ABSTRACT
The prose of the Old English period offers many points of contrast with the poetry. The prose began first to take the place of verse for laws and official documents, but for its use for literature we have to wait for Ælfred''s time (848–889, or 900), who in the midst of his great work for England as soldier and administrator yet found time to give her a new form for literature. While encouraging the preservation and study of the old poems, he laid the foundation of the whole later structure of English prose. Ælfred's first work was a commonplace book, his Handboc. Ælfred's services to literature were not, however, confined to his own writings. Before he could free himself from other matters sufficiently to begin his own translations, he gave his first encouragement to prose literature by commissioning Bishop Wærferþ of Worcester to turn the Dialogues of Gregory the Great into English.
