| Click on button beside each word to indicate how it is abbreviated in the text. |
| The text is not heavily abbreviated. This is just a sample from one section. A greater proportion of the Latin words and proper nouns, or names, in the text are abbreviated compared to the Old English words. The first row shows the former and the second row the latter. The Tironian symbol for the Latin et< is used for and. This seems to go along with the interpolation of Latin words for any sort of religious concept to indicate that there is something slightly uncomfortable about Old English as a written language. It is becoming a valued thing, as evidence by the addition of the gloss and the colophon, but the writer lapses easily into the more familiar Latin written traditions. |
| Lindisfarne Gospels, late 7th century (British Library, Cotton Nero DIV, f.259). From E.G. Millar 1923 The Lindisfarne Gospels London: British Museum. |
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