Tutorial – Introduction to Old and Middle English
18-11-2011
reconstructive language: is language English came out, no more sources
Centum: languages that begin with a K
Satem: languages that begin with an S
(see family-language-tree)
English originally close to Frisian, in that time the name for the Netherlands.
Person who figured that languages were related to each other: William Jones
studied Sanskrit texts and found out that there were comparisons with other languages
Jacob Grimm dealt with the sound shifts of different languages.
Grimm’s Law:
-relation between IE plosives and GMC:
a)
Voiceless plosives become voiceless fricatives
-IE p ~t ~ k > GMC f ~P ~h
b)
Voiced plosives become voiceless plosives
-IE b ~ d ~ g > GMC p ~ t ~ k
c)
Aspirated voiced plosives become voiced plosives
-IE Bh ~ Dh ~ Gh > GMC b ~d ~g
Exercise:
Old English – west Germanic
German – west Germanic
Old Norse – North Germanic
Gothic – East Germanic
Latin – Italic
Greek
Russian – Slavic
Lithuanian – Bolta Slavic
Irish – Celtic
Sanskrit – Indo Iranian
Tutorial questions, page 33:
Father, mother, brother, sister, full, hound, tooth
Old English: faeder, modor, brobor, sweostor, full, hund, top
German: Vater, Mutter, Bruder, Schwester, voll, Hund, Zahn
Gothic: fadar, bropar, swistar, hunds, fulls, tunpus
Latin: pater, mater, frater, soror, plenus, canis, dentis
Greek: pater, meter, phrater, pleren, kuon, odontos
Russian: mat, brat, sestra, (father and teeth are borrowed from another language)
Lithuanian: Mte, broils, sesua, pilnas, suo, dantis
Irish: aithir, mathir, brathir, siur, len, cu, det
Sanskrit: pitar-, matar-, bhrater-, svasar-, purna-, cvan-, dantIndo-European: peter, mater, bhrater, swesor, plno, ku(o)n, don’t-
Germanic languages with an H are the Centum languages
Cognate: similar word that has a different meaning in another language
page 34
Pecus = fee
piscis = fish
“Caedmon” (in translation):
West Saxon rendition of Caedmon’s Hymn, taken mainly from Oxford, Bodleian
Library, Tanner MS 10)
Nu sculon herigean
Meotodes meahte
heofonrices weard,
ond his modgepanc,
Weorc wuldorfaeder, swa he wundra gehwaes,
ece drihten,
he aerest sceop
or onstealde.
eordan bearnum
heofon to hrofe,
halig scyppend;
pa middangeard
moncynnes weard,
ece drihten,
aefter teode
firum foldan,
frea aelmihtig.
Sculon: shall/should
herigean: verheerlijken (in Dutch)
heofonrices: hemelrijk
weard: the ward
meotodes: to measure
meahte: macht
ond: and
his: his
modgepanc: thoughts
weorc: work
wuldorfaeder:
swa:
he: he
wundra: wonder
gehwaes:
or: oorsprong
he first created : he aerest sceop
eordan: earth
bearnum: children
heofon to hrofe: heaven as a roof
halig scyppend: holy creator
pa middangeard: middle earth
Moncynnes weard : mankind’s ward
after teode: after
firum foldan
frea aelmihtig: God almighty
2 – 12 – 2011
Christian poems (cadmuns him) (dream of the ruth)
Heroic poems (Battle of Maldon) (individual warriors)
Epic poems (one nation or one tribe) (Beowulf) elevated style, formal,
6th century (written down 10th century)
Beowulf was not real person. Offa is real person (only link to England)
Setting in Denmark.
Wisdom poems / allergy poems (the ruin, the wanderer)
(personal loss (outcast) and then general loss)
à cold present, warm past. All about fate (wurd). Ubi Sunt Theme
Nostalgia; that everything changes, that nothing stays the same
Beowulf
Shield Sheafson, king and founder of the Danish nation. (was his son/ half Dane/ his mother
was a Swede) Hrothgar was the king when Beowulf’s story emerges.
Mead hall à Heorot. Grendel attacks for 12 twelve years the Mead Hall.
50 years (important number of years)
line 175 à praying to all kinds of gods, in order to be rescued
Beowulf comes from the southern of Sweden (Geatland)
In order to restore the balance between families (Hrothgar saved the son of Beowulf)
Hrothgar payed war money
Hygelac (king of Geatland)
Unferth, the elderman, envies Beowulf. Counsellor of Hrothgar.
