A millennium and more ago, a simple monk of Winchester embarked on studies that would make him the most erudite, prolific, and influential author writing in English before Chaucer. Ælfric was his name, and Ælfric of Eynsham he would come to be called. During his life, his works would be sought by bishops and archbishops; for centuries thereafter, they would be copied even as knowledge of Old English began to fade. What drove Ælfric was no desire to leave his mark on the literary landscape, however, but an acute belief in the need of his nation for Christian doctrine. At a time when Vikings were ravaging the coastlines, the millennium was drawing nigh, and unorthodox writers to his mind were leading the uneducated into error, Ælfric found himself possessed of a rich theological education and a keen burden to share it for the salvation of others’ souls.

For over twenty years, driven by his demanding pedagogical vision, Ælfric produced a complex array of writings that were exceptional both in scope and quality. He composed aids for learning Latin, translated books of the Old Testament, instructed clergy in liturgical practice, provided overviews of world history, authored treatises on cosmology and astronomical time, recounted tales of saintly behaviour, and above all commented on Scripture and on doctrine – all with the practical view of teaching clergy and laity how to think and live as Christians. He further stood out from his contemporaries, moreover, by his discriminating emphasis on orthodox sources, his exegetical analysis of Scripture, his memorably clear rhythmical style, and his remarkable authorial transparency, which – strikingly for a medieval author – revealed a self-conscious, vulnerable human being at work who cared genuinely for his readers.

A half-century and more ago, the myriad contents of Ælfric's canon were comprehensively set forth in a 1959 study by Peter Clemoes called ‘The Chronology of Ælfric's Works’. Since that time, much water has passed under the scholarly bridge: Pope updated the contents somewhat in 1967, Godden explicated the compositional process behind Ælfric's Second Series of Catholic Homilies in 1979, Godden published Clemoes’ exposition of Ælfric's First Series dissemination in 1997, and numerous scholars besides have attributed new items to Ælfric, questioned items’ authorship or dating, edited items afresh, and otherwise challenged parts of Clemoes’ original vision.