Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 5.djvu/288

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282


NOTES AND QUERIES.


[12 S. V. XOV., 1919.


submitted, the paragraphs being those of Liebermann's edition :

f 8. Our text agreeing with V. has St. Ethelred li roys instead of Ethered.

13. Our text agreeing with the A.-S. and Latin other than V. has Ethelb[u]rth.

16. Our text has St.Winstan in place of the correct Wigstan, the reading deriving apparently from the same tradition as the Wihstan of Leland's transcript.

27. Our text has St. Pancred e St. Berefrid in place of the correct St. Thancred e St. Herefrid ; the first error is not found in V. but does occur in another MS. (Arundel 74 f. 10), the second occurs only in V.

Reference to the earlier De Sanctis enables us to elucidate a number of rather obscure names in the Anglo-French version as the following examples will show.

8 2. Lingecestre= St. Albans : this mistake is due to the omission of the initial W. in the Anglo-Saxon name Wsetlingaceaster, a mis- take more likely to occur in a Latin than in an English MS. ; the scribe reading " .... locum qui vocatur setlingaceaster " ren- dered it by " en Lingecestre," just as in 6 he translated "....quod vocatur aet Hryopan " by "en Ripon."

3. " Sur Lewetan," as it is printed in the Rolls edition, is seen to be " sur Fewe Tau (R. Tay) " = " iuxta amnem qui vocatur Tau."

10. " Croilan.de entre plus sur ewes," the latter part of which is hardly sense, is probably, in view of the earlier text, to be emended to " C. en les palus Gireweis" = " in mediis paludibus [Giriwensis]," the A.-S. text having " on middan Girwan fsenne."

24. " St. Nielabe," as he is called in the printed (R.S.) text, is seen to be " St. Nie 1'abe " = " St. Neot presbyter."

There still remains one problem, of wider interest, to be discussed : the relation between our list and Gaimar's ' Estoire des Engleis.' Briefly stated the position is this. In vv. 128998 Gaimar in accordance with the A.-S. Chronicle records the death and burial of St. Oswald ; in vv. 2096-122, as a result of a confusion between Oswald and Alfwald, he again relates the fate of the former, but there are additional refer- ences of a general nature to places in possession of relics of or otherwise con- nected with Oswald which do not appear in the first account. Gross in his dissertation (Gaimar : ' Die Komposition seiner Reim- chronik und sein Verhaltnis zu den Quellen.' Erlangen, 1902) is of opinion that Gaimar obtained this information not by compiling


it himself from the various biographies of the saint, but by consulting a F hort list similar to that of the Breviate of Dooms- day, where we have the two consecutive entries :

"St. Cuthbert en Ubeford prof de Tuede puis fust remue d'iloc a Duralme. Iloec gist tot entier e la teste St. Oswald sur la peiterine.

"St. Oswald fu posez en Bardeneie, or dit 1'om k'il est en Nostle. Mes li moigne de Burc dient k'ilont les mayns entiers."

If we turn to the source of our Anglo- French list we find only :

" 4. 5. Beatus vem Cuthbertus in loco qui vocatur Ubbanford vel Dunholm requiescit iuxta amnem qui Twiode vocatur.

" Caputque sancti Oswaldi re<jis ef martyris simul cum corpore beati Cuthberti reqnioscit : bracliitim- que eius dextrum in looo qui dieitur Bcbbnl'erier, corpusque eiua reliquum in novo monasterio apud Gleaweceastre."

Thus our translator has here made a deliberate alteration after reference to some other source of information. On the other hand, if we compare the expressions of our list and those used by Gaimar, we can hardly avoid the conclusion that there is some connection. Thus cf. Gaimar, vv. 12934

A Bardeneie fud ported La fud une nuit herberged,

the last line of which, from the Durham and Lincoln MSS., is more in harmony than the reading of the Royal MS. "Son cors i fu bien enterre," with the subsequent reference :

En fud ported a Bardenaie Hoc le vindrent (en) sevelir

A Nostle co dient asquanz La 1'enporterent ses aman/c.

(vv. 2108-14.)

Sur saint Cutbert la gist sun chief A Durelme est co dit le brief.

(vv. 1295-6.)

A Duralme Deu[s] seit loed (Lincoln MS.

reading.)

Sun chief entier est bien posed Sur la peitrine saint Cutbert.

(vv. 2119-21.)

One other possible point of contact may be mentioned before we continue the dis- cussion. In vv. 13746 of his chronicle Gaimar in accordance with the A.-S. Chronicle relates the death of Tuda, and as a result of the not uncommon confusion between the A.-S. " W." and the Roman "P." buries him at Paggle instead of Wagele (=Whalley ?). Similarly in the additions of the second draft of our text we find " St. Tude a Pagle," showing that the compiler was using a written source for his information. Of this connection there are