English is a weird language. Many linguists would agree with this statement. Compared to languages such as Spanish and Italian, English has tons of grammatical quirks, exceptional conditions, and flat out weird words, such as the classic "antidisestablishmentarianism." English was not always like this, however, and evolved over around a thousand years from a nearly unrecognizable language. Currently, our oldest surviving document in the English language dates back over 1,000 years, to the 10th century. The document, a letter to a man named Edward the Elder, sits in the Canterbury Cathedral, with a surprisingly ironic label from a few hundred years later ("Kingdoms").
 |
| Image: British Library |
Dubbed the "Fonthill Letter," this correspondence was written around 920 C.E., to the king of the Anglo-Saxons, Edward the Elder. Though the author is not explicitly stated in the text, scholars have widely accepted that Ordlaf, ealdorman of Wiltshire, originally wrote the document. Its contents tell the story of a lawsuit brought against Helmstan by Æthelhelm Higa, over a plot of 5 hides of land-- roughly around 600 acres. In the suit, Æthelhelm Higa demanded ownership of the land after Helstan was charged with theft, but Helmstan was able to uphold his ownership of the land, with the assistance of Ordlaf (Smith). A few years later, after the land had been transferred to the bishop of Winchester, Æthelhelm Higa renewed the lawsuit. This letter was used by Ordlaf as proof of ownership of the land. Thankfully, the letter served its purpose well, and Æthelhelm Higa withdrew from the lawsuit (Gretsch).
While the contents of this letter may not be the most groundbreaking information known to man, the letter stands tall as one of the most important documents in history, due to its status as the oldest surviving English letter. At least, that's how we would see it. In the 12th century, however, a clerk in Canterbury would come to disagree. At the time, letters were considered practical documents, whose purpose and contents were more important than the actual paper upon which they were written. For this reason, original copies of letters often did not make it to their destination. Such appears to be the fate of the Fonthill Letter, which was later labeled as an "epistola inutilis," or "useless letter" ("Useless").
References:
“Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms: a Once-in-a-Generation Exhibition.” Medieval Manuscripts Blog, 18 Oct. 2018, https://blogs.bl.uk/digitisedmanuscripts/2018/10/anglo-saxon-kingdoms-a-once-in-a-generation-exhibition.html.
Gretsch, Mechthild. “The Language of the ‘Fonthill Letter.’” Anglo-Saxon England, vol. 23, 1994, pp. 57–102., doi:10.1017/S026367510000449X.
Smith, Scott Thompson. “Of Kings and Cattle Thieves: The Rhetorical Work of the Fonthill Letter.” The Journal of English and Germanic Philology, vol. 106, no. 4, 2007, pp. 447–467. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/27712688.
“A Useless Letter?” Medieval Manuscripts Blog, 12 Dec. 2018, https://blogs.bl.uk/digitisedmanuscripts/2018/12/a-useless-letter.html.
It is interesting to think that the English language became more difficult as time went on instead of easier. Sort of an ironic fact.
ReplyDeleteAs someone who is very interested in literature, I find this document to be a fascinating link to our written language. It makes perfect sense, at least to me, that the development of the English language would become more convoluted with time. The more people that speak/write it, the more things are added thus resulting in a less consistent structure.
ReplyDeleteIt is quite interesting to think that one of the oldest surving documents in English was a letter used to prove ownership of a piece of land. This document in some ways shows the importance of writng to civilizations.
ReplyDelete