Anglo-Saxon Minuscule: Later Alterations

Later Additions
There was even room for an interlinear gloss to be added much later, probably in the 16th century. This has a certain interest, because the annotator has glossed the Anglo-Saxon in Latin.

In line 8, the glossator has correctly glossed OE ongiotan by intellegere, 'understand'.
In line 9, OE cwęden is glossed by dixerunt, 'they said';
and OE yldran is glossed by seniores, 'elders'.

What does this suggest about the knowledge of and interest in Old English at the date of the annotations?



Much earlier than this, another hand (possibly c.1000) has made what he considers to be emendations. This mainly consists in updating the spelling. This manuscript was written between 890 and 897 AD, in the spelling system associated with the Early West Saxon dialect. If you have learned Anglo-Saxon you will notice that it is not the same as the standardised Late West Saxon of the Workbook.

The glossator has altered the Early West Saxon ie spelling
for a Late West Saxon y.
You can tell it is not original because the shape of his y is different.
You can see his erasures underneath
the new letters.

He has also altered the punctuation and word division: see the next section.

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© MEG TWYCROSS 1998