þætte án hearpere wæs, on þære beode be Thracia hatte1 that a harper (there) was in the nation that Thrace was called, sio wæs2 on Creca ríce.3 Se hearpere was ungefræglice which was on (in) Greeks' kingdom. The harper was extraordinarily ænlic gód. Dæs nama was Orfeus. He hæfde1 án swide good. His name was Orpheus. He had a very one-like (unique) wíf. Sio wæs 6 háten Eurydice. Da ongann wife. She was hight (called) Eurydice. secgan be bam hearpere, bæt to say regarding that harper, that Then he monn7 began man (one, people) mihte hearpian he might (could) harp woldon to-irnan10 and standan, swilce hi tame wæron, would run-to and stand as if they tame were, swa stille, beah hi men oe húndas11 wi2 eodon13, þæt hi SO still, though them men or hounds against yode (went), that they leasing (falsehood)," Psalm v.), and the term. less, as A.S. fultumleas, helpless; fr. spell, history or tale, A.S. gódspell, or gospel, good story, and bispell, a story set beside something else, as example or illustration-a parable. (1) Hatte, pret. of hátan, to have a name, be called; hence old Eng. hight, as "Geraldine she hight" (i.e. was called). (2) Was, pret. of wesan, to be. See Introd. (3) Rice; hence the term. ric, as bishopric, the dominion of a bishop. (4) Hafde, pret. of halban, to have. Hafde became in Sem. Sax. hadde, and in mod. Eng. had. See Introd. (5) Háten, or geháten, p.p. of hátan, to be called; geháten became in Sem. Sax. stage, ihaten and ihote. (6) Ongann, pret. of onginnan, p.p. ongunnen. In mod. Eng. we have begin, began, begun. (7) Monn, as Ger. "man sagt," Fr. " on dit," and Eng. "one says," or "they say." (8) Mihte, pret. of magan, to be able; hence mod. Eng. may and might. (9) Deor (Ger. thier). "Mice and rats, and such small deer." (Shakspere.) (10) Irnan. In Somersetshire they still say hirn, or urn, for run. (11) Húndas, nom. and acc. pl. of húnd, gen. húndes, dat. húnde. In the Sem. Sax. stage the term. as became es, so that the gen. sing. and the acc. pl. were the same in form. Lastly, in mod. Eng. es of the gen. sing. became 's, and es of the pl. simply s. (12) With; hence the prefix with in withstand, stand against. (13) Eodon, pret. sing. of gán or gangan, to go, ic eode. we eodon. In Sem. Sax. The p.p. is gegán; hence Sem. Sax. igon, and mod. Eng. ago. youe. hi na ne onscunedon. them not not (not at all) shunned. Da sædon hi bæt bæs hearperes wíf sceolde acwelan1, and hire sawle mon sceolde die (died), and her soul harper's wife should lædan to helle. lead (led) to Hades. man (they) should Da sceolde se hearpere weorban3 swa be 80 sárig,4 þæt he ne mihte on gemong oðrum mannum sorry (sorrowful) that he not could bion, ac teah 6 to among other men 7 wuda, and sæt on bam muntum, to be, but took to (the) woods, and sat on the mountains, ægber ge dæges ge nihtes, weop and hearpode, bæt either (both) by day and by night, wept and harped, (so) that ba wudas bifodon, and þa eá stódon, and nán heort ne the woods trembled, and the rivers stood still, and none hart not onscunode nænne leon, ne nán hara shunned none (no) lion, nor none hare nænne húnd, ne nán none (no) hound," nor none neat nyste nænne ándan ne nænne ege to oðrum, neat (beast) knew not none none awe (dread) to others, for hate nor bære mirhbe þæs sones. for (because of) the mirth (joy) of the sound. Da Sæm hearpere ba When to the harper then (1) Acwelan, standan, &c. This term. an was soon after changed into en; next the n was dropped, and the e sounded (as in Chaucer), and then this too was dropped altogether, as in mod. Eng. From cwelan come quell and hill. (2) Sceolde lædan. The former word is the pret. of scealan (defective), to owe, be under obligation, which is the original meaning of shall. "I shall go," means properly, "I have to go," or "I must go." Observe that may, shall, will, &c., are followed by the inf., shown by the term. an. The mod. construction is the same, though the inf. now has no inflection. I may go, means I may (or, am able) to go. The