Theodore Fedor Grigorievich Orlov

ORLOV, THEODORE (FEDOR) GRIGORIEVICH, COUNT (1741-1790), Russian general, participated with his elder brothers, Gregory (q.v.) and Alexis (q.v.), in the coup pl'etat of 1762, after which he was appointed chief procurator of the senate. His naval exploits in the first Turkish War were com memorated by a triumphal column, crowned with naval trophies, erected at Tsarskoe Selo. He retired in 1775.

ORM

or ORMIN, the author of an English book, called by himself Ormulum ("because Orm made it"), consisting of metrical homilies on the gospels read at mass. The unique ms., now in the Bodleian library, is certainly Orm's autograph, and contains abundant corrections by his own hand. On palaeographical grounds it is referred to about A.D. 1200, and this date is supported by the linguistic evidence. The dialect is midland, with some northern features. The orthography of the Ormulum is the most valuable existing source of information on the development of sound in Middle English. On the whole, the language of the Ormulum seems to point to north Lincolnshire as the author's native district. There are reasons for thinking that Orm and the Walter to whom it is dedicated may have been inmates of the Augustinian priory of Elsham, near the Humber, which was established about the mid dle of the I2th century by Walter de Amundeville.

The Ormulum is written in lines alternately of eight and seven syllables, without either rhyme or alliteration. The rhythm may be seen from the opening couplet : Nu, broperr Wallter, brolJerr min Affterr ije fl2eshess kinde.

The extant portion of the work, not including the dedication and introduction, consists of about 20,000 lines. But the table of contents refers to 242 homilies, of which only 31 are pre served; and as the dedication implies that the book had been completed, and that it included homilies on the gospels for nearly all the year, it would seem that the huge fragment which we possess is not much more than one-eighth of this extraordinary monument of pious industry.

The Ormulum was edited for the first time by R. M. White in 1852. A revised edition, by R. Holt, was published in 1878. Many important corrections of the text were given by E. Kolbing in the first volume of Englische Studien. With reference to the three forms of the letter g, see A. S. Napier, Notes on the Orthography of the Ormulum, printed with A History of the Holy Rood Tree (Early English Text Society, 1894) •