ure wisan rcediice
fadian) 1
for
Gode
7 for
worolde
Bethurum XXa.64; Napier XLVII.8 and 12; L.14 (twice), 54, 99, 206; LI.14 and 19;
LX.6 and 28; Handbook 76 and 87;
Polity I.6a, 7, 15, 34, 57; II.6a, 18, 40.
41. 85,
101.
184; VIII.4. 6; XVI.8;
ANDY ORCHARD
334
XVIIL2; Charter S566.28; 914.15;
C 12 wislice 7 waerlice
D 959.16,
1011.28,
Napier LII.2;
ASC
1011.29, 1019.2 66*, and 118;
Polity 1.38,
11.102 and 224
Bethurum Xc.60 and 118
13 7 fram unrihte
(fram
yfele);
Napier XXV.57, XXX.229 {gebuge czk cristen
man
georne fram unrihte to
XXXVI.42, XXXVII. 13
(/?^t
rihte),
man fram
unrihte gebuge to rihte); Polity 11.167 (and
man fram
gebuge ode
Cnut 67
unrihte to rihte)\
II
(georne fram unrihte gecirran eft
to rihte)
Bethurum XIII. 53
14 gebugan to rihte
7 gebugan georne
(7 forbugan celc unriht to
XXa.119;
rihte);
XXb.165; XXc.190; B3.2.41/63 (and forbugan
celc
unriht
/Ethelred 4.1
6a
(to rihte
lagu
15 fort>am hit
is
swutol 7 gesyne
45
XLVII.3 latode
J^aes
I
Cnut
gebugan)
hit is
on us eallum swutol 7
XXb.125
XXc.126
man
gebugan);
gebugan); hiordhymbra preosta
(to rihte
(Fordam
t>aet
(to rihte
to
V
L.88;
Bethurum XXa.48; XXb.61; XXc.53 sene);
16
and gebugan georne
XXVII.24;
Napier
rihte);
(swutol (hit IS
7
(swutol
7
gescene);
ge-
gesene);
Napier
swutol and gesyne)
Bethurum XXb.121 ealles to lange);.
(f)CEs
XXc.
na ne
(f)ces
gelatige
na ne
latige
ealles to lange)
17
Bethurum Xc.81; Napier L.61 and 172;
ealles to lange
Polity 11.91
18 7 to hwon wylde
NONE
19 7 woroldlice styrde
EGu
20 swa swa man
Bethurum V.29;
21 t>am
l^e
scolde
oftost for
Gode
Prol 2 (woruldlice steora) Polity 1.64; 11.92
NONE
22 syngode swyj^e 23 7 scendan J^as J^eode
BethurumXXa.l08;XXb.l50;XXc.l52
24 Ac sod
Bethurum
is Jjaet
ic
secge
NONE IX. 143; XI. 137; XVIII.74;
XXa.33; XXb.39;
XXc.37 and
186;
On
Editing Wulfstan
335 Napier
XXX.38; XXXVILl; PoUty
1.76;
1.32, 39, 62; 11.39, secge, gelyfe, se
sod
25 gyme se \>e wille: 26 taet maeg on J^eode
27 28
swyt>ast to steore
29
swyt)e for worolde
30
7
Jjaet
man
onhisce
\>a
15,
l)CEt ic
32
J)a t>e
Polity
33
7
\>cet
(Ne
oenig
man
ne
and 81; Be sacerdan
11.20, 22,
Cnut 84.4a
II
Bethurum XXa.98; XXb.136; XXc.141 igodcundra (J?e
rihtlaga);
VIII /Ethelred 36
godcundan rihtlagan woroldlaga
to
Hadbot 11
tan);
34 wyrdan 7 scyrdan 35 on aenige wisan;
wille)
he huxiice onhisce)
136 and 152;
woroldcunde rihtlage
gecnawe, se be
Bethurum Xc.95
31 aeghwar on lande lare
secge,
^oet ic
is,
B 13. 4. 13 (Ac
NONE NONE NONE NONE NONE
godcunde
(sod
SEE ABOVE, 5 and 24
gewunie
hy unweor6ie
90
f>e wille);
i^e to
godcundan
an);
Grid 24
dan
rihtlagan woroldlaga hiscpan)
(^e cerest gesettan to
set-
rihtlag-
godcun-
NONE Bethurum
11.56;
VIIIc.156;
IX.77;
XXa.28; XXb.34; XXc.33; Canons 1.56 [=
11.59]; Polity 1.107; 11.212; VIII.9;
VIII^thelred33;IICnut5.1
36
7 t>urh
37
t^aet
man
t>aet
sceal
gewunian
man
riht healde
38 7 unriht alaete 39 Ac l^y hit is Jdc wyrse
NONE NONE NONE Bethurum V.23 wide
on
(B3. 3. 28/169:
^
/)e
wyrse
of St
Neot
(7 dees hit
worulde);
Life
hit is j)e
is
wyrse wide on
eorde)
40 wide on
earde
SEE ABOVE, 11.43; III.4
39;
Bethurum
lb. 18;
and 53; V.23; XXc.7 (wide
on worulde); Napier L.152 (wide on worolde)
41
t>e
man
oft
herede
SEE BELOW, 46
ANDY ORCHARD
336 42 43 44
JDaet
man
7 to for5 t^aet
man
scolde hyrwan
hyrwde scolde herian
SEE BELOW, 46 SEE BELOW, 44 and 46 SEE BELOW, 46; Grid 21 hyrwan
oft
45 46
7 layette to swyt»e l^aet
man
scolde lufian
\>(Zt
(7 agynnad
hy scoldan herian)
SEE BELOW, 46 Bethurum XXa.108 (And
J)urK
f)CEt
J)e
man swa deb pcet eal man hyrwed dcet man sceolde herian 7 to ford laded ^cEt man sceolde lufian ); Bethurum XXb. 150 (And l)urh \>czt se man swa ded ^oet man eal hyrwed \>oet man scolde herian, 7 to ford laJdet ^cet man scolde lufian)-, Bethurum XXc. 152 (And ^urh ^ast J)e man swa ded ^oet man eal hyrwed ^cet man scolde heregian 7 to ford ladet ^ozi man scolde lufian)
47 Ac hwilum t>a hit god waes 48 eal he wear3 to woroldscame 49 se t>e stod on mane 50 7 on misdaede
NONE Bethurum XXb.ll6;XXc.ll9
SEE BELOW, 50 Bethurum XXc. 165 (mana 7 misdoeda ungerim
ealra)
51 aenige hwile
Canons 47
52 butan he gewende 53 \>c rat>or to his drihtne;
SEE BELOW, 53 Charter SI 487. 46 (buton he
i>e
hra^or
ongen wende)
54 55
56 57
gewunede
7 se
l^e
l^aet
he wolde leogan
ealle t^a t>e
hine leadan
God
lufedon
NONE NONE SEE BELOW, 57 Bethurum V.16 lufiende);
XIX.3
/Ethelred 26
(boclare leande
(da
(eal
\>e
God
swylc
is
7 unriht
lufedon)-,
to
VI
kanne 7
ncefre to lufianne)
58 And JDa hyt waes on J^eode 59 for Gode 7 for worolde 60 wislic 7 weordlic
NONE SEE ABOVE,
11;
/Elfric, Letter to
SEE BELOW, 96
Wulfstan 1.110
(ac for
l)am wurdscype and l)cem wisdome); /Elfiric .
.
.
Letter to Sigeweard
572
(swide wislice
swide wurdelice); Canons 1.59 [=
11.59] (wis
and weordfuU)
On
Editing Wulfstan
man
61
\>z
62
7 unriht ascunode
63
Ac nu
337
riht lufode
l^inccJ J^e
waerra
64 7 mycele J)e snotera 65 se 5e can mid leasungan 66 waewerdlice werian 67
7
mid unso5e
NONE NONE NONE NONE NONE NONE Bethurum IX.42
(7 can him gescead he-
tweox sode 7 unsode); Napier XXVI1.7
and L.73
68 so3 oferswi^an
unsod
(hiivian
Bethurum
IX. 133
to sode)
mid unsode sod
(7
oferswidan)
69 Ac wa him
t>aes
waerscipes
Napier L.77
and
70
7 ealles
l^aes
weor5scipes
wa heom
(ac
^ces wcerscipes
ealles Ixzs weordscipes)
SEE ABOVE, 69 Bethurum VL88; XVIII. 104; Napier
71 butan he geswice
L.172;
Polity
Nordhymbra preosta
101,
11.91,
1.63;
157;
lagu 61.2; Charter
S1232/11;S1406/21
72
La, riht
73
{^a l^e
74 7
is t>aet
God
we
lufian
lufian
hetelice ascunian
SEE BELOW, 74 SEE BELOW, 74 Bethurum Xc.85
(lufie
.
.
ascunie);
.
XI. 227 (Lufiad rihtwisnesse 7 unriht ascuniad);
XIII.24 (God lufian ... 7 deofol
and 100
ascunian)
georne 7
XXX.86 god
(7 utan lufian riht
(uton georne lufian
and da
lufad,
Napier
unriht ascunian);
celc
Icetan
|)a ding,
pe
and ascunian,
/)e
gode lade synd); Bazire and Cross VII
(B3.2.41/102: swa ^cEt
j?u lufige \>a \)ing
^e god lufad and
\>a \>ing
ascunaS)',
1.5,
Godes
riht lufie
Edward doet
Polity
1
.
1
(7
ascunian
elred 6;
and unriht
/><xt
(i)cet
dcet he ascunode);
7
eal
he
ascunie); II
lufian dcet he lufode,
7
VI /Eth-
Cnut 1020.15; Swerian
lufian dcet he lufad
^ god
ascunige
68; 11.20
1
(7 eai
ascunian dcet he
ascunad); Episcopus 9
75
t>a 1)6
God
graemian
Bethurum XIII.92 Napier XLIII.3
(/)e
Q)a de
God
nu god
gremiaS); gremiad);
ANDY ORCHARD
338 L.145
swa
hig
(/?e
god
gremiaS);
LVII.182; PoUty 1.163
76
7 naenne
77
aer
wi3
78
aer
J^am
gemanan
Napier LVII. 161
SEE BELOW, 84 BethurumXXa.119
habban
t>a t>e
hy gebugan
{gehugan ... 7 hetan
swide georne); XXb.165; XXc.190; pier L.2; ...
7
V
Na-
/Ethelred 5 {gebuge georne
VI ^thelred 3a
bete);
79
7 geornlice betan
Bethurum XIV.41; Handbook 113; VI ^thelred 1; X ^thelred 1; I Cnut
80
7 se de
V
18.1 {^aet
nelle
^thelred
and
81 ehte we
5.4; VIII
84
aenigne
^thelred 10.1
Polity/
7 eft
IL9;
BELOW, 84 .
.
cerdgne
.
habban
gemanan
to swide)
NONE NONE
85 nu heora synna
86
77;
1.84 (ncefre
worldlicre cydde
1.7;
^thelred 15 and 38
prol 2; VIII
SEE ABOVE,
we habban gemanan
t>e laes t>e
VI ^thelred 4
Napier L.24 and LXI.31; PoUty
steore
EGu 83
9.2;
NONE
his ealle
82 mid woroldlicre
and
7
heora wita
87 Ac utan don swa
us t>earf
is
Bethurum
VIIIc.125 and 174;
III.74;
XIII.53; XXa.119; XXb.165;
XXc.186
and 190; Napier XXVII.24; XXX. 14;
88 utan God gladian 89 7 Godes lage healdan
XXIV.40; VIII ^th-
XL.2; L.88;
Polity
elred 43;
Cnut 68
II
Bethurum XIII.63
Bethurum XXb.34;
III.29;
V.81; IX.56; XXa.28;
XXc.33;
Napier
1.57;
XXXV.57; XL.121; XLII.284; Canons 11.68 (Godes lage rihtlice healdan); Polity 1.77; VIII
90
7 anraede
weor5an
91 to gemaenelican
{^earfan
^thelred 30
Napier L.206;
Polity 11.41;
Polity 11.184 {and
mcenelicre ^earfe for ulde);
92
7 gyt hertoeacan
VIII.4
weordan anmode
Gode and
to ge-
for wor-
Charter S1533.2
Bethurum Xc.34
XL185
(7
fela
hertoeacan);
On
Editing Wulfstan
93
geornlice smeagan
339 Handbook 101;
Poiity 1.42, 120; 11.59,
226
94 95
fela t>aes \>q raed sy
96
for
7 ealre t»eode t>earf sy
Gode
7 for worolde
NONE Polity
XIX.12
SEE ABOVE, 11 and 59
Some Significant Additions, Omissions, AND Variants C^2
ANDY ORCHARD
340 worldwitan,
J?e
godcundan rihtlagan
to
woroldlaga settan, folce to steore, 7 Criste
7 cyninge gerihtan
j?a bote, l>ar
scolde
manega
rihte);
Bethurum XXa.98,
XXc.141
for
neode gewildan
igodcundra
C^12 worldlaga settan C^13 folce to steore
lU
to
XXb.139,
XXI.9
rihtlaga);
igodcunde lare 7 woroldcunde
Hadhot
man swa
rihtlage);
Grid 24
VIII /Ethelred 36 VIII /Ethelred 36; y^lfric, Letter
to Sige-
weard 359
C^14 7 Criste 7 cyninge C^15 gerehtan J^a bote C^16 l^ar man swa scolde C^17 manega for neode C^18 gewildan to rihte
VIII ^thelred 15 and 36 VIII ^Ethelred 36 VIII v^thelred 36 VIII ^thelred 36
VIII /Ethelred 15 (gewilde rihte),
36, and
40
man
hine to
(gewilde hi to rihte)
JOANA PROUD
The Cotton-Corpus Legendary into the Twelfth-Century:
Notes on Salisbury Cathedral Library
MSS
221 and 222
THE MANUSCRIPT WITNESSES OF THE Cotton-Corpus legendary were duced
late in the
Anglo-Saxon period, although
sion of the collection,
if
nesses ultimately derive,
it is
not the exemplar from which
came
pro-
believed that a verall
the extant wit-
to England by the late tenth century,
when
/Elfric used at least part of this as a source for his hagiographic writing in
Catholic Homilies
'
and
Lives of Saints}
Notwithstanding the great interest
For the seminal study of the Cotton-Corpus legendary see Patrick H. Zettel, 'Saints'
Old
and Vernacular Accounts: /^Ifric," Peritia 1 and the Latin Legendary Pre+ CCCC MS 9 and Other Manuscripts" (D.Phil, served in BL MS Cotton Nero E. diss., University of Oxford, 1979). See also W. Levison, "Conspectus codicum hagiographicorum," in Passiones vitaeque sanctorum aevi Merovingici, ed. Bruno Krusch and idem, Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Scriptores Rerum Merovingicarum 7 (Hanover, 1920), 529-706, here 545-46. Zettel's reconstruction of the contents of the legendary excludes items which are attested in only one copy, but the exact nature of the legendary used by /Elfiric is far from being established, and it has been suggested that the exemplar from which the extant witnesses derive was only introduced into England shortly before the Worcester copy was made c. 1060. See Martin Brett, "The Use of Universal Chronicle Lives in
English: Latin Manuscripts
(1982): 17-37, based
on
his "/Elfric's Hagiographic Sources i
at Worcester," in L'Historiographie medievale en Europe, ed. Jean-Philippe
1991). 277-85, here 283, n. 28.
Gendt
(Paris,
JQANA PROUD
342 which the
collection has for source study relating to
hagiography, the witnesses can scribes
1060-1200, and
it is
ways that
us a great deal about the
tell
responded to the demand
Old English prose
for Latin
this line of enquiry
hagiography in the period
which
I
wish to pursue here,
fo-
cusing upon two manuscripts: namely, Salisbury, Cathedral Library 221
and 222.^ Several
worked on the copying of
scribes
of these have been identified by Teresa
Webber
this collection;
as scribes
working
most
at Salis-
bury Cathedral in the period 1075-1125, more precisely 1078-1099.^ Detailed information about the collation of the manuscripts has
orded by Neil Ker, and
this,
been
rec-
together with the palaeographical analysis
undertaken by Webber, forms the
basis of
my
reconstruction of the copy-
ing processes."^
The into
Salisbury copy of the Cotton-Corpus collection
two volumes, but
it is
is
now
not clear that the division took place
divided
as part of
the original design or even shortly after the production of the collection,
although the
size
of the manuscripts might have
made
this desirable
the outset. Together, the extant collection occupies almost 600
each measuring around 365 x 250
mm. Such
from
folios,
physical dimensions suggest
that the copy was intended for reading aloud, although Ker
comments
that
may have been slightly inconvenient due to the practice of writing in The added markings for lections in Salisbury 222 indi-
this
a single column.^
cate that at least part of the legendary was being used within a liturgical
context during the medieval period.^
Formerly Oxford, Bodleian Library, Fell 4 and Fell 1 (S. C. 8689 and 8688). I am Dean and Chapter of Salisbury Cathedral for permission to examine this manuscript, and I owe special thanks to Miss Suzanne Eward for her help. ^
grateful to the
^
Teresa Webber, Scribes and Scholars at Salisbury Cathedral
c.
