Elleborus in Anglo-Saxon England, 900–1100: Tunsingwyrt and Wodewistle

This article examines the meanings of the Latin word <i>elleborus</i> in later Anglo-Saxon England. They prove to have varied, from Ælfric’s implicit assertion around 1000 that <i>elleborus</i> had no vernacular Old English counterpart, to the association by the translator of the Old English <i>Herbarium</i>, perhaps around 900, of <i>elleborus albus</i> with <i>tunsingwyrt</i>, which seems to have denoted an allium such as wild garlic, to the use of the gloss <i>wodewistle</i>, denoting hemlock or some similar plant, by the Antwerp-London glossator in the earlier eleventh century. The study offers minor insights on a range of subjects: Ælfric’s use of Latin words in his Old English texts; the prospect that the Old English <i>Herbarium</i> marks an influential watershed in Anglo-Saxon scholarship on Latin plant-names; that with careful use of glossaries derived from the <i>Herbarium</i> we can discern a lost early version of this text which is subtly different from our surviving manuscripts, and closer to its Latin original. However, the main focus of this article has been the problematic word <i>tunsingwyrt</i>. The most likely interpretation suggested by the evidence is that <i>tunsingwyrt</i> denoted an allium — and if so, probably wild garlic.