論 文

Old English Beweddian with a Background forEngagement in Anglo-Saxon England

Makiko Tamoto

要旨

本論文は，古英語beweddianの定義，構成要素，統語論上の解釈，語形の変化，語源，実例検討とアングロ・サクソン時代における婚約の文化的背景といった観点から考察する。尚，本研究は，アンドレアス・
フ ィ ッ シ ャ ー に よ る 先 行 研 究 を 基 に， 本 著 者 に よ る 修 士 論 文 “ASemasiological Study of Old English Genesis and Exodus: OE
Words Employed to Express Concepts Related to Marriage”（Aichi:Aichi University 2002）における一部を拡張・再考察したものである。の定義として，フィッシャーやボズワース・トラーがあげるように，「婚約する・誓う・約束する」などがあったが，これらの意味はフィッシャーによると遅くとも11世紀には「婚約する」の意味へ拡張していたことが説明されている。この点に関してはにおける定義「妻または夫を娶る・結婚する・結婚式をあげる」によっても確認することができる。
接頭辞-，語幹，語尾-の三要素から構成されるは，フォルスターによると，その接頭辞は1000年頃から消失し始め，MEでは接尾辞がからへ変化又はすでに消失し始めることが指摘されている。又，フィッシャーによるの文法的解釈によると，能動態においては花婿への花嫁の保護者による契約を表し，受動態においては主語が女性で叙述的，かつ限定的位置に生じるとのことである。

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本論文は，ボズワース・トラー，スキート，（第二版）によるの 語 源 に 関 す る 考 察 も 踏 ま え る。 そ れ は， 中 英 語 で はとなり，それが現在のwedへと変化してきた語であり，古フリジア語，中低ゲルマン語，古高ドイツ語，ゴート語とも関連し，更にはゲルマン祖語までさかのぼる。
結論として，本著者は，アングロ・サクソン文化において結婚式が行われていたこと，そして婚約に限らず結婚用語において語義変遷上考察から，どこに，いつから，どのように類似した語義間に意味の境界線を引くかについてが今後の研究課題であることを言及する。
キーワード：古英語，結婚用語，結婚の社会的背景，動詞「婚約する」，文献学

0. Introduction
According to Fischer Andreas (1986), Old English words employed in the sense,“to engage or to get engaged” are the following nine verbs; beweddian, besceatwyrpan,behatan, befæstan, (be) befæstian, bebeodan, betæcan, handfæstan, and also wedfæstan.1
Among those words mentioned above, the present writer would like to make a focal
point on the ﬁrst term, beweddian, with an observation over an instance in Old English
Exodus (Exod. 21.9.). The employment of this word would be, in this article,
corroborated by the cultural, conventional, or even as an institutional background ofengagement in Anglo-Saxon England. This study is chieﬂy grounded on philology,
with highlights on semantics, etymology, and in more accurate realm, “semasiology”.

1. The deﬁnitions of Old English beweddian
Concerning the verb beweddian, Fischer states that it is “by far the general OE
word for ‘to engage’, with other signiﬁcations such as ‘to pledge oneself, promise, and1Andreas, Fischer, (1986), Engagement, Wedding, and Marriage in Old English (Heidelberg: Carl Winter Universitätsverlag 1986), p. 140.

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Old English Beweddian with a Background for Engagement in Anglo-Saxon Englandvow’”.2 The sense, “to engage” makes an extension to that of “to marry” in the late OE
period,3 current in both Anglia and West Saxon, and it corresponded to Latin
desponsare, occationally also to (de)spondere and (sub)arrare in the restricted texts ofAldhelm, De Laude Uirginitate, and Cleopatra Glossaries.4 At the latest in the 11thcentury at the latest, it acquired the meaning “to marry”.5 In fact, in ME, the meaningof “to engage” is not found almost any more, and in the 18th century at last the sense
disappears completely.6 This is also proved by surveying the MED, in which the ME
wedden and wed are listed with the sense, “to take a husband or wife, marry, get married,
perform a marriage ceremony for (a couple)”.7 This shows that the sense “to engage”
disappears, but instead the senses “to marry” and “to perform a marriage ceremony”
have replaced it and survived up to the present day, as the OED indicates the latter two
deﬁnitions.8 Fischer, as in the foregoing statement, regards the original and general
sense of beweddian as “to engage” despite the acknowledged deﬁnitions, “to espouse,and to wed” by Bosworth-Toller.9 It is noteworthy to draw attention to the weddianin B-T, which has extended its deﬁnitions as “to engage, covenant, undertake, wed,betroth, and to espouse”.10 This ambiguity in the neighbouring senses with a delicacy
is demonstrated as a “co-existance” ante 1000, as the OED shows the sense “to engage”
in Laws Æthelstan, while that of “to marry” in Laws Edmund.11Fischer, 1986, p. 25.
Fischer, 1986, p. 28.
4 Fsicher, 1986, p. 26.
5 Fischer, 1986, p. 29.
6 Fischer, 1986, p. 33.
7 Sherman M, Kuhn ed. (1980), Middle English Dictionary (Michigan: The University of Michigan
Press 1980), s.v. “wedden”.
8 The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed. prepared by J. A. Simpson and E. S. C. Weiner (Oxford: Oxford University Press 1989), s.v. “wed”.
9 Bosworth, Joseph and T. Northcote Toller, (1954), Anglo-Saxon Dictionary (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1st ed. 1898, repr. 1929, 1954): Supplement by T. N. Toller (Oxford: Oxford University
Press 1921, repr. 1955), with Enlarged Agenda and Corrigenda by Alistair Campell (Oxford: Clarendon Press 1921, repr. 1955), s.v. “beweddian”. Henceforth B-T.
10 S.v. “wedden”.
11 The OED, 2nd ed., s.v. “wed”.
2
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2. The elements of beweddian
The Old English beweddian, which consisted of the three elements, 1) the preﬁxbe-, 2) the stem wedd, and 3) the suﬃx -ian, established itself in the present English as“wed”, throughout alterations in eclipses. According to Förster, the perfective preﬁx
be is gradually lost, originally from about the year 1000.12 As demonstrated in theprevious section, therefore, it changes its form in ME as wedden and wed.13 At thisstage, already, the Old English suﬃx “-ian” comes into ME suﬃx “-en”, or evenvanished. The Encyclopaedia Britanica comments that the “wed derives from theAnglo-Saxon word for security given to bind a promise.”14

