Note 800 — LECTURE VI LITERARY WORKS (continued); SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION

e.g. 14, 27: ‘fram deaðes liðe,’ ‘a mortis articulo’ (lið = joint); 32, 8; 128, 14; 214, 17; 269, 9; 274, 11; 278, 2; 294, 7; 308, 22; 336, 24; 370, 4; 462, 7; 478, 33. An interesting instance of taking a metaphorical expression literally occurs 372, 14 (H. E. iv. 29). The original is ‘incubuit precibus antistes’; this is translated ‘ða aðenede se biscop hine in cruce ⁊ hine gebæd,’ ‘the bishop stretched himself in a cross and prayed’; i.e. the translator understands by ‘incubuit’ what the Irish call ‘cros-figil,’ or praying with the body stretched out prostrate on the ground in the form of a cross.