Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 7.djvu/509

 ll s.v11.JuNE2s,191s.1 NOTES AND QUERIES. 501 LONDON, SATURDAY, JUNE 88, 1918. CONTENTS.-No. 183. NOTES :-The Eowas of ‘ Widsith,' 501 - The Forged ‘Speeches and Prayers’ 'of the Regicides, 502- pi- taphiana, 503-Gelfrey’s Almshouses, Kingsland Road, 504-The Original of Little Dorrit-A Hatfield Charter -Arrigo (nr Henry) Pleunus-"Lettre de cachette"- Records of the City Livery Companies, 505-The Earliest Work on Lawn Tennis-Burns’s Friend Thomson, 506- Romney Marriage Licence-Amice, Countess of Leicester -The Crown of the Kings of Greece, 507. QUERIES :-Bibliography of Johnson's Works, 507-The Story of Old Mother Nim-Nam-“ Pull one’s leg”- Samuel Pep`%s and Sir William Sanderson-Authors of grgotations anted-Water-Stealing Device in Ancient me-Admiral Edmund Williams, 508-Byron and the Hobhouse MS.-Rev. John Smith, Rector of Enniskillen -The Twelve Good Rules -Guido delle Colonne in Eng- land: L. F. Simpson-Gundrada de Warenne-Miss Catherine Fanshawe: ‘Politlcs'- Andrew or George Melly, 509-Wonderment Pamphlets of the Stuart Era- Fanny Brawne-Rev. William ancaster-Robert Riddell -Milkmaids’ Grease-Horns, 510. REPLIES:-Demolition of Dickensian Landmarks in Bir- mingham, 510-Myless, Essex, 512-“ Furdall,” 518- Slntram and Verena-Ink-horns and Ink-glasses-De Foe and Nalpoleon-‘ A Londoner’s London ’- lr John Moore, 514-Fi es: Tools in the Middle Ages-The Wreck of the Royal George-Portrait of Mary, tgueen of Scots-‘ The '1‘omahawk’: Matt Morgan, 515-. torey’s Gate Tavern and Coffee-House-Botany-Onions planted with Roses, 516-Proposed Emend ation in Ascham-Scolopendras- ‘Critical Review’-Society nf Friends: “ Thou." “ Thee "- “Honest” Epitaph, 517-Pinkstan James-Peter Barrow -The Sign o the Dripping-Pan, 518. NOTES ON BOOKS :-‘ The Life and Letters of William Cobbett’-‘ The Loss of Normandy (1189-1204).' Booksellers’ Catalogues. Notices to Correspondents. Jlntrs. THE EOWAS OF ‘ WIDSITH,’ LINE 26. “ Oswnm WEOLD EOWUM ” is a half-line in ‘ Widsith ’ which has resisted all attempts made to elucidate it. Mn. R. W. Cnamsmns describes the ruler as unknown, and suggests that Oswine be identified with somebody else of a different name, sc. Oslaf. As to the Eowas, Mn.. CHAMBERS rightly asks for an identification which will deposit them as neighbours of the Wernas and the Yte, Lietween which tribes they occur in Widsith’s 'St :- Billing Wernum. Oswine weold Eowum and Ytum Gefwulf. Students of ‘ Widsith ’ almost universally identify the Eowas with the Aviones of Tacitus’s ‘ Germania) and there need be no doubt about the verbal identity of éow-_ and avi-. Cf. Gothic awi and awistr with O.E. éowe and éoweatre, which mean “ ewe ” and “ sheepfold ” respectively. But three assumptions are tacitly made here: (1) identity of vocalic quantity; (2) its brevity; and (3) that a tribe of warriors would be willing to be known as eowas (ewes). If we wrote éowas, however, we should, in the first place, be ascribing a very diiierent qualifying name to a tribe that was able a parently to maintain itself between the Vlgrnas and the J utes; for Eowas (6) may mean the Vultiues or the Griliins. In the second place, -éow is not West Saxon, the true dialect-form bein -iw. Cf. W.S. hiw, niwe, with non-W.S. iiow, gaéowe (v. Prof. J. Wright’s ‘ O.E. Grammar] 90). ‘ Eowum therefore postulates W.S. I wum, and these represent earlier non-W.S. *Geo- wum and W.S. *Giwum. G here is the palatal spirant, the English y, and the difference between the two forms is similar to that between the polite pronunciation of “ ewe ” and the rustic one, namely, yew and 3/6. In W.S. giw means a griiiin, and the personal name derived from it is “ Giw-is,” as in the pedigree of King Alfred in MS. A of the ‘ Saxon Chronicle,’ scr. 892. This was pronounced like Yéewis. In the ‘ Historia Ecclesiastica ’ of Bede we get the tribe-name forming its plural in 5 (II. v., Geuissorum ; III. vii., Geuuissorum, MS. C). In Asser we find “Gegwis” in King A1fred’s pedigree, and in the ‘ Annales Cambrise ’ we get “ Giuoys,” annal 900. In the ‘ Brut y Tywysogion ’ either “ Iwys ” or “ Giwys ” may be indicated. The name was antiquated even in Bede’s time. He says (III. vii.): “ Occidentales Saxones qui antiquitus Geuissae vocabantur.” The retention of g in the Latin form into which Bede threw the word was unnecessary. Latin eu was, no doubt, pronounced like O.E. Gew-, Giw~, and we know that “ Eu- thio ” and “Eutiis ” indicated the Jutes in the sixth and seventh centuries. This prepares us for another form of Geuissa, namely, *Euissa, but that does not occur. We get “ Ebissa,” however, in the ‘ Historia Brittonum,’ cap. xxxviii. p. 178, and b : : u is one of the commonest scribal errors in MSS. of the O.E. period. We find it not only in proper names, as Uudbaldi, Derbentio, Deibi, but in such everyday expressions as aburwuli, olibfis, brebiter. “ Ebxssa,” then, represents *Eu-is for Gew-is, and the cousin of Hengist’s son Ohta is necessarily the eponymus of the “ genera Geuuissorum.”