3. The grammatical functions and the forms of beweddianFischer explains that it occurs with the following semantic syntactic-patterns: inthe active voice, it is used to describe the guardian’s act of engaging his female person
to a man; in the passive voice, the subject is always a woman, and it is found in a
predicative or an attributive position.15 B-T gives the forms of beweddian as follows;
preterite beweddede, beweddode, and past participle bewedded, beweddod.16 Beweddianis categorized by Sweet as a weak verb in the class II, which conjugates like luﬁan, “tolove”.17

4. The etymology of beweddian
The etymological deﬁnitions of beweddian, dealt with in this article, are those by
B-T (1954), Skeat (1927), and also by the OED. B-T states that beweddian derives
from Goth ga-wadjón as well as Old Frisian weddia meaning “to promise and pledge”,
which is linked with Icelandic veðja “to wager”.18 Skeat makes a brief deﬁnition on the12 Fischer, 1986, p. 30.
13 The MED, s.v. “wedden”.
14 The Encyclopaedia Britanica de luxe Millenium edition, CD-ROM (Staﬀordshire: Focus Multimedia

Limt. 2000), s.v. “family law: Marriage as a transfer of dependence”.
15 Fischer, 1986, pp. 26–27.
16 S.v. “beweddian”.
17 Norman, Davis ed. Sweet’s Anglo-Saxon Primer, ninth ed. (Oxford: Clarendon Press 1953), p. 35.
18 S.v. “beweddian”.

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Old English Beweddian with a Background for Engagement in Anglo-Saxon Englandpresent English “to wed” coming from Anglo-Saxon weddian with the senses, “topledge, engage: hence to betroth, through ME wedden”. In addition, the present-day
English “to engage” comes from Old French engager meaning “to bind by a pledge
with further root in Latin iungo with the sense of ‘to join’”.19 The OED, 2nd ed.,whereas, makes the etymological points as follows; the Old English weddian corresponds
to Old Frisian weddia, Middle Low German wedden, Old High German wettônmeaning “to pledge”, and Goth ga-wadjōn with the sense “to espouse”; which allderives from Old Teutonic wađjōjan. In the 10th century, the form was weddian, in the12th and 13th centuries weddenn, in the 13th and 14th centuries wedden, weddi(-y), fromthe 13th century to the 15th century wedd, (in the 14th century weed, in the 15th century
weede, wid, weddon), in the 13th century to 16th centuries wedde, in the 18th century
and the 19th century wad, and since the 14th century wed.20 This shows that 1) thepreﬁx -be was already dropped in the 10th century, 2) the inﬂection, i. e. the endings,
also disappeared in the 13th century, and 3) the double consonants in the stem seems
to be simpliﬁed in the 14th century.

5. Old English beweddian in Old English Exodus
In Old English Exodus occur two instances of the verb beweddian; Exod 21.9
and Exod. 221.16 (unbeweddodre). The discussion here is centered upon the instanceat Exod 21.9, which reads as follows:
Gyf he <hi his suna> beweddað, do hire æfter dohtra gewunan: Sin sutem ﬁlio
suo desponderit eam, iuxta morem ﬁliarum faciet illi.21(The Heptateuch, Exodus 21. 9., p. 264.)

