STAGE 1 EXERCISES

Exercise 5 Eponyms, the Anonymous Tag, Double Descriptors

Notice that this charter distinguishes two parts of Colne by reference to a named individual. The place-name ColumAlberici, which appears elsewhere asColum comitis, is Earls Colne, distinguishing it from White Colne, or ColumMiblanc, an eponym referring to the man appearing in Document 2 as Miblanc de Colum (Miblanc of Colne). Grimbald’s Roding also occurs. The combination of personal name and place-name seen here contains important information which could be used to distinguish one holding from another, or for tracing the devolution of a holding from one person or family to another. Both Earl Alberic and Miblanc of Colne occur elsewhere in the documents, so we need not extract name evidence from these place-names. We should, however, want to note the existence of a Grimbald associated with one of several Rodings in Essex since he is not otherwise attested.

Notice that we have reference to the unnamed mother of Robert son of Maurice. Remember that the <anonymous></anonymous> tag is short for ‘descriptor of a person for whom no first name is given’, and that the <relationaldescriptor> </relationaldescriptor> refers to the word that makes the connection between one person and another.

Notice also that in cases such as that of ‘William the priest of White Colne’, the double description ‘priest’ and ‘of White Colne’ is ambiguous. It is not clear (if likely) that William is priest of White Colne, rather than a priest named from White Colne. Remember that interpretation comes much later. For now analyse only the name record and its components, in this case a given name and two following descriptors.

Tag the names in Document 5.

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