Proverb from Winfrid’s Time and Bede’s Death Song: Some Textual Problems in Two Eighth-Century Poems Revisited

2020 ◽  
Vol 138 (2) ◽  
pp. 259-276
Author(s):  
Alfred Bammesberger
Keyword(s):  
Old English ◽  
Eighth Century ◽  
Direct Object ◽  
Wide Sense ◽  
Grammatical Analysis ◽  
Word Division

AbstractThe sequence Oft daedlata domę foręldit (four words) in the Old English Proverb from Winfrid’s Time (ProvW, 1) defies grammatical analysis because foręldit ‘delays’ requires an accusative object. It is proposed to read Oft daed lata domę foręldit as five words, with daed (= dǣd) ‘deed’ functioning as direct object. This suggestion does not require any emendation because word division in Old English is by no means regular and there is some space between daed and lata in the manuscript anyway. The dative forms domę and gahwem (2a) function as instrumentals, with gahwem perhaps subordinated to domę. The meaning of the simplex lata lies in the area of ‘late-comer’, but ‘sluggard’, ‘laggard’ or other derogatory terms are not suitable. With regard to its genre, ProvW may be viewed in conjunction with Bede’s Death Song (BDS). The vocabulary of BDS presents some problems, but, above all, the construction of the five verse-lines is not totally clear. It is proposed that the comparative thoncsnotturra (2a) has absolute function, and that the adverbial than (2b), meaning ‘then’, introduces a fresh clause. ProvW and BDS may belong to a larger group of self-contained texts no longer extant. In a wide sense they represent the category of Wisdom Poetry in a Christian context.

Solomon and Saturn I, 89 a, “prologa prim”: An Exercise in Monastic Reading Practice

2020 ◽  
Vol 138 (4) ◽  
pp. 618-648
Author(s):  
Rachel A. Burns
Keyword(s):  
Old English ◽  
Half Line ◽  
Lectio Divina ◽  
Reading Practice ◽  
John 1 ◽  
Grammatical Analysis ◽  
Subsequent Episode ◽  
In The Beginning ◽  
The Devil ◽  
Different Levels

AbstractThis article reassesses the grammatically problematic half-line prologa prima (l. 89a) in the Old English wisdom poem Solomon and Saturn I, and suggests that it ought to be emended to the grammatically viable reading of “prologa prim”. Line 89 a introduces a passage in which the words of the Pater Noster become anthropomorphised as warriors and attack the devil. I will argue that “prologa prim” is an exegetical exercise, informed by grammatical theory and liturgical practice, designed for an audience of monastic readers. This multivalent half-line offers different levels of meaning when read according to different permutations of language and metaphor, in a process analogous to the interpretation of scripture according to the influential model of fourfold exegesis. When read literally, as ‘the first of the initial letters’, “prologa prim” indicates the unfolding and time-bound process of reading. Previous scholars (Anlezark 2009; Anderson 1998) have noted the allusive references in line 89 a to Greek logos (‘word’) and Old English prim (‘first hour’, ‘Prime office’), but not their full significance. Through these allusions, the reader shifts from a literal reading to a spiritual and metaphorical reading of the half-line, achieving a diachronic perspective of the Pater Noster’s recitation across time, and finally an atemporal perspective, reading in line 89 a a paraphrase of John 1:1, “In the beginning was the Word”. In conjunction with the subsequent episode of the battle, line 89 a forms an exemplum of the monastic practice of lectio divina. This example of ‘monastic poetics’ (O’Camb 2014; Niles 2019) moves from grammatical analysis to a vision of the Word.

