Tijdschrift voor Nederlandse Taal- en Letterkunde. Jaargang 55

[p. 305]

Bede's explanation of Wiltaburg

Dr. Schönfeld, in his admirable article Wiltenburg (Ts. LIV, p. 1 ff.), accepts the view that the words ‘id est Oppidum Uiltorum’ in Bede's Historia Ecclesiastica, V, 11, are an interpolation in the text¹⁾. This is, however, unlikely. The text of the Historia rests mainly on three MSS.²⁾, Cambridge Univ. Libr. Kk. V. 16 (M), Brit. Mus. Cott. Tib. A. XIV (B), and Brit. Mus. Cott. Tib C. II (C). M was written about 737³⁾, while script and orthography date B in the late eighth, or the early ninth century. Now, these two MSS. are copies of the same exemplar⁴⁾, and, when they agree, we can presume we have the text of their common original, which, owing to the early date of M, must have been but little removed from Bede's autograph, for the Historia was not finished till 731⁵⁾. Now, the suspected words occur in both these MSS. Bede also produced a second, slightly modified recension of the Historia⁶⁾, which is preserved in MS. C. That MS., to judge from its script⁷⁾, belongs to the latter half of the eighth century. It also contains the words in question. Accordingly, if the words are an interpolation, it must have occurred during the lifetime of Bede, and must have been accepted by Bede himself for inclusion in his second recension. Since the writer of the Anglo-Saxon version used this second recension in a

1) He refers to them (l.c., p. 4) as ‘een in de tekst geslopen kanttekening van een latere afschrijver’, and (p. 5) as an ‘interpolatie’. Later, however, he refers to them as ‘Beda's vergissing’ (p. 11).

2) Unfortunately, the very early Leningrad MS. has not yet been utilized by a criticial editor.

3) See A.H. Smith, Three Northumbrian Poems (London, 1933), p. 21.

4) See Plummer, Venerabilis Baedae Opera Historica (Oxford, 1896), I, p. XCII.

5) See Plummer, l.c., I, p. CLI.

6) See Plummer, l.c., I, p. XCVI, § 28.

7) See Pal. Soc., plate 141, and accompanying remarks.

[p. 306]

pure form¹⁾, there can be no doubt that the words stood in his MSS. The reason why he did not translate them is, not that he did not have them before him, as Dr. Schönfeld seems to suggest, but that to have done so would have produced the absurdity Wiltaburh, þaet is Wilta burh! The Namur MS. (N) of the Historia, which is written in a continental hand of the eighth century, also has the words, and this shows that they occurred in MSS. current on the continent in the eighth century. The omission of the words in a number of continental chronicles, which draw on Bede²⁾, is to be explained by the fact that their authors, very rightly, regarded them as pointless, since they had never heard of the Wilts. The fame afterwards acquired by the Slavonic Wilts caused later chroniclers to see a new meaning in Bede's words, and to construct a legend out of them in the way that Dr. Schönfeld has suggested.

From the above, it appears that, if the words are an interpolation, it was made during Bede's lifetime, and afterwards received his autority. It is, however, practically certain that they are not an interpolation, but an integral part of Bede's work, for such interpretations of Germanic place-names, no doubt intended to assist the Celtic readers, whom an eighth-century Northumbrian writer could reasonably expect, are a marked feature of Bede's style³⁾. I have noticed the following instances: Degsastán, id est Degsa lapis I, 34; Cerotaesei, id est Ceroti insula IV, 6; Selaeseu, quod dicitur Latine insula uituli marini IV, 13; Hreutford, id est uadum harundinis IV, 16; Inderauuda, id est In silua Derorum V, 2; Strenaeshalc, quod interpretatur sinus Fari III, 25. It may be noted that these explanatory notes are always wanting in the Anglo-Saxon translation⁴⁾, no doubt for the reason suggested above in the

1) See Plummer, l.c., I, p. CXXVIII, § 37.

2) Schönfeld, l.c., p. 4, notes 3-6.

3) This was pointed out to me by Prof. J.R.R. Tolkien.

4) See J. Schipper, König Alfreds Übersetzung von Bedas Kirchengeschichte (Leipzig, 1899), pp. 104, 383, 421, 427, 555. III, 25 is wanting in the Anglo-Saxon version

[p. 307]

case of id est oppidum Uiltorum. It, therefore, seems beyond doubt that the attempted etymology of Uiltaburg is the work of Bede himself. Since the first part of Uiltaburg is an Anglo-Saxon genitive plural in -a, it seems likely that Bede slightly altered the form of the name to suit his view of its meaning, making it conform with the type Cantwara-burg, etc. He did sometimes alter foreign names when he thought their sense obvious: in II, 20 he has Daegberhto (with Anglo-Saxon æ̆ from West Gmc. ă) as the name of a Frankish king, and all early MSS. except C have Daegberecto with Northumbrian svarabakti in the second element.

It is just possible that the equation of the first elements of *Ultra-iectum and Wilten- (Wulten-) burg mentioned by Dr. Schönfeld¹⁾ may have been already known in the eighth century, and may explain Uiltraburg, the form probably originally intended by N²⁾.

Oxford

a. campbell

1) Schönfeld, l.c. p. 6.

2) See Schönfeld, l.c., p. 2, note 1.