THE ETYMOLOGY OF 'RÍME' IN THE 'ORMULUM'

Introduction Standard reference works have regarded the word rime in the Middle English Ormulum as a French loanword meaning 'metre'. In this article, it will be argued that this interpretation of rime, as well as the accompanying etymology, are erroneous; it is based on a misunderstanding of Orm's methods as a homilist. The article will present an alternative interpretation and an alternative etymology, based on a careful reading of the author's own account of his methods. According to this interpretation, the word is not borrowed from Old French but derived from Old English; its sense in the Ormulum is 'story7 or 'text'.


Introduction
Standard reference works have regarded the word rime in the Middle English Ormulum as a French loanword meaning 'metre'.In this article, it will be argued that this interpretation of rime, as well as the accompanying etymology, are erroneous; it is based on a misunderstanding of Orm's methods as a homilist.The article will present an alternative interpretation and an alternative etymology, based on a careful reading of the author's own account of his methods.According to this interpretation, the word is not borrowed from Old French but derived from Old English; its sense in the Ormulum is 'story 7 or 'text'.

The etymology of Orm's rime
The Ormulum is a Middle English homily collection written in the second half of the twelfth century in southern Lincolnshire by the Augustinian canon Orm and surviving in a single manuscript (Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Junius 1), the author's holograph. 1The work is written in a metrically bound form known as the septenarius: a long verse is made up of seven feet (fifteen syllables), with a caesura after the eighth syllable splitting the long verse into two short verses.The extant text comprises over 20,000 short verses (roughly 125,000 words) and is invaluable for the light it sheds on the properties of the English language in the late twelfth century, partly because the text remains as its author wrote (and subsequently corrected) it, partly because of Orm's consistent use of the orthographic system he had developed.In this article the text of the Ormulum will be considered exclusively for the contextual evidence it provides for the interpretation and etymology of the word rime.
The word rime occurs three times in the Ormulum manuscript (Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Junius 1).It is used one time in the sense of OE gerim, 'number'.On two occasions, however, it is used in what must be a different sense, as shown in quotations 1 and 2 below where it is written as rime (with an acute accent). 2 (1) f Ice hafe sett her o piss boc.
I have written here in this book among the words of the Gospel all by myself many a word in order thus to fill the rime.
But you will find that my word wherever it is added may help those who read it to see and understand all the better how they should understand the Gospel.
And whoever shall wish to copy this book, I entreat him that he write it correctly just as this book teaches him, just as it is done in this first instance, with all such rime as is written here, with just as many words.
(Dedication 95-102) The Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology (ODEE) lists the word, as used in these quotations, as the earliest instance of a borrowing of OF rime ("-medL.rithmus, rythmus (used spec, of accentual verse which was usu. rhymed), for L. rhythmus rhythm."ODEE s.v.rime 3 ).As such, it antedates the next occurrence by about a century.However, it is clearly used in a different sense: since Orm does not use rhyme as a structuring device in his verse, his rime has been interpreted as 'metre' rather than 'rhyming verse '. 4 Immediately after the passage quoted in (1), Orm admits that he has been unable to fill his fens with the words of the Gospel, and therefore has been obliged to add words of his own as well: 7 ice ne mihhte nohht min ferrs.
And I could not my verse always with the words of the Gospel well fill all, and therefore I very often had to among the words of the Gospel place my word(s), in order to fill my verse.
(Dedication 59-64) It seems to be generally held that (1) and (3) constitute Orm's apology for his use of words like acc, all, annd, patt, and wel in order to achieve the right number of syllables per verse (e.g.Bennett and Smithers 1966: 174, "Its literary merits are few: tedious repetitions (cf.11.50-60), cumbersome conjunctions and otiose adverbs characterize Orm's style, and the monotony of the language is equalled by the regularity of the verse line, which, as Orm says in the dedication to his brother Walter, an Augustinian canon, is often padded").It must be on the basis of such a reading that the interpretation of rime that is to be found in ODEE was arrived at.
This interpretation presupposes that Orm would say the same thing twice in (1) and (3).For all the accusations of "tedious repetition", Orm hardly ever repeats a sequence without introducing some kind of variation.
It would be very unlike him to say twice, with slightly different wording, 'I When Orm points out that he has added words of his own to the Gospel text in order to fill the rime, he justifies the additions by claiming that they will enable readers to understand the Gospel text better (quotation 1).No similar claim is made for the words added in order to fill the/errs (quotation 3).It should be clear, therefore, that the two types of addition differ in nature: the addition to the ferrs serves a purely technical purpose, namely that of padding the line, whereas the addition to the rime serves an exegetical or explanatory purpose.
We may consider Orm's Gospel text vii, taken from the first mass on Christmas Day and comprising Luke 2:l-15a, as an example of such an explanatory addition to a Gospel text. 5In Orm's rendering, the Gospel text is made up of 10 paragraphs (11.3270-3387). 6The correspondence between Gospel verses and paragraphs is shown in Table 1 on the opposite page.
In Luke 2, verses 1-7 form one narrative unit (the arrival of Mary and Joseph in Bethlehem and the birth of the child), verses 8-15a another (the appearance of the angels to the shepherds).
Table 1 The correspondences between Luke 2:l-15a and Orm's Gospel text vii

