Anglo-Saxon Texts – serie

First edition of important but problematic Anglo-Saxon text, with much to say about how later Anglo-Saxon writers used earlier materials.This volume presents the first edited version of the canon collection associated with two of the key literary figures of the late Anglo-Saxon period: Ælfric, abbot of Eynsham [d. after 1006], and Wulfstan, bishop ofWorcester and archbishop of York [d. 1023]. Although of considerable importance, its textual problems (how many items comprise the collection? When, and by whom, was it composed?) have made proper critical study difficult. This edition aims to answer the need; the texts of the two recensions are edited with full critical apparatus of the five known manuscripts, a detailed study of sources, facing English translation, and an introductory essay on the text and its background.Dr ANDREW HAMER teaches at the University of Liverpool.

Judgement Day II presented in its manuscript context, with discussion of function of penitential verse.Critical editions of the Old English poem Judgement Day II, its Latin source, Bede's poem De die iudicii, and the homily in Oxford, Bodleian, Hatton 113, which is based on the vernacular poem, are offered in this volume: Judgement Day IIis thus presented in its manuscript context, highlighting its links with the poems found there, and casting new light on its interpretation. The editions are accompanied with translations, a commentaryon points of linguistic and literary interest, and a glossary.The introduction includes detailed descriptions of the manuscripts in which the works appear; the function of the poems as penitential verse; and a discussion ofeschatological thought in the the early middle ages, especially with regard to Bede. There are also sections on the language, style and metre of the Old English poem, and a full literary analysis.Professor GRAHAM D. CAIEis Head of the School of English and Scottish Language and Literature at the University of Glasgow.

First English translation, with new edition, of a crucial text.While it retains many of the trappings of a traditional saint's life, the Historia de Sancto Cuthberto is also a remarkable record of the political activities and property acquisitions of a powerful Anglo-Saxon monastery, and it vividly demonstrates the ongoing relationship between the monks and their patron saint. Written in Northumbria in the tenth or eleventh century, the Historia presents a striking contrast with earlier lives of Cuthbertsuch as Bede's, and is a valuable teaching text.The present edition is the first to make use of all three surviving manuscripts of the Historia, and is also the first English translation of this brief but importanttext. It includes a reassessment of the text's purpose and date, a detailed historical commentary, excerpts of related texts, and a discussion of the patrimony of St Cuthbert, including maps of estates and a catalogue of the morethan one hundred vills listed in the text.TED JOHNSON SOUTH is Associate Professor of History, Western New England College.

First edition of 10th-century compendium of grammatical lore, second only in importance to Ælfric's own Grammar.When the famous Anglo-Saxon scholar Ælfric wrote the first grammar in a European vernacular, he used as his direct source the Excerptiones de Prisciano excerpts from major curriculum authors of the medieval schools, including Donatus, Isidore and Priscian himself . The tenth-century text, probably of English origin, most probably compiled by Ælfric, is an ambitious compendium of grammatical lore, and it is, with the exception of Ælfric's own Grammar, arguably the most sophisticated Latin-learning text of the Anglo-Saxon age. Edited here for the first time,the Excerptiones appear with all scholia, an English translation, and a full contextual introduction.DAVID W. PORTER is Professor of English, Southern University, Baton Rouge.

A new and comprehensive edition and translation of a key Anglo-Saxon textDe temporibus anni, a concise handbook of calendar and computus, astronomy and natural science, dates from the late tenth century. It seems to have circulated anonymously, but analysis of its language and content shows it to be by Ælfric, one of the most prolific and widely-studied authors of Anglo-Saxon England. Unlike the earlier works of Bede and Isidore, it is written in the vernacular (despite its Latin title), possibly the earliest such work in a vernacular language in western Europe.This new edition incorporates the fruits of modern research into the scientific and religious background to the work, as well as the findings of recent studies on palaeography and textual criticism. It is also the most comprehensive edition yet produced, including notes, glossary and bibliography, and the first modern English translation (presented en face) for some 140 years. By means of these, and the inclusion of a detailed introduction and commentary, it renders the work more accessible both to those interested in the history of science and to students of Anglo-Saxon language and literature.Dr MARTIN BLAKE works with medieval manuscripts in the Department of Manuscripts and University Archives at Cambridge University Library.