Creating the cloud-tent-ship conceit in Exodus

2011 ◽  
Vol 40 ◽  
pp. 103-150 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miranda Wilcox
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Cognitive Science ◽  
Old English ◽  
Eighth Century ◽  
Hostile Environment ◽  
Anglo Saxon ◽  
Culturally Specific ◽  
God's People ◽  
Pastoral Relationship ◽  
Interpretative Framework

AbstractThe enigmatic description of the columna nubis in lines 71b–92 of the Old English Exodus juxtaposes images of substances that shield God's people from their hostile environment; understanding the relations among these protective coverings requires cultural and literary knowledge not explicitly articulated in Exodus. Metaphors and typologies developed in Arator's sixth-century Historia apostolica and subsequently conventionalized in Bede's eighth-century Expositio actuum Apostolorum, texts used in the Anglo-Saxon monastic curriculum, provide an interpretative framework for the complicated accretion of images in Exodus. Using insights about metaphorical processing from cognitive science, this article argues that the Exodus-poet crafted a sophisticated tripartite conceit to generate a pastoral relationship with his audience, first by adapting metaphoric mappings from Arator and Bede and then by extending their domains with culturally specific entailments about how ships and tents functioned as protective covers in Anglo-Saxon material culture.

Verb argument structure acquisition in young children: defining a role for discourse

2010 ◽  
Vol 38 (3) ◽  
pp. 662-674 ◽  
Author(s):  
LETITIA R. NAIGLES ◽  
ASHLEY MALTEMPO
Keyword(s):  
Young Children ◽  
Old English ◽  
English Learners ◽  
Argument Structure ◽  
Sole Source ◽  
Direct Object ◽  
Older Children ◽  
Discourse Context ◽  
Verb Argument Structure ◽  
Source Of Information

ABSTRACTTwo-, three- and four-year-old English learners enacted sentences that were missing a direct object (e.g. *The zebra brings.). Previous work has indicated that preschoolers faced with such ungrammatical sentences consistently alter the usual meaning of the verb to fit the syntactic frame (enacting ‘zebra comes’); older children are more likely to repair the syntax to fit the meaning of the verb (enacting ‘zebra brings something’; Naigles, Gleitman & Gleitman, 1993). We investigated whether young children performed more repairs if an informative context preceded the ungrammatical sentences. Test sentences were preceded by short vignettes that created a relationship between three characters. Children repaired more sentences than had been found previously; however, older preschoolers also repaired significantly more frequently than younger preschoolers. Discourse context thus seems relevant to the acquisition of verb argument structure, but is not the sole source of information.

Attila's and Beowulf's Funeral

PMLA ◽  
1927 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 255-267 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fr. Klaeber
Keyword(s):  
Old English ◽  
English Literature ◽  
Eighth Century ◽  
Positive Answer ◽  
Sixth Century ◽  
Old English Literature ◽  
Source Of Information

By way of caution a sub-title should be added: “A Set of Questions”—questions, that is, to which I do not presume to return a positive answer.The classical parallels (Vergil, Homer) of Beowulf's obsequies as well as the Jordanes parallel are well known to students of Old English literature (cf. Klaeber's edition, pp. 209, 213, 216). It is especially the latter which has commonly been considered of very great value as illustrating the authentic character of the notable closing scene of Beowulf. “The accuracy [of the Beowulfian funeral],” says Chadwick1—to cite an English authority—“is confirmed in every point by archeological or contemporary literary evidence. We may refer especially to the account of Attila's funeral given by Jordanes.” Again, “the agreement between the two versions could not possibly be greater; here [i.e., in the recital of Attila's obsequies] everything is Germanic”—this was the verdict of Kögel,2 who regarded that 49th chapter of Jordanes' history3 as a most precious source of information on ancient Germanic poetry. It is true, certain differences between the sixth century and the eighth century version did not escape observation, as may be seen from Chambers' Introduction to Beowulf, p. 124, or from Klaeber's Edition, p. 216. But it remained for Edward Schröder's incisive article (ZfdA. LIX, 240-44) to aim a deadly blow at the famous account of Attila's funeral as currently interpreted.

