At 7:27 AM -0800 12/20/10, Dean M. Estabrook wrote:
I have an ex student F.B. friend, who wants to know if the last line
of this Old English version means "deliver us from evil," or from
"Yule." Any experts?
Dean
What's "F.B."? Fullback?
But I would certainly trust the majority of modern English
translations, in which it is certainly "deliver us from evil." "Y"
often subsituted for "i" or "e," and "u" and "v" were still
considered the same letter as were "i" and "j." Not bad for a text
that had to make its way from Aramaic through Latin (and possibly
Greek as well) into the variety of modern and not-so-modern languages.
Although I'm a bit surprised that the church would have allowed a
vernacular translation in the 13th century (which I believe might be
Middle English rather than Old, which is basically German), since the
church reserved to itself the interpretation of scripture and
actively discouraged translations. That was the century of Eleanore
of Aquitane and King Henry II (two of whose sons became Kings and
several of whose daughters became Queens), and while the politics
were wide open, the hold of the church was definitely NOT!
It's also interesting to note that this version uses debts ("dettys")
rather than the opposing translation "trespasses." I've always
wondered where THAT difference in translations came from, since it's
a rather different meaning. And it's also missing the modern ending,
which makes me wonder when THAT was added. Linguistics and semantics
are fascinating subjects, which I have studied much too little.
This is a 13th century version. Oure Fader that art in heuene,
halewed be thi name. Thi kyngdom come to us. Thi wylle be don, as in
heuene, & in erthe. Oure eche dayes breed geue us to day. & forgeue
us oure dettys, as we forgeue oure dettourys. And ne lede us not in
temptacyon, but delyuere us of yuel. Amen.
John
--
John R. Howell, Assoc. Prof. of Music
Virginia Tech Department of Music
College of Liberal Arts & Human Sciences
Blacksburg, Virginia, U.S.A. 24061-0240
Vox (540) 231-8411 Fax (540) 231-5034
(mailto:[email protected])
http://www.music.vt.edu/faculty/howell/howell.html
"We never play anything the same way once." Shelly Manne's definition
of jazz musicians.
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