First modern edition, with facing translation, of two of the most mysterious Old English texts extant.The dialogues of Solomon and Saturn, found in MSS Corpus Christi College Cambridge 422 and 41, are some of the most complex Old English texts to survive. The first two dialogues, in verse and prose, present the pagan god Saturn inhuman form interrogating King Solomon about the mysterious powers of the Pater Noster, while in a second poem the two discuss in enigmatic terms a range of topics, from the power of books to the limits of free will.This newedition - the first to appear for some 150 years - presents a parallel text and translation, accompanied by notes and commentary. The volume also includes a full introduction, examining the evidence pointing to the influence of Irish continental learning on the dialogues' style and content; arguing that the circle which produced the dialogues was located at Glastonbury in the early tenth century, and included the young Dunstan, future archbishop of Canterbury; and locating the texts in the context of the learned riddling tradition, and philosophical debates current in the ninth and tenth centuries.Dr DANIEL ANLEZARK teaches in the Department of English at the Universityof Sydney.

Edition and translation of Anglo-Saxon text, shedding light on Sunday observance and other issues.Few issues have had as far-reaching consequences as the development of the Christian holy day, Sunday. Every seven days, from the early middle ages, the Christian world has engaged in some kind of change in behaviour, ranging fromparticipation in a simple worship service to the cessation of every activity which could conceivably be construed as work. An important text associated with this process is the so-called Sunday Letter, fabricated as a letter from Christ which dropped out of heaven. In spite of its obviously spurious nature, it was widely read and copied, and translated into nearly every vernacular language. In particular, several, apparently independent, translations were made into Old English.Here, the six surviving Old English copies of the Sunday Letter are edited together for the first time. The Old English texts are accompanied by facing translations, with commentary and glossary, while the introduction examines the development of Sunday observance in the early middle ages and sets the texts in their historical, legal and theological contexts. The many Latin versions of the Sunday Letter arealso delineated, including a newly discovered and edited source for two of the Old English texts. DOROTHY HAINES gained her PhD from the University of Toronto, where she is currently an instructor of Old English.

Edition and translation of prognostic guides and calendars, intended as an effort to foretell the future.Winner of the Beatrice White Prize, 2013.Medieval prognostic texts - a survival from the classical world - are the ancestors of modern almanacs; a means of predicting future events, they offer guidance on matters of everyday life, such as illness, childbirth, weather, agriculture, and the interpretation of dreams. They give fascinating insights into monastic life, medicine, pastoral care, the transformations of classical learning in the middleages, and the complex interconnections between orthodox religion, popular belief, science and magic.This volume provides the first full critical edition, with a facing-page translation, of a diverse and peculiar group of prognostic guides and calendars, in Latin and Old English, found in an eleventh-century manuscript from Christ Church, Canterbury; they are collated with related versions in both Anglo-Saxon and continental manuscripts. A lengthy introduction and commentary examine the transmission and translation of these texts, and shed light on their origins and uses in late Anglo-Saxon monastic culture.ROY LIUZZA is Professor of English at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

New edition with facing-page translation of a highly significant and influential Old English text.International Society of Anglo-Saxonists 2015 Publication Prize: Best EditionThe Old English Martyrology is one of the longest and most important prose texts written in Anglo-Saxon England; it also represents one of the most impressive examples of encyclopaedic writing from the European Middle Ages. Probably intended as a reference work, it was used and transmitted for over 200 years, providing its readers with information on native and foreign saints, time measurement, the seasons of the year, biblical events, and cosmology. Its lively and engaging vignettes illustrate the importance of miracle stories for the early medieval cult of saints.This new edition presents a revised text, with a facing-page, newly-prepared English translation; they are accompanied by a commentary based on a fresh comparison with some 250 Latin and Old English texts, the first published glossary for this text, and extensive bibliographical information and indices.Dr Christine Raueris a Senior Lecturer in the School of English and the Institute of Mediaeval Studies at the University of St Andrews, Scotland.

