The study of the rich and diverse Old Norse influence on the medieval English lexicon is very challenging, not least etymologically: given the genetic proximity of the languages in contact, it can be extremely difficult to identify which English words really do show input from Old Norse. In recent years there has been intensive etymological and contextual work on the Norse-derived vocabulary of some texts and traditions, especially before c. 1300 (see esp. Pons-Sanz 2007, 2013; Dance 2003, 2011). Nevertheless, the Scandinavian influence on the vocabulary of the great later Middle English literary monuments has rarely seen sustained exploration, and texts composed in the north and east of England, where the influence from Old Norse is attested in its greatest range and complexity, have not been treated together in a major, etymologically analytical study since Björkman’s survey of 1900–2.
In this paper, I shall describe the new methodological framework developed for the Gersum Project (a three-year project, begun in January 2016 and funded by the U.K.’s Arts and Humanities Research Council; see www.gersum.org) which is undertaking a detailed study of the etymologies of c. 1600 words for which Old Norse input has been claimed, by means of a searchable online database.
Works Cited
Björkman, E., Scandinavian Loan-Words in Middle English, 2 vols., Studien zur englischen Philologie 7, 11 (Halle, 1900–2)
Dance, R., Words Derived from Old Norse in Early Middle English: Studies in the Vocabulary of the South-West Midland Texts, Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies 246 (Tempe, AZ, 2003)
———, ‘“Tomarȝan hit is awane”: Words Derived from Old Norse in Four Lambeth Homilies’, in Foreign Influences on Medieval English, ed. J. Fisiak and M. Bator, Studies in English Medieval Language and Literature 28 (Frankfurt am Main, 2011), pp. 77–127
Pons-Sanz, S. M., Norse-Derived Vocabulary in Late Old English Texts: Wulfstan’s Works, a Case Study, NOWELE Supplement Series 22 (Odense, 2007)
———, The Lexical Effects of Anglo-Scandinavian Linguistic Contact on Old English, Studies in the Early Middle Ages 1 (Turnhout, 2013)
Townend, M., Language and History in Viking Age England: Linguistic Relations Between Speakers of Old Norse and Old English, Studies in the Early Middle Ages 6 (Turnhout, 2002)