Early Britain - Grant Allen (the best e book reader txt) 📗

That makes _calamity_ of so long life;
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
The _oppressor's_ wrong, the proud man's _contumely_,
The _pangs_ of _despised_ love, the law's _delay_,
The _insolence_ of _office_, and the _spurns_
That _patient merit_ of the unworthy takes,
When he himself might his _quietus_ make
With a bare bodkin?

Here, out of 167 words, we find only 28 of foreign origin; and even these are Englished in their terminations or adjuncts. _Noble_ is Norman-French; but the comparative _nobler_ stamps it with the Teutonic mark. _Oppose_ is Latin; but the participle _opposing_ is true English. _Devout_ is naturalised by the native adverbial termination, _devoutly_. _Oppressor's_ and _despised_ take English inflexions. The formative elements, _or_, _not_, _that_, _the_, _in_, _and_, _by_, _we_, and the rest, are all English. The only complete sentence which we could frame of wholly Latin words would be an imperative standing alone, as, "Observe," and even this would be English in form.

On the other hand, we may take the following passage from Mr. Herbert Spencer as a specimen of the largely Latinised vocabulary needed for expressing the exact ideas of science or philosophy. Here also borrowed words are printed in italics:–

"The _constitution_ which we _assign_ to this _etherial medium_, however, like the _constitution_ we _assign_ to _solid substance_, is _necessarily_ an _abstract_ of the _impressions received_ from _tangible_ bodies. The _opposition_ to _pressure_ which a _tangible_ body _offers_ to us is not shown in one _direction_ only, but in all _directions_; and so likewise is its _tenacity_. _Suppose countless lines radiating_ from its _centre_ on every side, and it _resists_ along each of these _lines_ and _coheres_ along each of these _lines_. Hence the _constitution_ of those _ultimate units_ through the _instrumentality_ of which _phenomena_ are _interpreted_. Be they _atoms_ of _ponderable matter_ or _molecules_ of _ether_, the _properties_ we _conceive_ them to _possess_ are nothing else than these _perceptible properties idealised_."

In this case, out of 122 words we find no less than 46 are of foreign origin. Though this large proportion sufficiently shows the amount of our indebtedness to the classical languages for our abstract or specialised scientific terms, the absolutely indisputable nature of the English substratum remains clearly evident. The tongue which we use to-day is enriched by valuable loan words from many separate sources; but it is still as it has always been, English and nothing else. It is the self-same speech with the tongue of the Sleswick pirates and the West Saxon over-lords.


CHAPTER XIX.

ANGLO-SAXON NOMENCLATURE.

Perhaps nothing tends more to repel the modern English student from the early history of his country than the very unfamiliar appearance of the personal names which he meets before the Norman Conquest. There can be no doubt that such a shrinking from the first stages of our national annals does really exist; and it seems to be largely due to this very superficial and somewhat unphilosophical cause. Before the Norman invasion, the modern Englishman finds himself apparently among complete foreigners, in the Æthelwulfs, the Eadgyths, the Oswius, and the Seaxburhs of the Chronicle; while he hails the Norman invaders, the Johns, Henrys, Williams, and Roberts, of the period immediately succeeding the conquest, as familiar English friends. The contrast can scarcely be better given than in the story told about Æthelred's Norman wife. Her name was Ymma, or Emma; but the English of that time murmured against such an outlandish sound, and so the Lady received a new English name as Ælfgifu. At the present day our nomenclature has changed so utterly that Emma sounds like ordinary English, while Ælfgifu sounds like a wholly foreign word. The incidental light thrown upon our history by the careful study of personal names is indeed so valuable that a few remarks upon the subject seem necessary in order to complete our hasty survey of Anglo-Saxon Britain.

During the very earliest period when we catch a glimpse of the English people on the Continent or in eastern Britain, a double system of naming seems to have prevailed, not wholly unlike our modern plan of Christian and surname. The clan name was appended to the personal one. A man was apparently described as Wulf the Holting, or as Creoda the Æscing. The clan names were in many cases common to the English and the Continental Teutons. Thus we find Helsings in the English Helsington and the Swedish Helsingland; Harlings in the English Harlingham and the Frisian Harlingen; and Bleccings in the English Bletchingley and the Scandinavian Bleckingen. Our Thyrings at Thorrington answer, perhaps, to the Thuringians; our Myrgings at Merrington to the Frankish Merwings or Merovingians; our Wærings at Warrington to the Norse Væringjar or Varangians. At any rate, the clan organization was one common to both great branches of the Teutonic stock, and it has left its mark deeply upon our modern nomenclature, both in England and in Germany. Mr. Kemble has enumerated nearly 200 clan names found in early English charters and documents, besides over 600 others inferred from local names in England at the present day. Taking one letter of the alphabet alone, his list includes the Glæstings, Geddings, Gumenings, Gustings, Getings, Grundlings, Gildlings, and Gillings, from documentary evidence; and the Gærsings, Gestings, Geofonings, Goldings, and Garings, with many others, from the inferential evidence of existing towns and villages.

