Bodleian: Hebban olla vogala

"Hebban olla vogala" is not the name of a manuscript in the Bodleian Library of Oxford. It is part of a single line scribbled in the margin of a larger manuscript. In 1933, Kenneth Sisam, professor of Anglo-Saxon linguistics at Oxford, looked at a probatio pennae that had been jotted down on a manuscript page sometime before 1100. The manuscript was from St. Andrew's Church in Rochester, Kent. (Some trivia: one of Sisam's students was J.R.R.Tolkien.)

A probatio pennae is done to test a pen (see more here). This one was just a scribble. Although faded, this particular "test" is considered to be:

Hebban olla uogala nestas hagunnan hinase hic enda thu uuat unbidan uue nu

Directly above it is written a Latin translation:

(H)abent omnes uolucres nidos inceptos nisi ego et tu quid expectamus nu(nc)

which (to us) means:

All birds have begun nests, except me and you – what are we waiting for now?

Sisam recognized that 1) This was a line from a love song, and 2) it was not Old English, or (as originally assumed) Flemish, but instead was the earliest line in Old Dutch so far discovered. The line is not "pure" Old Dutch. The spelling suggests that the unknown monk working on the manuscript was likely from Flanders, working in Kent, and influenced by the Latin and Old English texts he was constantly copying.

The Dutch language was well-developed, but we have nothing of note earlier than this example.

The manuscript on which this "scribble" is found is a a collection of Old English sermons by Ælfric of Eynsham, who has been mentioned before, but not in great detail. Since it's sitting in the Bodleian, I think it's fair game to talk about these homilies and Ælfric next time. See you tomorrow.