Disclaimer : this thread is perhaps off-topic. I thank you for your indulgence since I couldn't ask such a question on https://english.stackexchange.com/ .
I read in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, in the famous extract about Cynewulf and Cyneheard (year 755) :
[...] Ond se Cynewulf oft miċlum ġefeohtum feaht uuiþ Bretwālum, ond ymb .xxxi. wintra þæs þe hē rīċe hæfde hē wolde ādrǣfan ānne æþeling [...]
(my translation) And Cynewulf fought great fights with the British and after 31 winters within which he had the kingdom he wanted to exile a nobleman [...]
My question : how was "ymb .xxxi. wintra" expressed ?
".xxxi. wintra" being a masculine genitive plural (ymb + genitive), what's the masculine genitive plural of "ān and þrītiġ" (=31) ?
My guess : ānum and þrītiġ
- In the Guide To Old English (Mitchell & Robinson; sixth edition) I read (§ 83) that "declined strong, ān means 'one'; when declined weak āna, it usually means 'alone'. So, I guess that ān will follow the strong declension. But what's the genitive plural of such a form ? Is it ānum, as expected if I follow the usual declension of the strong adjectives ?
- In the Guide To Old English (Mitchell & Robinson; sixth edition) I read (§ 194) that "the cardinal numbers can be used as adjectives agreeing with a noun, e.g. [...] mid XXXgum cyningum 'with thirty kings'." Since ".xxxi." isn't followed by any ending, I assume that þrītiġ is the expected word (not þrītigum). Is it correct ?