à swimming competition between Breca and Beowulf
Beowulf mocks Unferth for not having heard of him before
Wealhtheow
During Grendel’s attack: beowulf started wrestling and ripped off the hand of Grendel. (has
no armour on, showing Beowulf’s strength) Grendel was immune to swords
Danes and Frisians
Hildebruh and Finn,
finn , Hangest
Second attack: Grendel’s mother attacks. Takes one of the counsellors and rips him apart.
Because of the trail of blood, Beowulf can find him. Unferth comes in and gives Beowulf a
sword. Beowulf finds an ancient sword and chops off the head of Grendel and Grendel’s
mother.
Black raven à symbol of Odin. Something bad is going to happen.
Beowulf goes back to Geatland.
- 50 years later Beowulf has become the king. The king before him was killed by the Swedes.
A dragon wakes up because of someone stealing a goblet from his treasure
The dragon bites Beowulf, Wiglaf hits the dragon and Beowulf finishes him off. Both die
because of their wounding. Before Beowulf dies he wants to see the dragon.
Mead hall rebuilt
12 stones, 12 disciples
http://dspace.library.uu.nl/cgi-bin/dsauxadmin/dsfget
Tutorial question:
1. Danish nation à mead hall, rich population
2. Grendel is not a normal monster, so no one could blame him for not killing this monster.
(l. 357) described as an old man, no expectations for him to killing this monster.
3. Grendel, descendant from Cane, he is evil from within. Furthermore, Grendel was an
outcast. (l. 105) On top of that, Grendel was jealous on the humans, they have all these feasts
where he can’t join in. He has a lair, animal characteristic.
How does he attack? In the dark of the night.
he seems to be more of a coward, but also as a monster.
4. Unferth, jealous, counsellor. “boasting” à he “boasts” but can’t prove it. (important feature
in Old English). (lines 1466, Unferth boasts he’s going to kill Grendel, but doesn’t live up this
his word. Gives sword to Beowulf, can see in 2 ways: 1. Giving the sword to Beowulf, giving
him a chance. 2. He is too cowardly for fighting Grendel).
5. Grendel:
l. 122= Grendel took 30 men in once and killed them all
l. 380= Beowulf can take 30 men in each hand. So Beowulf is stronger.
Answer: Yes, Beowulf is like a superhuman as well as Grendel and that’s why there matching
opponents.
6. In the mead hall, but their weapons had no effect.
7. Place is different; under water. Manner of fighting; armour and magic sword. Beowulf is
alone in this fight. (L. 1542 à ‘feminine’ fight)
8. Waiting outside, not participating
9. No, killed by Beowulf. (L 2022)
10. Stolen goblet,
11. Full armour, Beowulf goes to lair of the dragon, helps from someone else, he gets killed
by the dragon.
12. He knew beforehand that he was going to die. His attitude in fighting changes throughout
the story.
13. Servant of Beowulf, in fact he slays the dragon.
14. The Geats will be overrun by the Swedes and other tribes. Danish nation will remain
strong.
15. Peacemakers, hosters, monsters (grendel’s mum)
http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/beowulf/section4.rhtml
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Introduction to Old and Middle English
14-11-2011
Old English 449 – 1066/1100
1100 Norway invasion
Middle English 1100 -1476/1500
1476 Introduction of printing press
Modern English c. 1500 onwards
Early modern English 1500 -1700
(Shakespeare)
Late Modern English 1700-1900
(Jane Austen)
Present day the last 20 years
Power point on Blackboard
Beowulf
Similarities between languages, e.g. identical or near-identical words for the same concept
Reasons:
-change
-borrowing
-language universals, e.g. sound-symbolism ENG cuckoo GERM. Kuckuck
Sir William Jones (1746-1794)
Sankrit language more perfect than the Greek
Greek seen as mother language
Latin as daughter language
Jones’s insight: Beginning of the study of the language family called Indo-European
Name for the family (19th cent.) Indo-Germanic, Indo-European
Proto-Indo-European Culture
Society (hierarchical
-classes
slaves and free persons
-kinship system
-social units
specifics
father, mother, brother, sister (no term for ‘marriage’)
PIE society consisted of small units – no agreement among scholars on the
Economics
-property
movable
-exchange system
transaction, buying and selling, payment, recompense
Law: legal vocabulary important for IE linguistics (little work done)
Religion and beliefs
-IE deities : polytheistic; Father Sky, Sun, god of thunder and lightning, Dawn, divine twins
