Wulfstan, bishop ofWorcester and archbishop of York (see 24/headnote), appears to have been using the pen-name Lupus (‘wolf’) throughout his public life, but the name is memorialised most firmly in the Latin title given to a sermon in OE which we can pinpoint, in one of its versions at least, to the year 1014. This was only one bad year among many for the English during the last decade of the long reign of King Æthelred (978–1016; see p. 62). England had never been free from Danish attacks once they had restarted in earnest in about 980, despite the payment of ever increasing sums of money to the aggressors – £10,000 in 991, £24,000 in 1002 and £48,000 in 1012. Sporadic raids were replaced by major invasions, and that of 1013, led by the king of Denmark, Svein Forkbeard, threatened complete military defeat. After Christmas, Æthelred fled into exile in Normandy. The people of England acknowledged Svein as king and only the latter's fortuitous death in 1014 allowed Æthelred to return. He was to spend two years in hostilities against Svein's son Cnut until his own death in 1016, which brought Cnut to the throne. It is against this background of national humiliation, low morale and pusillanimous action by England's leaders that Wulfstan composed his Sermo Lupi.

The sermon is a direct warning to the English people to mend their ways and follow God's laws, or risk evenworse disasters.