Abstract
The 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.
Works Cited
Andrew, Samuel O. 1948. Postscript on Beowulf. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Search in Google Scholar
Bammesberger, Alfred. 2009. “The Oldest English Proverb in Verse”. Notes & Queries 56: 4–7.10.1093/notesj/gjn207Search in Google Scholar
Beowulf = Fulk, Robert D., Robert E. Bjork and John D. Niles (eds.). 2008. Klaeber’s Beowulf. Fourth Edition. Toronto: Toronto University Press.Search in Google Scholar
Bjork, Robert E. (ed. and trans.). 2014. Old English Shorter Poems. Volume II: Wisdom and Lyric. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Search in Google Scholar
Borst, Eugen. 1902. Die Gradadverbien im Englischen. Heidelberg: Winter. Search in Google Scholar
Bosworth, Joseph and Thomas N. Toller. 1921. An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary. Supplement. Oxford: Clarendon.Search in Google Scholar
Brotanek, Rudolf. 1913. Texte und Untersuchungen zur altenglischen Literatur und Kirchengeschichte. Halle a.d.S.: Niemeyer.Search in Google Scholar
Brotanek, Rudolf. 1940. “Nachlese zu den Hss. der Epistola Cuthberti und des Sterbespruches Bedas”. Anglia 64: 159–190.10.1515/angl.1940.1940.64.159Search in Google Scholar
Brown, George H. 1987. Bede the Venerable. Boston: Twayne.Search in Google Scholar
Brown, George H. 2009. A Companion to Bede. Woodbridge: Boydell.Search in Google Scholar
Brunner, Karl. 1965. Altenglische Grammatik nach der Angelsächsischen Grammatik von Eduard Sievers. Tübingen: Niemeyer.10.1515/9783110930894Search in Google Scholar
BTS = An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary: Based on the Manuscript Collections of the Late Joseph Bosworth: Supplement by T. Northcote Toller. 1921. Oxford: Clarendon. Search in Google Scholar
Buck, Carl D. 1949. A Dictionary of Selected Synonyms in the Principal Indo-European Languages: A Contribution to the History of Ideas. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Search in Google Scholar
Bülbring, Karl D. 1902. Altenglisches Elementarbuch. Teil 1: Lautlehre. Heidelberg: Winter.Search in Google Scholar
Bulst, Walther. 1938. “Bedas Sterbelied”. Zeitschrift für deutsches Altertum und deutsche Literatur 75: 111–114.Search in Google Scholar
Campbell, Alistair. 1959. Old English Grammar. Oxford: Clarendon.Search in Google Scholar
Dal, Ingerid. 1932. Die germanischen Pronominalkasus mit n-Formans. Oslo: Dybwad.Search in Google Scholar
Dobbie, Elliot V. K. 1937. The Manuscripts of Cædmon’s Hymn and Bede’s Death Song: With a Critical Text of the Epistula Cuthberti de obitu Bedæ. New York: Columbia University Press.10.7312/dobb93780Search in Google Scholar
Dobbie, Elliot V. K. 1942. The Anglo-Saxon Minor Poems. Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records 6. New York: Columbia University Press.Search in Google Scholar
DOE = Dictionary of Old English: A to I. 2018. Ed. Angus Cameron, Ashley Crandell Amos, Antonette diPaolo Healey et al. Toronto: Dictionary of Old English Project. <http://www.doe.utoronto.ca>.Search in Google Scholar
Falk, Hjalmar and Alf Torp. 1909. Wortschatz der germanischen Spracheinheit. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.Search in Google Scholar
Förster, Max. 1913. Altenglisches Lesebuch für Anfänger. Heidelberg: Winter [7th repr. 1963].Search in Google Scholar
Förster, Max. 1916. “Paläographisches zu Bedas Sterbespruch und Cædmons Hymnus”. Archiv für das Studium der neueren Sprachen und Literaturen 135: 282–284.Search in Google Scholar
