Oisc of Kent
Oisc (early Old English
Etymology and spellings
Most scholars agree that, like many names in the Germanic languages, the
In Insley's interpretation, in Oisc the ōs element is combined with a suffix which in Proto-Germanic took the form **ika, which in this context had a
Bernard Mees, however, has suggested that Oisc and its cognates come from the Germanic root *an found in, for example, the Old Norse verb anda ('to breathe'), combined with the suffix *sk; other adjectives formed with this suffix generally mean something like 'quick, lively, brave'.[3]: 80
Mis-spellings
The name is also found in a couple of West Saxon sources as Æsc (along with the tribal name Æscingas). Insley interprets these spellings as etymologically incorrect attempts by later Old English-speakers to update the then unfamiliar word Oisc into their variety of the language, influenced by the familiar name-element Æsc-. An early modern transcription of the early medieval manuscript London, British Library, Cotton Otho B. xi by Laurence Nowell gives not the name Oeric and Oisc as found in Bede, but ósric and oese, but Insley concluded that these are merely inaccurate transcriptions.[1]
Portrayal in the early sources
Little is known about Oisc, and the information that does survive regarding his life is often vague and suspect.
Anglo-Saxon king-lists generally present Oisc as the son or the grandson of
According to
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, which in its present form was compiled by people who knew Bede's account, portrays Oisc as ruling 488–512CE.[6][4]: 111–15
Possible portrayal in the Ravenna Cosmography
Oisc has been widely viewed the same person as one Ansehis, who is described as a leader of the Saxon invaders of Britain in the Ravenna Cosmography.[7] This says that "in oceano vero occidentale est insula quae dicitur Britania, ubi olim gens Saxonum veniens ab antiqua Saxonia cum principe suo nomine Ansehis modo habitare videtur" (indeed in the western ocean is an island which is called Britania, which the people of the Saxons, coming from Old Saxony under their chief, named Ansehis, seem now to inhabit".[8] Ansehis (or, as some manuscripts have it, Ansehys) is plausibly an error for Anschis, which would be a plausible archaic or Continental Germanic form of Oisc's name.[9]: 22 However, Insley has argued that an older idea, that Anschis would also be a plausible attempt to represent proto-Old English *Hangista-, is more plausible, and that it is Hengest whom the Ravenna Cosmography represents.[1]
See also
References
- ^ ISBN 978-3-11-017351-2.
- ^ Lisbeth M. Imer, 'The Inscriptions from Thorsberg — Germanic Inscriptionmaking as a Reflection of Roman Writing', in Archäologie und Runen. Fallstudien zu Inschriften im älteren Futhark,, ed. by Alexandra Pesch and Oliver Grimm, Schriften des Archäologischen Landesmuseums Ergänzungsreihe, 11 (Kiel: Wachholtz, 2015), pp. 109–15 (pp. 111–12).
- ^ ISBN 9781032214177.
- ^ ISBN 9780851157498.
- ^ Ecclesiastical History of the English People, Book 2, chapter 5.
- ISBN 9780192801395.
- ^ H.M. Chadwick, The Origin of the English Nation, Cambridge 1907, pp. 44-47.
- ^ Itineraria Romana II, ed. by Joseph Schnetz (Leipzig, 1940), p. 105 (quoted from Patrick Sims-Williams, 'The Settlement of England in Bede and the Chronicle', Anglo-Saxon England, 12 (1983), 1–41 (p. 22 n. 93).
- ^ Patrick Sims-Williams, 'The Settlement of England in Bede and the Chronicle', Anglo-Saxon England, 12 (1983), 1–41.
External links