Gripla - 20.12.2018, Page 156

GRIPLA156
nere, is evidently feminine accusative. It is on the basis of these examples
that the nominative in *-neru (rather than -ner) is posited.
3.4. The forms feorhnere and lífnere
further compounds of the same type involve *feorhneru and *lífneru, with
feorh and líf both meaning ‘life’ just like ealdor/aldor. the nominative case
of these compounds is not attested, but the forms are conjectured, as in the
case of *ealdorneru/*aldorneru. the word *feorhneru is attested fourteen
times in oblique cases. the meaning is given as ‘life’s preservation or sal-
vation, a refuge, sustenance, nourishment; food; vītæ servātio, refŭgium,
ălĭmentum, cĭbus’.60 In the entry feorhneru in the DOE the two meanings
are more explicitly separated: 1. ‘preservation of life, asylum; salvation’, 2.
‘nourishment (to sustain life), food’. a close parallel to the passage from
Azarias cited above is found in the poem Daniel (Dan. 335–339), except
that it involves the form feorhnere rather than ealdornere. The text and
translation are from anlezark:
Ða of roderum wæs
engel ælbeorht ufan onsended,
wlite-scyne wer on his wuldor-haman,
se him cwom to frofre and to feorhnere
mid lufan and mid lisse.
[then a radiant angel was sent from the skies above, a beautiful man
in his glorious robe, who came as a comfort and as a lifesaver to
them with love and with kindness.]61
again, just as in the case of Azarias, the translation given here prefers the
word ‘lifesaver’ to a more literal ‘life saving, life’s salvation’.
the word *lífneru, attested once in the poem Andreas in the Vercelli
book (late tenth century), has the meaning ‘support of life, food’.
60 Bosworth and toller, An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, 279, and Supplement, 213. Parallel to the
entry ealdorneru, in the main volume of Bosworth and toller the entry form is given as
feorhner (neuter), but in the Supplement this has been corrected to feorhneru (feminine).
remarkably, however, lífneru is given in its correct nominative form together with infor-
mation on its correct feminine gender in the entry for this word in the main volume.
61 Old Testament Narratives, 270–271.