Christian and Related Terms Used in Interlinear Glosses in the Old English Period

Introduction

In general, it is difficult to define words semantically, because the meaning comes from each context. When two different languages correspond each other as the original and its rendering, the meaning of the original word can be defined and interpreted to the people who need the translation, even though the definition cannot be precise. Interlinear glosses in the Old English period give us modern people some hints of finding how to reach the meaning of each word through the interpretation of the Latin original.

When we study Old English starting from poetry, we will inevitably face the problem of Christianisation of the Anglo-Saxon verse. We remember the days of fights between academics, maintaining the Christian-basis on the one hand and the Germanic-basis on the other, which have never met a perfect happy ending. Most prose texts are biblical or homiletic pieces, and the words used in these texts are quite likely to attain Christian meanings. Texts of law, medicine, charters, etc., use different senses from ordinary prose.

I choose interlinear glosses as my database to show which words are used as renderings of Latin, whether these words present one-to-one correspondence or multiple relationship, or whether they are the set of words different from other texts, or the like. The aim of this study is to clarify the influence of Christianity on Anglo-Saxon culture through the choice of renderings.

As renderings there are three ways of choosing words: Latin as they are, Anglo-Saxon words, and both Latin and Anglo-Saxon. Biscop is a good example of the first type, as the word was borrowed at a very early stage. God is a typical example of the second, since it is a native word chosen in the process of conceptual borrowing. Discipul and þegn are the third type that shows multiple relationship of the two languages, as þegn can be used in a wider sense of ‘servant.’ When interlinear glosses are examined, it often happens that many Anglo-Saxon synonyms are chosen as renderings of one particular Lain word. Moreover, multiple renderings can be used for more than two Latin words; for example, generatio(n-) and natio(n-) can be rendered by mægð and þeod.

Some Latin words were already borrowed into Old English: altar (OE alter), apostle (OE apostol), archbishop (OE arcebiscop), hymn (OE ymen), mass, martyr, monk (OE munuc), Paradise (OE paradis), passion, priest (OE preost), psalm (OE (p)sealm), psalter (OE (p)saltere), etc. Some words were used in abbreviation, like S. and bisc.¹ Many more came in after the transitional period and in the Middle English period: (years are those of the first quotation of each word in the OED) c1315 ascension, 1297 baptise, 1377 baptism, a1300 (c1250) Christianity, c1390 creation, 1275 cross, c1320 crucify, 1649 crucifixion, c1275 (? a1200) hermit,? c1225 (? a1200) heresy, 1340 innocence, a1340 innocent, a1225 (c1200) ministry, a1425 monastery, c1440 pagan, c1300 resurrection, 13.. sacred, c1175 saint, a1250 (? a1200) trinity, etc. This means that the Anglo-Saxons were never satisfied with just adapting Latin words and, even after choosing Old English words, they kept some Latin words among the renderings.←11 | 12→

Chapter 1 MacGillivray (1902) and Wiesenekker (1991)

It is always difficult to define how “Christian” the meaning of a particular word is. Hlaford, for instance, is mostly used in the sense of ‘the Lord,’ but in some contexts it can be ‘a master’ or ‘a lord.’ It is not effective to exclude examples of the non-Christian meaning from the whole occurrence of the word. What is necessary to examine is which word can be selected, if not always, as a Christian term.

Cura Pastoralis, Bede’s Historia Ecclesiastica, Gregory’s Dialogues, and some homilies have many words of Christian meanings, which are quite likely to identify the original Latin terms. In this investigation, however, the data is restricted to interlinear glosses, in which the Latin–Anglo-Saxon correspondence is unavoidable. This does not mean that the renderings are always as reliable as appropriate translation of the Latin original, but the one-to-one or one-to-a few correspondences may reflect some regulation in the choice of words, compounds and phrases used as renderings. The comparison between the glosses and the ordinary prose can further be considered based on this research.