use of sceolde above, in forming the indirect construction (the "obliqua oratio" of the Latin), should be noticed. (3) Weorthan (Ger. werden). "Woe worth the day" (i.e. woe is to the day). (4) Sárig, sorry, fr. sár, sore, the g being softened into y, as in so many other instances both at the beginning and end of words; so dag becomes day, and gear year. (5) Gemong, Sem. Sax. ymong, mod. Eng. among. (6) Teah, pret. of teón, to take, in exact analogy with seón, to see, which makes seah, saw. (7) Muntum, dat. pl. of munt, a mountain; a remarkable instance of a Lat. word, neither of military nor ecclesiastical origin. (8) Dayes, nihtes. These genitives (?) indicate the time when, and hence the origin of the mod. idiom, "he used to go of a night " (i.e. by night). The ordinary genitive of niht is however nihte. þúhte1 þæt hine pa nánes pinges ne lyste2 on þisse it seemed that him then of none (no) things not it listed (pleased) on (in) this worulde, þa þóhte he bat he wolde gesecan helle gatu, and world; then thought he that he would seek Hades' gate, and harp, and onginnan him3 oleccan mid his hearpan, and se * biddan æt to bid (beg) that Da he a lange and lange hearpode," pa clipode When he then long and long harped, then called hellwarana cyning, and cwæð, Uton-agifan bæm the Hades-inhabitants' king, and quoth (said), Let us give to the forbam he hi hæf geearnod mid young fellow his wife, for that (because) he her hath esne his wíf, his hearpunga.1 10 Bebead earned with him pa, þæt he gearall wiste,1 his harping. He commanded him then (what he before wist), 12 (1) Thúhte, pret. of thincan, to seem (as in methinks, it seems to me, pret. methought). It is to be distinguished from thóhte, which occurs just after, and is pret. of thencan, to think. (2) Lyste, pret. of lystan, to desire, be pleased with. The meaning is:"When the harper seemed to have no pleasure in anything in this world, then thought he," &c. Cf. "The wind bloweth where it listeth." (3) Him. This word, which is dat. sing. and pl., at a later stage became the objective now in use, the proper acc., hine, being dropped. (4) Biddan, pret. bad, to beg or bid, hence beadsman, a beggar, and “bidding prayer." (5) Hearpode, clipode, &c. This term. ode, in pl. odon, is changed in Sem. Sax. into ede and eden, and ultimately into our ed for both sing. and pl. It is the usual term. of weak verbs. (6) Clipode, pret. of clipian, to call or name; p.p. geclipod; hence old Eng. yclept, or iclept, named. Even in the Sem. Sax. stage, not only does ge vanish entirely, but comparatively few words with the softened prefix y or i are found. (7) Hellwar-ana, irr. for ena, which is the true form. Hell is from helan, to cover or hide, hence applied to the grave and the invisible world. The term. war denotes collectively inhabitants, as Rómware, Romans. (8) Hæfth, pres. of habban. Hath is a contraction of this word. (9) Geearnod, p.p of earnian, to earn. By softening the ge into y, we have varned, a common provincialism. (10) Hearpung. This term. ung is the origin of the Eng. substantive term. ing, as in "walking is pleasant." The ing of the pres. part., as in "I saw him walking in the garden," has a different origin, as will be shown hereafter. (11) Geara, and gió (see p. 1), if pronounced with the g softened into y, suggest a connection with the modern word yore. (12) Wiste, pret. of witan, to know; pres. ic wat (I wot), we witon, &c. bæt hine neafre underbæc ne besawe,1 that himself never sibban he backward (he) not should besee (look) after that he lufe mon mæg swiðe unea de forbeodan. love man (one) may very difficultly (hardly) forbid. woman. But then Wei la wei! Well-a-way (alas) Hwaet, Orfeus pa lædde his wíf mid him, odde he com What (well!) Orpheus then led his wife with him, until he came on bæt gemære leohtes and peostro." to the boundary of light and darkness. Da eode pæet wíf æfter Then went the wife after him. Da he ford on þæt leoht com, þa beseah he hine him. When he forth to the light