* Set time aside (at least 15 minutes) to practise reading and translating Middle English every day; continue daily practice even after the Middle English part of the module has finished.
* Where available, look at other editions of the texts (a list for Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is given below). Read the introductions, look at the notes, glossaries and further reading lists.
* Identify the patterns of different spelling practices (see below); recognising how easier or familiar words are spelt in Middle English will help with harder or less familiar words.
* Think about the purpose(s) of translation and the nature of the work being translated. For example, although Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and most of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales are written in verse, they are narratives, rather than lyric poetry, so should be translated into prose. Translating into ‘good Modern English’ means just that: making the story sound as if it had been written in Modern English, so try to balance literal translations with judicious use of colloquial terms which may adequately express meaning in less stilted language.
* Be aware that many words in Middle English appear identical or similar to their Modern English counterparts, but do not necessarily have the same meaning: for example, in Middle English buxom means obedient or submissive, so when Chaucer’s Merchant asks ‘who kan be so buxom as a wyf?’ (IV [E] 1287), he is referring to character, not physical shape. Similarly, lewd (usually spelt lewed in Middle English) means uneducated or ignorant, so Proserpine’s reference to men being ‘as lewed as geese’ in The Merchant’s Tale (IV [E] 2275) is not a comment on the vulgarity or the chastity of either men or geese.
* Use a modern dictionary which shows the etymologies of words; when looking words up, think about their journey into Modern English.
* Try reading Middle English aloud.
Harvard University: Middle English Teaching Resources Online (METRO)
From METRO’s anouncement: ‘METRO is a virtual classroom designed to teach students how to read and analyze Middle English texts. Through a series of self-testing exercises, students are invited to explore the meter, grammar, syntax, diction, and figural language used by a variety of Middle English poets. Currently, METRO features Chaucer, the Gawain-poet, and the Wakefield Master, with plenty of room for expansion. You can download or listen to streaming extracts from a variety of Middle English poems from Internet sources. Most of the webpages reproduce the relevant part of the text onscreen.’ METRO can be used free of charge.
THE ANTECEDENTS AND COMPONENTS OF MIDDLE ENGLISH
Old English
The vernacular language of Britain after about 600ad until the Norman Conquest is Old English (sometimes known as Anglo Saxon), a Germanic language found in manuscripts and inscriptions. Old English is thought to have been brought by three tribes, Angles, Saxons, and Jutes, who invaded and occupied Britain in the fifth century.
Old English developed four major dialects (Northumbrian, Mercian, West Saxon, Kentish) with differences in spelling. Most extant Old English examples are in the West Saxon dialect.
‘A page from the manuscript of Beowulf’, reproduced from William J. Long, English Literature: Its History and Its Significance for the Life of the English Speaking World (Boston: Ginn and Co, 1919; repr. as The Project Gutenberg EBook of English Literature, by William J. Long (Project Gutenburg, 2004), http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/0/6/0/10609/10609-h/10609-h.htm#el003)
Old English has various letter-forms which have not survived into Modern English:
Many Old English words have survived, via Middle English, into Modern English; these include blood (OE blōd), grass (OE græs), great (OE great), iron (OE īren), listen (OE hlysnan), play (OE plega), summer (OE sumor), tail (OE tægl).
Old French
Old English literature came to an end with the Norman Conquest in 1066. For the next two centuries, the language of the court was French; and when the English language (Middle English) reappeared it was very different from Old English, and displayed the influence of both Norman French (known as Anglo-Norman) and Parisian French (Old French).
Both the Gawain-poet and (to a greater extent, because he was based in London and spoke French) Chaucer display an extensive vocabulary of Old French words in their works.
Many Modern English words ultimately derive from Old French; these include ancestor (OF ancestre), courage (OF corage), enemy (OF enemi), flower (OF flour), money (OF moneie), power (OF poer).
Latin
Although the language of the church and official documents in Britain throughout much of the Middle Ages, Latin loan-words in Middle English are comparatively rare, although, of course, the Old French words which come into Middle English ultimately derive from Latin; for example, Middle (and Modern) English age comes from the Old French aage, which comes from Vulgar (i.e. vernacular) Latin and ultimately derives from Latin aetas. Few words come from Latin directly into Middle English.
