THE DIALECTS OF NORTHUMBRIA; TILL A.D. 1000
In Professor Earle's excellent manual on Anglo-Saxon Literature,
chapter V is entirely occupied with "the Anglian Period," and begins
thus:--"While Canterbury was so important a seminary of learning,
there was, in the Anglian region of Northumbria, a development of
religious and intellectual life which makes it natural to regard the
whole brilliant period from the later seventh to the early ninth
century as the Anglian Period.... Anglia became for a century the
light-spot of European history; and we here recognise the first great
stage in the revival of learning, and the first movement towards the
establishment of public order in things temporal and spiritual."
Unfortunately for the student of English, though perhaps fortunately
for the historian, the most important book belonging to this period
was written in Latin. This was the _Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis
Anglorum_, or the Church History of the Anglian People. The
writer was Beda, better known as "the Venerable Bede," who was born
near Wearmouth (Durham) in 672, and lived for the greater part of his
life at Jarrow, where he died in 735. He wrote several other works,
also in Latin, most of which Professor Earle enumerates. It is said of
Beda himself that he was "learned in our native songs," and it is
probable that he wrote many things in his native Northumbrian or
Durham dialect; but they have all perished, with the exception of one
precious fragment of five lines, printed by Dr Sweet (at p. 149) from
the St Gall MS. No. 254, of the ninth century. It is usually called
Beda's Death-song, and is here given:
Fore there neidfaerae naenig uuiurthit
thonc-snotturra than him thar[f] sie,
to ymbhycggannae, aer his hin-iong[a]e,
huaet his gastae, godaes aeththa yflaes,
aefter deoth-daege doemid uueorth[a]e.
Literally translated, this runs as follows:
Before the need-journey no one becomes
more wise in thought than he ought to be,
(in order) to contemplate, ere his going hence,
what for his spirit, (either) of good or of evil,
after (his) death-day, will be adjudged.
It is from Beda's _Church History_, Book IV, chap. 24 (or 22),
that we learn the story of Cædmon, the famous Northumbrian poet, who
was a herdsman and lay brother in the abbey of Whitby, in the days
of the abbess Hild, who died in 680, near the close of the seventh
century. He received the gift of divine song in a vision of the night;
and after the recognition by the abbess and others of his heavenly
call, became a member of the religious fraternity, and devoted the
rest of his life to the composition of sacred poetry.
He sang (says Beda) the Creation of the world, the origin of the
human race, and all the history of Genesis; the departure of Israel
out of Egypt and their entrance into the land of promise, with many
other histories from holy writ; the incarnation, passion, and
resurrection of our Lord, and His ascension into heaven; the coming
of the Holy Spirit and the teaching of the Apostles. Likewise of
the terror of the future judgement, the horror of punishment in
hell, and the bliss of the heavenly kingdom he made many poems;
and moreover, many others concerning divine benefits and judgements;
in all which he sought to wean men from the love of sin, and to
stimulate them to the enjoyment and pursuit of good action.
It happens that we still possess some poems which answer more or less
to this description; but they are all of later date and are only known
from copies written in the Southern dialect of Wessex; and, as the
original Northumbrian text has unfortunately perished, we have no
means of knowing to what extent they represent Cædmon's work. It is
possible that they preserve some of it in a more or less close form of
translation, but we cannot verify this possibility. It has been
ascertained, on the other hand, that a certain portion (but by no
means all) of these poems is adapted, with but slight change,
from an original poem written in the Old Saxon of the continent.
Nevertheless, it so happens that a short hymn of nine lines has been
preserved nearly in the original form, as Cædmon dictated it; and it
corresponds closely with Beda's Latin version. It is found at the end
of the Cambridge MS. of Beda's _Historia Ecclesiastica_ in the
following form:
Nu scylun hergan hefaenricaes uard,
metudæs maecti end his modgidanc,
uerc uuldurfadur; sue he uundra gihuaes,
eci Dryctin, or astelidæ.
He aerist scop aelda barnum
heben til hrofe, haleg scepen[d].
Tha middungeard moncynnæs uard,
eci Dryctin, æfter tiadæ
firum fold[u], frea allmectig.
I here subjoin a literal translation.
Now ought we to praise the warden of heaven's realm,
the Creator's might and His mind's thought,
the works of the Father of glory; (even) as He, of every wonder,
(being) eternal Ruler, established the beginning.
He first (of all) shaped, for the sons of men,
heaven as (their) roof, (He) the holy Creator.
The middle world (He), mankind's warden,
eternal Ruler, afterwards prepared,
the world for men--(being the) Almighty Lord.
The locality of these lines is easily settled, as we may assign
them to Whitby. Similarly, Beda's Death-song may be assigned to the
county of Durham.
A third poem, extending to fourteen lines, may be called the
"Northumbrian Riddle." It is called by Dr Sweet the "Leiden Riddle,"
because the MS. that contains it is now at Leyden, in Holland. The
locality is unknown, but we may assign it to Yorkshire or Durham
without going far wrong. There is another copy in a Southern dialect.