107 5-c.
1
125 (Oxford,
1992), 16. ^
N. R. Ker, Medieval Manuscripts
in British Libraries, vols.
1-3, and with A.
J.
Piper,
4 (Oxford, 1969-1992), 4: 257-62, hereafter cited as Medieval Manuscripts. The contents of the manuscripts are listed by both Ker and Webber. Item numbers cited here follow Ker's account. See also Neil R. Ker, "Salisbury Cathedral Manuscripts and Patrick Young's Catalogue," Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Magazine, 53 (1949): vol.
153-83, esp. 159-61 for details of the seventeenth-century provenance of five manucontaining saints' lives, among them the two volumes of this legendary.
scripts
' N. R. Ker, "The Beginnings of Salisbury Cathedral Library," in Medieval Learning and Literature: Essays Presented to Richard William Hunt, ed. J. J. G. Alexander and M. T, Gibson (Oxford, 1976), 23-49 and plates III-VII (26).
fols.
A
contemporary calendar, now London, British Library, Cotton Vitellius A. xii, 65v-71, seems unlikely to have been usefiil in conjunction with this legendary since
^
The Cotton-Corpus Legendary
343 ^
The material now found
at the original break
on Matthias, was written
a text
have been bound in with the
between the manuscripts,
early in the twelfth century but could
rest at
any time, and
its
presence does not
How-
constitute proof of the date by which the volumes were separated.^
by the time the thirteenth-century contents
ever,
flyleaf of Salisbury
221 was written,
it
list
and
text of Salisbury 221 (Primus
evidence of this contents
is
listed.^
Felician) ends imperfectly,
list it is
pasted onto a
appears that this manuscript was the
volume, since none of the texts in Salisbury 222
first
now
clear that the original
The
last
and from the
volume included
the rest of this and two further texts at the end, concerning Getulius and
The
Basilides.^
loss of text at this
was the end of a volume,
this
point strengthens the likelihood that
as this
would have been a vulnerable point
of the book. Salisbury 222 has, at
some
stage, lost text at the beginning,
now
item
1
but the imperfect text that
is
head of the second volume.
the end of the volume, although this too
What
is
clear
is
that the
was not
There may
^°
first
volume
also
is
as
originally copied at the
have been text
it
now
there
is
from
stands was produced as
substantial booklets, perhaps simultaneously. Quires 1-28
two
lost
subject to debate.
(fols.
1-224)
considerable mismatch between the calendar and the legendary. Both texts seem
rather to exemplify the tendency towards encyclopaedic collection of feasts and texts in liturgical
books of
this period.
Wormald,
The
calendar
is
printed in English Kakndars before A.D.
HBS
77 (London, 1939) and 81 (London, 1946), no. 7. Wormald attributes the calendar to Exeter, but Ker associates it with Salisbury ("Beginnings," 39; 'Salisbury Cathedral Manuscripts," 156, n. 2). J
100, ed. Francis
The
'
text
is
not
2 vols.,
listed in either
which suggests that the logued by TTiomas Barlow.
lists,
The blank
*
The
list
leaf
the thirteenth-century or the seventeenth-century
was not appended until
space at the end of the
list
after the
suggests that
it
manuscript was cata-
was a complete inventory.
includes item 44 (Blaise) but not item 67 (Matthias). Ker, Medieval Manuscripts,
257, notes that the
The
list
covers items 3-18 and 20-68 of Salisbury 221, but this
now
is
mis-
but a later medieval hand has supplied the information that this was a Life of Martina. The second item is also damaged and only a few of the thirteenth-century letters are now visible. From this it is not clear what the entry might once have been, but there is no question that a text (probably concerning Basil) was present when the list was made. Furthermore, the list includes texts up to Ker's item 66, followed by a two-line entry which reads, 'Tassio Sancti Gethulii martyris / Passio Sanctorum martyrum Basilidis Tripodis 7 Mafndalis]"; there was no item 68 in Ker's leading.
first
item
is
lost,
account. '
These were probably
Thomas ^^
345.
lost
by the seventeenth century
as
they are not
listed
by
Barlow.
Item
1
in Salisbury 222,
concerning Faith,
is
acephalous. See the discussion below,
JOANA PROUD
344
of Salisbury 221 were written in one block mostly by a single scribe,
wrote items 1-43
Mark
who
1-223/2), leaving part of item 43, the passio of
(fols.
the Evangelist, unfinished. This scribe has been recognized as the
principal scribe writing in Salisbury in the late eleventh century to create
a collection for the newly established community. ^^ Early in his stint, at fol.
89 of Salisbury 221, the number of
to 36,
9mm
page
lines per
is
increased from 33
same time the space between the lines is decreased from to 7mm, which would suggest a conscious attempt to save valuable and
at the
materials. ^^
Webber
identifies the
hand of
scribe ix taking over mid'Sen^
tence to write five lines within this single
stint. ^^
This auxiliary scribe
did not contribute to the copying of the legendary at any other stage. final fifteen lines of the passio of
who
is
identified by
Ker
filled
*
as a
'director"
also written
on the
by another
Space originally
left
blank on the
last
The
scribe,
basis of his work, particu-
numerous Salisbury manuscripts and
larly his corrections, in dary.^"^
Mark were
two leaves of
in this legen^
this
block was
at the beginning of the twelfth century.
The second
block, consisting of quires 29-35
(fols.
225-77), was also
written in a continuous stint by one main scribe, with two others
intervened
briefly.
Webber
identifies the
main
scribe as scribe vi,
wrote items 45-53, leaving item 53 only partly copied. scribe took over, writing just a few lines before scribe vi
An
who who
unidentified
resumed the copy'
A (Webber's iii). See Webber, Scribes work done by the scribes who contributed to this manuscript. All subsequent references to scribes follow Webber. '^ Ker, "Beginnings," 36, notes this change in layout at the beginning of the ninth quire; by my calculations, this is the twelfth quire. The same change in page layout occurs at fol. 89 in Salisbury 222 as well, but fols. 184-255 (quires 25-33) in Salisbury 222 are ruled for 33 lines while fols. 256-288 (quires 34-37) are ruled for 32 lines, with minor variation. It is possible that, in a highly organized scriptorium, three sets of eleven quires were ruled for 33 lines and these were distributed to the scribes responsible for each volume. When these were used up, or while they were being used, the next quires to be prepared were ruled for 36 lines, and another set for 32 lines. It may be conjectured that the instruction to alter the ruling came from the principal scribe, perhaps writing at the same time as the main hand of Salisbury 222, fols. 2-88v and the main hand '^
and
Ker, "Beginnings," 23, labels the scribe as
Scholars,
12-15,
for details of other
of Salisbury 222, fols. 184-255. The interpretation of the differences in layout throughout the legendary has implications for a reconstruction of the order of copying. '^
Webber,
'^
Ker's C, Webber's
Norman
script
Scribes
and i.
Scholars, 156.
See Ker, "Beginnings," 33-34, where he speculates that
may have been Osmund's. Webber,
instead that this scribe might have
Scribes
been an archdeacon,
and
Scholars,
this
138-39, suggests
possibly Hubald.
The Cotton-Corpus Legendary
345
ing to finish item 53 and continued to near the end of item 60.
The
copy-
ing must have been interrupted again at this point, as scribe xvi took over to write less than a page of item 60 before scribe vi returned again to copy
the rest of item 60 and at least another six texts. ^^ Such a pattern of short interventions by secondary scribes can be interpreted as a sign of
some of the books produced during this were copied in a hurry, with some scribes
haste in copying. Ker notes that
period of stocking the library
taking over the copying to write only a page or
times in the copying of the
less.^^
This occurs four
volume of the legendary, but
first
quent in the copying of the second volume;
it
is
more
fre-
appears that either inter-
ruptions increased or the pressure was greater to continue copying despite interruptions.
The second volume
of the legendary (Salisbury 222) was also copied in
booklets. Despite the presence of the lets, it is
neous.
same
two of these book-
scribes in
quite possible that the copying could have been mostly simulta-
The
first folio
of the second volume
is
from a
slightly later legen-
dary, identified as Salisbury Cathedral Library 223.^^
an incomplete
text,
concerning
St. Faith,
The
leaf contains
which ends on the
verso. It
was
bound with Salisbury 222 at an unknown date, interrupting the chronological order and the sequence of numbering in the collection, which was apparently copied from the exemplar.^^ fies
to the close association of these
presence in Salisbury 222
Its
Items 2-28 of Salisbury 222 were copied as a block on quires 2-12
'^
262v-77v, ending imperfecdy. The
Fols.
testi-
two legendaries.
The
last
quire
is
now
a five,
where the
(fols.
rest of
two leaves, fols. 276-77, are repaired along the inner margin and may once have been the inner bifolium of a quire of four bifolia. Originally there were at least two further texts in the volume, and these could have occupied two to three leaves, perhaps completing this quire. the quires in the manuscript are eights.
'^
Ker, "Beginnings," 24.
''
Webber,
Scribes
and
Scholars,
169-70.
last
It
is
smaller in size than the rest of the
legendary, and has only a single vertical bounding line, ruled in plummet, whereas the rest
of Salisbury 222
is
ruled in drypoint with double vertical bounding lines. There
also a distinct pattern of at least four
holes run through leaves **
which
fol.
1
to fol. 2, but they are
have been repositioned
The
text
is
at least
fol.
1.
no longer
Two,
possibly three,
is
worm-
aligned, indicating that the
once since these holes were made.
not included in the seventeenth-century list made by Thomas Barlow, it was either acephalous by this date, or was not present in the
suggests that
manuscript.
wormholes on
346
JOANA PROUD
2-88v).^^ Scribe v seems to be the
main scribe of this block, with help from three others. The main scribe wrote items 1-22 and part of item 23}^ few more lines of this text were then copied by scribe iii; then scribe xvi contributed one page of text, completing item 23 and beginning
A
item 24.
The main scribe then resumed the copying as The remainder was completed by an
of item 28.^^
with a few
lines of
blank space
left at
far as
the beginning
unidentified hand,
the end.
Items 29-50 of Salisbury 222 were copied as another block of continuous text
the
on
quires 13-24
first five
texts
(fols.
89-183). Another unidentified scribe wrote
and most of a sixth
completed by scribe xvi writing
fols.
(the Life of Berhtin),
through the passio of Adrian. With the exception of the tion of the
unknown
scribe, the
with help from scribe
main
initial
scribe of this booklet
midway
contribu-
was scribe
copying between ten lines and one
v,
which was
121-25.^^ This stint ended
folio.
xvi,
There
appear to have been interruptions during the copying of four texts.
The
Adrian was produced with two changes of hand.^^ Another
stint
passio of
of writing by scribe xvi produced
126-150/7, this time coming to a
fols.
halt after a few lines of the Life of Lambert.
It
took no fewer than seven
changes of hand between scribes xvi and v to copy lios.
^"^
on seven
fo-
Scribe xvi completed the Life of Lambert and began the passio of
Matthew, but again v.^^
this text
this required the
combined
efforts of scribes xvi
Scribe xvi then completed the text and continued to copy
all
and
of the
next text and the beginning of the passio of Firmin. Here again there must
have been problems,
as scribe
v and an unidentified scribe intervened to
'^ Ker's account in Medieval Manuscripts divides Salisbury 222 into blocks, identified by quire numbers. However, due to the confusion of labelling the leaf containing the Faith text as quire 1, the quire numbers given for the blocks are wrong: Ker's block of quires 2-11 should read 2-12, 12-23 should read 13-24, and 24-36 should read 25-37.
Also, the note that Barlow's 2° Fols.
list
omits item 2 (among others) should read 3.
l-75v/28.
2'
Fols.
77-85v/10.
^^
The
unidentified
hand
is
not the same
as that
which completed the preceding
block. ^^ It
was begun by scribe xvi writing up to fol. 125. Scribe v then wrote fol. 125v, who wrote fols. 126-50/7 to complete Adrian and several more
followed by scribe xvi texts. 2^
(v),
Fols.
150/8-36
154v-155v/24 ^'
(v).
(xvi),
150v-152v/12 155v/25-36
Scribe v took over to write
(xvi),
(v),
fols.
152v/12-36
156-157v/24
(v),
153-154/4
(xvi),
154/4-36
(xvi).
157v/24-158v, in the middle of the
text.
The Cotton-Corpus Legendary assist scribe xvi.
347
Scribe xvi completed this text and the remainder of the
block, leaving a small
amount of blank space
at the end.^^
Items 51-57 of Salisbury 222 were copied as a third continuous block
on
of writing
quires 25-37
found a numbered contents the manuscript, and which
184-288).
(fols. list
is
At
the head of the block
which was contemporary with the
now
crossed through.
It
includes
all
is
rest of
the texts
of this third block and another forty-three texts, which would have completed the series to the end of the year, followed by two additional items
out of chronological sequence.^^ priate to the Salisbury copy. It
The numbering
in this
list is
not appro-
matches the marginal numbering sometimes
copied with the texts, and probably reflects the numbering of the exemplar. Scribe vi,
who
continued to write
He
wrote the
list,
was the main scribe of
this booklet
184-286v/4, constituting almost the entire block.
fols.
shared the copying of the final text with three other scribes. ^^
end of the (Ker's
on
text,
A, Webber's
larged quire. ^^ least for
It
leaving
iii),
some blank space
at the
end of
the time being, and one might speculate that the exemplar was
fols.
On
the other
184-288 may be one booklet that has survived while other lost.
Zettel takes the view that the remainder of the
Ker, Medieval Manuscripts, 262, suggested that the missing three leaves of the last
quire in this block were probably trimmed to ^^
this en-
appears that the copying was considered finished, at
booklets have been
^^
The
288, was written by the principal Salisbury scribe
fol.
returned before the entire collection could be reproduced.^^
hand,
and
Ludwig
Bieler suggests that these last
remove excess blank space.
two
texts
were possibly early additions to the
exemplar, as they appear at the end of this legendary's contents
list, and at the end of Bodley 354, while the Worcester copy incorporates these within its collection. See Libri epistolarum sancti Patricii episcopi, ed. by Ludwig Bieler, 2 vols. (Dublin, 1952), 1: 13. See
also Three Eleventh-Century Anglo-Latin Saints" Lives: Vita S. Birini, Vita et miracula S.
Kenelmi and Vita ^*
vi
S.
Rumwoldi, ed. and
An unidentified
resumed
for fifteen
wrote a short portion ^^
The
trans,
by Rosalind C. Love (Oxford, 1996),
xxi.
hand wrote a few more lines of this text (fol. 286v/4-17), Scribe more lines (fols. 286v/18-32), then another unidentified hand
(fols.
286v/33-287).
288 is probably a singleton. As Professor Scragg has commented on another occasion, the intervention by a senior scribe to complete a text might have been to prevent a mechanical scribe from continuing the copying (D. G. Scragg, 'The Homilies of the Blickling Manuscript," in Learning and Literature in Angloquire
is
a nine; fol.
Saxon England: Studies Presented to Peter Clemoes on the Occasion of his Sixty-Fifth Birthday, ed. by M. Lapidge and H. Gneuss ICambridge, 1985], 299-316, here 303, n. 22). ^°
but
Ker, "Beginnings," 36, sees this section as originally intended to be a third
now bound
in with the
second volume.
volume
JOANA PROUD
348 collection was copied possibility that the
The
and then subsequently
There
lost.^^
is
exemplar was damaged or incomplete at
final stage of the original production
dary carried out by scribe
i,
who had
the further this point.^^
was the correction of the legen^
also contributed a
few
lines in the
booklet.
first
To
summarize these findings, the legendary was constructed
as a series
of five structurally independent units, with occasional variation in the size
of quires as scribes gauged the
amount of material
to be copied.
who
the booklets was the responsibility of a main scribe,
tance from others to keep the work progressing.
It is
Each of
received
assiS'
quite possible that
four of the five remaining booklets could have been produced simultane-
consistent with the notion that the legendary was being pro-
ously.
This
duced
in haste, although
is
Webber
observes that this
was uncommon in Salisbury books of bury scribe
may have begun
ond booklet of the
this period.^^
The
of production
principal Salis-
the work alongside scribes vi (writing the sec-
volume), v (writing the
first
method
first
booklet of the second
volume), and xvi (writing the second booklet of the second volume).
