Conference
Ælfric’s Afterlives: Copying, Editing, Studying, Teaching and Remembering the Most Prolific Author of Old English
- Date
- Thursday 26 June 2025 - Friday 27 June 2025
- Address
-
Lipsius
Cleveringaplaats 1
2311 BD Leiden
A conference about the reception of Ælfric
Ælfric of Eynsham (c. 955 – c. 1010) was a prolific author of Old English. His various works include his Grammar, Colloquy, Catholic Homilies, saint’s lives as well as a partial translation of the Bible. Ælfric’s output has been preserved remarkably well (more than 100 manuscripts exist which feature fragments or complete versions of one or more of his works) and has been the subject of extensive study over the last thousand years. Following his death, various people have engaged with his works, from annotations by medieval readers to scholarly editions. Ælfric is also a staple of the Old English classroom, with various anthologies and readers providing excerpts from his many works. In 2022, a blue plaque was unveiled in Eynsham to commemorate Ælfric as “the most prolific and formative writer of Old English”. During this conference we hope to engage with this prominent figure and his various afterlives.
The provisional programme features seventeen papers and a keynote address by Aaron J. Kleist (Biola University). Attendance is free, but registration is required (note: online attendance is possible). Please find the full provisional programme and registration link below.
Provisional programme
Day 1 (26 June)
- 9:30–9:55 – Doors open; coffee/tea
- 9:55–10:00 – Welcome by organisers
Keynote (10:00–11:15)
- These Things of Darkness I Do Not Acknowledge Mine: Liminality and Legitimacy in Ælfric's Afterlives - Aaron J. Kleist (Biola University)
- 11:15–11:30 – Brief coffee/tea break
Session 1: Copying Ælfric (11:30–13:00)
- Ælfric’s Early Copyists: The Intriguing Case of Oxford, Bodleian Library, MSS Bodley 340 and 342 - Jonathan Wilcox (University of Iowa)
- Updating Ælfric: Introducing the COPYCÆT Corpus - Amos van Baalen (Leiden University)
- The Afterlives of Ælfric’s Hand - Paul Vinhage (Cornell University)
Lunch (13:00–14:00; on-site)
Session 2: Ælfric and Medieval Scandinavia (14:00–15:00)
- Did Augustinians Read Ælfric? Post-Conquest England and the Development of Scandinavian Writing Culture - Aidan Conti (University of Bergen)
- The Ælfric of the North: The Uses of Old English in Twelfth-Century Scandinavia - Michael Lysander Angerer (University of Oxford)
- 15:00–15:30 – Coffee/tea break
Session 3: Using, Glossing and Punctuating Ælfric in the Early Middle English Period
(15:30–17:00)
- The Use of Ælfric’s Grammar in the Early Middle English Period - Claudio Cataldi (University of Palermo)
- Mon mæg giet gesion hiora swæð: Living and Learning after Ælfric - Kathryn A. Lowe (University of Glasgow)
- Getting the points: The Tremulous Hand’s Punctuation in Ælfrician Texts - Kristina Kähm (University of Rostock)
- 17:00 – Conclusion of Day 1
Conference Dinner (18:00–)
Day 2 (27 June)
- 10:00–10:30 – Doors open; coffee/tea
Session 4: Ælfric in the Early Modern Period (10:30–12:00)
- Invented of Paschasius: The Miracle Stories of Ælfric’s Sermo de Sacrificio in Die Pascæ in Foxe’s “Book of Martyrs” (1570) - Ellen Gallimore (University of York)
- William L’Isle’s 1623 Saxon Treatise: Looking Backwards at Ælfric’s Letter to Sigeweard - Rebecca Brackmann (Lincoln Memorial University)
- Translating Ælfric Collaboratively: London, British Library, Harley 438 - Tristan Major (University of Toronto)
Lunch (12:00–13:30; on-site)
Session 5: Printing, Canonizing and Lemmatizing Ælfric (13:30–15:00)
- Ælfric in Early Printed Books - P. J. Lucas (University of Cambridge)
- Ælfric’s Homilies and the Old English Canon: The Bumpy Road from Script to Print - Kees Dekker (University of Groningen)
- Ælfric's Role in the History of Old English Lexicography - Rachel A. Fletcher (Leiden University)
- 15:00–15:30 – Coffee/tea break
Session 6: Identifying, Teaching and Analysing Ælfric (15:30–17:00)
- Which Ælfric Is It and Whose? Identifying Ælfric and His Religious Doctrines in the 19th Century -Lucas Gahrmann & Thijs Porck (Leiden University)
- Ælfric's Colloquy and Its Afterlife in the Teaching of (Latin and) Old English - Mark Atherton (University of Oxford)
- A History of Gender Scholarship and the Writings of Ælfric of Eynsham - Fran Ash (University of Birmingham)
Registration link
Conference attendance is free, but registration is required. Please let us know that you are coming by registering via this registration form. Note that the conference will have a hybrid format, with the possibility of attending online.