Elene, the mother of Emperor Constantine, is the central figure in the Old English poem entitled Elene by modern editors. The Emperor’s army following the sign of Christ’s Cross was successful against its opponents:
“Then the army of the brave was gladdened, they pursued the foreigners from morning till night. Javelin (and) spear flew, battle arrows. The troop was destroyed, the army of enemies. Few of the army of the Huns afterwards returned home.”
With regard to daroðæsc (line 140b), Krapp (134) notes that in the manuscript “daroð stands at the end of a line, æsc at the beginning of the following line”.Footnote1 The predicate flugon indicates a plural subject. Both daroð and æsc are masculine substantives meaning “javelin, spear”, neither can therefore “properly be the subject of flugon” (Gradon 32). Krapp’s commentary is quite similar: “A compound daroðæsc as subj. of flugon is questionable only because æsc is masc. and the plur. should be æscas” (Krapp 134).Footnote2 Various changes of the manuscript reading have been proposed. In Swaen’s suggested reading daroð [ond] æsc, the plural verb would be regular. Cook (7) emended daroð æsc to daroð[as]; see also Cook’s note (88). In the entry daroþæsc, Campbell (18) suggested reading “daroþas or daroþ, æsc”. The reading daroðæs is offered by Gradon (32),Footnote3 with further references to Zupitza, Holthausen, and Klaeber. With reference to the Elene passage, the Dictionary of Old English, s.v. daroð, notes “taken here as irreg. sp. daroðas in agreement with pl. vb.” An asyndetic sequence daroð æsc ‘javelin spear’ would not require any change in the manuscript reading, but this stylistic feature usually has the longer, more emphatic and often compounded word in second position.
In this context it is worth examining whether daroðæsc can represent the category of the so-called “dvandva” compounds. The Indic term dvandva, meaning “pair”, refers to a unity of two entities strictly belonging together: mother and father (parents), father and son are common pairs of this kind. Fritz (74) provides a succinct account of the history of this construction. As shown by the ancient instances provided by Sanskrit, in constructions of this type we expect the dual of the respective nouns.
Old English has special forms for the dual in the personal pronouns for first and second person: wit “we two” and git “ye two” (you two),Footnote4 but there are no special forms for the third person, nor do we encounter distinct dual forms in the verbal paradigms. Evidently, the dual was losing ground and being replaced by the plural. In the synchronic system of Old English nominal declension, however, some traces of the dual may be detected. Thus, we encounter the at first sight surprising phenomenon that in the adjectival paradigm the neuter of the plural is used when the respective subject is a pair of man and woman. The explanation for this lies in the fact that the dual of Germanic a-stem adjectives ends in *-ō and falls together with the feminine singular of nominal ō-stems. The regular reflex of Gmc. *ō is in Old English -u, which is lost after a long root syllable.Footnote5 A relevant example of this rule is offered by the following passage from the Old English Genesis. The passage and wit her baru standað (Genesis B, l. 811b) “and the two of us (Adam and Eve) stand here naked”Footnote6 offers the adjective bær “naked” in what appears to be neuter plural but, in fact, baru reflects the dual ending of Germanic. After a long syllable, -u dropped off, and we find worht “wrought” referring to Adam and Eve in the following lines: þær geworht stondað/Adam and Eue on eorðrice/mid welan bewunden (Genesis B, l. 418b–420a) “there stand wrought Adam and Eve on the earthly kingdom encircled with happiness’ (Genesis, l. 418b–420a). An example of the dual with loss of final -u may also be recognized in the form Scilling in the following passage from Widsith, l. 103-104: Đonne wit Scilling sciran reorde/for uncrum sigedryhtne song ahofan “then we two Scillings, namely I and Scilling, raised a song for our victorious lord”.
It is therefore admissible to interpret OE daroðæsc as a dvandva compound referring to “javelin (and) spear”. With a zero-ending, due to the loss of the final -u after a long syllable, daroðæsc is the regularly expected dual form. Old English lacks special conjugational forms for the dual, therefore the plural flugon is used. The manuscript reading at Elene, line 140b, can be defended, and no changes are required.
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Notes
1 Kemble (9) printed the half-line as daroðæsc flugon and translated “the ashen darts flew”.
2 Grein (112) gave the gender of daroðæsc “hasta fraxinea” as “m. (n.?)”, but neuter is quite improbable because æsc is consistently masculine.
3 OE daroðæs could be explained as a “late spelling” (Gradon) for daroðas.
4 The paradigmatic forms are discussed by Fulk (202–206), see also Brunner and Campbell.
5 In the context of the numeral for “2”, the dual forms in the nominal system are discussed in detail by Cowgill.
6 Old Saxon offers the corresponding dual form bara: uuit hier thus bara standat (Taeger, 241).
Works cited
- Brunner, Karl. Altenglische grammatik nach der angelsächsischen grammatik von eduard sievers. Max Niemeyer Verlag Tübingen, 1965.
- Campbell, A. Old english grammar. Clarendon Press Oxford, 1959.
- Campbell, A. An Anglo-Saxon dictionary based on the manuscript collections of joseph bosworth, enlarged addenda and corrigenda to the supplement by T. Northcote toller. Clarendon Press Oxford, 1972.
- Cook, Albert S. The old english elene, phoenix, and physiologus. New Haven Yale University Press, 1919.
- Cowgill, Warren. “PIE *Duṷo ‘2’ in Germanic and Celtic, and the Nom.-Acc. dual of Non-Neuter o-Stems.”Münchener Studien Zur Sprachwissenschaft, vol. 46, 1985, pp. 13–28.
- Fritz, Matthias. Der dual im indogermanischen. Genealogischer und typologischer vergleich einer grammatischen kategorie im wandel. Heidelberg Universitätsverlag Winter, 2011.
- Fulk, R. D. A grammar of old english. Part II: Morphology. Wiley Blackwell Chichester, 2011.
- Grein, C. W. M. Sprachschatz der angelsächsischen dichter. Unveränderter nachdruck der zweiten, unter mitwirkung von F. Holthausen und J. J. Köhler neu herausgegebenen auflage. Carl Winter Universitätsverlag Heidelberg, 1912.
- Holthausen, Ferdinand. Cynewulfs elene (kreuzauffindung) mit einleitung, glossar, anmerkungen und der lateinischen quelle. Carl Winter Universitätsverlag Heidelberg, 1905.
- Kemble, John M. The poetry of the codex vercellensis, with an english translation. Vol. II. Ælfric Society London, 1846.
- Klaeber, F. “Zu Altenglischen Dichtungen.”Archiv Für Das Studium Der Neueren Sprachen Und Literaturen, vol. 113, 1904, pp. 146–149.
- Krapp, G. P. The vercelli book. Columbian University Press, 1932.
- Swaen, A. E. H. “Notes on Cynewulf’s Elene.”Anglia, vol. 17, 1895, pp. 123–124.
- Taeger, Burkhard. Heliand und genesis, herausgegeben von otto behagel. 9th ed., Max Niemeyer Verlag Tübingen, 1984.
- Zupitza, Julius. Cynewulfs elene. Berlin: Weidmann, 1877.