came, then besaw (looked) he himself underbæc wið bæs wifes; pa losede heo him sona. back towards the woman; then was lost she to him soon (directly). de wilnað helle biostro to flionne, and to þæs sobes that have a desire Hades' darkness for fleeing (to flee), and to the true (1) Besawe, fr. beseon, to see; hine beseon, to look; literally, to besee himself. (2) Uneathe (lit. not easily), in Sem. Sax. uneathes, unnethe; in old Eng. stage (see Chaucer), unnethe, and unnethis; now uneasy. (3) Forbeodan, fr. for (like Ger. ver, undoing the action indicated by the simple verb), and beódan, to command, enjoin, or bid. This peculiar use of for is handed down to us in forget, forgive, &c. For seems to mean forth, away, or off. To forget is to get forth, or away, what the mind had got; to forgive, to give forth, or give up, the charge which had been brought; and forbid, to bid off, or order away, what had been ordered or allowed. (4) Wei la wei, see extract from Elfric. (5) Theostro, fr. theostru, or thýstru. This word is traceable in the Sem. Sax. thuster, dark, and thisternesse, darkness. Cf. Ger. düsterkeit, gloominess, darkness. (6) Wifes, gen. of wif. This term. es is that which still survives in the 's of our possessive, wife's. See note 11, p. 2. (7) Lærath, fr. læran, to teach, which is fr. lár, lore. The derivative, leornian, means to be taught, to learn. (8) To flionne, fr. flion or fleon, to flee. This form, which in A.S. is not the infin. but the gerund or dat. of the infin., is the origin of our infinitive with the sign to, and means literally, for fleeing; so to cumenne, for coming. The A.S. infin. took no particle before it, but was indicated by the term. an or on. Godes liohte to cumenne, pæt he hine ne besio God's light for coming (to come), that he himself not should besee (look) to his ealdum yfelum, swa bat he hi eft swa fullice old evils (vices), SO that he them after 80 fully to his fulfremme, swa he hi ær dyde; forbam swa-hwa-swa, should practise so as he them ere (before) did; for that whosoever, mid fullon willan, his mód went to bam yflum be he will, his mind turns to those vices that he with full ær forlet, and hi bonne fulfreme, and he him bonne ere (before) forsook, and them then practises, and he in them then fullice licia, and he hi næfre forlætan ne bencd, fully likes (takes pleasure) and he them never to forsake not thinketh, ærran gód, buton he hit eft former good, except he it afterwards bonne forlyst he eall his then loses he all his gebete. betters (amends). CONTINUOUS TRANSLATION OF THE ABOVE.* It happened in old times that there was a harper in the country that was called Thrace, which was in the kingdom of Greece. The harper was very remarkably good. His name was Orpheus. He had a singularly good wife, and her name was Eurydice. Then people began to say about the harper, that he played on the harp so well that the woods waved, and the stones stirred themselves at the sound, and that wild beasts rushed to the place where he was, and stood still as if they were tame; so still, that even though men and hounds went against them, they shunned them not. They said also that (1) Dyde, pret. of dón, to do, pp. gedón. Some grammarians (Latham and Grimm for example) consider this form dyde or did as an instance of a reduplicated preterite, like Lat. tetigi fr. tango, or Gr. Térvpa fr. TúπTW. (2) Mid, with, has been displaced in mod. Eng. by with, which originally meant, against. See note 12, p. 2. Mid, however, is still heard among the provincials of the north;-"Come mid (or mit) me." (3) Went, fr. wendan, to wend, go, turn. The Eng. verb go has borrowed went for its preterite. (4) To make the above passage more intelligible, a close but continuous translation is appended. The simplicity of the style, like that which would be used by a father teaching his children, shows, as Taine ("Histoire de la Litérature Anglaise ") remarks, how entirely uneducated the literary taste of the English of Alfred's time was. |