This Section provides examples of saints’ lives from around the millennium, in the works of Ælfric and Wulfstan of Winchester on the life of Æthelwold, in the work of the author known as ‘B.’ on the life of St. Dunstan (an excerpt describing a miracle involving Dunstan’s harp in the house of a woman where Dunstan was designing an embroidery) with excerpts from the biographies of DUnstan written by post-Conquest writers, namely Osbern of Canterbury, Eadmer and William of Malmesbury, for the sake of comparison. Finally an excerpt is given from Byrhtferth’s life of bishop Oswald, describing his role at the coronation in Bath of king Edgar in 973.

The first part of this chapter draws attention to the elements which show a concern for reciprocal entitlements and obligations in some works associated with Archbishop Wulfstan, arguing that these can more usefully be read as works of morality rather than as estate literature. The second part relates a little-studied remark in his ‘Sermon of the Wolf’ to a context of the proliferation of small lordships, bringing increased pressure on the local peasantry.