Coifi

[Philip Rusche]

>         1)  Since the early Germans presumably did not have priests (except
> for mixed "chieftain"-priests as in Iceland, but Coifi was clearly not one
> of these), what is Coifi doing there?  (And I seem to recall, however
> vaguely, that he is not the only pagan priest mentioned by Bede.)
>         2) Since OE presumably did not have /oi/, what is the /oi/ in his
> name doing there?  He should have been "Cafi", with long /a/.  Or perhaps
> "Coefi", but even then Germanic /o/ exists only in foreign borrowings or
> where restored by analogy.

The spelling "Coifi" and other examples of <oi> in early OE is discussed in
Campbell's Old English Grammar, section 198.  He explains them as early
spellings of the i-mutation of long o (though he says in the case of some
personal names like Coifi the etymology is less than clear), and that they
appear mostly in early MSS of Bede.  More usual is <oe> and later <e>.

Philip Rusche