[Manuscripts:] i. Bodleian 34, Oxford (B); on vellum, 165 × 120 mm.; written in one hand throughout about 1210 A.D. Its contents are S. Katherine f. 1 r; S. Margaret f. 18 r; S. Juliana f. 36 v (see p. 139); Hali Meidenhad f. 52 v; Sawles Warde f. 72 r (old foliation f. 76 r). It has lost two leaves after f. 80, which is very faint and defective. Entries in fourteenth-century hands connect it with Ledbury, Godstow, and Magna Coworne (Much Cowarne) in Herefordshire. The text is printed from this manuscript up to its end at 127/4.
The writing is sometimes difficult to decipher; the letters are often crowded and hesitating, a, e, o are sometimes hard to distinguish. Doubts are permissible in the following cases, hwen or hwon 118/24, ihaten or ihoten 37, hondon or honden 51; in sent 55, the last letter wavers between t and d; in ȝemelese 56, ȝ appears to have been corrected out of g; after mei 60, there is a half-formed c; under the second o of preoouin 72, there is what looks like a casual pen mark, not a dot of erasure; in seoueuald 287, d is corrected out of t, or the reverse.
ii. Royal 17 A 27, British Museum (R); on vellum, 160 × 117 mm.; early thirteenth century. Has all the pieces in B except Hali Meidenhad, with the addition of an incomplete copy of the Oreisun of Seinte Marie (printed in OEH i., p. 305). This manuscript supplies the end here from 127/4.
iii. Cotton Titus D 18, British Museum (T). See [p. 355].
[Editions:] Morris, R., OEH i. 244-267 (with translation); Specimens, 87-95 (part only); Kluge, F., ME. Lesebuch, 8-15; Wagner, W., Kritische Textausgabe . . . mit Einleitung, Anmerkungen und Glossar, Bonn, 1908.
[Literature:] Bartels, L. (see [p. 450/23]); Einenkel, E., Ueber die Verfasser einiger neuangelsächsischer Schriften, Leipzig, 1881, continued in Anglia, v. 91; Konrath, M., ES xii. 459; Stodte, H., Ueber die Sprache und Heimat der ‘Katherine-Gruppe,’ Göttingen, 1896; Vollhardt, W. (see [p. 269/19]); Williams, Irene F., Anglia, xxix. 413.
[Sources:] SW is a free expansion of chapters xiii, xiv and xv of the fourth book of the treatise, De Anima, ascribed to Hugh of S. Victor (Rouen ed., 1648, vol. ii. pp. 207-9). The imaginative detail is mostly due to the English author: contrast, ‘Et qui veniunt cum illa?’ Memoria: ‘Mille daemones ferentes secum libros grandes et uncos ferreos et igneas catenas’ of the original with its equivalent 119/68-75. The gruesome picture of 119/86-121/140 is mainly derived from the Visions literature.
[Phonology:] (1) of B. The following should be compared with the account of the MS. A of the Ancrene Wisse on [pp. 357-62]; explanations of abnormal forms offered there are not repeated here. Oral a is a, habben 41, makid 39; a before nasals and lengthening groups is o, from 25, lonc 58, fondin 224, inȝonge 32; þen, þenne, hwen, hwenne are the usual forms, but þeonne 138 by analogy of heonne: and is ant 9, man indefinite is me 45, possibly mon 25. æ is mostly e, ed 98, gledd 208, but ea in feader 116 (4 times), forbearneð 103 (forbærnan), glead 201 (3), gleadschipes 306, 307, leatere 103, nease 96, 112 (næs-), reaðliche 21, smeale 70, wearliche 4, weattres 100, and a in blac 58, 110, war 195, 332, warliche 39, 178, warre 142, warschipes 42 &c., and habbe 61, 112, 220. e is e, bereð 70, herien 320, spekeð 8; before lengthening groups, ende 106, engles 239, but rikenin 86, stude 46 (3), hwuch 6 &c., swuch 93 (4). Umlaut e is ea in beast 332 (but best 64), formealte 104 (Anglian mæltan), smeal 275, spealie 303: from *swolgian descend forswolheð 91, forswolhe 152. i is regularly i, blisse 136, ȝimmes 245, but wiit 200; before lengthening groups, binden 71, bringe 113, but u in wule 42 (7), wulleð 289: in welcume 227, an early instance of this spelling, the adverb wel has been substituted for the original wil. o is o, bodi 323, bigotten 316; before lengthening groups, bold 129, word 73, but a in nalde 7, walde 6 (3), wrahtte 74 (descended from an older form with a): dehtren 202 is an umlaut plural: greot 93 for grot RT (grot, particle) is due to confusion with grēot, grit. u is regularly u, cume 7, stunde 207, tungen 114, once o in comme 60, and i in kimeð 69, 138. y is u, arudden 120 (*āryddan), brune 83, ȝuldene 170, sunderlepes 280; mycel is muchel 11, muche 105.