Fulk, Robert D. 2007. “Old English þa ‘now that’ and the Integrity of Beowulf”. English Studies 88: 623–631.10.1080/00138380701566144Search in Google Scholar
Giles, John A. 1844. Sancti Bonifacii archiepiscopi et martyris opera quae extant omnia, I. London: Nutt.Search in Google Scholar
Grein, C. W. M. 1912. Sprachschatz der angelsächsischen Dichter. Unter Mitwirkung von F. Holthausen neu herausgegeben von J. J. Köhler. Heidelberg: Winter [repr. 1974]. Search in Google Scholar
Gundlach, Wilhelm (ed.). 1892. “S. Bonifatii et Lulli epistolae”. In: Wilhelm Gundlach and Ernst Dümmler (eds.). Epistolae Merowingici et Karolini aevi I. MGH Epist. 3. Berlin: Weidmann. 215–384. Search in Google Scholar
Hall, J. R. Clark. 1960. A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary. 4th ed., with a supplement by Herbert D. Meritt. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Search in Google Scholar
Heidermanns, Frank. 1993. Etymologisches Wörterbuch der germanischen Primäradjektive. Berlin: de Gruyter.10.1515/9783110871616Search in Google Scholar
Henry, Patrick L. 1966. The Early English and Celtic Lyric. London: Allen & Unwin.Search in Google Scholar
Hinderling, Robert. 1967. Studien zu den starken Verbalabstrakta des Germanischen. Berlin: de Gruyter.10.1515/9783110822663Search in Google Scholar
Hogg, Richard M. 1992. A Grammar of Old English. Volume 1: Phonology. Oxford: Blackwell.Search in Google Scholar
Hogg, Richard M. and Robert D. Fulk. 2011. A Grammar of Old English. Volume 2: Morphology. Chichester: Blackwell.10.1002/9781444327472Search in Google Scholar
Holthausen, Ferdinand. 1901. “Der altenglische Spruch aus Winfrids Zeit”. Archiv für das Studium der neueren Sprachen und Literaturen 106: 347–348.Search in Google Scholar
Holthausen, Ferdinand. 1934. Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch. Heidelberg: Winter [repr. 1963]. Search in Google Scholar
Holthausen, Ferdinand. 1951. “Zur Textkritik alt‑ und mittelenglischer Gedichte“. Archiv für das Studium der neueren Sprachen und Literaturen 188: 98–107.Search in Google Scholar
Humphreys, Kenneth W. and Alan S. C. Ross. 1975. “Further Manuscripts of Bede’s ‘Historia Ecclesiastica’, of the ‘Epistola Cuthberti de Obitu Bedae’, and Further Anglo-Saxon Texts of ‘Cædmon’s Hymn’ and ‘Bede’s Death Song’”. Notes & Queries 22: 50–55.Search in Google Scholar
Huppé, Bernard F. 1959. Doctrine and Poetry: Augustine’s Influence on Old English Poetry. New York: State University.Search in Google Scholar
Ingersoll, Sheila M. 1978. Intensive and Restrictive Modification in Old English. Heidelberg: Winter.Search in Google Scholar
Jaffé, Philipp (ed.). 1866. Bibliotheca Rerum Germanicarum. Volume III: Monumenta Moguntina. Berlin: Weidmann.Search in Google Scholar
Johnsen, Olaf. 1915. “More Notes on Old English Adverbs and Conjunctions of Time”. Anglia 39: 101–120.10.1515/angl.1915.1915.39.101Search in Google Scholar
Kemble, John M. 1836. “Anglo-Saxon Proverb”. The Gentleman’s Magazine 5: 611.Search in Google Scholar
Ker, Neil R. 1939. “The Hague Manuscript of the Epistola Cuthberti de Obitu Bedæ with Bede’s Song”. Medium Ævum 8: 40–44.10.2307/43626118Search in Google Scholar
Ker, Neil R. 1957. Catalogue of Manuscripts Containing Anglo-Saxon. Oxford: Clarendon.Search in Google Scholar
Kieckers, Ernst. 1935. Altenglische Grammatik. Munich: Hueber.Search in Google Scholar
Kluge, Friedrich. 1902. Angelsächsisches Lesebuch. 3rd ed. Halle a.d.S.: Niemeyer. Search in Google Scholar
