Mercian Network

Resources on the History, Literature, Language and Material Culture of Mercia

Primary Materials: Texts

Early Mercian Literature: Register of Texts

[Please note that the information below is still Work in Progress: Further editing and re-formatting is currently being undertaken]

The following register lists texts for which Mercian associations have been proposed, either on the basis of an Anglian (Mercian) linguistic component, or evidence of Mercian authorship or place of composition, or a route of transmission which involves Mercian sites or personnel, or a combination of any such details. The register below lists some 140 texts written in Old English and Latin, prose and poetry, including some 80 charters. Work to identify further productions with Mercian elements is ongoing. The list is consciously inclusive and also lists texts for which such associations cannot be demonstrated with very great certainty. Entries are in chronological order, as far as this can be established.

Reference numbers used for Old English Texts relate to A Plan for the Dictionary of Old English, ed. R. Frank and A. Cameron (Toronto, 1973). Full details regarding each text's Mercian connection are currently being collated and will be presented in a forthcoming monograph and accompanying website. This information will include a Bibliography for each text's Mercian connections, details of its standard edition and its early medieval transmission beyond Mercia (where applicable). If you're interested in any particular text, please contact me by emailing cr30@st-andrews.ac.uk, and I'll send you the information which I have collected on this text so far.

 

Old English Texts

Seventh Century: Épinal Glossary (D7)

Eighth Century: Beowulf (A4.1); Glosses to Isidore’s Etymologiae (C77.2); Leiden Glossary (D41); Honington Clip Inscription; Silver-Gilt Fitting Inscription; Plaque Inscription

Eighth to Ninth Centuries: Cynewulf’s Poems (The Fates of the Apostles, Elene, Christ II, Juliana) (A2.2; A2.6; A3.5; A3.1); Medical Texts (transcribed by Laurence Nowell) (B21.2.3); Glosses in the Blickling Psalter (C50.1); Gandersheim Casket Inscription

Ninth Century: Andreas (A2.1); Advent Lyrics (Christ I) (A3.1); Life of Chad (B3.3.3); Apocalypse of Thomas (B3.4.12.1); Werferth, Old English Translation of Gregory’s Dialogi (B9.5); Old English Translation of Bede’s Historia ecclesiastica (B9.6); Lorica Prayer (B12.5.1); Will of Æthelnoth (B15.6.18); Codex Aureus Dedication (B16.6.5); Old English Martyrology (B19); Bald’s Leechbook; Lacnunga (B21.2.1); Omont Leaf Medical Fragment (B21.5.10); Old English Translation of the Letter of Alexander to Aristotle (B22.1); Old English Translation of the Wonders of the East (B22.2); Interlinear Gloss in the Vespasian Psalter (C7.7); Interlinear Hymn Gloss ‘Splendor paternae gloriae’ in the Vespasian Psalter (C18.2); Interlinear Hymn Gloss ‘Deus creator omnium’ in the Vespasian Psalter (C18.2); Interlinear Hymn Gloss ‘Rex aeterne dominum’ in the Vespasian Psalter (C18.2); Glosses to the Lorica of Gildas (C83); Corpus Glossary (D4); Erfurt Glossary (D36.1); Episcopal Lists and Anglian Collection of Royal Genealogies; Old English Capitula Theodulfi; Charters: S164 (809, Christ Church Canterbury); S174 (814, Christ Church Canterbury); S204 (844x845, Christ Church Canterbury); S212 (866, Worcester); S214 (869, Christ Church Canterbury); S218 (883, Worcester); S223 (884x911, Worcester); S1272 (849, Worcester); S1440 (852, Peterborough)

Ninth to Tenth Centuries: [multiple] Vercelli Homilies (B3); Old English Life of St Christopher (B3.3.4); Prose Guthlac (B3.3.10.1); Napier Homily 40 ('In Die Iudicii') (B3.4.32.3); Interlinear Gloss in the Cambridge Psalter (C7.1); Interlinear Gloss in the Bosworth Psalter (C7.4); Interlinear Gloss in the Arundel Psalter (C7.5); Interlinear Gloss in the Vitellius Psalter (C7.8); Interlinear Gloss in the Junius Psalter (C7.12); Charters: S1283 (899x904, Worcester)

Tenth Century: Guthlac A (A3.2); Metrical Psalms (A54); Old English Life of St Mary of Egypt (B3.3.23); Royal Glosses (C54); Cleopatra Glosses (D8.1); Glosses to Bede’s Historia ecclesiastica; Annals of Æthelflæd (Mercian Register); Farmon, Glosses in the Rushworth Gospels; Charters: S367 (903, Christ Church Canterbury, Old English bounds)

