Ancren Riwle

Ancren Riwle or Ancrene Wisse [Mid. Eng.,=anchoresses' rule], English tract written c.1200 by an anonymous English churchman for the instruction of three young ladies about to become religious recluses. The work, important as a sample of early Middle English prose, is a charming mixture of realism and humor, didacticism and tenderness. It is also important for its depiction of the manners and customs of the time. French and Latin versions of the work are also extant.

Bibliography: See edition by J. R. R. Tolkien (1962); study by A. Zettersten (1965).

Ancren(e) Riwle (or Ancrene Wisse). An early 13th-cent. ‘Rule’ or ‘Guide for Anchoresses’, written in English. It was originally composed for three well-born sisters and later revised by the author for a larger group of recluses. The identity of the author is uncertain, but his style is clear, lively and rhetorically accomplished. The ‘Rule’ was widely copied and adapted for other communities of men and women.

Ancrene Wisse (often called Ancrene Riwle), a book of devotional advice, written for three sisters by a chaplain in about 1230. It is admired as a work of great charm and regarded as the greatest prose work of the Early Middle English period. The author is unknown. It has important linguistic and thematic connections with the Katherine Group of texts.