Hand: Main Hand (incl. scribbles), BL Cotton Tiberius B.v, fols. 2–73 and 77–88

Stokes, English Vernacular Script, ca 990–ca 1035, Vol. 2 (PhD Thesis, University of Cambridge, 2006)

This hand varies a good deal in appearance but usually has fairly small, rounded bodies and was written with a thin pen and little shading. Ascenders are normally longer than minims and are thin but with crude, blobby wedges. Descenders usually turn left and are usually long but can be much shorter. Minims are vertical with small wedges, and the bottoms of the strokes turn down and right or horizontally as feet. Round a was used, the back of which is angled and the body fairly narrow. Much the same form was used for æ, the hook of which is small, the tongue slightly rising, and the letter sometimes forming a low ligature, particularly with following g. The back of d is short, fairly steep, and vertical-tipped. Horned e is found, the back of which is fairly vertical, the lower curve long and fairly flat, and the tongue horizontal. The tongue of f is short, and the hook longer and deeply split. The top of g is flat, the mid-section hangs from the centre or slightly to the right but bulges out to the left before swinging back to the right, and the tail closes in a small loop which usually hangs slightly to the right of centre. The shoulders of h, m, and n can be quite rounded and can be deeply split, and that of r is also deeply split but is usually more angular. Long, low, and round s are all found. Round s appears quite frequently and often extends well above cue-height, although it never reaches ascender-height. Long s is normal before t and often has a long, arching hook. The hook of long s can also form an extravagant loop, particularly at the ends of lines (us, 24r17). The scribe sometimes followed the conventional distinction between ð and þ, although he usually used ð for oblique forms of the definite article se. The back of ð can be steep and turned up like a longer form of d, but it is often longer and straighter, in which case the tip often curves up or back to the right. The through-stroke of ð sits fairly low, is short and quite steep, and is hooked down on the right. The upper branches of x are hooked down, the lower branches are hooked up, and the lower left branch descends well below the base-line. Round and straight-limbed y are found, both dotted. Round y is fairly narrow and elongated, and the upper right branch of straight-limbed y is hooked left at the tip. The top of 7 is flat but hooked back on the left, and the down-stroke turns slightly left at the tip. Latin is distinguished by script, although the scribe sometimes incorporated Insular letter-forms into his Caroline minuscule, and for one section of Latin verse (68v26–70r3) suddenly and inexplicable changed to Vernacular minuscule.