What OE Was Like

As we mentioned in Chapter 2, Gregory’s Dialogues is a collection of fairy tales and stories about miracles. ¹ One of the stories features a nun and a lettuce. It tells what happened when a nun took a stroll in her convent garden. Here’s the story, with a word-for-word translation underneath. You need do no more than read through the text and translation. We’ll use the passage to draw your attention to a few features of OE. ² Soðlice, sumum dæge hit gelamp þæt an nunne of þæm ilcan Truly, on a certain day it happened that a nun from the same mynstre eode inn on hyra wyrttun. þa geseah heo ænne leahtric, and nunnery went in to her garden. There saw she a lettuce, and hire gelyste þæs. Heo þa hine genam, and forgeat þæt heo hine mid to her pleased it. She then it took, and forgot that she it with Cristes rodetacne gebledsode, ac heo hine freclice bat. þa wearð heo Christ’s sign of the cross should bless, but she it greedily bit. Then was she 5 sona fram deofle gegripen, and hrædlice nyðer afeoll. Þa þa heo swyðe immediately by the devil attacked, and quickly down fell. When she severely wæs gedreht, þa wearð hit hraðe gecyðed þæm faeder Equitio, and he was tormented, then was it quickly called Father Equitius, and he wæs gebeden þæt he ofstlice come, and mid his gebedum hire gehulpe. was asked that he quickly come, and with his prayers to her helped. Sona swa se halga fæder wæs inn agan on þone wyrttun, þa ongann As soon as the holy father was in gone to the garden, then began se deofol, þe þa nunnan gegrap, of hire muðe clypian, swylce he dædbote the devil, that the nun attacked, from her mouth to call out, as if he amends 10 don wolde, and þus cwæð: ‘Hwæt dyde Ic hire? Hwæt dyde Ic hire? Ic make would, and thus spoke: What did I to her? What did I to her? I sæt me on anum leahtrice, þa com heo and bat me!’ He þa, se Godes sat me on a lettuce, then came she and bit me.’ He then, the of God wer, mid mycelre yrsunge him bebead þæt he fram hire gewite, and þæt man, with great anger him commanded that he from her come out, and that he nane wunungstow e næfde on þæs ælmihtigan Godes þeowene. He he no dwelling place never have in the handmaiden of Almighty God. He þǣrryhte aweg gewat, and ni leng syððan hire æthrīnan ne dorste. immediately away went and no longer thereafter her to touch dared. Perhaps the first thing you’ll notice is that there are some letters in OE that we don’t have in PDE. The ones in the passage are ‘þ’ (called ‘thorn’) and ‘ð’ (‘eth’). Both of these are used interchangeably for ‘th’ sounds: voiced as in PDE them and unvoiced as in thing. The passage also has the letter ‘æ,’ which is pronounced like the ‘a’ sound in PDE cat.