Old English Written Accounts

Outline

1. Runic Accounts

2. Old English Manuscripts

Recommended Books

1. Rastorgueva T.A. A History of English. – M., 1983. – P. 63-71

Blake N.F. A History of the English Language. – New York: New York University Press, 1996. – P. 53-57

Костюченко Ю.П. Історія англійської мови. – Київ, 1963. – С. 62-64

1. Runic Accounts

The earliest written records in English are inscriptions on hard material made in runes. The word “rune” originally meant “secret”, “mystery”. Each character indicated a separate sound. But a rune could also indicate a word beginning with that sound and was called by that word. E.g. ^ _denoted [T] and [D]. It was called “thorn” and could stand for Old English word porn (thorn). In some inscriptions the runes were arranged in a fixed order making a sort of alphabet. It was called futhark. The letters are angular, straight lines are preferred. This is due to the fact that runic inscriptions were cut on hard material: stone, bone or wood. The number of runes was from 28 to 33 (new sounds appeared). The two best known runic inscriptions in England are:

1). on a box called the “Franks Casket”

2) a short text on a stone cross in Dumfriesshire near the village of Ruthwell known as the “Ruthwell Cross”. Both records are in the Northumbrian dialect.

2. Old English Manuscripts

Compared with other West Germanic peoples, the Anglo-Saxons are exceptional in their early use of writing and in the large amount of writing that survives. Writing in those times was very much the property of the church and written texts were largely produced in monastic scriptoria. Writing was mostly in Latin. Sermons could be delivered orally in English even if they were written down and survive in their written form in Latin. Even so, some writing in English was needed .Names of English places and people had to be written down. Certain traditional features of Anglo-Saxon life, such as the law, would need to reflect the language in which it had been handled down in traditional form to maintain ancient legal practices.

Many documents survived: various wills, grants, deals of purchase, agreements, proceedings of church councils, laws. They are known as “Anglo-Saxon Charters”. The earliest are in Kentish and Mercian dialects (8-9^th c.). Later laws and charters were written in West Saxon.

Glosses to Gospels and other religious texts were made in monasteries for those who did not know enough Latin.

Bede’s Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum was written in Latin in the 8^th c. but it contains an English fragment of 5 lines known as “Bede’s Death Song” and a religious poem of nine lines “Cxdmon’s Hymn”.

The greatest poem of the time is “Beowulf” (7^th or 8^th c.). It was originally composed in the Mercian or Northumbrian dialect, but has come down to us in a West Saxon copy (10^th c.). The author is unknown.

The earliest samples of continuous prose are Anglo-Saxon Chronicles. These are brief account of the year’s happenings made at various monasteries.

Literary prose appeared in the 9^th c. which witnessed a flourishing of learning and literature during King Alfred’s reign. King Alfred translated from Latin books on geography, history, philosophy. One of his most important contributions is Orosius’s World History.