Ic þancie heortlice minum freondum, Lindene and þæm Deorcan Riddan!
In fact
stæfcræftboc sounds more transparent and logical, but I do find the conciseness of
stæftboc more attactive. The reason for this may be my supposition that OE might have made up noun compounds similarly as Modern German. Although Modern German combines words into noun componds quite actively and freely, this process often seems to be subject to a sort of 'economy principle'. As a consequence of this, the less important components of the noun compound are cut out so as not to make the word too complex and heavy - provided, of course, that the meaning remains clear. There are thousands of examples, but now I can only think of these ones:
Lorry/truck= r
Lastkraftwagen (-) (also LKW)
but also r
Lastwagen (-)
Tilted lorry/truck= r
Planen(
Lastkraft)
wagen (-)
etc (there are lots of better examples, but I'm afraid none come to my mind now).
I still can't make up my mind, but maybe... with (some more) little help from my friends...
