The Textual Analysis Of Old English

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02 Nov 2017

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Introduction

The Old English poem is forty-two lines long and is in essence concerning misfortunes. Hence, some scholars assert that the poet’s didactic purpose is essentially an endeavour to hearten individuals who because of misfortune have become depressed. Moreover, the poem does not have a title in the manuscript. Nevertheless, individuals have given it a range of names, which reflect the diverse comprehensions of the poem. However, modern English editors have simply named the poem ‘Deor.’

The date in which ‘Deor’ was composed is controversial and cannot be set with accuracy. The dates advocated by scholars vary from the fifth century to the tenth century. Therefore, after analysing various linguistic features I will conclude with an approximate date of composition of ‘Deor.’

The poem, to some extent, can be classified as a personal text because it ends with the poet’s personal experience of misfortune outlived. Although this experience is a conjured tribulation, the poet’s objective is clearly to depict a cheerful ending whilst harmonizing the tone and atmosphere with the other examples of misfortunes outlived.

Analysis

‘Deor’ is separated in to seven stanzas of unequal length because the sectional division is determined by the theme and not the genre. The first five stanzas are examples of misfortunes outlived, which the poet based on heroic tradition (i.e. ‘Welund’, ‘Beadohild’, ‘Mæðhild and Geat’, ‘Ðeodric’ and ‘Eormanric’). The sixth stanza is about ‘general reflections on adversity.’ The final stanza is regarding the fictitious calamity that befell the poet himself, which is given a heroic setting. After each misfortune outlived, the poet repeatedly emphasizes the refrain ‘þ   þ þ ’ which signifies the end of each stanza. The indefinite reference ‘þ’ is used in order to enable the reader, who is in search of consolation, to apply the moral of the examples to his/her own particular misfortune (Malone 1977:17). However, there is no refrain at the end of the sixth stanza, which reinforces the fact that this particular stanza does not exemplify an example of misfortune outlived but instead portrays a general reflection on adversity. These reflections are divided into two sections. The first section explains that people’s life on earth is temporal and not eternal thus everyone’s earthly joys and sorrows are alike destined to pass. The second section informs the reader that fortune, whether good or ill, is from God.

Malone (1977:18) claims that the text appears to be written in the West-Saxon dialect. This conception is supported by the fact that the words ‘’ (line 9) and ‘’ (line 10) do not omit the final inflection ‘-’ which is typical of West-Saxon. Moreover, the unoriginal ‘’ in ‘þ’ (line 2) and ‘þ’ (line 30) is regarded as a distinctive feature in West-Saxon. However, the forms ‘’ (line 5) and ‘’ (line 6) are not absolutely accurate with respect to the formal West-Saxon dialect. Nevertheless, these forms may have been utilized in the so-called West-Saxon patois, which implies that the poet either has linguistic competence in the West-Saxon dialects or linguistic performance in one particular dialect which may have been spoken as a native language. This notion thus suggests the poem was approximately written during the period 570-770 AD because this is the period when West-Saxon was predominantly used in Britain. Conversely, the poem includes forms that are not typical in a West-Saxon text. The double consonant ‘þþ’ in ‘þþ’ (line 3) is not a feature of West-Saxon but rather a form that can be classified as an Anglian peculiarity. Furthermore, the lexis ‘þ’ (line 40) does not exist in West-Saxon. However, scholars claim that this particular lexis is apparently a written error made by the poet. Modern editors have nonetheless preserved the form because it is controversial whether it ought to be emended to the West-Saxon ‘þ’ or the Anglian ‘þ.’ Hence, some argue that the poem was originally written in the West-Saxon dialect but probably was first composed in an Anglian dialect (by which time the original text has passed substantial transformations).

Malone (1977:20-21) claims that the poem largely uses the conventional vocabulary of classical Old English, which reflects the fact that the text was written during the period when Britain was dominated by the Anglo-Saxons. The weak noun ‘’ (line 9), for example, does not omit the final inflection ‘-’ in its spelling until after 770 AD (Strang 1970:343) which suggests that the text was written well before the latter period. However, there are several words – such as: ‘  ’ (line 5) ‘ ’ (line 6) and ‘’ (line 11) – that do not coincide with West-Saxon but rather Old Norse, which was spoken by the Vikings who dominated Britain during the ninth century. Hence, the inconsistency in the vocabulary used reinforces the notion that the poem was originally written in West-Saxon but over time the text has passed significant transformations.

According to Strang (1970:362) the voiced labio-dental fricative [  ] had evolved from the voiced bilabial fricative [  ]. In early spelling, roughly during the sixth and seventh century, [  ] was generally represented by the symbol /  / which equally expressed its voicing quality (i.e. voiced) and place of articulation (i.e. bilabial) but not its manner of articulation (i.e. fricative). In the poem, both /  / and /  / are used alternately to represent [  ], which is explicit in the following words: ‘’ (line 6), ‘’ (line 9), ‘’ (line 11), ‘’ (line 24), and numerous other words. The alternate use of the symbols /  / and /  / only came into effect in the eighth and ninth century, which suggests that the text was probably composed during this period. In addition, this period of composition of ‘Deor’ is further advocated by the fact that the derivational inflection ‘-’ is used in the lexis ‘’ (line 7) because such prefixal formations are a characteristic of a text written in the eighth or ninth century. However, according to Strang (1970:365) the vowels [  ] and [  ], the only short vowels in roughly the sixth century, were later lost in grammar. The elision was phonologically conditioned i.e. when the stem consists of one long or two short syllables it will omit the short vowel. Nevertheless, there is one example in the text where such elision does not take place ‘’ which suggests that the text was initially written in the sixth century.

The structure of the poem has no prosodic merit. Nevertheless, the poem is prosaic and has a variety of poetic features. The poet uses half-lines which are linked by alliteration, for example, ‘þ   þ’ (line 31). This particular example of alliteration is used by the poet in order to put emphasis on the temporary nature of human joy and sorrow. Furthermore, the poet uses his six examples of misfortunes outlived as a metaphor that teaches people to tolerate misfortune patiently for it will pass.

In conclusion, based on the dialect, vocabulary and morphology of the poem ‘Deor,’ one can argue that the text was initially written in the West-Saxon dialect during the sixth century but was possibly composed in an Anglian dialect during a later period, approximately during the late ninth and early tenth century.



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