Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 12.djvu/141

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as. xii. AUG. 21, 1915.] NOTES AND QUERIES.


133


LONDON. SATURDAY, AUGUST 21, 1915.


CONTENTS.-No. 295.

NOTES: Beowulf in High-Dutch Saga, 133 Webster Massinger Play, 134 "Trumbrel" in 'N.E.D.' Letter ol Madame D'Arblay Worcestershire Folk-Speech, 137 Meredith and Shakespeare ' Les Matinees du Roi de Prusse 'Historical Characters used as Bugbears, 133.

QUERIES: Bookworm, 138 Tresham Gregg, Gioler Regimental Mess London Printers " While "Napo- leon's Bequest to Cantillon Major Wm. Lawrence Portrait of Sir Thos. Lawrence Paine & Foss " Bath ' Montague Explanation of Quotations Wanted "The Eight Valyauntes "Punch's Whole Play Map of Berk- shire' Bard of the Dimbovitza, 139 Poem Wanted Sir John Finch Tennyson and Goldsmith Wild Beasts in Warfare Dr. Busby : Roberts Richard Martyn Overland Panorama' The Cloister and the Hearth,' 140 Knollys Family, 141.

REPLIES : C. F. Ellerman, 141 Sight of the Globe, 143 A Third Alternative, 144 "Homo Bulla "Atlantis and Lemuria, 145 Margaret Scott Sonnet by Words- worth " Fiance^ " Was St. Thomas of Canterbury a Benedictine Monk ? 146 Roses as Cause of Colds Biographical Information Wanted J. C. Hotten St. Thomas Cantilupe, 147 Date of Comet American Underground Railway Sophie Cornelys Clerks in Holy Orders as Combatants Tomb of Alexander the Great Fitzwilliam of Mablethorpe, 148 "London Bridge is broken down "-Parthenon Club Arms of Hungary Virtue of Onions, 149 Trafalgar Bridge Poem Wanted Family of John Walker, 151.

NOTES ON BOOKS : ' Place-Names of Cumberland and Westmorland ' ' Chats on Old Silver ' Calendar of Entries in Papal Registers relating to Great Britain and Ireland.


BEOWULF IN HIGH-DUTCH SAGA.

TRUMUINI, BISHOP OF AEBBERCURNIG (cons. 681), was called " Tuma " (u) ; Aeduini, King of Northumbria (t633), was called " Eda " (e) ; Aedilberg, his queen ( = 625), was " Tata " (a) ; Eadburga, Abbess of St. Mildred's, Thanet (c. 705), was " Bugga "; Saberct, King of the East Saxons (t616), was "'Saba" (a). These five pet-names were severally formed upon different principles. We have their similars in construction to- day in Fanny, Eddy, Teddy, Betty, and Harry respectively. It is certain that the Anglo-Saxons had many more pet-names than the modern English, even though they had no counterpart to the name of the great Tudor queen which is served by no fewer than twelve ancillary eke-names. The special difficulty that Old English eke-names present is the difficulty of identification. For instance, how could we know, without being specially informed, that it was Torhthelm, Bishop of Leicester (737-64), who was affectionately called " Totta " ? The same difficulty occurs among us to-day. If one had never been told that " Tab " indicates


Abraham, and that " Tet " and " Hettie " mean Esther, it would be no easy matter to divine the connexion between these pairs of names.

Similarly, when we read in the Middle- High-Dutch lay of ' Biterolf ' that " Boppe usz Tenelant " was still in his childhood, we recognize that we are confronted by a problem that only genealogical knowledge could help us to solve. " Boppe " is clearly a pet-name, and Wilhelm Grimm remarks that the bearer of it appears in no other poem : " er kommt in keinem andern Gedichte vor " (' Die Deutsche Heldensage,' 1829, S. 135). The identification of the young prince and the investigation of his pedigree are the objects of this note.

The High-Dutch name of " Boppe " postulates English " Bobby," and " Bobby " and " Bobba " are of very ancient origin. In his ' Onomasticon Anglo-Saxonicum,' 1897, W. G. Searle dates occurrences of " Bobba " as early as 759 and 764, and gives the documentation of them. He also cites P. Piper's ' Libri Confraternitatum S. Galli et Augiensis et Fabariensis ' for the Conti- nental form- " Bobbo," which postulates a Bavarian " Poppo." This form is found in the ' Historia Danica ' of Saxo Grammaticus, liber x. (ed. Miiller, 1838), p. 498, where we get a bishop of Hamburg of this name.

" Boppe " also occurs in the second half of the thirteenth century as the name of a High-Dutch poet; cp. Grimm, u.s., S. 331. It is no doubt to him that Grimm refers on p, 402 when he speaks of a well-known poet named Poppe. He there quotes a writer ailed the Ackermann of Bohemia who wrote at the beginning of the fifteenth century. The Ackermann puts the following remark into the mouth of Death :

um Dieterich von Bern, urn den Starken Ppppen und um den Hornen Siegfried haben wir licht so viel Miihe gehabt." [" We did not have so nuch trouble over Dietrich of Bern, the Mighty \)ppe, and the Horny. Siegfried."]

" Unter dem Starken Poppcn ,' ' says Grimm , ' wird ohne Zweifel der bekannte Dichter gemeint, welcher diesen Beinamen fiihrte ' Grundrisz,' 502). Von seinem Tode gab es vahrscheinlich eine Sage." [' ; Under the Mighty Poppe the known poet who bore this by-name is 10 doubt intended. There was a saga about his Leath, apparently."]

It is not probable that a minor poet would be mentioned along with Dietrich of Bern and Siegfried, and we must call in the assist- ance of genealogy.

According to ' Biterolf,' Boppe usz Tene- lant's mother's brother was King of Tenelant, and his name was Herbort. According to