Krapp, George P. (ed.). 1931. The Junius Manuscript. Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records 1. New York: Columbia University Press.Search in Google Scholar
Krapp, George P. (ed.). 1932. The Vercelli Book. Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records 2. New York: Columbia University Press.Search in Google Scholar
Krapp, George P. and Elliott V. K. Dobbie (eds.). 1936. The Exeter Book. Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records 3. New York: Columbia University Press.Search in Google Scholar
Lapidge, Michael (ed. and trans.). 2019. Bede’s Latin Poetry. Oxford: Clarendon. Search in Google Scholar
Levison, Wilhelm. 1946. England and the Continent in the Eighth Century: The Ford Lectures Delivered in the University of Oxford in the Hilary Term, 1943. Oxford: Clarendon.Search in Google Scholar
Lloyd, Albert L., Rosemarie Lühr and Otto Springer. 1998. Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Althochdeutschen. Band II. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.Search in Google Scholar
Lloyd, Albert L., Rosemarie Lühr and Otto Springer. 2007. Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Althochdeutschen. Band III. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.Search in Google Scholar
Luick, Karl. 1921. Historische Grammatik der englischen Sprache. Erster Band. Leipzig: Tauchnitz.10.1515/angl.1921.1921.45.132Search in Google Scholar
Malone, Kemp. 1948. “The Old English Period (to 1100)”. In: Albert C. Baugh (ed.). A Literary History of England. Volume 1: The Middle Ages (to 1500). London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. 1–105.Search in Google Scholar
Miller, Thomas. 1890–1898. The Old English Version of Bede’s Ecclesiastical History of the English People. EETS 95, 96, 110, 111. London: Oxford University Press.Search in Google Scholar
Mitchell, Bruce. 1985. Old English Syntax. Volume I: Concord, the Parts of Speech, and the Sentence. Oxford: Clarendon.10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198119357.001.0001Search in Google Scholar
Morris, Richard (ed.). 1874–1880. The Blickling Homilies. EETS OS 58, 63, 73. London: Oxford University Press.Search in Google Scholar
Osthoff, Hermann. 1876. Zur geschichte des schwachen deutschen adjectivums: Eine sprachwissenschaftliche untersuchung. Jena: Hermann Costenoble.Search in Google Scholar
Pinsker, Hans and Waltraud Ziegler (eds.). 1985. Die altenglischen Rätsel des Exeterbuchs: Text mit deutscher Übersetzung und Kommentar. Heidelberg: Winter.Search in Google Scholar
Pokorny, Julius. 1959. Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch. Bern and Munich: Francke.Search in Google Scholar
Riecke, Jörg. 1996. Die schwachen jan-Verben des Althochdeutschen: Ein Gliederungsversuch. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.10.13109/9783666203473Search in Google Scholar
Ringe, Don and Ann Taylor. 2014. The Development of Old English: A Linguistic History of English. Volume II. Oxford: Oxford University Press.10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199207848.001.0001Search in Google Scholar
Robinson, Fred C. and Eric G. Stanley (eds.). 1991. Old English Verse Texts from many Sources: A Comprehensive Collection. EEMF 23. Copenhagen: Rosenkilde & Bagger.Search in Google Scholar
Ross, Alan S. C. 1949–1950. “Miscellaneous Notes on Cædmon’s Hymn and Bede’s Death Song”. English and Germanic Studies 3: 88–96.Search in Google Scholar
Schwab, Ute. 1972. “Ær – æfter, Das Memento Mori Bedas als christliche Kontrafaktur: Eine philologische Interpretation”. In: Claudio Magris (ed.). Studi di letteratura religiosa tedesca in memoria di Sergio Lupi. Florence: Olschki. 5–134.Search in Google Scholar
