Translation of the Middle English manual 'Ancrene Riwle' ('Rule for Anchoresses'), which was composed between 1225 and 1240 for the spiritual instruction of women. This edition contains an introduction by Dom Gerard Sitwell and a preface by J.R.R. Tolkien.

The Dream of the Rood is a poem that has entranced generations of scholars. It is one of the greatest religious poems in English literature, the work of a nameless poet of superb genius. This edition presents a conservative text with variant reading described in the notes. In his introduction Professor Swanton describes the Vercelli Book, in which the full text of The Dream of the Rood is found, and gives an account of the Ruthwell Cross, the sources for which are scattered and not normally familiar to students of Old English. The relationship between the two texts, the doctrine behind the...