The Laws of Alfred

The Domboc and the Making of Anglo-Saxon Law

Stefan Jurasinski, Lisi Oliver

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN: 9781108840903
• eBook ISBN: 9781108897891
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: British History
• Index: History

Alfred the Great's domboc ('book of laws') is the longest and most ambitious legal text of the Anglo-Saxon period. Alfred places his own laws, dealing with everything from sanctuary to feuding to the theft of bees, between a lengthy translation of legal passages from the Bible and the legislation of the West-Saxon King Ine (r. 688–726), which rival his own in length and scope. This book is the first critical edition of the domboc published in over a century, as well as a new translation. Five introductory chapters offer fresh insights into the laws of Alfred and Ine, considering their backgrounds, their relationship to early medieval legal culture, their manuscript evidence and their reception in later centuries. Rather than a haphazard accumulation of ordinances, the domboc is shown to issue from deep reflection on the nature of law itself, whose effects would permanently alter the development of early English legislation.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-title page
• Series page
• Title page
• Copyright page
• Contents
• List of Figures
• List of Tables
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• PART I BACKGROUNDS
• PART II EDITIONS
• Appendix Handlist of Prior Editions
• Bibliography
• Topical Index to the Laws of Alfred and Ine
• Index nominum et rerum