Chapter Two. Ælfric: His Life And Works

Change from Above, Language Contact, and Individual Change in Ælfric’s Linguistic Terminology

“…His vast legacy comprises two series of Homilies, each containing 40 texts, the Lives of the Saints, written partly in alliterative prose, a partial translation of the Old Testament, called the Hexateuch, and a set of three books aimed at learning Latin: Grammar, Glossary, and Colloquy. 2 AElfric's identity, the character of his writings, and their historical background are investigated at length in a number of works (White 1898, Gneuss 2009, Hill 2009, Magennis 2009, Stephenson 2015, among many others). AElfric is acknowledged as "a prolific and wide-ranging author, an accomplished stylist, and arguably the most significant intellectual figure of his age" (Magennis & Swan 2009: 1).…”

The Old English Lives of St Martin of Tours

“…for an article on "AElfric Scholarship"; Magennis refers to Dietrich as Eduard Dietrich, his second first name. 57 See Lapidge (2003: 575) for a concise biography; for the dating of AElfric's birth, see White (1974: 35), who argues for the years around 955 as the years of AElfric's birth; Clemoes (1959b) and recently Hill (2009) addressed the matter; Hill concludes that AElfric was born "in or not long before 957" (p. 37). 58 See the collection of essays on AEthelwold in Yorke, B., ed.…”

Translating the Fate of the Soul in Late Anglo-Saxon England

“…This essay will investigate what is possibly the earliest vernacular version from Western Europe of two Vitas Patrum texts, 3 namely the Old English translation of two visions of departing souls from the Verba Seniorum by AElfric of Eynsham (c. 950-c. 1010), the most celebrated prose writer of late Anglo-Saxon England as well as the most scrupulous offspring of the Benedictine Reform (Clemoes 1966;Gneuss 2009;Godden 1974Godden , 2014Hill 2009;Kleist 2000Kleist , 2001Reinsma 1987). Contrary to received notions, AElfric favoured the hagiographic narratives of the Desert Fathers as sources for paradigms of clerical celibacy and continence in general, by far two of the values that he was most anxious to teach and on which he took a strongly reformist stance (Di Sciacca 2012.…”