author
Abbot of Eynsham Aelfric
950–1019
A leading voice of late Anglo-Saxon England, this Benedictine abbot wrote clear, lively works that helped bring Christian teaching into Old English. He is often remembered as one of the most important prose writers of his age.
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 the mid-10th century, Ælfric of Eynsham was educated in the reforming monastic world associated with Winchester and the bishop Æthelwold. He later became a monk and priest, and eventually served as abbot of Eynsham, near Oxford.
Ælfric is best known for writing in Old English at a time when Latin dominated learned religious culture. His homilies, saints' lives, biblical commentary, and teaching texts were meant to be useful as well as learned, helping monks and ordinary listeners understand Christian belief in clear language.
Modern readers often meet him as both a religious teacher and a remarkable stylist. He is widely regarded as one of the most prolific and accomplished prose writers in Old English, and his work remains a major source for the literature, religion, and intellectual life of Anglo-Saxon England.