Reversing Babel: Translation Among the English During an Age of Conquests, c. 800 to c. 1200

311 Pages·2011·6.2 MB·English

by  Bruce R. O'Brien

Reversing Babel
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Reversing Babel
Translation among the English
during an Age of Conquests,
c. 800 to c. 1200
Bruce R. O’Brien
UNIVERSITY OF DELAWARE PRESS
Newark
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Published by University of Delaware Press
Co-published with The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc.
4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706
www.rowmanlittlefield.com
Estover Road, Plymouth PL6 7PY, United Kingdom
Copyright © 2011 by Bruce R. O’Brien
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by
any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval
systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer
who may quote passages in a review.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
O’Brien, Bruce R.
Reversing Babel : translation among the English during an age of conquests, c.
800 to c. 1200 / by Bruce R. O’Brien.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN 978-1-61149-052-7 (cloth : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-1-61149-053-4
(electronic)
1. Translating and interpreting—History—To 1500. 2. Civilization, Medieval. 3.
Literature, Medieval—Translations—History and criticism. I. Title.
P306.O27 2011
418’.02094209021—dc22 2011009286
™
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of
American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper
for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.
Printed in the United States of America
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For Soula
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Contents
Figures and Maps ix
Preface xi
Abbreviations xv
Introduction 1
1 Language and Translation in Early Medieval England 19
2 Language Contact in Conquered England 69
3 Motives 123
4 Methods: Practical Matters 159
5 Methods: Translators’ Choices 187
6 Final Observations 211
Appendix: Principal and Representative Translations 223
Works Cited 245
Index 279
About the Author 289
vii
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Figures and Maps
FIGURES
1 Cnut’s laws after 1066 2
2 Anglo-French acquires sake and soke 3
3 Arabic record of payments to a moneylender in
England 10
4 Alfred’s prefatory letter to his translation of
Pastoral Care 12
1.1 The tower rises 21
1.2 The flame of Pentecost 22
1.3 Shem’s people 23
1.4 Sceaf, son of Noah 24
1.5 Alphabetic Babel 26–27
1.6 Bartholomew (a. k. a. Tostig, a. k. a. William) in
Durham’s Liber Vitae 40
1.7 Jerome at work 42
1.8 The English Genesis 47
2.1 Trilingual guide for visiting the sick 99
2.2 Adelard’s treatment of Arabic 103
3.1 Old English Prose Life of Guthlac 124
3.2 Sermon on the move 132
3.3 Sanson de Nantuil’s Proverbes 139
3.4 Patron and translator 142
4.1 Flyers and swimmers 163
4.2 Conjugating in three tongues 165
ix
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