is distinguished from the dzh sound in edge, which is represented by g. h is lost initially in laferrd 25, nesshe 37, reweþþ 158: hēo is ȝho 2: hw is wh, whas 90, whatt 137.
[Accidence:] Strong declension of masc. and neut. nouns. In the s. n. sune 20, 106 represents sunu. Gen. -ess, daȝȝess 100, deofless 67, heffness 14, lifess 100, but, by a scribal error, daȝȝes 75: d. -e, hewe 170, sune 96, worde 60, and six others, but the inflection is mostly wanting, as in bodiȝ 173, daȝȝ 99, dom 75, and thirty-two others. The acc. heffne 12 is due to the LWS. fem. heofone. The pl. n. a. of masculines ends in -ess, hirdess 46, bisscopess 51; neuters are shep 50, 54, ?wiless 126: genitives are enngle (þed) 15, 122, kinne 64, 71, 157: datives have mostly -ess, bandess 11, claþess 24, but þinge 71, wrihhte 151. The fem. nouns of the strong declension end in e in the s. n. a., blisse, sellðe 95, are 80, bisne 43, except mahht 72, þed 15, werelld 9, and sæ 12. Gen. -e, helle 101, 151, possibly blisse 174: dat. -e, blisse 18, cribbe 2, hallfe 93, but hallf 36. Pl. g. is þede 122; d. sawless 129; a. hande 10, shaffte 9, sawless 69. Nouns of the weak declension have mostly -e in all cases of the singular, but demess 75 is genitive and, before the caesura, lem 77, dative, beside leome 57, lem 107, 163 accusative: a pl. n. is wawenn 151. The minor declensions are represented by fet pl. a. 10, mann s. n. 20, manness s. g. 172, manne s. d. 30, mann s. a. 134, menn pl. n. 76, pl. d. 49, 56; nahht s. d. 46, nihht s. a. 57; moderr s. d. 1; child s. n. 4.
Adjectives which in OE. end in e retain that termination throughout, as bliþe 85, cweme 152, eche 19, 100, 103, milde 82, riche 5, 112, 165, soffte 85, vnnorne 4. Instances of weak inflections are s. d. m. laþe 165, lefe 34, rihhte 49, starrke 75, s. d. f. brihhte 77, s. a. m. laþe 32, 73, 123, s. a. neut. rihhte 89, rume 14: strong inflections are few, s. d. f. fulle 90, hefennlike 8, 173, s. a. m. gode 153: all others are uninflected in the singular. The plural ends in -e, glade 127, gode 147, hallȝhe 69, laþe 31, 66, 126, cwike 15. Adjectives used as nouns are not inflected. mycel in the strong declension is mikell, s. d. f. 131, s. a. f. 93, s. a. neut. 61, in the weak, miccle s. d. f. 33 (myclan), s. a. neut. 120 (mycle). āgen gives aȝhenn 3, 54 without inflection. OE. ān is an n. m. 114, a 172, aness g. m. 170, an d. f. 2, a. m. 49, a. f. 3. Comparatives are bettre, mare 145, lasse 39; superlative, mast 169.
The personal pronouns are uss, tu, after t, 34, þe. The pronoun of the third person is s. n. he m. 3, ȝho f. 2, itt neut. 28 (with asse mf.); d. himm m. 17, 23; a. 2, itt neut. 29 (with sæm m.); pl. n. þeȝȝ 130, teȝȝ, after t, 52; d. a. þeȝȝm. Reflexives are himm 10, 173, þe sellfenn 44, 45, himm sellfen 19, 35: definitive, himm sellf 53: possessives, ure 4; hiss, as general form for the singular, 1, 3, 16, 34, 47, 54, but hise g. m. 155; pl. a. hise 22; here 50, heore 56, teȝȝre, after t, 32. The definite article is þe, te, after t, 25, 126: þatt (ꝥ), tatt, after t, is demonstrative adjective 13 or demonstrative pronoun 26; its plural is þa adj. 56 and pron. 22. The compound demonstrative is s. þiss 6, pl. þise. The relative is þatt, tatt, after t, 13, 27; þatt 30, 36, = in, on which, þurrh whatt 137, 144, by that by which. Interrogative is whillc 152 (hwelc); its correlative is swillke pl. a. 69: ilca is illke s. n. 13, 152, a. 97, 118. Indefinites are mann 29, 36, 38, 169; whase 154, whas 90, whoso; illkess 161, every; iwhillc 134, 161; aniȝ pl. g. 157; all s. n. neut. 30, d. neut. 64, 94, a. m. 32, f. 9, neut. 14, but alle s. d. f. 6; pl. alle n. 128, alre g. 169, alle 64, 71, all 122, alle d. 172, a. 5, 9, 22: all 168 is apparently s. n. = everyone.
