The Old English History of the World: An Anglo-Saxon Rewriting of Orosius (Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library)

The Old English History of the World preserves an Anglo-Saxon reworking of Orosius’s influential Seven Books of History against the Pagans, a late Roman universal history written after the sack of Rome in 410. Around the year 900, an anonymous Old English writer transformed that Latin work for a new audience, reshaping its account of antiquity rather than simply translating it word for word.

The adaptation cuts material, adds explanations and speeches, and introduces an extended geographical account of the Germanic world, revealing how an early medieval English writer understood both ancient history and the wider world. Edited and translated by Malcolm R. Godden for the Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library, this volume offers the Old English text with a modern English translation and scholarly apparatus, making an important work of Anglo-Saxon historiography accessible for study.