(1) _Number._--The plurals generally end in _-es_ (_eȝ_), _-s_. _Yȝen_
(eyes), _trumpen_ (trumpets), are the only plurals in _-en_ that occur
in the poems. In Robson’s Metrical Romances we find _fellun_ (fells,
hills,), _dellun_ (dells), and _eyren_ (eggs), in Liber Cure Cocorum.
The plurals of _brother_, _child_, _cow_, _doȝter_ (daughter), are
_brether_, _childer_, _kuy_, and _deȝter_.
(2) _Gender._--The names of inanimate things are in the neuter gender,
as in modern English. The exceptions are _deep_ (fem.), _gladnes_
(fem.), and _wind_ (masc.).
(3) _Case._--The genitive singular (masc. and fem.) ends in _-es_
(_-eȝ_), _-s_, but occasionally the inflexion is dropped; as, “Baltaȝar
thewes,” the virtues of Balshazzar.[52] If “_honde_ myȝt,” “_honde_
werk,” “_hellen_ wombe,” are not compounds, we have instances of the
final _-e_ (_en_) which formed the genitive case of _feminine_ nouns in
the Southern English of the fourteenth century.
In the phrases “_besten_ blod” (blood of beasts), “_blonkken_ bak” (back
of horses), “_chyldryn_ fader” (father of children), “_nakeryn_ noyse”
(noise of nakers), we have a trace of the genitive plural _-ene_ (A.S.
_-ena_).
[Footnote 52: In the romance of “Syr Gawayn and the Grene Knyȝt”
we find “_blonk_ (horse) sadele,” “_fox_ felle” (skin). In _blonk_
an _e_ has probably been dropped.]