When scribe vi
had completed
most of the third block
his first stint,
he may have gone on to copy
in the second volume. Alternatively, scribe vi
may
have begun with the third block in the second volume, and then moved
on
to complete the
first
ginning with a fresh
volume
quire.^"^
after
The
the work of the principal scribe, be-
evidence of the ruling, as discussed
above, would support this alternative reconstruction of the copying.
In the copying of the second volume, the frequency of scribal alternation
is
particularly high, suggesting that the scribes involved
had other oc-
cupations within the Cathedral apart from writing, to which they were called during the copying.^^
^'
"/Elfric's
The
division of labour suggests strongly that
Hagiographic Sources," 12.
^^
Other lacunae certainly existed in the Salisbury exemplar: an unidentified scribe left two blank spaces in the text of Augustine's Life (item 30), clearly reflecting a gap in the exemplar since exactly the same lacunae occur in the Worcester copy, although these were later filled. Mario Esposito, "On the Earliest Latin Life of St. Brigid of Kildare," Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy (C), 30 (1912), 307-26, here 310, interprets this as evidence of a common immediate exemplar for both manuscripts. ^^
Webber, Scribes and Scholars^ 17. See also Ker, "Beginnings," 37, where the use of a fresh quire is interpreted as a sign of simultaneous copying of the two booklets in Salisbury 221. ^^ To estimate the time during which the main scribe of a block might have been absent, it is helpful to consider Michael Gullick's work on scribal productivity: "How Fast ^^
The Cotton-Corpus Legendary
349
there was a pressing need to complete the copying quickly, and that the scribes
who
strove to
fulfil
that need followed a highly organized working
procedure. It
seems probable also that the exemplar was divided into at
least five
booklets in order to be copied, and that these booklets were easily separated from each other so that breaks between blocks of quires coincided
with breaks between blocks of
exemplar
is
texts. ^^
Some more
information about the
afforded by the intermittent contemporary
bered "xviii", through to item 66, numbered
on Getulius and
**lx".
The two
were probably numbered
Basilides
numbering of items
numbers run from item
in the collection. In Salisbury 221 the
*'lxi"
20,
num-
missing texts
and
"Ixii".^^
Items 2-57 in Salisbury 222 are numbered **lxiii"-"cxviii", with a continuation, according to the
points to a
list
numbered exemplar
on at
184,
fol.
some
up to "clxi". The evidence
stage of the transmission
which
consisted of Salisbury 221 items 1-19 (or possibly only seventeen texts from this sequence),
20-43, 45-66, Getulius, Basilides, then Salisbury 222 items 2-
57 and the forty-three fruther items fol.
184, totalling over 160 items.
was returned immediately
listed in
One
the contents
list
of Salisbury 222
might assume that the exemplar
after the copying,
and
it
may have been used now lost.^^
elsewhere although the immediate manuscript witnesses are
A
short while after the Salisbury legendary as a whole was produced,
additional material was added to the collection.
end of the
first
block in Salisbury
The blank
space at the
221 was soon used for item 44
Did Scribes Write? Evidence from Romanesque Manuscripts,"
in
Book: Techniques of Production, ed. Linda L. Brownrigg (Los Altos
Making Hills,
the
Medieval
CA, and Lon*
don, 1995), 39-58. ^^
Further work on this aspect of the exemplar
^' It is
is
in progress.
two of the first nineteen items were not found in the exemplar, although all of these are found in the Worcester copy of the collection. An alternative explanation for the disjunction of the numbering might be that two items for "eodem die" were not counted in the numbering of the exemplar, or that this numbering reflects an even earlier stratum of the collection, before two of the texts were added. Another disjunction occurs between items 53 and 57 of Salisbury 221, numbered "1" and "li" respectively. The intervening three texts were either not numbered in the exemplar, or were not found there. In this case it seems quite possible that the numbering system may possible that
have counted items 54-56 as parts of item 53 since they are all linked together in the Acts of Nereus and Achilleus. ^* The other extant witnesses of the Cotton-Corpus legendary, apart from the earlier Worcester copy, are Oxford, Bodleian Library, Bodley 354 and Hereford, Cathedral Library, P. 7. vi.
JOANA PROUD
350 (Blaise). ^^
The added
text
out of chronological order, as the feast of
is
was usually celebrated on 3 February while the surrounding
Blaise
and 28 April
are 25
."^^
respectively
This was, of course, the
and
this reinforces
not found in the exemplar. There sion of this text: Blaise his feast
is
the likelihood that
no obvious reason
had an established reputation
was minor nationally ."^^ Also in the was written holding a
tury, a single leaf
first
is
The scripts
no
was
it
for the late inclu-
in Canterbury but
half of the twelfth cen-
brief text
on Matthias;
added at the end of the second block of Salisbury 221, now there
earliest op-
no other copy of the legendary
portunity for such an interpolation, but collection includes the text,
feasts
fol.
it
was
278, but
firm evidence of the date at which this occurred."^^
scribe of the Blaise text also
worked on other Salisbury manu-
produced in the early twelfth century, including Salisbury, Cathe-
dral Library,
223 (formerly
Fell 3, S.
scribes xv, xvi, xvii, xviii,
C. 8687) copied in collaboration with
and one other unidentified
scribe.
This manu-
script contains thirty hagiographic texts, also copied in five booklets. It
would have augmented the collection
mal overlap. Also produced
in the earlier legendary, with mini-
at this time
was the collection of
saints' lives
in Dublin, Trinity College, 174, containing thirty-six items, with
grouping of apostles and female
been used together
at Salisbury,
saints.
and are
certainly listed as a group in the
1622 catalogue compiled by Patrick Young, although physical location in the library rather than their
^^
^°
Webber, Blaise
Scribes
is
and
some
These three legendaries may have this
may
reflect their
use."^^
Scholars, 24, identifies the scribe as scribe xiv.
commemorated
14 June in the contemporary calendar copied at may represent a confusion, at some stage in the
at
Salisbury. This calendar entry, however,
transmission, of "Blasii" with "Basilii", as Basil the Great's feast of 14 June appears in
a
number of pre-1 100
calendars.
for the text, with a reference to
and
A later hand has noted on fol. its
136v the correct position
location between the texts for Vitalis, and Gervase
Protase.
His relics were the first acquired from Rome by Archbishop Plegmund for Canterbury around the beginning of the tenth century, according to Gervase of Canterbury, ^*
writing in the twelfth century. ^^
The
script
not identified
is
as a Salisbury
hand by Webber, and the
text
is
not
the thirteenth-century or the seventeenth-century lists, which suggests that the leaf was not appended until after the manuscript had been catalogued by Barlow. listed in either
It
may be
that the leaf was
bound
into the legendary
when
the manuscript passed into
the Bodleian Library. ^^
The catalogue
four volumes are lost
is
printed in Ker, 'Salisbury Cathedral Manuscripts," 167-72. These
numbers 157-160
and undatable,
in
Young's catalogue.
are of interest. Their existence
Two
ftirther
manuscripts,
now
was recorded in documents relating
The Cotton-Corpus Legendary
Webber comments on
this
351
copying activity that the Salisbury canons
appear uninterested in copying the
lives of
Anglo-Saxon
very successful saints such as Cuthbert and Wilfred,
bury
223.'^'^
saints, apart
who
Boniface, Guthlac, and Patrick could be added to this
along with other saints Nicholas, although
who had flourishing is
it
from
appear in Salislist,
English cults such as Giles and
clear that this copying took place a little later
than the production of the Cotton-Corpus legendary. The Cotton-Corpus legendary was copied at Salisbury without augmentation or other
cant development of
no time
there was
its
for additions to
be planned,
if
signifi-
may be
essentially continental collection. It
that
the copying had to be
completed very quickly, or there may not have been exemplars available
newly created
in the
lection, copied in the
library.
By
contrast, the Hereford version of the col-
middle of the twelfth century, incorporates the
lives
of several English saints and other saints important to the English."^^
Augmentation of the Salisbury legendary came in the form of other manuscripts, but nothing survives which might have adequately supplied the October-December ilar
texts missing
from the end of Salisbury 222. In a sim-
movement towards augmentation,
Cotton-Corpus legendary, held
at
the earliest surviving version of the
Worcester, attracted accretions in this
period to the beginnings and ends of
may not have been
original collection
to the
removal of
six
books from Salisbury
for
its
now divided volumes, but the much from the exemplar."^^
altered
loan to Archbishop Ussher in 1640 (see
Ker, 'Salisbury Cathedral Manuscripts," 159-60). Four of the six books
volumes of
saints' lives in Salisbury 221, 222,
and 223, and
having contained a Life of St Germanus catalogue) and the sixth is unidentified. identified as
^^
Webber,
*^
Unfortunately, only the portion for
Among
Scribes
and
(listed as
TCD
removed
A
174.
fifth
are the
can be
no. 69 in Patrick Young's
Scholars, 40, n. 32.
November and December
is
those included in the extant portion are the Anglo-Saxon saints
now
extant.
Edmund, Ead-
burh, and Ecgwine. ^^
For a brief account of the augmentation process, beginning in the third quarter of "The Contents of the Cotton-Corpus Legendary," in Holy Men and Holy Women: Old English Prose Saints' Lives the eleventh century, see Peter Jackson and Michael Lapidge,
and Their Contexts, ed. Paul E. Szarmach (Albany, 1996), 131-46, here 132-33); Love, xxi-xxiii. In the twelfth century, texts concerning Nicholas, Andrew, Frideswide, David, Margaret of Antioch, and Bede were added. The end-leaf containing part of a Life of Oswald, although written in the twelfth century, may have been added at a later binding. On the corrections to the manuscript, see also N. R. Ker, English Manuscripts in the Century after the Norman Conquest (Oxford, 1960), 53. As Rosalind Love points out (Love, Three Elevent/i-Century Angb-Latin Saints Lives, xx-xxi, n. 45) the alterations
Worcester to the collection require further attention.
made
at
JOANA PROUD
352 Possibly, the Salisbury
and Worcester legendaries represent a
slightly dif-
ferent approach to the Cotton-Corpus collection from that found in the
twelfth century, transmitting the collection without adapting
it
Anglo-Saxon or Anglo-Norman contexts. The process of making specifically English text, so that the only surviving
today are English, clearly began slowly.
and adapting
The work
parts of the legendary into
as a far-sighted
Old
to the this a
manuscript witnesses
of /Elfric, in translating
English, thereby stands out
achievement against the backdrop of the more conservative
treatment of the Latin text throughout the eleventh century and into the twelfth.
TIMOTHY GRAHAM
William Sir
L' Isle's Letters to
Robert Cotton
WILLIAM
L'ISLE (C.
Anglo-Saxon
1569-1637)
studies. In
is
a significant figure in the history of
1623 he published
A Saxon Treatise on the Old and
New; Testament, an edition, with accompanying English translation, oi JEXfric's Letter
Bible. This
to
Sigeweard enumerating and summarizing the books of the
was the most important publication in Old English in the
od between the
activity of the Parker circle in the 1560s
peri-
and 1570s and
the appearance, in the early 1640s, of John Spelman's Fsalterium Davidis Latino-Saxonicum vetus and
Abraham Wheelock's Old
English and Latin
edition of Bede's Ecclesiastical History and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.
While
A
Saxon Treatise was
L'Isle's
only publication in the
field,
other
evidence survives to broaden the picture of the range and nature of his activity as
brary,
an Anglo-Saxonist.
Two notebooks
Oxford (MSS Laud Misc. 201 and
of his
now
in the Bodleian Li-
381), contain his transcription
and translation of the Old English version of the psalms Psalter, his translation of the Old English Hexateuch and
on the book of Testament that
Judges,
and
are quoted
a compilation based
on
in the
Eadwine
/Elfric's
homily
his compilation of those passages of the
in the vernacular in
his close
Old
Anglo-Saxon homilies
—
examination of nine homiliaries in Cam-
bridge libraries. L'Isle sought to publish this material, but was unable to do so.^
He
was the owner of the Peterborough Chronicle (Oxford, Bodleian
See Phillip Pulsiano, '•William
L'Isle
and the Editing of Old English,"
in
The Re-
TIMOTHY GRAHAM
354 Library,
MS
the state in
Laud Misc. 636), and his ownership has materially affected which that manuscript has come down to us, for he inter-
leaved the original text with larger paper leaves on which he entered additional passages
and variant readings that he found
the Chronicle.^ There
is
he compiled a substantial Old
also evidence that
English dictionary, although sadly, no portion of
Seven
letters that L'Isle
two other copies of
in
it is
known
to survive.^
wrote to Sir Robert Cotton (1571-1631) con-
Old English while also Although portions
tribute to our understanding of his interest in
throwing light on other aspects of his scholarly
activity.
of the letters have been quoted in previous studies of L'Isle's work,
has hitherto been printed in
its
found in London, British Library, letters sent to
MS
Cotton; the seventh
is
Cotton in
none
Six of the letters are to be
entirety."^
MS
Julius
C.
iii,
a collection of
Harley 7000, a compendium
of miscellaneous correspondence mostly from the years 1620-1632. Letters 1, 4, 5,
and
7 are written in L'Isle's informal italic
while Letters
2, 3,
and 6
hand
are in his Secretary
damaged
four of the letters are dated (the date being
content of the other three
sufficiently specific,
is
hand
(see Figure 2),
(see Figure 3).
in
one
when
case),
Only
but the
considered in
conjunction with other evidence, to enable them to be approximately dated and to be placed at their correct points in the sequence. Five of the letters
were written during a period of several months ending in July 1622;
the sixth apparently belongs to the middle or late 1620s, and L'Isle sent
the
last in
March
1631, just two
from allusions within the
months before Cotton's death. It is clear must have sent other letters to
letters that L'Isle
Cotton, but these seem not to have been preserved; nor do
we have any
of Cotton's replies.
Discussion of manuscripts dominates the
manuscripts mentioned can be
identified.
only sharpens our knowledge of
how
letters.
The
L'Isle,
In most cases the
picture that emerges not
from
his
home
at
Wilbraham
Angb-Saxon Studies in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, ed. Timothy Graham (Kalamazoo, 2000), 173-206, here 198-205; and Timothy Graham, "Early Modem Users of Claudius B. iv: Robert Talbot and William L'Isle," in The Old EngUsh Hexateuch: Aspects and Approaches, ed. Rebecca Bamhouse and Benjamin C. covery of Old English:
Withers (Kalamazoo, 2000), 271-316, here 306-12.
nn.
^
See the commentary on Letter
7 below.
^
See the commentary on Letter
7 below.
^
For portions quoted, see Pulsiano, "William L'Isle and the Editing of Old English,"
3, 29, 32,
and 35; and Graham, "Early
Modem
Users of Claudius B. iv," 288-91.
355
William L'lsle's Letters near Cambridge, conducted his Anglo-Saxon studies; understanding of
how
it
also
enhances our
the Cotton library was used during the time of
its
founder, and of the methods Sir Robert deployed to develop his collection. L'Isle writes of
borrowing and returning several of Cotton's Anglo-Saxon
manuscripts, and indicates
Cambridge; he informs against
how
they were delivered between London and
Robert of
Sir
how he
has collated manuscripts
one another and entered variant readings in them; he proposes
changes of manuscripts, and serves
as Cotton's ''contact
man"
ex-
for obtain-
ing manuscripts in Cambridge; and he informs Cotton of the progress of his
own
publication projects.
was more than
own
just
The
letters
an Anglo-Saxon
emphasize, moreover, that L'Isle
The two
scholar.
manuscripts of his
that he offers to send Cotton are a cartulary of the Cistercian abbey
of Rievaulx, and a late-thirteenth-century copy of Latin and Anglo-Nor-
man works
relating to
Thomas
Becket; his allusion in Letter 7 to his forth-
coming edition of Heliodorus reminds us that this talented Anglo-Saxonist also the translator of works in Greek and French.^
was
In the edition of the letters that follows, ings but
I
have retained
L'Isle's spell-
have introduced some adjustments to the punctuation and
alization to bring
them more
into line with
modern conventions.
The
represent expansions of abbreviations.
capitItalics
upper, lower, and/or outer
edges of three of the letters (nos. 1-3) have suffered damage which has re-
moved
portions of text. Ellipses within brackets represent sections of dam-
age where
it is
impossible to reconstruct the missing text; letters or words
within brackets represent sections of damage where some or
all
of the lost
text can be conjectured with confidence. Following each letter, a
mentary elucidates the subject matter of the tions of the individuals
and books mentioned
Letter
MS Cotton Julius C. and spring 1622
^
(see
iii,
fol.
letter
and
com-
offers identifica-
therein.
