[Note: All Basque words are in Italics and Bold-faced Green]
ALCUIN’S ACTIVITIES IN ENGLAND
*
A review derived from the following: Nyland, Edo. 2001. Linguistic Archaeology: AnIntroduction. Trafford Publ., Victoria, B.C., Canada. ISBN 1-55212-668-4. 541 p.
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BENEDICTINES IN ENGLAND
The activities
of the Benedictine deacon, Alcuin, in England have been reviewed by Nyland (2001). He noted that in 597 A.D. the
papal librarian Augustine and forty Benedictine clergy arrived in England,
sent by Pope Gregory the Great, to begin the
conversion of the local people to orthodox Christianity. They brought enough
books with them to form the nucleus of the scriptorium library that they
included in their monastery built at Canterbury in Kent. In line with their teaching duties they named their
establishment Kanterburi, analyzed from the Basque as .ka-an.-.te-er.-.bu-uri: .ka ika ikasi learned an. ana anaia brothers .te ate ateratu to take advantage of er. era erabide education .bu abu aburu eman to express (opinion, idea) uri uri urrikimendu repentance Take advantage of an education from the learned brothers and express repentance.
Once the
buildings were finished, the grammarians among them settled down to the
demanding but creative task of laying the foundation for the new language.
Little is known about the amount of progress achieved during the next decades
until the year 635 A.D. In that year King Oswald of Northumbria offered his help to establish a new monastery in the northeast of
England on an island near the mouth of the Humber river, called Holy Island. He asked the Gnostic St. Aidan, who had built the Irish monastery on Iona, to send priests to
build a new monastery on the island in a location that was within sight of
his fort at Bamburgh. St. Aidan decided to lead the delegation himself and
the monastery buildings were started, as was the habit at the time, on the
ruins of the sacred site of the Ashera religion. The ruins
visible there today are those of the subsequent monastery built in 1,083 A.D.
The island is about 2 km off shore and can be reached on foot at low
tide. Some other early monasteries
were built after this in England such as Wearmouth in 674, Jarrow in 681 and Rochester in about 780, to expand the language conversion effort. The
principal language center became York, not far
from Holy Island, where a scriptorium was attached to the Cathedral school.
Around 1,100 A.D. a large Benedictine monastery was also built there. Contact
between these centers of learning was regular and frequent, as remaining
records show. It was from Holy Island and Rochester that regular contact was
maintained with the Benedictine monastery of Egmond in Holland. The name Holy
Island was changed to Lindisfarne after the Viking raid of 793 A.D. With the VCV Formula the name breaks down to: .li-in.-.di-is.-.fa-arne: .li ili ilintu to set fire in. inu inular sundown .di udi udikan get away! is. isi isilume bastard .fa ifa ifar northern arne arne arnegatu cursed Get away from here! At sundown the cursed bastards from the north have set fire!
ALCUIN, THE
BENEDICTINES' INSTRUCTOR
If any person can
be identified as having had the greatest influence upon the formation of
English and the other Germanic languages, this person must be Alcuin. His absolute dedication to the task, his organizing ability and
his tireless work during a long life had such an influence that he must be
regarded as the greatest of west European language teachers. Alcuin never was
a monk or a priest but made it to deacon. Yet, he became one of the very few
to be remembered in history. He was a
great scholar in both England and Germany. He taught the priests how to
introduce the newly invented languages to the
people. The name Alcuin was apparently given to him at the time
that he became head of the Cathedral school in York and is composed of three
words: al.-.ku-in.: al. ala alaiki happily .ku aku akuilatu to stimulate in. inu inurritu to inspire Happily stimulating and inspiring.
Alcuin was born around
732 A.D., in or near York. He grew up
at the Cathedral school of which Egbert was the head master. Egbert was especially "concerned to
carry on the tradition of learning which he had known under his master Bede, a
tradition already founded by its former bishops Bosa, John of Beverley and Wilfrid the Second." Egbert
These bishops
had been trained in Irish Gnostic discipline of books under Abbess Hild of
Streanaeshalch, the later Whitby. Streanaeshalch is made up of five
words: .st.-.re-ana-esha-alk: .st. ezta eztabaidazale fond of discussions .re are arrerazko hospitable ana ana anaiak brothers esha esa esalditu to talk (the "s" is pronounced as "sh") alk alk. alkarbatu to get together Fond of discussions, the hospitable brothers get together to talk.
Under Egbert,
the York Cathedral school became the most famous center of learning in England
that attracted young men not only from nearby Northumbria, but also from the
rest of England and the mainland. Although at first the school had
concentrated on religion, Egbert expanded the curriculum to include the
liberal arts and secular literature and science, such as Bede had written
down at Yarrow. It was in this energetic atmosphere that Alcuin grew up.
Egbert loved all his boys but he took a special interest in Alcuin, who would
run errands for him in the streets of York, learn about its history from the
pages of Orosius and Bede and roam the Roman ruins on the banks of the river
Ouse. He learned how
the Roman Emperor
Severus had come to
crush the northern Picts and the Caledonian Scots. Emperor Constantius had come to see Britain under his power and here he had died.
