Reversing Babel BBooookk 11..iinnddbb ii 66//99//1111 99::1122 AAMM BBooookk 11..iinnddbb iiii 66//99//1111 99::1122 AAMM Reversing Babel Translation among the English during an Age of Conquests, c. 800 to c. 1200 Bruce R. O’Brien UNIVERSITY OF DELAWARE PRESS Newark BBooookk 11..iinnddbb iiiiii 66//99//1111 99::1122 AAMM Published by University of Delaware Press Co-published with The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc. 4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706 www.rowmanlittlefield.com Estover Road, Plymouth PL6 7PY, United Kingdom Copyright © 2011 by Bruce R. O’Brien All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote passages in a review. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data O’Brien, Bruce R. Reversing Babel : translation among the English during an age of conquests, c. 800 to c. 1200 / by Bruce R. O’Brien. p. cm. Includes index. ISBN 978-1-61149-052-7 (cloth : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-1-61149-053-4 (electronic) 1. Translating and interpreting—History—To 1500. 2. Civilization, Medieval. 3. Literature, Medieval—Translations—History and criticism. I. Title. P306.O27 2011 418’.02094209021—dc22 2011009286 ™ The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992. Printed in the United States of America 1111__006699__OO''BBrriieenn..bbooookk..iinnddbb iivv 66//3300//1111 66::0066 AAMM For Soula BBooookk 11..iinnddbb vv 66//99//1111 99::1122 AAMM BBooookk 11..iinnddbb vvii 66//99//1111 99::1122 AAMM Contents Figures and Maps ix Preface xi Abbreviations xv Introduction 1 1 Language and Translation in Early Medieval England 19 2 Language Contact in Conquered England 69 3 Motives 123 4 Methods: Practical Matters 159 5 Methods: Translators’ Choices 187 6 Final Observations 211 Appendix: Principal and Representative Translations 223 Works Cited 245 Index 279 About the Author 289 vii BBooookk 11..iinnddbb vviiii 66//99//1111 99::1122 AAMM BBooookk 11..iinnddbb vviiiiii 66//99//1111 99::1122 AAMM Figures and Maps FIGURES 1 Cnut’s laws after 1066 2 2 Anglo-French acquires sake and soke 3 3 Arabic record of payments to a moneylender in England 10 4 Alfred’s prefatory letter to his translation of Pastoral Care 12 1.1 The tower rises 21 1.2 The flame of Pentecost 22 1.3 Shem’s people 23 1.4 Sceaf, son of Noah 24 1.5 Alphabetic Babel 26–27 1.6 Bartholomew (a. k. a. Tostig, a. k. a. William) in Durham’s Liber Vitae 40 1.7 Jerome at work 42 1.8 The English Genesis 47 2.1 Trilingual guide for visiting the sick 99 2.2 Adelard’s treatment of Arabic 103 3.1 Old English Prose Life of Guthlac 124 3.2 Sermon on the move 132 3.3 Sanson de Nantuil’s Proverbes 139 3.4 Patron and translator 142 4.1 Flyers and swimmers 163 4.2 Conjugating in three tongues 165 ix BBooookk 11..iinnddbb iixx 66//99//1111 99::1122 AAMM