The text of Aldhelm's Enigma no. c in Oxford, Bodleian Library, Rawlinson C. 697 and Exeter Riddle 40

1985 ◽  
Vol 14 ◽  
pp. 61-73 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katherine O'Brien O'Keeffe
Keyword(s):  
Present Article ◽  
Old English ◽  
English Translation ◽  
Ninth Century ◽  
Tenth Century ◽  
Eighth Century ◽  
Bodleian Library ◽  
Latin Text

Exeter Riddle 40 presents two related problems as a translation of one of Aldhelm's Enigmata (no. c: ‘Creatura’): its dislocation, in an otherwise accurate translation, of six lines from their position in the Latin text; and its connection with the so-called ‘Lorica’ of Leiden, Bibliotheek der Rijksuniversiteit, Voss. lat. Q. 106, the only other surviving Old English translation of an Aldhelmian enigma. In his edition of the Exeter Riddles, Tupper addressed these problems by postulating that both Old English riddles were the work of one translator and that Exeter Riddle 40 was revised from an earlier version of Aldhelm's enigma now lost to us. Although Tupper's view has been widely accepted, it presents a number of difficulties. It is the purpose of the present article to suggest an alternate interpretation of the evidence: that Exeter Riddle 40 – a much later poem than the ‘Leiden Riddle’, a Northumbrian poem perhaps of the eighth century – was translated from a ninth-century continental manuscript with tenth-century English corrections: Oxford, Bodleian Library, Rawlinson C. 697.

Mise en page: the dimension and layout of books containing Old English

2018 ◽  
pp. 252-279
Author(s):  
Donald G. Scragg
Keyword(s):  
Old English ◽  
Eighth Century ◽  
Practical Issue ◽  
Practical Experiences ◽  
Intended Use

In the final chapter in the book Donald Scragg focuses on the very practical issue of the size and the layout of Old English manuscripts from the eighth century to the first half of the twelfth, in order to explore the role of books in the transmission of thought, knowledge and practical experiences of the age. The chapter considers how the dimensions of surviving books can give clues ‘about their intended use, about how they were created and about what that may tell us about the role of the written vernacular in the society of early England’.

What has Ingeld to do with Lindisfarne?

1993 ◽  
Vol 22 ◽  
pp. 93-125 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donald A. Bullough
Keyword(s):  
Old English ◽  
Home Country ◽  
English Literature ◽  
Eighth Century ◽  
Actual Practice ◽  
Old English Literature ◽  
Vernacular Literature ◽  
Cultural Importance ◽  
History Of ◽  
Germanic Legend

In the course of a long letter written in 797 to Speratus, bishop of an unnamed English see, Alcuin declares:Verba Dei legantur in sacerdotali convivio: ibi decet lectorem audiri, non citharistam, sermones patrum, non carmina gentilium. Quid Hinieldus cum Christo?Nowhere else in the substantial corpus of his letters does Alcuin name a known figure in early Germanic legend and literature – the Ingeld ofBeowulfandWidsith– or refer specifically to the vernacular literature of his home country. Unsurprisingly, since the publication of the first complete and correct text of the letter in 1873, this passage has been quotedin toto(in varying translations) or alluded to in virtually every history of Old English literature and every commentary onBeowulf. Jaffé, however, in the notes he left with his transcript when he died prematurely in 1870, had proposed an identification of the addressee, Speratus, with Bishop Hygbald of Lindisfarne, recorded from 780 to 803. Dümmler adopted Jaffé's view in his editions of the letter: and he has been followed without demur by every subsequent scholar who has quoted or referred to it. Furthermore, for most of the century it has been tacitly assumed that the letter was directed not merely to the bishop in person but also to the community of which he was head – a monastic one, even after the disasters of 793; and that Alcuin's exhortations, whether or not they were a response to the actual practice of Lindisfarne and other Northumbrian houses, are evidence of the acceptability (and indeed, cultural importance) of secular vernacular verse in eighth-century English monasteries.

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