Sayings of the Saxons

Sayings of the Saxons gathers the wisdom literature of Anglo-Saxon England in a compact volume. This collection features the greatest works in Old English, including those available nowhere else such as the Distichs of Cato and Durham Proverbs.

Under a slate-grey sky we find counsel from a world older and sterner than our own, where a man was free only so far as he was bound to duty, and was measured by his honour in the eyes of his folk. The Saxon mind could not brook weakness or pretend that life could be bent to man's desire. It lived within a world of hard limits, inherited bonds, and the shadow of fate.

This is reactionary wisdom in its deepest sense: the teaching of hard, grim men who did not expect mercy from the world. For readers weary of the weightless present, this collection opens a door into the grave, heroic wisdom of Old England.