Infinitives end in -enn, except sen 40, fon 36: of the second weak conjugation are follȝhenn 107, forhoȝhenn 149, lofenn 110, lokenn 156, makenn 5, pinenn 36, ræfenn 89, sammnenn 48, tacnenn 47, þankenn 120. The dat. inf. is not inflected, to berenn 29, tunnderrstanndenn 109, to sen 116, forr to kiþenn 92, for . . . to makenn 112. Presents are s. 3. beldeþþ 79, bitacneþþ 100, and nineteen others; contracted, birrþ 3, 44, seþ 84, stannt 158; pl. cumenn 70, haldenn 22, lufenn 23, stanndenn 117, waken 66, wiþþrenn 150: subjunctive s. 3. gife 174, seo 91. Past of Strong Verbs: I a. s. 3. laȝȝ 16: I b. s. 3. comm 26, 30, 55: I c. s. 3. wand 2, warrþ 3, 20, 42; pl. 3. sungenn 131: IV. s. 3. shop 9, toc 60, 82; pl. 3. unnderrstodenn 135, wokenn 46, 56 (form from wacan, meaning from wacian): V. s. 3. let 10. Participles past: I a. ȝifenn 17: I b. borenn 1, 97, cumenn 92, utnumen 53: I c. wundenn 7, wurrþenn 33, 48: IV. V. waxenn 138: V. forrdredd 88, forrdredde adj. pl. 59, 83, offdredde 74. Past of Weak Verbs: s. 3. leȝȝde 2, seȝȝde 92. Participles past: bitacnedd 81, ekedd 129, leȝȝd 13, sett 68, 146. Minor Groups: witenn inf. 3, witt 2 s. imp. 34, wisste pt. s. 83, wisstenn pt. pl. 128, 139; shall pr. s. 134, shollde pt. s. 47, 94, shollden pt. pl. 50, 96; muȝhenn inf. 142, maȝȝ pr. s. 40, 152, 171, muȝhenn pr. pl. subj. 80, mihhte pt. s. 36, 137; ben inf. 7, iss pr. s. 63, 151 (apparently with pl. nominative), niss 91, sinndenn pr. pl. 74, 169, be pr. s. subj. 28, si 3 s. imp. 132, wass pt. s. 1, wærenn pt. pl. 58, 76, 127, wære pt. s. subj. 17, 138, 172; wile pr. s. 88, wollde pt. s. 5; to don dat. inf. 32, doþ pr. s. 29, 109, missdoþ 157, don pp. 61, 118.
[Vocabulary:] Scandinavian are afell 28, aȝȝ 44, baþe 10, fra 67, gætenn 52, griþþ 133, laȝhenn 44, lahȝhre 43, mec 85, occ 117, sahht(nesse) 140, skerrenn 88, skill (læs) 27, summ 27, takenn 40, till 49, (inn)till 18, þeȝȝ 74, þeȝȝre 32, þohh 28, usell 4, usell(dom) 24, and the suffix in (modiȝ)leȝȝc, (gredit)leȝȝc 167; possibly also bandess 10, come 148, deȝeþþ 41. French is gluter(nesse) 167; long i in Crist shows new borrowing from French.
[Dialect:] East Midland bordering on the North; a mixed dialect, which possibly accounts for the wavering in the representation of eo, ēo. The large Scandinavian element in the vocabulary and the absence of u in final syllables (372/34) point to the East; the representation of ā + w, the development of c, g, and perhaps the uniform appearance of ā as a in this thirteenth-century text, show Northern influence. Lambertz has noted so many correspondences between the phonology of Orm and that of the Rushworth gloss on the Gospel of S. Matthew as to make it probable that they belong to the same dialectal area. The Northern border of Lincolnshire was most probably the place where the Ormulum was written.
[Metre:] For the scheme of the Septenarius see [p. 327]. Orm’s verse is monotonously regular; every line has its fifteen syllables exactly counted out and ends in x́ x; the caesura comes after the eighth syllable; the rhythm is iambic without substitution. For the sake of this uniformity he does violence to the natural accent in Niþþrédd 35, Bisscópess 51, Enngléss 69, sahhtnésse 140, drihhtíness 171, though Schipper regards such cases as examples of ‘hovering accent,’ wherein the stress is distributed equally over the two syllables having the word-accent and the verse-accent,—a spondee rather than an iamb. Elision takes place regularly before an initial vowel or h, sonẹ, leȝȝdẹ 2, vnnornẹ, wrecchẹ 4, heffnẹ 12, mihhtẹ 36, wolldẹ 54, wilẹ 88, seȝȝdẹ 94, whasẹ 154, &c. Sometimes e is not written, as in whas 90; crasis is found elsewhere in he̋t (= he itt), ȝhőt (= ȝho itt), þűtt (= þu itt), and similar combinations.
[Introduction:] The author of the Ormulum speaks of himself under two names in ‘Þiss boc iss nemmnedd Orrmulum Forrþi þatt Orrm itt wrohhte,’ Preface 1, 2, and ‘Icc wass þær þær I crisstnedd wass Orrmin bi name nemmnedd,’ Dedication 323, 4. The former was a fairly common name in the Scandinavian districts of the North; in the latter, not found elsewhere, he has probably added, as befitting the ritual occasion, the Latin termination īn from īnus, as in Awwstin (= Augustinus). In the same way, as Bradley suggests, he has taken the termination of Ormulum from Speculum, as often occurring in titles of devotional books, like Speculum Laicorum, Conscientiae, Sanctorale. He tells us that he wrote at the request of his brother Walter, who was, like himself, an Augustinian Canon; his purpose was to paraphrase and expound, for the benefit of unlearned English folk, the Gospels of the Mass throughout the year. His exposition is drawn for the most part from S. Bede, and particularly from his sermons and commentaries, and to a small extent from S. Gregory the Great. Traces of his acquaintance with S. Isidore and Josephus, through Hegesippus, have been found by Sarrazin.
Nothing further is known of Orm, but Bradley has made it probable that he was an inmate of Elsham Priory in North Lincolnshire (Dugdale, vi. 560). The contention of J. Wilson that he was identical with Orm, brother of Walter, Prior of Carlisle between 1150 and 1170, would be very attractive, if it were not for the philological difficulty, for the Ormulum is undoubtedly written in the Midland dialect, and must be dated about 1210.