1
244. Undated; datable between 23 April 1621
commentary).
The
top of the letter has been
lost,
and
In addition to his translation of Heliodorus's Aethiopica, published in 1631, L'Isle
du Bartas's La Sepmaine ou Criation du G. R. Redgrave, A Short-Tide Catabgue of Books Printed in England, Scotland, & Ireland and of English Books Printed Abroad 14751640, 2nd ed. rev. by W. A. Jackson, F. S. Ferguson, and Katharine F. Pantzer, 3 vob. (London, 1976-1991; hereafter STQ, nos. 13047 and 21662-21663. also published translations of portions of Saluste
monde (1596 and
1625). See A.
W.
Pollard and
TIMOTHY GRAHAM
356 damage has of the
also
removed the
first
three lines, and
first
all
word
in the
first
surviving line, the ends
but the tops of the letters of L'Isle's
signature.
[.
.
may
.]
my
say of y[our] aunswer to
I
againe, but sent
me
the
[.
.
.]
aunswer [...]&! most hartily thank you also so far foorth to deserue this
turne
For
made
the best use therof
.
you wrote not
.]
for
it.
My
ben I
re-
Thomas Sauuage; hauing
al-
my
could, both for
I
care hath
fauours, that
& you.
self
haue examined and amended both the bookes, eache by
I
other, as you
may
perceiue by
hould the more deare;
& pictures; also,
.
and other your
saufe ag[aine] by this bearer
it
rea[die]
lafst
which was the best kinde of
desired;
I
as
Which, bycause
this.
you may, both
for the
would not presume to keep from you
and Beda, you shal haue (god
due salutations
I
commit you
willing)
I
suppose you
volume, character
when
long. I
The
other
come. So with
& rest
to god,
Your
faithfiiU frende to
commaund
Wyll. L'ysle.
To my
lEndorsed:]
honorable frend
Sir
Robert Cotton knight at his
house by the new Exchaunge, London.
Commentary This
letter,
letters to
evidently the
first
in the sequence of L'Isle's surviving
Cotton, mentions three manuscripts that L'Isle has borrowed
from Sir Robert. All three can be
Cotton
for
identified. L'Isle begins
script. Later
comments
he
copy contains are
MS
is
on that he has now compared the two
in the letter indicate that L'Isle already has
loan another copy of the same text, copies, that
by thanking
responding promptly to his request for one particular manu-
returning the copy
illustrations.
more recently
received,
and that that
Undoubtedly the two manuscripts
Cotton Claudius B.
iv,
in question
the illustrated copy of the Old English
Hexateuch; and Oxford, Bodleian Library,
MS
Laud Misc. 509, which
once formed part of Cotton's collection and which contains the Hexateuch, /^Ifric's homily
On
on
Judges,
and
Cotton's onc'time ownership of
his Letter to Sigeweard.^ L'Isle's ob-
MS
Laud Misc. 509,
see Colin
G. C.
Tite,
357
William Vlsle's Letters
servation that he has entered emendations in each manuscript by reference to the other
both.^
The
amply borne out by
is
third manuscript
simply as "Beda'',
MS
is
hand
entries in his
mentioned in the
Cotton Otho B.
English translation of Bede's Historia
xi,
letter, referred to
Ine,
by
L'Isle
which contained the Old
ecclesiastica,
Saxon Chronicle, the laws of Alfred and
to be found in
the G-text of the Anglo-
and other
material. L' Isle's
hand that can still use of MS Otho be seen on many of the now damaged folios of the manuscript, which suffered gravely in the Cotton fire of 1731.^ Cotton recorded all three manuscripts as being on loan to L'Isle in his list of "such Books as I hau befor B. xi
is
attested by annotations in his
23 Aprill. 1621 lent out of
this
Harley 6018,
fol.
my
148v; see Figure
study" (London, British Library,
1).^
The
inclusion of the three
scripts in the list helps to establish
an approximate date
given that at the time L'Isle wrote
he was returning
it,
MS
manu-
for this letter:
MS Claudius B.
iv,
it can be dated after 23 April 1621, when Cotton noted that the manuscript was on loan, and before the spring of 1622, when L'Isle wrote Letter
3,
the content of which indicates that by then he had returned
Misc. 509
borrow
it
(still
in his
his loan
MS
Claudius B.
**
time of writing Letter
iv for
1)
Thomas
Savage, is
'Lost or Stolen or Strayed*: British Library
who
after
he had not is
un-
Cotton drew up
carried the letter (and with
perhaps the individual of that
Laud
and wanted to
long suggests that the letter
have been written more than a few weeks list.
dius B. iv) to Cotton,
The
at the
again. Further, L'Isle's observation in this letter that
wished to retain likely to
hands
MS
it
MS Clau-
name who gained
A Survey of Manuscripts Formerly in the Cotton Library,"
Journal 18 (1992): 107-47, here 110-11 (repr. in Sir Robert Cotton as
on an Early Stuart Courtier and his Legacy ed. C. J. Wright [London, I wish to acknowledge here the friendly help and advice most generously given to me by Dr Tite in response to my queries about several points in L'Isle's letters. Dr Tite also kindly read and offered his expert comment on an earlier Collector: Essays
^
1997], 208-29, here 219-20).
draft of this paper. '
Discussed in Graham, "Early
Modem
Users of Claudius B. iv," 293-98.
majority of L'Isle's annotations are to be found in the Bede portion, which he Kk. 3. 18. He also encollated against the copy in Cambridge University Library, tered a few notes to the Chronicle text, on fols. 40r, 41r, 43v, and 45r, and copied some ®
The
MS
on to the paper leaves that he inserted into the Peterborcommentary on Letter 7 below). of the relevant entries in the list, see Graham, "Early Modem Users
passages from the Chronicle
ough Chronicle '
(see the
For the text
of Claudius B. iv," 288.
TIMOTHY GRAHAM
358 Cambridge M.A.
his
and
5) instructs
having been a Fellow of Magdalen College,
in 1621,
Oxford, 1618-1621.*°
endorsement of
L'Isle's
the bearer to deliver
new Exchaunge"
in
London. This
to
it
this letter (and of nos. 3
Cotton "at
house by the
his
refers to Sir Robert's residence in
the
New
Ex'
Strand (where Robert Cecil, Earl of Salisbury, had built the
change in 1608-1609). Cotton changed
London residence
his
after first settling in the city in the late 1580s.
to the Strand in the late 1610s; in 1622
He
several times
seems to have moved
he purchased the house within
the Palace of Westminster that he was to occupy for the rest of his
life
and
where, in due course, his manuscripts were arranged in presses surmounted
by busts of the early
Roman
emperors.**
Letter 2
MS
Cotton
Julius
C.
iii,
238. Undated; datable after Letter
fol.
shortly before Letter 3 (written in the spring of 1622).
age to the right edge of the
There
is
1
slight
and
dam-
letter.
I received a letter from Mr Watts of Cayes Coll. to send vp two books vnto you. Yf he meant those I borrowed of you, yt
Sir,
shalbe don foorthwith. Yf others, first
for the other, that of Elye, yt
by a
I
desire to speak with
about them, especially that of Rivall, wfiich
obtain
synce
I
as
saw you,
my Lord of Durham: of whom I thynke you may easily Mr Lynsell of Clare Hall was the man that had yt of me,
for
yt.
by the warrant aforesayd.
I
thought yt acceptable vnto you to have
intelligentce] therof. So, excusing
in hand,
me
you again
myne own;
& messenger from the owner, to be sent presently vnto
letter
London
was fetched from
is
I
betake you
my
love
my
hast with other
much
writing
& service, & rest my selfe At
your freindely disposition
Wyll. L'ysle.
'°
Times
em ert
See John to
Venn and
J.
A. Venn, Alumni
Cantabrigienses, Part
I:
From
the Earliest
1751, 4 vols. (Cambridge, 1922-1927), 4: 21.
'* See Kevin Sharpe, Sir Robert Cotton 1586-1631: History and Politics in Early ModEngland (Oxford, 1979), 74; and Colin G. C. Tite, The Manuscript Library of Sir RobCotton, The Panizzi Lectures 1993 (London, 1994), 19-20, 85-99.
359
William Vhle's Letters
Commentary
The content
of this letter partly overlaps with that of Letter 3; since
Letter 3 provides a fuller explanation of matters touched
writes that he has heard
here,
would
it
L'Isle
here
William Watts, chaplain of Gonville and Caius
is
College, Cambridge (1616-1626),
who
assisted Sir
compilation of his ArchcBologus (1626) and
who
Henry Spelman
in the
translated the Confessions
of St. Augustine (1631).^^ L'Isle indicates that he ton's request relayed by
on
The "Mr Watts" from whom
appear to be the later of the two.
unsure whether Cot-
is
Watts means that Cotton wishes him to return
two books that he has on loan
— presumably MSS Cotton Otho — Cotton himself
or that Laud Misc. 509, for which see Letter 1 obtain two books that he and L'Isle had evidently already
of those books, concerning Rievaulx,
is
L'Isle's
own;
this
seeks to
discussed.
manuscript
The
One
is
cussed in detail below, in the commentary on Letter
3.
of Elye" (mentioned also in Letters 3 and
to be a copy of
of the versions of the Liber
Eliensis,
of Ely with special attention to
its
4), is likely
which contains a
it
to
further reference to
London
"Mr
dis-
other, ''that
one
history of the abbey
landed estates. ^^ L'Isle notes that he
has recently been asked to return this Ely manuscript to
wished to send
and
B. xi
its
owner,
who
the use of the bishop of Durham. L'Isle's
for
Lynsell of Clare Hall",
who "had
yt of
me, by
the warrant aforesayd", identifies the owner as Augustine Lindsell, Fellow of Clare Hall, Cambridge, Divinity.
^'^
who
in 1621 obtained the degree of
(1617-1628), who Durham House in
the Strand; ^^
same Ely manuscript that
which he drew up
Durham
provided him with lodgings in his London residence, it
was no doubt to
this residence (close It
must be
Cotton by
his will,
to Cotton's own) that the Ely manuscript was to be directed. this
Doctor of
Lindsell was a protege of Richard Neile, Bishop of
Lindsell bequeathed to
in 1624, ten years before his death; Lindsell there writes
that "I giue to [my] worshipfull good frende Sir Robert Cotton knight His-
ry
'^ See Venn, Alumni Cantabrigienses, 4: 353; and the entry for Watts in the DictionaofNational Biography (hereafter DNB), 20: 986. '^ On the different versions, see E. O. Blake, ed., Liber Eliensis, Camden Society, 3rd
ser.
92 (London, 1962), xxiii-xxvii. '^
See Venn, Alumni Cantabrigienses,
3:
86;
and the entry
11: 1196. ^'
As
is
noted in the
DNB
entry for Neile, 14: 172.
for Lindsell in the
DNB,
TIMOTHY GRAHAM
360 From Letter some time
toria Ecclesiae Eliensis manuscript." ^^
had the Ely manuscript it
to Lindsell.
which
It
is
drew
L'Isle
in his
hands
for
in his
Treatise of 1623, in the preface
*'the History of Ely'' to the effect that
King Al-
A Saxon
margin alongside comments that
Eliensis
in the
Domitian A.
on
28v.
fol.
English; a note printed in the
this passage
The
vastatione Danica.^^
xv, fols. 2-95, in
hand.^^ Cotton has signed his
can be found within Book
fol.
I,
only manuscript of the Liher this chapter
MS
is
which the passage quoted by
possibility that this
strengthened by the presence on
fol.
Old
Cotton collection to include
The
clear that L'Isle
on of which
fred translated part of the Bible into
De
is
therefore possible that this was the manuscript
he quotes a statement in
in the chapter
3, it
before he had to return
Cotton
L'Isle occurs
was the manuscript used by
L'Isle
is
3r of a note that appears to be in his
name on
fols.
and
2r
95r. His signature
on
95r immediately follows the end of the original text and has been en-
tered over the erasure of a four-line inscription in an early
Some
letters of
third line are
the erased text are
still
legible.
The
first
modern hand.
two
letters of
the
"Au" and the fourth letter is '*t", which raises the possibilimay have contained Lindsell's name, with the Christian
ty that this line
name
written in abbreviated form.
mitian A. XV
is
It
seems most
likely,
then, that
MS Do-
the Ely manuscript mentioned in Letters 2-4.
Letter 3
MS
Cotton
Julius
are damaged,
been
folded,
C.
iii,
and there
and
fol.
240. Spring 1622.
The
left
at the left side of the top
and bottom
has removed about a quarter of a line of text. In the date,
and right edges
are holes in the upper right area.
The
letter
fold-lines
now
has
damage
fragmentary
the word preceding **28th" could have been either *'the" or
**Marche"; that the letter was sent in the spring
is
shown by
its
first
sentence.
'^
Prerogative Court of Canterbury, 111 Seager.
The
will
was proved on 8 December
1634. '''
A
Saxon
Treatise, sig. e2r.
to "Ely ecc") is in the outer margin, alongside a passage on the foundation of a church at Ely that occurs within the brief chronicle from the birth of Christ to the reign of King Stephen that opens the manuscript. ^®
The note (trimmed
361
William L'lsle's Letters
Noble knight,
A
word
am
I
to satisfie you, though by reason of a lyttle spring-sicknes
what
I
could, [t]o get for [yo]u;
hands, that
make y]t
that
I
might [ther]by
was again called
may
obtain
Lord of Durham
Lane
I
for.
[or]
found none to
must
I
yt, [for]
fyt
my
don
cended of the founder,
whom
to
[to]
not)
Among your boolcs
& myne of Ryvall
make
[by]
I
my
[y]t fyt for
may
[a]lso yt
very
me one
I
thinke
else that
[questi]on about
sythens of his
yt;
so far
service,
I
]n
[
him doe
owne meere motion
he seeketh your
give
I
.]he
I
in
I
have,
would not
desire
(Sir) I
pray [y]ou, yf
am
I
from [tho]ught to
[of Antijquityes.
Now
for
him my selfe, & all men him a good reporte; [. .
.]
think you shall doe well to entertain I
pray sende
ployment and [a]llowance that you entende. So
.
much concerne
& love to you and [you]r studyes
him. Yf you please so to doe, a worde
[re]membred,
des'
I
have observed
I
I
man
a noble
1
impaire your so nobly entended Library
[.
much
& ad-
& having not a booke of myne owne, & yet yf you graunt (though promyse one day re turne to his fellowes, & carrye
more of that kynde with
Sir Legat.
in Drury
doe,
wyll
[y]t
doubt
doe
I
so bould a request:
[so]me
[
I
bynding
of ye bookes
& fayrer Copy (else
wyll send you myne. Pardon
loving the Saxon as
make
]
is.
your workes of Grosted, eyther of
bestow on
wherof you [h]ave another I
[
yt
Y^ adioyning to those of that Abbey.
his landes that are lea[
yt [flrom you)
my
give you opportunytie to
resto[re] yt
turne;
dition to yt: purposely
endeavored,
I
could not. But after long
I
you may iudge
yt)
of Ely
kept yt also the longer in
doctor Lynsell.
esteem, as (when you see
Yet yf yt please you
&
(at least)
which
for yt
]s
[
not but you
my
The book
not in case to write much.
my
me
of his em-
freindly dutye
rest
Yours to
28th
commaunde
Wyll. L'ysle.
1622 [Endorsed:]
To my
honorable frend
Sir
Robert Cotton knight
at his
house by ye new Exchaunge, thes.
''
There
are
two consecutive areas of damage here,
beginning of the next.
at the
end of one
line
and the
TIMOTHY GRAHAM
362
Commentary by providing further information about his
L'Isle begins
He
tain Lindsell's Ely manuscript for Cotton.
able to exchange
"Grosted", that
On
it is,
for
one of
own
his
suggests that
efforts to ob'
Cotton
be
will
manuscripts, a copy of works by
Robert Grosseteste, Bishop of Lincoln (1235-1253).
com-
the possible identity of Cotton's Grosseteste manuscript, see the
mentary on Letter 5 below. L'Isle's
next comment, regarding his search among Cotton's books in
Drury Lane,
owned
is
problematic, for Cotton
manuscript of his own, which he proposes to exchange manuscripts; from Letter 5 script to
Cotton.
indicates that bility that
it
it is
The way
in
to have
one of Cotton's
for
L'Isle
here refers to the manuscript
concerns the abbey's land-holdings. This
and which
is
is
listed
manu-
clear that L'Isle did indeed send his
which
the manuscript might be
century manuscript which vive, ^°
known
not otherwise
is
property in Drury Lane. L'Isle then goes on to discuss a Rievaulx
MS
Cotton
Julius
D.
raises i,
the only Rievaulx cartulary
the possi-
a late-twelfth-
known
to sur-
in the handwritten catalogue of Cotton's
manuscripts that was begun in 1621 and continued in the following years. ^^
However, the manuscript contains no annotations by
might indicate
his
L'Isle that
one-time ownership, while evidence provided by the
antiquary William Dugdale (1605-1686) suggests that L'Isle's manuscript
and the Rievaulx
cartulary
now
and the same. Oxford, Bodleian
in the
Cottonian collection are not one
MS
Library,
Dugdale 48 includes a
list
of
owners of cartularies and other registers relating to English religious houses that Dugdale
is
believed to have drawn up
the heading "Reuvaulx", Dugdale ton, Sir Robert's son
of
Wilburgham
in
and
first
1649}^
c.
entered the
heir, then, at a later date,
^'
London,
The two
fol.
