author
Abbot of Eynsham Aelfric
950–1019
A leading voice of late Anglo-Saxon England, this Benedictine abbot wrote vivid sermons, saints’ lives, and teaching texts in Old English to make Christian learning easier to understand. His clear prose and practical style helped shape the written language for generations.
2 Audiobooks
The Homilies of the Anglo-Saxon Church Containing the Sermones Catholici, or Homilies of Ælfric, in the Original Anglo-Saxon, with an English Version. Volume I.
by Abbot of Eynsham Aelfric
Ælfrics Grammatik und Glossar
by Abbot of Eynsham Aelfric
About the author
Born around 955, Ælfric of Eynsham was an English Benedictine monk, priest, scholar, and later abbot of Eynsham Abbey. He studied under Æthelwold of Winchester, one of the key figures in the English monastic revival, and became known for writing with unusual clarity and purpose.
Ælfric is often remembered as the most important prose writer in Old English. He produced a large body of work, including homilies, saints’ lives, biblical commentaries, and educational texts such as a Latin grammar. Rather than writing only for specialists, he aimed to teach monks and ordinary believers in language they could follow.
His works survive in remarkable quantity, which has made him central to the study of Anglo-Saxon literature, religion, and learning. Even now, he stands out as a writer who combined scholarship with a strong desire to explain difficult ideas simply and well.