History of English #38 (17 Feb 2014): Nobles, Nuptials and a Cowherd Poet
After Edwin became king in Northumbria, he didn’t want Ethelbert’s son down in Kent to do aggro at him, so he married Ethelbert’s daughter. She agreed on condition she could stay Christian and bring a priest, which is similar to how her grandmother had eventually converted Ethelbert’s father when she married him. (Or how her mother had converted Ethelbert?) The priest tried to convert Edwin. One day one of his enemies sent an assassin, but someone jumped in front of the blade, and also his daughter was born. He was mildly injured, said he’d convert if he recovered. He recovered and eventually converted. Then he got killed by a Welsh king or something.
One of Ethel???’s sons came to take the throne, he was somehow important but I forget how, then he was killed by the same Welsh king. Then his brother came too, possibly named Oswald? Oswald had been in Ireland, which had not been invaded by Germanic tribes and had a monastic culture. Oswald defeated the Welsh king and married Edwin’s daughter (also named Ethel??? but a different Ethel??? name) who had gone back down to Kent for safety. So the Roman Catholic and Irish Celtic churches were both trying to be A Thing at this point. It was awkward because they e.g. celebrated easter a week apart, so Oswald would be celebrating while his wife was still fasting.
Since we’re talking about marriage, some related words that I mostly forget. The “lock” in “wedlock” is actually “activity”. “Bridal” sounds like a normal construction, but it comes from “Bride-ale”, as in “Bride-beer”, a feast. “Wife” is possibly cognate to “weaver” and “bride” is possibly cognate to “brewer”.
Eventually a big meeting happened and they agreed on Roman Catholic doctrine, but the Irish Celtic monastic tradition stayed in place, and in particular it was literary.
At one point, I think this was sort of mid-7th century, there was a monastary with a cowherd. He’d hear the monks reciting poetry but was too shy to recite any himself. One night he had a dream where he came up with some poetry. He recited it to the Abbess who was impressed, and then he came up with a bunch more when asked. (It was a monastary for both men and women, though they’d live separately. Those places were fairly normal, and it was fairly normal for them to have Abbesses.) They wrote it down. And this was in English, which was a big deal because all the religious stuff so far had been in Latin. Some people consider this year as big a deal as 1066 in the history of English.
All the Old English poetry we know comes from four books, and this was one of them. Another, the one that included Beowulf, was just in some dude’s large library. Another somehow made its way to Italy, no one knows how. I forget the last.
History of English #38 (17 Feb 2014): Nobles, Nuptials and a Cowherd Poet
After Edwin became king in Northumbria, he didn’t want Ethelbert’s son down in Kent to do aggro at him, so he married Ethelbert’s daughter. She agreed on condition she could stay Christian and bring a priest, which is similar to how her grandmother had eventually converted Ethelbert’s father when she married him. (Or how her mother had converted Ethelbert?) The priest tried to convert Edwin. One day one of his enemies sent an assassin, but someone jumped in front of the blade, and also his daughter was born. He was mildly injured, said he’d convert if he recovered. He recovered and eventually converted. Then he got killed by a Welsh king or something.
One of Ethel???’s sons came to take the throne, he was somehow important but I forget how, then he was killed by the same Welsh king. Then his brother came too, possibly named Oswald? Oswald had been in Ireland, which had not been invaded by Germanic tribes and had a monastic culture. Oswald defeated the Welsh king and married Edwin’s daughter (also named Ethel??? but a different Ethel??? name) who had gone back down to Kent for safety. So the Roman Catholic and Irish Celtic churches were both trying to be A Thing at this point. It was awkward because they e.g. celebrated easter a week apart, so Oswald would be celebrating while his wife was still fasting.
Since we’re talking about marriage, some related words that I mostly forget. The “lock” in “wedlock” is actually “activity”. “Bridal” sounds like a normal construction, but it comes from “Bride-ale”, as in “Bride-beer”, a feast. “Wife” is possibly cognate to “weaver” and “bride” is possibly cognate to “brewer”.
Eventually a big meeting happened and they agreed on Roman Catholic doctrine, but the Irish Celtic monastic tradition stayed in place, and in particular it was literary.
At one point, I think this was sort of mid-7th century, there was a monastary with a cowherd. He’d hear the monks reciting poetry but was too shy to recite any himself. One night he had a dream where he came up with some poetry. He recited it to the Abbess who was impressed, and then he came up with a bunch more when asked. (It was a monastary for both men and women, though they’d live separately. Those places were fairly normal, and it was fairly normal for them to have Abbesses.) They wrote it down. And this was in English, which was a big deal because all the religious stuff so far had been in Latin. Some people consider this year as big a deal as 1066 in the history of English.
All the Old English poetry we know comes from four books, and this was one of them. Another, the one that included Beowulf, was just in some dude’s large library. Another somehow made its way to Italy, no one knows how. I forget the last.