A day late, but here's this week's MLT anyway:
The Old English name Wulfstan.
Over the past semester and a half, Wulfstan, the Archbishop of York, has become one of my greatest Anglo-Saxon interests, as I've researched his life, his writings, and his place in Anglo-Saxon history. In honor of him, I'd like to explore the roots of his name, a compound of the two OE words, wulf and stan.
Even for modern English speakers with no knowledge of language or OE, it isn't difficult to see that the OE word wulf (masc. noun) is the ancestor of the surviving modE cognate, wolf. The first part of Wulfstan's name is not surprisingly connected to the animal wolf, as Wulfstan himself signed his work with the Latin pseudonym/nickname Lupus. For example, his most famous homily is signed--and still titled and known as--"Sermo Lupi ad Anglos" ("Sermon of the Wolf to the English [Angles]"). In addition to the definition of "wolf," John Clark Hall notes that in the OE corpus, the word is also used to mean "wolfish person" and (in homiletic and ecclesiastical literature) "devil." In the OED, several common Indo-European and Germanic cognates are listed: Old Frisian, Middle/Mod Dutch, and Old High/Middle High/Mod German wolf; Old Saxon and Middle Low German wulf; Old Norse ulf, Swedish ulf, and Danish ulv; Gothic wulfs (probably derived from the unattested Old Teutonic form *wulfaz). In addition to these parallels, the OED also notes that some feminine formations exist in some Germanic languages--since the previously listed (and most forms) are masculine nouns--such as Old English wylf, Old High German wulpa (Middle High German wülpe), and Old Norse ylgr.
The OE stan (masc. noun; most commonly attested in the OE corpus as stān) is defined as the ModE cognate, stone or rock--as the OED notes, connected to OFris. stên, (WFris. stên, stien, NFris. stîn, stîæn), OS. stên (LG., Du. steen), OHG. (MHG., mod.G.) stein, ON. stein-n (Sw., Da. sten), Goth. stain-s from OTeut. *staino-z, cognate with Old Slavonic stêna (Russian stena), meaning wall.
With these two halves of the compound established, it's not difficult to see how they worked together, forming the meaning of Wulfstan's name as "Stone Wolf." Of course, the connotations of such a name could be multiple, including a (perhaps anachronistic) interpretation of the name as meaning a sly or cunning man of unwavering (even stubborn) nature. No matter how interpreted, the name is strongly Anglo-Saxon in its roots--as the name is common to other men of the period, attested in various OE texts--and carries a bold meaning.
Sources:
"Stone." Hall, John R. Clark, A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary. 4th Ed. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1962.
"Stone." The Oxford English Dictionary.
"Wulf." Hall, John R. Clark, A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary. 4th ed. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1962.
"Wolf." The Oxford English Dictionary.
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
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6 comments:
Interesting. I wonder if the 'stone' part has anything to do with the obsolete meaning, 'insensitive', and/or the colloquial 'extremely', as in 'stone butch' and 'stone dead'. So perhaps Wulfstan means, 'total wolf'. Just thinking aloud...
Nicola, interesting thoughts on the interpretation of the name. Like I said, there are myriad ways that it could be picked apart. Unfortunately, it's difficult to know the cultural connotations of how the Anglo-Saxons would have used the words and what meanings they might have carried--so virtually any interpretation could be considered.
Mine! My Archbishop! *cuddles her copy of the Institutes protectively*
Having said that, no matter how you pick apart the name, it always seems to fit his character, one way or another. Hoary ole bastard that he was.
@ Brandon: Unfortunate? Nah. I *love* the fact that it's difficult to know the cultural connotations/denotations, etc. I love nothing more than making stuff up.
@ highlyeccentric: He was very, ah, particular, wasn't he?
Modern Swedish maintains masculine and feminine forms of the canine portion of the Archbishop's name: Ulf and Ylva, respectively.
He is an interesting character. Did you post a summary of your paper on his work from last semester? Hope the revisions on that are coming along well.
HE, I think there's more than enough of Wulfstan to go around. If the amount of works written on him are any evidence, the rest of the Anglo-Saxonists out there seem to think so!
MLP, I never did post a summary of the work, mostly because I'm still working on it and pulling my conclusions together. I'm hoping to present it at a conference (I sent an abstract to a conference and I'm waiting to see if it gets in), and perhaps once I get it pulled together for a conference I'll post my thoughts.
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