Resources
Blogs
Recordings of Old English Prose
Ælfric's Homily for Mid-Lent Sunday (CH II.12), read by Niamh Kehoe:
Ælfric's Homily, 'The laity require good instruction', read by Emma Nihill Alcorta:
Ælfric's Judges (epilogue on English kings), read by Francis Leneghan :
Ælfric's Life of St Edmund (the wolf and the head), read by Niamh Kehoe:
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle MS A 878 (Alfred rallies the English against the Vikings), read by Francis Leneghan:
anglo-saxon_chronicle_ms_a_878_alfred_rallies_the_english_against_the_vikings_-_19_06_2025_10.24.m4a
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle MS A 755 (Cynewulf and Cyneheard), read by Francis Leneghan:
Avenging of the Saviour (Tyrus/Titus' boastful speech), read by Stephen Hopkins:
How to get to Hedeby (Ohthere and Wulfstan), read by Helen Appleton:
Just and Unjust Rulers (Old English "Orosius"), read by Eleni Ponirakis:
The Legend of the Seven Sleepers (opening), read by Hugh Magennis:
The Legend of the Seven Sleepers (The Suffering of the Martyrs), read by Hugh Magennis:
The Life of St Mary of Egypt, read by Hugh Magennis:
Old English Preface to Ælfric's Catholic Homilies, read by Francis Leneghan:
Old English Bede (Cædmon receives the gift of poetry), read by Mark Atherton:
Old English Heptateuch, Leviticus 26.1-45 ('I am the Lord your God'), read by Francis Leneghan:
On the Nature of God (Old English "Soliloquies"), read by Emma Nihill Alcotra:
Peterborough Chronicle 1127 (The New Abbot), read by Mark Atherton:
Psalm 50 (Prose Psalms), read by Francis Leneghan:
Preface to Old English Prose Guthlac, read by Helen Appleton:
Remedy Wið ælfadle ('against elf-disease') from
Leechbook III, read by Irene Tenchini:
The Eyes of the Mind (Old English "Soliloquies"), read by Emma Nihill Alcorta:
Vercelli Homily X (The tree), read by Mark Atherton:
Vercelli Homily X (Ubi sunt), read by Mark Atherton:
Wessex Gospels (Crucifixion Mt.27-35-54), read by Francis Leneghan:
Short Introductions to Old English Prose Texts

Podcasts:
29 November 2024: Trinity College Dublin, English Staff-Postgraduate Seminar Series/Long Room Hub: Francis Leneghan, ‘A Book for Many: Translating the Bible in Old English Prose’

Bibliographies:
Alfredian Literature Bibliography
Links to other resources for Old English Prose
- Stuart Lee’s Online Edition of Ælfric’s Homilies on the Old Testament books of Judith, Esther and Maccabees
- ECHOE: Electronic Corpus of Anonymous Homilies in Old English (University of Göttingen)
- Christine Rauer's Mercian Network
- Fontes Anglosaxonici: A Register of Written Sources Used by Anglo-Saxon Authors
- Student Edition and Translation of the Prologue to Alfred's Lawcode, by Jay Paul Gates
- Short introductory essay on King Alfred the Great for Great Writers Inspire, by Francis Leneghan
- Eleanor Parker's A Clerk of Oxford blogs on King Alfred and Ælfric
- Jonathan Wilcox's book, Ælfric's Prefaces (Durham, 1994)
- Mark Griffith, Ælfric’s Preface to Genesis: Commentary with Text, Translation, Sources and Analogues and Parallel Passages in Ælfric’s Works, SELIM 30 (2025), 1–71
- Thijs Porck's blogs on the Old English Illustrated Hexateuch, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Psalter and Gospel glosses and more Psalter Glosses, the Prose Psalms
- View Alexandra Zhirnova's reading of Ælfric's translation of the Nicene Creed
- Brandon Hawk's translations of Ælfric's Sermon on Judith, Preface to Genesis and Treatise on the Old and New Testaments