Verses in Luke ii
Paragraphs in the Ormulum,

Gospel text vii
13-14 9 15a 10 In paragraphs 5 and 6, Orm explains the relationship between the two events: though God was thus born in secrecy, he would not remain hidden (paragraph 5); for as soon as he was born, a great sign was seen in the vicinity (paragraph 6).In this way the abrupt narrative transition in Luke is made smoother, requiring less processing work on the part of the listeners or readers.This pattern is repeated over and over again throughout the Ormulum, and a picture of Orm's stylistic preferences emerges clearly: he aims at a narrative style that is considerably more explicit and requires considerably less inference on the part of the listeners and readers.It seems reasonable to assume that this greater explicitness was part of the effort to make the Gospel text easy to understand, which he mentions in the Dedication, 11.45-50 (quotation 1).Lef massstre sess uss nu þi rapr 7 segg uss nu pi lare.
To betenn ure sinness.But this that we just told in few words we will tell later in somewhat greater detail.
They said to us more such words than we can tell and told us them with many parables and miracles.
We may compare this with OE tellan, which has a similar range of senses: 'count', 'account', 'relate', and with OE talu 'calculation', 'statement 7 , 'story 7 .This material permits us to postulate two related senses for the word rime as used in the Ormulum: one sense, 'narration', 'story', for the context shown in quotation 1, and another, 'text 7 , for the context shown in quotation 27 A comparison between the forms in the Ormulum and attested OE forms of these nouns and verbs shows that not all senses attested in OE are found in the Ormulum and, conversely, that one sense found in the Ormulum is not attested in OE.To conclude, Orm's rime must be formally derived from OE (ge)rim 'number'. 8The sense of rime was 'narration', 'story 7 (as used in quotation 1), or 'texf (quotation 2); the difference in sense between OE (ge)rim and rime can be accounted for by the range of senses of the related OE ariman 'to reckon', 'to enumerate', and 'to narrate'.Whether the 'narration', 'story' sense existed in Old English and is simply unattested, or whether it is a twelfth century innovation, cannot be determined on the basis of the available evidence.2. The word under discussion is written with an acute accent, rime, to distinguish it from Orm's rime 'number'.Orm's own use of acute accents was never sufficiently consistent to justify any assumption that he himself tried to mark such a distinction in his spelling.4. The Oxford English Dictionary similarly gives 'metre' as the sense of rime in the Ormulum (s.v.rime).

A homily in the
Ormulum is typically based on the Gospel text for a particular mass (as specified in the Missal); in some cases, however, Orm uses two Gospel texts for one homily.It is the Gospel texts, as listed in his table of contents, that are numbered in the manuscript, not his homilies.This numbering will be retained in the present article.
6.A paragraph in the Ormulum is a text section whose beginning is marked in the manuscript by a paragraphus (in its basic form J 7 , with variants incorporating more diagonal lines).Holt's 1878 edition does not print the paragraphus signs.It also ignores the division of the text into paragraphs.In Table 1, the paragraphs are numbered consecutively within Orm's Gospel text vii.The scribe of Fairfax 14 apparently misunderstood the word and interpreted it as 'rhyme' (presumably) or (possibly) 'metre'.While he improved the rhyme, the passage as a whole became pointless, since the whole poem is written in rhyming couplets.There is no change in that respect at this point in the poem.
have inserted my own words into the Gospel text, because that was the only way I could get the right number of syllables per verse'.On the other hand, it would be typical of his use of repetition with variation to say 'I have inserted my own words into the Gospel text, because that was the only way I could get the right number of syllables per verse, and I have inserted my own words into the Gospel text for some other purpose'.The question is thus: what other purpose?

[ 7
he shall newenn cumenn forbi Biforenn cristess come.]To jarrkenn her onnjaeness cn'sti All þwerrt ut halig le<o>de.[Þurrh fulluhht.7 þurrh halij spell; 7 ec purrh halij bisne;-] (Gospel text i, 11.169-196) Worlds of Words -A tribute to Arne Zettersten 67 A third type of addition involves fleshing out dialogue so that it becomes easier for the audience of the Ormulum to follow the argument.A case in point is the dialogue between John the Baptist and various groups of people from Jerusalem coming out to him in the desert, as described in Luke 3:10-14 (added by Orm to continue the story line from Gospel text xvii, Matthew 3:1-14).The publicans ask John, magister quid faciemus.In Orm's rendering, this brief question is expanded to four verses (5).The term of address is given a polite modifier and becomes lef magistre.The simple question 'what shall we do?' is turned into an indirect question embedded under an explicit request for advice and guidance, sess uss nu þi raþrl 7 sess uss nu pi lare.A temporal adverbial, forrþwarrd 'henceforth', as well as an adverbial of purpose, To betenn ure sinness, have been added to the question.All these changes make it clearer what the publicans want to know (as interpreted by Orm).

