Richard of Devizes was a Benedictine monk who wrote a rather satirical chronicle of the reign of Richard I, somewhat in the vein of Walter Map and Gerald of Wales. It has a secular slant and often blends fact and fiction for the purpose of entertainment. Richard often makes reference to classical literature.

The theme of this section is St. Swithun of Winchester, a ninth-century saint. Here excerpts are given from a prose Life by Lantfred in the tenth century and a slightly later hexameter poem of 3386 lines produced by Wulfstan of Winchester, as a verse version of Lantfred’s work. Little work has been done on these texts, outside the edition of Michael Lapidge. The story chosen for both excerpts is of the slave girl who is miraculously taken to Swithun’s tomb. Lastly, a short sequence (or ‘prose’) about Swithun and Birinus is given, an example of this important early medieval genre of mirroring lines, used in the liturgy.

The theme of this section is the life of St. Swithun, also represented in Volume One. Here are two late eleventh-century anonymous texts, one in prose and one in rhythmic verse, recording a miracle involving a group of construction workers who smash the eggs being brought to market by an old woman. Swithun reprimands the men and repairs the eggs.