§ 9. In the tenth century, or thereabouts, several interlinear translations or glosses of Latin ecclesiastical works were executed in a Northern dialect in England, especially a gloss to the Ritual of Durham, and two glosses of the Gospels, the Lindisfarne, or Durham-bóc, and the Rushworth,[1] the intimate relation between which suggests the existence of a currently recognized rendering of the Evangel in the Vernacular. A charter written at Durham[2] gives a specimen of the language, about 1100, and a few words in the native tongue in the Latin charters of David, William the Lion, and their successors, such as "cum sacca et socca cum tol et them et infangtheefe," answering to the "mid saca and socne, mid tolles and. teames, and mid infangenes theofes" of the contemporary English charters; the terms ut-were and in-were, foreign and internal war, tri-gild, a penalty for cutting down trees, and a reference in defining the boundaries of properties to landmarks, known in the vulgar tongue as þe stane cross, þe standard stane, are contemporary witnesses of the dialect in Scotland.[3] The Leges Quatuor Burgorum (Berewic, Eokisburg, Edinburg, et Strevelin) and other of the early Scottish laws, have also embalmed in their Latin originals, some of which date to David I. numerous words and phrases of the vernacular speech, some with Latinized terminations, but others in their naked forms, intended to identify
- ↑ I do not include the Psalter (M.S. Cotton, Vesp. A. 1), seeing na grounds on which to consider it Northumbrian. I altogether fail to see the "close agreement in the general structure of its language with the Lindisfarne and Rushworth Gospels, and with the Durham Ritual," spoken of by the Surtees editor.
- ↑ The Charter of Ranulph, created Bishop of Durham 1099 (Hickes Thesaurus, vol. i. 149), contains some Southern forms as well as Northern. To the Rev. W. Greenwell, M.A., Canon of Durham, I am indebted for the following fresh transcript of the original, correcting the errors of Hickes's text:—
R[anulf] bisceop ᵹreteð wel alle his þeines ⁊ drenᵹes of Ealondscire ⁊ of Norhamscire. Wite ᵹe þat ice habbe ᵹe-tyðed Sċe Cuhtberht þat lond in Elredene, ⁊ all þat þær to be limpeð clæne ⁊ clacles. ⁊ Haliwareftelle ic habbe ᵹe-tyðed Sċe Cuhtberht his aᵹen into hiẛ cyrce. ⁊ hna sua b[e]ranes ðisses, b[e]rane Criẛt hine þisses liueẛ hele ⁊ heofne riceẛ mirde.
In the oldest Lowland Scotch or Northern English this would be:
Ranulf bischop gretis wel alle his þaynes and dryngis of Yland-schire and of Norham-schire, Wyt ᵹe þat Ik hafe tythyd to Sanct Cuthberht þe land in Ellerdene, and all þat þar-to belangis clene and clag-les; and Haliwarestele Ik hafe tythyd to Sanct Cuthberht, his awen in-to his kyrke. And quha sua bereuis [þame] of þis, Christ bereue hym of þis lyfis hele and hevyn-rikis myrd (or mirthe).
Hickes notices the words drenges (Dan. dreng, a lad, an attendant) and clac-les (Dan. klage, a complaint, charge) as Scandinavian, and wanting in the Southern Saxon, where the latter term would be sác-leas. Both are used by Scottish writers, dryng by Lyndesay, and clag as a law term, a charge or burden upon property. For Ik see Barbour: Cursor Mundi has ic. Belimpes might perhaps have been retained instead of belangis (the only verbal change); at least we find the simple limpus in the sense of falls to, pertains, in the "Anturs of Arthur at the Tarne Wathelan" (ab. 1300), edited by Mr. Robson, for the Camden Society, in 1842. - ↑ Quoted by Prof. Cosmo Innes—Introduction to Barbour's Brus, in Spalding Club series.
