Help Index | Guide | Search Index
Search:
Word | Substring | Alliteration
Word Search
With 'Word' highlighted on the toolbar, enter a word or words with or without wildcards and boolean operators in the white box beneath the toolbar. Click 'Search'.
A message in the lower right says 'Searching', and then 'Done!' The 'No. of instances' displays to the left, and the first instance appears in context at the bottom.
Click 'Show Result' to reveal the entire list and use the scrollbar to review all the results. One must be careful using results from a word search of the transcript, however, because the scribes did not always observe conventional word boundaries. Use wildcards to help find embedded words. The Substring search can also locate embedded words, as long as no spaces occur within the word-strings.
Click the 'Collapse' button to save space, and use 'Next' and 'Previous' to view the results one by one. With either Edition or Transcript open, double-click the instance to go directly to the line. Click 'Clear' to enter a new search.
Substring
With a 'Substring' search, one can discover in a moment how often, for example, þ occurs in the manuscript compared to ð, or how often the inflection -um occurs compared to -es. Enter the letter or letters and click 'Search' or 'Count'.
With 'Search' click 'Show Result' and use the scrollbar to view the results. Click a line number to display the substring in context at the bottom of the screen. With either Edition or Transcript open, double-click the instance to go directly to the line.
Perhaps the most valuable function of the Substring search of the transcript is its ability to locate words where the scribes have not observed conventional word boundaries.
Alliteration
The most salient feature of Old English verse is alliteration, the repetition of initial sounds on accented syllables. The typical line is divided into an on-verse and an off-verse, each containing two accented syllables, with alliteration falling on one or both of the accented syllables in the on-verse, but on only the first accented syllable of the off-verse.
Highlight 'Alliteration' to open its search window. To search for alliteration of a particular sound, simply enter the appropriate letter with an asterisk. Note that, because all vowels alliterate in Beowulf, the word Vowel on the symbol toolbar permits general searches of vocalic alliteration.
You may refine the search in many ways. For example, to find how often Beowulf or Biowulf alliterates at least once per line, enter b* <WITH> b*wulf* and set the 'Min. no. of instances' to 2. Click 'Search'.
In this example, b-alliteration occurs 41 times. The first occurrence is displayed on the screen at the bottom of the window.
To view all occurrences, click 'Show Result.'