Synonyms for Man, Warriorr in LaaamonnS Brut and Old English Alliterative Poetry

Abstract

Laȝamon’s Brut is well-known for being a transitional stage between Old English and Middle English alliterative poetry. On the one hand, it preserves some traces of the Old English poetic tradition, such as, for instance, certain poetic words. On the other hand, even those traces that seem to be similar to Old English undergo significant, though subtle, changes. To trace these changes, this paper explores Middle English predominantly poetic lexemes for ‘man, warrior’ in the Caligula manuscript of the Brut, namely, Middle English simplexes haeleð, kempe, scalk, seg, rink, as well as their Old English counterparts haeleð, cempa, scealc, secg, rinc in the verse section of the DOE Corpus.