Short passages for reading, drawn from history, legend, poetry and fiction.
From the Benedictional of St Athelwold, via the British Library and Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.
Will Langland, a contemporary of Geoffrey Chaucer, dreams he is looking for his old friend Piers the Ploughman in Jerusalem just when Christ rides in on a donkey.
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By Tomhannen, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.
Maria Montessori takes some of her pupils up onto a roof terrace, and witnesses a eureka moment.
By Sir John Gilbert (1817-1897), Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.
Henry V’s chaplain Thomas Elmham, an eyewitness of the battle of Agincourt, gave us this account of the King in the moments before the fighting began.
From the Passion of St Edmund, via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.
Edmund, King of the East Angles, is given a stark choice by the Viking warrior who has ravaged his realm.
From the Utrecht Psalter, via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.
Anglo-Saxon poet Cynewulf reminds us that God’s gifts to men are many and varied, and nobody ever gets them all.
From Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.
Archdeacon and diplomat Peter of Blois was a frequent guest at the laden tables of King Henry II, but he had little appetite for the fare on offer.