Bede's Historia ecclesiastica allows the historian to reconstruct a sporadic narrative of relations between Penda of Mercia and Oswiu of Bernicia in the years leading up to the battle of the Winwæd. This article re-evaluates Bede's presentation of these interactions, with a focus on narrative structure and various geographical and chronological points of interest, and also taking account of Welsh and Irish sources. In light of this discussion, an alternative reconstruction of events before and after the battle of Winwæd is proposed; this derives primarily from a suggested re-reading of a passage in Historia ecclesiastica iii. 24, where Bede addresses Oswiu's post-war settlement.

The distinctive phrase, domino in domino dominorum, shared by the salutations in the prefatory letter of Bede's revised metrical Vita Cuthberti and in the letter sent by Hwaetbert with his former abbot Ceolfrith to Rome, reflects an unexpected historical connection among Bede's revision, Ceolfrith's departure and, more tentatively, the abdication of John of Beverley of the bishopric of York. While only Ceolfrith's journey has been dated to 716, I argue that Bede was revising his poem in anticipation of this event, but under the false assumption that it would be John of Beverley who would lead the party. The salutation, drawn from one of Augustine of Hippo's letters, supports this claim by identifying, after the opening phrase that would be appropriate for a bishop, John as a priest, a playful conjunction of terms used by Bede to call attention to the bishop of York's changing status. This opening, then, was in Bede's mind when the need for a letter from Hwaetbert to Pope Gregory II arose. Bede's revision and, probably, some discussion of John's retirement can be dated to 716.

Lexical and stylistic features indicate that the Preface to the Old English Bede was composed by a writer different from the anonymous Mercian who translated the body of the text. The Preface, therefore, cannot be taken to reveal aspects of the original translator's aims or attitude to the text. Recently discovered collations of the burnt manuscript London, British Library, Cotton Otho B. xi, made by John Smith prior to the 1731 fire, provide further insight, indicating that a copy of the West Saxon Genealogical Regnal List was attached to the Preface by the mid-tenth century. Thus the origins of the Preface may lie in an Alfredian or post-Alfredian initiative to disseminate the translation at some time later than its actual creation.

Certain syntactical ambiguities in Old English poetry have been the focus of debate among students of metre and syntax. Proponents of intentional ambiguity must demonstrate that the passages in question exhibit, not an absence of syntactical clarity, but a presence of syntactical ambiguity. This article attempts such a demonstration. It does so by shifting the terms of the debate, from clauses to verses and from a spatial to a temporal understanding of syntax. The article proposes a new interpretation of many problematic passages that opens onto a new way of parsing and punctuating Old English poetry.

In this essay in the history of poetic style, I demonstrate that the sequence in time of Old English half-lines sometimes necessitates retrospective syntactical reanalysis, a state of affairs which modern punctuation is ill-equipped to capture, but in which Anglo-Saxon readers and listeners would have recognized specific literary effects. In the second section, I extrapolate two larger syntactical units, the half-line sequence and the verse paragraph, which differ in important ways from the clauses and sentences that modern editors impose on Old English poetic texts. Along the way, I improve the descriptive accuracy of Kuhn's Laws by reinterpreting them as governing half-line sequences rather than clauses. I conclude with a call for unpunctuated or minimally punctuated critical editions of Old English verse texts.

The Exeter Book Riddles are anonymous, and the generally formulaic character of all Old English verse discourages attempts to establish unity or diversity of authorship for them; but correlations between the sequence of Riddles in the manuscript and the recurrence from poem to poem of aspects of form, content (including solutions), presentation and style sometimes suggest common authorship for particular runs of texts, or reveal shaping episodes in the collection's transmission. Investigation along these lines throws up clear differences between the two main blocks of Riddles (1–59 and 61–95), and evidence emerges that the composition of many (at least) of Riddles 61–95 was influenced by a reading of Riddles 1–59.

It has long been acknowledged that Arator, author of the sixth-century Historia apostolica, was one of the Christian Latin writers with whom the author of the eighth-century Miracula Nynie episcopi was familiar. However, until now the critical consensus has been that the later poem was little more than a ‘cut-and-paste’ pastiche: Arator's phrases had been chosen largely for their metrical suitability; some were perhaps just ‘recycled’ borrowings rather than evidence of first-hand reading. But a close comparison of the two texts shows that the extent of the unknown author's borrowings from Arator is far greater than has hitherto been realized. Furthermore it reveals a detailed knowledge of the earlier poem, indeed an intimate understanding of it. This is evident not only in his poetic diction but also in his imitation of specific narrative detail where he displays a tendency to simplify his model, rendering the abstract concrete and the figurative literal.

