Part 8 (1/2)

Verbs are conjugated about as fully as in Latin. There are two princ.i.p.al forms: strong verbs, which form their preterite by vowel modification, as _binde_, pret. _band_; and weak verbs, which form it by the addition of _ode_ or _de_ to the root, as _lufige_, pret. _lufode_; _hire_, pret.

_hirde_. The present and preterite of the first form are as follows:

IND. SUBJ.

_Pres. sing._ 1. binde. binde.

2. bindest. binde.

3. bindeth. binde.

_plur._ 1, 2, 3. bindath. binden.

_Pret. sing._ 1. band. bunde.

2. bunde. bunde.

3. band. bunde.

_plur._ 1, 2, 3. bundon. bunden.

Both the grammatical forms and still more the orthography vary much from time to time, from place to place, and even from writer to writer. The forms used in this work are for the most part those employed by West Saxons in the age of aelfred.

A few examples of the language as written at three periods will enable the reader to form some idea of its relation to the existing type. The first pa.s.sage cited is from King aelfred's translation of Orosius; but it consists of the opening lines of a paragraph inserted by the king himself from his own materials, and so affords an excellent ill.u.s.tration of his style in original English prose. The reader is recommended to compare it word for word with the parallel slightly modernised version, bearing in mind the inflexional terminations.

Ohthere saede his hlaforde, | Othhere said [to] his lord, aelfrede cyninge, thaet he | aelfred king, that he of all ealra Northmonna northmest | Northmen northmost abode.

bude. He cwaeth thaet he | He quoth that he abode bude on thaem lande northweardum | on the land northward against with tha West-sae. | the West Sea. He said, He saede theah thaet thaet land | though, that that land was sie swithe lang north thonan; | [or extended] much north ac hit is eall weste, buton on | thence; eke it is all waste, feawum stowum styccemaelum | but [except that] on few stows wiciath Finnas, on huntothe | [in a few places] piecemeal on wintra, and on sumera on | dwelleth Finns, on hunting on fiscathe be thaere sae. He | winter, and on summer on saede thaet he aet sumum cirre | fis.h.i.+ng by the sea. He said wolde fandian hu longe thaet | that he at some time [on one land northryhte laege, oththe | occasion] would seek how long hwaether aenig monn be northan | that land lay northright [due thaem westenne bude. Tha | north], or whether any man by for he northryhte be thaem | north of the waste abode.

lande: let him ealne weg | Then fore [fared] he northright, thaet weste land on thaet steorbord, | by the land: left all the and tha wid-sae on thaet | way that waste land on the baecbord thrie dagas. Tha | starboard of him, and the wide waes he swa feor north swa tha | sea on the backboard [port, hwael-huntan firrest farath. | French _babord_] three days.

| Then was he so far north as | the whale-hunters furthest | fareth.

In this pa.s.sage it is easy to see that the variations which make it into modern English are for the most part of a very simple kind. Some of the words are absolutely identical, as _his_, _on_, _he_, _and_, _land_, or _north_. Others, though differences of spelling mask the likeness, are practically the same, as _sae_, _saede_, _cwaeth_, _thaet_, _lang_, for which we now write _sea_, _said_, _quoth_, _that_, _long_. A few have undergone contraction or alteration, as _hlaford_, now _lord_, _cyning_, now _king_, and _steorbord_, now _starboard_. _Stow_, a place, is now obsolete, except in local names; _styccemaelum_, stickmeal, has been Normanised into _piecemeal_. In other cases new terminations have been subst.i.tuted for old ones; _huntath_ and _fiscath_ are now replaced by _hunting_ and _fis.h.i.+ng_; while _hunta_ has been superseded by _hunter_.

Only six words in the pa.s.sage have died out wholly: _buan_, to abide (_bude_); _swithe_, very; _wician_, to dwell; _cirr_, an occasion; _fandian_, to enquire (connected with _find_); and _baecbord_, port, which still survives in French from Norman sources. _Daeg_, day, and _aenig_, any, show how existing English has softened the final _g_ into a _y_. But the main difference which separates the modern pa.s.sage from its ancient prototype is the consistent dropping of the grammatical inflexions in _hlaforde_, _aelfrede_, _ealra_, _feawum_, and _fandian_, where we now say, _to his lord_, _of all_, _in few_, and _to enquire_.

The next pa.s.sage, from the old English epic of _Beowulf_, shows the language in another aspect. Here, as in all poetry, archaic forms abound, and the syntax is intentionally involved. It is written in the old alliterative rhythm, described in the next chapter:

Beowulf mathelode bearn Ecgtheowes; Hwaet! we the thas sae-lac sunu Healfdenes Leod Scyldinga l.u.s.tum brohton, Tires to tacne, the thu her to-locast.

Ic thaet un-softe ealdre gedigde Wigge under waetere, weore genethde Earfothlice; aet rihte waes Guth getwaefed nymthe mec G.o.d scylde.

Beowulf spake, the son of Ecgtheow: See! We to thee this sea-gift, son of Healfdene, Prince of the Scyldings, joyfully have brought, For a token of glory, that thou here lookest on.

That I unsoftly, gloriously accomplished, In war under water: the work I dared, With much labour: rightly was The battle divided, but that a G.o.d s.h.i.+elded me.

Or, to translate more prosaically:

”Beowulf, the son of Ecgtheow, addressed the meeting. See, son of Healfdene, Prince of the Scyldings; we have joyfully brought thee this gift from the sea which thou beholdest, for a proof of our valour. I obtained it with difficulty, gloriously, fighting beneath the waves: I dared the task with great toil. Evenly was the battle decreed, but that a G.o.d afforded me his protection.”

In this short pa.s.sage, many of the words are now obsolete: for example, _mathelian_, to address an a.s.sembly (_concionari_); _lac_, a gift; _wig_, war; _guth_, battle; and _leod_, a prince. _Ge-digde_, _ge-nethde_, and _ge-twaefed_ have the now obsolete particle _ge_-, which bears much the same sense as in High German. On the other hand, _bearn_, a bairn; _sunu_, a son; _sae_, sea; _tacen_, a token; _waeter_, water; and _weorc_, work, still survive: as do the verbs _to bring_, _to look_, and _to s.h.i.+eld_. _l.u.s.t_, pleasure, whence _l.u.s.tum_, joyfully, has now restricted its meaning in modern English, but retains its original sense in High German.

A few lines from the ”Chronicle” under the year 1137, during the reign of Stephen, will give an example of Anglo-Saxon in its later and corrupt form, caught in the act of pa.s.sing into Chaucerian English:

This gaere for the King | This year fared the King Stephan ofer sae to Normandi; | Stephen over sea to Normandy; and ther wes under | and there he was fangen, forthi thaet hi wenden | accepted [received as duke]

thaet he sculde ben alsuic alse | because that they weened the eom waes, and for he | that he should be just as his hadde get his tresor; ac he | uncle was, and because he todeld it and scatered sotlice. | had got his treasure: but he Micel hadde Henri king | to-dealt [distributed] and gadered gold and sylver, and | scattered it sot-like [foolishly].