This chapter concludes the volume’s first thematic strand (Home and Away) with a study of Scandinavia and the North Sea world in the age of William the Conqueror. Beginning with Denmark and Norway, it moves on to scrutinise the legacy of Cnut’s North Sea empire, before turning to Scandinavia’s Christianisation and the consolidation of its Church. This is followed by a study of towns, trade centres, and the settlement and increasing urbanisation of the North Atlantic. The chapter is rounded off by discussions of Sweden and the two Baltic Islands of Gotland and Bornholm.

Introducing the volume’s fourth and final thematic strand (Cultural Perspectives), this chapter offers a study of warfare and violence in the age of William the Conqueror. Following a general introduction, it scrutinises the justifications of William’s wars and the history of hostilities and their limitations in Normandy. This is followed by a discussion of rebellion against ducal and royal rule contextualised within contemporary cultures of warfare and violence in northern France. The chapter concludes with studies of castles, conquests, and conduct in the Anglo-Norman world of the eleventh century.

In ‘Wisdom at Qumran’, David Skelton takes stock of the Dead Sea Scrolls and shows that they, in some ways, differ from the wisdom literature of the OT. The Scrolls lack those references to Solomon that seem so characteristic to biblical wisdom, and whilst they exhibit Wisdom as a personification, she is ‘toned down’ and appears more passive than she does in, say, Proverbs 1–9. Amplified in tone are the torah-wisdom connection and apocalyptic nature of the Qumran materials, not least the well-known raz nihyeh. Skelton also discusses the importance of poverty and hymnody in the Scrolls, to conclude by drawing these many distinctives together, as well as the Hellenistic context, pedagogy, and scribal practices, in order to reconsider the notion of ‘wisdom literature’ and the scholarly consensus surrounding it.

Paul-Alain Beaulieu examines Mesopotamian Wisdom. While acknowledging that there is no native category of ‘Wisdom Literature’ in Mesopotamia, Beaulieu nonetheless finds it a helpful classification. Within this category are texts of several genres: we find disputations, which begin with a mythological introduction, progress to a verbal contest between non-human combatants, and conclude with the victor pronounced by a god. There are proverbs, found in collections and quoted in letters, as well as fables, often about animals. Instructions and admonitions transmit antediluvian wisdom to postdiluvian generations. Some texts reflect on the problem of theodicy, ruminating on the human-divine relationship and individual divine retribution, while others lament the futility of life and advocate a carpe diem attitude. School debates centralise learning and the scribal arts. These texts are linked by intertextual references and shared features, such as their frequent ascription to individual wise figures, assumption of the absolute and inscrutable power of the gods, and reflection on the human predicament.

Michael C. Legaspi examines ‘Wisdom’s Wider Resonance’. It has been common to find the influence of wisdom literature across the canon, but Legaspi outlines the problems with this, and takes an alternative approach. He examines the ḥ-k-m (‘wisdom’) root in parts of the Bible not usually associated with wisdom literature to find overlooked resonances of the concept. Specifically, he examines the idea that wisdom concerns the relationship between human and divine realms (common in Greek and Jewish thought). This understanding is evident in biblical descriptions of sacred spaces, for the lead craftsmen who construct the tabernacle and temple (Bazalel and Hiram respectively) are divinely endowed with wisdom. Equally, wisdom (albeit a corrupted wisdom) proliferates in Ezekiel 28, associated with proximity to and specialist knowledge of the divine, and construction of sacred spaces. A similar understanding may also underlie Jeremiah’s descriptions of Jerusalem’s degraded wisdom. This analysis encourages us to understand ‘wisdom’ more capaciously than traditional delimitations of ‘wisdom literature’ allow.

This chapter opens the volume’s third thematic strand (Individuals and Institutions) with an investigation into family and kinship in the age of William the Conqueror. It starts with France and the Capetian dynasty, before shifting its focus to England and the Scandinavian kingdoms of Denmark and Norway. Particular attention is paid to the period after the death of Cnut, the extended kin of Edith and Edward, and the various changes and continuities between notions of kinship in the pre-Conquest period and those in Anglo-Norman England post-1066.

