From: "S.F.C. CHURCHILL" <[log in to unmask]>
Organization: University of Leeds
To: [log in to unmask]
Date sent: Tue, 15 Jul 1997 10:09:03 GMT0BST
Subject: Erkenwald
Priority: normal
Send reply to: [log in to unmask]
Hi all
I have had a thought, a notion even. It occurred to me last night
when I was burning the mid night oil that this saint's name may have
been changed in order to relieve the offended sensibilities of
fourteenth century theologians.
Let me explain. In a number of sources his name is spelt Eorconwald
which is definitely Frankish in origin, stemming from Eormenric,
whose ancestors often wanted to be identified with him by including
the Eor element in their names. For example: Eormenred, Eormenhilda
and Eormenburga. In later years when the Franks were perhaps regarded
as nasty barbarians this identification with the past amy not have
been acceptable so the eor element was changed to erk.
What do you think? Is this an idea worth pursuing or is it completely
off the wall?
Conway Churchill
University of Leeds
[log in to unmask]
I suspect it is off the wall, though the people you need to try it out on are
linguists. However, my impression (superficial and not backed up by information)
is that there was a big shift in how Old English names were written over the
late 11th-12th centuries (and more changes later). For example the first
syllable of Edward had switched from Ead- to Ed- long before the 14th c.
Probably people had totally forgotten that Eorcen- type names were Frankish
long before the Norman Conquest, though in the 7th c. of course they would have
been very conscious of the fact and the choice of Frankish names would have
been made deliberately at that time to stress political, cultural (and of
course family) links.
Julia Barrow
University of Nottingham
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