Forty Centuries of Christian Writing

Caedmon's Hymn

Caedmon · 7th century

Nine lines in praise of the creator, said by Bede to have been given in a dream to an illiterate cowherd at Whitby who then became a poet.

The Dream of the Rood

Anonymous

A dreamer sees the cross, which then speaks: a tree cut down and made to hold its lord, forbidden to bend or fall, sharing the wounds driven through him.

The Old English Martyrology

Anonymous

Short prose entries for saints through the year, each giving the day, the manner of death, and often a concrete detail found in no other source.

The Old English Pastoral Care

Alfred the Great · 849–899

Gregory's handbook for bishops translated into English by a king, with a preface lamenting that learning had so decayed that few south of the Humber could understand Latin.

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle

Anonymous

Year-by-year annals kept at several monasteries, from Julius Caesar to the twelfth century, terse for most years and vivid in crisis.

The Old English Boethius

Alfred the Great and his circle · 849–899

The Consolation of Philosophy rendered into English with substantial additions, Christianising Lady Philosophy and adding discussions of fate, free will, and kingship.

The Old English Rule of Saint Benedict

Æthelwold of Winchester · c. 904–984

Benedict's rule in English, made so that nuns and monks without Latin could hear their own rule and understand what they had promised.

The Blickling Homilies

Anonymous

Nineteen anonymous sermons, more apocalyptic and more willing to use legendary material than Ælfric would allow, including a vision of hell close to one in Beowulf.

The Vercelli Book

Anonymous

A manuscript of homilies and religious poems, including Andreas, Elene on the finding of the cross, and the fullest text of The Dream of the Rood.

The Exeter Book

Anonymous

The largest surviving collection of Old English poetry: the Christ poems, The Wanderer, The Seafarer, and ninety-odd riddles ranging from the devout to the frankly obscene.

The Catholic Homilies

Ælfric of Eynsham · c. 955–c. 1010

Two series of sermons for the church year in clear rhythmic English, written because the author had seen much error in English books read by unlearned men.

Lives of Saints

Ælfric of Eynsham · c. 955–c. 1010

Saints' lives in rhythmical alliterative prose for the feasts kept by monks, including English saints alongside the martyrs of the early church.

The Enchiridion

Byrhtferth of Ramsey · c. 970–c. 1020

A textbook on the calendar and the computus in Latin and English by turns, wandering into numerology, the four elements, and complaints about lazy priests.

The Sermon of the Wolf to the English

Sermo Lupi ad Anglos

Wulfstan of York · d. 1023

Preached as the Danes overran England: the world is hastening to its end, and the English are being punished because they betray, enslave, and sell one another.