Here his son Constantine had started his reign which had been of such importance to
Christianity. The city was already old at the time of the Romans, having been
a trading center and important harbor on the navigable Ouse, dating back to
long before Christ was born. The first Church had been built in 627 by Bishop
Paulinus who had dedicated it to St. Peter. This little wooden building was
soon replaced by Paulinus' successor, King Oswald, who completed a splendid structure of stone. As Alcuin grew
up, another teacher became even more important to him than Egbert had been.
His name was Aelbert, whose special interest was in books and teaching.
Aelbert allowed Alcuin to teach the younger students. Alcuin said later about
Aelbert: "My master told me to rise with all that was in me to the
defense of the Catholic Faith if anywhere I should hear of the springing up
of strange sects, opposed to Apostolic doctrines". Aelbert introduced
more advanced studies such as Latin grammar, language and prose, rhetoric,
mathematics, arithmetic, geometry and astronomy. Natural sciences
were also taught including eclipses of the sun and moon, tides, earthquakes
and the laws that govern the lives of men, beasts and birds as written by
Pliny, Isidore and Bede. Alcuin also encouraged these teachings and gave
credit to pre-Christian teaching, saying: "They were the wisest men who
discerned these arts in nature. It is a great disgrace to us to let them die
out in our time". Canon law was required by those who wished to enter
the priesthood that also required knowledge of music such as the Gregorian
chant as composed by Pope Gregory himself. Every minute Aelbert could spare
was spent in his beloved Cathedral library, which expanded rapidly under his
devoted care. Alcuin then assembled for him a list of all the books and
documents in the library, the first library catalogue in Britain. When time
permitted Aelbert would travel to the continental monasteries to borrow more
books to be copied in the scriptorium. On one of these trips he took Alcuin
along with him to Rome and Pavia and visited Frankish monasteries like
Murbach on the way back. "Murbach" comes from: .mu-ur.-.ba-ak.:
All these travels
and activities resulted in more knowledge being accumulated and raised the
profile of the school and of its master to new heights and it generated a
desire in Alcuin to do the same if and when he became master of his own
school. When Alcuin was
35 years old, he was ordained a deacon, which was one step lower than a
priest, as the analysis of the word "deacon" shows: .de-ako-on. .de ide ide
member
The title "priest" is agglutinated from: .p.-.ri-ist.:
The task
assigned to Alcuin was to establish and run a college where monks and priests
were taught the new language. They learned how to teach this to the people.
He became therefore the educator of the clergy. It is likely that it was one
of the local grammarians who coined the word "Library", when he painted or carved the word on a sign which he hung over
the door giving access to the study hall: "Library" from .li - ib. - .ra - ari
ALCUIN & CHARLEMAGNE
Alcuin believed
that the creation of the new English language had started in earnest with Venerable Bede, acknowledged the
most learned man of the time and the foremost historian of England. He was
Alcuin's hero and role model and tried to pattern his life after him. Shortly
before his death in 735, Bede had written a severe critique of monastic
living in England: "within very many of these 'houses of God' monastic
doors concealed homes of lust and luxury, free from discipline, to which
crowded all who gladly shook off for comfort and idleness the burden of an
honest life in the world". Alcuin always remembered these words and
warned his students never to give in to temptation. The name "Venerable
Bede" deserves to be translated because it
is exactly in line with the other Benedictine names. It analyses as: .be-ene-era-ab.-.le be-ede: .be obe obeagotu to improve ene ene ene come to me era era erabide education ab. abe abe cross .le ele eleiza church be be bedeinkagarri blessed One ede ede ederki brilliant To improve yourself, come to me for an education under the church' cross. The Blessed and brilliant one.
In 781 Aelbert
sent Alcuin to Frankland on a mission to king Charlemagne and, just before
Easter on his way to Parma, he had caught up with the king's party. It was
the second time he met the King of the Franks and King Charles had not forgotten the brilliant young man, because by that time
Alcuin's scholarship was known throughout western Europe. Charles was looking
for outstanding scholars to staff the Palatine School he was developing in
Aachen (Aken), attached to his Court. The Frankish king had great plans for
the education of his people and not the least of his goals was the
replacement of the indigenous "heathen" language of the Germans
with an acceptable Christian one, free from verbal imagery associated with
the still omnipresent Ashera religion. Alcuin refused Charlemagne's offer to
become head of the Palatine School at Aachen, a refusal which the king did
not accept. He was in urgent need of an outstanding and strong-minded scholar
with organizing ability and he knew he had found his man. Associated with
the school, Charles planned to start an Academy to train missionaries,
priests and scholars, people badly needed if Christianity was the prevail.
With Alcuin at the head of this educational institute, Charles was sure that
his dream would become a reality. Alcuin's refusal caused the king to change
his approach and he then contacted co-workers of Alcuin such as Eanbald, Elfwald
and Willehad, who had no reservations about leaving York and willingly
accepted. His co-workers having taken the big step to Aachen, this caused
Alcuin to overcome his objections and he agreed to leave his comfortable life
in England, his many friends and his beloved library to join the monarch. He
had helped Aelbert build the best academy and library in Europe and the
thought of leaving all that behind for the uncertainties of Charles' court
was unnerving to him. He spent his last days in York writing his "Verses
on the Saints of the Church of York" a long poem honoring the history of
the great men in York's history in church and state. After that was done, he
declared himself ready to go. It was the year 782, Alcuin was 50 years old
and a completely new life lay ahead of him. |