63v, under
Thomas CotLile added "Mr of
Wm
com. Cantabr."^-^ Dugdale had evidently become
^^ See G. R. C. Davis, Medieval Cartularies of Great don, 1958), 92. no. 811.
368).
On
name
British Library,
MS
Harley 6018,
entries are sufficiently specific to
fol.
Britain:
A
Short Catalogue (Lori'
112r (no. 277) and
show that they both
fol.
refer to
131v
MS
(no.
Julius
D. i. Tliis manuscript appears to have been on loan to Richard Gascoigne, the antiquary with a special interest in the history of Yorkshire, in 1623: on a front flyleaf Gascoigne, a known borrower from the Cotton library, has entered a note, dated 8 November 1623, about errors in the foliation of the manuscript. ^^
Davis, Medieval Cartularies, xvi.
^^
Dugdale's "Lile" was misread as "Lite" by Davis, Medieval Cartularies, 92, no. 812.
William Vhle's Letters
aware of
L'Isle's
manuscript and believed
tonian one, although,
48
correct, L'Isle
is
363 to be different from the Cot-
it
the presumed date of compilation of
if
MS
the entry, and his manuscript would have been in other hands.
manuscript
not to be identified
is
sumably have received
was the
case,
"make
it
(d.
dren,
it is
its
man
Julius
possible fate
after
D.
then he must pre-
i,
sending
it
to him. If that
offered by L'Isle's
is
comment
descended of the founder," Although Walter
who founded
1153),
enough who
clear
MS
If L'Isle's
he has rebound and added to the manuscript in order to
yt fyt for a noble
Espec
as
back from Cotton
then a clue to
in this letter that
Dugdale
would have been long dead by the time Dugdale made
Rievaulx in 1132, had no surviving chil-
L'Isle
would have regarded
as his
descendant.
Espec's sister Adelina had married Peter, lord de Ros, and in the fifteenth
century their only surviving direct descendant, Eleanor, married Robert
Manners, whose grandson Thomas was in 1525 made Earl of Rutland and
That the earls of Rutland shown by the genealogy (writ-
resided at Belvoir Castle in Leicestershire.^"^
were considered to be Espec's descendants
is
ten by an unidentified early modern hand) inserted at the front of Julius
D.
i.
MS
In 1640, the antiquary Roger Dodsworth (1585-1654) saw at
Belvoir Castle a parchment manuscript containing an inventory of Rie-
vaulx charters. "^^ Although the volume cannot possible that this
was
L'Isle's
now be
from Cotton, and in accordance with the intention this letter,
I
am
most
he presented
grateful to Prof.
it
traced,^^
manuscript and that, after receiving at
it
it
is
back
which he hints
in
either to Francis Manners, sixth earl of Rut-
Andrew G. Watson
for
checking
MS
Dugdale 48 on
my
DNB,
17:
behalf. ^^ See the entries on members of the Ros and Manners families in the 216-20, 12: 931-42.
^' Dodsworth transcribed portions of the manuscript in Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Dodsworth 85. See J. C. Atkinson, Cartularium ahhathicB de Rievalle, Surtees Society 83 (Durham, 1889), 265-77; and Davis, Medieval Cartularies, 92, no. 813.
^^ It is
not mentioned
as
being among the manuscripts at Belvoir Castle in
First
Re-
port of the Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts (London, 1874), 10-12, or in the
The Manuscripts of his
Grcu:e
Preserved at Belvoir Castle, 4 vols. (London, 1888-1905).
From
Historical Manuscripts Commission's subsequent publication, the
the
Duke of Rutland, K.G., latter,
it is
clear that
by the
Castle were in a perilous state, scripts at Belvoir,
1
:
v-vi.
nineteenth century many ancient records at Belvoir while some had been destroyed by rodents: see Manu'
late
TIMOTHY GRAHAM
364
who became seventh
land, or to his brother George,
earl
on
Francis's
death in 1632."
The manuscript
of Cotton's that L'lsle wished to secure in exchange
for his Rievaulx manuscript
cate that
it is
not
is
difficult to identify.
Anglo-Saxon, that he already has
ton has another, "fayrer" copy of the same
it
on
His comments indi' loan,
text. L'lsle
is
and that Cot'
clearly asking for
MS
Laud Misc. 509, the unillustrated copy of the Old English Hexateuch and Judges; the "fayrer" copy is the illustrated MS Cotton Claudius B. iv. MS Laud Misc. 509 includes on fols. 120v-141v the copy of >Elfric's Letter to
A
Sigeweard that L'lsle published in his
same manuscript
Saxon Treatise of 1623.
of the Hexateuch and Judges on
fols.
2v-116r of his workbook,
MS
Misc. 381.^^ L'lsle must have returned after writing this letter (perhaps in
exchange
who
MS
Laud
Laud Misc. 509 some time for the return of his
manuscript), for in Letter 6 he asks to borrow L'lsle
The
also served L'lsle as the principal basis for his translation
it
Rievaulx
again.
ends his letter with some comments on behalf of one "Sir Legat"
wishes to enter Cotton's service. L'lsle alludes to the same matter in
Letters 4
and
5;
from Letter 4
it
emerges that "Sir Legat" had some hope
of election to a Cambridge fellowship. Legate,
who
On
in 1623.^^
letter
(MS Cotton
May
5
individual in question
is
John
B.A. from Trinity College in 1619-1620 and
gained his
M.A.
The
Julius
C.
his
1622, Legate wrote Cotton an effusive Latin iii,
fol.
234) in which he praised Cotton's
li-
brary enthusiastically and offered to serve as Cotton's amanuensis for the transcription of historical texts.
There
ton agreed to employ him, and
it
become
is,
however, no evidence that Cot-
would appear that by 1624 Legate had
rector of Welborne, Norfolk.^^
Letter 4
MS
Cotton
^'
If this
Julius
C.
conjecture
is
iii,
fol.
correct,
239 (Figure
it
2).
4 June 1622.
would mean that Davis's nos. 812 and 813
and the same.
Modem
Users of Claudius B. iv," 303-6.
^^
See Graham, "Early
^^
See Venn, Alumni Cantabrigienses,
'°
Venn, Alumni
3: 70.
Cantahrigienses, 3: 70.
are
one
365
William L'hle's Letters
Sir,
thank you most
I
can say no more lent
me
&
hartily for your so very kinde letter;
glad to heare you haue your desier of Ely^Book. For yet, vntyll
I
see your Psalmes; bycause
good variety of that kind,
& very faire. Yea
taken the paines to compare foure or
am
myne owne, I
I
I
haue had
haue already
such Copies together; &,
fiue
noting the diuers readings in margent, written-out the whole book
my own
with
hand;
&
lastly so translated yt to
the word, that,
yt comes foorth, yt may helpe well to, yf not stand instead'of Saxon Dictionary. Yet I would entreat, as free from promise of Exchaung, to see that Copie of yours, and yf you please to send yt,
when a
keep or returne yt to your
will
I
writes himself,
I
need say
little:
liking.
but
still I
Of
Sir Legat,
bycause he
heare good words of him,
though small hope of preferment here, whether an Election be or
& though ther were, & he chosen,
not;
yet so
I
him deuoted
find
vnto you, that he will not leaue you, being once agreed. pray
I
(Sir)
commend my
matter he spok-of to
"Anno
Chronicle: aelfgiue
loue to
last, I
millesimo
ymma aedwardes
which shewes one
me
Mr
Seldon,
&
tell
him, for the
find yt thus written in a faire lii°.
Her on
Saxon
t>issum geare fordferde
cynges modor 7 hardacnutes cynges", &ct.
plainly, that this Elfgiue, or Elfgyf,
&
Emme, was
& the same woman. So, my seruice to your good self rememwishe you euer honorably & well to fare. Cambridg^e 4 Junii
bred,
I
1622.
Your
dutiful! frend
Wyll.
L'isle.
Commentary L'Isle's
opening sentence reveals that by the time of writing. Cotton
had received the Ely manuscript mentioned
MS
The
psalter of Cotton's that
Cotton Tiberius C. vi or
seem
to
have been in
scription
^*
MS
and
3.
The next
work on the Old English version of the
part of the letter refers to L'Isle's
psalms.
in Letters 2
he seeks to borrow could be either
Cotton
Sir Robert's
Vitellius E. xviii,
hands by
both of which
this time.^' L'Isle's
own
and translation of the Old English version of the psalms
As Dr
tran-
fills
one
Tite kindly infonns me. See also Ker, Catalogue, Iv and nos. 199 and 224.
TIMOTHY GRAHAM
366
now
of his notebooks,
made
his transcription
lege,
MS
R. 17.
and Stowe
1),
Psalters
Oxford, Bodleian Library,
MS
Laud Misc. 20 L
He
irom the Eadwine Psalter (Cambridge, Trinity Col-
which he
collated against the Cambridge, Arundel,
(Cambridge University Library,
MSS
MS Ff.
Arundel 60 and Stowe
1.
23;
and Lon-
2).^^ It is
noteworthy
that this letter reveals that L'Isle had already completed this
work by the
don, British Library,
summer
of 1622.
Psalter to L'Isle
by
L'Isle,
Whether Cotton
lent either the Tiberius or the Vitellius
uncertain; neither manuscript contains any annotations
is
nor did
L'Isle
201. L'Isle evidently planned to publish his front of
MS
Laud Misc. 201
Cambridge University, dated ect foundered,
and the
MS
Laud Misc. work on the psalms: at the
add any readings from either to
is
the imprimatur of the Vice'Chancellor of
3
December
1630.^^ In the event, the proj-
credit for the first edition of the psalms in
Old
English was to go to John Spelman, whose Psalterium Davidis Latino-Saxoni-
cum
1640 and depended on the same four manuscripts as
vetus appeared in
L'Isle
had used
Eadwine
— although Spelman chose
Psalter but the
''Mr Seldon"
mentarian,
is
Stowe
Psalter,
as his base
which
manuscript not the
his father
owned.
John Selden (1584-1654), the learned
who was
jurist
and
the most active user of Cotton's library and
parlia-
who
is
known to have consulted several of Cotton's Anglo-Saxon manuscripts.^"^ Queen Emma, the wife of /Ethelred II and Cnut and the mother of Edward the Confessor,
name
of /Elfgyva,
on
mentioned, without reference to her alternative
is
p.
61 of Selden's ]ani Anglorum fades
altera (1610)
and on pp. 105 and 113 of his Analecton Anglohritannicon lihri duo (1615) both published several years before this letter was written. The second
—
Emma
knew that Saxon of Northampton. L'Isle's "faire named ^Ifgyva Cnut had a mistress Chronicle" is the Peterborough Chronicle, now Oxford, Bodleian Library,
reference to
MS
in the Analecton also establishes that Selden
Laud Misc. 636, of which
L'Isle himself
was the owner; the passage
"
See Pulsiano, '•William LTsle and the Editing of Old English," 185, 198-205. See David McKitterick, "The Eadwine Psalter Rediscovered," in The Eadujine Psalter: Text, Image, and Monastic Culture in Twelfth-Century Canterbury, ed. Margaret Gibson, T. A. Heslop, and Richard W. Pfaff (London, 1992), 195-208, here 197-98. ^^
'^
For Cotton's loan to
him
of
Hexateuch, see Graham, "Early
MS
Cotton Claudius B.
Modem
iv,
the illustrated Old English
Users of Claudius B. iv," 287-
William L'hle's Letters quoted occurs on
367.
had apparently consulted
54v.^^ Ironically, Selden
fol.
the Peterborough Chronicle several years
he
Historie of Tithes (1618)
earlier, for
discusses a passage of
its
on
p.
206 of
his
The
annal for 855.^^
Letter 5
MS
Harley 7000,
Sir,
I
haue
whom yt:
fol.
delt effectually with
is,
&
I
of
full
found
it
pray
I
the book of Riuall which directed
me
vpon view
mappes well
Grosted. Wherfore
by your
let I
letters.
more then
aunswer. So
set-out.
& Doctor
Cumber to you may haue
loue
your mind,
And somwhat Sir Legat:
remembred
&
A very fair manuscript
You may haue
sent you by Sir
to doe you seruice;
my
therof.
me know
your minde further concerning ing
Hacluit
description of Red'Sea-voiage in Spanish or Portu-
guese rather, as it
Mr
the book was enguaged for Trinity Coll. that
meane the
I
92. 23 July 1622.
is
Thomas also
I
it
for
your
& how you like Palmer, as you
pray
let
me know
bycause he desires noth-
importunate with
me
for
take leaue Cambridge the 23 of
I
July 1622.
Yours to
commaund
Wyll. L'ysle. [Endorsed:] et at his
To my
noble frend
house in the
Sir
Robert Cotton knight
new Exchaunge
& Baron-
thes.
Commentary L'Isle begins
by describing
ure a manuscript
^^
owned by
how he
has acted on Cotton's behalf to sec-
''Mr Hacluit", that
is,
Edmund
Hakluyt,
who
See The Peterborough Chronicle: The Bodleian Manuscript Laud Misc. 636, ed. Doro-
thy Whitelock, Early English Manuscripts in Facsimile 4 (Copenhagen, 1954),
and Two of the Saxon Chronicles Parallel, with Supplementary Charles Plummer, 2 vols. (Oxford, 1892-1899; repr. 1952), ^^
fol.
54v;
Extracts from the Others, ed. 1:
177.
See also Angelika Lutz, "The Study of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle in the Seventeenth Century and the Establishment of Old English Studies in the Universities," in
The
Recoverjf of
Old
English, ed.
Graham, 1-82, here
18.
TIMOTHY GRAHAM
368
was elected a Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1618, and who was the son of Richard Hakluyt (c. 1552-1616), the compiler of the monumental
Principall Navigations, Voiages
and Discoueries of
Nation
the English
Edmund inherited the manuscript from his Cumber" is Thomas Comber, Fellow of Trinity from 1597
(1589, etc.).^^ Presumably *
father.
'Doctor
and Master 1631-1645 (whose support was to enable Sir Henry Spelman to borrow the Eadwine Psalter from Trinity in 1638).^^ Evidently Hakwas to present
luyt's original intention
his
ever, L'Isle has intervened to arrange for for his
manuscript to Trinity.
Cotton to have
it
in
"Grosted" (presumably the same Grosseteste manuscript
How-
exchange as
is
men-
3). Hakluyt 's manuscript is identifiable as MS Cotton an account by Joao de Castro of voyages made by the
tioned in Letter Tiberius D.
ix,
Portuguese between India and Suez, amply illustrated by maps.^^ Cotton's Grosseteste,
College
MS
if
he did indeed give
it
to Trinity,
might perhaps be Trinity
B. 15. 20, a fourteenth-century copy of miscellaneous works
by Grosseteste. There
is
no record of who gave the manuscript
but in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries
it
to Trinity,
belonged, in
John Dee (1527-1608), Henry Savile of Banke (1568-1617), and Henry Howard, earl of Northampton (d. 1614)."^° Cotton was closely associated with Howard from 1603,"^^ and is known to have obtained some of turn, to
his manuscripts
and papers:
MS
Cotton Titus C.
vi contains correspon-
dence and other items by Howard, while London,
^^
For
Edmund
Hakluyt, see Venn, Alumni Cantahrigienses,
British Library,
2:
MS
279.
^*
See Venn, Alumni Cantahrigienses 1: 377; the entry for Comber in the DNB, 4: 891; and J. C. T. Oates, Cambridge University Library: A History, 1: From the Beginnings to the Copyright Act of Queen Anne (Cambridge, 1986), 200-3. ,
'^
For a possible earlier connection of the manuscript with Sir Walter Raleigh, see his Pilgrimes, 4 vols. (London, 1625), 2: 1122 (repr. in 20 vols., Glasgow, 1905; see 7: 236); and C. E. Wright, "The Elizabethan Society of Antiquaries and the Formation of the Cottonian Library," in The English Library before J 700, ed.
