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Orrm's handwriting in the Ormulum: Bodleian Library, MS. Junius 1, fol 3r.

Orrm, also known as Orrmin (fl. 1150s–80s), was an Augustinian canon from south Lincolnshire who wrote the Ormulum, a collection of verse homilies that is the oldest English autograph and one of the most significant records of Middle English.[1][2] His work is a successful example of homiletics translating Latin learning to balance the needs of his fellow canons, who likely spoke Anglo-Norman French, with those of lay English-speaking audiences.[3][4]

Name

Orrm names himself at the end of the work's dedication: Icc was þær þær i crisstnedd was Orrmin bi name nemmnedd (Ded. 323–24: 'Where I was christened, I was named Orrmin by name'). This name derives from Old Norse, meaning worm, serpent or dragon. With the suffix of "myn" for "man" (hence "Orrmin"), it was a common name throughout the Danelaw area of England.[5] At the start of the preface, the author identifies himself again, using a different spelling of his name: "Orrm". The metre dictated the choice between each of the two forms of the name.

The title of the collection, Ormulum, is modelled after the Latin word speculum ("mirror"),[2] so popular in the title of medieval Latin non-fiction works that the term speculum literature is used for the genre.

The Danish name is not unexpected, as the language of the Ormulum, an East Midlands dialect, is of the Danelaw.[6] It includes numerous Old Norse phrases (particularly doublets, where an English and Old Norse term are co-joined), but there are very few French influences on Orrm's language.[7]

Place and dates of activity

Bourne Abbey, where the Ormulum may have been composed.

According to the work's dedication, Orrm wrote the Ormulum at the behest of Brother Walter, who was his brother both affterr þe flæshess kinde (biologically, "after the flesh's kind") and as a fellow Augustinian canon.[2] With this information, and the evidence of the dialect of the text, it is possible to propose a place of origin with reasonable certainty.

Some scholars, from a suggestion by Henry Bradley, have regarded the likely origin as Elsham Priory in north Lincolnshire.[8] In the mid-1990s, it became widely accepted that Orrm wrote in the Bourne Abbey in Bourne, Lincolnshire.[9] Two additional pieces of evidence support this conjecture: firstly, Arrouaisian canons established the abbey in 1138, and secondly, the work includes dedicatory prayers to Peter and Paul, the patrons of Bourne Abbey.[10] The Arrouaisian rule was largely that of Augustine; its houses often are loosely referred to as Augustinian.[2]

Orrm's dates of activity are not known. From palaeographic evidence, Orrm may have begun the work as early as 1150 and worked on it until the 1180s.[10]

References

  1. ^ Johannesson, Nils-Lennart; Cooper, Andrew (2023). Ormulum. Early English text society. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-289043-6.
  2. ^ a b c d Jack, George (23 September 2004). "Orm [Ormin] (fl. c. 1175)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/20831. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  3. ^ McMullen, A. Joseph (3 April 2014). "Forr þeʒʒre sawle need: The Ormulum, vernacular theology and a tradition of translation in early England". English Studies. 95 (3): 256–277. doi:10.1080/0013838X.2014.897074. S2CID 162740411.
  4. ^ Dietrich, Robyn (31 December 2020). "Spellenn: Orm's act of faith". The English Languages: History, Diaspora, Culture. 6: 1–6. ISSN 1929-5855.
  5. ^ Uckelman, S.L (2021). "Orm". The Dictionary of Medieval Names from European Sources.
  6. ^ Méndez-Naya, Belén (20 December 2019). "The intensifier system of the Ormulum and the interplay of micro-level and macro-level contexts in linguistic change". In Bech, Kristin; Möhlig-Falke, Ruth (eds.). Grammar – Discourse – Context: Grammar and Usage in Language Variation and Change. Berlin: De Gruyter. pp. 93–124. doi:10.1515/9783110682564-004. ISBN 978-3-11-068256-4. S2CID 214397439.
  7. ^ Johannesson, Nils-Lennart (2004). "The etymology of 'Ríme' in the 'Ormulum'". Nordic Journal of English Studies. 3 (1): 61–74. doi:10.35360/njes.22.
  8. ^ Bradley, Henry (1906). "Where was the Ormulum written?". The Athenæum. 4099: 609.
  9. ^ Guzman, Mancho (December 2004). "Considering Orrmulum's exegetical discourse: Canon Orrmin's preaching and his audience". English Studies. 85 (6): 508–519. doi:10.1080/00138380412331339233. S2CID 161751167.
  10. ^ a b Parkes, M. B. (1983). "On the presumed date and possible origin of the manuscript of the Orrmulum". In Stanley, E. G.; Gray, Douglas (eds.). Five hundred years of words and sounds: A festschrift for Eric Dobson. Cambridge: D. S. Brewer. pp. 115–27. ISBN 0-85991-140-3.
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