Of the centuries that comprise the Old English period -- and thus (temporally speaking) the first third of English Literature -- one would be hard pressed to find one more significant than the Tenth, in which reformers engineered a resurgence of literacy in a land decimated by Viking invasion. Among the writers of this period, perhaps the most educated, prolific, and influential was a monk named Ælfric of Eynsham.

Using cutting-edge technology, this project will provide printed and electronic editions of key works by Ælfric that remain unpublished, partially published, or scattered through out-of-print texts, making these works accessible to non-specialists as well as to scholars of early English literature.

 

 

 Aelfric writes because, he says, I have seen and heard much error and heresy in many English books. This is one of the most famous lines from the Preface.