Serarius, Nicolaus (ed.). 1605. Epistolæ S. Bonifacii Martyris, primi Moguntini Archiepiscopi, Germanorum apostoli: pluriumq. pontificum, Regum, & aliorum. Mainz: Balthasar Lippius.Search in Google Scholar
Smith, Albert H. 1933. Three Northumbrian Poems: Caedmon’s Hymn, Bede’s Death Song and the Leiden Riddle. London: Methuen.Search in Google Scholar
Stanley, E. G. 1974. “The Oldest English Poetry Now Extant”. Poetica (Tokyo) 2: 1–24; reprinted in and quoted from Stanley, E. G. 1987. A Collection of Papers with Emphasis on Old English Literature. Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies. 115–138.Search in Google Scholar
Stanley, E. G. 2019. “Guidance for Wayfarers: About to Do God’s Work, Devoutly Recalled”. In: Ursula Lenker and Lucia Kornexl (eds.). Anglo-Saxon Micro-Texts. Berlin: de Gruyter. 319–328.Search in Google Scholar
Sweet, Henry. 1885. The Oldest English Texts. EETS OS 83. London: Oxford University Press.Search in Google Scholar
Sweet, Henry. 1896. The Student’s Dictionary of Anglo-Saxon. Oxford: Clarendon.Search in Google Scholar
Tangl, Michael. 1916. Die Briefe des heiligen Bonifatius und Lullus. Berlin: Weidmann. Search in Google Scholar
Waldorf, Norman O. 1953. “The Hapax Legomena in the Old English Vocabulary: A Study Based upon the Bosworth-Toller Dictionary”. Unpubl. PhD dissertation, Stanford University.Search in Google Scholar
Williams, Blanche C. 1914. Gnomic Poetry in Anglo-Saxon: Edited with Introduction, Notes and Glossary. New York: Columbia University Press.10.7312/will91312Search in Google Scholar
Williamson, Craig. 2017. The Complete Old English Poems. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press.Search in Google Scholar
Wülker, Richard P. 1885. Grundriß zur Geschichte der angelsächsischen Litteratur. Leipzig: Veit.10.1515/9783112379202Search in Google Scholar
Wülker, Richard P. 1894. Bibliothek der angelsächsischen Poesie. Volume II: Die Verceller Handschrift, die Cambridger Handschrift des Corpus Christi Collegs CCI, die Gedichte der sogen. Cædmonhandschrift, Judith, der Hymnus Cædmons, Heiligenkalendar, nebst kleineren geistlichen Dichtungen. Kassel: Wigand.Search in Google Scholar
Würdtwein, Stephan A. 1789. Epistolae S. Bonifacii Archiepiscopi Magontini et Martyris, ordine chronologico dispositae, notis et variantibus inlustratae. Mainz: Crass.Search in Google Scholar
Zeuner, Rudolf. 1881. Die Sprache des kentischen Psalters (Vespasian A.I.): Ein Beitrag zur angelsächsischen Grammatik. Halle a.d.S.: Niemeyer.Search in Google Scholar
© 2020 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Frontmatter
- The Ælfrician Glossaries in Oxford, Bodleian Library, Barlow 35: A New Edition and Commentary
- An Illustration to Ælfric’s De temporibus anni in Ælfwine’s Prayerbook
- Proverb from Winfrid’s Time and Bede’s Death Song: Some Textual Problems in Two Eighth-Century Poems Revisited
- “Our mother tongue, then, is no mother at all – but an orphan”: The Mother Tongue and Translation in Ocean Vuong’s On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous
- Reviews
- David West Brown. 2018. English and Empire: Literary History, Dialect, and the Digital Archive. Studies in English Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, xvii + 351 pp., numerous figures and tables, £ 85.00.
- Susan Oosthuizen. 2019. The Emergence of the English. Leeds: Arc Humanities Press, viii + 148 pp., 7 illustr., $ 19.95.
