Aelfric

(Ælfric, “the Grammarian”)

(ca. 955–ca. 1012)

   Aelfric was the most important prose writer of the OLD ENGLISH language.He was a Benedictine monk and the greatest scholar of the period known as the “Benedictine Renaissance” in England, a late 10thcentury revival of learning begun by St. Dunstan (d. 988) and advanced by the Benedictine monasteries. Aelfric was devoted to education, of both the clergy and the laity, which explains his writing in the vernacular. He wrote scores of sermons, translated the first seven books of the Old Testament into English, produced the first Latin grammar written in a vernacular language, and composed a “Colloquy”— a Latin conversation between a teacher and his students with interlinear Old English translation, intended for teaching.

   Born sometime in the mid-10th century,Aelfric was educated at Winchester by St. Athelwold (d. 984), whose Latin biography he later composed. Soon after Athelwold’s death, Aelfric joined the new monastery at Cerne Abbas in Dorset,where in 15 years he was to write almost all of his major works. In 1005,Aelfric left Cerne Abbas to become the first abbott of another new monastery, at Eynsham in Oxfordshire, where he seems to have stayed for the rest of his life. As abbot, however, his administrative duties must have given him little time for serious writing, and he produced very little in his last years.

   Aelfric wrote more than 100 sermons, most of which were published as “Catholic Homilies” in two volumes. In these sermons,Aelfric deals with a wide variety of theological issues. Often he applies the allegorical interpretation of Scripture advocated by St.AUGUSTINE, whom, along with a variety of other church fathers,Aelfric cites freely.Another collection of homilies dedicated to Aethelweard, patron of Cerne Abbas, is a series of saints’ lives (see SAINT’S LIFE). It has been speculated that these were intended for private reading, particularly as exempla, or illustrative examples of strength and courage in the face of adversity: Aelfric, writing during a period of increasingly dangerous Viking invasions, may have intended these sermons as encouragement to the noble Aethelweard—certainly the sermon on St. Edmund, the Anglo-Saxon king who did battle against an earlier pagan Viking invasion, serves such a purpose.

   Though Aelfric probably thought of his sermons as his most important productions, his most popu-lar creation has been his Latin colloquy, a teaching text that shows evidence of humor and glimpses of real life, and that demonstrates Aelfric’s dedication to teaching and his understanding of real-life pupils. The most prolific of Old English writers,Aelfric is famous for the learning and versatility of his writing, as well as his style, which has been admired for its clarity and elegant economy.Writing during an age of turmoil, during which the Danes were devastating England,Aelfric (like many of his contemporaries) seems to have believed he was living in the last days, and made it his mission to educate people, especially concerning basic, orthodox Christian truths—a knowledge absolutely necessary in the coming Apocalypse. His influence continued long after his death, with manuscripts of his works being produced well into the 12th century. His popularity was even revived during the Reformation, when, in 1566, his sermons were republished and he was considered a proto-Protestant because of comments he made in one sermon that apparently denied the doctrine of transubstantiation (the belief in the real presence of the body and blood of Christ in the Eucharist). Aelfric, always scrupulously careful about his orthodoxy, would have been puzzled, perhaps appalled, by such reaction to his work.

   Bibliography

   ■ Aelfric. Aelfric’s Catholic Homilies. Edited by Malcolm Godden.Oxford and New York:Oxford University Press for the Early English Text Society, 2000.

   ■ ———.Anglo-Saxon Conversations: The Colloquies of Aelfric Bata. Translated by Scott Gwara.Woodbridge, U.K.: Boydell, 1997.

   ■ Grundy, Lynne. Books and Grace: Aelfric’s Theology. London: King’s College Centre for Late Antique and Medieval Studies, 1991.

   ■ Hurt, James. Aelfric. New York: Twayne, 1972.

   ■ Needham, G. I. Lives of Three English Saints. London: Methuen, 1966.