Sayings of the Saxons

Sayings of the Saxons presents the wisdom literature of Anglo-Saxon England in a compact volume. This collection features the greatest works in Old English, including those available nowhere else such as the Distichs of Cato and Durham Proverbs.Under a slate-grey sky we find counsel from an older and sterner world, where a man was free only so far as he was bound to duty, and where he was measured by his honour in the eyes of his folk. The Anglo-Saxon refused to pretend that life could be bent to man’s desire. He lived within a world of hard limits and inherited bonds. He lived under the shadow of fate.This is reactionary wisdom in its deepest sense: the teaching of hard, grim men who expected no mercy from the world. For readers weary of the weightless present, this collection opens a door into the grave, heroic wisdom of Old England. Read more