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skaldic

Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages

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Note to Anon Krm 11VIII

[4] Englanes: The tentative suggestion of Langenfelt (1920, 84 n. 1), that this refers to Caithness in north-eastern Scotland cannot be corroborated, nor is the name included in Townend’s (1998, 19 n. 30) list of names in Scotland mentioned in skaldic verse. The first element Engla- gen. pl. could mean either ‘of the Angles’ (i.e. the English) or ‘of angels’, though the latter is unlikely. The second element is nes ‘ness, headland’. Preference is given here to the old suggestion, adopted by Rafn (1826, 116) from Suhm et al. 1782-1828, I, 556; (cf. Johnstone 1782, 98; Depping 1839, 359), that it is Kent, or a part of it, that is referred to here. While the majority of the earliest Germanic settlers of Kent seem to have been Jutes rather than Angles (Collingwood and Myres 1937, 363), there is a strong case for saying that their first leaders, Hengest and Horsa, whose landing in Kent at Ypwines fleot (in all probability Ebbsfleet) is recorded in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle s. a. 449 (ASC I, 12-13), were of Anglian descent (see Bliss 1998, 168-80). If so, and if it is borne in mind that in medieval times Ebbsfleet was at the neck of a peninsula on the south coast of what was then the Isle of Thanet, now the easternmost tip of Kent (see Lewis 1736, I, 9-10 and map facing p. viii; cf. Moody 2008, 36-42), it is quite possible that it was remembered by some as Englanes ‘the headland of the Angles’.

References

  1. Bibliography
  2. ASC [Anglo-Saxon Chronicle] = Plummer, Charles and John Earle, eds. 1892-9. Two of the Saxon Chronicles Parallel. 2 vols. Oxford: Clarendon. Rpt. 1952.
  3. Rafn, Carl Christian, ed. 1826. Krakas Maal eller Kvad om Kong Ragnar Lodbroks Krigsbedrifter og Heltedød efter en gammel Skindbog og flere hidtil ubenyttede Haandskrifter med dansk, latinsk og fransk oversættelse, forskjellige Læsemaader, samt kritiske og philologiske Anmærkninger. Copenhagen: Jens Hostrup Schultz; London: John and Arthur Arch.
  4. Langenfelt, Gösta. 1920. Toponymics or Derivations from Local Names in English: Studies in Word-formation and Contributions to English Lexicography. Inaugural Dissertation. Uppsala: Appleberg.
  5. Depping, Georges Bernard. 1839. Review of Édélestand du Mèril. 1839. Histoire de la Poésie Scandinave. Paris: Brockhaus & Avenarius. Journal des Savants June 1839, 353-68.
  6. Johnstone, James, ed. and trans. 1782. Lodbrokar-Quida; Or the death-song of Lodbroc; now first correctly printed from various manuscripts; with a free English translation. To which are added, the various readings; a literal Latin version; an Islando-Latino glossary; and explanatory notes. Copenhagen: [n. p.].
  7. Bliss, Alan, ed. 1998. J. R. R. Tolkien. Finn and Hengest: The Fragment and the Episode. London: HarperCollins.
  8. Lewis, John. 1736. The History and Antiquities, as well Ecclesiastical as Civil, of the Isle of Tenet, in Kent. 3 vols. 2nd edn. London: Printed for the author and for Joseph Ames and Peter Thompson.
  9. Moody, Gerald. 2008. The Isle of Thanet from Prehistory to the Norman Conquest. Stroud: Tempus.
  10. Suhm, P. F. et al. 1782-1828. Historie af Danmark. 14 vols. Copenhagen: Berling.

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