II Aethelstan; or, the Grately Code

Impact

Although the law code covers a wide range of issues concerning Anglo-Saxon society in the early tenth century, it was not necessarily effective. The subsequent laws of Aethelstan frequently refer back to this law code. The prologue of the law code V Aethelstan, issued at a council in Exeter, is informative on this matter. In full the prologue states, “I King Aethelstan, make known that I have learnt that our peace is worse kept than I should like and than it was pronounced at Grately; and my councillors say that I have borne it too long” (Whitelock, p. 422).

In terms of immediate effect, then, it would appear that the law was, at best, ignored by a sizable proportion of the population or, at worst, completely ineffectual. However, the evidence from the surviving manuscript copies of the text allows for a different interpretation. The two surviving Old English texts of II Aethelstan and the Latin translation in the Quadripartitus manuscripts are different versions of the document. That is to say that the wording and contents are subtly varied in each. Some of this variation undoubtedly arose from subtle changes made by scribes, either accidentally or deliberately, as they copied the manuscript. Some scholars argue that the number and scope of the differences are such that each version must have been copied from a distinctly different source, and each must have diverged from the original at a much earlier point.

The implications are that numerous written copies were circulated and copied soon after the initial production of the law code. These split into the different versions that ultimately resulted in the three different texts that have survived to the modern day. The fact that so many copies and versions were produced and used suggests that the document enjoyed some popularity. On one hand, therefore, it would appear that the law had little impact on Anglo-Saxon society, and Aethelstan and his councilors were forced to reissue the law at numerous councils and gatherings. On the other hand, and perhaps because the law was not being upheld, numerous copies of the law code were produced and circulated.