The Ormulum, the Bestiary, and Genesis and Exodus have some few other points of agreement which will be found noticed in the Grammatical Details and Glossary. There are, however, grammatical forms in the latter works which do not present themselves in the former, and which, in my opinion, seem to indicate a more Southern origin. (See Preface to O.E. Homilies, 2nd Series.)
I. Plurals in n.
I do not recollect any examples of plurals in n in the Ormulum, except ehne, eyes; in this poem we have colen, coals; deden, deeds; fon, foes; siðen, sides; son, shoes; steden, places; sunen, sons; tren, trees; teten, teats; wunen, laws, abilities, etc. (see p. xxii.)
II. The pronoun is (es) = them.[[22]] In the fourteenth century we only find this form is (hise) in pure Southern writers.[[23]]
"Diep he iſ dalf under an ooc."[[24]]—(Gen. and Ex., l. 1873, p. 54.)
"For ſalamon findin iſ ſal."[[25]]—(Ibid., l. 1877, p. 54.)
"He toc iſ."[[26]]—(Ibid., l. 2654, p. 76.)
| "Alle hise fet steppes | ðer he steppeð, |
| After him he filleð, | Oðer dust oðer deu, |
| Drageð dust wið his stert | ðat he ne cunne is finden."[[27]] |
| (O.E. Miscell., p. 1.) |
Our author, however, employs this curious pronoun in a way quite peculiar to himself, for he constantly joins it to a pronoun or a verb,[[28]] and the compound was at first rather perplexing. Hes = he + is, he, them; wes = we + is, we, them;[[29]] caldes, called them; dedis, did (placed) them; settes, set them; wroutis, wrought them, etc.
"Alle hes hadde wið migte bi-geten."[[30]]—(Gen. and Ex., l. [911], p. 26.)