With The Laws of Alfred: The “Domboc” and the Making of Anglo-Saxon Law, Stefan Jurasinski and Lisi Oliver present a much-needed edition and translation of the domboc of King Alfred (r. 871–899). Their edition has two parts, each a contribution to early English legal studies. The first part, a monograph-length discussion of the backgrounds to Alfred's laws, is organized into five chapters that thoroughly situate Alfred's laws in the longer history of English law: “The Emergence of Written Law in Early England,” “Legal Erudition in Seventh- and Ninth-Century Wessex,” “Oaths, Ordeals, and the ‘Innovations’ of the Domboc,” “The Transmission of the Domboc,” “Reception, Editorial History, and Interpretative Legacies.” Across these chapters, Jurasinski and Oliver summarize decades of scholarship and synthesize the major arguments concerning sources and the place of Alfred's laws in West Saxon and the larger English society.

As Jurasinski and Oliver observe in their preface, it was by no means inevitable that the kingdom of Wessex would have produced the foundation of medieval English law, and the rhetorical and political work that the domboc performed for both Alfred and his successors was manifold and accretive. Counter to prior editions of Alfred's laws that treat them as emerging either from a deep Germanic past or as a revolutionary invention that changed the face of English law that followed, Jurasinski and Oliver establish their context with careful attention to extant evidence from both England and the European mainland. They begin with the seventh-century Kentish laws—an obvious extension and updating of the discussion in Oliver's Beginnings of English Law (2002)—then follow through to the rise of Wessex under Ine, whose laws Alfred included as a kind of historical appendix to the domboc. Approaching the laws this way allows Jurasinski and Oliver to do away with some antiquated views that seem to linger, such as the notion of the laws’ reliance on Germanic oral tradition, and introduce the newcomer or remind the seasoned legal historian of the revised understandings of important matters, such as the role of the church and Anglo-Welsh contact, which were fundamental to Alfred's court and certainly influenced his laws in profound ways.

Although part one is an impressive synthesis of scholarship and a thoughtful contextualization of the domboc, part two is what specialist readers come for and what will endure as the standard edition because Jurasinski and Oliver treat the domboc as a whole and curate an edition that is reflective of the extant manuscript witnesses. The volume presents the rubrics, the “Mosaic” and “English” prologues to the laws, the laws of Alfred, and the laws of Ine, each with a preface to the individual text, but the texts themselves remain unified. This is an important advance on previous editions, most of which omit the Mosaic prologue entirely, judging it to have no bearing on the laws, and many of which treat Ine's laws as a stand-alone text even though it survives only in copies of Alfred's domboc.

Moreover, across the edition, there is substantive commentary in the footnotes that rewards attention. These notes draw connections between clauses in Old English and mainland European law, situate Alfred's laws in relation to scriptural commentary, clarify vocabulary choice in relation to other texts in the Old English corpus, offer philological and cultural commentary, and provide comparisons in the thought of later English writers such as Ælfric or Wulfstan. Two examples give a sense of the kind of value the notes provide. The first, 205n61, explains that the clauses concerning payments for killing a foreigner probably did not include “Welsh taxpayers” because they would not have been viewed as foreigners. As too many studies, older and more recent, have emphasized the foreignness of the Welsh, even imposing modern racialized readings on Old English texts’ references to the Welsh, the distinction between the Welsh who were or were not included under West Saxon rule is a welcome one. Another, 235n24, addresses a tricky translation concerning the purchase or sale of a Christian slave's daughter. The note treats both the problematic verb, gebycgge, the previous commentary on the verb choice, and further clarification of the kind of slave that was likely indicated by the noun mennen when considered in light of the history of early English slavery.

My criticisms of this edition are few and of the nitpicking variety. First is the introduction of modern punctuation and capitalization. This is a standard editorial practice, and there is no question that such modernization aids reading, especially for those new to the laws. While normalizing capitalization and punctuation makes reading easier, it also misrepresents what the manuscript itself presents and can provide a definitive reading where the original may have been ambiguous. Nonetheless, the decision is between facilitating reading and preserving manuscript presentation: Jurasinski and Oliver have made their choice and it is a reasonable one. Those interested in the manuscript presentation can easily make use of facsimile editions, at least of Cambridge, Corpus Christi College MS 173.

Second, a glossary, or at least a concordance of vocabulary would have proved a valuable feature of this edition, especially given the philological strengths of the editors and their extensive commentary in the notes. Nonetheless, volume 2 of Felix Liebermann's Die Gesetze der Angelsachsen (1903–1916) includes such a feature, and scholars can consult it alongside this new edition of the domboc.

As to the translation, while I have my quibbles about occasional inconsistencies and interpretations of obscure passages, I was as likely to find that Jurasinski and Oliver changed my mind about my own long-standing readings as I was to prefer mine to theirs. Moreover, they almost always provide notes to the translation to explain their choices when the Old English is tricky.

In short, Jurasinski and Oliver's edition of the domboc largely supplants earlier editions and translations while thoroughly embedding itself in the editorial history and scholarly discussions on the laws. It is a great resource for students and established scholars alike, and it will stand as a testament to the memory of Lisi Oliver.