The Laws of Alfred: The Domboc and the Making of Anglo-Saxon Law

Alfred the Great's domboc ('book of laws') is the longest and most ambitious legal text of the Anglo-Saxon period. Alfred places his own laws, dealing with everything from sanctuary to feuding to the theft of bees, between a lengthy translation of legal passages from the Bible and the legislation of the West-Saxon King Ine (r. 688–726), which rival his own in length and scope. This book is the first critical edition of the domboc published in over a century, as well as a new translation. Five introductory chapters offer fresh insights into the laws of Alfred and Ine, considering their backgrounds, their relationship to early medieval legal culture, their manuscript evidence and their reception in later centuries. Rather than a haphazard accumulation of ordinances, the domboc is shown to issue from deep reflection on the nature of law itself, whose effects would permanently alter the development of early English legislation.

• The first scholarly edition of the laws of Alfred and Ine in over a century
• Allows readers to see this text in relationship with other legal materials from England and elsewhere
• Offers a fresh assessment of questions fundamental to understanding Alfred's domboc, such as the role of the ordeal, the purpose of its use of biblical law, and the nature of manuscript evidence