JRR Tolkien. The Notion Club Papers - in "Sauron Defeated" The History of Middle Earth Volume 9, HarperCollins: London, 1993.
[p277]. The Danes attack Porlock that night. They are driven off and
take refuge by swimming out to the ships and so to 'Broad
Relic'.[Note 106]* A small 'cnearr' [ship] is captured. It is not well guarded. AElfwine tells Treowine that he has
stores laid up. They move the boat and stock it the following
night and set sail West.
[p288]. Danes attack that night but are driven off. AElfwine and
Treowine are among those who capture a small ship that had
ventured close inshore and stuck. The rest escape to 'Broad
Relic'.
*Note 106 [by Christopher Tolkien]. I cannot explain the reference of 'Broad Relic'.
.....
I have long been somewhat curious about the meaning of "Broad Relic", especially because Christopher Tolkien could not identify it.
However, as a sometime resident of Somerset who dwelt near the Bristol Channel, I guessed that Danes driven off Porlock to their ships, might well take refuge on one of the islands between Somerset and Wales - of which there are three well known: Lundy, Steep Holm, and Flat Holm.
I thought that "Broad Relic" might well be one of these islands.
On researching the etymology of these islands it emerged that Flat Holm was named "Bradan Relice" in the Anglo Saxon Chronicles (which, of course JRR Tolkien knew) - and so the puzzle of Broad Relic appears to have been solved!
...Although, perhaps typically, Tolkien seems to have quibbled with the mainstream translation of Relice (given below by Coates) as coming from Old Irish reilic meaning "cemetery"; by instead translating Relice as meaning "relic" as if derived from the Welsh rhelyw.
.....
A further Irish-derived name-pair evidently belonging in this
category is recorded in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles (Swanton 2000).
Flat Holm (Glamorgan), an island in the Bristol Channel, is referred
to as (æt) bradan relice, (into) bradan reolice (annals 918 [914] (A)
and 1067 (D) respectively). Version D calls the adjacent Steep Holm
(Somerset) (æt) steapan relice (annal 915 [914]).
These names,
though English in form, evidently contain a word, perhaps in use as a
name, borrowed from Old Irish reilic ‘cemetery’ (Vulgar Latin
reliquie), and not from the Welsh borrowing of the same item, which
is rhelyw and means ‘relic’ (see Jackson 1953: 403 for the phonology).
***
Note added from comments: I think it is pretty definite that the basic history of this "dream" episode of the NCPs is based on the Anglo Saxon Chronicles [https://www.gutenberg.org/files/657/657.txt] e.g (note the second paragraph):
A.D. 918. This year came a great naval armament over hither
south from the Lidwiccians; (40) and two earls with it, Ohter and
Rhoald. They went then west about, till they entered the mouth
of the Severn; and plundered in North-Wales everywhere by the
sea, where it then suited them; and took Camlac the bishop in
Archenfield, and led him with them to their ships; whom King
Edward afterwards released for forty pounds. After this went the
army all up; and would proceed yet on plunder against
Archenfield; but the men of Hertford met them, and of Glocester,
and of the nighest towns; and fought with them, and put them to
flight; and they slew the Earl Rhoald, and the brother of Ohter
the other earl, and many of the army. And they drove them into a
park; and beset them there without, until they gave them
hostages, that they would depart from the realm of King Edward.
And the king had contrived that a guard should be set against
them on the south side of Severnmouth; west from Wales, eastward
to the mouth of the Avon; so that they durst nowhere seek that
land on that side.
Nevertheless, they eluded them at night, by
stealing up twice; at one time to the east of Watchet, and at
another time at Porlock. There was a great slaughter each time;
so that few of them came away, except those only who swam out to
the ships. Then sat they outward on an island, called the
Flat-holms; till they were very short of meat, and many men died of
hunger, because they could not reach any meat. Thence went they
to Dimmet, and then out to Ireland...
Splendid - and fascinating!
ReplyDeleteWhy might he have chosen this island? Geographically most useful, somehow? Something about its known history? Something about the interest of that name?