ā is a, ban 131, ouergað 270; before two consonants, gast 323, tadden 95, but e through loss of stress in se 17 &c., (hwam) se 276, (hwider) se 275, ase 91, beside stressed swa 120 &c., alswa 230, and u in wumme 133: ohwider 25 is probably influenced by nohwider (nō): ea in easkeð 75, 215, easkest 68 comes from a form with ǣ. ǣ1 is ea (33 times), deale 105, ear 44, ȝeað 151, leasten 108, but e in flesch 99 (5), lest 54, lesten 178, sumdel 137, 284, þen 158, 212, mostly before two consonants. ǣnig is ei 42 (4), but eni 113; ǣlc is euch 16 &c. ǣ2 is e (45 times), bere 23, dede 19, dreden 166 (5), ferliche 67 (3), þer 27, 150, were 124 (9), and eo in leote 40; ea appears only in deadbote 75, fearlac 62, heale 242, ileanett 35, 202, offearen 56 (4), reades 296, ?readien 81, reade 142, readeð 177, þear 246, 331. ē is e; ī, i, but u in bluðeliche 80 (*blȳþe); ō is o, but eo in iseoð 229 (beside soð 75, 179, 293, isoðet 257); ū is u without exception; ȳ is u, cuðen 241, fure 71; before two consonants, lutlin 327, but stele 114 represents the earlier stǣli, similarly the derivative istelet 126.
ea before r + cons. is a in igarket 339, ȝarowe 260, swarte 70, 89, and before lengthening groups, hardi 56, inwarde 72, inwardliche 247, towart 81 (4), warde 1 (3), wardi 141, warneð 34, warne 155, warni 42, warnin 63, 140, unwarnede 157, mostly after w, but ea in heard 116 (7), ofearneð 135, as well as hearm 117, hearmin 290, and e in þerf 171. The i-umlaut is e, derne 296, ferd 151. ea before l + cons. is regularly a, al 12 &c., fallinde 178, forwalleð 104; before lengthening groups, bald 183, bihalde 40, bihalden 57 (5), calde 104, halden 46 &c., half 143 (4), talde 114, but ea in wealdent 226, eo in feole 54. eo before r + cons. is generally eo, feor 40, heorte 163, steorren 267, and before lengthening groups, eorðe 84, ȝeorne 201, but e in derueð 90, 103 (possibly representing dierfan), hercneð 218, werc 74, werkes 64, and o in dorc 130 with accent shifting. To the wur group belong iwurðen 26, iwurden 298, iwurðeð 93, 148; wyr words are deorewurðe 203, wurse 102, 105, wursi 164, wursin 328, wurð 156, 181, 194, wurðe 40: warpe 43 is Scandinavian; istirret 245 a ME. formation. eo before l + cons. is seen in seolf 27 &c. ea, the u- and å-umlaut of a, is seen in eawles 126, gleadeð 310, gleadien 223, 270, gleadunge 283 (4), heatel 128, heateð 109, meaðen 99, neauele 98, and analogically in feareð 18, igleadet 214, heatieð 111, but it is wanting in bale 93, 129, care 150, carien 162, 166, cwakie 131, cwakien 325, waker 53, 57, 142 (Vesp. Ps. wæc(c)er), wakien 7 (Angl. wæcian, Bülbring, § 231). eo, u-umlaut of e, is represented in heouene 146 (3), heouenliche 243, but wordes 251, world 169 (7), worldlich 170 after w. eo, å-umlaut of e, is seen in abeoren 125, breoken 8, 28, freoteð 96, speoken 61, feole 306, weole 161, weoleful 245; eo, the u- and å-umlaut of i, in cleopeð 38, icleopet 36, hweonene 60, 65, neomen 317, neome 328, neomeð 311, seoðen 213, seoueðe 284, seouenfald 282, 287, þeose 97, unweotenesse 179, and by analogy, neome 147, bineome 11, but hare 18 (3), suster 43, 207. ea after palatals is a, schal 21 &c., schadewe 148, 231, schape 122, but e in schekeð 132 (i-umlaut), eo before nasal, scheome 117. ie after ġ is e, forȝet 25, 167, ȝef 27, ȝeueð 87, 164, ȝelden 301, ȝeldeð 213, ȝelpeð 188. ȝef is ȝef 6, 14, gef 12. ie after č is e, chele 101; after sć, i in schilde 233 (scildan), e in scheld 159. eo after sć is u, schulen 178, 224, 320, schulde 158 (R1 has scylde subj.), schunien 177. eom is am 62; heom, ham 45, 87.