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Making
a language come alive:
The transcription work of Prof. Sarah Keefer and her students
Anyone
who has read Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkien, might recognize
some sounds from the Old English language if they heard them. Remember
the language of Rohan, written in modern day English but scattered with
words like Theoden, Eomer, Eowyn and Meduseld? These words all have meanings
in Old English and impart some feeling for the ancient language.
Written in its original form, Old English is fascinating and puzzling to look at. Filled with unfamiliar letters, it seems indecipherable and foreign to the modern eye.
However, Professor Sarah Keefer, and her English 431 students, know this language well. They can read Old English, make transcriptions and, thanks to Prof. Keefer’s innovative theories on course content, are working through the complicated issues of editing and handling ancient work. Most scholars assume students need to be working at a graduate level before they can tackle issues like this, but Prof. Keefer has proven undergraduate students are completely capable of such high-level critical work.
"I am so proud of these honours students. In many ways they are working at a graduate level. I’m teaching them to handle manuscript material from an editorial standpoint. Transcription involves copying and interpreting what is in the manuscript, tackling the issues of how you present it to modern day readers, and all the steps in between," Prof. Keefer says enthusiastically. "The students aren’t just working on the receiving end of the texts - reading editions of Old English works and seeing how structure and design are different from modern English - but from the giving end, asking how we make the editions in the first place. They are evaluating what the original manuscript context looks like and the issues an editor must face."
A
foundation of English 431 is study of the Exeter Book, the earliest recorded
anthology of poetry in English. Dating to circa 975 C.E. (Common Era,
also known as A.D., or Anno Domini), the Exeter Book is an important text,
one that some scholars have devoted their entire lives to. In fact, one
of Prof. Keefer’s Australian colleagues, Bernard Muir, has dedicated
himself to the study of this text for the past 25 years, and has developed
an innovative Exeter Book computer program. All pages of the ancient manuscript
can be accessed electronically, through this program, along with many
other text resources. Some damaged portions of text can be magnified and
also viewed through ultraviolet light, helping students piece together
the original text.
"It’s like taking students to the Exeter Cathedral Library for an entire year and letting them have unlimited access to the manuscript. This is a unique manuscript and you don’t want people pawing over it. If you digitize it, you don’t have to," smiles Prof. Keefer, adding that she is the first educator in the world to use the program for educational purposes. The University of Exeter Press hadn’t even considered its pedagogical possibilities until Sarah heard about it and offered to test it with her students.
"I start the course by giving riddles to transcribe," explains Prof. Keefer. There are three levels of transcription involved. Facsimile transcription, which involves copying the actual script and layout of a manuscript text in the same manner as a 10th-century scribe, helps students learn to read insular minuscule, the handwriting of Anglo-Saxon vernacular writing. Diplomatic transcription includes copying the layout and textual manuscript details into modern letterforms, paying close attention to errors and scribal abbreviations. Critical transcription culminates in presenting the text in a format that modern readers can best understand.
"Each student transcribes between 150 and 180 lines, and prepares the text as if they were publishing it," says Prof. Keefer. "They get to dig into the issues around editing and, through working from the original text, can assess the work of other editors to their own."
The students also work co-operatively to strengthen each other’s work. A peer review process is part of each assignment, where students submit their work to each other for review and comments. Based on this input, students have the opportunity to make revisions before submitting their final assignments to Prof. Keefer.
Prof. Keefer’s own fascination with the medieval period began when she was 15. She broke her right femur and ended up in a hospital traction sling and body cast for an entire summer. Lord of the Rings made its way into her hands, and she loved it. "It changed my mind about everything," she recalls. "Then, when I was doing graduate work, I was all prepared to be a Victorianist, but when I took my first Old English course, it felt like I’d come home." Prof. Keefer adds that Tolkien also had a fascination with language and built structured languages into his books. A course she taught in 2001/02, exploring these links, was called "The Anglo Saxon World of J.R.R. Tolkien," and was very popular with Trent students. This course will be offered again in 2003/04.
In English 431, also, students are very engaged. They eagerly discuss their own transcription work and the challenges they have encountered. During a class in early December, student Dave Jordan touched on one of the complexities of making transciption relevant for modern readers. He said: "You don’t respect the poem by translating it word for word. It becomes flat. If you give yourself license to make it a poem again, you’ve given it an opportunity to live and breathe and for people to experience it."
"Translation is transformation," Prof. Keefer told her students. "Walter Ong said that. You change the colour, the flavour, the texture."
As her class discussed the ethics of editing ancient manuscripts, Prof. Keefer was visibly pleased. The level of discussion was intelligent, intense and engrossing, creating an atmosphere suffused with erudition.
"This is definitely a course I want to teach again," says Prof. Keefer. "My students would be able to digitize manuscripts at a publishing house based on this. They have experience in editing, archiving and conservation. And they’re having a blast - they love it."
Photo: Prof. Sarah Keefer during one of her English 431 class, Studies in Old English Language and Literature. In the foreground are two texts: the Exeter Book, the primary text for the course, and A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary.
Photo of text: courtesy of the University of Exeter Press.
Posted February 10, 2003
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