The third chapter in the volume’s third thematic strand (Individuals and Institutions) is dedicated to kingship and consensus in the age of William the Conqueror. After exploring the scholarly status quo and the historical and Biblical foundations of medieval kingship models prevalent in the Anglo-Norman world of the eleventh century, the chapter turns to a discussion of the writings of William of Poitiers and his contemporaries, before scrutinising the application of these kingship models to the everyday realities of the Conqueror’s cross-Channel realm.

Seth Bledsoe introduces the 2nd century BCE wisdom book of Ben Sira. While not forming part of the Tanakh or Protestant Old Testament, Ben Sira appears in the LXX and subsequently the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox canons. The book presents itself as the words of a well-educated scribe, and draws on both Jewish and Greek traditions. Central to the book is Wisdom, which is intimately connected to creation, fear of the Lord, Torah, and tradition. It also contains advice on practical matters, such as finance (it both respects wealth and advocates generosity) and relations with women (it is in places decided misogynistic). Although generally optimistic that good deeds will lead to positive consequences, Ben Sira also grapples with the problems of theodicy and death, concluding that righteous persons can live on through the legacy of a good name.

This chapter opens the volume’s second thematic strand (Space and Society) with a discussion of landscape and settlement in the age of William the Conqueror. It distinguishes between landscapes of use, landscapes of settlement, and landscapes of meaning and memory, each of which it analyses in turn. Across the entire chapter, attention is paid not only to human settlement and the use and exploitation of the surrounding landscape, but also to the natural environment and the many ways in which it influenced and determined people’s lives through dynamic interaction.

Knut Heim examines the literary and historical contexts of wisdom literature, taking the book of Proverbs as a case study, and surveying the work of key scholars in the field. Beginning with literary context, he argues that the sayings are organised into ‘clusters’ through linguistic and thematic links with their neighbours, and that this context has hermeneutical significance. Particularly important is the placement of religious proverbs, which are well integrated with their surroundings. This calls into question the scholarly assumption that religious elements are a late addition to the book, and that wisdom was originally a ‘secular’ endeavour. Rather, elements like the ‘fear of the Lord’ were already embedded within the sayings collections by the time an editor added chapters 1–9. This has implications for the historical development of Proverbs and, more broadly, of wisdom in Israel.

This chapter concludes the volume’s third thematic strand (Individuals and Institutions) with a study of law and justice in the age of William the Conqueror. It begins by discussing the law of persons, before moving on to the law of property and the law of wrongs. The chapter’s final section is dedicated to courts and procedure and gives a sense of the practical application of these laws in Anglo-Norman society. Throughout the entire chapter, notions of continuity are contextualised with moments of change, and important attention is drawn to the socio-political dimension of the law.

In his chapter on Proverbs, Christopher Ansberry provides a refreshing introductory approach to the book, not least because he starts with the history of interpretation rather than letting thematic concerns dominate. He identifies five patterns within the history of the book’s interpretation, including a focus on character formation, debates about the nature of its ‘wisdom’ and place in the canon, interest in its reception via matters of date and authorship, the discovery of comparative ancient Near Eastern material, and current, expanding interdisciplinary approaches to the book. A section on the fundamental nature of the book takes on matters of form, genre, poetic features, and the idea of a ‘collection’, whilst granting admiration rather than suspicion to the complexities of the book’s sayings. Likewise, the structure of Proverbs, though containing many parts, comes together into a coherent whole, an ‘anthology’, to which each piece contributes. Ansberry concludes by proposing four ‘dominant’ themes in the book: the fear of the Lord; wisdom; moral order and created order; retribution and reward.

In the Introduction, the editors briefly sketch the parametres of the volume, and give an overview of each subsequent chapter.

Simon Cheung discusses the scholarship surrounding the ‘wisdom psalms’, with an eye towards the varied proposals, as well as the grounds for and development of them over the last century. From this Cheung sets forth his own conception of wisdom psalms. They constitute ‘a family of psalms, with varying degrees of membership, that exhibit a wisdom-oriented constellation of its generic elements’. The core traits are likened to DNA, which can be more or less present, and mainly discerned in theme, tone and intention. ‘Wisdom psalms’, to some degree, then, feature wisdom, carry an ‘intellectual tone’ and a pedagogical intent, all of which Cheung inspects in Psalm 34:8–17. Overall, his approach may offer interpreters additional accuracy when considering wisdom and its influence within the Psalter.