Hengen

f. I. hanging :-- Eode and hí sylfe áheng ... Se deóful hí tó hire ágenre hengene gelǽrde she went and hung herself ... The devil persuaded her to her own hanging [to hang herself], Homl. Th, ii. 30, 24. Hét hine hón and mid hengen þráwan tó langere hwíle bade hang him and for a long time torture him with hanging, 308, 31. II. that on which any one is hung, a gibbet, gallows, cross :-- Crist ðone ðe hí on hengene fæstnodon Christ whom they fastened on a cross, Homl. Th. ii. 256, 22: 308, 30. Laurentius ástreht on ðære hengen þancode his Drihtne ... Hé hét álýsan ðone diácon of ðære hengene Lawrence stretched on the cross thanked his Lord ... He ordered the deacon to be released from the cross, i. 426, 32, 35. III. prison, confinement, durance. Schmid, p. 609, suggests a connection between this meaning and that given under I. in the following remark: 'Die grammatische Bedeutung des Wortes fürht darauf, dass ursprünglich darunter das Anhängen an einen Block oder das Einspannen in den Stock, als die Art der Sicherung eines Gefangenen, der man sich bediente, wenn Gefängnisse fehlten, verstanden worden sei.' Accordingly he translates the following passage, L. Alf. pol. 35; Th. i. 84, 4 :-- Gif hé hine on hengenne [MS. B. hengene] álecgge 'wenn er ihn in den Stock legt,' which Thorpe renders if he lay him in prison. In the latter sense it is found L. C. S. 35; Th. i. 396, 27 :-- Gif freóndleás man swá geswenced weorþe ðæt hé borh næbbe ðonne gebúge hé hengenne [MS. B. hengene] and ðǽr gebíde óþ ðæt hé gá tó Godes ordále if a friendless man be so distressed that he have no surety, then let him submit to prison, and there abide, until he go to God's ordeal. Cf. L. H. 65, 5; Th. i. 568, 14, ponatur in hengen. [Cf. O. Sax. hie (Krist) welda thesa werold alla mid is henginnia alósian, Hel. Heyne 5435: thuo sprak theró maunó óðer (the penitent thief) an thero benginna thár hie geheftid stuod, 5591.] hengen