Author: Peter Pesic
Abstract: The Leofric Missal (late ninth- or early tenth-century French-English) explains that the ‘sun stood still’ for Joshua at Gibeon because the battle occurred on leap day, precisely when, in the Roman calendar, two consecutive days had the same date. A tenth-century Old English text by Ælfric also mentions and critiques this ‘priestly’ computistical explanation.
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Publication: Culture and Cosmos
Issue: Volume 13, Number 2
Dated: Autumn/Winter 2009
Pages: 33-42
How the Sun Stood Still: Old English Interpretations of Joshua and the Leap Year
Posted in Free Research Abstract