Old Norse
Like Old English, Old Norse is a Germanic language. Invasions of Britain, from c.788ad, extensive settlements by the Vikings (mainly Danish in England, and Norwegian in north Britain and Ireland) and Norse rule of some areas of England led to Old East Norse words and names being absorbed into the local language. Viking rule was overturned by the Norman Conquest (and it is worth noting that the Normans were originally Danish and Norwegian settlers in northern France; by 1066, they had been in Normandy for only five generations, although their language had completely changed).
A number of words in Modern English ultimately derive from Old Norse; these include anger (ON angr), husband (ON husbondi = master of the house), raise (ON reisa) and sky (ON sky = cloud).
Middle English letters
Spelling
It helps to be able to recognise the kinds of spelling variations used in the texts. Common ones include:
u for v: thus acheue is Modern English achieve (from OF achever)
y for i: thus alyue = living, alive (from OE on life)
qu for wh: thus quen is a variant of when = when (from OE hwanne)
The first page
of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight,
manuscript BL Cotton Nero A.x., f. 91a
Basic Grammar
For reading and translation purposes, there is no need to have a comprehensive grounding in Middle English grammar, although it helps to understand the basics thoroughly. The following sources supply more or less detailed grammatical information:
Online
* A basic grammar by Mau McInerney at Haverford College.
* A Brief Introduction to Middle English Grammar from the English Department at the University of Calgary.
Books
* A Book of Middle English, ed. J. A. Burrow and Thorlac Turville-Petre (Oxford: Blackwell, 1992, 2nd edn 1996). The Introduction to this anthology of texts covers Middle English grammar in detail.
* Karl Brunner, An Outline of Middle English Grammar, trans. Grahame Johnston (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1963). Now out of print, but widely and cheaply available second hand (see Secondhand Books).
* The Appendix to Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, ed. J. R. R. Tolkein and E. V. Gordon (1925, rev. ed. Norman Davis, OUP 1967) provides much grammatical detail.
Glossaries
Editions of the text with full glossaries and notes, with material on vocabulary and pronunciation:
* Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, ed. J. A. Burrow (Penguin Classics, 1987).
* The Poems of the Pearl Manuscript: Pearl, Cleanness, Patience, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, ed. Malcom Andrew and Ronald Waldron, Edward Arnold (1978, rev. ed. University of Exeter Press, 1987).
* Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, ed. J. R. R. Tolkein and E. V. Gordon (1925, rev. ed. Norman Davis, OUP 1967). The full text, although not the editorial apparatus, is available online from the Corpus of Medieval English Prose and Verse at The University of Michigan.
A concordance is an alphabetical list of the words occurring in a book or a writer’s work, each provided with details of location and/or examples of context. Concordances can be useful for looking at words in other contexts and analysing the changes in meaning: does an identical word have the same meaning in each context?
Online
* Gerard NeCastro, at the University of Maine, hosts a Chaucer concordance.
Books
* Kottler, Barnet and Alan M. Markman, A Concordance to Five Middle English Poems: Cleanness, St. Erkenwald, Sir Gawain and The Green Knight, Patience, Pearl (University of Pittsburgh Press, 1966).
Manuscripts
Looking at Middle English manuscripts can be rewarding, both from the viewpoint of the text and the illustrations. Here are some links to manuscript reproductions online:
* Facsimiles of three illustrated manuscripts of The Canterbury Tales, hosted by Kevin Kiernan at the University of Kentucky.
* Caxton’s printed editions of The Canterbury Tales on the British Library website.
Illustration of Chaucer the Pilgrim, adjacent to the opening text of The Tale of Melibee, from the Ellesmere manuscript
PRONUNCIATION: AUDIO RESOURCES
Help with pronunciation, or simply a flavour of what the narratives might have sounded like to their original audience, can be found in various versions of various Middle English texts available for listening or download online. Use a search engine to locate these, using the title and additional search terms such as ‘mp3’ or ‘audio’.
There are also recordings available to purchase, on CD or as downloads, and at a very reasonable price (currently with a 50% discount for individuals buying downloads), from The Chaucer Studio, including Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, The Canterbury Tales, and Troilus and Criseyde. The Chaucer Studio also has numerous recordings of medieval texts in other languages: Old English, Old French, Old High German, Middle High German, Italian and Old Norse.
