Orrm
{{Short description|Homilist and Augustinian canon}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2022}}
{{Use British English|date=September 2022}}
Orrm, also known as Orrmin ({{small|Late}} {{IPA|ang|ˈɔrˠmin}}; fl. 1150s–80s), was an Augustinian canon from south Lincolnshire who wrote the Ormulum, a collection of verse homilies that is the oldest English autograph and one of the most significant records of Middle English.{{Cite book |last1=Johannesson |first1=Nils-Lennart |title=Ormulum |last2=Cooper |first2=Andrew |date=2023 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-289043-6 |series=Early English text society |location=Oxford}}{{Cite ODNB |date=2004-09-23 |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/20831 |title=Orm [Ormin] (fl. c. 1175) |last1=Jack |first1=George}} His work is a successful example of homiletics translating Latin learning to balance the needs of his fellow canons, who likely spoke Anglo-Norman French, with those of lay English-speaking audiences.{{cite journal |last1=McMullen |first1=A. Joseph |title=Forr þeʒʒre sawle need: The Ormulum, vernacular theology and a tradition of translation in early England |journal=English Studies |date=3 April 2014 |volume=95 |issue=3 |pages=256–277 |doi=10.1080/0013838X.2014.897074|s2cid=162740411 }}{{cite journal |last1=Dietrich |first1=Robyn |title=Spellenn: Orm's act of faith |journal=The English Languages: History, Diaspora, Culture |date=31 December 2020 |volume=6 |pages=1–6 |url=https://jps.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/elhdc/article/view/35885 |language=en |issn=1929-5855}}
Name
Orrm names himself at the end of the work's dedication: {{lang|enm|Icc was þær þær i crisstnedd was Orrmin bi name nemmnedd}} (Ded. 323–24: 'Where I was christened, I was named Orrmin by name'). This name derives from Old Norse, meaning worm, serpent or dragon. With the suffix of "myn" for "man" (hence "Orrmin"), it was a common name throughout the Danelaw area of England.{{cite web |last1=Uckelman |first1=S.L |title=Orm |url=https://dmnes.org/name/Orm |website=The Dictionary of Medieval Names from European Sources |date=2021}} At the start of the preface, the author identifies himself again, using a different spelling of his name: "Orrm". The metre dictated the choice between each of the two forms of the name.
The title of the collection, Ormulum, is modelled after the Latin word {{lang|la|speculum}} ("mirror"), so popular in the title of medieval Latin non-fiction works that the term speculum literature is used for the genre.
The Danish name is not unexpected, as the language of the Ormulum, an East Midlands dialect, is of the Danelaw.{{Cite book |last=Méndez-Naya |first=Belén |title=Grammar – Discourse – Context: Grammar and Usage in Language Variation and Change |date=2019-12-20 |publisher=De Gruyter |isbn=978-3-11-068256-4 |editor-last=Bech |editor-first=Kristin |publication-place=Berlin |chapter=The intensifier system of the Ormulum and the interplay of micro-level and macro-level contexts in linguistic change |pages=93–124 |doi=10.1515/9783110682564-004 |s2cid=214397439 |editor-last2=Möhlig-Falke |editor-first2=Ruth}} It includes numerous Old Norse phrases (particularly doublets, where an English and Old Norse term are co-joined), but there are very few French influences on Orrm's language.{{cite journal |last1=Johannesson |first1=Nils-Lennart |title=The etymology of 'Ríme' in the 'Ormulum' |journal=Nordic Journal of English Studies |date=2004 |volume=3 |issue=1 |pages=61–74 |doi=10.35360/njes.22|doi-access=free }}
Place and dates of activity
File:BourneAbbeyInterior.jpg, where the Ormulum may have been composed.]]
According to the work's dedication, Orrm wrote the Ormulum at the behest of Brother Walter, who was his brother both {{lang|enm|affterr þe flæshess kinde}} (biologically, "after the flesh's kind") and as a fellow Augustinian canon. With this information, and the evidence of the dialect of the text, it is possible to propose a place of origin with reasonable certainty.
Some scholars, from a suggestion by Henry Bradley, have regarded the likely origin as Elsham Priory in north Lincolnshire.{{Cite journal |last=Bradley |first=Henry |date=1906 |title=Where was the Ormulum written? |journal=The Athenæum |volume=4099 |pages=609}} In the mid-1990s, it became widely accepted that Orrm wrote in the Bourne Abbey in Bourne, Lincolnshire.{{cite journal |last1=Guzman |first1=Mancho |title=Considering Orrmulum's exegetical discourse: Canon Orrmin's preaching and his audience |journal=English Studies |date=December 2004 |volume=85 |issue=6 |pages=508–519 |doi=10.1080/00138380412331339233|s2cid=161751167 }} Two additional pieces of evidence support this conjecture: firstly, Arrouaisian canons established the abbey in 1138, and secondly, the work includes dedicatory prayers to Peter and Paul, the patrons of Bourne Abbey.{{cite book |last=Parkes |first=M. B. |chapter=On the presumed date and possible origin of the manuscript of the Orrmulum |title=Five hundred years of words and sounds: A festschrift for Eric Dobson |editor1-first=E. G. |editor1-last=Stanley |editor2-first=Douglas |editor2-last=Gray |location=Cambridge |publisher=D. S. Brewer |year=1983 |pages=115–27 |isbn=0-85991-140-3 |ref=Parkes1983}} The Arrouaisian rule was largely that of Augustine; its houses often are loosely referred to as Augustinian.
Orrm's dates of activity are not known. From palaeographic evidence, Orrm may have begun the work as early as 1150 and worked on it until the 1180s.
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- {{Cite EB1911|wstitle= Orm | volume= 20 |last1= Bradley |first1= Henry |author1-link= Henry Bradley | pages = 293–294 |short=1}}
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Category:12th-century English Roman Catholic theologians
Category:12th-century writers in Latin
Category:Canonical Augustinian theologians
Category:Canonical Augustinian scholars
Category:12th-century English writers
Category:12th-century English people