The Uses of Norse Loanwords in Middle English Poems: From Historical Fact to Historical Fiction (original) (raw)

The few Norse loanwords attested in late Old English poetry can be shown to have added factual plausibility to poems in praise of prominent contemporaries. Why did such loans remain part of the vocabulary of poems after the Norman Conquest? And how did Norse loans attested in late Old English and early Middle English prose likewise become part of the Middle English poetic vocabulary? This paper shows that the uses of the Norse loans erl, dreng, swain, and gersum in post-Conquest poems reflect a partial loss of their connection with the real world. They had turned into means of poetic colouring applied to a prehistoric , largely fictional subject matter, mostly by poets who addressed audiences in regions that had come under strong Danelaw influence before the Norman Conquest.