What plant was attorlothe ( atorlaþe )? (1992)

What plant was attorlothe (atorlape)? In a recently published, interesting, and important paper, 'The Anglo-Saxon View of the Causes of Illness', Audrey Meaney has the following footnote: 'M. L. Cameron suggests (personal communication) that atorlape is fumitory (Fumaria or Corydalis sp.), equated (through a misunderstanding) by the AngloSaxon translator of the Herbarium with gallicrus, i.e., Panicum crus galli L., cockspur grass.'l I think it is only proper that I should give m y reasons for this suggestion. Atorlape, which is variously spelled in Old Englishtexts,is equated only once with a Latin plant name, in chapter 35 of the Old English Herbarium,2 given in the quotation above from Meaney's paper. Most recent editors follow this, and identify it as cockspur grass. But already thefirsteditor of the Old English medical corpus, T. O. Cockayne, was not happy with this identification. Atorlape isfirstmentioned in the Leechbooks in book I, chapter i, of Bald's Leechbook: 'genim banwyrt and attorlaban and dolhrunan and wudumerce which Cockayne translated: 'Take wallflower and attorlothe and pellitory and wood marche . . . '. To the word 'attorlothe' he added the footnote: 'See Herbarium, xiv., to which assent is not easily given.'3 In the glossary of plants appended to volume 2 of the Leechdoms, the entry on atorlape reads: 'Attorlabe, gen. -an, fem., Panicum crus galli; an interpretation somewhat confirmed by the treatise Jlepl AiSdteatv, which, not naming atterlooe, does name panic, and thrice.'4 But the (hug panic (panec) of the Old English Peri Didaxeon5 was a red herring. The Latin original was not known to Cockayne, so that he was sunaware that Old English panic had nothing to do with Panicum crus galli but was instead a translation of opopanax, a strong-smelling resin obtained from various members of the Family Umbelliferae.6 1 A. L. Meaney, "The Anglo-Saxon View of the Causes of Illness', Health, Disease and Healing in Medieval Culture, ed. S. Campbell, B. Hall, and D. Klausner, New York, 1992. 2 The Old English Herbarium and Medicina de Quadrupedibus, ed. H. J. de Vriend, Early English Text Society O S 286, London, 1984, p. 90. 3 Leechdoms, Wortcunning and Starcraft of Early England, ed. Thomas Oswald Cockayne, 3 vols., Rolls Series, London, 1864-66), 2, pp. 22-23. Quotations from this work, in which the Anglo-Saxon text is printed (with translation on facing pages) in a font imitating that of the manuscripts, are given here in normal type with the addition of the symbols p and 6, and with the symbol for 'and' expanded. 4 Ibid., 3, p. 312. 5 Ibid., 3, pp. 82-144; 'Peri Didaxeon', ed. M. Loweneck, Erlanger Beitrage, 12, Erlangen, 1896. 6 The three occurrences of panic (panec) in the Old English Peri Didaxeon are to be found in 'Peri Didaxeon', ed. Loweneck, in ch. 51, p. 33; ch. 54, p. 37; and ch. 63, P A R E R G O N ns 10.2, December 1992 28 M. L. Cameron Cockayne inserted a long entry on atorlape in his comprehensive glossary. It is worth quoting in full, because it contains all the information about the word which can be gathered from references in the Old English literature: Attorlabe, gen. -an; "venom-loather," panicum crus galli. In Hb. xiv. attorlabe is galli crus, and were there doubt it seems removed by M S S . G. T. A., which draw the p. sanguinale, Linn., now called digitaria sanguinalis. These two grasses are includedtogetherin the "cocksleg," hahnenbein of the Germans. The corresponding article in M S . Bodley, 130, gives the name sanguinaria, and the old gloss is Blodwrt, with a later [sic] of the 14th century, "Blodwerte." Sanguinaria is often glossed as shepherds purse, thlaspi or capsella bursa pastoris, or as tormentilla, these being esteemed stanchers of blood, or as polygonum; but in this instance it must be as above, d. sanguinalis. With these testimonies it is vain to consider how such virtue was attributed to a grass. Did they confuse panicum with panacea? The glossaries give no real help. "Atrilla, attorlathe," GI. Dun., where atrilla seems to be attorlabe with a Latin termination. "Astrilla," GI. Sloane, 146. "Cyclaminos, attorlathe," id., but cyclamen is in...