This one was kind of a pain, I’ll admit. You’ll see why. It’s from the Chronicle of Walter of Guisborough.
Scoti inierunt fedus cum Rege Francorum
Scoti – noun, nom. plural; Scot, Scotsman
inierunt (ineo, inire, inivii, initus) – verb, third person perfect; enter, undertake, begin, go in, enter upon
fedus – noun, nom. singular; kid, young goat OR two stars in the Charioteer constellation – this a really strange and unusual word.
cum – adverb OR ablative preposition; with, together with OR jointly, uner the command of, at the head of, having, containing, inlcuding, by means of
Rege – this one is tricky. It could either be a dative or ablative form of the noun rex, regis, which means King, or it could be the present active imperfect form of the verb rego, regere, rexi, rectus, which means to rule, guide, manage, or direct
Francorum – noun, gen. plural; the Franks, the French (though some will translate this as neoLatin “franc”)
The Scots enter upon….something to do with a goat?
Yeah, that doesn’t make sense. The only thing I can think of is that perhaps the transcriber or the author himself made a mistake and the term that should be where fedus is is actually a form of foedus, foederis, which means “treaty, league, formal agreement OR, between states, Alliance, peace, amity.”
That would make a lot more sense, wouldn’t it?
That would mean the phrase is really
Scoti inierunt foedus cum Rege Francorum
Which would translate to
The Scots having entered upon an alliance with the King of the Franks
…yeah, there’s no really good translation for the past perfect into English sometimes.
And there you have it! Stay tuned for more….
