The Manuscripts of the Anglo-Saxon History
The text ‘Cynewulf and Cyneheard’ is an extract from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. whose manuscripts are presently owned by the British Library in London and the Bodleian Library in Oxford. Harmonizing to the Website of The University of Calgary the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is one of the most of import beginnings for the history of the British pre-conquest period. It starts with the reign of male monarch ??lfred the Great ( a. D. 871 – 899 ) and shows the one-year record of the history of the Anglo-Saxon lands.
Preliminary comments on Cynewulf and Cyneheard
The text of Cynewulf and Cyneheard differs from the other texts of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle by it’s length and inside informations. The usual texts contain a mere listing of the personal alterations in thrones and dioceses during the old ages but ‘Cynewulf and Cyneheard’ shows more complexness. even a narrative-like construction.
These differences in manner and signifier have been speculated to ensue from a different beginning of the text extract. It is assumed that it might hold been an orally familial saga of the traditional narrators. inserted by the writers of The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle at its rightful topographic point.
When interpreting the text of “Cynewulf and Cyneheard” I stumbled across some troubles. For one time Old English has a word order far more freely than modern English. for illustration the place of the verb. the topic and one or more objects. To ease the apprehension of the text I therefore chose to demo the original text in the first line. while the interlingual rendition in the 2nd line chiefly follows the word order of Modern English sentence structure. I besides added some words in square brackets which I thought necessary or helpful for the comprehension of the sentences.
Following each translated transition I will give extra information on of import features within the text. such as the visual aspect of weak and strong verbs within and their topographic point in the Old English verbal paradigm. For the commendation of the Old English original text and its interlingual rendition I used the chapter on prose texts2 and the glossary3 of “A Guide to Old English” by Bruce Mitchell and Fred C. Robinson.
Old English Verbs
In the Old English linguistic communication verbs are divided in two classs. the weak and the strong verbs. Strong verbs show a alteration of the vowel in the conjugational signifiers of the infinitive. the 1st individual preterite. the 3rd individual preterite. and the participial. Harmonizing to the different sorts of vowel alterations ( step ) the strong verbs are divided in seven categories. To simplify the classification of the strong verbs I will non acquire into item with the seven strong categories. but merely show the vowel step of the verbs that appear in the text and their infinitives. The seven strong categories are notated with Roman numbers.
There are three categories of weak verbs. The classification depends on the relationship between the infinitive and the past tense signifiers by adding a postfix ( in manner: learn-ed. walk-ed ) .
