Category Archives: etc

wraþu

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wraþu, f.n: (lit.) a prop, stay, or support; (fig.) support or assistance. (WRA-thuh / ˈwɹa-θʌ)

support
Canon table in the Lindisfarne Gospels (London, British Library, MS Cotton Nero D IV, f. 14v). The British Library medieval manuscripts blog tells about this lovely canon table: “The canon tables provide readers with a concordance to the Four Gospels, allowing them to locate episodes described by more than one evangelist.” So the columns provide wraþu for the names of the four evangelists, and the table itself is wraþu for readers trying to find their way around the gospels.

hwyrft

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hwyrft, m.n: turn, revolution, going, course, orbit, circuit, orb, circle. (H’WURFT / ˈhwɝɹft)

Two angels trigger cranks designed to rotate the first mobile sky. Provençal, 14th century. British Library.

meox

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meox, n.n: muck, dung, ordure, dirt. (MEH-ocks / ˈmɛɔks)

bonnacon
A bonnacon, which The Medieval Bestiary tells us is an animal like a bull that uses its dung as a weapon. Its horns curl in towards each other so are useless for defence. Pliny the Elder says ‘..when attacked, it runs away, while releasing a trail of dung that can cover three furlongs. Contact with the dung burns pursuers as though they had touched fire.’ Kongelige Bibliotek, Gl. kgl. S. 1633 4º, f. 10r. Bestiary of Ann Walsh. England, 15th century.