Samuel Purchas, Purchas
Francis ^°
Wormald and C.
E.
Wright (London, 1958), 176-212, here 197.
See Montague Rhodes James, The Western Manuscripts
in the Library
of Trinity Col-
A Descriptive Catalogue, 4 vols. (Cambridge,
1900-1904), 1: 483; Andrew G. Watson, The Manuscripts of Henry Savile of Banke (London, 1969), 10, 20 (no. 16); and John Dee's Library Catalogue, ed. Julian Roberts and Andrew G. Watson (London, 1990), 58, 118 (no. M63). (The statement in Roberts and Watson, 118, that MS B. 15. 20 was given to Trinity in 1738 by Roger Gale is incorrect: it is only manuscripts in the **0" category of the Trinity library that fell within Gale's gift.) lege,
Cambridge:
^^
See Linda Levy Peck, Northampton: Patronage and
(London, 1982), 102-17,
esp.
103-4.
Politics at the
Court of James
I
369
William L'lsle's Letters
Arundel 300, once owned by Cotton, contains a collection of prayers in Howard's hand."^^ Although MS B. 15. 20 bears no evidence of Cottonian ownership,
it
seems reasonable to suggest that
it
may have
passed from
Howard to Cotton and from him to Trinity. Sir
Thomas Palmer
script to
(d.
1656),
who
delivered L'Isle's Rievaulx
manu-
Cotton, had been an undergraduate of St John's College,
bridge, in the late 1610s. His brother Herbert
the 1620s, and Sir
while on a
visit
Thomas may have
was
at
still
Cam-
Cambridge in
collected the manuscript from L'Isle
to Cambridge."^^
Letter 6
MS
Cotton
Julius
C.
Noble
243 (Figure
fol.
iii,
1625 and 16 March 1631
(see
3).
Undated; datable between
Sir,
& easly home,
An
vnexpected opportunytie, of getting well
me
leave the Cyttie without taking leave; else had
you therewith. But when accustomed you,
c.
commentary).
&
studies,
I
I
had well
bethought
at your request,
1
me
of that promyse which before
made vnto Mr James, concerning my
nerabili
Domino
have seene
1
et
E. humiliter dictus
Priori"^"^
made
acquainted
& began to follow my
rested,
Manuscript of the Caunterbury-story. Yt that kinde which
I
at
is
any tyme,
Henrico Dei
one of the
fayrest of
& hath the Tytle "Ve-
gratia
Abbati Croilandiae,
Monachus de Euisham salutem
in salutis
Au-
illustrium & praesertim Sanc& exitum Uteris tradere satis prouide maiorum nostrorum sanxit auctoritas: hinc enim & Deus laudatur, qui gloriosus est
tore";
and thus beginneth: "Virorum
torum vitam
in Sanctis suis, et posteri edificantur laudabili praecedentium ex-
emplo prouocati.
Inter hos quasi
quidam Lucifer
in fine dierum
istorum maiorum, tanquam in fine cuiusdam tenebrosae et t^diosae
See Tite, " Lost or Stolen or Strayed'," 118 (273 in the reprint). For both Palmers, see Venn, Alumni Cantabrigienses, 3: 301. Their grandfather Thomas (1540-1626) was still alive at this time, but it is more likely that the younger Thomas was the carrier. *^ ^^
^^ L'Isle's
script source,
he misunderstood the abbreviation "pri" Cotton Vespasian B. xiv, fol. 33r.
error for "patri":
MS
in his
Sir Sir
manu-
TIMOTHY GRAHAM
370 noctis
beatus Neomartyr Thomas", &ct. There
effiilsit
with yt Le Lai de Lannual,
&
ioyned
is
&
a frenche Cronicle of England,
other hke but, more to the purpose, a long frenche Carolle in
man. Yf yt may stead you, or Mr James, let me know your pleasure and 1 will send yt you; but once againe, for the common good, 1 must crave awhile the vse of your [lelsser Saxon Penpraise of the
tateuch which
meanes,
pray you send
me
Mr Hobson,
me, to
by
at his Castle in
some servaunt of yours
quires) let
for
1
he be
or, yf
awaiting your pleasure,
(I
my
Kent pray
brother Captain Lisles (as
1
think the tyme
And
the surest Carry er of England. 1
re-
endorsed
Sir) deliver yt,
thus
rest
Your most
dutyfiill
frend
Wyll. L'ysle.
Commentary
The
greater part of the letter concerns a manuscript of L'Isle's that
*'Mr James" to
had promised the manuscript
L'Isle
from
The
send to Cotton.
offers to
1625 was Cotton's
c.
is
librarian."^^
whom,
he
in Cotton's presence,
Richard James (1592-1638),
The mention
who
of James shows that
the letter must have been written some time after James's appointment; on the other hand,
mentions
it
L'lsle's
evidently preceded Letter 7, of 16
March
1631,
which
retention of the manuscript that he here requests from
Cotton. L'Isle provides sufficiently detailed information
he proposes
to send to
Vespasian B.
Cotton to enable
it
xiv, a late-thirteenth-century
nance
is
unknown. The
story"
is
the account of the
text to life
which of
known
to
modern
L'Isle refers as the
Thomas Becket
On the The
Elias of
is
on
Henry de
Evesham. This fols.
33r-95r
fols Ir-Sv."*^ L'lsle's
date of James's appointment, see Tite, The Manuscript Ubrary of Sir Robert
Cotton, 57-60. For details of James's ^^
Cotton
"Caunterbury-
written for
scholars as the Quadrilogus, occupies
of the manuscript.'*^ Marie de France's Lanval
^^
MS
volume whose medieval prove-
Longchamp, abbot of Crowland (1190-1236), by text,
about the manuscript
to be identified as
Quadrilogus
is
life,
see the entry for
him
in the
DNB,
10:
655-57.
printed in Materials for the History of Thomas Becket, Archbishop
of Canterbury ed. James Craigie Robertson, Rolls Series 67, 7 vols. (London, 1875-1885), ,
4:
266-430;
for Elias's prefatory letter to
Henry, see 425-26. See further Robertson's
William Vlsle's Letters
371
England"
''frenche Cronicle of
a version of the prose Brut chronicle,
is
covering the period from the reign of King Ecgberht (802-39) to the death of Richard
I
on
(1199),
Between
fols. Sv-lSr."^^
the Quadrilogus, and corresponding to
poem on
the Fall of Troy
Marie de France
of Thomas St Albans L'Isle
(fols.
"lesser
The
life
1184 by Beneit of
c.
name
form "Gulielmus de Insula".
in the
Latin
''long frenche Carolle in praise
of Becket written
At
the top of
Saxon pentateuch", that it
"for the
lish its text (see also L'Isle's
L'Isle's ''other like", are a
and a collection of sixty-two Fables by
Ir of
fol.
the manuscript,
concludes his letter with a request to borrow once again Cotton's
that he required
is
the verse
is
and the beginning of
95v-113r).^°
entered his
L'Isle
18rv)
19r-32v).'^^
(fols.
Becket
(fol.
this
MS
is,
Laud Misc.
common good"
509.^^ His
remark
alludes to his intention to pub-
the commentary on Letter 7 below). "Captain Lisle"
younger brother Edmund,
who was
captain of
Walmer
Castle in
Kent; William L'Isle was himself buried at Walmer, where there
monument
to
Hobson the
him and
his brother in the church.
who He is
in his Introduction, xix-xxiii;
at
Thomas
Materials Relating to the History of Great Britain
known
well
"Hobson's choice" (which was no choice
comments
is
is
a
Thomas
ran a regular delivery service be-
carrier (c. 1544-1631),
tween Cambridge and London. ^^
"Mr Hobson"
and
all);
Dufifiis
his
as the originator of
death was
commem-
Hardy, Descriptive Catalogue of
Ireland, to the
End of the Reign of Henry
(London, 1862-1871), 2: 342-44; and Antonia GransEngland c. 550 to c. 1307 (London, 1974), 301.
VII, Rolls Series 26, 3 vols, in 4
den, Historical Writing ^"^
British ^*
in
D. Ward, Catalogue of Romances in the Department of Manuscripts Museum, 3 vols. (London, 1883-1910), 1: 415.
See H.
L.
in the
See Diana B. Tyson, "Handlist of Manuscripts Containing the French Prose Brut
Chronicle," Scriptorium 48 (1994): 333-44, here 342. *^
See Ward, Catabgue of Romances,
1:
31-32, and
2:
307.
XW
'°
si^cle
For the text, see La Vie de Thomas Becket par Beneit: poeme anglo-mormand du puhUe d'apr^s tous les manuscrits, ed. Borje Schlyter, Etudes romanes de Lund 4
(Lund, 1941). See also Hardy, Descriptive Catalogue, tion hagiographique de saint
am warmly
Thomas Becket avant
L'Isle also referred to
Pentateuch" on the
" See
355-56; and E. Walberg, La Tradi' si^ck (Paris, 1929), 9-33. I
du
XW
grateful to Prof. Jean-Claude Thiolier for helping
the Brut chronicle, and for providing ''
2:
la fin
title
the entry for
MS
me
to identify this text
and
with bibliographical references.
Laud Misc. 509
as
Cotton's "lesser copie of the Saxon
A
Saxon
Treatise.
in the
DNB,
9:
page of his
Hobson
me
946.
TIMOTHY GRAHAM
372
orated in two epitaphs by John Milton and in a third more dubiously
at-
tributed to Milton."
Letter
MS Cotton Julius
C.
iii,
242. 16
fol.
7
March
1630/1.
Right noble knight,
me
Yf you haue remembred pray
let
me
to your kindred of Pamfeild-house,
obtaine that booke, or not; the other, w/iich
your Sonne
Mr Hagar
to,
take paines to
now
come
may
saith
for yt; as
the weather sets-in
season
me
heare from you whether there be any hope for
I
I
shall
tyme to
The Faire
promised to helpe
borrow whensoeuer
entend very
shortly,
god
& the wayes mend apace.
faire,
a student well trauell; but
ouerpast, an yll
I
I
I
to
would haue
this
I
will
willing,
In such a
Lent
first
visit freinds in.
/Ethiopian,
now
almost ready for the presse, in forme
of an Heroick English poeme, longs to be lookt-vpon by the ladyes that readde her Historye with you in frenche prose.
my
study e somtymes to refresh
know
Such
is
my
sadder Muses: and this worke
the printers will readily entertain, while the Saxon Bible
Chronicles lye dead by me; which makes
me
I
&
keep your Pentateuch
the longer. Yet, for the Dictionarye of that Dialect, which you
know how
great
& learned men desire me
Archimedes did
in prose, let
A6q ^01
TToO GTi\cy(o
A Dictionarye So my
is
service
aunswer in verse:
Kai K6a|j.ov Tidvia
Kivfjaco.
a Theater of the whole worlde.
remembred
Chesterton 16 Marche 1630.
me
which
to set-out; that,
to your noble
self,
& yours
Your
I
rest
dutifriU frende
WylL
L'ysle.
'^ For all three epitaphs, see The Complete English Poetry of ]ohn Milton, ed. John T. Shawcross (New York, 1963). 67-70, 550-52.
373
William L'hle's Letters
Commentary Cotton's "kindred of Pamfeild^house" are the Cottons of Panfield Hall in Essex.
They
represented a senior branch of the family; their forebears,
of Ridware in Staffordshire, had acquired Panfield Hall by marriage in the
second half of the fifteenth century. Anthony Cotton this branch, matriculated at Peterhouse, ert
1666), heir to
(d.
Cambridge, in 1611?^ Sir Rob-
belonged to a younger branch of the Ridware Cottons.
The book
wished to obtain from Cotton's kinsmen cannot be
L'Isle
L'Isle provides
no
book that he here
specific information offers to
about
it.
The same
procure for Cotton's son,
ton (1592-1662), Sir Robert's only surviving child,
i.e..
who
is
Sir
that
identified, as
true of the
Thomas Cot-
inherited the Cot-
May 1631 and increased its holdThe "Mr Hagar" from whom L'Isle planned to obtain the book was perhaps James Haggar, who gained his Cambridge M.A. in 1627 and ton library on his father's death in ings.^^
was appointed curate of Barrington, Cambridgeshire, in 1630.^^
The
Faire /Ethiopian
was
L'Isle's translation, in
iambic pentameters, of
the Aethiopica of Heliodorus, a third-century Greek romance popular in the early
modern period
L'Isle's translation
ter J.
for
its
entertainment value and high moral tone.
was published
was written; the
title
in 1631, the
same year
page of the work reveals that
Haviland "at the authors charge."^^
in it
which
this let-
was printed by
L'Isle's reference to
"the ladyes
that readde her Historye with you in frenche prose" reminds us that Cot-
was the home of
ton's residence
The French
been the prose translation of ings,
lively social
and
literary gatherings.^^
version of Heliodorus that the group of women read
which appeared
J.
may have
de Montlayard, accompanied by engrav-
at Paris in 1624: Les
Amours de Theagene
et Chariclee:
'^
See Frederick Charles Cass, East Bamet (London, 1892), 108 and the genealogical 107; and Venn, Alumni Cantahrigienses, 1: 402. See also Philip Morant, The History and Antiquities of the County of Essex, 2 vols. (London, 1768), 2: 406.
table
''
on
on
There
is
Cotton
life of Sir Thomas Cotton at the end of the DNB entry 1238-39. For acquisitions by Sir Thomas and the development of the
a notice of the
Sir Robert, 4:
library after Sir Robert's death, see Sharpe, Sir Robert Cotton, 51;
and
Tite,
The
Manuscript Library of Sir Robert Cotton, 25-33. '^
Venn, Alumni
" STC '^
Cantabrigienses, 2: 280.
13047.
See Sharpe, Sir Robert Cotton, 202-3, although Sharpe here alludes only to gatherby Cotton in the late 1590s and early 1600s.
ings hosted
TIMOTHY GRAHAM
374 histoire ethiopique d'Heliodore.^^ L'Isle contrasts his
high hopes of securing
a printer for The Faire /Ethiopian with his evidently harsh experience with
"the Saxon Bible &. Chronicles", that
is,
his projected editions of those
portions of the Bible for which Old English versions existed and of the
He had first announced his intention of publishOld English biblical material in the preface to his A Saxon Treatise of 1623.^° His two workbooks now in the Bodleian Library, MSS Laud Misc. 201 and 381, contain his handwritten transcriptions and translations
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. ing the
of
Old Testament
L'Isle's
material.
attempts at drafting
Laud Misc. 201,
as
Both workbooks title
include, at the beginning,
pages for the planned publication;
MS
noted above, even includes the 1630 imprimatur of the
Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge University.^ His ^
comment
in this letter,
however, indicates that he was unable to find a printer to take on the project. Bearing in
mind
that The Faire y^thiopian was printed "at the
authors charge", one can perhaps conclude that L'Isle lacked the financial resources that would have enabled
work through use of an Anglo-Saxon
the press.
and,
The font,
him
to see his
Old English
which would have entailed
no doubt, considerable expense;
Old English might appeal would be
comment
in this letter that
tateuch",
i.e.,
MS
specialist skill
potential printers might also have
been discouraged by the likelihood that the audience tion in
biblical
project would, of course, have required the
to
which
a publica-
small. Nonetheless, L'Isle's
he needs to continue to retain Cotton's "Pen-
Laud Misc. 509, implies
commitment
his
to persist in
trying to bring the project to publication. L'Isle never did return the
manuscript,
for,
along with his two workbooks,
own death
collection following his
it
passed into the Laudian
in 1637. L'Isle's
work on the Anglo-
Saxon Chronicle may not have reached as advanced a stage as his biblical project, for there is no evidence that he made a full transcription of the Chronicle or attempted a translation.
He
did,
however, interleave the
original pages of the Peterborough Chronicle with larger paper leaves,
5'
See V.
F.
Goldsmith,
hrary of the British
^
See
sigs.
Museum
blr, b4r,
A
and
Short Title Catalogue of French Books 1601-1700 in the (Folkestone and London, 1973), 246.
and
U-
e3r.
^*
For further discussion of these title pages and of L'Isle's intentions to publish, see Stuart Lee, "Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Laud Misc. 381: William L'Isle, /Elfric, and the Ancrene Wisse," in The Recovery of Old English, ed. Graham, 207-42, here 212-15;
and Graham, "Early
Modem
Users of Claudius B. iv," 306-9.