Tenth to Eleventh Centuries: Old English Translation of the Life of Malchus (B3.3.35); Evil Tongues Sermon (B3.5.4); Old English Translation of Boniface’s Letter to Eadburga (B6.1)

Eleventh Century: Vision of Leofric (B4.2)

Undated: Blickling Homilies (B3.2); Assmann Homily 13 (B3.2.22); Assmann Homily 10 (B3.3.18); Napier Homily 30 (B3.4.27); Old English Canons of Theodore (B11.5); Interlinear Gloss in the Eadwine Psalter (C7.3)

Lost texts: Offa’s Laws, Old English Battle Poetry

Latin Texts

Glossaries and Glosses (see above)

Tatwine, Ars de partibus orationis (L.H.4.1) (probably composed before 700)

Staffordshire Hoard Inscribed Strip

Tribal Hidage

Tatwine, Enigmata (composed ca. 700) (L.A.4)

?Felix of Crowland, Vita S. Guthlaci (BHL 3723) (L.E.2.1), composed 713 x 749

Letter of Torhthelm, bishop of Leicester, to Boniface (L.C.19.01)

Mildred, bishop of Worcester [various texts]

Two Letters of Cenwulf King of the Mercians to Pope Leo

Letter of Cenwulf King of the Mercians to Charlemagne

Decree of the Council of Clofesho (Cotton MS Augustus II 61)

Letters of Aethelheard Archbishop of Canterbury

Charters: S1822 (657x674, Worcester); S86 (716/717/733, St Augustine's Canterbury); S87 (716/717/737, St Augustine's Canterbury); S1824 (716x757, Worcester); S88 (733, Rochester); S89 (736, Worcester); S91 (748, Christ Church Canterbury); S92 (749, Christ Church Canterbury, Crowland, Malmesbury); S94 (716x737, Worcester); S95 (723x737, Worcester); S96 (757, ?Malmesbury); S100, (716x757, Christ Church Canterbury); S101 (727x736, Worcester); S102 (716x717, Worcester); S103a (716x745, St Paul's London); S103b (716x745, St Paul's London); S105 (764, Rochester); S106 (764/767, Christ Church Canterbury); S109 (774, Christ Church Canterbury); S113 (778, Worcester); S114 (779, Evesham); S123 (785, Christ Church Canterbury); S128 (788, Christ Church Canterbury); S129 (788, Rochester); S130 (789, Rochester); S131 (789, Rochester); S134 (792, St Augustine's Canterbury); S137 (794, Worcester); S139 (793x796, Worcester); S143 (761x764, St Augustine's Canterbury); S144 (757x796, Peterborough); S148 (796, Worcester); S155 (799, Christ Church Canterbury); S157 (801, Rochester); S158 (801, Selsey); S159 (804, St Augustine's Canterbury); S160 (804, Christ Church Canterbury); S161 (805, Christ Church Canterbury); S163 (808, Christ Church Canterbury); S164 (809, Christ Church Canterbury); S165 (811, Rochester); S168 (811, Christ Church Canterbury); S169 (812, Christ Church Canterbury); S170 (812, Christ Church Canterbury); S171 (814, Worcester); S172 (813/814, Worcester); S173 (814, Worcester); S174 (814, Christ Church Canterbury); S176 (814, Christ Church Canterbury); S177 (814, Christ Church Canterbury); S178 (815, Christ Church Canterbury); S180 (816, Worcester); S182 (817, Worcester); S185 (798x821, probably 814, Worcester); S186 (822, Christ Church Canterbury); S187 (823, Christ Church Canterbury); S188 (831, Christ Church Canterbury); S190 (836, Worcester); S192 (840, Worcester); S194 (841, Worcester); S197 (844, Peterborough); S198 (844, Worcester); S1149 (845, Christ Church Canterbury); S199 (849, Worcester); S206 (855, Worcester); S207 (855, Worcester); S210 (864, Worcester); S212 (866, Worcester); S1201 (868, Abingdon); S214 (869, Christ Church Canterbury); S215 (875, Worcester); S217 (880, Worcester); S221 (901, Much Wenlock); S224 (914, Burton); S367 (903, Christ Church Canterbury); S367a (903, St Paul's London)

Professions of obedience made by bishops to Archbishop Ceolnoth (833-70)

?Goscelin, Vita et Miracula S. Kenelmi ca. 1045 x 1075

Vita S. Rumwoldi, s. xi med.


Return to Mercian Network Front Page