Ælfric of Eynsham

Ælfric of Eynsham (c. 955–c. 1010) was an English Benedictine monk and the most prolific writer of Old English prose. Educated at Winchester under Bishop Æthelwold, he wrote at Cerne Abbas two series of Catholic Homilies and a collection of Lives of Saints, intended to give clear Christian teaching in the vernacular, and he later became the first abbot of Eynsham, near Oxford. He also produced a Latin grammar in English, a Latin colloquy for teaching boys, translations from the Old Testament and pastoral letters. His balanced, rhythmical prose is a high point of Anglo-Saxon literature.