About
The Project
In 989, Ælfric wrote his first series of Catholic Homilies, which were to be distributed to other priests to deliver as sound instruction for the people. At every turn in this collection (and in the second series which shortly followed), Ælfric reveals his particular concern for the lay congregation in the parishes of England—he takes care to gloss unfamiliar Latin phrases and avoids lofty theological debates in favor of more practical concerns. In this way, Ælfric may perhaps stand in opposition to many misconceptions about medieval European Christianity; he translated the Bible readings into the vernacular and ensured that popular misinterpretations would be put to rest. We see in Ælfric a version of popular religion that might be overlooked by a modern audience.
This project, Ælfric Online, seeks to continue Ælfric’s mission of making doctrine and scripture accessible to a wider audience. The last complete translation of these homilies was Benjamin Thorpe's in 1844 (first series; second series), and the language throughout is often contorted. Other Old English scholars have translated parts or all of certain homilies (notably Eleanor Parker's blog A Clerk of Oxford), but the full collection is not available in a modern translation. While the Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library is in the process of translating both series of texts, and the work is sure to be excellent, the price tag may be a barrier. Ælfric Online, then, aims to fill this gap.
The site will host my ongoing translations of Ælfric’s first series of homilies, parallel with the Old English text. As a one-person project, this project will continue to be a work-in-progress for a long while. Translating takes time, after all. But a something of this scope has to start somewhere.
The parallel translation and original text of the homilies are the heart of the project, and my hope is that students of Old English will be able to follow along as they get to know Ælfric and his work. I’ve also included audio recordings of the translations—these are homilies, meant to be delivered aloud to the people. While I am neither a priest nor a professional public speaker, I do think hearing the homilies read may approximate the experience of Ælfric’s original audience. Maybe at some point, I’ll get around to reading the Old English texts aloud as well.
Late 10th-century England is a world wholly alien to our own. Ælfric's Catholicism is not the Catholicism of today, Ælfric's England is not the England of today, and Ælfric's calendar is not the calendar of today. Understanding Ælfric's world is essential to understanding his homilies. To this end, Ælfric Online also attempts to briefly-yet-holistically outline the most important aspects of life in England at this time.
The Text
I am translating from Peter Clemoes 1997 edition of the text, published for the Early English Text Society. Clemoes draws on all manuscripts that include some or all of Ælfric's first series of homilies, correcting these texts to each other. This is the most recent edition of Ælfric’s first series, and it improves remarkably on Benjamin Thorpe’s 1844 edition and translation. However, I do follow a few of Thorpe’s editorial decisions, most notably paragraph division, capitalization, and quotation marks. Clemoes uses only the punctuation found in the source text (periods and semicolons) and as such it is not always clear how certain clauses are related to each other or when Ælfric is quoting from the Bible. Part of this project’s goal is to let these homilies be used by students, so Thorpe’s editorializations are preferred.
I've also removed hyphens and accents over long vowels throughout. I wrestled with this choice, but Thorpe and Clemoes don't always agree in their editions, so I opted avoid diacritics entirely. While this change admittedly makes the Old English harder to read for a beginner, the original manuscripts don't include those markings either, so I feel justified in my decision.
All of Ælfric's first series of homilies can be found in the British Library's Royal MS 7 C XII, which has been digitized. However, other collections also have digitized manuscripts with some of the homilies, manuscripts Clemoes used to edit the text. This sampling of other digitized manuscripts also provides some information on the homilies' dates, folio numbers, and incipits/explicits.
The Translator
Chase Hockema studied medieval literature and Old English translation while working on his master's at Boston College. He began translating some of Ælfric's homilies over the summer of 2022, and then started working on them in earnest for a translation seminar that fall. The capstone course for his certificate in Digitial Scholarship ("Digital Scholarship as Public Scholarship") gave him the opportunity to rework the first of his translations to be more public-facing and generally accessible.
With his academic focus on medieval translation projects, Chase hopes to provide dynamic modern translations often-neglected texts. He is particularly interested in the relationship between insular art and religion of the late-Saxon period. For questions or comments about this project, Chase can be reached at hockema@bc.edu.
Bibliography and Further Reading
Primary Sources for the Homilies
Ælfric. The Homilies of the Anglo-Saxon Church Containing the Sermones Catholici, or Homilies of Ælfric, in the
Original Anglo-Saxon, with an English Version. Translated by Benjamin Thorpe, vol. 1, published for the Ælfric Society by Richard and John Taylor, 1844. Project Gutenberg.
Ælfric. The First Series of Ælfric's Catholic Homilies. London, British Library, Royal MS 7 C XII, ff. 4r–218v.
Clemoes, Peter. Ælfric's Catholic Homilies: The First Series: Text. Published for the Early English Text Society by the Oxford University Press, 1997.
Secondary Sources about Ælfric and his World
"Houses of Benedictine monks: The abbey of Cerne." A History of the County of Dorset: Volume 2. Ed. William Page. London: Victoria County History, 1908. 53-58. British History Online. Web. 13 April 2023. .
Hurt, James. Ælfric. Twaynes English Author Series, ed. Sylvia Bowman, Twaine Publishers, 1972.
Hutchins, John. "Cerne Abbas." "The Hundreds of Cerne, Totcomb, and Modbury," The history and antiquities of the county of Dorset: compiled from the best and most ancient historians, inquisitiones post mortem, and other valuable records and MSS. in the public offices, and libraries, and in private hands. With a copy of Domesday book and the Inquisitio Gheldi for the county: interspersed with some remarkable particulars of natural history; and adorned with a correct map of the county, and views of antiquities, seats of the nobility and gentry, &c. By John Hutchins, M.A. Rector of the Holy Trinity in Wareham, and of Swyre, in the county of Dorset. In two volumes, Vol. 2, printed by W. Bowyer and J. Nichols, MDCCLXXIV, pp. 286–295. [1774]. Eighteenth Century Collections Online. Accessed 13 Apr. 2023.
Jones, Mary. Cerne Abbas: The Story of a Dorset Village. George Allen & Unwin Ltd, 1952.
Magennis, Hugh and Mary Swan, editors. A Companion to Ælfric. Brill's Companions to the Christian Tradition, vol. 18, 2009.
Parker, Eleanor. Winters in the World: A Journey through the Anglo-Saxon Year. Reaktion Books, 2022.