A mysterious engraving
September 28, 2005
A reader wrote to me asking for help. Some time ago, he found a 15th century finger ring, which turned out to be a treasure and is now in the British Museum. There is a double inscription on the ring which even the experts seem to find difficult to translate. It reads:
Amour vauit tout fors ceur de villain
Amour en voie coullas eyoie
I know quite a few linguists read this blog, most of them far more accomplished than me; does anyone fancy helping to crack this mystery?
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UPDATE
The finder of the ring kindly sent me photos:
and this:
"Thank you for your help and please also pass on my thanks to the people who have tried to help via your web site. I have read your blog and now have some more info.
I e-mailed the head of French at the University of Wales who in turn passed the inscription onto his Father. By a stroke of luck he happens to be the editor of the Anglo Norman Dictionary.
I have attached a photograph of the ring showing the inscription which will help when you read his translation as some of the words can be seen to have a different spelling to the British Museums.
The following text is his translation:
"I think that the transcription is faulty. The first line would make sense if 'vauit' were read as 'vaint', (the minims are the same) i.e. 'defeats', so "Love defeats/conquers every thing except the heart of a 'no-good/wretch', no problem, but the second line is more corrupt. The 'eyoie' is probably 'e joie' ("and joy"), but the 'coullas' rings no bells and all I can think of is 'çoullas' (a form that I have not come across, but which is not beyond the quill of an A-N scribe) i.e. 'solace', giving something like "Love brings (lit. sends) solace and joy"."
How exciting! Rouquin ricain, you were on the right tracks!
And this is what Sylvain found (from the French side):
[Amour vaine tout fors que coeur felon:] [Pro.] Love overcomes any thing but a forward, or spightfull, heart.
[Amour vaine tout fors que le coeur felon:] [Prov.] Love conquers any thing but a fellonious heart.
Source
And this is Dominique's guess (again, from the French side):
Amour en voie coullas eyoie Amour sur le chemin du plaisir (soulas) réjouit (esjoie).Posted by céline, in Technical corner, on September 28, 2005
A few ideas that may have already been thought of...
Love is all powerful outside the heart of a villain (ie love can do anything but it can't change a villain?)
Love sends (envoie?)
Coullas appears to be a French surname.
eyoie - no idea in this context. Maybe it relates to a quality which love bestows upon Coullas?
Just ideas... maybe someone can fill in the gaps?
Kind regards
David
Another possibly rather far fetched idea - Eyoie is apparently a village in Hungary - Love sends Coullas [to] Eyoie?
Unlikely - but we're clutching at straws...
Sylvain on the French site found that there is a proverb that sounds like it matches the first line: "Love conquers anything but a fellonious heart". I also find "coullas" and "eyoie" perplexing...
Posted by céline on September 28, 2005 12:33 PM3rd thought - eyoie is perhaps a strangely spelt verb - love sends [whereas] coullas does something else?
I'll leave it there - sorry to hog the thread! :-)
I'm not a professional and don't know a lot about the history/evolution of the French language, but my first thought upon reading "coullas eyoie" was the phrase "ça coûte les yeux de la tête." eyoie sounds to me a bit like yeux, but at the same time similar to oeil. Coullas reminds me of coûter and couler. I'm sort of getting this from reading it as "coul las" with las as an article, I guess.
Anyway, that's my thought process if it inspires you with anything at all!
Posted by srah on September 28, 2005 1:31 PMDavid: hog away, hog away!
srah: AND love can indeed be very expensive business!
The search continues...
Posted by céline on September 28, 2005 1:34 PMAnother silly thought then, since you don't mind me hogging... Could "eyoie" be a French pun on the English word "away" given the pronunciation of "oi" in French of that time? "Love sends Coullas away"
Coullas is a villain, love cannot make his heart melt because of his villainry, so love sends him away.
Et "vwayla"!
Hmmm - maybe reading too much into it?
Where's Language Hat when we need him?
It isn't really villain in today's meaning, is it? Is it not something like boorish, peasantlike, uncouth? Love would be a pursuit for the nobles (as in Minnesang) and above the villain.
Posted by MM on September 28, 2005 7:41 PMat first look, i'm sure the transcription is wrong - in any case, i'd bet that the second word is vaint and not not vauit, a common enough error in transcribing. if i have time, i'll do a bit of research just in case (i specialise in old french linguistics and philology). i'd love to hear more about this piece.
Posted by rouquin ricain on September 30, 2005 12:43 AMPrevious: September 23, 2005
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