-ritual and cultic practice: fire-worship, horse sacrifice, the afterlife
-myths: dragon-slaying myth, creation and foundation myths, theft of fire
Poetics
-poet: highest-paid professional in IE society; imperishable fame
-oral-formulaic poetry: fixed words or groups of words
Personal names: giving a name was subject to a ritual; name = reputation
Grimm’s law (1822)
-relation between IE plosives and GMC:
a)
Voiceless plosives become voiceless fricatives
-IE p ~t ~ k > GMC f ~P ~h
b)
Voiced plosives become voiceless plosives
-IE b ~ d ~ g > GMC p ~ t ~ k
c)
Aspirated voiced plosives become voiced plosives
-IE Bh ~ Dh ~ Gh > GMC b ~d ~g
Other Germanic Language features
Weak verbs with –d-/-t- in past ending:
English : to love – loved
Dutch: horen – horde
German
Introduction to Old and Middle English
16-11-2011
Grimm’s Law
Language family / branch
Circular ritual monuments and passage graves
Insular Celts (arrival 500 BC)
Roman Britain (43=450 AD)
Arrival of the Anglo-Saxons
Nomads
Celts
449 AD: arrival of the Anglo-Saxon “invaders”
Heptarchy: Northumbria, Mercia, East Anglia, Essex, Kent, Sussex, Wessex
516 AD: The Battle at Mount Badon (Arthur defeats the Saxons)
597 AD: Christianity is brought to Britain by St. Augustine (sent by Pope Gregory)
664 AD: Synod of Whitby
(Battle between Roman and Celtic clergy)
690 AD: Willibrord of Yorkshire was made bishop (by Pope Sergius) of the new diocese of
Utrecht
731 AD: Completion of the Ecclesiastical History of the English People by the Venerable
Bede
786 AD: After ruling the West Saxons for 31 years, Cynewulf was attacked by Cyneheard
(recorded in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle)
789 AD: Viking attack on Portland in Dorset
792 AD: Wessex became the dominant kingdom in England
867 AD: Vikings arrived in York à Viking capital Yorvik
878 AD: more Viking attacks à successful in taking Wessex
Boundary of Danelaw
991 AD: Edward the second (the confessor): Battle of Maldon
had no children, when he died, it wasn’t clear who should take the throne.
1066 AD: William the bastard/the conqueror: Battle of Hastings (Norman Conquest)
Tradition, landscape, similarity of names, coins, runic inscriptions, Latin and Old English
written courses, numismatics à archaeology (Historical reconstruction)
First moment Old English was written down: (some point after Christianity has arrived) 800
AD
before: you had the ruins
Latin and Old English written sources
Tacitus – Germania (c. 180 AD)
Gildas (c. 504 – 570) – De Excidio Britanniae (The Ruin of Britain, c.540)
Bede (c. 673 – 735) – Historia ecclestiastica gentis Anglorum (Ecclesiastical History of the
English People, c. 731 AD)
Nennius (c. 800 – c. 850) – Historia Britonnum [History of the Britains]
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (begun c. 890 AD)
Numismatics:
=the study of collection of money, coins, medals
-coins are valuable evidence for economic, administrative and political history
-economy based on barter
-exotic coins
-northern and western Britain
21- 11- 2011
Write a 500 – 600 words essay (excluding quotations) on one of the following topics:
1. Compare the characters of Hrothgar, Hygelac and Beowulf. Concentrate on parallels or
contrasts between the three kings.
2. Unferth and Wiglaf represent positive and negative forces in Beowulf. Is this true? Agree
or disagree and give arguments.
Style: font size 12, line space 1,5
Deadline: Thursday, 15 December, 5pm
Submission: course pigeon-hole (trans 10)
Historical development:
449 AD: migration of Angles, Saxons and Jutes
597 AD: beginning of Roman Christianity (Canterbury)
664 AD: Sinod of Wigby
789 AD : Viking invasion
1066 AD: Norman conquest, William the Conqueror, Harold Godwinson, Harold (Viking)
(King Alfred the Great, first king of England)
7 kingdoms
Sources for Historical reconstruction:
Archaeology
Place
Literature
Coins
Runic inscriptions
Latin and Old English written sources
a) Anglo- Saxon chronicle
b) Ecclesiastical History of the English People
Old English dialects
Northumbrian
Kentish
Mercian
West Saxon
[Kingdom of Alfred was West Saxon]
Differences with modern English:
Lectures
Word order
-
Characteristichs:
a) fully inflected endings
b) free word order(SOV, SVO, OSV)
c) three grammatical genders (masculine, feminine, neuter)
21 – 11 -2011
Life in Anglo – Saxon England
Political boundaries: Vikings had most of the political influence.
