[English Dialects From the Eighth Century to the Present Day by Walter W. Skeat]@TWC D-Link bookEnglish Dialects From the Eighth Century to the Present Day CHAPTER III 2/14
He wrote several other works, also in Latin, most of which Professor Earle enumerates.
It is said of Beda himself that he was "learned in our native songs," and it is probable that he wrote many things in his native Northumbrian or Durham dialect; but they have all perished, with the exception of one precious fragment of five lines, printed by Dr Sweet (at p.
149) from the St Gall MS.No.254, of the ninth century.
It is usually called Beda's Death-song, and is here given: Fore there neidfaerae naenig uuiurthit thonc-snotturra than him thar[f] sie, to ymbhycggannae, aer his hin-iong[a]e, huaet his gastae, godaes aeththa yflaes, aefter deoth-daege doemid uueorth[a]e. Literally translated, this runs as follows: Before the need-journey no one becomes more wise in thought than he ought to be, (in order) to contemplate, ere his going hence, what for his spirit, (either) of good or of evil, after (his) death-day, will be adjudged. It is from Beda's _Church History_, Book IV, chap.
24 (or 22), that we learn the story of C{ae}dmon, the famous Northumbrian poet, who was a herdsman and lay brother in the abbey of Whitby, in the days of the abbess Hild, who died in 680, near the close of the seventh century.
<<Back Index Next>> D-Link book Top TWC mobile books
|