Old English mānwrǣce and godwrǣce, with an emendation of Elene 811b

Abstract

The <manweorcum> transmitted in line 811b of the Old English poem Elene by Cynewulf has been generally regarded as representing an otherwise unattested adjective mānweorc composite of mān ‘crime’ and weorc ‘work’. Since weorc is unparalleled and unexpected as a second element in an adjectival compound, an alternative explanation of the manuscript reading is proposed here, scribal alteration of an adjective otherwise attested only in the First Cleopatra Glossary, occurring there in the written form <manwræce>. While this adjective is listed under various headword forms in dictionaries, it is probably to be described as mānwrǣce (Anglian mānwrēce), having the same second element as another adjective in which Old English -wrǣce has often been misunderstood, godwrǣce ‘impious’. The origin of -wrǣce is a Germanic verbal adjective in -i-/-ja- derived from the etymon of Old English wrecan ‘drive’; the original meaning of mānwrǣce may thus have been ‘perpetrating crime’. <manwrecum>, corresponding to the Anglian form that Cynewulf would have used in Elene 811b, would have been susceptible to alteration to <manweorcum> by a copyist unfamiliar with the word, as comparable instances of scribal transposition of elements suggest.