Ancrene Wisse

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Ancrene Wisse ( handbook for hermits ; also Ancrene Riwle , rule for hermits ) is a Middle English text (with various interspersed Latin sentences and phrases) from the English Midlands , addressed to religious hermits , so-called 'anchorites' (English, literally translated: “Anchored “, In the sense of Reklusin ), who, according to the custom at the time, let themselves be walled into a cell in the wall of a village church and until the end of their life only came into contact with the outside world through a small window and a maid; after their death they were usually buried in the cell. This way of life represents an extreme form of the principle of fixed location, which was already highly praised by the pioneers of Christian monasticism .

The text was written at the beginning of the 13th century. It has come down to us in a few Middle English manuscripts as well as in several translations into the Middle French language of the Norman upper class in England at the time , as well as into the Latin language of church and science. A total of seventeen manuscripts have been preserved in all three languages ​​together, containing the text or part of it. As far as we know today, none of the manuscripts is the original, but several were already written in the middle of the 13th century.

In addition to its importance for the study of medieval spirituality, the text is also of great importance for the study of the Middle English language in an early language form and its development from Old English , as only a few Middle English texts from the period before the late 14th century have survived .

The most important manuscript due to its unadulterated language is Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, MS 402 . An edition of this manuscript was published by JRR Tolkien in 1962 as Ancrene Wisse: The English Text of the Ancrene Riwle .

In 1929, Tolkien showed in his influential Ancrene Wisse and Hali Meiðhad essay that the language in the Corpus Christi manuscript is identical to that in the most important manuscript of the Katherine Group , MS Bodley 34 .

literature

  • John Alexander Herbert : The French text of the Ancrene riwle. From British Museum ms. Cotton Vitellius F VII (= Early English Text Society (Series). No. 219). Oxford University Press, London 1944.
  • Mabel Day: The English text of the Ancrene Riwle (= Early English Text Society (Series). No. 225). Cumberlege, London 1952 OCLC 252602656 (based on Herbert's transcription).
  • JRR Tolkien, NR Ker: The English Text of the Ancrene Riwle (= Ancrene Wisse, Corpus Christi College Cambridge MS 402 ) Boydell & Brewer, Woodbridge, Suffolk 2000, ISBN 0-19-722249-8 .
  • Arne Zettersten, Bernhard Diensberg: The English Text of the Ancrene Riwle. The 'Vernon' text. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2000, ISBN 0-19-722314-1 .

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