Page:The Journal of English and Germanic Philology Volume 18.djvu/261

 The Functions of Old English Geweordan 255 geswigianpe on eastlondum gewurdon, Oros. 218.20; hw&t he wundra geworhte, &r pat maste gewurde, Wulfst. 22.14; forpan wa eow, pat ge afre gewurdon men, ib. 297.24; swidost para cyninga pe ar him gewurde, OE. Chron. A.D. 959 (D, E) ; on pam dagum beod swylce gedrefednessa, swylce ne gewurdon of frymde pare gesceafte. . . ne na ne gewurpad, Mark 13.19; biddad pat eower fleam on wintra odde on restedage ne gewurpe, Mat. 24.20 (Rush. : werpe) -Jela cynna egesan geweorpad (future), Wulfst. 86.14; tacna gewurdad (future), jElfr. Horn. I 608.5 (ib. 19: tacna beod} ; hwylce tacna beod ponne pas ping gewurdap? Luke 21.7 ( = cum fieri incipient); ahefe pine girde and sleh on eordan, patte gnattas gewurdon ofer eall Egipta land, ^Elfr. Exod. 8.16. But when every possible allowance is made, evidences of increasing irregularity and fluctuation in the differentiation of the two forms are, indeed, apparent on every hand. 13 No attention can be given in this rapid survey to the dif- ferences between individual texts (or groups of texts) or to the interesting question of the expression of the passive. But mention is to be made of a remarkable variant of geweordan, viz. aworda = 'fieri,' which occurs (mostly as past participle) in the Lindisfarne Gospels and Rushworth, 2 once also in Rushworth 1 (Mark 1.9). It was felt to be identical, and interchangeable, with geweordan; cf. Mark 15.33, Rush.: giward ( = facta) . . . awordne werun ( = factae), Lind.: award . . . awordne weron; Lind. Mat. 13.21 award 1 geworden I gewarfi, Luke 4.42 a- gewarfi, John 5.9 award 1 geworden was. Its Middle English continuation appears in Lajamon 25580: to blisse hit awurde (in the later MS.: teorne} the only instance recorded by Matzner, Stratmann-Bradley, and in the New English Dictionary. Other examples, however, could probably be found; indeed one additional case is cited (from P. Plowm. 13 Just a few samples, a) Oros. 5.2: hu Ipat Macedonisce gewin OE. Chron. A.D. 592 (E): mycel wed gewearV on Brytene; ib. A.D. 1089 (E): swilce eac geweard. . . mycel eorVstyrunge; b) Mat. 13.32, WS.: hit wyr]> treow, Rush.: gewyrti; Mat. 26.5, WS.: }>e las to mycel styrung wurde, Lind.: geworfie, Rush.: gewyrde; Luke 1.20, WS.: oft >om dag >e das 'Sing gewur3a}>, Rush.: ties worses; Luke 1.34 7 WS.: hu gewyrd s, Lind., Rush.: worses; Luke 2.1, WS.: wees geworden, Lind.: aworden, Rush.: warden.