British Academy: The UK's National Academy for the Humanities and Social Sciences
SIR ISRAEL GOLLANCZ MEMORIAL LECTURE
The Alfredian project and its aftermath: rethinking the literary history of the 9th and 10th centuries
Professor Malcolm Godden
Thursday 15 January 2009, 5.30pm
King Alfred's Preface on the state of learning in England is one of the best-known Anglo-Saxon writings, and a key document in the cultural history of the period. However, there is much that is doubtful about the programme of translation and book-production which has been deduced from the Preface, and the Alfredian initiative itself was of limited scope and doubtful novelty. Instead, some of the writings traditionally attributed to Alfred should be seen as part of a quite distinct and more ambitious initiative engaging with more challenging and dangerous ideas.
About the speaker
Malcolm Godden is Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon in the University of Oxford and a Fellow of Pembroke College. He was awarded the 2001 Sir Israel Gollancz Prize for the three-volume edition of Aelfric's Catholic Homilies, co-authored with †Peter Clemoes. His research interests are Alfredian prose, Wulfstan of York, Ælfric of Eynsham, and medieval drama.