New Testament writings give a powerful sense of the humanness and fallibility of Christ's apostles, and a sense of their imperfection is also apparent in the non-canonical acts which report their missionary work and martyrdoms. Ælfric, drawing extensively on this biblical and extra-biblical material, adopts two distinct approaches in his treatment of the apostles, depending on whether he is writing hagiographically or exegetically. In neither approach does he present the apostles as imperfect or fallible, even where they appear so in the sources he is working with. The present article examines Ælfric's manoeuvres in rewriting the apostles as idealized and exemplary figures, focusing in particular on his treatment of Thomas, Peter and Paul in his homilies. In the case of Peter, Ælfric's approach is contrasted tellingly with that of the poet of The Heliand, who stresses the saint's powerful emotions and the personal nature of his relationship to Christ. The article demonstrates Ælfric's anxiety not to undermine the apostles in any way: bringing these great saints to life as struggling human beings is certainly not part of his agenda as religious teacher.

While the attitudes of Stephen of Ripon and Bede toward church-buildings have previously been contrasted, this paper argues that both shared a vision of the church as a holy place, analogous to the Jewish temple and to be kept pure from the mundane world. Their similarity of approach suggests that this concept of the church-building was widespread amongst the Northumbrian monastic elite and may partially reflect the attitudes of the laity also. The idea of the church as the place of eucharistic sacrifice probably lay at the heart of this theology of sacred place. Irish ideas about monastic holiness, traditional liturgical language and the native fascination with building in stone combined with an interest in ritual purity to give power to this use of the temple-image which went on to influence later Carolingian attitudes to churches.

The importance of warfare in Anglo-Saxon England is widely accepted, but the processes by which armies were put in the field are only partially understood, with most discussion focusing on the economic logistics rather than the spatial practicalities of mobilization. Yet such a system underpinned recorded military actions and must have evolved in response to changing military organization in the late Anglo-Saxon period. Through an assessment of documentary references to sites of muster, and by using a multidisciplinary landscape-focused approach, this article examines possible traces of that system – especially those preserved in place-names – and relates them to later Anglo-Saxon administrative geography.

Scholarly understanding of the reign of Edward the Confessor is hampered by doubt surrounding the date, authorship and purpose of the Vita Ædwardi regis, its chief biographical source. This article rejects readings that see it as a work written after the Conquest, arguing instead that it was begun in 1065–6 and tried to foresee what would happen in that time of upheaval by optimistic inspection of precedents from Godwine family history, tempered by anxious reflections on pagan Antiquity. Through the prophetic insights of history it finely balanced Edith's hopes and fears. The second part of the article considers evidence that helps us to identify an author.

A hoard of 5,248 silver pennies discovered at Lenborough in Buckinghamshire in December 2015 is one of the largest hoards of Anglo-Saxon coins ever found. Although the deposition of the hoard cannot be precisely dated, it must have been buried in the latter part of the reign of Cnut (1016–35). The hoard was wrapped in lead sheet, establishing without doubt that it represents a single deposit, but contains distinct parcels of coins from the reigns of Æthelred II (978–1016) and the latter part of the reign of Cnut, with a clear gap in between. The cataloguing of the hoard is ongoing, but this paper provides a preliminary description and interpretation of the hoard. While the hoard contains few coins of particular numismatic interest, it is argued that the hoard potentially provides important information for the administration of the late Anglo-Saxon coinage, and for changing patterns of monetary circulation in the reign of Cnut.

The Lenborough hoard has produced the twenty-third coin struck from Agnus Dei dies, which is also the second known mule of an Agnus Dei obverse with a Last Small Cross reverse. It is illustrated in Gareth Williams's preceding article as Fig. 7 (p. 304). This specimen adds to the small group of English finds of Agnus Dei pennies, which previously consisted of three single-finds. Lenborough is therefore the first ever English hoard to contain an Agnus Dei coin, mule or otherwise. The presence of just one penny of the type in an assemblage of almost 1,000 coins of Æthelred II (with a large proportion of the total consisting of the types either side of Agnus Dei) reinforces the rarity of the issue. Detailed research into the hoard may unveil more about the circumstances behind its composition, including the chronological profile of the Last Small Cross element, and thereby add to the general picture of the context in which Agnus Dei was produced.

Oxford, Bodleian Library, Junius 121, a manuscript written in Worcester in the early years of the episcopate of St Wulfstan (1062–95), contains a unique, untitled, anonymous text which has previously been interpreted as a Lenten homily. This article argues that this text is not a homily, but must be understood in the context of the penitential material surrounding it in Junius 121, for which it was probably specifically composed. The text has not attracted much attention, but it is an important early and vernacular witness to the developing tradition of affective writing which became prominent during the latter part of the eleventh century. In addition, the text itself and its placing in its manuscript context reveal the careful, deliberate decisions which Junius 121's compiler made about his material: by reusing earlier texts alongside newly composed English material, he provided practical pastoral and penitential materials for use in late-eleventh-century Worcester.