Glosses for reading the translation of Sir Tristrem

Sir Tristrem survives in only one manuscript, the Auchinleck Manuscript, dated 1330-1340, and probably dates from the late 13th century. Jessie Weston's 1914 translation seems to be the only one in print. She has produced an artificially antiquated English; glosses are below, by Carol Pasternack. Items you will need to refer back to because they are not repeated are in bold font.

Guide to the language:

• Perhaps in imitation of the poem's Northern dialect, Weston often uses an a where we would use an o: in lines 1-5, spake for spoke, bare for bore, ware for wore; brake for broke in 25. These are almost always single-syllable words and reasonably easy to recognize; so, I'm not going to list each occurence.
• "I wot and ween," line 17, is a tagline or filler that literally means "I know and expect." Weston uses it a lot for a medieval phrase, even harder to understand.
• 22: "waxen," grown.
• 23: "thole," suffer
• 29: "duréd," lasted, endured
• 32: "thrall," slave
• 33: "meed," reward
• 35: "rede," advise. This word occurs a lot.
• 45: "ween," expect. Same word as in tagline "I wot and ween"; also frequent.
• 42: "price," of value, praise-worthy
• 90: "wight," creature, person, man
• 199: "rede," advice (simply the noun form of the word at 35; choose noun or verb according to context)
• 208: "dight," ordained
• 246: "wist," knew
• 296: "venerie," hunting
• 325: "shewed," showed
• 339: "stound," turn, moment (they are taking turns, making bets)
• 370: "wood," mad
• 377: "holts," woods
• 409: "bliaunt," a substantial, expensive silk fabric
• 439: "boon," reward
• 450: "weed," clothing
• 454: "i-bought," bought (the "i"-prefix indicates a past participle in Middle English)
• 464: "wot," know
• 470: "fain," happy
• 490: "numbles," entrails (maybe you didn't want to know)
• 497: "lights," lungs
• 499: "dights," ordains, declares
• 507: "gargilon," esophagus
• 585: "wist," knew
• 499: "hinds," domestic servants
• 592: "hove," appeared
• 637: "stound," moment
• 638: "mold," earth
• 712: "tide," time
• 717: "An ye wist," if you knew
• 758: "My son thou wast, I said," I said you were my son
• 798: "hove," appeared
• 850: "certes," certainly
• 851: "an thou for strife art fain," if you for strife are eager
• 867: "loaf," palm (of the hand)
• 871: "bane," killing
• 882: "wot," know
• 917: "What boots it," what good does it do
• 928: "barque," ship
• 943: "bairus," [typo for "bairns," also in 929] offspring, children (300 of them)
• 968: "thrall," slave
• 978: "gat him then to rede," got him then to advise
• 1094: "tide," time
• 1122: "he hight," he was called
• 1125: "dole," sorrow
• 1155: "benison," blessing
• 1163: "Develin," Dublin
• 1257: "geste," story [interestingly, the Middle English has "romaunce" here!]
• 1322: "bale," deathly injury
• 1415: "naught recked they," not at all did they care
• 1418: "guerdon," reward
• 1428: "an ye may," if you can
• 1666: "did win," did go
• 2290: "I ween," I expect
• 2374: "mickle," great
• 2376: "burnies," coats of mail
• 2438: "mien," demeanor
• 4813: Weston says the manuscript ends here, but, in fact, it does not. It is 3343 lines long, and there is no break at this point, other than the end of the page. To see the rest of the poem in Middle English, go to the TEAMS edition or to the facsimile of the Tristrem text in the Auchinleck manuscript. Return to Study Questions