Mugglestone - The Oxford History of English

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(‘glorious Father’, line 3), ece drihten (‘eternal Lord’, lines 4 and 8), scyppend (‘Creator’, line 6), moncynnes weard (‘Guardian of mankind’, line 7), frea ælmihtig (‘almighty Ruler’, line 9). It is also characterized by the use of poetic compounds (that is, words formed by joining together two separate words which already exist) and formulae (or set phrases used in conventional ways). Cædmon’s Hymn contains both—poetic compounds such as modgeþanc (‘intention’, literally ‘mind’s purpose’, line 2) and wuldorfæder (‘glorious Father’, line 3), and formulae such as meotodes meahte (‘the Creator’s might’, line 2), weorc wuldorfæder (‘the glorious Father’s work’, line 3), and ece drihten (‘eternal Lord’, lines 4 and 8).

The poem Cædmon’s Hymn oVers, therefore, a useful illustration of the distinctiveness of two Old English dialects, and it also exempliWes the features of Old English verse. For the Old English language, however, it embodies more than dialectal or formal signiWcance. In the poem the most humble of inhabitants, a cow-herd, is shown to have the capacity for divine understanding through communication in the vernacular. The Old English language itself is thus eVectively authenticated through its association with the miraculous, both in terms of the creation itself (the subject of the poem), and in terms of the poetic expression of this event by an illiterate cow-herd. England’s identity as a Christian nation is presented as being intricately bound up with its language. The signiWcance of Christianity for the development of the English language will be furtherexplored in the next section.

conversion to christianity: establishing

a standard script

In 597 ad Augustine and his fellow missionaries arrived in Britain and began the gradual process of converting its inhabitants. The event is recorded in Bede’s Ecclesiastical History, and also in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (the Parker Chronicle, the oldest manuscript of the Chronicle which is also known as the A version, attributes it to 601 ad; the Peterborough Chronicle records it twice, once under 596 ad and once under 601 ad). Fascinating from a linguistic perspective is Bede’s account, also in his Ecclesiastical History, of how this missionary project came to be conceived. According to Bede, an encounter in a Roman market-place with a group of heathen slave-boys from Britain inspired Pope Gregory to send missionaries to convert that country. Bede’s account wittily links Old English proper names with Latin terms denoting Christian concepts. The passage cited here is

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from the Old English translation of the Ecclesiastical History, where the etymological play on words (seen in the linking of Ongle with engla in lines 2 and 3, Dere with de ira in lines 5 and 6, and Æll with Alleluia in lines 8 and 9) gathers an extra layer of resonance from its vernacular context:

(‘Again he asked what the race from which they came was called. The reply was that they were called English. He said: ‘‘That is appropriate, because they have a matchless appearance and likewise it is Wtting that they should be joint-heirs with the angels in heaven.’’ Then he inquired further, saying: ‘‘What is the name of the province from which the boys were brought?’’ Then the reply came that they were called Deiri. He said: ‘‘Deiri is an appropriate term, de ira eruiti [removed from anger]; they shall be removed from God’s anger and called to Christ’s mercy.’’ He asked moreover what their king was called; the reply came that he was called Ælle. And then he punned on the name, saying: ‘‘Alleluia, it is Wtting that praise of God our Creator should be sung in those places.’’ ’)

Here, as with Cædmon’s Hymn, the nature of the vernacular language itself becomes testimony to what was seen as the innate Christianity of the inhabitants of Anglo-Saxon England. The very language that is spoken and written is seen to bear witness to the nation’s Christian identity. The word-play in this passage is of course enhanced by the way in which Latin and Old English rely on the same script to represent their language, and it is the origin of this script for English that will be my focus in this section.

One of the most profound eVects of the arrival of Christianity in Britain on the English language was the development of an Old English script based on the Roman alphabet. Before the arrival of the Christian missionaries, the only script available in Anglo-Saxon England had been a diVerent sort of writing altogether, a runic ‘alphabet’ developed from the earlier Germanic futhark (see p. 22). Because the fourth character in the sequence had changed, and because it is today conventional to use ‘c’ to transliterate the sixth character, the set of runes used by the Anglo-Saxons is normally referred to as the futhorc (and is illustrated in Fig. 2.3). It was used in central Mercia, Kent, and Northumbria from the fourth

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Fig. 2.3. The Anglo-Saxon futhorc

or early Wfth century up to the eleventh century; it occurred mainly in carved inscriptions on stone but, as the following chapter indicates, it could also appear on manuscripts and coins. Amongst the most interesting runic inscriptions are those found carved on the Ruthwell Cross, a late seventhor early eighth-century stone cross at Ruthwell in Dumfriesshire. These have parallels with parts of the Old English poem The Dream of the Rood which survives in the Vercelli Book, a manuscript from the second half of the tenth century.

