THE NEW AELFRIC SOCIETY 

Edníwe Ælfric Mót

The original Ælfric Society founded in London in 1842 was a text publication society created for the publication of the works of Ælfric and other writers in Old English. The Society, also known as Aelfric Society Publications, ran until 1856.

The Ælfric Society was named in honor of Ælfric of Eynsham who authored and translated a vast number of texts into Old English language (most texts at that time were written in West Saxish, one of four main dialects). His corpus included a Latin/English grammar, a Latin/English dictionary, a considerable number of homilies and the Heptateuch. Ælfric's Homilies were edited for the Society between 1844 - 1846 by the Anglo-Saxon scholar Benjamin Thorpe (1782–1870).

The New Aelfric Society (established 2015) is a body of Saxish scholars collectively working to raise the profile of Aelfric's works and to extend the spirit and purpose of the original Aelfric Society. 
A specific objective is to encourage the study of West Saxish, particularly from the Aethelwoldian reform and the medieval styles of monastic scriptoria in the south and west, through to recent times with  reference to the dialect poetry of William Barnes. The Society is currently attempting to disentangle West Saxish dialect from the Anglian and Kentish dialect forms.

The Society encourages interest in the deep-seated roots of Aelfric's West Saxish language in the south and west of England by, for example, providing authorities with opportunities to use the earliest Saxonic placenames alongside modern placenames. The New Aelfric Society proposes to place its research objectives within a philosophical framework which will elucidate the history and development of Old English in its widest sense, offering a definition and clarification of terms pertaining to Old English language and ancillary material with due regard to prevailing scholarship concerning current language historiography. An inherently rigorous and systematic examination of the textual data by the New Aelfric Society will proceed to a comparison with the findings of prevailing scholarship and current orthodoxy. 

It is encouraging in this 21st century to see contemporary evidence of a deeper, scholarly evaluation of Aelfric's procedures and processes in translating Latin into vernacular dialect. Dr. Rebecca Stephenson* points out that since 2010, several articles on this subject of Aelfric's methodology have been published, including her own books and monographs but she also notes that "these recent studies speak to the need for scholarship that pushes forward the study of hermeneutic Latin in terms intelligible to scholars who work primarily on English-language texts".

Significance of the Works of Aelfric

Aelfric prepared for contemplative life in Holy Orders at a time of profound transition in the Church. He was swept up in one of the most significant episodes in Anglo-Saxon history, not only within English clerical life but within pan-European monastic reform. The rigour, discipline and elevated standards of his life at the monastery school in Winchester contrasted markedly with those of secular clergy. Aelfric  witnessed low moral standards, greed, license and monks flaunting their wives and children, with little evidence for preparation of the soul.

Aelfric joined a movement that came to be known as the
English Benedictine Reform.

Aelfric was a pupil of Bishop Aethelwold, a monk of high principle, high learning and strict morality who railed against the ‘filth’, as he saw it, amongst the secular brethren of the minster.

Aelfric was a superlative communicator. The dire needs of his time  provided the perfect project for his matchless skills. Aelfric saw a need for education, not only in Holy Scripture and scholarship but in the regeneration of arts and music. His fellow monks, the laity and perhaps even more critically, the king, needed to see holiness around them, to sense the awe of the church to be restored to faith. Aelfric recognised that men could not heed the voice of God if they could not understand his language. 

He found a voice for the people in their own vernacular language (West Saxish dialect); he translated holy works, wrote his own commentaries and translated Latin into that same language - the Anglo-Saxon branch of Old English, the Late West Saxon language which came after that of King Alfred and his successors. His Colloquy in particular is a work of superlative economy and articulation; it simplified the difficulty of learning Latin by taking the form of a conversation - a colloquy. This form  emulated the clarity and educative brilliance of Plato's dialogues with his master 'Socrates', differenced only by Aelfric's genius for peopling his 'conversations' with the day-to-day language of numerous tradesmen so familiar to the people of Saxon England.

Aelfric was a Latin scholar, it was the medium of his own education. His first homilies were prefaced in Latin but he later prefixed each series with a statement in Old English (West Saxish). He explained his reasons for writing in the vernacular West Saxish dialect in the first homilies - he had done it for the sake of unlearned and ignorant men. This simplification of religious texts in translation was a recurring theme; Aelfric only offers his reader carefully selected and edited passages of translated material; they are concise, compressed and firmly parcelled without embellishment. He keeps it simple, he reduces the range, he trims the narrative possibilities in the same way that modern politicians offer up easily digested  'sound-bites'.

This 'radicalising' or reductionist treatment of the Latin original, or its epitome, offers a fascinating glimpse into the systematic objectives of Aelfric. On the one hand he is happy to chop away not only hermeneutic embellishments but also to alter the syntax to achieve a modern, concise 'flow'. A modern comparison might be a choice between furnishing one's home with heavy, ponderous Tudor darkwoods or opting for pared-down Ikea kit-furniture. Both offer places to sit but the former offers dark, concealed corners of possibilities whilst the latter lets you take it all in at a glance.

It seems surprising that a holy man, wholly aware of the underlying spiritual meaning to be drawn from the original syntax of the Latin text - clearly not the original language but one whose translation faithfully follows the original - should interpolate himself between the reader and the message of the holy words. On the other hand, perhaps he was aware of the irony of his own role as a monk which cast him as intercessor between his parishioners and their God and felt it his sacred duty to get the job done in the most expedient way. It reveals Aelfric to be bold, decisive and deliberately innovative. A formidable mix.

Aelfric added another compelling reason for fortifying and teaching his fellow man in an understandable way. So deeply-entrenched was this particular belief that it pervaded  the 'chattering classes' of his day. The 'chatter' centred on eschatology, the belief that the end of the world was approaching. Such weighty concerns had implications for the  future of mankind; men were in need of spiritual fortification to bolster them against tribulation and hardship.

The Old English preface to Aelfric's second series of homilies is much shorter, simply stating the author’s reasons for dividing the homilies into two books, and giving the sources in general terms.

*Dr. Rebecca Stephenson, Lecturer in Old and Middle English, University College Dublin at time of writing.

For further details of Aelfric's life and works see the margin selection: Aelfric of Eynsham

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