Ælfric’s Preface to Genesis: commentary, with text, translation, sources and analogues and parallel passages in Ælfric’s works

Ælfric’s Preface to Genesis is the first English preface to the first English translation of Genesis. That alone is sufficient to establish its great literary significance. But, beyond that, it also contains the first attested expression in English of an argument about the vernacular translation of the Bible which was to resonate for hundreds of years to come. It is couched as a letter from the author, a Benedictine monk, replying to his secular aristocratic patron Æthelweard’s request for the translation. Ælfric cogently expresses orthodox Christian opposition to such translation: the Bible’s meaning is too difficult for the laity and the Church must interpret it for them. Æthelweard’s wish for there to be an English translation of Genesis represents the wish of the laity to read for themselves the book which encapsulated their religion. The opposition of Catholic and Protestant views, respectively, in the early modern period is strikingly similar. Paradoxically, then, this first translation is headed by a preface which argues against its existence. Anxiety accordingly saturates its every syllable and the author marshals every authority to defend his case and himself. Its recipient, Æthelweard, is silent, but victorious. The following commentary is an attempt to unravel the twists and turns of the author’s complex arguments.