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Aselleus t1_iyovovj wrote

"I don’t know why you would write somebody else’s name so many times like that,"

Well, it looks like someone never had a crush before

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GrandmaPoses t1_iyp62kb wrote

Yeah that was the strangest quote.

“We’ve got this drawing of someone with open arms and the other person doesn’t notice them. Then we have the name Eadburg written repeatedly. I think it’s pretty obvious what’s going on here: Eadburg is writing her own name over and over for some unknown reason.”

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TheScorchbeastQueen t1_iyq8dot wrote

My sister is an amazing woman, far more intelligent than me but sometimes she misses the mark massively on things like this due to her aspergers lol. Sounds like she wrote this. Gave me a chuckle

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Old_Mill t1_iyqvdev wrote

Apparently they have never doodled before either... I have practiced my signature and doodled my name in general all over a paper thousands of times.

Maybe in a few centuries some dweeb historian will be perplexed by my writings.

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tgkad t1_iyrstpe wrote

Literal me when I try out a bunch of different signatutes lol.

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Origamiface t1_iysyrcj wrote

That's the other thing, the doodles here are really poor, like, they look like a toddler's drawings. I feel like a modern average adult would produce better doodles.

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edgyestedgearound t1_iysoc9p wrote

I'm not sure the sketch is even about the other not noticing them. To me it looks like wave type of greeting. An affectionate meeting between two people

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informativebitching t1_iyphabe wrote

Also this…1/5 of a human hair thick indentations from a dry stylus…seems more like someone was doodling on a paper sitting on top of the book they were supposed to be reading. Why would you write something at all that can’t be detected without 21st century technology? No offense to these pros but their conclusions seem ridiculous

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YogurtFirm t1_iyq43fg wrote

My first thought was that she was writing on paper on top of the manuscripts. No way anyone would scribble on those, even back then they were too valuable and precious.

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Wretched_Brittunculi t1_iyq6rzw wrote

Scribes were always writing insults and whatnot in manuscripts. I wouldn't be so sure that delinquents or the lovesick wouldn't too.

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theredwoman95 t1_iyqifqi wrote

There's literally a whole field of study about marginalia in medieval manuscripts - yes they were expensive, but that's never stopped graffiti.

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Vectorman1989 t1_iysye0f wrote

Possible it was a child, the drawing especially is like something a child would doodle

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ByAny t1_iyp3oxk wrote

This was my thought. Someone who was in love with Eadburg.

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Snoo_73835 t1_iyp4rfb wrote

I was thinking that. Or it might be she was practicing her writing? But my money is more on the crush thing.

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Aselleus t1_iyp72jw wrote

Or maybe it was a little kid practicing writing their name?

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FasterDoudle t1_iyp98zc wrote

This seems by far the most likely

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[deleted] t1_iypb508 wrote

Sadly not during that time period. Most peasant kids (and adults) never learned to read or write. Education was a privilege for the relatively well off up until fairly recently (late 19th / early 20th century).

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Aselleus t1_iypqxuo wrote

...I mean rich educated children existed back then.

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Allidoischill420 t1_iypxrrp wrote

And they were likely taught to write more than their name........

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Cethinn t1_iyq24oo wrote

But they still do need to learn their name at some point. It's almost like we are seeing a tiny fragment of what someone did in their life and shouldn't expect to see all of their education just because they also learned other things, if this is what happened.

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theredwoman95 t1_iyqittg wrote

The manuscript was kept in an abbey until the 1500s - abbeys were often used as schools for aristocratic children and would also educate peasant children given to them as initiates (who sometimes would decide against becoming a monk or nun as an adult). It's entirely possible this was the case here.

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OldMollyOxford t1_iyqk4z9 wrote

Eadburg is very unlikely to be a name given more than a generation or two after the Norman Conquest though! So I don’t think you’d find it among later medieval schoolchildren or their crushes.

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theredwoman95 t1_iyqk9z1 wrote

I've actually been looking at the Winchester pipe rolls (basically accounts of the bishop's tenants) lately, which started in the first decade of the 1200s, and you still see quite a significant amount of Old English names. It's maybe 10% of women's names at most, and not many women appear in the first place, but it's still enough that I wouldn't rule the post-Conquest period out.

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[deleted] t1_iyr2170 wrote

True! And a few of these names survived until more recent times as well. The last Old English feminine name to die out was Ethel, and that was just during the past century. There are a few masc OE names that survive today, but are rarely used (Edmund, Robert, Edward; all more common a few generations ago).

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ZweitenMal t1_iyr8lfn wrote

Edward and Robert are hardly extinct names. Edmund and Ethel are less common but these names are still in use. Edward is actually an excellent name—I named my son Edward.

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[deleted] t1_iyrypp7 wrote

You may have misunderstood me — Edward was my example of an Old English name that is NOT extinct. It’s cool and timeless, and Ed / Eddie is a fun nickname.

And people are still naming their kids Ethel? The only one I ever met was my Great Aunt’s friend who was ninety years old 25 years ago (she would be 115 today).

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ZweitenMal t1_iys4a3s wrote

I mean I would not be surprised to see the name Ethel be revived.

You said Edward and Robert are "rarely used" which is far from correct.

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ImaginaMagica t1_iyrkri1 wrote

How long did ink last on a page in that time period? Maybe the drawings predated the names by a wide margin. Like the person practicing their name was just using whatever space was left on the pages.

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willun t1_iypgvtd wrote

It only needed one person to do this, though.

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Knows_all_secrets t1_iyt8lje wrote

You can't use literacy was uncommon as a justification when we've already by definition filtered for someone who does write. Because this is about them writing.

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StaticGuard t1_iyqvf82 wrote

My money is on some rich kid practicing his name and doodling but used the disappearing ink stylus so he wouldn’t get reamed for writing on a sacred text.

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ptolemyofnod t1_iypqxgo wrote

Bizzare that isn't mentioned, the drawing is described as outstretched arms too, it sounds exactly like a scribe with a crush who is bored at work.

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[deleted] t1_iypbs0w wrote

That was my first thought, too. Romance is a big thing for a lot of people and a young person in love would absolutely do something like this lol.

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CNKeeny t1_iypwguq wrote

Came here to say the same thing. And I bet the doodle is Eadburg denying the writer’s advances.

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doctorcrimson t1_iyq5pdj wrote

My money is on a woman's contribution ignored for 1200 years.

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Spinningwoman t1_iyqy0wm wrote

There’s a certain pleasure in the pain felt where the top comment is the one you came here to make.

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mcrackin15 t1_iyrkfx8 wrote

I assume someone was teaching her how to write her own name using a piece of paper on top of the surface that these markings were found on. Weird that they try to come up with something significant.

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RogueDIL t1_iyryozp wrote

And it also took leading edge technology to figure out how to gently slide a pencil lead over indentations on paper to see what was written on the page before it?

Perhaps these scientists should have a look at pretty much every detective drama made from the late seventies until the early nineties for the technique!

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worotan t1_iys7lhm wrote

Except the technology means they don’t need to rub a pencil over 1,200 + year old manuscripts hoping to see if they find anything on each of the many pages.

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