A Specific Sense of Ti-Ie Word Patria in Noiise and Norman Latin

IIALVDAN KOIIT . — A SPECIFIC SENSE 01• 'l'IIE WORD E PATIiIA D . 93 chements entre les divers offices . Ce travail n'est certainement pa s l 'ocuvre des moines qui vaquent à ces services ; il est accompli sans au- cun doute par les serfs et les tenanciers de diverses conditions qui ha- bitent les terres de l 'abbaye. Nous croyons qu 'il est possible de trouver à nzinistcriunz un sens in- termédiaire qui puisse convenir dans les deux passages . Il nous parait , en effet, assuré que Folcuin n 'a pas entendu prendre dans deux sen s tint à fait différents un méme terme technique, à quelques pages d e distance. Si l'ors entend par rrlinisterium un groupement d'unités domaniales — de villac — dont les revenus sont affectés à un ',sème service, la diffi- culté nous semble résolue . Dans le premier texte on distingue, d 'une part, le groupement d 'uni- tés domaniales dont le produit sert à l 'entretien des moines, et, d'autr e part, les villac rangées clans d'autres groupements, comme celui du lu- minaire ou celui du vestiaire . Dans le second texte, on répartit la charge des travaux de construction entre ces divers groupements ; chacun d'entre eux doit fournir le s hommes nécessaires pour la construction d 'un secteur des fortifications . Nous pensons qu 'il y a li) sinon un sens particulier, du moins un e nuance dont il y aura lieu de tenir compte, le jour où l 'on composera l' article nzinistcriurn dans le nouveau Du Cange . François L . 6ANS110F , Ghnrgé de cours il I'Univcrsit© do Gand .

A SPECIFIC SENSE OF TI-IE WORD PATRIA IN NOIISE AND NORMAN LATIN

In an old Norwegian chronicle, the so-called a Scotch a h istoria Nor- cvegiae, the word patria appears used in a strange way, apt to startle the reader . In learned discussion, this chronicle is traditionally surname d « Scotch a, not because it is thought to have been composed in Scot - land, but because the manuscript has been discovered over there . To be sure, one of the best authorities on Norse literaturc, Professor Finnu r flínsson, of Copenhagen l , is of opinion that the book virtually has bee n

1 . Dc,, oldnnrskc og oldislandske littcrathrs historie, II, 605 s., maintained in th e second edition of the same work, II, 898 s .

94 HALVDAN KOHT . written by a foreigner, an Englishman or perhaps a German ; but this assertion has not been admitted by anybody else and is founded upo n rather weak arguments . The whole character of the book, as well a s many single expressions, seem to put it out of doubt that the author i s a Norwegian . There has been much disagreement about the date of the work ; but, at this moment, only two different opinions, in truth not widely varying , are in vogue . Finnur Jdnsson has accepted the dating of Sophus Bugge ° , referring the composition of the book to the second decade of th e 13th century . In accordance with so good an authority as the late Pro- fessor Gustav Storm, of Oslo a, I have tried to give the proof that th e book must have been written as early as about '1'170 3 . It is to be noted that it is dedicated to a certain Agnellus who seems to be Maste r Thomas Agnellus, archdeacon of Wells (England), 1169-ca . 1195 4 . This circumstance has some importance just in regard to linguistic peculiarities of the treatise . Now, the first half of this work is occupied by a geographical descrip- tion of Norway, and here we meet with the word patria used wit h quite a particular meaning 5. Norway is said to be composed of thre e habitable zones, the land of the Finns and two really Norwegian parts . These two parts the author describes as comprising each four patriae, each patria again comprising a certain number of provinciae, — so zona maritima üü patrias complectens 6, mediterranea zona üü patrias complectens 7 . He even specifies the names of all the eight patriae : prima patria dicitur 8, etc . So we are able to discern very accurately what h e means by patria, and it appears that by this word he has translated th e Norwegian term hg, i . e. law, as signifying the district organized abou t a single great court, in modern Norwegian generally styled labdörne . Evidently, such a use of patria originates from the general sense o f the word, as signifying not only a whole regnum, but also a part of it , regio. But, even in the last-named meaning, the word is to be commonly taken in a quite general sense ; we may translate it simply by « country »

1. Aarböger for nordisk Oldkyndighed, 1873, p . 37 ; Norsk Sagaskrivning i Irland , p . !ti . 2. Aarböger for nordisk Oldkyndighed, 1871, p. 419 ss.; Kritiske Bidrag tìl Vikin- getidens Historie, p. 169 ; Monumente historica Norvegiae, p . xxt ss . 3. Innhogg og utsyn i norsk historie, p . 211 ss. 4. Historisk Fidsskrift (Oslo), 5 . R., VI, 182 ss. ; cfr. J . Armitage Robinson, So- merset Historical Essays, p. 80 ss. 5. I quote the excellent edition of Gustav Storm in his D4onumcnta historica Nor- vegiae, pp . 70-124 . 6. P. 7613-1 .1, 7. P. 81 2-3 . 8. P. 77 1 .

