Fontes Anglo-Saxonici

A Register of Written Sources Used by Anglo-Saxon Authors

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3 August 2024: An important new text has just been added to the Fontes Anglo-Saxonici database, in new entries contributed by Professor Aaron Kleist (Biola University). This is an Old English sermon on child death written around the year 993, known as 'Napier De infantibus'. The sermon discusses three types of danger to a young child, combining spiritual and physical welfare in very characteristic medieval fashion: 1) the risks of delaying baptism, which can endanger a child's soul 2) co-sleeping mothers, who may accidentally end up suffocating their babies, and 3) reckless behaviour during pregnancy, again endangering both the spiritual and physical welfare of unborn babies. The text was probably composed by the West Saxon author and preacher Ælfric, who in characteristic homiletic language outlines the severe spiritual consequences for his youngest charges in case of death. The urgency and shocking detail of the text's language is in any case reflective of the author's well-documented sense of responsibility for the welfare of his fellow human beings.

An excellent and helpful contextualisation of how Anglo-Saxon preachers understood children's needs can be found in a recent article by Professor Winfried Rudolf (University of Göttingen), 'Anglo-Saxon Preaching on Children', Childhood and Adolescence in Anglo-Saxon Literary Culture, ed. Susan Irvine and Winfried Rudolf (Toronto, 2018), pp. 48-70: Anglo-Saxon parents and persons involved in spiritual care were sometimes meant to apply tough love 'beneficial for the development of preferred character traits in children that would potentially guarantee their survival', and 'would go to extremes whenever the welfare of their offspring was in jeopardy' (p. 70). This very serious attitude also comes across in 'Napier De infantibus' which arguably deals with the saddest of childhood-related topics.

The new Fontes entries can be found here. The image below is from the so-called Cotton Troper, an eleventh-century Anglo-Saxon manuscript, and depicts a mother with a swaddled baby asserting herself over a number of male individuals (London, British Library Cotton Caligula A. xiv, fol. 20v, Elizabeth and the naming of St John the Baptist).

 

7 March 2024: Not that much is known about Anglo-Saxon author Torhthelm, also known as Totta. We know he was Bishop of the Middle Angles, at ?Leicester, from the year 737 until his death in 764. On the PASE database listing Anglo-Saxon individuals (Prosopography of Anglo-Saxon England), he's documented as having witnessed a few charters and completed some other episcopal admin duties. But we do have a Latin letter from him which he sent to Boniface, missionary on the European Continent, with whom he was in correspondence. Dr Peter Darby, of the University of Nottingham, has now sourced this letter for Fontes Anglo-Saxonici, following his Leeds IMC talk of 2023 in the Mercian Network sessions there. Thanks to Peter's research we know that Torhthelm uses a letter of Pope Vitalian as some sort of model for various bits of phrasing, although we're not sure whether Torhthelm knew this letter as a freely circulating text, or in the form in which it is cited (or embedded) in Bede's Historia ecclesiastica. Additionally, Torhthelm's letter contains biblical echoes and some overlap with material by Augustine, Ambrose and Gregory. Torhthelm also repeats a phrase used in the Bonifatian letter he was replying to. In sum, a rare insight into the compositional technique of one of the less well-known Anglo-Latin authors. Peter's new Fontes entries on Torhthelm's letter can be found here.

This research is part of a Leverhulme-funded book project on early medieval letter writing that Peter is working on, and we look forward to that coming out. Until then, you could check out his very informative lecture on Bede's letter-writing which is available on YouTube.

The image below shows one of the source texts that Torhthelm seems to have copied-and-pasted from: Pope Vitalian's Letter, as contained in a ninth-century copy of Bede's Historia ecclesiastica, 'Domino excellentissimo filio Osuiu regi Saxonum Uitalianus episcopus seruus seruorum Dei...', in St. Gallen, Stiftsbibliothek, Cod. Sang. 247: Ecclesiastical History of the English-Speaking People, p. 169 (image from https://www.e-codices.ch/en/list/one/csg/0247)

 

08 September 2023: That's another text added to the Fontes Anglo-Saxonici database: some 109 new database entries on Ælfric’s 'Sermon for the Dedication of a Church' (Sermo in dedicatione aecclesiae).

Church dedications were the business of bishops in Anglo-Saxon England, and these events presented convenient opportunities for preaching, as did the later anniversaries of such dedication ceremonies. In this text, probably written between about 998 and 1002, Ælfric repeats earlier patterns from his previous work, moving from explanation to eschatology, but oddly does not mention the church or the Church at all. Editor Aaron Kleist describes the text as 'an address that encourages giving alms to assist and honor the Church's work and clergy [which] would fittingly mark the anniversary of the dedication of the building wherein they met to receive pastoral care' (p. 532). The Old English text and Modern English translation of the sermon itself can be found on pp. 538-47 of A. J Kleist and R. K. Upchurch, ed., Ælfrician Homilies and Varia, Anglo-Saxon Texts 13, 2 vols (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2022), II. And see also the editors' detective work on potential candidates for bishops associated with this sermon (pp. 533-6). In terms of its sources, the text derives primarily from passages in the Gospel of Luke and Bede's Commentary on Luke, with other influences from Ælfric's earlier work.

 

22 June 2023: Just in time for people packing their holiday reading for the beach, we've managed to publish some further new Fontes entries: Some 76 new database entries on Ælfric’s sermon ‘Concerning the Creator and Creation’, De creatore et creatura.

