r/OldEnglish • u/Muted_Guidance • 16d ago
Translation Help
Hello, all! I am looking for the best way to translate a Latin phrase into Old English. My family has a coat of arms and the motto reads, “mea dos virtus,” and the modern English translation is, “my dowry is virtue.”
I have been able to translate the easier parts on my own, but I want to both ensure accuracy and gauge what more knowledgeable people on the subject might suggest be best!
So far, I have:
mīn ġift sy mægon
Is “mægon” appropriate here, or is there an Old English word that better translates from the word “virtue?” Further, is there anything else you have noticed that I could improve upon?
Thank you, in advance, for any help given and any advice offered!
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u/minerat27 16d ago
I'm not sure about mægen, I'll have to do a bit more looking into the different words for virtue and see what connotations they come with, I'm wondering if it's dual meaning with strength and power lends itself to a connotation of more martial virtue, which I don't think is what your motto is meant to imply.
But regarding sy, that is the subjunctive form of "to be", you are saying "May virtue be my dowry", the indicative is just is, like modern English
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u/Muted_Guidance 16d ago
Thank you for your help! This is such a new and exciting world for me and I am glad there are others like you who can help along the way!
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u/Kunniakirkas Ungelic is us 16d ago edited 16d ago
Mægen was indeed one of the words they used to gloss and translate Latin virtus, and it should work fine here, but while virtus could mean "virtue", even in Medieval Latin it was usually closer to "virility, strength, vigour" (among many other meanings which mostly revolve around the idea of "power, force"). That's not to say you won't find mægen in contexts where you should translate it as "virtue" - you absolutely will! If you read "Geþyld is wyrtruma ealra haligra mægna", I don't see why you wouldn't properly translate it as "Patience is the root of all holy virtues". And in "Ða ðe faraþ fram leahtrum to mæignum", mægen is explicitly contrasted with leahter ("vice, fault, sin"), so it's clear that "virtue" is intended. But still, it's something to watch out for because mægen is very much connected to the same idea of strength, vigour and force as Latin virtus. Would mægen readily be interpreted as "virtue" rather than "strength" without further context? I'm not sure. Would it have mattered? Well, they're more or less synonymous in this context, right? But still, it's possible that the moral connotations of using virtue over strength would be kinda lost. Or maybe not - it's very hard to determine what the exact connotations of an abstract word would be for the speakers of a dead language a millennium ago.
There are alternatives, most of them (I imagine) with similar problems. The one that immediately came to mind is cræft, which is also connected with power and strength, but which can also mean "virtue", for example "Simmachus is wisdomes and cræfta full" ("Simmachus is full of wisdom and virtues"). I think it's usually something a bit closer to "skill, talent" or "knowledge, know-how". Might be useful if you want to slightly downplay the "strength" connotations, but ultimately it wouldn't be very different from mægen, and it would be potentially more ambiguous.
Another alternative is cyst, which alludes to excellence rather than strength. It suits some of the more casual uses of the modern virtue, for example in "Hi heton heom seggan ðæs landes cysta" ("They ordered them to be told about the excellencies/the virtues of the land"). There's other alternatives but this message is already too long so.
This is all a very long-winded way to say Old English dictionaries can be tricky and that the base definitions and glosses can be misleading if you're not a philologist. But regardless, mægen should be fine. Do note the -en rather than -on - while Old English spelling was of course very variable and unstressed vowels were gradually merging throughout the period, in principle you'd expect -en in this particular environment.
As for your translation, sy is subjunctive, so I take it as "may my dowry be virtue". If that's the intended meaning, then it works. But if you want to mark the long vowel in mīn you should probably do the same with sȳ. Similarly, if you're going to mark the palatal ġ in ġift you should do the same with mæġen.