This book provides a study and critical edition of the corpus of hymns sung by monks and canons in their services in England before the Norman Conquest. When Christianity was introduced into Anglo-Saxon England at the end of the sixth century, the practice of singing hymns in the liturgy of the Office was already well established. The hymnal that the missionaries brought with them was replaced during the Benedictine Reform in the tenth century by another body of hymns, itself introduced from the Continent. This edition assembles textual evidence of these early hymns, some of it hitherto...

This book provides a study and critical edition of the corpus of hymns sung by monks and canons in their services in England before the Norman Conquest. An eleventh-century Latin manuscript known as the Durham Hymnal, with its accompanying Old English interlinear gloss, makes up the core of the edition. An introduction and commentary include descriptions of relevant extant manuscripts and discussions of sources, liturgical use and music, as well as the phonology and vocabulary of the Old English gloss. A translation of the Latin text is provided.