Narratives of Authority: The Earliest Old English Law-Code Prefaces

Abstract

This study examines the introductions to the earliest surviving English law codes: those of Æthelberht (d. 616), Hlothere and Eadric (d. 685 & ?686) and Wihtred (d. 725) of Kent, and Ine (d. 726) and Alfred (d. 899) of Wessex. It argues that these texts address in thoughtful and imaginative ways significant questions of legal and royal authority, legislative legitimation, and the place of newly-written law within its legal tradition. Despite two centuries of apparent legislative silence between the short prefaces of the early kings and the lengthy preface to the domboc of King Alfred, the rhetorical projects of these texts are linked by a number shared concerns – and particularly by their historiographical approach to the development of legal authority. Though the early legal prefaces have rarely been at the centre of jurisprudential or literary critical interest, their development of legal authority via the potency of literary composition represents an important aspect of a broader literary and legal culture in early England.