The Production and Use of English Manuscripts 1060 to 1220

Mary Swan and Owen Roberson

Cambridge, Trinity College, R. 7. 28

Bede’s Death Song

Date: s. xiimed

Summary:

English version of Bede’s Death Song in the Latin text of Cuthbert’s letter de obitu beati atque eximii doctoris Bede, here forming part of the 734 annal in the Chronicon Fani Sancti Neoti, or Annales Asserii. Ker notes that the manuscript was written by scribes at Bury St Edmunds (1957, p. 134).

Manuscript Items:

1. Item: p. 26

   Title (A.33.3): Bede's Death Song: West Saxon Version

   Addition: (p. 26) Fortham nedferre neni Wyrtheth | thances snottera thonne him thearf sy to ge | hicgenne e[tail]r his heonengange hwet his | gaste godes othe yueles efter deathe heonnon | demed weorthe. (thorn, eth and wyn not used)

   Text Language: English

   Bibliography:

   Ker 1957, pp. 133-34

   Lucas and Wilcox 2008

Administration Information:

Manuscript described by Mary Swan and Owen Roberson with the assistance of Sanne van der Schee, with reference to published scholarship; ed. by Takako Kato (2010; 2013).

Bibliography:

Ker, N. R., Catalogue of Manuscripts Containing Anglo-Saxon (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1957; repr. 1990), item 88

Lucas, Peter J., and Jonathan Wilcox, Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts in Microfiche Facsimile, Medieval & Renaissance Texts & Studies (Tempe, AZ: Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2008), vol. 16: Manuscripts Relating to Dunstan, Ælfric, and Wulfstan; the "Eadwine Psalter" Group