Introduction
to La3amon's Brut
La3amon's Brut is an English
translation of Wace's Roman de
Brut, supplemented by numerous
other sources and La3amon's own modifications
and additions. It survives in two
manuscripts from the mid to late thirteenth
century, MS Cotton Caligula A.ix and
MS Cotton Otho C.xiii, both in the
British Library. Both manuscripts
were damaged by a fire in 1731--the
Otho manuscript severely--so that
a complete text has to be reconstructed
by comparison between the two. Neither
manuscript represents La3amon's original
text, but, as the language of the
Cotton manuscript is older, it is
probably closer to the original than
the Otho manuscript. The major edition
by Brook and Leslie, which is available
online from the University of Virginia's
Electronic
Text Center (Caligula
| Otho)
prints the two manuscripts on facing
pages. In order to present a readable
text, the editors have supplied corrections
through the use of brackets and other
notations, as well as quotation marks
(but no other modern punctuation).
In the text is divided into lines
and half-lines with an upside down
semi-colon (here represented as a
semi-colon) in between half lines
and a dot at the ends of lines. For
example:
An preost wes on leoden; La3amon
wes ihoten.
he wes Leouenaðes sone; liðe
him be Drihten.
(A priest was in the land who was
called La3amon;
He was Leovenath's son--the Lord
be merciful to him.)
La3amon's English may be described
as early Middle English--one of the
earliest sustained instances of writing
in early Middle English--but with
an attempt to produce something that
in language and style resembles that
of poetry from before the Norman Conquest.
(Scholars disagree about the nature
and extent of this resemblance, as
well as the intentions that lie behind
it.)
These factors, as well as the linguistic
flexibility of poetry, make La3amon's
English extremely difficult to read
today. Of the portions which we will
be studying, we will read some in
Middle English and some in the modern
English translation by Rosamund Allen.
For the most part, they keys to reading
La3amon are patience, practice, and
hard work. However, some training
in the general features of his English
will be helpful. Each section we will
be studying can be accessed from the
links below:
Introduction
to La3amon's English
Pronunciation
- Pronouncing the word aloud and
changing the vowels will often reveal
that the word is familiar.
- In general, consonants are pronounced
as in modern English. Consonants
like k (often spelt c
by La3amon) and w, which
have become silent (e.g. knight,
write) were pronounced
in La3amon's time.
- The letter u often represents
a v sound, and the letter
v often represents a u
sound.
- La3amon uses three consonant symbols
of Anglo-Saxon origin:
![](thorn.gif)
|
|
(thorn) pronounced
like modern 'th' |
![](eth.gif)
|
|
(eth) pronounced
like modern 'th' |
![](yogh.gif)
|
|
(yogh) pronounced like the
y in yes
when it is next to the vowel
i or e. When
next to other vowels, it is
pronounced somewhere between
a w and the ch
in German Bach.
Occasionally, an e
which would indicate the y
pronunciation is missing (e.g.
3ond, as in modern
'beyond'). |
- The letter h, especially
after a vowel and before t is pronounced
like the ch in German Bach
and corresponds to our gh
spelling.
- The letters sc correspond
to our sh spelling.
- Vowels in stressed syllables are
pronounced as in Spanish.
- The letter e is pronounced
as in rider
in unstressed syllables.
- The letter æ represents
either an a or a stressed
e sound.
- The spelling eo represents
a sound similar to the u
in pull
or represents stressed e
sound.
Grammar
- The ending -en indicates
plural nouns, verbal infinitives,
plural verbs, and past participles
of verbs. It is frequently omitted
from plural nouns or added to singular
nouns. You must determine the meaning
by context.
- The ending -e
is the third person present tense
ending (as in ‘he bringeth’,
'they bring'). However, it can also
indicate command addressed to more
than one person (e.g. Bringe
‘Bring!’).
- The words for ‘the’,
‘this’, ‘that’,
‘those’, ‘who’,
and ‘which’ are generally
confused. Common forms are
e,
a,
eos,
as,
an,
and occasionally others. You must
determine the meaning by context.
- The unusual pronouns are as follows:
ich ‘I’;
u
‘thou’; e
‘thee’ (note the similarity
to ‘the’); heo
‘she’; heo,
heore ‘her’;
him, hine ‘him’;
hit ‘it’; his
‘his, its’; 3e
‘ye, you’; eouwer
‘your’; heo
‘they’; heore
‘their’; he(o)m
‘them’.
- Note that pronouns frequently
have an implied ‘to’
in front of them; e.g. him
= to him.
- The word
a
may mean ‘when’ or ‘then’
(as well as ‘that’,
‘who’, or ‘which’).
The word er
may mean ‘where’ or
‘there’. You must determine
the meaning by context.
- The past tense of ‘come’
is com(en). The past tense
of nimen ‘take’
is nom.
- The word me before a
verb can mean ‘one’
but is generally best translated
as a passive construction; e.g.
me nom alle
a
dede ‘one took all the
dead’, but better as ‘all
the dead were taken’.
- The Middle English for ‘not’
is ne, but it frequently occurs
in double negative or triple negative
constructions with nan ‘none’
and ‘never’.
- The word on frequently
means ‘in’. The word
mid means ‘with’.
The word wi
frequently means ‘against’.
Note: It is extremely
difficult to get
and
on Macintosh web browsers;, hence
I have replaced them with images so
that everyone can see them. However,
this causes them to appear slightly
above the rest of the letters. |