I train as a Novice Old English Scribe
I’m maybe the most *privileged scribe scholar. Please don’t judge me —
Oh well, look! I don’t know where I put myself in to, but it’s so much fun (and challenging). I’m a scribe scholar, and into a scribal duty! Well, first of all, I still don’t speak Parseltongue like Harry Potter. Yes, it is inspired by the Old English word Parselmouth, which means “cleft lip” in modern English. I mean, I am totally okay with that if I don’t speak that language. Besides, I never want to talk to snakes — we’ll leave that talent out to Eve. Yay, just kidding.
Speaking of Eve, the first day of my training as a good scribe with a great teacher starts with The Genesis. This manuscript is the creation of the world. It was the day when Adam was introduced to the love of his life, Eve. It was a sweet beginning for both of them, and my sweet beginning started squeezing myself to pass through a crowd of 700 bustling chatting students leaving the Wheeler Hall Auditorium while I repeatedly muttered excuses to the handful who were relaxedly seated on treads and stairwells. Wow, everyone is just so alive here, and the atmosphere was just simply welcoming in the 101-year-old Wheeler Hall.
Well, of course, It’s Fall 2022. The first day is a momentous day for Cal Bears' aspiring scribe scholars (or just students who didn’t really want to be a scribe like the sea of 700 students, learning Data Science, I managed to pass through as how Moses crossed the Red Sea)
Upstairs.
The wits who just ended their class marched down while we moved and occupied the room they just vacated. There were two doors in the hall, and entering a door on the first day of the class, especially in a two-door hall will determine your fate! (I mean not really your future, but who you get to sit with and if you’ll ever get a seat. It’s also 78 degrees outside and some grown-ups can smell like a 2nd-grade kid sometimes; kind of sweet, sour, and tangy like onions… acrid and musty). I took the front door and the hall was fully packed! There were about sixty-plus students in the hall already, not counting the ones who kept coming in. We’re maxed to the class capacity, and there were so many students who didn’t have a seat and are on the waitlist. But, your girl is not. I told you, that’s probably the number one privilege I have as a scribe scholar. I get to choose if I really wanted to be here or not, and I was not forced to devote my life to scribal education or worry about the uncertainties of getting into this training and obtaining a spot.
This is it. I am here for it.
As I enter the door, I quickly scanned the room to find a place to seat.
The front door paved a way to a seat that may have appeared invisible to others despite the seat scarcity. I just hoped I will not be invisible too for the whole learning session because I took the open seat. As I was making my way to the seat in the second row, second column from the right. I was surprisingly greeted with a smiling face and a compliment, “I like your outfit, it’s matchy!”. My non-traditional compliment-receiving part of my brain isn’t good at receiving compliments and quick responses. My brain always tries to think of something nice to say back and I’m not doing well. Yet, I did the best thing to do and gave her my sincerest, “Thank you!” and asked for her name*.
The Professor entered the hall carrying a can of that red Coca-Cola. I want some too. It can be a satisfying thirst-quencher in this weather. “The class definitely has more people on the waitlist, but this room seems big enough to accommodate all when we open more seats.” She said as words that seemed to be in Latin flashed on the screen.
I just can’t believe this is how many students want to study Old English. I wonder if it gives them the same vibes as Harry Potter’s or more of a Beowulf?
As I haven’t made myself settled in my seat. I haven’t settled down the fact that I didn’t have any idea how my tongue would settle down with this new language. Then, I recognized a familiar face. A Letter of Science student like me who I had some small talks with in my class last Spring. Given the overwhelming size of the class, I intentionally said “hello” to Sam, and reminded him of my name: “I’m Mickey”. The name I intentionally give to people because no one ever has the magic to pronounce and remember my name as if it is an Old English word that needs to be decoded. The nice thing that happened that day was that Sam was confused because I gave him a different name. “Isn’t your name Michaelene?” he replied. “Oh yes, I go by Mickey sometimes”, I muttered under my mask. Anyway, this has nothing to do with scribal stuff or having an acquaintance like how Hermione has friends like Ron. If there is anything in my life that is similar to Hermione, it is only the fact that I have very bushy hair like Hermione’s especially when I was little. I never liked sitting in the very front row before because I had always imagined that people are looking at my bushy hair as it blocks their view. The good thing is my hair is all ballerina-bunned up as I sat in the second row this day.
Up until now, I still haven’t mastered making “friends”. Most of my interactions with people I met at Cal were so far just floating in thin air after the academic calendar. But, like a good scholar, I tried as much as I can to reconnect with them. Until I just found out that Sam was on the waitlist and he dropped the class along with half of the class population. We were down to thirty-five by the second week, and when Sam greeted me in another Lecture Hall in the Physics building, he excitedly said, “Hi, Micayla”. Soooo, welcome to the days of scribal education where the scribes write manuscripts in the space of unfamiliarity to other scribes and other languages and tongues, or to a name that was never once remembered! (ehem, at least I don’t have Elon Musk Jr’s name X Æ A-12 changed to X Æ A-Xii, but still).
But what is Scribal Education?
