Ælfric of Eynsham

English abbot and prolific writer in Old English of hagiography, homilies and biblical commentaries (c.955-c.1010) · Writers

Ælfric of Eynsham was an English abbot and a student of Æthelwold of Winchester, and a consummate, prolific writer in Old English of hagiography, homilies, biblical commentaries, and other genres of Christian literature. He is also known variously as Ælfric the Grammarian, Ælfric of Cerne, and Ælfric the Homilist.

Ælfric of Eynsham is read about 67 times a day, in 21 languages.

A typical day, 30 days to 17 June 2026

The middle day of the days counted, so one week of news cannot move it. The line under it is the last 60 days, one point a day.

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Æthelwold of Winchester Taught Ælfric

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The Tower of Babel, from an illustrated English manuscript (11th century) in the British Library, containing some Latin excerpts from the Hexateuch. Ælfric was responsible for the preface to the Book of Genesis as well as some of its translations. Another copy of the text, without lavish illustrations but including a translation of the Book of Judges, is found in Oxford, Bodleian Library, Laud Misc. 509.

About this person

In the view of Peter Hunter Blair, he was "a man comparable both in the quantity of his writings and in the quality of his mind even with Bede himself". According to Claudio Leonardi, he "represented the highest pinnacle of Benedictine reform and Anglo-Saxon literature".

Writers born in the 950s 6

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