William L'lsle's Letters
on those paper
375
leaves as well as
on the
he entered variant
original leaves
readings and additional passages that he found in two other copies of the
Chronicle, lege,
MS
The
MS
173.^^
Cotton Otho B.
and Cambridge, Corpus Christi ColThis work could have served as the basis for an edition. xi
Old English dictionary him to produce. No Old English lexicographical materknown to survive. However, a comment by Sir William
final portion of L'Isle's letter alludes to the
that others desired ials
of L'Isle's are
Boswell
made
The Hague,
1649), English ambassador at
(d.
implies that L'Isle
significant progress towards compiling a dictionary. In a letter writ-
ten to the antiquary Sir Simonds D'Ewes (1602-1650) on 18 December 1636, Boswell writes :^^ script of the
should long
'*I
printed in that tongue; S"^
&
Isle
&
Dictionarie
Thomas Cotton, made by Jocelinis;
And
of Ely.)
I
(Sec"*
think you
know
difficult
to parse;
whether he
is
w'^^ I
loose syntax
when he mentions
did think,
and
his "Vocabularie" celyn's. L'Isle's
M^
Lisle (of the
owne
gathering. "^"^ Bos-
idiosyncratic punctuation,
L'Isle's
apologizing for failing to send
well as one of his
^^ L'Isle's
its
(our honorable
w^*^
sometime to Mathewe
to be extraordinarily skilfuU in that
language;) would haue printed long since, of his well's statement, given
things,
& Compiler of Antiquitates Ecclesiae Britan-
one, of another Dictionarie,
whom
It is col-
one or two other small
farr short of a
Parker ArchBp. of Canterb: nicae:)
haue sent you a Tran-
Saxon Vocabularie, you had once of mee; but that
lected, only out of the 4. Euangelists,
frend:)
or' this,
dictionary,
D'Ewes
it
is
is
unclear
a transcript of
it
as
own ''Saxon Vocabularie", or whether he means that is much shorter than L'Isle's dictionary as well as Jos-
Greek quotation
in his letter to
Cotton
is
his adaptation
inserted paper leaves were not included in the facsimile of the Peterbor-
ough Chronicle edited by Dorothy Whitelock as vol. 4 of Early English Manuscripts in Facsimile (above n. 35). For L'Isle's work on the Chronicle, see also Lutz, "The Study of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle in the Seventeenth Century," 20, 23, and Pulsiano, "William L'Isle and the Editing of Old English," 192-97. ^^ London, British Library, MS Harley 374, fol. 92v. I here reproduce the spelling and punctuation exactly as they are in the manuscript. The complete letter has been printed, with adjustments to the spelling and punctuation, in Original Letters of Eminent Literary Men of the Sixteenth, Seventeenth, and Eighteenth Centuries, ed. Sir Henry Ellis,
Camden Society 23 (London, ^ The dictionary by John
1843), 152.
Joscelyn to which Boswell refers
is
MSS
Cotton Titus A.
xv-xvi. Boswell also alludes to Joscelyn's role in compiling material for Matthew Parker's
De antiquitate Britannicce ecclesice & priuikgiis dem 70 (London, 1572; STC 19292).
eccksi£e Cantuariensis,
cum
archiepiscopis eius'
TIMOTHY GRAHAM
376
of the words attributed to Archimedes by Pappus of Alexandria in his Synagoge: 86c, |ioi ttoO axcc) Kai kivco xf\v
and
I
will
move
y^v [Give me
a place to stand
the earth]. ^^ L'Isle versifies the passage by changing the
vocabulary, word order, and tenses of the Greek, and by introducing
rhyme;
his version
means
''Give
me
a place to stand and
whole world." The quotation, coupled with ary e
is
his
comment
I
will
that
move
the
"A Diction-
a Theater of the whole worlde", probably alludes to the frustrations
he experienced
in his lexicographical work, in the course of
ground must have appeared to
shift
beneath
his feet as
he encountered
fresh words or uncovered additional attestations that required fine his conclusions aboiit the
Pappus's Greek to his
own
meanings of words. His
ends recalls how,
when
which the
facility in
him
to re-
modifying
transcribing English
vernacular texts of the later twelfth and thirteenth centuries, he was not
above introducing adjustments to make the language appear more thentic"
Old
notoriety,
English^^
—
a characteristic which has acquired
like "au-
him some
but which should not be allowed to obscure the genuine
strengths of his achievement as an Anglo-Saxonist.
^'
lin,
See Pappi Alexandrini coUectiones quae supersunt, ed. Friedrich Hultsch, 3 vols. (Ber3: 1060. L'Isle quoted die same words of Archimedes, in Latin translain the preface to his A Saxon Treatise, sig. c3v.
1876-1878),
tion,
^ See A.
S. Napier,
"The 'Ancren
Riwle',"
Modem Unguage
Review 4 (1908-1909):
433-36; Fred C. Robinson, The Tomb of Beowulf and Other Essays on Old English (Oxford, 1993), 280; Pulsiano, "William L'Isle and the Editing of Old English," 187-91; Lee, "Oxford, Bodleian Library,
Modem
MS
Laud Misc. 381," 208, 225-31; and Graham, "Early
Users of Claudius B. iv." 296-300.
•T3
C/D
i-i
CO
«2
-a
^
^
2
3 I ^ — -oo o •C
tj
>
aCQ o
yto ef-f^ru^iru 'jy^
Z^t
^^^v^/,i^•y^-—^. cr^^>M'Hl"^^^i^e/»^
"^^^ <w^
Ze^
j^*
anctorum 167-86
Adoration of the Magi 43-44
50; Life o/42; as teacher
Adrian, Saint, passio 346
9;
i^lfric 51-65, 212, 311; as
gram-
translation
13-29, 32-34, 51-65, 273,
Alban, Saint 39, 96 Alcuin,
S.
46
Benedicti
Aidan, Saint 97-98
276-77, 289-90, 341; Colloquy
301-
Regula
of
marian 13-29; CaxkoXv: Worcmlies
49,
Letter
58;
Ethelred
to
Wulf Grammar
270; Ufe
25-27, 31, 301-9; Hexameron
Aldhelm, De
214; homily on Judges 353,
Alexander, Bishop of Lincoln 112
356-58; Letter
Brother Ed-
Alfred 135-49, 151-66; Preface to
Letter to Sigefyrd
Gregory's Cura Pastoralis 102,
308;
First Latin Letter to
266-67,
stan
ward 263-83;
275;
to
211, 285-300; Letter
to
weard
356-58,
267-68,
353,
Sige-
of St
Commentaria
Vedastus
in loannis
virginitate
140-42; translation of
liloquies
Uves of Saints 31-50, 276, 341; Life of St Oswald 248; manu-
Boethius'
script transmission 14-16, 217;
lation of the Psalms
249-50,
style
Sanctorak
31-50;
264-65;
schooldays
301-9; Temporak 52-65; use of
Consolation
alliteration
325-26
309
of sources 31-65
Amandus, Saint 34
Bata 308
Ambrose, Saint 38, 41-42 Ancrcne Riwk 120
/Ethelmaer, thegn 35, 49
Anderson
/Ethelred, king 3, 49; law code
Andreas 1-12, 260
316, 366 /Ethelthryth, Saint 47
143-44
Altercatio magistri et discipul 307,
Amalarius 52
/^thelberht, king 101
of Phi-
losophy 137-40, 157-61; trans-
poetic vocabulary 21-22; use
y^lfric
78-79;
translation of Augustine's So-
364; Letter for Wulfsige 276-77;
prose
40
Law Codes
142-44;
42;
59-60
Pontifical 43,
46
Anglian dialect 220-21
An^o-Saxon Chronick 23, 91-92,
1
1
382
Index
322-23,
poems
353-54;
of
247-48
Bayeux Tapestry 99, 27 Becket,
Anglo-Saxon insular 114-15, 212-16
minuscule
Thomas
355;
life
of 370-
71
Bede 52, 58,
62-64;
Marci
In
Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records 136-37
Evangelium Expositio 63; trans-
anonymous Old English homilies
lation of Ecclesiastical
sixteenth'century
antiquarians,
31-32, 285-300, 353-76 apocryphal motifs
1,
History
145, 153-66 passim, 357
201-10, 211-44
222-24
'Be
Heofonwarum and be Helwarum' 211-44
Belvoir Castle 363-64
Apollinaris, Saint 39
Benedict, Saint 32, 40, 42-46
archaism 119-20
Benedictional of /Ethelwold 31-
50
Archimedes 376 Arthur, king 119-31 passim
Ashburnham House
(fire
of 1731)
Assmann, B. 277-78, 288-89, 299 Audoenus, Saint 34 Augustine, Saint 35, 41, 52; In Evangelium
Tractatus
59-62; (pseudo- Augustine) Ser-
mones ad
fraters
in
eremo 73;
translation of Augustine's
152-66
140-42,
Soliloquies
13-50
see also
Beneit of St Albans,
life
of Becket
371
Audomarus, Saint 34
OE
Gregorian 49 Benedictine Reform 51-65, 102;
289, 357
loannis
Benedictions 31-50; Gallican 49;
Beowulf 147,
1.
9,
81-100, 136, 144,
259-60
Bertin, Saint 32;
life
of 346
Bethurum, Dorothy 311-40 passim bilingualism 101-17 Blaise, Saint
350
Blickling Homilies 285
passim
Augustine of Canterbury, Saint
Boethius,
Old English version of
The Consolation of Philosophy 137-40, 157-66 passim
46 authorship 144
Boniface, Saint 35 Ball,
C.
J.
E.
Boswell, William, ambassador 375
140-41
W.
Bamburgh 98
Bright, James
baptism of Christ 43-44
Brock, Sebastian 76
Barley, Nigel Basilissa,
275-76
Brut,
The 119-31,371
Glyn 121 104-5 Edmunds Bury St
Saint 38
Basilius, Saint
143
Burgess,
38
Bately, Janet 143
Bush, Douglas 148
Bath 37, 44, 47 Battle o/Maiaon
Byrhtnoth, Ealdorman of Essex 97 5, 97,
144
383
Index
Caedmon 146 Cable, Thomas 248
Cross, James E. 57, 252
calendars 33-39
Cynewulf 1-12, 146
Cameron
List of texts
Cuthbert, Saint 38, 42, 44-46, 351
245-56
Canones Adomnani 268-69
De
Cyril of Alexandria
exitu ani-
mi, et de secundo adventu 77
Canons of Edgar 269 Canones Wallici 270
Danish-English customs 263-83
Canterbury 42
Death of Alfred 2^1 -^S
Canterbury Benedictional 42, 46
Death of Edgar 247-48
Camicelli, chapters
Thomas 140-42
in
Old English manu-
151-66
scripts
charters 101-17
Chaucer,
Miller's Tale
131
De paenitentia 68-70 De raris fabuli 305 Deshman, Robert 48 D'Ewes, Sir Simonds 375 dictionary-making 375-76
Chretien de Troyes 130 Christ
decapitation 94-100
and Satan 260
Diets
ofCato 291
Christ Church, Canterbury 104-8
Donatus, Ars maior 304
Christopher, Saint 167-99
Dionysius, Saint 35, 39
Claudius of Turin 58
Dodsworth, Roger, antiquary 363-
Clemoes, Peter 12-29 passim, 59,
64 Dugdale, William, antiquary 362-
264 Cnut, king 366
63
codicology 285-300, 341-52
Durham
Comber, Thomas 368
Durham 248
97
consumption of animals 268-69 coronation of kings 37, 44
Eadwine
Cottam cemetery 95
Earl,
Cotton-Corpus Legendary 37-50,
Eble,
341-52 Cotton,
Sir
James
W.
366-68
146
Connie 25
Edgar, king 37, 44, 47, 50; Death
Robert,
antiquary
293-94, 297-99, 353-76; family
Psalter 353,
of 373
Cotton, Thomas, antiquary 362,
of Edgar 241-^S editing
Old English 135-49, 151-
66, 201-10, 225, 245-62,
274-
83, 311-40; editing L'Isle
355
courtesy, terms for 119-31
Edmund, Saint 39, 96-97 Edward the Confessor 103, 107
Cranmer, Thomas, archbishop of
Einarr Helgason, poet 9
373, 375
Canterbury 293 Crisanthus and Daria, Saints, 39-
40
Einekel, E. 169 Elias of
Evesham,
370-71
life
of Becket
1
384
Index
Elizabeth
I
295-96
Franzen, Christine 315
Elstob, Elizabeth 3
Ely
108-9,
104-6,
97,
359-60,
Geisel, Ida 205, 208
generic classification 245-62
365
Emma, Queen 366 Ephrem the Syrian
68, 76,
80
Epiphany, feast of 43-44
B 259
Eugenia, Saint,
vita
and masses of
Monmouth
George, Saint 38
Giles, Saint 351
Gneuss, Helmut 27-28
Pseudo-Ecgherti
269-
Godden, Malcolm
Godeman, abbot
70
Book 315
Exeter
see
Exhortation to Christian Living 248,
Felix of Crowland, Vita
s.
Guthlaci
W.
J.
201
163-64
Gregory the Great 41-42, 44-46, 52-53, 61; Cura Pastoralis 102,
201-10 Firmin, Saint, passio 346
Flemish
of
Greek 375-76
Faith, Saint, passio 345
saints
50;
/Ethelwold
Grant, R.
king 9
59
Thorney
Benedictional
also
Goodwin, C.
151-66
Fjolnir,
56,
of
Gonser, P. 201-9
252-62 explicits
121
Glastonbury 36
37, 39, 41
Evesham 108-9
142-44,
152-66 passim;
Old
English translation of the Dia-
32-50 passim
Pontes Anglo-Saxonici 51, 102 fonts,
260
90,
Getulius, Saint, passio 343
vaulx 363
Excerptiones
A
Genesis
Geoffrey of
founder of Rie^
Walter,
Espec,
Genesis
Anglo-Saxon 374-75
formula in Old English prose 313-
logues
152-66 passim
Grettis saga 93 Griffiths, Bill
Grosseteste,
40
Max 57 Fortunes of Men
138
Grimbald, Saint 34 bishop
Robert,
of
Lincoln 362, 368-69
Forster,
90
Forty Soldiers 34
Guthlac, Saint, 351; Old English
homily 201-10
Foucault, Michel 144-45
Fowler, Roger 312 Fulk, R.
D. 251, 261
Funke, Otto 250
Hadrian, Pope 270-71
Haggar, James, curate of Barrington 373
Francia 34
hagiography 341-52
Frank, Roberta 258
hairstyles,
Frankish saints 41-43
Danish
Saxon 263-83
and
Anglo-
385
Index
ludoc, Saint 32, 34
Haki, legendary sea-king 5 Hakluyt,
Edmund 367-68
Hakluyt, Richard, Principall Navigations
Hall,
J.
368
R., critic
l^ominibus Locorum Hebrceo-
et
rum 63-64 JohnofWallingford272
"hende" 119-31 Herzfeld, G. 169
Jordan, R. 220
Old English
90, 353,
356-58
Joscelyn, Jost,
Hiberno-Latin influences 222-24,
John 288-89, 294, 375
Karl 312, 319
Judgement Day
268-69
67, 222-24,
250-
51
Ju^ement Day
Hibemensis 268-69
*
Hickes, George, 31
Hobson, Thomas,
carrier
371-72
Hofstetter, Walter 27-28, 220-21
Holthausen,
F.
205-8
13-50,
also /Elfric,
II
248, 257
'Judgement of the
Damned" 251
Judic, Bruno 142-43
Julian
and
Basilissa, saints
67-80,
51-65,
see
38-41
Commentary
Julian of Eclanum,
201-10, 211-44, 285-300;
on Psalms 143 Juliana
258
anonymous, Blick-
ling, Vercelli,
Kennings 3
Wulfstan
Horrible Histories 99
Kentish 22, 221
Howard, Henry, earl of Northampton 368-69
Ker, Neil
Hrabanus Maurus 58
Kern 205
167-68, 320-21, 342,
344-45 Kiernan, Kevin 138
King Horn 130
Iconography 43-50 incipits
293,
Jerome, Saint 41, 52; Liber de Situ
of Auxerre 52-55, 61
homilies
librarian
James, Saint 39-40
4
Heliodorus, Aethiopica 373
Hexateuch,
Richard,
298-99, 370
HallfireSr vandraedaskald, poet 3
Haymo
James,
151-66
Kings (Book
injunctions against eating blood
263-83 Instructions for Christians
of)
34
Kluge, F. 263-64, 274
Kormakr, poet 5
Kuhn's Laws 245-62 passim
256
lorwerth, Latin teacher of /Elfric
La3amon 119-31
307-9 Isidore of Seville Liber synonymo-
rum 290-91; Synonyma
sive la-
Lambert, Saint,
life
of 346
land tenure 112-17
mentatio animae peccatricis 72;
Lapidge, Michael 32
(pseudo-Isidore) Sermo
late
III
73
West Saxon 217-21
386
Index
Latin, as taught language 25-27,
301-9; spoken language 304-9
documentation 101-17
Corpus Legendary) 37;
Welborne
Legate, John, rector of
364 Le Saux, Francoise 120 lexicography 375-76 359
Liher Eliensis Liber
Monstrorum 85
Liebermann, Felix 312 Machutus, anonymous
Life of St
Old English 28-29 Fellow
Augustine,
Lindsell,
of
L'Isle,
Edmund 371
L'Isle,
William 31, 353-76;
A
Saxon Treatise on
Old and
New
CCCC
CCCC 173 (Parker Chronicle) 375; CCCC 178 (homilies, with CCCC 162) 263-83; CCCC 188 (homilies) 15-29; CCCC 189 (cartulary) 107-8; CCCC 198 (homilies) 296; CCCC 201 (homilies, laws) 68, 250, 314-40; CCCC 302 (homilies) 211-44,
290
0.
