The twelfth-century chronicler William of Malmesbury expressed his disgust at language he considered bombastic.[41] In Frank Stenton's view, Byrhtferth's hermeneutic life of Oswald gives a poor impression of the quality of English scholarship. He described it as "a disorderly work, written in a flamboyant prose, studded with strange words, which had to be explained by glosses inserted between the lines".[42]