Companion to Ælfric

Hugh Magennis is Professor of Old English Literature at Queen’s University Belfast and Director of the University’s Institute of Theology. He has published widely on Old English and related literature, with particular reference to hagiography and Old English poetry.Mary Swan is Director of Studies and Senior Lecturer in Medieval Studies in the Institute for Medieval Studies, University of Leeds. She has published on late Anglo-Saxon prose texts and their transmission through to the early thirteenth century.

• AbbreviationsNotes on ContributorsIntroduction, Hugh Magennis and Mary Swan1. Ælfric Scholarship, Hugh Magennis2. Ælfric: His Life and Works, Joyce Hill3. Ælfric and the Limits of ‘Benedictine Reform’, Christopher A. Jones4. Ælfric, Language and Winchester, Mechthild Gretsch5. Ælfric and the Alfredian Precedents, Malcolm R. Godden6. Ælfric’s Lay Patrons, Catherine Cubitt7. Ælfric as Pedagogue, Thomas N. Hall8. Catechetic Homiletics: Ælfric’s Preaching and Teaching During Lent, Robert K. Upchurch9. Identity and Ideology in Ælfric’s Prefaces, Mary Swan10. In Ælfric’s Words: Conversion, Vigilance and the Nation in Ælfric’s Life of Gregory the Great, Clare A. Lees11. Ælfric’s Schemes and Tropes: Amplificatio and the Portrayal of Persecutors, Gabriella Corona12. Boredom, Brevity and Last Things: Ælfric’s Style and the Politics of Time, Kathleen Davis13. The Use of Ælfric’s Homilies: MSS Oxford, Bodleian Library, Junius 85 and 86 in the Field, Jonathan Wilcox14. Assembling Ælfric: Reconstructing the Rationale behind Eleventh- and Twelfth-Century Compilations, Aaron J Kleist15. Making their Presence Felt: Readers of Ælfric, c. 1050-1350, Elaine TreharneBibliographyIndex

"On the rear cover of the present work, the publishers claim, 'This collection provides a new, authoritative and challenging study of the life and works of Ælfric of Eynsham, the most important vernacular religious writer in the history of Anglo-Saxon England', and in every particular the claim is justified. This is a work that should be in the library of every university where Old English is on the curriculum, and it will be on the wish-list of every scholar and postgraduate student of Old English." - Paul Cavill, in: English Studies, 91:7 (2010), 790-791 [DOI: 10.1080/0013838X.2010.517060]