The Professor as scholar

[Tirned Tinnu]

TO add to your conversation on this topic:

I have been an active medievalist for 20 years, During that time I have taken several medieval literature courses as well as historical ones too.
I recently was stumped by a word made popular by Tolkien, of which I had occasion to look up in my Middle English Dictionary. (It's very hard to find these! I was lucky to stumble onto one in my travels.)
It stated that the word came from a work called "The Ancrene Wisse". Tolkien liked this paper because it was full of words to research and use. He translated it, and published several papers on his findings. These have led to a deeper understanding of the construct and mutation of Olde English into Modern English.
Here's an example of what he translated: (See if you can understand it!)

ANCRENE WISSE
(AUTHOR'S PREFACE)
I þe Feaderes ant i þe Sunes ant i þe Hali Gastes nome her biginneð Ancrene Wisse.
Recti diligunt te (In Canticis, sponsa ad sponsum). Est rectum grammaticum, rectum geometricum, rectum theologicum. Et sunt differencie totidem regularum. De recto theologico sermo nobis est, cuius regule due sunt: una circa cordis directionem. Altera versatur circa exteriorum rectificationem. Recti diligunt te.

Whoa. Now try this: (The translation is below it.)

Al that ich habbe iseid of flesches pinsunge: nis nawt for ow mine leoue sustren. the otherhwile tholieth mare then ich walde. Ah is for sum that schal rede this inohreathe: the grapeth hire to softe. (fol. 102b 13-16)
(All that I have said of the mortification of the flesh is not meant for you, my dear sisters, who sometimes suffer more than I would like; but it is for anyone who handles herself too gently who reads this willingly enough. [187])

It reads rather like the Cantebury Tales, with more German intertwined. It is a 13th Century manuscript written by a man, for the use of women of authority. (Women in religious/pious/mystical hermitage.)Very, very interesting, from not only a linguistical but also a historical standpoint.

Here's what he did as a scholar:
From 1918-20 he was an assistant on the Oxford English Dictionary. In 1920, he became Reader in English language at Leeds University, where he later held the Chair from 1924-5. In 1926 he returned to Oxford as Professor of Anglo-Saxon and later became Merton Professor of English (1945-59)

Can you imagine? I had correspondence with William Safire, the last editor of The OED. There is nothing more gratifying than discussing the origins of the word "floccinausinihilipilification" with a man of his education! I cannot imagine how joyous I would be, looking over the shoulder of JRR on a sunny afternoon in his study.

Next:
Tolkien made his reputation as a Middle English scholar in the 1920s with A Middle English Vocabulary(1922) and Sir Gawain and The Green Knight (1925). Among his later works was the 1936 lecture, later published, Beowulf: The Monsters and The Critics.

I highly suggest his translation Sir Gawaine as a basis for learning Middle English. Please remember to get a copy of the untranslated version to study from, and a good Middle English Dictionary (If you can find Tolkien's work in a used bookstore you will be greatly rewarded.)
A study of The Cantebury Tales will yield new understanding of Middle English. I suggest that you enroll in a course on it. (Sorry, this had already been done over and over. Tolkien did not retranslate it.)

Finally:
I recommend that calligraphy be studied in depth; you must learn the symbols for letters that were used in Medieval writings. (This is mirrored in the Tenguar, Tolkien's written form of Elvish.)

Good luck! I hope that your journey into language is fruitful.