We all know that those who were in the scribal position were the ones who belong in the educated class. The Ultimate History Project notes that the “late Roman and early medieval periods saw the copying of texts move from a secular, professional scribe to a monastic scribe based in a religious establishment”. In other words, there came a time in history when what was once secular scribing was transferred to a trusted and trained scribe in a religious institution. They were either clerics, monks, or ones who went into special scribal training. But, there were also some who were forced to do it. For instance, some orphans, who were raised in monasteries were trained to be scribes. Also, “sons of scribes were brought up in the same scribal tradition and inherited their fathers’ position upon entering the civil service” (Medieval Britain). Some Medieval scribes were trained to transcribe manuscripts from one exemplar and make copies of it by hand as the tool stroked against the prepared animal skin or membrane, a Vellum. Here is an example of a Medieval Vellum:
Every manuscript is unique, but this is how Old English & a Medieval manuscript may look like. Manuscript is derived from the Latin word “scriptus” meaning written and “manu” meaning by hand. Handwriting is probably the oldest form of preserving and disseminating information. Before, no one owns a laptop or a camera to take photos and screenshots of the lectures you probably took a photo of, but never looked back afterward.
A scribe is important in a society. Most of us always highlight how pretty the manuscripts look. Yet, on top of these beautiful works, our stomach-groaning scribes work under the arched light of a lit wick from the ringing of the bell to the setting of the sun. Their backbreaking scribal duty takes most of their life. There are no Campanile bells that will ring every hour to notify students like me and the professor that the class is over. Unlike me, they could not take pride in their own expertise. That brings us to my second privilege as a modern-day scribe scholar. I am allowed to express how fascinated I am as I thread the needle transcribing and decoding the Old English digital manuscripts available to me. I have bodily autonomy unlike this medieval scribe “who penned this colophon at the end of the text he was copying [which] summed it up [their experience] best:
“Now I’ve written the whole thing, for Christ’s sake, give me a drink.”(Ultimate History Project).
Modern viewers usually see the beauty of illuminated manuscripts rather than the enormously hard work that went into them, but a close examination of medieval manuscripts reveals the difficulty of creating accurate and attractive books before the advent of the printing press.
This may be a biased opinion, but transcribing and reading are beautiful things to do, really. Well, maybe not yet the part of reading “completely” foreign characters and language from what I know but to be able to see the manuscripts bring so much refreshment. They are beautiful and precious, and I know many scribes suffered and worked hard to produce them.
In my dream world, I hope I can touch and see the manuscripts and admire the richness of their detail while feeling their fragility. Imagine the sound of delicate animal skin pages, or a textured beaten page embossed and engraved with words I couldn’t understand but know that they mean something to those who do. Imagine looking at the artistic and distinct illuminated initials. They do not only serve as decorations, they also serve as the mark of a division or a mark of the beginning.
But regardless of the fact that I do not have the slightest chance to put my hands on these manuscripts, what a blessing it is to have access to countless manuscript collections and digital archives of almost all great libraries in the world. That is truly a dream come true as well.
Thank you, Cal.
First Transcription
The Professor gave us a reproduced copy of Wulfstan’s Sermo Lupi ad Anglos in the first week of our session. Then, after trying to read and familiarize ourselves with it in some capacity under her guidance, we moved into transcribing The book of Genesis in Old English.
This is my first attempt at transcribing Old English Manuscript, and I began in Genesis, The Beginning. Come and graze the beauty of my transcription! hahaha
It didn’t take me long to mess this transcription up. I was just on the first line of my transcription and I messed up already. Right, I am a bad scribe simply because I lack expertise in this work. However, even scribes with such exquisite exemplars and scribal expertise make mistakes too. Scribal work and effort are difficult. It is like learning to write your alphabet for the first time. It is like learning to draw, paint, and read for the first time in your life. Yet, even though you do not understand the text, you need to familiarize yourself with it just like any other scribe that did hours of practice to be the experts they became.
A Closer Look
Here is what it looks like actually…
I always find myself fascinated by things that existed before I was even born. I think it is easy to say that I enjoy things I do not know. It enthralls me, fascinates me, and sometimes scares me, but overall it willingly welcomes me into time travel and I come out as a different person filled with a different outlook on life. Coming from a situation where English is not even my first language. English has always felt so foreign to me. But, like a good diligent scribe who still transcribed the manuscript on the skin—leafed notebook he had even though he didn’t understand the language he was transcribing, I will embrace the experience of being a scribe scholar for five sweet months, and write about it.
I will embrace the experience of being a scribe scholar for five sweet months, and write about it.
If you want to adore and behold more of the manuscript pages I mentioned, you can visit British Library Digitalized Manuscript here.
Introduction to Old English is taught by Professor Jennifer Miller, her current research “works on historiography, hagiography, medieval rhetorical culture, insular political relations, multilingualism, translation and textual transmission, philology, dialectology, and paleography”.
To know more about the classes she teaches at UC Berkeley, visit here.
Terms
*The word *privilege used in this article means, “a special right, advantage” just as how we define it today. However, it is not in comparison to people who live in this time or the people I interact with. But, specifically the scribes of Old English 11–12th century.
*Heidi: the girl who smiled and complimented me. We were not friends yet, but we casually say “Hi” and “Hello” and ask questions to each other when we have.
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