#Introduction:# The author of the Ormulum speaks of himself under two names in ‘Þiss boc iss nemmnedd Orrmulum Forrþi þatt Orrm itt wrohhte,’ Preface 1, 2, and ‘Icc wass þær þær I crisstnedd wass Orrmin bi name nemmnedd,’ Dedication 323, 4. The former was a fairly common name in the Scandinavian districts of the North; in the latter, not found elsewhere, he has probably added, as befitting the ritual occasion, the Latin termination īn from īnus, as in Awwstin (= Augustinus). In the same way, as Bradley suggests, he has taken the termination of Ormulum from Speculum, as often occurring in titles of devotional books, like Speculum Laicorum, Conscientiae, Sanctorale. He tells us that he wrote at the request of his brother Walter, who was, like himself, an Augustinian Canon; his purpose was to paraphrase and expound, for the benefit of unlearned English folk, the Gospels of the Mass throughout the year. His exposition is drawn for the most part from S. Bede, and particularly from his sermons and commentaries, and to a small extent from S. Gregory the Great. Traces of his acquaintance with S. Isidore and Josephus, through Hegesippus, have been found by Sarrazin. Nothing further is known of Orm, but Bradley has made it probable that he was an inmate of Elsham Priory in North Lincolnshire (Dugdale, vi. 560). The contention of J. Wilson that he was identical with Orm, brother of Walter, Prior of Carlisle between 1150 and 1170, would be very attractive, if it were not for the philological difficulty, for the Ormulum is undoubtedly written in the Midland dialect, and must be dated about 1210. This extract gives ll. 3662-4009, in Holt, i. pp. 126-38. 1. #Forrþrihht anan se#, lit. Straightway forthwith as, i.e. as soon as. Orm has ‘forrþrihht se, anan se, sone swa, son se, forrþrihht summ, anan summ,’ all with this same meaning, and forrþrihht summ, immediately, ii. 42/11404. Orm’s expletives are a feature of his dreary style; in his dedication he says that he has set ‘maniȝ word | þe rime swa to fillenn,’ that is, to make up the number of syllables required for his metre; he makes extensive use of all, 112/3, 16 &c. Beside anan, Orm has the primitive onn an, continuously, without a break. 2-18. The original of this passage is, ‘_Et pannis eum involvit et reclinavit eum in praesepio . . . parvulus natus est nobis_, ut nos viri possimus esse perfecti. Qui totum mundum vario vestit ornatu, pannis vilibus involvitur, ut nos stolam primam recipere valeamus. Per quem omnia facta sunt, manus pedesque cunis adstringitur, ut nostrae manus ad opus bonum exertae, nostri sint pedes in viam pacis directi. Cui coelum sedes est, duri praesepis angustia continetur, ut nos per coelestis regni gaudia dilatet. Qui panis est Angelorum, in praesepio reclinatur, ut nos quasi sancta animalia carnis suae frumento reficiat,’ Bede, v. 234. 2. #⁊# = annd; see 115/114. 3. #uss birrþ#, we ought: a favourite expression of Orm.