These three brief poems, viz. Beda's Death-song, Cædmon's Hymn, and
the Riddle, are all printed, accessibly, in Sweet's _Anglo-Saxon
Reader_.
There is another relic of Old Northumbrian, apparently belonging to
the middle of the eighth century, which is too remarkable to be passed
over. I refer to the famous Ruthwell cross, situate not far to the
west of Annan, near the southern coast of Dumfriesshire, and near the
English border. On each of its four faces it bears inscriptions; on
two opposite faces in Latin, and on the other two in runic characters.
Each of the latter pair contains a few lines of Northern poetry,
selected from a poem (doubtless by the poet Cynewulf) which is
preserved in full in a much later Southern (or Wessex) copy in a MS.
at Vercelli in Piedmont (Italy). On the side which Professor Stephens
calls _the front_ of the cross, the runic inscriptions give us two
quotations, both imperfect at the end; and the same is true of the
opposite side or _back_. The MS. helps us to restore letters that are
missing or broken, and in this way we can be tolerably sure of the
correct readings.
The two quotations in front are as follows: it will be seen that the
cross itself is supposed to be the speaker.
1. [on]geredæ hinæ god almechttig
tha he walde on galgu gistiga,
modig fore allæ men; buga [ic ni darstæ.]
2. [ahof] ic riicnæ kyningc,
heafunæs hlafard; hælda ic ni darstæ.
bismæradu ungket men ba æt-gadre.
ic wæs mith blodæ bistemid bigoten of [his sidan.]
The two quotations at the back are these:
3. Crist wæs on rodi;
hwethræ ther fusæ fearran cwomu
æththilæ til anum; ic thæt al biheald.
sare ic wæs mith sorgum gidr{oe}fid;
hnag [ic hwethræ tham secgum til handa.]
4. mith strelum giwundad
alegdun hiæ hinæ limw{oe}rignæ;
gistoddum him æt his licæs heafdum,
bihealdun hiæ ther heafun[æs hlafard.]
The literal meaning of the lines is as follows:
1. God almighty stripped Himself
when He would mount upon the gallows (the cross),
courageous before all men; I (the cross) durst not bow down
2. I (the cross) reared up the royal King,
the Lord of heaven; I durst not bend down.
men reviled us two (the cross and Christ) both together.
I was moistened with the blood poured forth from His side.
3. Christ was upon the cross;
howbeit, thither came eagerly from afar
princes to (see) that One; I beheld all that.
sorely was I afflicted with sorrows;
I submitted however to the men's hands.
4. wounded with arrows,
they laid Him down, weary in His limbs.
they stood beside Him, at the head of His corpse.
they beheld there the Lord of heaven.
In the late MS. it is the cross that is wounded by arrows; whereas
in the runic inscription it seems to be implied that it was Christ
Himself that was so wounded. The allusion is in any case very obscure;
but the latter notion makes the better sense, and is capable of being
explained by the Norse legend of Balder, who was frequently shot at by
the other gods in sport, as he was supposed to be invulnerable; but he
was slain thus one day by a shaft made of mistletoe, which alone had
power to harm him.
There is also extant a considerable number of very brief inscriptions,
such as that on a column at Bewcastle, in Cumberland; but they
contribute little to our knowledge except the forms of proper names.
The _Liber Vitæ_ of Durham, written in the ninth century, contains
between three and four thousand such names, but nothing else.
Coming down to the tenth century, we meet with three valuable
documents, all of which are connected with Durham, generally known
as the Durham Ritual and the Northumbrian Gospels.
The Durham Ritual was edited for the Surtees Society in 1840 by the
Rev. J. Stevenson. The MS. is in the Cathedral library at Durham, and
contains three distinct Latin service-books, with Northumbrian glosses
in various later hands, besides a number of unglossed Latin additions.
A small portion of the MS. has been misplaced by the binder; the Latin
prose on pp. 138-145 should follow that on p. 162. Mr Stevenson's
edition exhibits a rather large number of misreadings, most of which
(I fear not quite all) are noted in my "Collation of the Durham Ritual"
printed in the _Philological Society's Transactions_, 1877-9, Appendix
II. I give, by way of specimen, a curious passage (at p. 192), which
tells us all about the eight pounds of material that went to make up
the body of Adam.
aehto pundo of thæm aworden is Adam pund lames of thon
Octo pondera de quibus factus est Adam. Pondus limi, inde
aworden is flæsc pund fyres of thon read is blod and hat
factus est caro; pondus ignis, inde rubeus est sanguis et calidus;
pund saltes of thon sindon salto tehero pund deawes of thon
pondus salis, inde sunt salsae lacrimae; pondus roris, unde
aworden is swat pund blostmes of thon is fagung egena
factus est sudor; pondus floris, inde est uarietas oculorum;
pund wolcnes of thon is unstydfullnisse _vel_ unstatholfæstnisse
pondus nubis, inde est instabilitas
thohta
mentium;
pund windes of thon is oroth cald pund gefe of thon is
pondus uenti, inde est anhela frigida: pondus gratiae, id est
thoht monnes
sensus hominis.