Like its companion piece 'Of the Six Ages of the World' (see below), the text was composed around the year 1006 and deals with Christian world history, especially creation and the Fall. Ælfric discusses the mystery of what happened at the beginning of all times, with the paradox of a creative force that had no beginnings but always existed. He explains about the arrogant angel who reached above his station, wanting to be like God, Gode gelic, and had to be punished with a fall of his own, into hell. Consumed with great social envy and resentment, mycclum andan, the devil consequently decided to make things difficult for the rest of God's creation, leading to the temptation of Adam and Eve, with the known consequences. Ælfric describes in some detail how, after the Fall, dealing with the rest of creation then turned into a bit of a struggle for human beings: 'From then on they were able to suffer illness, and lice and gnats of the air bit them, and likewise fleas and many other creeping insects. And dragons and serpents were harmful to them, and the fierce animals, all of which honored [the man] exceedingly before, were able to harm his kindred.'

Ælfric is also quite critical of our consumerism, and lack of impulse control in this earthly life: 'When [a stupid person, dysega] is hungry, he eats greedily. Again when he is thirsty, he drinks (...); when he gets cold, he seeks shelter for himself. When he needs the privy, he goes there by compulsion. When he is tired, he wants to rest'. From Ælfric's point of view, these problems (geswinc) are all self-inflicted by humanity, and serve us right. He thinks we should get a grip in dealing with life's hardship, and focus on the next (heavenly) life, which will be less of a trial.

Professor Aaron Kleist of Biola University, who produced the new database entries, shows that the ideas underlying ‘Concerning the Creator and Creation’ are mainly based on two earlier texts by Ælfric himself which he recycles, plus some Biblical passages and a small number of other sources. Read the whole of Ælfric’s text in the original Old English and in modern English translation in A. J Kleist and R. K. Upchurch, ed., Ælfrician Homilies and Varia, Anglo-Saxon Texts 13, 2 vols (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2022), II, 714-35, and see its sources listed passage by passage here.

 

13 May 2023: Concerned about toxic leadership? The destruction of nature? Rising sea levels? Read what Ælfric, abbot of Eynsham (Oxfordshire), wrote about these worries around the year 1006. Some 210 new database entries have just been added to Fontes Anglo-Saxonici, on Ælfric’s sermon ‘Of the Six Ages of this World’, De sex etatibus huius seculi.

The text deals with Judeo-Christian theories about the phases of world history, from the beginnings of time, via Noah’s initiative during the world-wide crisis, to the end of anthropocene. As optimistic as Ælfric is about humanity’s ultimate fate (the future eighth age of everlasting life), he is first very critical about our obsessive interest in sex and continuous rule-breaking. In God’s words: ‘I wish to drown and kill all this human race with water’, Ic wylle adrencan and adydan eall þis mennisc mid wætere.

The Flood doesn't really solve all problems though: not only do Noah’s offspring then father 72 sons, but they also build the Tower of Babel, trying to reach heaven that way. God’s next step explains humanity’s linguistic diversity, and it’s interesting that he explains it in a negative light, because linguistic diversity leads to communication problems:

‘God came to that place and looked at the tower and gave to each worker his own language so that none of them knew anything of another’s language, and so they immediately ceased from that work and scattered to distant lands’, God come þærto and sceawode þone stypell and forgeaf þam wyrhtum ælcum his gereord þæt heora ælcum nyste naht oðres spræce, and hi swa geswicon sona þæs weorces and toferdon to fyrlenum landum.

Professor Aaron Kleist of Biola University, who produced the new database entries, shows that the ideas underlying ‘Of the Six Ages of this World’ are based on a number of Ælfric’s earlier sermons which he thought were worth recycling, plus some Biblical passages and traditional patristic sources. Read the whole of Ælfric’s text in the original Old English and in modern English translation in A. J Kleist and R. K. Upchurch, ed., Ælfrician Homilies and Varia, Anglo-Saxon Texts 13, 2 vols (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2022), I, 756-9, and see its sources listed passage by passage here.

 

London, British Library, Cotton Claudius B.IV, fol 19r (depicting the Babel builders when they were still talking to each other)

18 November 2022: Today, some 160 new entries were added to the Fontes Anglo-Saxonici database. The newly added entries relate to a homily by Ælfric called 'In natali Domini', a text composed sometime between the years 998 and 1002. It survives in a single manuscript, Oxford, Bodleian Library, Bodley 343 (2406), fols 155r-158r. In composing this homily, Ælfric drew mainly on other, earlier, works by himself, as well as biblical passages, patristic sermons and Alcuin's De animae ratione.

The entries were contributed by Professor Aaron Kleist of Biola University, and are based on a recent new edition of this text, A. J Kleist and R. K. Upchurch, ed., Ælfrician Homilies and Varia: Editions, Translation, and Commentary, Anglo-Saxon Texts 13, 2 vols (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2022), pp. 110-31. 'In natali Domini' had not featured on the Fontes database before, so we're particularly pleased about this new addition. For further information on Aaron Kleist and Robert Upchurch and their research on Old English literature, see their academic webpages at Biola and the University of North Texas.

Ælfric says:

'Philosophers who are wise teachers say that the nature of the soul is threefold: one part of it is desirous, another capable of anger, a third rational. Two of these parts wild and tame animals possess along with us, that is, desire and anger. A human alone has reason and judgment and understanding.' 'In natali Domini', lines 237-42.

'He who further thinks to test God is like a person who raises a ladder and then climbs up the ladder's steps until he approaches the end of the ladder and then desires to ascend higher without steps. Then unstable, he falls on account of his foolishness, so much the worse as he climbed farther.' 'In natali Domini', lines 89-95.

Interested in what sources these passages are based on? This link will take you straight to the newly added Fontes entries.

Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. Bodl. 343, fol. 140v (depicting another homily by Ælfric)