The Chronicle covers a wide range of topics, including significant events such as battles, royal successions, coronations, and ecclesiastical matters. It also provides valuable insights into everyday life, such as weather patterns, famines, and the impact of Viking raids.

Aside from eight leaves added to the codex after it was written, the Exeter Book consists entirely of poetry. However, unlike the Junius manuscript, which is dedicated to biblically inspired works, the Exeter Book is noted for the unmatched diversity of genres among its contents, as well as their generally high level of poetic quality.

duties; Penned around 590 by Pope Gregory I, "The Pastoral Care" quickly transcended its time. Widely translated during the Middle Ages, it reached far and wide, even earning an Old English rendition by King Alfred the Great himself in the late 9th century. This profound influence on pastoral theology in the West solidified "The Pastoral Care" as a cornerstone, offering timeless wisdom and guidance for generations of leaders navigating the challenges and opportunities of guiding their flock.

The book has the form of an "inner dialogue" in which questions are posed, discussions take place and answers are provided, leading to self-knowledge. The first book begins with an inner dialogue which seeks to know a soul. In the second book it becomes clear that the soul Augustine wants to get to know is his own.

A translation of the first half of the Soliloquies into Old English is attributed to Alfred the Great, where it is known as the Blostman ('bloom') or Anthology.

The casket is densely decorated with knife-cut narrative scenes in flat two-dimensional low-relief and with inscriptions mostly in Anglo-Saxon runes. Generally thought to be of Northumbrian origin, it is of unique importance for the insight it gives into early Anglo-Saxon art and culture. Both identifying the images and interpreting the runic inscriptions has generated a considerable amount of scholarship.

It is named after a former owner, Sir Augustus Wollaston Franks, who gave it to the British Museum.

The imagery is very diverse in its subject matter and derivations, and includes a single Christian image, the Adoration of the Magi, along with images derived from Roman history (Emperor Titus) and Roman mythology (Romulus and Remus), as well as a depiction of at least one legend indigenous to the Germanic peoples: that of Weyland the Smith.

It has also been suggested that there may be an episode from the Sigurd legend, an otherwise lost episode from the life of Weyland's brother Egil, a Homeric legend involving Achilles, and perhaps even an allusion to the legendary founding of England by Hengist and Horsa.

The inscriptions "display a deliberate linguistic and alphabetic virtuosity; though they are mostly written in Old English and in runes, they shift into Latin and the Roman alphabet; then back into runes while still writing Latin". Some are written upside down or back to front.

Some examples of Old English and runic writing on the panels:

1. ᚱᚩᛗᚹᚪᛚᚢᛋᚪᚾᛞᚱᛖᚢᛗᚹᚪᛚᚢᛋᛏᚹᛟᚷᛖᚾ ᚷᛁᛒᚱᚩᚦᚫᚱᚪᚠᛟᛞᛞᚫᚻᛁᚫᚹᚣᛚᛁᚠᛁᚾᚱᚩᛗᚫᚳᚫᛋᛏᚱᛁ ᚩᚦᛚᚫᚢᚾᚾᛖᚷ - Rōmwalus and Rēomwalus, twēgen gebrōðera: fēdde hīe wylf in Rōmeceastre, ēðle unnēah. - Romulus and Remus, two brothers, a she-wolf nourished them in Rome, far from their native land.

2. ᚻᛖᚱᚠᛖᚷᛏᚪᚦ ᛏᛁᛏᚢᛋᛖᚾᛞᚷᛁᚢᚦᛖᚪᛋᚢ' -'Hēr feohtaþ Tītus and Iūdēas’ - 'Here Titus and the Jews fight'.