Volume 122, Issue 4

As a systematic study of the Old English prefixes is still lacking, this article focuses on the fundamental formal, functional and semantic aspects of the Old English prefix system. The first part (chs. I–IV) furnishes an overview of the characteristics of the Germanic prefixes. It includes a discussion of the stress patterns and their Old English consequences in order to establish the principles on which the Old English system of primary and secondary prefixes should be analysed. The validity of these principles is then tested by comparing the primary prefixes in Gothic with their Old English equivalents. The second part of the article (chs.V–IX) deals with semantic questions. Since most of the prefixes in Old English and its Germanic sisters go back to local-deictic particles, their basic meanings can be seen as essentially rooted in a few semantic prototypes which define the position of an object or the direction of a process. Four exemplary case studies (chs. VI–IX) refer to the semantic bleaching of on -, to the interaction of two antonymous prefixes ( op - ‘off, away’ and æt - ‘at, on’), to the distribution of (on)3ē (a)n - ‘toward(s), against’ and to the semantic development of be - e. g. in verbs like behorsian ‘to deprive of horses’. The last part (chs. XI–XV), which follows an examination of the phenomenon of double prefixation (ch. X), prepares the ground for the inventory (ch. XVI). Several alleged prefixes such as a -, of-dūne ‘down’, æl - ‘all’, el(e) - ‘strange’, twī - ‘double’ or wan - ‘missing, lacking’ turned out to be determinants of compounds, whereas ful(l) -, sam - ‘half’, sam - ‘together’ proved to be prefixes. The yet unsolved problem of the separability of certain verbal prefixes and the criteria for distinguishing verbal prefixations from so-called prefix- or particle-compounds are discussed in chs. XIII–XV with the result that e. g. of -, ofer - and ymb - ‘around’ must be analysed as separable prefixes, while the status of others, such as æfter - ‘after’ and forp - ‘forth’, remains morphologically opaque, since they mostly or exclusively occur in loan translations of Latin prefixed verbs. Finally (ch. XVI) an annotated list of 50 primary and secondary prefixes is supplied. Since not all potential prefixes could be analysed in detail, the inventory includes elements whose status may be open to further discussion.

For some time it has been scholarly consensus that the name of the wife of Offa, king of the continental Angles, is given in verse 1931b of Beowulf , though there is disagreement whether the name is Þryð or MōdÞryð , and whether the ending - o in the manuscript is organic or a case inflexion. Several difficulties attend this assumption. Manuscript mod is unlikely to be a separate word, since the syntax would then demand the meaning ‘arrogance’, though this meaning for the word is otherwise unattested in the poem. Yet the compound MōdÞryð ( o ) raises equally notable problems, since parallels like higeÞryðe wæg ‘acted arrogantly’ ( Genesis A 2238b) suggest that the verse is a formula that does not contain a personal name. The strongest evidence for the standard view, the supposed parallel to the tale in the Vitae duorum Offarum (ca. 1200), describing the wickedness of (Quen)Drida, wife of Offa's English descendant Offa II, the great king of the Mercians, is vitiated by the realization that this woman's name actually was Cynethryth. Thus the similarity in the names cannot be said to evidence transferral of the tale alluded to in Beowulf to the wife of Offa's descendant; and once the coincidence of names is accordingly seen to be irrelevant to the question of the connections between the tales, the remaining resemblances are so feeble that the assumption of any notable relation between the Vitae and Beowulf must be abandoned. (The relevant portions of the Latin legend of Offa II, which seem not to have been translated previously into a modern language, are rendered into English in the appendix.) The best solution was offered, though without much conviction, by E. A. Kock: the woman's name is given not in 1931b but in 1932a: it is Fremu. This analysis offers several advantages. It allows mōdÞryðο wæg to be the formula it appears to be, meaning ‘acted arrogantly’. The verse then introduces the basis for contrast with Queen Hygd, and the antithesis between her and Offa's queen, while still abrupt, is thus not quite as irrational as it would otherwise appear. The mysterious ending - o can then also be explained as another instance of the scribe's habit of writing - o for final - a , an explanation that is not possible if ( Mōd ) Þryð is a name. And if Fremu is a name, it is no longer necessary to assume an i -stem adjective of uncertain meaning, an adjective that is not otherwise securely attested in Old English and which has no i -stem Germanic cognates. Etymology dictates that this presumed adjective ought to mean something like ‘excellent’ (as Frederick Klaeber supposes), yet this meaning seems inapposite applied to a young woman described at this place as acting so wickedly. Disposing of the adjective thus also relieves us of the obligation of assuming an improbably pejorative meaning for it.

This article presents an edition of a Middle English verse tract on alchemy based on Trinity College, Cambridge, MS R. 14. 44 (15 th century). The tract, entitled “Semita Recta Albertus peribet testimonium”, is structured as a dialogue between Albertus Magnus, the famous medieval scholar ( c. 1200–1280), and Elchyӡell, the Queen of the Elves. In the dialogue, Elchyӡell instructs Albertus on how to produce an alchemical elixir that will produce silver or gold. Besides presenting the edition, this article also places the dialogue in the tradition of alchemical and scientific writing in Middle English. I argue that, as in the case of many other alchemical texts of the period, the author of this tract uses Albertus and the setting of the poem to bestow dignity and credibility on the text. Furthermore, it is shown that the tract exploits several presentation strategies common in other alchemical and scientific texts, such as the verse medium, the dialogue format, the recipe structure and coded language. However, I also demonstrate that this text appears to be unique in the way it utilizes and combines these presentation strategies.

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