SOURCE: Hollis, Stephanie. “The Thematic Structure of the Sermo Lupi.” Anglo-Saxon England 6 (1977): 175-95.

In the following essay, Hollis analyzes the complex thematic pattern of Wulfstan's eschatological homily Sermo Lupi ad Anglos as it follows the moral decline of England to its culmination in disaster.

Sermo Lupi ad Anglos has attracted far more attention by its subject matter than have other Wulfstan sermons, because its apparent topicality is of interest to students of the Old English period. Like all Wulfstan's sermons, though, it has been chiefly esteemed for its forceful oratory—it is this sermon, indeed, which is responsible for his reputation as a fiery orator in the Old Testament vein. Most readers have praised it more enthusiastically than Sir Frank Stenton did, when he stated that it ‘makes its effect by sheer monotony of commination’.¹ But even its admirers have regarded it as little more than a stringing...