19 Skeat, W. W. (1927), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new and corrected

impression (Oxford: Clarendon Press 1927), s.v. “engage”. Wilson, Alastair (2002), Latin Dictionary,Teach Yourself Book (London: Hodder and Stoughton Educational 2002), s.v. “engagement” and“iungo”.
20 S.v. “wed”.
21 In MS L, i. e. MS. Bodleian Laud Misc. 509., parts in the OE version change for gif, hig his suna
beweddeð, and gewuna in addition. (C.f. Crawford, Samuel J. (1922), The Old English version of theHeptateuch, Ælfric’s Treatis on the Old and New Testament and his Preface to Genesis, EETS, OS 160(London, 1992; repr. 1969 with the text of two additional manuscripts transcribed by N. R. Ker))― 55 ―

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In the above rendition, the Old English beweddað, which is in the 3rd person singularpresent indicative, meaning “(he) betroths”, renders the Latin desponderit, which is in
the 3rd person singular perfect subjunctive, meaning “(he) has betrothed”. The subjects
for those verbs are “he”, i. e. “a man who possesses a slave”. The context of the passage
concerns a slave marriage,22 which is preceded by the Ten Commandments. The
translator of the instance is an anonymous author, rather than Ælfric, which is
supported by Clemoes (1953) and Marsden (2000) also.23

6. Engagement in Anglo-Saxon England
In this section, the following statement by Fischer is deliberated on; “we do notknow whether or not an engagement was celebrated in a formal way with a ceremony,but it was certainly the occasion when guardian and bridegroom settled the term ofthe marriage”.24 The present author considers that the Anglo-Saxons would haveengagement ceremonies for the following two reasons; 1) the gloss in Li. Matt. 1. 18
describes the settlement of the terms of the marriage, 2) the ancient Roman culture,
the Celtic culture, and the Germanic culture of 500–700 A. D. all had the custom of
betrothal ceremony.25 The Anglo-Saxons, accordingly, might have followed their

22 Mackenzie, John L. (1965), Dictionary of the Bible (New York, London: Macmillan Publishing Com-pany, Collier Macmillan Publishers (1965), p. 550.
23 Clemoes, Peter (1953), The Chronology of Ælfric’s Work; The Anglo-Saxons, p. 244; Marsden, Richard(2000), “Translation by Committee? The ‘Anonymous’ Text of the Old English Hexateuch” in The
Old English Hexateuch, Aspect and Approaches, ed. by Rebecca Barnhouse and Benjamin C. Withers,p. 41.
24 Fischer, 1986, p. 21.
25 “Besides the exchange of pledges (dos and donatio) the betrothal ceremony involved the exchange ofpromise between groom-to-be and father of the bride-to-be”. (Gies, Josep and Frances, 1987, “Roots:Roman, German, Christian” in Marriage and the Family in the Middle Ages, p. 22.) “Betrothal consisted of the promise of marriage and the agreement on its terms. It was followed by a feast of the twofamilies at which the actual payment of the brideprice by the groom’s family tool place”. (Gies, Josepand Frances, 1987, p. 33.) “The normal Germanic marriage ceremony consisted of the three elements . . . betrothal, agreement on terms, and the marriage celebration . . . Gregory of Tours describes
a betrothal ceremony completed by the young man’s bestowal of a ring, a kiss, and a pair of slippers”.
(Galy, Charles, La Famille à lèpoque Mèrovingienne, quoted from “The European Family: 500–700”
in Marriage and the Family in the Middle Ages, p. 54.)

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Old English Beweddian with a Background for Engagement in Anglo-Saxon Englandcultures. The ﬁrst reason mentioned above can be proved by the following citationfrom the Lindisfarne gloss;
abiathar ðe aldorman wæs in ðæm tid in hieru salem. fore biscob he beboedmaria iosephe to gemenne 7 to begeonganne mið claennisse.
(A marginal note in Li. Matt. 1. 18)26

The above marginal note refers to the occasion when the high priest Abiathar commands
Joseph to associate with Mary only in a state of purity during the period ofengagement.

7. Conclusion
The custom of engagement rite in Anglo-Saxon England should be veriﬁed forassertion by scanning more texts and written works. This assumption of theperformance, nonetheless, is positively adhered by the present contributor. They
might have had both engagement ceremony and wedding, in which case either one
should have been emphasized for certain reasons. Otherwise, a matrimonial rite in thecomposite notions would be performed for the sake of those matrimonial senses. Old
English beweddian has been survived up to the present day as “to wed”, principally
maintaining the stem. The present-day-English “wed” has been ﬁxed its form sincethe 14th century,27 with the signiﬁcation of “to be a husband/ wife”. This word sharesthe existence with the predominant synonym of “to marry”. The nominal word
“wedding”, however, mostly monopolizes its sense as “a matrimonial ceremony”. The
semantic borders among matrimonial words and phrases; where to be drawn; when tobe drawn; and how to be drawn, would be a part of the research to be.

26 Skeat, W. W. (1871–1887), The Holy Gospels in Anglo-Saxon, Northumbrian and Old Mercian versi-ons, synoptically arranged, with collations exhibiting all the readings of all the MSS.; together withthe early Latin version as contained in the Lindisfarne MS., (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
1871–1887). This edition appeared in the four volumes: The Gospel according to Saint Mark waspublished in 1871, according to Saint John in 1878, and The Gospel according to Saint Matthew in1887.
27 The OED, 2nd ed., s.v. “wed”.

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