Comparison of The Dream of the Rood and the runic inscriptions on the Ruthwell Cross shows interesting diVerences between the two, both in script and in dialect. Lines 56–8 of the poem read as follows:

Crist wæs on rode.

Hwæðere þær fuse feorran cwoman to þam æðelinge.

(‘Christ was on the cross. However eager ones came there from afar to the Prince.’)

A runic inscription corresponding to this passage appears on the Ruthwell Cross (both the runes and their transliteration are given in Fig. 2.4).

Krist wæs on rodi.

Hweþræ þer fusæ fearran kwomu æþþilæ til anum.

(‘Christ was on the cross. However eager ones came there from afar, noble ones [came] to the solitary man.’)

The linguistic forms in the transliterated passage clearly indicate a diVerent dialect for the runic inscription from the poem itself. Whereas the poem shows predominantly late West Saxon spellings, the spellings of the Ruthwell Cross inscription correspond to those found in Northumbrian texts such as the tenth-century glosses (that is, interlinear translations) which were added to the Lindisfarne Gospels by Aldred, Provost of Chester-le-Street. Hence, for example, we have in the transliterated inscription the form þer (‘there’), where the poem has þær, and fearran (‘from afar’), where the poem has feorran. Similarly the transliterated

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Fig. 2.4. Part of the runic inscription on the Ruthwell Cross, County Dumfries

inscription shows the frequent use of æ in unstressed syllables (corresponding to e in the poem), and the loss of Wnal n in kwomu (‘came’)—the poem itself, in contrast, has cwoman. These features in the transliterated inscription are all characteristic of the early Northumbrian dialect.

Runes, as I noted above, were not conWned to stone inscriptions. The bestknown examples of runes in Old English manuscripts are those found in the Exeter Book riddles, in the Rune Poem, and in the Anglo-Saxon poet Cynewulf’s signature in four of his poems (Fates of the Apostles, Elene, Christ II, and Juliana). By far the majority of Old English, however, was written in the Roman alphabet, further testimony to the impact of Christianity on the Old English language. Sounds in Old English for which the Roman alphabet had no letters were represented by letters drawn from various sources: the letter þ (capital Þ), known as ‘thorn’, was borrowed from the runic alphabet to denote the dental fricative phoneme /u/ (both the voiced and voiceless allophones); the letter ð, known as ‘eth’ (capital D- ), and also used to denote the dental fricative /u/, may have been derived from Irish writing; a third letter known as ‘ash’ and represented by æ (capital Æ), used to denote /æ/, was derived from Latin ae. The letter w was represented by the runic letter wynn, j>. The usual form of g was the Irish Latin form Z (‘yogh’) but by the twelfth century the diVerent sounds represented by this letter came to be distinguished through the introduction of the

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continental caroline form g for /g/ and /dZ/, as in god (‘good’) and secgan (‘say’), and the retention of Z for the other sounds including /j/, as in Zear (‘year’) and dæZ (‘day’). Other noteworthy features of the Old English alphabet were the absence of j and v, and the rarity with which q, x, and z were used. The Old English orthographical system seems in general to have been closely linked to phonemic representation: the exact correlation between the two is of course uncertain (not least given that we no longer have any native speakers of Old English). Nevertheless, as we have already seen, the sound patterns of the diVerent dialects of Old English were clearly reXected in the orthographical usages of scribes.