geography = roads built by Romans, great forest (Weald), great undrained fens, rivers. [York
was Viking-capital]
trade= with Scandinavia, Frankland, Low Countries & Northern France (glass, pottery)
à not necessarily cash-based; barter, water was preferred method of transport
Society:
à aristocracy: kings, king’s sons = aethlings, ruling nobility = eaoldermen, thane = similar to
the knight
à middle class: freemen (ceorls), peasant aristocracy (geneatas), lower middle class (geburs);
à lower class: slaves (theow) Slaves were allowed to have property and earn money in their
free time, plus they could buy their own freedom.
In hard times, people sold themselves as slaves in order to have proficient.
COMITATUS = Loyalty (everything is based on this word)
Protection in exchange for rewards (knights were to fight till their death for the Eaoldermen)
Religion and beliefs: church = civil service and educational service; cleric, clerk
- was more or less a mixture of religions. With Christianity, literacy arrived.
è School system for education/training of the clergy:
Trivium: grammatical
Quadrivium
Old English Literature
OE Literature = texts created in England, in English, by the Anglo-Saxons
Small collections of texts (ca. 3 million words), manuscripts:
à surviving manuscripts (small part of what was originally recorded)
à manuscripts = small part of literature created by Anglo-Saxons
these are the manuscripts that SURVIVED the Vikings, ill-treatment (Normans), 1731 Sir
Robert Cotton, collected lots of the manuscripts. His library was destroyed by a huge fire.
[West-Saxon, most manuscripts]
Normans re-used them. They cleaned the books from the writing and used them for
themselves.
Manuscript: original or copy? (Affected?)
Third till tenth century
4 main directions:
Literature existed mainly in oral form = oral society (spoken word)
Author vs. Scribe
Material that survived: prose and poetry (scop = poet) poetry was 1/10th of old literature
came up with poetry, perform it from memory, write down
Literacy arrived with Christianity
Old English Prose
Definition of “prose”:
derives from Latin prosa or proversa oratoria
‘straightforward discourse’
Direct, unadorned form of language, written or spoken, in ordinary usage.
Difference to poetry: it is not restricted in rhythm, measure or rhyme.
As many different kinds of prose
Anglo-Saxon Prose and Anglo-Saxon Prose Writers
The establishment of vernacular prose was one of the most significant literary achievements
of the Anglo-Saxons.
Varieties:
- prose of exposition: medical and ‘scientific’ manuscripts, the corpus of Anglo-Saxon law
- prose of adult education (associated with Alfred): Literal: For those whom in themselves
there exists reason, there exists the freedom of willing or refusing. Or: Each man has the
freedom that he know what he wills, what he does not will.
- Prose of persuasion (rhythmic prose) [Aelfric & Wulfstan] Style that could correspond to the
grande or elevated style in Latin à based on Germanic rhythm (formalised two-stress halfline) Aelfric’s Lives of Saints (c. AD 998)
Syntactic syle
-
Hypotactic style = a high proportion of long sentences with subordination
-
Paratactic style = shorter sentences and a higher proportion of principal
Cynewulf and Cyneheard (755 AS Chronicle)
Sigeberht – King of Wessex (756-575) à removed from power
à Sigeberht & his brother Cyneheard were driven out
Cynewulf succeeded Sigeberht as King of Wessex
784 AD: Cyneheard returned and killen Cynewulf
è Conflict between family-based loyalties and Comitatus (loyalty)
The Battle of Maldon
sources:
a) account in the AS Chronicle (991)
b) account in the Life of St Oswald, archbishop of York
c) Heroic poem the Battle of Maldon
Heroic poetry and heroic ideal:
- bravery – even when chances of winning are almost impossible
- acceptance of the difficult situation
- intent to carry out declared plans willingly
- desire to establish a reputation for oneself
- desire to be judged favourably
- Comitatus
(original) manuscript of the poem burned in the Cotton library fire (1731)
à line-by-line transcription had been made beforehand
Poem (325 lines of alliterative verse in OE) written in the late 10th, early 11th century; East
Anglian region
Battle (991) between the Anglo-Saxons under Byrhtnoth and invading Vikings>
à During the reign of Aethelred the Unready (978 – 1016)
Heroic poetry:
mixture of perspectives (focus on individual, then general view)
Main protagonists are named, Vikings are anonymous (neg. terms)
poet emphasizes virtues of the English, negative terms for the enemy
Geographical details are given – Maldon countryside
Fighting: realistic details (weapons, troop formations)
Chronology of the battle followed in the poem
Slaughter realistic, ‘beasts of battle’ – raven, eagle (ll. 106 – 107)
28 – 11 – 2011
Pagan elements
Christian elements
Old English Christian verse
Sizeable corpus of chritain poetry in old English
Characteristics:
concentration on good narratives
identification by the Anglo-Saxons with the oppression of the Israelites in the old testament,
and the early Christians
willingness to modify stories
The Dream of the Rood (ASV, pp. 159-171)
Anglo-Saxon poetry à being brave
Epic: a long and highly stylised narrative poem that celebrates the heroic achievements of its
hero
Characteristics: Long narrative poem, serious subject, formal and elevated style, heroic
central character, focus on fate of a tribe or nation
Beowulf:
3,182 lines
major surviving heroic epic poem in OE
most studied Old English text
Date of composition?
