Non-Textual and Material Sources
Documentary and historiographical sources are very limited for much of the Anglo-Saxon period. The term "Anglo-Saxon" is very open to question.. Increasingly in recent years those who reconstruct the past have lookec to non-textual and material sources. This can include traditional archaeolog based on excavations, as well as much newer biogenetic data derived from the DNA of living people and from the ancient DNA (aDNA) extracted from the bones of people and animals buried at the time. Lingustic and place name data have long been important, as has lanscape history. All these types of "material sources" have been enhanced by information technology and are quite different from the textual sources which are the focus here. Links here are to examples of this kind of "source."
King Edmund (939-946): First Code 10th Century. [Manuscript, transcription, translation and introduction by Christopher Monk from the Textus Roffensis, online at Rochester Cathedral]. See also Wikipedia: Textus Roffensis (1122-1124).
Wulfstan II, Archbishop of YorkWorcester (d. 1023): Sermo Lupi ad Anglos, c. 1014,
full text, in Latin and Old English. [At Internet Archive].
The sermon of the Wolf to the English, when the Danes were greatly persecuting them, which
was in the year 1014 after the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ.
England, its Government, and the Normans in the 11th Century
King Æthelberht (c.590-616): Grants land in Rochester to the church of St Andrew. Fraudulent document claiming to be from 604 but invented c. 1066. [Manuscript, transcription, translation and introduction by Christopher Monk from the Textus Roffensis, online at Rochester Cathedral]. See also Wikipedia: Textus Roffensis (1122-1124).
WEB: Anglo-Saxon Penitentials: A Cultural Database [Allen Frantzen]
The site shows the original texts, translations, and cultural contexts for five Anglo-Saxon Penitentials (confessors' hanbooks.)
Law and Government
WEB Early English Laws
Early English Laws is a project to publish online and in print new editions and translations of all English legal codes, edicts, and treatises produced up to the time of Magna Carta 1215.
Laws of Ethelbert, Alfred: Dooms, both copyrighted, but see next
item
King Edmund (939-946): First Code 10th Century. [Manuscript, transcription, translation and introduction by Christopher Monk from the Textus Roffensis, online at Rochester Cathedral]. See also Wikipedia: Textus Roffensis (1122-1124).
Æthelflæd [Aetheflaed], Lady of the Mercians (d .918): Anglo-Saxon Chronicle 911-918, daughter of Alfred the Great and the only woman to rule Anglo-Saxon England in her own right.
Wynflaed (d. c 950/960): Will of Wynflæd concerning land at Ebbesborne, Wilts.; Charlton (probably Horethorne, Somerset); Coleshill, Berks.; Inggeneshamme (perhaps Inglesham, Wilts.); Faccombe, Hants; Adderbury, Oxon.; and at Chinnock, Somerset; the beneficiaries including Shaftesbury and Wilton. [At the Electronic Sawyer. Click the "Translation" icon for full translation.] See BL for Images of Manuscript. See Wikipedia: Wynflaed.
Beowulf, 8th century, trans Francis Gummere [HTML,
here]
Beowulf, c. 1100
[At Lone Star]
Beowulf is the oldest surviving epic in English literature - and it survives in only one
manuscript. This copy survived both the wholesale destruction of religious artifacts
during the
dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII and a disastrous fire which destroyed the
library of Sir Robert Bruce Cotton (1571-1631). The poem still bears the scars of the
fire, visible at the upper left corner of the manuscript. This is a modern verse
trasnlation by David
Breeden.
Codex Junius 11
Translations from the Anglo-Saxon of the following works: "Genesis A", "Genesis B", "Exodus", "Daniel", and "Christ and Satan". All are works found in the manuscript of Anglo-Saxon verse known as "Junius 11" (Oxford, Bodleian Library 5123), which was compiled sometime toward the end of the 10th Century.
Ælfric of Eynsham (c. 950–c. 1010): Colloquy, c 990. A kind of textbook or teaching tool for teaching Latin.
WEB For Arthurian texts, not collected
here, see the Camelot Project and
especially the Camelot Project
Author Menu for beautifully presented, introduced, and annotated texts of:
The Alliterative Morte Arthure
Annales Cambriae (Annals of Wales), Arthurian References in (c. 960-980)
The Avowyng of Arthur
The Awntyrs off Arthur
The Carle of Carlisle
Culwch and Olwen (translated by Lady Charlotte Guest as Kilhwch and Olwen)
The Greene Knight
The Jeaste of Sir Gawain
King Arthur and King Cornwall
The Knightly Tale of Gologras and Gawain
Lancelot of the Laik
The Marriage of Sir Gawain
Sir Gawain and the Carle of Carlisle
Sir Perceval of Galles
Sir Tristrem
Stanzaic Morte Arthur
The Turke and Sir Gawain
The Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnelle
A selection of post medieval-Arthurian literature [Tennyson, Emerson, Swinbourne
and so on.]
Germanic Culture
The Hildebrandslied 830s
Full translation of the main suriving frangment of and Old High German poem.
The Internet Medieval Sourcebook is part of the Internet History Sourcebooks Project. The Internet History Sourcebooks Project is located at the History Department of Fordham University, New York. The Internet
Medieval Sourcebook, and other medieval components of the project, are located at
the Fordham University Center
for Medieval Studies.The IHSP recognizes the contribution of Fordham University, the
Fordham University History Department, and the Fordham Center for Medieval Studies in
providing web space and server support for the project. The IHSP is a project independent of Fordham University.
Although the IHSP seeks to follow all applicable copyright law, Fordham University is not
the institutional owner, and is not liable as the result of any legal action.