The introduction of the Roman alphabet which was brought to England with the Christian mission had enormous linguistic implications for Old English, and indeed paved the way for the kind of visionary project to translate Latin works into the vernacular which is the subject of the next section of this chapter.

king alfred and the production of vernacular

manuscripts

In 871 ad Alfred ascended to the throne of Wessex. Alfred’s achievement as a military strategist over the period of his reign (871–99) is matched by his success in championing the vernacular. In his determination to educate as many of his subjects as possible and to make England a centre of intellectual achievement, Alfred set up a scheme by which certain important Latin works were to be translated into English. Alfred was not working in isolation; he seems to have been able to call upon scholars from Mercia as well as from the Continent. In a Preface to his translation of the late sixth-century work by Pope Gregory known as Pastoral Care, Alfred outlines his project. The Preface survives in two copies which are contemporary with Alfred: the passage here is cited from the manuscript which Alfred sent to Bishop Wærferth at Worcester:

Forðy me ðyncð betre, gif iow swæ ðyncð, ðæt we eac sumæ bec, ða ðe niedbeðearfosta sien eallum monnum to wiotonne, ðæt we ða on ðæt geðiode wenden ðe we ealle gecnawan mægen, ond gedon swæ we swiðe eaðe magon mid Godes fultume, gif we ða stilnesse habbað, ðætte eall sio gioguð ðe nu is on Angelcynne friora monna, ðara ðe ða speda

5hæbben ðæt hie ðæm befeolan mægen, sien to liornunga oðfæste, ða hwile ðe hie to nanre oðerre note ne mægen, oð ðone Wrst ðe hie wel cunnen Englisc gewrit arædan: lære mon siððan furður on Lædengeðiode ða ðe mon furðor læran wille ond to hieran hade don wille.

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(‘Therefore it seems better to me, if it seems so to you, that we also translate certain books, those which are most necessary for all men to know, into the language which we can all understand, and bring to pass, as we very easily can with God’s help, if we have peace, that all the free-born young people now in England, among those who have the means to apply themselves to it, are set to learning, whilst they are not competent for any other employment, until the time when they know how to read English writing well. Those whom one wishes to teach further and bring to a higher oYce may then be taught further in the Latin language.’)

The passage serves not only to explain the burgeoning in the production of vernacular manuscripts at the end of the ninth century, but also to illustrate the linguistic features which are characteristic of early West Saxon in this period.

In its orthography the passage demonstrates the marked tendency in early West Saxon to use io spellings where late West Saxon would use eo, as in iow (‘to you’, line 1), wiotonne (‘know’, line 2), geðiode (‘language’, line 2), sio gioguð (‘the young people’, line 4), liornunga (‘learning’, line 5), and Lædengeðiode (‘Latin language’, line 7). In its morphology the passage, again characteristically of early West Saxon, makes full use of the Old English inXectional system. Case, number, and gender are strictly observed in nouns, pronouns, and adjectives, as the following examples (organized according to case) will show.

The nominative case, used to express the subject of the sentence (e.g. ‘The boy dropped the book’), is found in sio gioguð (‘the young people’, line 4), where the demonstrative pronoun sio is feminine singular agreeing with the noun; it also appears in the plural pronouns we (in lines 1, 2, and 3) and hie (‘they’, in lines 5 and 6).

The accusative case, used to express the direct object of the sentence (e.g. ‘The girl found the book’), is found in sumæ bec . . . niedbeðearfosta (‘certain books

. . . most necessary’, lines 1–2), where sumæ and niedbeðearfosta are feminine plural adjectives (inXected strong since they do not follow a demonstrative pronoun, possessive, or article; see further, pp. 18–19) and agreeing with the plural noun bec; we might also note that the feminine plural pronoun form ða is used twice in agreement with bec, Wrst as part of a relative pronoun in line 1 (ða ðe, ‘which’) and, second, as a demonstrative pronoun in line 2 (meaning ‘them’). The accusative case is also used to express the direct object in ða stilnesse (‘peace’, line 3), where the demonstrative pronoun and noun are feminine singular; ða speda (‘the means’, line 4), where the demonstrative pronoun and noun are again feminine plural; Englisc gewrit (‘English writing’, line 6), where the adjective (again inXected strong since it does not follow an article, demonstrative, or possessive pronoun) and noun are neuter singular. The accusative case is also used after some prepositions: on ðæt geðiode (‘into the language’, line 2), where

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the demonstrative pronoun and noun are neuter singular, to liornunga (‘to learning’, line 5), where the noun is feminine singular, and oð ðone Wrst (‘until the time’, line 6), where the demonstrative pronoun and noun are masculine singular.