- Gerald P. Dyson. 2019. Priests and Their Books in Late Anglo-Saxon England. Anglo-Saxon Studies 34. Woodbridge: Boydell, x + 286 pp., 9 illustr., £ 60.00.
- John D. Niles. 2019. God’s Exiles and English Verse: On the Exeter Anthology of Old English Poetry. Exeter: University of Exeter Press, xv + 288 pp., 2 figures, £ 75.00.
- Christopher Michael Berard. 2019. Arthurianism in Early Plantagenet England: From Henry II to Edward I. Arthurian Studies 88. Woodbridge: Boydell, viii + 363 pp., £ 60.00.
- Elizabeth Dearnley. 2016. Translators and their Prologues in Medieval England. Bristol Studies in Medieval Cultures. Cambridge: Brewer, 300 pp., 22 figures, £ 70.00 (hb)/£ 19.99 (e-book).
- Gottfried Gabriel. 2019. Präzision und Prägnanz: Logische, rhetorische, ästhetische und literarische Erkenntnisformen. Paderborn: Mentis, 255 pp., € 68.00/$ 78.00.
- Frank Kelleter and Alexander Starre (eds.). 2018. Projecting American Studies: Essays on Theory, Method, and Practice. Heidelberg: Winter, 307 pp., € 40.00.
- Deena Rymhs. 2019. Roads, Mobility, and Violence in Indigenous Literature and Art from North America. Routledge Studies in World Literatures and the Environment. New York: Routledge, 165 pp., £ 120.00.
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Frontmatter
- The Ælfrician Glossaries in Oxford, Bodleian Library, Barlow 35: A New Edition and Commentary
- An Illustration to Ælfric’s De temporibus anni in Ælfwine’s Prayerbook
- Proverb from Winfrid’s Time and Bede’s Death Song: Some Textual Problems in Two Eighth-Century Poems Revisited
- “Our mother tongue, then, is no mother at all – but an orphan”: The Mother Tongue and Translation in Ocean Vuong’s On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous
- Reviews
- David West Brown. 2018. English and Empire: Literary History, Dialect, and the Digital Archive. Studies in English Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, xvii + 351 pp., numerous figures and tables, £ 85.00.
- Susan Oosthuizen. 2019. The Emergence of the English. Leeds: Arc Humanities Press, viii + 148 pp., 7 illustr., $ 19.95.
- Gerald P. Dyson. 2019. Priests and Their Books in Late Anglo-Saxon England. Anglo-Saxon Studies 34. Woodbridge: Boydell, x + 286 pp., 9 illustr., £ 60.00.
- John D. Niles. 2019. God’s Exiles and English Verse: On the Exeter Anthology of Old English Poetry. Exeter: University of Exeter Press, xv + 288 pp., 2 figures, £ 75.00.
- Christopher Michael Berard. 2019. Arthurianism in Early Plantagenet England: From Henry II to Edward I. Arthurian Studies 88. Woodbridge: Boydell, viii + 363 pp., £ 60.00.
- Elizabeth Dearnley. 2016. Translators and their Prologues in Medieval England. Bristol Studies in Medieval Cultures. Cambridge: Brewer, 300 pp., 22 figures, £ 70.00 (hb)/£ 19.99 (e-book).
- Gottfried Gabriel. 2019. Präzision und Prägnanz: Logische, rhetorische, ästhetische und literarische Erkenntnisformen. Paderborn: Mentis, 255 pp., € 68.00/$ 78.00.
- Frank Kelleter and Alexander Starre (eds.). 2018. Projecting American Studies: Essays on Theory, Method, and Practice. Heidelberg: Winter, 307 pp., € 40.00.
- Deena Rymhs. 2019. Roads, Mobility, and Violence in Indigenous Literature and Art from North America. Routledge Studies in World Literatures and the Environment. New York: Routledge, 165 pp., £ 120.00.