Ancrene Wisse or the Anchoresses Guide (Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 402), written sometime roughly between 1225 and 1240, represents a revision of an earlier work, usually called the Ancrene Riwle or Anchorites' Rule, a book of religious...
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.
This early thirteenth-century West Midlands guide for women recluses is not only one of the major works of early Middle English prose, but is also a key document for the development of medieval spirituality. It reflects the 'democratization' of religious experience which was...
The Ancrene Wisse is perhaps the most notable monument of Middle English prose, its influence evident from the time of its composition in the early thirteenth century until at least the Reformation. As the only Early Middle English work of considerable length to survive in more...