Anglo-Saxon Onomastics in the Old English Andreas
Year: 1973
Type: article
Abstract: A CHARACTERISTICALLY ANGLO-SAXON onomastic interpretation" - thus the latest editor of the Life of St. Ethelwold describes Wulfstan's etymology of the name of his saint, "Adeluuoldus ... , nomine, mente et opere beniuolus."lThe annotation is just, and it indicates scholars' growing awareness of a pervasive onomastic strain in much Anglo-Saxon writing, 2 a tradition which frequently combines fact with fanciful speculation about the origin of names.(OE moel-does mean "noble, excellent" as Wulfstan assumes, but -wold has nothing to do with the verb wolde "wished." ) Yet, despite this increasing attention to the Anglo-Saxons' interest in names,3 there remains in the literature of the period a number of literary problems which ought to be re-examined in the light of medieval onomastics.One such problem is a textual puzzle in the OE treatments of the St. Andrew legend, which I propose to treat here.At a dramatic moment in the poem Andreas the saint rounds on the Devil, who has arisen to accuse him, addressing him in these words:Hwrot, au deofles strrol, icest pine yrmoo !
Source: Names
Author: Fred C. Robinson
Language: English
Subfield: Classics
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W2016402153