We thus learn that Adam's flesh was made of a pound of loam; his
red and hot blood, of fire; his salt tears, of salt; his sweat, of
dew; the colour of his eyes, of flowers; the instability of his
thoughts, of cloud; his cold breath, of wind; and his intelligence, of
grace.
The Northumbrian glosses on the four Gospels are contained in two
MSS., both of remarkable interest and value. The former of these,
sometimes known as the Lindisfarne MS., and sometimes as the Durham
Book, is now MS. Cotton, Nero D. 4 in the British Museum, and is one
of the chief treasures in our national collection. It contains a
beautifully executed Latin text of the four Gospels, written in the
isle of Lindisfarne, by Eadfrith (bishop of Lindisfarne in 698-721),
probably before 700. The interlinear Northumbrian gloss is two and a
half centuries later, and was made by Aldred, a priest, about 950, at
a time when the MS. was kept at Chester-le-Street, near Durham,
whither it had been removed for greater safety. Somewhat later it was
again removed to Durham, where it remained for several centuries.
The second MS. is called the Rushworth MS., as it was presented to the
Bodleian Library (Oxford) by John Rushworth, who was deputy-clerk to
the House of Commons during the Long Parliament. The Latin text was
written, probably in the eighth century, by a scribe named Macregol.
The gloss, written in the latter half of the tenth century, is in two
hands, those of Farman and Owun, whose names are given. Farman
was a priest of Harewood, on the river Wharfe, in the West Riding of
Yorkshire. He glossed the whole of St Matthew's Gospel, and a very
small portion of St Mark. It is worthy of especial notice, that his
gloss, throughout St Matthew, is not in the Northumbrian dialect, but
in a form of Mercian. But it is clear that when he had completed this
first Gospel, he borrowed the Lindisfarne MS. as a guide to help him,
and kept it before him when he began to gloss St Mark. He at once
began to copy the glosses in the older MS., with slight occasional
variations in the grammar; but he soon tired of his task, and turned
it over to Owun, who continued it to the end. The result is that the
Northumbrian glosses in this MS., throughout the three last Gospels,
are of no great value, as they tell us little more than can be better
learnt from the Durham book; on the other hand, Farman's Mercian gloss
to St Matthew is of high value, but need not be considered at present.
Hence it is best in this case to rely, for our knowledge of Old
Northumbrian, on the Durham book _alone_.
It must be remembered that a gloss is not quite the same thing as
a free translation that observes the rules of grammar. A gloss
translates the Latin text word by word, in the order of that text; so
that the glossator can neither observe the natural English order nor
in all cases preserve the English grammar; a fact which somewhat
lessens its value, and must always be allowed for. It is therefore
necessary, in all cases, to ascertain the Latin text. I subjoin a
specimen, from Matt, v 11-15.
eadge aron ge mith thy yfle hia gecuoethas iuh and mith thy
11. Beati estis cum maledixerunt uobis et cum
oehtas iuih and cuoethas eghwelc yfel with iuih
persecuti uos fuerint et dixerint omne malum aduersum uos
gesuicas _vel_ wæges fore mec gefeath and wynnsumiath forthon
mentientes propter me. 12. gaudete et exultate quoniam
mearda iuere monigfalde is _vel_ sint
merces uestra copiosa est
in heofnum suæ _vel_ suelce ec forthon
in caelis sic enim
ge-oehton tha witgo tha the weron ær iuih gee
persecuti sunt prophetas qui fuerunt ante uos. 13. Uos
sint salt eorthes thæt gif salt forworthes in thon gesælted bith to
estis sal terrae quod si sal euanuerit in quo sallietur ad
nowihte _vel_ nænihte mæge ofer thæt
nihilum ualet ultra
buta thæt gesended bith _vel_ geworpen út
nisi ut mittatur foras
and getreden bith from monnum
et conculcetur ab hominibus
gie aron _vel_ sint leht middangeardes
14. Uos estis lux mundi
ne mæg burug _vel_ ceastra gehyda _vel_ gedeigla ofer mor geseted
non potest ciuitas abscondi supra monte posita.
ne ec bernas thæccille _vel_ leht-fæt
15. neque accendunt lucernam
and settas tha _vel_ hia unther mitte
et ponunt eam sub
_vel_ under sestre ah ofer leht-isern and lihteth allum tha the in
modio sed super candelabrum et luceat omnibus qui in
hus bithon _vel_ sint
domo sunt.
The history of the Northern dialect during the next three centuries, from
the year 1000 to nearly 1300, with a few insignificant exceptions, is a
total blank.