Words Derived from Old Norse in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: An Etymological Survey [Paperback]

The most rigorous description ever undertaken of the Scandinavian influence on the vocabulary of a major Middle English text, and a new model for the collection and analysis of Norse loans in any English source.

• A new survey of the etymological evidence for nearly 500 words in one of the most famous and important Middle English poems
• Conducted in accordance with a groundbreaking new system of etymological classification, and with references to all relevant previous scholarship going back to the nineteenth century
• Contains new insights into the etymologies, forms, meanings and textual interpretation of hundreds of Middle English words
• Includes a new introduction to the scholarly study of the Old Norse influence on English vocabulary, including a detailed discussion of methodologies

Acknowledgements iv

Abbreviations and conventions vi

Introductory essays

1. Introductory remarks 1

1.1 Backgrounds 1

1.2 About this book 6

1.3 Sir Gawain and the Scandinavian Element 9

1.4 The identification of Old Norse input 25

1.4.1 Assumptions and interpretations 26

1.4.2 On evidence 34

1.5 Types and uses of structural evidence 39

1.5.1 Systematic formal evidence: Type A 39

1.5.2 Other structural categories: Types B, C and D 44

1.6 Circumstantial evidence 49

1.6.1 Germanic distribution 50

1.6.2 Dialect distribution in England 54

1.7 Categories and probabilities: other labels in the Survey 63

1.8 The Survey: inclusions and exclusions 65

1.9 The entries: format and conventions 68

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