The following items are recommended
as introductory (and in some cases essential) reading.
Kotzor, G., ed., Das
altenglische Martyrologium, 2 vols., Abhandlungen der Bayerischen Akademie
der Wissenschaften, phil.-hist. Kl., ns 88.1-2 (Munich, 1981), I, 443-54 [summary
of attempts to localize and date the text, in German]
Kotzor, G., ‘Anglo-Saxon Martyrologists at Work: Narrative Pattern and Prose Style in Bede and the Old English Martyrology', Leeds Studies in English 16 (1985), 152-73 [structural comparison of Anglo-Saxon martyrology entries]
Cross, J. E., ‘On the Library of the Old English Martyrologist', Learning and Literature in Anglo-Saxon England: Studies Presented to Peter Clemoes on the Occasion of his Sixty-Fifth Birthday, ed. M. Lapidge and H. Gneuss (Cambridge, 1985), pp. 227-49 [important survey of the sources used by the Martyrologist]
Cross, J. E., ‘The Latinity of the Ninth-Century Old English Martyrologist', Studies in Earlier Old English Prose, ed. P. E. Szarmach (Albany, 1986), pp. 275-99 [examination of the Old English text and its Latin sources; seminal argument for the composition of the text by a competent Latinist]
Cross, J. E., ‘English Vernacular Saints' Lives before 1000 A. D.', Hagiographies: Histoire internationale de la littérature hagiographique latine et vernaculaire en Occident des origines à 1550, ed. G. Philippart (Turnhout, 1996), II, 413-27, at 422-4 [brief introduction to the Old English Martyrology in the context of other early Anglo-Saxon hagiography]
Lapidge, M. and others, The Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Anglo-Saxon England (Oxford, 1999), s.v. ‘Martyrology, OE' [concise introduction, with bibliography]
Whatley, E. G., ‘Acta Sanctorum', Sources of Anglo-Saxon Literary Culture: Volume 1, ed. F. M. Biggs, T. D. Hill and P. E. Szarmach (Kalamazoo, 2001) [extensive survey of hagiographical texts produced or used in Anglo-Saxon England, arranged according to saint, in alphabetical order. Gives brief sketches of the individual entries of the Old English Martyrology and their source texts]
Fontes Anglo-Saxonici database [lists all sources of the Old English Martyrology identified to date, with bibliography. Allows searches for individual saints, source-texts, source authors, text passages, source passages etc. On entering the database, select 'Search Database', then 'Anglo-Saxon Author', 'ANON (OE Martyrology'), and 'Submit Query'.]
Rauer, C., 'The Sources of the Old English Martyrology', Anglo-Saxon England 32 (2003), 89-109 [includes handlist of all traced sources]
Rauer, C., ed., The Old English Martyrology: Edition, Translation and Commentary, Anglo-Saxon Texts 10 (Cambridge, 2013), pp. 1-31