The Politics of Language : Byrhtferth, Aelfric, and the Multilingual Identity of the Benedictine Reform

6 Before AElfric translated the Translatio, he first made a Latin epitome, which abridged Lantfred's work and excised the distinctive vocabulary. For a discussion of AElfric's characteristic methods of abridgment, see below, chap. 4. For AElfric's authorship of the epitome, see Lapidge, Cult of St Swithun, 553-61. An edition of the epitome can be found ibid., 564-73; an edition of AElfric's English version from Lives of Saints appears ibid., 590-609. 7 An edition of this work can be found in Lapidge and Winterbottom, eds, Life of St AEthelwold. An epitome by AElfric is also published in the same volume. 8 Ibid., 30-3 (their translation).

Old English literature thrived in late tenth-century England. Its success was the result of a concerted effort by the leaders of the Benedictine Reform movement to encourage both widespread literacy and a simple literary style. The manuscripts written in this era are the source for the majority of the Old English literature that survives today, including literary classics such as Beowulf. Yet the same monks who copied and compiled these important Old English texts themselves wrote in a rarified Latin, full of esoteric vocabulary and convoluted syntax and almost incomprehensible even to the well-educated.

Comparing works by the two most prolific authors of the era, Byrhtferth of Ramsey and Ælfric of Eynsham, Rebecca Stephenson explains the politics that encouraged the simultaneous development of a simple English style and an esoteric Latin style. By examining developments in Old English and Anglo-Latin side by side, The Politics of Language opens up a valuable new perspective on the Benedictine Reform and literacy in the late Anglo-Saxon period.

Old English literature thrived in late tenth-century England. Its success was the result of a concerted effort by the leaders of the Benedictine Reform movement to encourage both widespread literacy and a simple literary style. The manuscripts written in this era are the source for the majority of the Old English literature that survives today, including literary classics such as Beowulf. Yet the same monks who copied and compiled these important Old English texts themselves wrote in a rarified Latin, full of esoteric vocabulary and convoluted syntax and almost incomprehensible even to the well-educated.Comparing works by the two most prolific authors of the era, Byrhtferth of Ramsey and Ælfric of Eynsham, Rebecca Stephenson explains the politics that encouraged the simultaneous development of a simple English style and an esoteric Latin style. By examining developments in Old English and Anglo-Latin side by side, The Politics of Language opens up a valuable new perspective on the Benedictine Reform and literacy in the late Anglo-Saxon period. Contents 7 Acknowledgments 9 Introduction: The Literary Context of the Monastic Reform 11 Part One 47 Part Two 143 Bibliography 205 Index 221