manuscript date – beginning 11th century
place of origin?
text was copied by 2 scribes; the second took over at line 1939b of Beowulf
manuscript was slightly damaged during the Cotton library fire (1731)
poet? English outlook , Christian
Beowulf: mixture of history & fantasy, dignity & horror
Human characters taken from history (leading figures from some distant warrior aristocracy.
Hrothgar
à Beowulf not documented in sources outside the poem
Monstrous enemies taken from ancient demonology of the north (pagan); hell & devil
(Christian)
Religious angle: allusion to the Flood, Last judgement, Cain & Abel
Characters indulge in pagan practices, e.g. ship burial, vengeance
Style and structure:
based on repetition and variation
double alliteration
Rhyme
Poetic compounds – battle + mask
Kennings – battle light, war friend, ring giver, swan road
Repetitions of theme & scene
Datable fact: raid on the Franks (520 AD) – death of Hygelac
Link to England: Marriage between Queen Modthryth & Offa I (legendary king of the
Angles)
Hapax Legomena = words that are only recorded once in a language. E.g. feolheard
Wergild (man-price, death-price) = compensation for the life of the killed person.
Wyrd (fate) l. 455
Bravery ll. 2177
Reason for Beowulf’s help : vader of Beowulf
Archaeology : Ship burial – Shield Sheafson – ll 34 – 52
15 dec à Beowulf assignment
30-11-2011
Reading Old and Middle English manuscripts:
Texts transmitted: orally (from memory, imagination)
Literacy à higher class
Ability to read à more widespread
Bible, book of common texts
Medieval literature survives in two forms:
Manuscripts: hand-written documents from the period, or later transcriptions from
original sources
Editions: later works by scholars (editors) who bring together the various surviving
copies of a text and produce a scholarly edition
OE (ca. 400 mss. ), ME (a lot more, also in French and Latin)
Codicology (OED): the study or science of manuscripts and their interrelationships
Palaeography (OED): The study of ancient writing and inscriptions
Construction of a manuscript:
Codex: leaves were gathered in booklets and bound together with a cover
Usual writing material was parchment (animal skin), later paper à parchment= goad skin,
sheep skin; vellum= calf skin
Steps:
1. Defleshed in alum and lime
2. Stretched
3. Scraped
4. Treated with a whitener
5. Cut into sheets
6. Pricked ( equal distances for lines)
‘hair side (coarse)’
‘Flesh side (smooth)’
Stages of manuscript copying
1. Portions of text that were in plain ink
above top line (pre-13th century)
below top line (from the 13th century onwards)
(you know what the original text is, because a lot of texts aren’t finished)
Copying text from an exemplar
A manuscript stemma
Writing texts à painting initials, miniatures & other decoration
‘composite’volumes
Foliation
Scribal practices
before 13th century: sctiptoria in monasteries (trained scribes)
ME scribal workshops (commercial book production)
Scribes = religious (clericus), non-religious (clerk) à often anonymous
Script= a style of writing identifiable in a particular place of period
book script
Cursive script
anglicana 14th c and later : cheap book script
Hand: the work of a specific scribe, e.g. Adam Pinkhurst – Adam scrivener – hengwrt /
ellesmere scribe
Palaeography
Evidence for dating manuscripts
OE: angslo saxon miniscule
Pointed minuscule (9th century)
square minuscule (early 10th century)
round minuscule (early 11th century)
Between 12th and 16th century = gothic
à formal
à cursive
Information provided in:
- scribal subscript (e.g. explicit):
identification
Problems when dealing with manuscripts:
physical state of the codex
different scripts
abbreviations used – common words or endings
word division and punctuation