The Laws of the Earliest English Kings

Book excerpt: The most impressive contribution to the bibliography of Anglo-Saxon legal sources since Thorpe and Liebermann, this edition contains the texts of the Kentish laws, the laws of Ine and Alfred the Great, treaties with the Danes, and the laws of Edward the Elder and Aethelstan. The texts are in Anglo-Saxon with English translations. (Latin texts are used if the Anglo-Saxon originals were lost.) "Mr. Attenborough has done a very useful work in providing a critical translation of the Anglo-Saxon dooms for English-speaking students who are unable, or do not go far enough to find it needful, to make use of Liebermann's great and apparently final edition. Not that advanced scholars can afford to neglect Mr. Attenborough, for he shows himself fully capable of independent judgement and makes many observations deserving their attention": Frederick Pollock, Law Quarterly Review 38 (1922) 511.