English Dialects From the Eighth Century to the Present Day | Page 8

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