--- title: "Anglo-Saxon Onomastics in the Old English Andreas (1973)" description: "Robinson examines a textual puzzle in the Old English poem Andreas. Among them: 2." authors: ["Fred C. Robinson"] year: 1973 venue: "Names 21" source: "http://ans-names.pitt.edu/ans/article/view/745" doi: "10.1179/nam.1973.21.3.133" licence: "CC BY (journal licence per DOAJ; Names)" licence_url: "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/" summary_licence: "Elamur Cosmic License" canonical: "https://research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/robinson-1973-anglo-saxon-onomastics-old-english/" --- [Elamur Research](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/robinson-1973-anglo-saxon-onomastics-old-english/) [home](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [papers](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/) / [1973](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/1973/) / Anglo-Saxon Onomastics in the Old English Andreas # Anglo-Saxon Onomastics in the Old English Andreas **Authors:** Fred C. Robinson · **Year:** 1973 · **Venue:** [Names 21](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/venues/names/) ([Names 1973](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/venues/names/1973/)) · **Publisher:** [University Library System, University of Pittsburgh](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/publishers/university-library-system-university-of-pittsburgh/) · **Licence:** [CC BY (journal licence per DOAJ; Names)](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) **Links:** [Publisher's page](https://doi.org/10.1179/nam.1973.21.3.133) · [PDF](https://ans-names.pitt.edu/ans/article/download/745/744) · [DOI 10.1179/nam.1973.21.3.133](https://doi.org/10.1179/nam.1973.21.3.133) · [OpenAlex](https://openalex.org/W2016402153) **Citations:** 2 citations (OpenAlex, 2026-10-14) ## Summary Robinson examines a textual puzzle in the Old English poem Andreas. At lines 1189–90 the saint addresses the Devil as *deofles stræl* ("devil's dart"), and the Blickling prose homily on St. Andrew likewise uses *stræl*. The Greek source instead names the Devil Belial and then explains a byname (Amael, or Samael in one variant) as meaning "blind." The English versions therefore both drop the source's name-gloss and replace the name with a word for "arrow." Earlier editors explained *stræl* differently. Zupitza blamed a mistranslation in a lost Latin intermediary, and Brooks suggested it meant a dart-armed demon. Robinson argues that it was a deliberate etymological substitution that links Belial to Greek *belos* ("dart"). His main support comes from a speech the poet adds later, found in neither the Greek nor the Latin versions, in which the devils name spear and arrow as their weapons against Andreas. He also places the reading within a wider Anglo-Saxon habit of playing on name meanings. The result recasts an apparent scribal blemish as part of the poet's design. Robinson admits that the exact source text is unknown, so his conclusions remain tentative. ## Key points - The passage under study is Andreas 1189–90, cited from Kenneth R. Brooks' 1961 Oxford edition. The parallel prose is in The Blickling Homilies, edited by R. Morris (1880). - Several meanings of Belial circulated in the period. Glossaries gave *pestilens*, Bede gave *absque jugo*, and Jerome and Bede gave *filius praevaricationis*, *apostata*, *caeca angustia* and *caecum lumen*. Modern Hebraists read the name as "uselessness." - The second deviation from the sources is at lines 1330–32. There the poet invents a devil's speech that names *gar* (spear) and *earh* (arrow) as the weapons to be used. - Robinson cites parallel onomastic play elsewhere: - In "The Avenging of the Savior," a converted prefect is renamed Titus, glossed as *arfæst* ("pious"). - In Ælfric's St. Vincent, the verb *oferswiðan* ("conquer") occurs ten times, echoing *vincere*. - In Andreas itself, Mambre is linked to *perspicuus* and Dauid to *fortis manu*. - Medieval etymologists often drew name meanings from more than one language. This makes a Greek-based reading of a Hebrew name plausible. ## Interesting ideas - Robinson treats an odd translation choice as intentional only after finding a second, independent deviation that points the same way; one anomaly is weak, two aligned anomalies suggest design. - The paper notes a double discrepancy against the source: an omitted gloss and a substituted word, which are explained together rather than separately. - A metaphorical epithet ("devil's dart") stands for a named entity (Belial) and still refers to him. - Name meanings can foreshadow narrative roles, as with Vincent the victor and Datianus the one who gives up. - A speculative reading is backed by a simple count: the verb meaning "conquer" recurs ten times, mostly around one character. ## For Mova How these ideas could serve Mova, our small open language model — its files, stages and tests: - **I1** (learn): Before a self-induced repair rule rewrites a parse that disagrees with silver data, the system could check whether other independent signals in the same text support the "deviant" reading. - **I2** (back): When translating through the meta-world, Mova could compare source and output graphs for omissions and substitutions jointly, and flag pairs where one plausibly compensates for the other. - **I3** (frames): Coreference could allow figurative noun phrases built from a known attribute of an entity to link to that entity, keeping the epithet-to-attribute link as the explanation. - **I4** (world): For fables and tales, a small lexicon of meaningful names could serve as weak, overridable priors on which character wins, loses, or deceives. - **I5** (answer): When answering theme questions about a story, Mova could cite how often a verb class attaches to a character as transparent, checkable evidence. *Our summary of the paper, in our own words — not its text. The work belongs to its authors; read it at the links above.* 📚 Shelves (3): [🎭 Arts and Humanities](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/shelves/arts-and-humanities/) · 16,039 works · [🗣️ Language and Linguistics](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/shelves/arts-and-humanities/language-and-linguistics/) · 15,891 works · [🎭 Classics](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/shelves/arts-and-humanities/classics/) · 116 works 🧭 Topics (2): [English](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/topics/english/) · 2,263 works · [⏳ Historical linguistics & language change](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/topics/language-change/) · 249 works ## Cite Cite as: Fred C. Robinson. 1973. Anglo-Saxon Onomastics in the Old English Andreas. Names 21. The paper itself, not this page. BibTeX from the library's record of the work. ```bibtex @inproceedings{robinson1973anglo, title = {{Anglo-Saxon Onomastics in the Old English Andreas}}, author = {Fred C. Robinson}, booktitle = {Names 21}, year = {1973}, doi = {10.1179/nam.1973.21.3.133}, url = {https://doi.org/10.1179/nam.1973.21.3.133} } ``` - [← previous Hedges: A Study in Meaning Criteria and the Logic of Fuzzy Concepts](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/lakoff-1973-hedges-study-meaning-criteria/) - [next → The Frequency Distribution of English Syntagms](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/beebe-1973-frequency-distribution-english-syntagms/) - [↑ back to papers of 1973](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/1973/) *Updated 29 October 2026*