That Stephen is said to вЂinbreatheвЂ™ this вЂ tremulous morning knowledgeвЂ™ becomes significant after we see the first cycle of represented inspiration, creative thought, poem text, and Stephen's reflections on the process. She was the virgin poetess dressed in white, the tremulous daughter who never left her father's house, the maiden who turned to art because she was thwarted in love.ДЄlbum opener вЂPetrified PossessionsвЂ™ is guided by a plodding piano line that's backed by a tremulous guitar adorned with tines of feedback. In future blogs I would like to tell you some more about the manuscripts of medieval Worcester and about the monk who tried to make them better understood.These largely acoustic songs reacquaint us with his tremulous, soulful vocals and cutting lyrical style.ДЄs he did so something grazed his face, oh so lightly, like the tremulous wall of a bubble. The work of the Tremulous Hand has been found in about twenty Anglo-Saxon manuscripts which all once came from Worcester, although they are mostly now found in other libraries, like the Bodleian in Oxford, the British Library in London, and in the famous collection at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge вЂ“ how they all came to be in these places is a fascinating story in itself! They include commentaries on scripture, penance for sins, the monastic Rule of St Benedict, BedeвЂ™s Church History and the works of Pope Gregory the Great. And sometimes he copied the whole Latin translation into the manuscript by the side of the Anglo-Saxon. The Tremulous Hand could compare the Anglo-Saxon with the Latin versions to work out what the most difficult words meant. And, of course, lots of religious works were already available in Latin. But in those days, educated people were taught Latin, and monks in particular probably all knew Latin to some degree. Later on he started making notes in Latin, which might seems odd, if he wanted to make them more easily understood. In this text there are interlinear notes showing a finer backward-leaning handwriting, done at a time when the tremor was getting more noticeable. Image copyright the Dean and Chapter of Worcester Cathedral (UK) Note also how the Tremulous Hand has written around the defect in the parchment. Interlinear notes parsing the gender of neuter words clearly visible on F. He made notes in between the lines of the manuscripts, and in the margins, and in any empty spaces on the pages. All these writing materials were expensive, and needed for writing and copying precious new manuscripts. Some notes are in pen, some are in slate or lead pencil, and some in crayon which was what they called hardened colour sticks. When he was making notes he had to use whatever he was allowed or could find for himself. This was the manuscript mentioned in a blog in January, the one that had been cut up and pasted together to strengthen the covers of an old book, rescued by Sir Thomas Phillipps and now to be seen in the Library catalogued as MS F. He started by adding little notes in his thirteenth-century English, and even copied out some writings in a manuscript of his own.

So it looks as though the monk with the trembling hands was trying to make the Anglo-Saxon writings easier to understand. Image copyright the Dean and Chapter of Worcester Cathedral (UK). Typically, this is the earliest form of English that most Early 21st Century speakers can recognise. Page from Worcester Cathedral LibraryвЂ™s Wycliffe Bible, written in Middle English c. In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth (King James Bible 1611) In the bigynnyng God made of nouyt heuene and erthe (Wycliffe Bible 1395) On angynne gesceop God heofenan and eorГ°an (Aelfric c. Here is an example to show you, using the opening lines of the Book of Genesis: People who spoke English in 1200 could not easily understand works written in 900 or 1000. But then there was another problem: the English language had changed a lot even though it was maybe only 200 or 300 years since these works had been written. One thing they could do was go back to the Anglo-Saxon manuscripts that were still to be found in church and monastery libraries. For a time there was not much new writing in English, although it was still the language of most ordinary people, and if a priest wanted to read the bible or give a sermon to them in English, he would have to look hard for writting materials he could use. French remained the language of the court and the church hierarchy for several hundred years. The rulers included Norman bishops and abbots who also spoke French. Why was he making notes, and translating words from Anglo-Saxon? The reason is probably this: the Norman Conquest of 1066 brought rule over all England by a strong and efficient warrior class who spoke French. Example of 10th Century Old English вЂ“ mixed with some Latin words вЂ“ from Worcester MS Q.

Tremulous picture