A short collection of prayers taken from the writings of Elfric, Abbot of Eynsham in the days of Ethelred the Unready.
Elfric (?955-?1010) was Abbot of Eynsham Abbey in Oxfordshire from 1005. He is one of the towering figures of the English Church in Anglo-Saxon times, sometimes even mentioned in the same breath as St Bede. The following prayers are taken from Benjamin Thorpe’s translation of Elfric’s Sermons, originally in Old English.
Jesus Christ’s own example of how to pray, in English translations going back beyond the Norman Conquest.
The Lord’s Prayer is an ancient compilation from two Biblical prayers given by Jesus Christ, in the Gospels of St Matthew and St Luke. The translation below is from the Book of Common Prayer of 1662. Beneath it, there is a translation into Old English given by Elfric, Abbot of Eynsham (955-1010), which he read out in the course of a sermon on the Lord’s Prayer.