Reading Old English
/Dr Christopher Monk explores Anglo-Saxon characters and reads from a selection of Old English from the Textus Roffensis: King Æthelberht’s Code from the turn of the seventh century, Alfred’s Domboc (‘Book of Laws’) from the late ninth century, and a charm for stolen livestock possibly from the late tenth to the early eleventh century.
Dr Christopher Monk takes a look at the 'Saxon Characters' Elstob left behind in the cathedral's manuscript, Textus Roffensis. Open folio in new tab.
folio 1r King Æthelberht’s Code circa 600 CE
This text is the only surviving copy of the oldest piece of written Old English and is also the oldest English law code. Find out more
Þis syndon þa domas þe Æðelbirht cyning
asette on AGVSTinus dæge.
These are the judgements which King Æthelberht
set down in Augustine’s day.
GODES FEOH· ⁊ CI-
ricean ·xii· gylde...
God’s property and
the Church’s, one should make good with a 12-fold compensation.
Biscopes feoh ·
·xi· gylde. Preostes feoh ·ix· gylde.
[A] bishop’s property
11[-fold] compensation. [A] priest’s property, 9[-fold] compensation.
Diacones feoh ·vi· gylde. Clero-
ces feoh ·iii· gylde.
[A] deacon’s property, 6[-fold] compensation.
[A] cleric’s property, 3[-fold] compensation.
11r King Alfred’s Domboc (‘Book of Laws’) after 893 CE
This portion of the text contains the opening verse of Exodus 20. Find out more
ðRYHTEN WÆS
sprecende ðas word to Moy-
se and þus cwæð:
The Lord was
speaking these words to
Moses, and said thus:
Ic eam dryh-
ten þin God; ic ðe uttgelæde of Egypta lande
and of heora þeowdome.
I am the Lord your God;
I who led you out from the land of the Egyptians
and from their thraldom.
95r Charm for stolen livestock, possibly late-10th- to early-11th-century
The copying of a charm, or incantation, into a collection of laws may seem quite strange. However, this particular charm relates to the crime of theft, so the compiler of Textus Roffensis may have thought it appropriate to include it. Its mixture of magic ritual and Christian language suggests that the Pagan heritage of the early English peoples had survived hundreds of years. Find out more
Gif feoh sy under numen: gif hit sy hors, sing
on his feotere, oððe on his bridels...
If livestock is stolen: If it is a horse, sing [the charm]
upon its fetters or upon its bridle...
...Gif hit
sy oþer feoh, sing on þæt hofrec and ontend þreo
candela and dryp on ðæt ofrec wæx ðriwa: ne mæg hit
ðe manna forhelan.
...If it
is other livestock, sing over the hoof-track, and light three
candles and drip wax three times over the hoof-track: no
may hide it.
...Gif hit sy inorf sing
on feower healfa ðæs huses, and æne on middan.
..If it is household property, sing
to the four sides of the house and once in the middle.
I have, since 2017, been releasing translations of Old English and Latin documents from Textus Roffensis; these are now available on the Cathedral website. The aim of this ongoing project is to translate the whole of the manuscript, and also to give historical context to its many documents through various notes, articles and videos.
Challenges in translation
Making medieval manuscripts, including Textus Roffensis, accessible to a modern, general audience is not without its challenges. So much is unfamiliar: the script or handwriting, the layout of a text, the archaic terminology, to mention just three things.
When translating Old English and medieval Latin, I like to produce quite literal translations that are nevertheless understandable. I want as much of the text as possible to make immediate sense to modern readers – of all ages – but at the same time to echo at least some of the medieval idiom or feel of the language.
This does mean, in practice, that certain words or turns of phrase that crop up in my translations will be somewhat, or even downright, obscure. Fairly frequently, especially in the case of Old English laws, there will actually be words that cannot be translated; their use and meaning are so of the time that a note has to be given to suggest an interpretation.
With the royal charters of Textus Roffensis, the Latin is on occasion excruciatingly long-winded and flowery – just check out Æthelred’s grant to restore lands at Wouldham and Littlebrook to the Rochester church, if you want to get an idea of what I mean. Even so, the hope is that readers will in effect hear the medieval voices at play, and the core intent of the document will still be apparent.
Representing the original text
Included with each translation there is a transcription-come-edition of the original language text, representing in a modern font how it appears in the manuscript.
My emphasis for these transcriptions is on accessibility rather than academic convention. For example, it is indicated where the scribe’s abbreviations are expanded (shown by italics) rather than silently expanding them, as a modern editor might do.
Also, the different colours of ink in the manuscript are represented, most obviously the red of rubrics, or headings, but you’ll also see green and purple-blue letters.
Non-experts should then be able to look at the digitised folio of the manuscript and compare it directly to the corresponding transcript, and follow along, should they wish to.
The layout of the transcript approximates the arrangement of words on the manuscript page. For example, a word that is split over two lines in the manuscript is hyphenated in the transcript to show it is actually a single word. However, the division of words has been modernised, in line with current editorial practice. This helps readers to properly identify individual words; this is especially helpful with Old English, where word division can seem almost haphazard at times.
The punctuation mark known as punctus (it looks like our full-stop) has been converted to a comma wherever appropriate.
Notes are provided on the most visible of scribal alterations and insertions, for example, where a letter or word has been inserted above the line or a section of text, which the scribe had failed to copy, has been appended in a margin. However, I have passed over without note those corrections that only a very keen eye would spot, such as where the scribe has written a letter over another that he’s carefully scraped away.
The special characters of Old English have been largely kept. So the letters ash æ, eth ð, and thorn þ (and their upper-case equivalents Æ, Ð, and Þ) have all been preserved. However, the letter w has been substituted for the Old English letter wynn ƿ, thus avoiding confusion with the letter p; this is commonly done in modern editions of Old English texts. Also preserved is the Old English sign for the and abbreviation; this is represented by 7 (equivalent to modern &). The Latin letter ȩ (known as the tailed e) is also kept.
I do hope that as many people as possible will read the translations of the documents found in this incredible manuscript, Textus Roffensis. Mine are not the only translations of these texts, though in many cases the translations are, as far as I’m aware, the only ones to exist or are the first to be published, or, perhaps more pertinently, more readily accessible than some of the older or incomplete translations that have been published in the past.
Dr Christopher Monk
Christopher Monk is a cultural historian and manuscript specialist working with heritage professionals as well as individuals and teams in the creative industries. He specialises in the Middle Ages, with a strong focus on early medieval English texts and artwork. He has worked with Rochester Cathedral since 2013, contributing to its multimedia content on Textus Roffensis.
Find out more about the most exceptional item in the Cathedral collections comprising over 170 texts from the 8th to the 14th centuries.
