Includes bibliographical references. / This study of selected Old English texts, from the canons of Aelfric and Cynewulf, presents the argument that the primary purpose of the Saints' Lives in question is that of instruments of persuasion. After a description of the rites of Anglo-Saxon paganism, an attempt is made to outline the manner in which the Christian missionaries used certain aspects of pagan belief to promote Christianity. As such, these texts may therefore be viewed as religious propaganda in the Anglo- Saxon Church's attempt to win new converts to Christianity and to strengthen the faith of those already within its fold, firstly by promoting belief in the miraculous and secondly by investing Anglo-Saxon Christianity with the supernatural powers of the Anglo-Saxon and Celtic Pagan religions. Although the works of Cynewulf predate those of Aelfric, I have chosen to discuss the prose works of Aelfric first. However, I do not believe that reversing the historical order invalidates the argument.

Includes bibliography. / This study involves an examination of one particular Old French illuminated secular manuscript, nanlely MS Grey 4 c 12, a fourteenth century copy of the poem Le Roman de la Rose. It attempts to understand the relationship between its illumination and the written text and to describe the unique features of its miniatures and marginalia, as well as including a codicological description of the manuscript.

The study examines the character of Margaret Paston through a selective reading of Paston Letters and Papers of the fifteenth century. Consideration is given to the problems posed by the letter form, to the identification of an authentic "voice" in the letters of a woman who was probably unable to write, and to the constraints of an incomplete historical record. Margaret is viewed by means of her own words and her relationships with her immediate and extended family, and in the light of the social and political circumstances of the time. It is concluded that by examining Margaret in this way, there is sufficient material in the epistolary record to make an assessment of her character.

Bibliography: leaf 61. / What is a magical narrative? How can the inconsistencies and strange repetitions in the plots of Malory's Arthurian cycle be explained? What are their purposes and why are they essential to the plot? In this dissertation, I have attempted to answer these questions by applying Anne Wilson's theory of magical narrative (The magical quest) to a selection of tales from the beginning of Malory's Arthurian cycle (The tale of King Arthur) and from the latter half (The book of Sir Launcelot and Queen Quinevere).