Fader uren thu artli in heofnum, sic gehalgud noma thin : to cymeth ric thin ; -it- will., thin siuels inlieofne & in eortlio;
hlaf ne ol'i i Ai-tlir scl us toihog: <t for-cl'us sevlda usnu
|" ii-uin : am! in- inlttd usih in cos- tunge oh gefrigusich from yfle.
The Rush/worth Gloss, having the Anglo-Saxon word placed over the corresponding Latin, was probably executed about the same period, by Owun, aided by Fabxbn, a priest at Harewood. About this time, Ai.i bed the Great Bet at the head of his laws an An- glo-Saxon translation of the Ten Commandments, with so. h of the Mosaic injunctions fr< m the .\xi, xxii, and xxiii chapters of Exodus as were most to his purpose.
He is also said to have entered upon a translation of the Psalms, which he did not live to finish. Next in order come some fragments of an imperfect interlinary version of the Book of Proverbs. Similar glosses were made on the Psalter; also on the Canticles of the Church, the Lord's Prayer, and other portions of Scrip- ture. In the latter part of the tenth century, the monk jElfric translated — omitting some parts, and greatly abridging others — the Pentateuch, Joshua, Judges, a portion of the Books of Kings, Esther, Job, Judith, and the Maccabees. He also drew up, in An- glo-Saxon, a brief account of the books of the Old and New Testaments ; and, by the texts and quotations used in his homilies, he contributed greatly to the knowledge of the Scriptures. A third Anglo-Saxon version of the four Evangelists, of which there are two copies, and a few copies of the Psalms, appear to have been executed at a later period, probably but a little before the time of the Norman Conquest. With these, the series of Anglo-Saxon translations of parts of Scrip- ture would seem to end ; though it is not improbable that other portions of Scripture were translated which have not come down to us.
Before the middle of the eleventh century the lan- guage of Caedmon and Bede had undergone important changes, probably through the influence of Edward the Confessor and his Norman associates, among whom he had been educated. At the period of the Conquest, A.D. 10G6, the Norman began rapidly to revolutionize the old Anglo-Saxon language. Soon after this period a version of the Gospels appears to have been made, of which there are three copies, and it is difficult to determine whether they are to be assigned to the An- glo-Saxon or Anglo-Norman class of literary remains. Before the year 1200 the Anglo-Normans had transla- ted into their own dialect, in prose, the Psalter and Canticles of the Church ; and towards the middle of the following century appear to have possessed not only a history of the Old Testament in verse, as far as the end of the books of Kings, but also, it is supposed, a prose version of a great part of the Bible. Never- theless, the Anglo-Saxon versions and glosses of the Gospels, and other portions of Scripture, remained long after in partial use. See Anglo-Saxon Versions.
II. Early English Translations. — The earliest essays of Biblical translation assumed in English, as in most other languages, a poetical form. The Ormulum, writ- ten perhaps at the commencement of the thirteenth cen- tm-y, is a paraphrase in verse of the narrative of the Gospels and Acts of the Apostles. The Biblical poem called " Soulhele" was probably written about the same period. To a later period of the same century belongs the poem reciting the principal events in the books of Genesis and Exodus. Apparentty coeval with this is the metrical version, from the Latin, of the whole book of Psalms. In some manuscripts a ver- sion is found partly similar, but with amendments and revisions, probably the partial adaptation of the same version to a more modern diction and orthography; The 100th Psalm is here given as a specimen of this ancient English version :
Mirthea to f.ocl nl erthe that es
Serves b> louerd in faines.
In go yhe ai in his siht,
In gladness that is so hi-iht.
Whites that louerd god is he thus,
He us made and our self noht r.s,
His folke and shep of his fode:
In gos his yhates that are gode;
In schrifl his worches belive,
In ympnes to him yhe schrive.
Heryhea his name for louerde is hem'e.
In all his inerci do in strende and strende.
The earliest version in English prose of any entire book of Scripture is the book of Psalms, translated by William db Schorham, vicar of Chart Sutton, in Kent. The translation is generally faithful and liter- al. The following is a specimen of this version — Ps. xxiii, 1-G :
AUTHORIZED VERSION 555 AUTHORIZED VERSION
Our Lord gouerneth me and nothyng shal defailen to me ; in the stede of pasture he sett me ther. lie norissed me vp water fyllvnge ; he turned my soule fram the fende. lie lad j me vp the" bristiyets of riytfulnes ; for his name. For yif that icli banc uon amiddes of the shadowe of deth. Y shal nouyt douten inels, for thou art wyth me. Thy disciplinn and tliyn amendyng; conforted me. Thou madeat radi grace in my sight; oyayns liem that trublen me. Thou makest fatt myn heued wyth mercy ; and my drynke makand drunken ys ful clere. And thy merci slial folwen me ; alle daies of mi lif. And that ich woonne iu the hous of our Lord ; in lengthe of daies.