368-69; Trinity College
2.
(Liber
1
wine
106;
Eliensis)
Trinity College R. 17.
(Ead-
1
366-67
Psalter)
Testament
Canterbury
353, 360, 364, 374 liturgical practices
105
162 (homilies) 46, 71, 263-83;
teste)
Faire
Aethiopian 373-75; and Greek
the
71-72;
Trinity College B. 15. 20 (Grosse-
Clare Hall 359-60, 362
375-76;
(homilies) 4. 19 (writs)
Corpus Christi College 9 (Cotton-
law codes 78-79, 316 legal
33
1.
li.
CUL Mm.
Cathedral Reg P (cartulary) 107-
31-50, 342
8;
C3
(writ)
Bibliotek
GKS
Chart Ant
107
Macarius homily 68-74
Maccabees
Copenhagen
34, 39
Madden, Frederic 131 Manners, Thomas, Earl of Rut'
Kongelige
1595
(Wulfstan collection) 323
land 363
Dublin
MANUSCRIPTS:
Trinity
College
174
(legendary)
350
Boulogne'SUf'Mer Bibliotheque Nationale 63 (homilies)
Le Havre
275;
Bibliotheque
(New Minster
Cambridge University Library
Ff. 1.
28
(/Elfric)
CUL Gg. CUL 296-97; CUL
15-29;
2. 11 (homilies)
330
Missal) 41
23 (Cam-
bridge Psalter) 366; 3.
Municipale
li.
London,
British Library
Additional 15350 (Codex Wintoniensis)
113-14;
Additional
387
Index
36789 (Cotton catalogue) 29394; Additional 49598 (Benedictional of y^thelwold) 37-
Cotton Tiberius B.
50; Additional 57337 (Ander^
365-66; Cotton Tiberius D. ix
son Pontifical) 43, 46
(account of sixteenth-century
Arundel 60 (Arundel
Psalter) 366;
Arundel 300 (Henry Howard's
Cotton Caligula A.
(La3amon's
ix
Brut) 119-31; Cotton Claudius
A.
(gospel book) 107; Cot-
iii
tton Tiberius C.
vi
(psalter)
voyages) 368; Cotton Titus C. vi
(Henry Howard's correspon-
Hexateuch)
sian B. xiv (Quadrilogus)
370-
Cotton Vespasian B. xxiv
71;
(cartulary)
Cotton Vesp-
109;
asian D. xiv (homilies) 285-
356-58, 364;
300; Cotton Vespasian D. xxi
iv
Cotton Claudius B. ry)
(OE
(Old Eng-
ton Claudius B. lish
xi
142-44; Co-
Pastoralis)
dence) 368-69; Cotton Vespa-
369
prayers)
Cura
vi (cartula-
104-5; Cotton Claudius C.
ix (cartulary) 104-5, 109;
ton Cleopatra C.
viii
Cot-
(Psycho-
of Guthlac) 201; Cotton
(Life
Vitellius
of
lation quies
y
A. xv
(Alfred's trans-
Augustine's
Solilo-
Passion of St Christopher)
machia) 99; Cotton Domitian
140-41, 167-99; Cotton Vitel-
A. XV
lius
(Liber Eliensis) 360;
ton Faustina A.
Cot-
ix (homilies)
C. V (homilies) 289-90;
Cotton
Vitellius
D.
vii (Josce-
211-44, 290; Cotton Julius C.
lyn's collection)
288-89; Cot-
354-76;
ton Vitellius E.
xviii (psalter)
iii
letters)
(L'Isle's
Cotton
Julius
i
362-64;
cartulary)
Nero A.
D.
(Rievaulx
Cotton
(homilies, laws, etc.)
i
Nero
Cotton
365-66 Harley 603 (Harley Psalter) 95, 99; Harley 2892
(Canterbury
i
Benedictional) 42, 46; Harley
(Cotton-Corpus Legendary) 37;
6018 (Cotton catalogue) 294,
315-40;
Cotton Otho A. Boethius)
Otho
E.
vi (Alfred's
137-40;
Cotton
(OE Cura Pastoralis) 142-44; Cotton Otho B. x B.
(saints'
Otho ria
ii
357; Harley 7000 (L'Isle's cor-
respondence) 354-76
Royal
7.
C.
xii (/Elfric)
Stowe 2 (Stowe
Psalter)
14-29
366
167-99; Cotton
lives)
B. xi (Old English Histo-
Ecclesiastica^
Anglo-Saxon
London, Lambeth Palace 692 (Nowell's word-list) 293,
Chronicle, etc.) 357, 375; Cot-
ton
Otho C.
xiii
Brut) 119-31;
A.
iii
(OE
Augustine's
(La3amon's
Cotton Tiberius
prose
Bibliotheque
Municipale
127
of
(105)
(Winchcombe Sacramen-
141;
tary)
41
extract
Soliloquies)
Orleans
388
Index
manuscript pointing 319-21
Oxford Bodleian
Library,
Bodley
Dugdale
48
(lists
180
137-40
(Alfred's Boethius)
of
40; passio of
cartulary
owners) 362-63 Pastoralis)
142-44;
Hatton
liary) 70,
314-15; Hatton 115
113
(homiliary) 92, 263-83;
(homi-
Hatton
116 (homiliary) 263-83
de
344
France,
(Hexateuch,
Marquardt, Hertha,
homilies)
Mary Magdalene, Saint 48 Matthew, Saint,
passio
Mauricius, Saint 39
McDougall, Ian 315
Chronicle)
353-54, 366-67, 374-75 194
Mcintosh,
(gospel
Angus 247-53,
261,
311,319-20 Metaphors
book) 105,
346
Maurice, Saint 34
636
(Peterborough
4
critic
Martin, Saint, Life of 34
Maurus, Saint 38
John's
371;
285-300
marriage, clerical
356-68, 371, 374; Laud Misc.
College
Fables
Matthias, Saint 350
Laud Misc. 201 and 381 (L'Isle's notebooks) 353-76; Laud Misc.
St
Marie
Lanval 370
Hatton 20 (OE Cura
509
Mark, Saint, the Evangelist 38,
in poetry 1-12
Middle English 119-31; Dictionary 127-28
Paris lat.
8824
143-44;
lat.
Bibliotheque Nationale, Psalter)
(Paris
12052 (Sacramentary of Ratol-
42
dus)
Milton, John 371-72
Momma, Haruko
248-49, 251
Monarchy, conceptions of 44 Monasticism, practices of 31-50 Monster of Hell motif 222-23 Morte Arthur 130
Rochester Cathedral A. sis)
3. 5 (Textus Roffen-
Muspilli 75
106-8 Napier, Arthur 312, 322
Rouen
Neile, Richard, bishop of
Bibliotheque Municipale 274 (Y6) (Robert of Jumieges Sacramentary)
41
Durham
359-60
New
Minster Missal 41
Nicholas, Saint 351
Night imagery 5-6 Salisbury Salisbury Cathedral 221 and 222
"no
aid
from kin" motif 67-74
non-West Saxon 217-21
endary) 341-52, Salisbury 223
Norman Conquest 103 Norman hairstyles 271-72
(legendary) 350-51
nouns. Old English 20-23
(version of Cotton-Corpus Leg-
1
389
Index
Vocabularium
Laurence
Nowell,
293
Peterborough 301
and James the
Philip
Less, saints
40
Oakden,
J.
P.
120
H. 202-9
Pilch,
O'Brien O'Keeffe, Katherine 91 Odin, Odin's mead
Pope, John 16, 20-21, 52, 57, 61,
249-50, 263-66, 272-76
O'Neill, Patrick P. 143 3, 9,
post-Conquest culture 341-52
10
Olaf Tryggvason 3
Prayer of Moses 34
Old Dairy Cottage cemetery 94-95 Old English prose life of Andrew,
prepositions,
Old English 18-20
Primus and Felician, Saints, passio
343
7
Old English language and grammar 13-29, 101-17; words for "rank"
111;
words denoting
type of will 111-12
Solomon and Saturn Pater
hJoster Dialogue
246
Prudentius Psychomachia 98-99
Olsen, Karin 5
Andy 250
Psalter
77-78
punctuation 320-21
Origen 64 Orosius,
"prosaic poetry" 245-62
prose and poetry 245-62 Prose
Old Norse 1-11 Orchard,
Priscian 304
Old English
translation
145, 154-66 passim
Quadraginta
orthography, Old English 318-19
milices, saints 38,
41
Quadrilogus 370-71
Oswald, Saint 39, 97-98
Ramsey 108-10; Ramsey
Otfried Evangelienhvich 75
Owen-Crocker, Gale 271
rank,
palaeography 212-17 Palmer, Panther,
Old English words
for 111
Ratoldus, Sacramentary of 42
Thomas and Herbert 369 The 258
Regula
S. Benedicti
46
Relative pronouns in
Pappus of Alexandria 375-76 Parker,
Chronicle
114-15
Matthew, archbishop of
Canterbury 31, 215, 288; cle of 353, 375;
A
priestes marriages
295-96;
Old English
24-25
cir-
Defence of Testi-
repetition,
Old English prose 324-
26 Responsio discipul 307, 309
Reynolds,
Andrew 95
Passion of St Christopher 167-99
Old English 321-40 rhyme, Old English prose 323-25
Patrick, Saint 35
Rievaulx, cartulary of 355, 362
Paul the Deacon 54-55, 57-65
Robert of Jumi^ges, Sacramentary
monie of Antiquitie 294-300
Percy,
Thomas
2
rhetoric.
of 41
390
Index
South Park 99
Roberts, Jane 120
Rochester, use of manuscripts at 13, 19, 24, 29, 104,
106-8
Spelman, Henry, Archaeologus 359 Spelman, John, Psalterium Davidis Latino^Saxonicum
Rypins, S. 169
vetus
353,
366 Sacramentaries 41, 46 Saints
and
St Brice's
their cults 31-50,
341-
52; see also individual saints'
names
Thomas 357-58
120, 246-47, 251,
Stirnimann, Heinrich 141
Denmark
3
Swanton, Michael 263 Swithun, Saint 32, 47-48
Otto 205
Donald
Scragg,
G.
261
Sveinn, king of
Scandinavian influence 1-11 Schlutter,
Stanley, E.
Stiklarstadir, battle of 3
Salisbury Cathedral 341-52
Savage,
Day Massacre 272
13, 51, 102, 201,
Szarmach, Paul E. 202, 250
203-10, 250-53, 285-86 scribal activity Seafarer,
Talbot, Robert 293
341-52
The 1^-16
Testimonie of Antiquitie, see Parker,
Matthew
sea imagery 3-5
Seasons for Fasting 256 Sedgefield,
W.
Selden, John,
137-40, 162-66
J.
jurist
366; Analec-
40; transmission 212-18, 341-
52
366-67 Sleepers, Saints 39, 90, 94
Thorpe, B. 17
Sigeric, archbishop of 17, 26,
Canterbury
52-56, 64
Latin-English,
Eng'
lish-Latin 101-17
Jude, Saints 39
Gaiuain and
24 translation
Sigeweard 277
Simon and
Saint, 35
Three Utterances exemplum 222-
Sigefyra 277, 285-300
Sir
emendation 201-10, 311-
Thomas,
ton
Seven
textual
the
Green Knight
Treharne, Elaine 92
Tremulous Scribe 266, 273
95, 130
Sisam, Kenneth 13, 15, 25-26
P>j6d6lfr of
Skaldic poetry, influences of 1-11
P>6rfinnr
Hvin, poet 9
munnr, poet 3
Smaragdus 52-65 67-80
Smetana, Cyril 57
uhi sunt motif
Smith, Thomas,
Ure, James 312
catalogue of 294,
298 Vedastus, Saint 32, 34, 38, 41-43
Solomon and Saturn 246 sources of
Old English
1-12, 31-65
literature
Vellekla 10
verbal parallels 321-40
391
Index
Verbs,
mood 23-24 Book
Vercelli
William
1-11,
68-71,
92,
111-14
Winchcombe Sacramentary 41
201-10, 245-62, 285 verse form,
wills
103
I
Old English 247-53
Winchester
vocabulary
27-29,
Vikings 2
220;
liturgical
Vincent, Saint 36, 38
New
Minster 36, IJher Vitae
308;
Old Minster 308, 113-14;
Virgil 3 virginity,
y^lfric's
on 290-
tract
usage
31-50;
school 301-9
Winter imagery 6-7
300 Virgin Mary, Nativity of 35, 38;
assumption of 289-90; cult of
Wittig, Joseph 139
Wodnesfeld 3
Wor
36
Barrow cemetery 94
Worcester, use of manuscripts at
Wace, Roman de Brut
121-31
21, 263-83,
351-52
Walkington Wold cemetery 94
Wormald, Francis 33 Wormald, Patrick 264
Wanderer, The 75-78, 148
Wulfgeat 277
passim
Humphrey,
Wanley,
palaeogra-
pher 294, 298
Warton, Thomas 2
bishop of Sherbourne
Wulfsige,
276-77 Wulfstan
I,
146, 264-65, 311-40;
water imagery 8-9
Canon Law
Watson, Gerard 141
Canons of Edgar 317; homilies 212, 245-62 passim; Institutes
Watts, William, chaplain of Gonville
and Caius 359
Webber, Teresa 342, 344, 348, 351
of PoUty 259, 317, 322; law-
codes 316-17; Sermo Lupi ad Anglos 73-74, 317, 321; prose
Weiss, Judith 121
Welsh
collection 269-71;
schools 304-9
Wenisch,
F.
220
West Saxon 202, 217-18 Wheelock, Abraham 353
style
65,
248, 250, 251-53, 264-
313-40
Wulfstan of Winchester, Life of St ^thelwold 42, 301-2
Whitbread, Leslie 252
Young, Patrick, catalogue of 350
Whitelock, Dorothy 163, 263-64,
Ywain and Gawain 130-31
311
Wilcox, Jonathan 317
Zettel, P.
Wilfred, Saint 351
zombies 93-94
348
Elaine Treharne erature in the
is
Professor of Medieval Lit-
Department of English
University of Leicester. She
merous books and erature, including
articles
is
at
the
the author of nu-
on Old English
Old and Middle
English:
lit-
An
Anthology (Oxford, 2000) and The Old English Life of St Nicholas (Leeds, 1997). She
is
Chair
of the English Association and Second Vice-
President of the International Society of AngloSaxonists.
Susan Rosscr
is
former Research Fellow in the
Department of English Manchester. She
Old English
is
at
the University of
the author of articles
religious prose.
on
"In addition to honouring Professor Scragg, disciplinary
this
volume
will provide an inter-
view of the production, dissemination, and use of written
England before the Conquest, and in the centuries following
it. It
texts in
will be an
invaluable contribution to currect scholarly debate in this area of early medieval culture.
These essays include work on the sources and dissemination of
prose and verse texts, on palaeography, lexicography and semantics, the editing of manuscripts, and post-Conquest use of
Old English
texts."
— From "This
is
done the
a well-conceived difficult
and diverse
list
work
and well-organized book;
its
the Editors
editors have clearly
of eliciting first-rate contributions from an impressive
of international contributors.
The broad range
of topics and
the depth and detail of their treatment are a fitting tribute to the scholar in
whose honor they
are offered.
There
is
no question
that this collection will
make a significant contribution to the scholarship in the field; it will be welcomed by nearly anyone interested in Old English language and literature, and
its
various essays will prove to have lasting value."
— Roy Liuzza
ACMRS: The Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies
ISBN 0-86698-295-7 50000
Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies
Volume 252 9
890866 982951
