Definition:
translation: anchoresses' rule (or manual)
An unknown 13th century author wrote this work describing how women could live in religious seclusion.
A few convents used the rule in their order.
The Ancrene Wisse is written in a dialect common in the West Midlands in the 13th century. There are eleven manuscripts known, some merely in fragments, written in Middle English. Four others are translated into Anglo-Norman French and another four into Latin.
The writer J.R.R. Tolkien researched and edited this text, publishing in 1929.
Also Known As: Ancren Riwle, Ancrene Rule