A quick check finds Bosworth and Toller only has the entry 'relic-gang' ("A going to visit relics") followed by 'reliquias' ("Relics of saints"). The relevant 1910 volume of the NED under 'relic' notes only "OE has reliquias directly from Latin; and the comb. relic-gong occurs in a text printed in Cockayne's Shrine pp. 74, 79". Both dictionaries refer to Thomas Oswald Cockayne's The Shrine: A Collection of Occasional Papers on Dry Subjects (London: Williams and Norgate, 1864-70). Those page numbers are both to entries in King Alfred's Book of Martyrs, the first for 25 April, the second for 3 May. It is a book Tolkien knew, as he quotes something else from it at the beginning of both versions of 'Beowulf and the Critics' and of 'Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics'. But whether the likelihood that he knew these uses of the combined form in King Alfred's Book of Martyrs get us anywhere, I cannot say. (The book is scanned online by/in the Hathi Trust.) The date in May is the Invention of the Cross, which ties in with Cynewulf's Elene which Tolkien lectured on and The Dream of the Rood which he also lectured on and partially translated. Cockayne notes of the 25 April entry "The gangdagas were therefore days for little pilgrimages to reliques." Might there be any idea of the voyages of St. Brendan and his companions and of Aelfwine and Treowine as (unintentional - on their parts) pilgrimages to relics? Might records derived from Pengolodh be consider 'relics' obtained after journeying? Or am I just nattering, here?
David Llewellyn Dodds
@David - Thanks for your comment and suggestions. But I don't know enough to have a philological opinion.
ReplyDeleteI think it is pretty definite that the basic history of this "dream" episode of the NCPs is based on the Anglo Saxon Chronicles [https://www.gutenberg.org/files/657/657.txt] e.g (second paragraph).
A.D. 918. This year came a great naval armament over hither
south from the Lidwiccians; (40) and two earls with it, Ohter and
Rhoald. They went then west about, till they entered the mouth
of the Severn; and plundered in North-Wales everywhere by the
sea, where it then suited them; and took Camlac the bishop in
Archenfield, and led him with them to their ships; whom King
Edward afterwards released for forty pounds. After this went the
army all up; and would proceed yet on plunder against
Archenfield; but the men of Hertford met them, and of Glocester,
and of the nighest towns; and fought with them, and put them to
flight; and they slew the Earl Rhoald, and the brother of Ohter
the other earl, and many of the army. And they drove them into a
park; and beset them there without, until they gave them
hostages, that they would depart from the realm of King Edward.
And the king had contrived that a guard should be set against
them on the south side of Severnmouth; west from Wales, eastward
to the mouth of the Avon; so that they durst nowhere seek that
land on that side.
Nevertheless, they eluded them at night, by
stealing up twice; at one time to the east of Watchet, and at
another time at Porlock. There was a great slaughter each time;
so that few of them came away, except those only who swam out to
the ships. Then sat they outward on an island, called the
Flat-holms; till they were very short of meat, and many men died of
hunger, because they could not reach any meat. Thence went they
to Dimmet, and then out to Ireland...
Thank you!
ReplyDeleteSadly I don't know enough to have a proper philological opiniom, either.
Those precise historical circumstances do sound plausible as Tolkien's point of departure for Aelfwine and Treowine's sailing.
Having a quick look at Ekwall's Concise Oxford Dictionary of Place-names (1947), he lists no current Broad Relic, but (p. 58) gives 'Broad place' for Brasted and 'Broad toft' for Bratoft, while there are perhaps more interesting etymologies for Bratton place names: 'TUN on the brook' for one Bratton and Bratton-Seymour, but "OE Braec-tun 'newly-cultivated tun'" for another two other places named Bratton and Bratton-Clovelly, with the spelling 'Bracton' attested in 1195 and 1330 respectively. This gets me wondering if there was any play between Lewis working on That Hideous Strength and Tolkien on NCP - for example, could Tolkien have told Lewis about that Anglo-Saxon Chronicle entry - or even vice versa - or could it, as familiar to both, have come up somehow in conversation, and they seen the appropriateness for their respective novels?
Under Flat Holm (p. 173), Ekwall notes "an island" and "The old name was (aet) Bradan relice 918 ASC, (into) Bradan Reolice 1067 ib[id]. (D), Relic is OIr reilic 'cemetery' (from Lat reliquiae 'relics')." He does not say when it started to be called Flat Holm! For Broadholme (p. 63) he gives 'Broddi's island', Broddi being an Old Norse, Brodde and Old Danish and Old Swedish personal name. And for "Late OE holm" (p. 235) he notes Old Norse, Old Swedish and Danish sources. I suppose this means that Aelfwine and Treowine and the Chroniclers would only have know the 'Broad Relic' name, while the later Flat Holm name reveals 'Viking' success.
My first thought is that this ties in interestingly with historically later developments as reflected in 'The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth'.
David Llewellyn Dodds
@David - That chain of place names and etymologies is certainly the general way that Tolkien's mind works - however what specific direction his imagination took is hard to predict!
ReplyDelete