Old English Non-fiction

Old English Prose

• Most of the Old English prose is the translation from Latin. 
• Historical writings: Anglo-saxon chronicles.

Alfred

• Wessex King, he defeated the Danes and started a literary and religious (Christian) movement in the southern part of the country over which he ruled.
• First prose writer of England.
• Father of English Prose
• Promoted written English
• He tells in the preface of his Pastoral Care that he began his series of translation due to the lamentable state of English learning, largely the result of depredations of Danes.
• Pioneered popular education in O.E.P
• He is known for the Annals or Chronicles of Winchester.

1. Pastoral Care of Pope Gregory
2. The History of the World of Orosius
3.  Bede’s Ecclesiastical History
4. Boethius’ Consolation of Philosophy
5. Soliloquies of St. Augustine

• Which king of the West Saxons supported literature, even translating Boethius’s “Consolation of Philosophy”? Alfred
• Alfred’s relationships with foreign powers are evident in his translation of History of the World of Orosius.

AElfric

• Anglo-Saxon Christian prose writer who wrote at the beginning of the 11th century.
• Aelfric was a late 10th C. writer of Homilies and Biblical Commentaries.
• Best known for his grammar, Colloquium and Homilies.
• Works
  1. The Catholic Homilies – two stories of sermons suitable for delivery by priests.
  2. The Lives of the Saints – alliterative, 

Wulfstan

Venerable Bede

1. A Northumbrian monk & Classical scholar in O.E.P
2. Called father of English History
3. Work:
   1. Ecclisiastical History of English people – originally in Latin

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (9th to 11th Century)

1. History of the Anglo-Saxons- beginnig with Roman Invasion under Julius Ceasur to the middle of the fifth century and continues to 1154.
2. Originally compiled during the reign of King Alfred.
3. Distributed to monasteries across England