The English Text of the Ancrene Riwle

The English Text of the Ancrene Riwle is among other things the title of a monograph by the British philologist and writer J. RR Tolkien , in which he deals with the Middle English edition of the text Ancrene Wisse , as found in the manuscript MS 402 of Corpus Christi College Cambridge finds. This manuscript was probably written between 1225 and 1240.

background

The manuscript MS 402 consists of 117 sheets and was written on parchment. In the introduction, Tolkien first describes the condition of this manuscript, points out missing pages and analyzes the font, the use of different letter forms or discrepancies in font size. He describes, for example, the initials used in the manuscript , which in red or blue and decorated with ornaments introduce some of the sections. Tolkien recognized in the different versions of the Ancrene Wisse a broad correspondence due to the use of a common language with its own, unmistakable vocabulary as well as similar syntax and spelling. In addition to the original author, the scribes or readers must have been familiar with the dialect used and its conventions. This use of a uniform language or spelling makes it difficult to assign the manuscripts to a specific author.

Tolkien coined the term "AB Language" as early as 1929 in his essay Ancrene Wisse and Hali Meiðhad , in order to improve the orthographic and linguistic consistency between the version of Corpus Christi College (manuscript "A") and the version MS Bodley 34 of the Bodleian Library (Manuscript "B"). The similarity of the two works is remarkable, although they apparently come from different authors, which suggests that the texts were written around the same time or in the same place. In addition to Tolkien, other linguists have also dealt with these texts, such as Albert C. Baugh , Richard Middlewood Wilson or Arne Zettersten.

Editions with this title (selection)

• Albert C. Baugh: The English text of the Ancrene riwle (= Early English Text Society. 232). Oxford University Press, London 1956, OCLC 3996999 .
• RM Wilson: The English text of the Ancrene riwle (= Early English Text Society). Oxford University Press, London / New York, OCLC 1146252 .
• JR R Tolkien: The English text of the Ancrene Riwle: Ancrene Wisse. Edited from MS. Corpus Christi College Cambridge 402 by JRR Tolkien (= Early English Text Society. 249). Oxford University Press, London / New York 1962. (New edition 2013, ISBN 978-1-84384-344-3 ).
• Arne Zettersten, Magdalene College (Ed.): The English text of the Ancrene Riwle (= Early English Text Society. 274). Oxford University Press, London / New York 1976, ISBN 0-19-722276-5 .

further reading

• Wolfgang Riehle: English mysticism of the Middle Ages. 1st edition. CH Beck, Munich 2011, ISBN 978-3-406-62802-3 ( books.google.de ).

Web links

• Ancrene Wisse - Ancren Riwle on arlima.net (edition overview)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 402. on tei.oucs.ox.ac.uk (with transcription).
2. ↑ ^{a b} Ancrene Wisse, Introduction. In: rochester.edu. Robbins Library Digital Projects, accessed October 13, 2015 . 
3. ↑ Michael DC Drout (Ed.): JRR Tolkien encyclopedia. Scholarship and critical assessment. Routledge, New York 2007, ISBN 978-0-415-96942-0 , p. 1 ( books.google.de ).