The personal names of the earliest period are in many cases untranslateable–that is to say, as with the first stratum of Greek names, they bear no obvious meaning in the language as we know it. Others are names of animals or natural objects. Unlike the later historical cognomens, they each consist, as a rule, of a single element, not of two elements in composition. Such are the names which we get in the narrative of the colonization and in the mythical genealogies; Hengest, Horsa, Æsc, Ælle, Cymen, Cissa, Bieda, Mægla; Ceol, Penda, Offa, Blecca; Esla, Gewis, Wig, Brand, and so forth. A few of these names (such as Penda and Offa), are undoubtedly historical; but of the rest, some seem to be etymological blunders, like Port and Wihtgar; others to be pure myths, like Wig and Brand; and others, again, to be doubtfully true, like Cerdic, Cissa, and Bieda, eponyms, perhaps, of Cerdices-ford, Cissan-ceaster, and Biedan-heafod.

In the truly historical age, the clan system seems to have died out, and each person bore, as a rule, only a single personal name. These names are almost invariably compounded of two elements, and the elements thus employed were comparatively few in number. Thus, we get the root _æthel_, noble, as the first half in Æthelred, Æthelwulf, Æthelberht, Æthelstan, and Æthelbald. Again, the root _ead_, rich, or powerful, occurs in Eadgar, Eadred, Eadward, Eadwine, and Eadwulf. _Ælf_, an elf, forms the prime element in Ælfred, Ælfric, Ælfwine, Ælfward, and Ælfstan. These were the favourite names of the West-Saxon royal house; the Northumbrian kings seem rather to have affected the syllable _os_, divine, as in Oswald, Oswiu, Osric, Osred, and Oslaf. _Wine_, friend, is a favourite termination found in Æscwine, Eadwine, Æthelwine, Oswine, and Ælfwine, whose meanings need no further explanation. _Wulf_ appears as the first half in Wulfstan, Wulfric, Wulfred, and Wulfhere; while it forms the second half in Æthelwulf, Eadwulf, Ealdwulf, and Cenwulf. _Beorht_, _berht_, or _briht_, bright, or glorious, appears in Beorhtric, Beorhtwulf, Brihtwald; Æthelberht, Ealdbriht, and Eadbyrht. _Burh_, a fortress, enters into many female names, as Eadburh, Æthelburh, Sexburh, and Wihtburh. As a rule, a certain number of syllables seem to have been regarded as proper elements for forming personal names, and to have been combined somewhat fancifully, without much regard to the resulting meaning. The following short list of such elements, in addition to the roots given above, will suffice to explain most of the names mentioned in this work.

_Helm_: helmet. _Gar_: spear. _Gifu_: gift. _Here_: army. _Sige_: victory. _Cyne_: royal. _Leof_: dear. _Wig_: war. _Stan_: stone. _Eald_: old, venerable. _Weard_, _ward_: ward, protection. _Red_: counsel. _Eeg_: edge, sword. _Theod_: people, nation.

By combining these elements with those already given most of the royal or noble names in use in early England were obtained.

With the people, however, it would seem that shorter and older forms were still in vogue. The following document, the original of which is printed in Kemble's collection, represents the pedigree of a serf, and is interesting, both as showing the sort of names in use among the servile class, and the care with which their family relationships were recorded, in order to preserve the rights of their lord.

Dudda was a boor at Hatfield, and he had three daughters:
one hight Deorwyn, the other Deorswith, the third Golde. And
Wulflaf at Hatfield has Deorwyn to wife. Ælfstan, at
Tatchingworth, has Deorswith to wife: and Ealhstan,
Ælfstan's brother, has Golde to wife. There was a man hight
Hwita, bee-master at Hatfield, and he had a daughter Tate,
mother of Wulfsige, the bowman; and Wulfsige's sister Lulle
has Hehstan to wife, at Walden. Wifus and Dunne and Seoloce
are inborn at Hatfield. Duding, son of Wifus, lives at
Walden; and Ceolmund, Dunne's son, also sits at Walden; and
Æthelheah, Seoloce's son, also sits at Walden. And Tate,
Cenwold's sister, Mæg has to wife at Welgun; and Eadhelm,
Herethryth's son, has Tate's daughter to wife. Wærlaf,
Wærstan's father, was a right serf at Hatfield; he kept the
grey swine there.

In the west, and especially in Cornwall, the names of the serfs were mainly Celtic,–Griffith, Modred, Riol, and so forth,–as may be seen from the list of manumissions preserved in a mass-book at St. Petroc's, or Padstow. Elsewhere, however, the Celtic names seem to have dropped out, for the most part, with the Celtic language. It is true, we meet with cases of apparently Welsh forms, like Maccus, or Rum, even in purely Teutonic districts; and some names, such as Cerdic and Ceadwalla, seem to have been borrowed by one race from the other: while such forms as Wealtheow and Waltheof are at least suggestive of British descent: but on the whole, the conquered Britons appear everywhere to have quickly adopted the names in vogue among their conquerors. Such names would doubtless be considered fashionable, as was the case at a later date with those introduced by the Danes and the Normans. Even in Cornwall a good many English forms occur among the serfs: while in very Celtic Devonshire, English names were probably universal.

The Danish Conquest introduced a number of Scandinavian names, especially in the North, the consideration of which belongs rather to a companion volume. They must be briefly noted here, however, to prevent confusion with the genuine English forms. Amongst such Scandinavian introductions, the commonest are perhaps Harold, Swegen or Swend, Ulf, Gorm or Guthrum, Orm, Yric or Eric, Cnut, and Ulfcytel. During and after the time of the Danish dynasty, these forms, rendered fashionable by royal usage, became very general even among the native English. Thus Earl Godwine's sons bore Scandinavian names; and at an earlier period we even find persons, apparently Scandinavian, fighting on the English side against the Danes in East Anglia.