[1] While Richard Marsden's introduction in The Cambridge Old English Reader discusses the essentials of the Durham Proverbs, there is still more to be learned.
[10] The Durham Proverbs comprise a mixture of true proverbs and maxims, and are clearer in this regard, according to linguist and Anglo-Saxon anthropologist Nigel Barley (Barley 1972), than the collection of Old English poems entitled the Maxims are — the latter's status being comparatively unclear.
Using alliteration and rhythm, the proverbs show some of the earliest uses of words and phrases, such as "cwæþ se (þe)" which translates to "quoth he who", and is later seen in more Middle English sources.
Arngart suggests that the study of the proverbs "furnishes insights into contemporary folklore and social life".
[14] The proverbs have their roots in gnomic poetry, and show a relationship in some places to the Disticha Catonis and other works of the surviving Anglo-Saxon corpus.
The Old English versions are sometimes (but not always) alliterative, or in verse form, and employ the same formulae with "sceal" and "byþ" as other works do.
However, they have a distinctive flavour of their own, one outstanding characteristic of which is the humorous expression that they embody (as in number 11, for example) — a quality that is lacking in the gnomes.