A SPECIFIC SENSE OF THE WORD E PATRIA )) . 95 or « part of the country » . The Norwegian author, on the other hand , has employed the word in a strictly administrative sense, as defining a sharply circumscribed district, the middle term between the country and the county (fylki) . If he had written a geography of England, fo r instance, he certainly would have called the Danelaw patria Danorunz in contrast both to the regnnnz Angloruzn and to the minor counties . Inevitably the question arises how the Norwegian writer has come t o choose the word patria when trying to find a Latin synonym for his na- tive term . I venture the assertion that nowhere else will you find th e word used exactly in the same way as here, and so, at least to a certai n degree, the originality of the author is indisputable . But I think there ought to be some kind of transition between the general use of the wor d and the specific meaning assigned to it by the Norwegian work, and I have looked eagerly for possible instances of such transitional use . I have come across very few ; but those few appear to have a very cha- racteristic origin . In the Norman history of William of Jurnièges, at several places th e name of Normandy is simply given as patria Nornzannorunt. This wor k belongs to the latter part of the 11th century, and in another work o f the same epoch, the Norman Chronicon 7%ontanellense 2, we find the sam e term . From the same period, from the days of William the Conqueror , we have a document where a county is named patria : a vassal holds a castle quia vicecomes erat eiusdem patrie 3. And, lastly, Ordericus Vitalis puts in the mouth of William the Conqueror on his death-bed the desig- gnation of Normandy as haec patria in contrast to England, A.nglicum regnum4. It is a glaring fact that all these quotations belong to Latin works o f Northern France and most particularly of Normandy, and they tend t o show a special connection between the Norwegian work and French - Norman literature . Indeed, several peculiarities of language lead towards the same conclusion. Already Sophus Bugge pointed out a similarity of phraseolog y in the dedication of the Historia Norwegian and a dedicatory letter o f William of Jumièges s, and in my opinion you will find quite the sam e style in a prologue of William of Conches, a Norman author from the

1. Gesta Nornzannorum ducunt, éd. par Jean Marx, pp . 48, 60, 73 . 2. Dom Bouquet, Recueil des Historiens des Gaules et de la France, XI, 17 . 3. Charles H . Haskins, Norman Institutions, p. 45, n.198, quoted from Léop . Delisle, histoire de Saint-Sauveur-le-Vicomte, pièce 34. 4. Ordericus Vitalis, Historia ecclesiastica, ed by Le Prevost, III, 242 : Willia m gives ducatus Nornzanniae to his eldest son Robert, adding : Hominium pene onz- nium hufus patriae baronum jam recepit . 5. Aarböger for nord . Oldkyndiglzed, 1873, p. 31, note. 96 HALVDAN KOIIT . — A SPECIFIC SENSE OF THE WORD E PATRIA p . middle of the 12th century' . It is my impression that, somewhere i n France, there must have existed a literary school that cultivated an d taught a particular style of Latinity, just that florid, quasi-poetic styl e of Historia Norwegiae . Gustav Storm, the editor of the book, asserted a that much of its Lati n were of French origin . As a proof he did not allege more than thre e single words of the text, and those words did not all of them posses s the like demonstrative power . The first of them, velter 3 , really is said by the monk of St . Gallen to belong to the Gallica lingua and has a Celtic origin ; but it was adopted as well by the Germans as by the Frenchme n and the Italians . The second word, scurio4 , affords a stronger proof, being at least a Roman word, surviving in Italian and Spanish as wel l as in French . The third word, canutus t, stands in about the saine posi- tion, still existing in French and in Italian . In addition, it may perhap s be said that the use of the word regyrare 6 , as well as of the phrase susum et jusum7, points to Italy . On the other hand, the word forisfa- cere 8 particulary seems to belong to English juridical language . A grea t deal of the poetic phraseology of the author is borrowed from the conn- mon Vergilian stock ; the Aeneid seems to have been his text-book in th e grammar school . He himself tells us that he was a pupil of Agnellus . If we accept, a s even 1 have done, the very probable hypothesis that this Agnellus i s identical with the English archdeacon Master Thomas Agnellus, we ar e easily led to the conclusion that the Norwegian author had his edu- cation in France, Thomas being a born Frenchman, a brother of th e canon Stephen of Tournai . But 1 cannot leave it unmentioned that th e surname Agnellus, as far as I know, apart from this single instance , never was in use in England nor in France, whereas it is rather com- mon in medieval Italy . Now, between the Norman kingdom of Sicily an d the great Anglo-Norman empire in the North, there was a very intimat e intercourse during the 12th century, and perhaps the Agnellus of th e Historia Norwegiae affords a new link in that intercourse, leading from the Normans of Italy through Normandy and England over to Norway . Oslo, Sept . 1926 . Halvdan Rom..

I. V . Migne, Palrologia lalina, vol. 171, p . 1007 s. `l. .ltonnntcnla hist . Norv., p. xxnl . 3. P . 83 10 . 4. P . 85 2 . 5. P . 101 s . G. P . 73 % . 7. P . 80 2 . 8. P . 72 1 .