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Thank you again, Jim. That sounds good, too, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that it's in our library. Modern monographs not in English are often in short supply.
Sarina, thank you for the lovely reminiscence. I've never heard of fanites, but I found someone quoting the Opies on the subject:
“Fains or fainites: The usual term in London, and throughout southern England from Margate to Penzance — except for the ‘scribs’ and ‘screams’ of East Hampshire, and the ‘bars’ of Devon. Also prevails north of London as far as Olney, and Maids Moreton where ‘fains’ and fainites’ share currency with ‘kings’. Children are often uncertain whether the word begins with an f or a v, expostulating that they have never before been asked to spell it. Variations include: ‘fennits’ (particularly in Kent), ‘fannies’ (Laverstock), ‘fainies’ (Maryon Park), ‘fainsies’ (Taunton), ‘fans’ (Gillingham), ‘fails’ (Poole), ‘faylines’ (Torquay), ‘vainlights’ (Peckham), ‘vainyards’ (Lancing).
‘Fains’ appears to be the earliest form. ‘Fains or fain it — A term demanding a “truce” during the progress of any game, which is always granted by the opposing party’ — is recorded in Notes and Queries, 4th ser., vol. vi, 1870, p.415, and said to be in common use by London schoolboys. ‘Faints’ is not recorded until Barrère and Leland’s Dictionary of Slang, 1889; ‘fainits’ not until Farmer and Henley’s Slang, 1891. ‘Faynights’ is said by a correspondent to The Sunday Times, 25 November 1951, to have been in use about 1900. Professor J. R. R. Tolkien told us that both the terms ‘fains I’, I decline (p. 140), and the truce terms ‘fains’ or ‘fainites’, are survivals of medieval English, the basic expression being ‘fain I’. ‘This descends from fourteenth century feine, faine, “feign”, in a sense derived from Old French se feindre, “make excuses, hang back, back out, especially of battle”.’ He noted that the word fen, ‘ban, bar’ (p. 140) is probably derived fromfend, shortened form of defend, since defend was used in the French sense forbid from about A.D. 1300 to the time of Milton. ‘The formula fain I‘, he added, ‘seems to throw light on a line in Chaucer which no editor so far has thought worthy of a note, though its transitive use of feynehas no exact parallel. In the Clerk’s Tale, 529, a servant says “that lordes heestes mowe nat been yfeyned”, and seems to mean that “lords’ orders cannot be treated with a ‘fain I’ (I decline), but must be obeyed”.'”
The Wikipedia article on truce terms, also drawing heavily on the Opies' work, says that crossed fingers often reinforce the truce, which makes sense but was also unknown to me.
Barley is another of these terms, and it shows up near
the beginning of Sir Gawain when the Green Knight
is setting up the rules of his game. He'll let a knight hit him
with an axe, he proclaims, "Ellez þou wyl diȝt me þe dom to dele
hym an oþer / barlay" "provided you permit me to give him another
/ in my turn" (295-6). I've followed the editors
(Tolkien/Gordon/Davis) in making barlay
turn-claiming rather than truce-claiming. Additionally, the word
is the "bob" line connecting the alliterative lines to the rhyming
"wheel," and so, I'd argue, could be read as an interjection.
All that's interesting enough, but my question is about the
illustration (it's on the truce-term Wikipedia page or in
higher definition at the University of Calgary). Does the
illustration of Gawain claiming the right to take on the green
knight show him with crossed fingers? He's upper left in red with
an axe and a raised hand, opposite Arthur and co. It looks to me
like his index finger is hiding a bit behind his middle finger,
but it could be my wishful thinking. They look more obviously
crossed in this
infrared version from Murray
McGillivray and Christina Duffy, "New Light on the Sir
Gawain and the Green Knight Manuscript: Multispectral
Imaging and the Cotton Nero A.x. Illustrations (2017)." [no
pay-walls on any of these links]
All best,
Steve
[log in to unmask]">medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture Hi Stephen, Hello, fellow lurker. I love your query. I have no academic information for you but, following on from what Roberto Labanti and Jane Wickenden said about children’s crossed fingers, I can offer a school memory, for what it’s worth. As a schoolgirl in Acton, West London, I remember one of those chasing ‘tag, you’re it’ games I used to play when I was ten or so, nearly forty years ago (i.e. it must be a now-defunct historical peculiarity) – in our versions, the playground was an open free-for-all, but there were designated ‘safe’ places, e.g. steps to school buildings, a particular door, etc. which were suitable distances apart. I can’t offer anything on the crossed fingers, per se, but in terms of accompaniments, our agreed truce word was in one school, something that sounded like ‘faynees’, although the spelling is possibly closer to ‘fanies’; in another school I encountered ‘fanites’. Clearly related, both these words always sounded to me like hugely corrupted Latin exclamations, which might – just might – yield something in themselves in relation to crossing fingers for magic(k)al protection. My Latin doesn’t stretch further than deducing basic connections or declining mensa (badly), so I can’t work this one out! All the best, Sarina Elsdon (more musicological-type person) ********************************************************************** To join the list, send the message: subscribe medieval-religion YOUR NAME to: [log in to unmask] To send a message to the list, address it to: [log in to unmask] To leave the list, send the message: unsubscribe medieval-religion to: [log in to unmask] In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to: [log in to unmask] For further information, visit our web site: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/medieval-religion