The genitive case, used to express a possessive relationship (e.g. ‘the girl’s book’), is found in Godes (‘God’s’, line 3), where the noun is masculine singular, friora monna (‘of free-born men’, line 4), where the adjective and noun are masculine plural, and ðara (‘of those’, line 4), a demonstrative pronoun agreeing with friora monna.

The dative case, used to express the indirect object (e.g. ‘The boy gave the book to the teacher’), is found in eallum monnum (‘for all men’, line 2), where the adjective and noun are masculine plural, me (‘to me’, line 1), a Wrst person singular personal pronoun, iow (‘to you’, line 1), a second person plural personal pronoun, and ðæm (‘to that’, line 5), a neuter singular demonstrative pronoun. The dative case is also used after some prepositions: mid . . . fultume (‘with . . .

help’, line 3), where the noun is masculine singular, on Angelcynne (‘in England’, line 4), where the noun is neuter singular, to nanre oðerre note (‘for no other employment’, lines 5–6), where the adjectives and noun are feminine singular, and to hieran hade (‘to a higher oYce’, line 7), where the comparative adjective (inXected weak as all comparatives are) and noun are masculine singular.

The Old English inXectional system of verb forms is also in evidence in the passage. Hence, for example, in ðyncð (‘it seems’), which is used twice in line 1, the -ð inXection denotes the third person present singular of the verb whose inWnitive form is ðyncan (‘to seem’), and in habbað (‘we have’, line 4) the -að denotes the present plural of the verb whose inWnitive is habban (‘to have’). The forms ðyncð and habbað, which both express statements, are in the indicative mood; Old English also makes frequent use of the subjunctive mood, either to express doubt or unreality or (somewhat arbitrarily) within subordinate clauses. The verb habban, for example, also occurs in the present subjunctive plural form hæbben (‘[they] may have’, line 5); the verb magan (‘to be able’) occurs in its present indicative plural form magon (‘[we] are able’) in line 3 and also three times (once in the Wrst person, twice in the third person) in its subjunctive plural form mægen (‘[we]/[they] may be able’), in lines 3, 5, and 6. Both the inWnitive (for example gecnawan, befeolan, arædan, læran, and don) and the inXected inWnitive (to wiotonne) occur in the passage.

The freedom in word order which characterizes Old English syntax is equally evident. Although in main clauses Old English commonly used the word order

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Subject–Verb–Object—now the basis of modern English word order—the use of inXections also allowed much more Xexibility. The word order of the Wrst sentence in the passage is particularly complex: in Old English subordinate clauses it was common for the verb to be placed at the end of the clause, but here the accumulation of subordinate clauses, when combined with the recapitulation of ðæt we eac sumæ bec (‘that we also certain books’, line 1) as ðæt we ða (‘that we them’, line 2), leads to very convoluted syntax indeed. In part at least this may be attributed to the attempt (more prevalent in early West Saxon writings than in late) to apply Latin syntactic constructions to a linguistic structure not suited to them.

That the task of translation which Alfred set himself and his advisers was not always an easy one is suggested by the Old English version of Book I Metre 2 of Boethius’s Consolation of Philosophy. The translation of Boethius’s early sixthcentury work, like that of Gregory’s Pastoral Care, seems to have been undertaken as part of Alfred’s educational programme, and possibly by Alfred himself. Two versions of the translation survive, one consisting of prose only, one consisting of alternating prose and verse (as in Boethius’s original). It seems that Boethius’s metres were Wrst translated into Old English prose, after which they were converted into poetry. It is interesting to compare the prose and poetic versions. Here is part of the prose version of the Old English Metre 2:

-Da lioð þe ic wrecca geo lustbærlice song ic sceal nu heoWende singan, and mid swiþe ungeradum wordum gesettan, þeah ic geo hwilum gecoplice funde; ac ic nu wepende and gisciende ofgeradra worda misfo.

(‘Those songs which I, an outcast, formerly sang joyfully, I must now sing grieving, and set them down with very discordant words, though I formerly composed as was Wtting; but now weeping and sobbing I fail to Wnd appropriate words.’)

The Old English poetic version of this passage is more expansive:

and þeah uncuðre ær hwilum fond.