A Middle English Vocabulary

A Middle English Vocabulary is a dictionary ( glossary ) written by the author and philologist J. RR Tolkien and published in 1922 , which translates a large number of words from the Middle English language , which were used in particular in medieval texts, into the English language and their meaning explained. It is Tolkien's first scientific work to be published as a book.

background

The dictionary was published on May 11, 1922 as a supplement to the collection of texts from the 14th century published by Kenneth Sisam entitled Fourteenth century verse & prose . There is a reference to this usage on the front page of the dictionary. This reads: “Designed for use with SISAM'S Fourteenth Century Verse & Prose ” (designed for use with SISAM'S Fourteenth Century Verse & Prose ). Tolkien was less concerned with creating a complete glossary that lists rare or difficult-to-translate words, and more with becoming familiar with the language and its idiosyncrasies. It should serve to support the reader of the texts contained in Sisam's book and to make them easier to understand. It also contains brief information on the etymology of each word, with reference to the explanations in the Oxford English Dictionary in difficult cases .

Sisam was Tolkien's tutor for the English language and literature and was also involved in the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary . He was asked by Oxford University Press for a compilation of texts and verses from the 14th century. Sisam had too little time to create the glossary for this work and therefore asked Tolkien to create it. The dictionary became more extensive than expected, so that Sisam's book was initially published without it, as its completion was delayed. The work was published in several editions between 1922 and 1967 as a reprint or together with Sisam's work. This compilation includes many of the medieval texts that Tolkien then dealt with and on which he wrote his own essays, including Sir Orfeo , Sir Gawayne and the Grene Knight, and The Pearl .

Publications

• Kenneth Sisam: Fourteenth century verse & prose . Clarendon Press, Oxford 1921, OCLC 2004967 .
• John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, Kenneth Sisam: A middle English vocabulary . Clarendon Press, Oxford 1922, OCLC 3032754 .
• Kenneth Sisam, John Ronald Reuel Tolkien: Middle English Reader and Vocabulary . Dover Publications, Dover 2011, ISBN 978-1-306-34125-7 ( online ).

literature

• Margaret L. Lee: Middle English. In: The Year's Work in English Studies. Volume II / 1920/1921 Oxford University Press, pp. 42-43.
• Humphrey Carpenter: JRR Tolkien. A biography . 2nd Edition. Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 2001, ISBN 3-608-93431-6 , p. 125 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ John Ronald Reuel Tolkien: A Middle English Vocabulary . Clarendon Press, Oxford 1922 ( online - NOTE).
2. ↑ A Middle English Vocabulary by JRR Tolkien. In: tolkienlibrary.com. Retrieved July 29, 2015 .