(
Cura Pastoralis, Sweet 1871: 75) Þa us sedon ma pyllycra weorda bonne we ariman ('tell'; 'repeat') magen, and myd manegum bysnum and tacnum hyt us saeðdon.(St.Augustine, Soliloquies, Book 2, Carnicelli 1969: 89) And through the Lord's holy body & the Lord's holy cross & St. Mary's virginity & the birth of Christ & His holy baptism & His holy fast & His passion & His resurrection & His ascension to Heaven & the Holy Ghost & the judgement that awaits all mankind & His holy gospel & all the miracles related there, through those I pray to my Lord Almighty God.And also I pray Him through all these that I just mentioned that He forgive me all my sins.It seems to me that I now know who founded Rome, and also many other things which happened before our days, of which I cannot narrate all.

Notes 1 .
Orm names himself and his book in the Dedication to his brother Walter, who is said to have commissioned the work.Both brothers are described as Augustinian canons.Orm does not state, however, when and where he wrote his text.All modern discussions of the date of the Ormulum must take as their point of departure the conclusions drawn in Malcolm Parkes' influential 1983 article.Parkes concluded on palaeographical grounds that the Latin cues added by 'hand C (a collaborator of Orm's) at the beginning of each Gospel text in the manuscript (such must have been the intention; in actual practice, scribe C overlooked a few places) cannot have been written later than c. 1180.But those cues were added after Orm had composed, drafted, and copied out the text in five volumes (MS Junius 1 is a surviving fragment of the first volume), and furthermore gone through the text many times making numerous changes and corrections.All this process may well have gone on for 20, possibly even 25 years, which means that Orm may well have started working on his homilies some time around 1155-1160.For the localisation of the text to southern Lincolnshire the reader is referred to the discussion in Parkes 1983.
3. The textual passages from the Ormulum quoted in this article have been newly edited by the author from MS Junius 1.In this context I would like to thank Dr Bruce Barker-Benfield, Senior Assistant Librarian, Bodleian Library, for generously granting me access to MS Junius 1 in 1997 and 2002.The text quoted is Orm's original text (before his later corrections).Contractions in the manuscript have been expanded and italicised.Erased characters in the text are shown in single angle brackets (e.g.<o>).Verse numbers, however, refer to the numbering in Holt 1878, since this is still the most recent complete edition that is generally available.

7. 1
know only one example of the use of the word rime in its 'story' sense outside the Ormulum.It occurs in Cursor Mundi (Morris 1876,11.14922f.) at the point where the narrative reaches the Passion of Christ, and the poet declares that the story (vr rime) must now be told more broadly (rume), and to that intent he will use a longer line (langer bastune): Es resun þat wee vr rime rume, And set fra nu langer bastune.MS Cotton Vesp.A iii And resun es we vr rime rume, And set fra nu langer bastune.MS Göttingen Theol.107 for-þi in rime wille we rouw 7 sette fra nu langer bastouw.Fairfax MS 14, Bodl.Lib.
Another, and somewhat different, example is found in Orm's rendering of Luke 1:16-17 in Gospel text i.Here Orm interlards the Gospel text with More germane to the present discussion, however, is the use of the related verb ariman in senses spanning from'enumerate' and 'repeat' to What, then, should we make of rime?A much more reasonable interpretation is that rime is not a borrowing from Old French but a native English word, derived from the OE noun (ge)rim, 'number', and the related verb (ge)riman, 'to count', 'to reckon', 'to number'.The noun rime ac-tually occurs once in the Ormulum in the original sense, together with its Furthermore, Orm uses rimenn as a synonym of reccnenn, e.g.An mann 7 twigess rimedd (1.11213) 'one man but counted twice', To reccnenn 7 to rimenn (1.11217) 'to count'.OE geriman would occasionally be used in the sense of 'to enumerate', and could in the right context be interpreted as a verb of saying 'to mention': Is swa ðeah swiðe fremfullic.þaet gehwa It is still very beneficial that evehine gelome.and geornlice to gode gebidde.gif his mod bið to ðan swiðe on-rybody often and eagerly should pray to God, if his mind is very bryrd; Elles man sceal hine sceortlice.mid contrite.Otherwise one should onbryrdnysse.and behreowsunge gebid-pray briefly with contrition and dan; Ne sceole we tellan gif we hwaet lytles penitence.We should not tell it if to góde gedoð.ac we sceolon geriman we do some little good, but we sunderhalgan; (AElfric, Catholic Homilies: will be as pleasing to God as Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost, Godden those of the boasting Pharisee.1979: 250-251) wundor þe þaeron syn þurh þa ic me bebiode minum drihtne ðam aelmihtigum gode.And eac ic hine bidde purh ealle þas ðe ic nu arimde ('enumerated'; 'mentioned') paet he me forgife ealle mine synna.(Prayers at Tierce, Banks 1965: 209) me pincð nu paet ic wife hwa Romeburh timbrode, and aeac feala oðra þincga þe aer urum dagum geweordon waes, þa ic ne maeg aealla ariman ('enumerate'; 'narrate').

Table 2
Forms and senses of the stems TELL-and RIM-in OE and in the Ormulum