An Augustinian monk and preacher called Orm is now thought to have been working at Bourne Abbey in the early 12th century and that manuscripts of major historical significance in the Bodleian Library at Oxford were written by him. This important revelation now gives the abbey a second mediaeval scribe of international prominence alongside Robert Manning, the poet and chronicler who was resident there a century later (1264-1338 or 1340).

The name Orm (or Orrm, as he himself spells it in the dedication), is Scandinavian in origin and its variant Ormin may have been formed by analogy with names such as Austin. He is known by only one work, the homily collection known as The Ormulum in which he dedicates it to the order of which he was a member. The dialect of English has been localised in South Lincolnshire and although the Augustinian house to which he belonged cannot be specifically identified, scholars have come to accept that it was written in the Arrouaisian abbey at Bourne, a house of Augustinian canons founded in 1138.

Work on translating The Ormulum has been going on for several years and Professor Nils-Lennart Johannesson, a language historian from the Department of English at Stockholm University, is currently working on a new edition. He has been in Oxford for the past few months examining the document anew and last week, before returning to Sweden, he visited Bourne to see the church where Orm worshipped and expressed his confidence that this was indeed the place where the work was compiled. 

The manuscript in the Bodleian is made up of large and irregularly shaped sheets of parchment, each roughly 23 inches high and 9 inches across, and gathered in eight numbered quires. It is only a fragment of the total work and contains homilies, or explications of gospel texts intended to be used for preaching, dealing with the life of Christ and particularly the lives and works of St Peter and St Paul, the saints to whom the Abbey Church is dedicated. "This would make sense only if Orm belonged to a monastery dedicated to these saints", said Professor Johannesson. "The dialect in which they are written has long been recognised by experts as East Midland and the only Augustinian house in the East Midland areas with that dedication was the Abbey of Bourne."

The manuscript has been well known to linguists and language historians ever since the 17th century but its source has never been established although Professor Malcolm Parkes, of Keble College, Oxford, argued convincingly for Bourne Abbey in 1983. Orm's language provides a glimpse of the English vernacular of the time and before it was strongly influenced by the French. It is assumed that the manuscript remained at Bourne Abbey until the dissolution of the monasteries between 1536 and 1540. It subsequently came into the possession of Sir Thomas Aylesbury, a collector of manuscripts and rare books. He was a Royalist who died in exile at Breda in the Netherlands in 1657 but had managed to smuggle out his library when he left England after the execution of Charles I in 1649. 

After Sir Thomas's death, the manuscript was acquired from his library by the Dutch scholar Jan van Vliet who signed the flyleaf at Breda on 6th February 1659. He took a great interest in the text and started preparing a glossary for it but when he died, the manuscript came into the possession of the librarian Francis Junius and after his death in 1677, it became the property of the Bodleian Library in Oxford where it has been ever since and is now known as MS Junius 1.

Professor Johannesson said: "During my stay in Oxford this spring, I managed to identify nearly two dozen books that Orm must have had access to, by authors ranging from St Augustine in the 4th century and the Venerable Bede in the 7th century to near contemporaries such as Anselm of Laon and Honorius Augustodunensis. It may also be noted that Orm is the first known spelling reformer, devising a spelling system that provides valuable information about the pronunciation of his variety of English."

But what of Orm's comparison with Robert Manning, the man who gave our English language its present shape because he was the first to write it as we read it now, popularising religious and historical material in an early Middle English dialect of great importance in linguistic history? "Orm's style is at best dignified", said Professor Johannesson. "His main theme, an explanation of God's purpose with mankind, is too serious to admit of entertaining or light-hearted writing. When he writes about sins, he refrains from illustrative anecdotes which makes his presentation somewhat abstract. Manning, by contrast, uses the illustrative anecdotes as his chief presentational device, which makes his text more immediately attractive to a modern reader."

The association of the preacher Orm with the Abbey Church was unknown to church officials and has come as a complete surprise. Their records go back to 1562 and there is no mention of him in subsequent documentation or church guides. Mr David Tabor, the churchwarden, whose family has been associated with the church for more than 100 years, said: "This is the first I have heard of him. But we are pleased to have him as part of our history especially if it attracts more visitors and stimulates more interest in our building in the future."

WRITTEN JUNE 2002

  See also  

Orm the Preacher by Professor Nils-Lennart Johannesson

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