ROEP (Resources for Old English Prose) provides targeted resources for university researchers, students and instructors, secondary- and primary-school teachers and interested members of the public. 

Fom the seventh century to the eleventh centuries, Old English prose came to be used for a remarkably wide variety of purposes. As early as 601, the laws of King Æthelberht of Kent were written out in vernacular prose. By the ninth century, the central kingdom of Mercia was leading the way in the use of vernacular prose for the writing of saints' lives, homilies, history and other genres. In the 890s, King Alfred of Wessex famously called for the translation of 'books most necessary for all people to know', giving impetus to increasingly ambitious renderings of Latin classics in Old English prose. In the tenth and eleventh centuries, large sections of the Bible were translated into English prose, making this material accessible to members of the laity as well as clergy. The explosion of Old English prose writing in this period saw the production of  homilies, theological treatises, scientific manuals, charters, letters, wills and laws as well as travel narratives and even the first English romance. As well as showcasing the emergence of the first named English prose stylists, Ælfric of Eynsham and Wulfstan of York, this project also highlights the important contributions of many anonymous authors of Old English prose.

The website provides Short Introductions to Old English prose texts written by experts, as well as bibliographies,  translations and audio recordings of prose works combined with images of artefacts and manuscripts.

This project is funded by Francis Leneghan's AHRC Research, Development and Engagement Fellowship, ‘Writing Pre-Conquest England: A New History of Old English Prose' (grant number AH/Y003276/1).