| The text of the laws of king AEthelberht of Kent (ruled ca. 590-614) presents a problem familiar to medievalists: it is preserved only in a manuscript compiled several centuries after the purported date of composition. This dissertation argues for the authenticity of the received text on the basis of remnants of linguistic archaism in the orthography, phonology, morphology, and syntax. It further addresses the transition from oral to written preservation of law, the development of formal legal phraseology from Archaic to Classical Old English, and the chronological layering of the laws included in the text attributed to AEthelberht. Finally, it presents a new edition and translation of the laws of AEthelberht, based on the linguistic analysis. |