Text with facing translation of two important Old English texts.The texts edited in this volume are Ælfric's vernacular versions of two highly influential early medieval ethical treatises. The first, De duodecim abusiuis, is his Old English version of a seventh-century Hiberno-Latin tract dealing with the twelve abuses of the world. The second, De octo uitiis et de duodecim abusiuis, is a composite text; it combines a treatment of the eight vices and the complementary eight virtues, also found as the lastpart of Ælfric's Lives of Saints XVI, with the twelve abuses. The main source for the virtues and vices is Alcuin's ninth-century De uirtutibus et uitiis. Both texts were composed in Ælfric's hallmark rhythmical, alliterative prose.This new edition provides, for the first time, critical editions of both texts, with a facing translation, presented with full apparatus; it also includes an extensive discussion of the sources and how theyare treated.MARY CLAYTON is Professor of Old and Middle English, University College Dublin.

First modern text and English translation of an important Anglo-Saxon poem dealing with the liturgical year.WINNER of the International Society of Anglo-Saxonists 2017 Publication Prize: Best EditionThe late tenth-century Old English Metrical Calendar (traditionally known as Menologium) summarises, in the characteristicheroic diction and traditional metre of Old English poetry, the major course of the Anglo-Saxon liturgical year. It sets out, in a methodical structure based on the basic temporal framework of the solar/natural year, the locations of the major feasts widely observed in late Anglo-Saxon England. Such a work could have been a practical timepiece for reading the dates of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, for which it serves as a kind of prologue in the manuscript.The clearly domestic perspective of the poem, which fits in the manuscript context, is also noteworthy, while the poem also reveals various interesting characteristics in its grammar, vocabulary and prosody.This is the firstfull modern edition of the poem, and is accompanied by a facing translation. The introduction provides an extensive discussion of matter, content, style, and context, while the commentary offers further information. The volume also includes the texts and translations of a number of analogous works.Kazutomo Karasawa is Professor of English philology at Komazawa University, Tokyo.

International Society of Anglo-Saxonists 2015 Publication Prize: Best EditionNew edition with facing-page translation of a highly significant and influential Old English text.The Old English Martyrology is one of the longest and most important prose texts written in Anglo-Saxon England; it also represents one of the most impressive examples of encyclopaedic writing from the European Middle Ages.Probably intended as a reference work, it was used and transmitted for over 200 years, providing its readers with information on native and foreign saints, time measurement, the seasons of the year, biblical events, and cosmology. Its lively and engaging vignettes illustrate the importance of miracle stories for the early medieval cult of saints.This new edition presents a revised text, with a facing-page, newly-prepared English translation; they are accompanied by a commentary based on a fresh comparison with some 250 Latin and Old English texts, the first published glossary for this text, and extensive bibliographical information and indices.Dr Christine Raueris a Senior Lecturer in the School of English and the Institute of Mediaeval Studies at the University of St Andrews, Scotland.

First modern edition and translation of the homilies of one of the most important religious figures of his time.Ælfric of Eynsham stands supreme as a distinguished homilist, translator, and moralist - one whose writings were sought by the most powerful churchmen and landed warlords of his day. In his sermons, the dead are raised to life, innocents are betrayed, civilizations come to ruin, prophecies are finally fulfilled, and sorrow is swallowed up in salvation. He offers guidance regarding sex, financial counsel, botanical excursuses, etymological asides, lions cowed by roosters, arch-heretics disemboweled, and seemingly inconsequential figures receiving everlasting crowns. He also considers the origin of Antichrist, recounts supernatural visions of damnation and deliverance, teases out the tension between predestination and free will, explores the multifarious nature of the soul, seeks to categorize creation, and presses the boundaries of conceptual capacity in describing the divine nature. Treatises take up such subjects as the Holy Spirit, cognition, penitence, and proper comportment. Private prayers appear alongside public declarations of the Christian faith found in the Paternoster and the Apostles' and Nicene Creeds. The thirty-one texts presented here, with facing translations, span the course of his career: Old English and Latin, ordinary and alliterative prose, pithy prayers and exhaustive exegesis. Nine appear in print for the first time; others for the first time in well over 100 years. Introductions to the texts offer overviews of the content, composition, and circulation of each work, using the fruits of the latest research to envision real-world contexts for their use in specific places, among particular groups, and by certain individuals. Meanwhile, the commentary traces Ælfric's role in the history of ideas, examining his relationship to over 100 sources, 200 other Ælfrician works, and over 1,000 biblical passages; it seeks to clarify Ælfric's compositional aims and further to establish the authorship and date of these remarkable writings from early England.