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Heil Marie
English
Middle English
Manuscript

Heil Marie, ful of wynne,
Heil Marie, ful of wynne,
Hail Mary, full of grace,
Þe holy gost is þe wiþ inne,
Þe holy gost is þe wiþ inne,
the Holy Ghost is within thee;
Blesced be þou ouer alle wymmen,
Blesced be þou ouer alle wymmen,
blessed art thou amongst women,
And þe fruit of þin wombe.
And þe fruit of þin wombe.
and the fruit of thy womb.



Amen.
Amen.
Amen.

Commentary
Hail Mary only achieved its present form in the 16th century, after the period of Middle English. This prayer is therefore not found in full in the corpus of this language. However, it developed from earlier traditions of salutations to the Holy Virgin, which are on the other hand well attested in Middle English. This version of from the Gg. 4, 32 manuscript of the Library of the University of Cambridge. The manuscript can be dated to the 14th century, but the poetry within was perhaps composed in the 13th.

The translation is ours, naturally adapted from the first sentence of the English version of the current prayer.

The text’s transcription rather resembles the kind of blackletter writing known as textura prescissa or sine pedibus, typified by the lack of serifs on descenders. This style appeared at the end of the 13th century and spread much in England in the Late Middle Ages. We made use of Robert Pfeffer’s typeface Pfeffer Simpelgotisch.

References
The Gentleman’s Magazine, vol. 10. London: W. Pickering, 1838. P. 616-617. 🌍 Google Books.
Mooney, Linne R., Mosser, Daniel W., Solopova, Elisabeth, Thorpe, Deborah, Radcliffe, David Hill (eds.). The Digital Index of Middle English Verse: an open-access, digital edition of the Index of Middle English Verse. Entry n° 1733. 🌍 Digital Index of Middle English Verse.

The works of John Ronald Reuel and Christopher Tolkien are under the copyright of their authors and/or rights holders, including their publishers and the Tolkien Estate.
Quotations from other authors, editors and translators mentioned in the bibliography are under the copyright of their publishers, except for those whose copyright term has ended.
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