It is generally accepted that rights over land, especially rights of pasture, played a formative role in establishing the identity of early Anglo-Saxon ‘folk groups’, the predecessors of the middle Anglo-Saxon kingdoms.
Æcerbot and Wassail: Blessing the Fields and Orchards
August 24, 2014 By
During the autumn season when imagery of the harvest is all around, it can be easy to forget that the cornucopia of produce yielded is the product of year round effort.
Ealhswith, Wife of Alfred the Great
August 21, 2014 By
Ealhswith was a Mercian princess who married Alfred, Anglo-Saxon king of Wessex.
Nature Speaks: Expanding Ecocriticism to the Anglo-Saxon World
August 16, 2014 By
Ecocroticism is a new, and still emerging, field of literary criticism. Through an interdisciplinary approach, it aims to draw together environmentally focussed work from a wide range of academic fields.
Rethinking Hardown Hill: Our Westernmost Early Anglo-Saxon Cemetery?
August 16, 2014 By
This paper reassesses the early Anglo-Saxon assemblage from Hardown Hill, Dorset. Wingrave excavated the objects in 1916 but apart from his 1931 report, and Evison’s 1968 analysis, there has been little subsequent discussion.
Enemy and Ancestor: Viking Identities and Ethnic Boundaries in England and Normandy, c.950 – c.1015
August 12, 2014 By
This thesis is a comparison of ethnicity in Viking Age England and Normandy. It focuses on the period c.950-c.1015, which begins several generations after the initial Scandinavian settlements in both regions.
Animals in Saxon and Scandinavian England
August 4, 2014 By
In this book an analysis of over 300 animal bone assemblages from English Saxon and Scandinavian sites is presented. The data set is summarised in extensive tables for use as comparanda for future archaeozoological studies.
The Sisters of King Æthelstan
July 24, 2014 By
King Edward the Elder, son and successor of Alfred the Great of England, had many children.
The Byzantine Silver Bowls in the Sutton Hoo Ship Burial and Tree-Worship in Anglo-Saxon England
July 22, 2014 By
The ten Byzantine silver bowls included amongst the grave goods interred in the chamber of the Mound 1 ship burial at Sutton Hoo remain one of the most puzzling features of this site…
(Re)casting the Past: The Cloisters and Medievalism
July 22, 2014 By
In this essay, I focus on a variety of texts printed using Anglo-Saxon type between 1566 and 1623 in an effort to explore the use of Anglo-Saxon typeface in the early modern period as the use of the Old English language progressed from polemical truncheon to historiographical instrument.
Can you solve these Anglo-Saxon Riddles
July 21, 2014 By
Here are ten riddles from Aldhelm’s Enigmata. See if you can figure out the answers
How well do you know the origins of English words?
July 14, 2014 By
Can you tell which word derives from the English of Anglo-Saxon times, and which word came from French?
Æthelstan, Anglo-Saxon King of England
July 10, 2014 By
Æthelstan was the first King of Wessex to bring together all the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms in England. He was well educated, very pious and a collector of saints relics and manuscripts. He was also a formidable warrior.
The ‘Living’ Sword in Early Medieval Northern Europe: An Interdisciplinary Study
June 29, 2014 By
This thesis explores perceptions of two-edged swords as ‘living’ artefacts in Anglo-Saxon England and Scandinavia between c. 500 and 1100.
The Sutton Hoo Helmet at the British Museum
June 25, 2014 By
Sue Brunning, curator at the British Museum, tells us about the famous Sutton Hoo Helmet, which can be found in Room 41 of the museum.
The Tale of Bealhildis or how an Anglian slave became a saintly French Queen
June 23, 2014 By
It is not every day England gives a home girl to be worshipped as a Saint by enthusiastic Gallic crowds.
Memorial to Athelney Island, Home of Alfred the Great
June 18, 2014 By
Alfred was forced to flee with his family to safety in the woods and eventually made his way to the island of Athelney in the marshes of Somerset.
Anglo Saxon and Viking Ship Burial – The British Museum
June 9, 2014 By
This session explores Viking and Anglo Saxon ship burials between the seventh and tenth centuries presented at The British Museum.
10th-century Viking king may have been discovered in Scotland
June 6, 2014 By
These might be the remains of Olaf Guthfrithsson, King of Dublin and Northumbria from 934 to 941.
Quid Tacitus . . . ? The Germania and the Study of Anglo-Saxon England
June 6, 2014 By
This paper considers the vexed historiography of Tacitus’s Germania and its reception history, first among German and other European historians and then among Anglo-Saxonists.
CONFERENCES: Sutton Hoo at the British Museum: New directions for the new display
June 5, 2014 By
A fascinating talk about the new Sutton Hoo display at the British Museum, given by curator, Dr. Sue Brunning.
Time, space and power in later medieval Bristol
May 26, 2014 By
With a population of almost 10,000, Bristol was later medieval England’s second or third biggest urban place, and the realm’s second port after London. While not particularly large or wealthy in comparison with the great cities of northern Italy, Flanders or the Rhineland, it was a metropolis in the context of the British Isles.
Northumbria in Stone: Material Evidence and Tenth Century Politics
May 24, 2014 By
This paper will illustrate how different forms of evidence provide disparate answers regarding the political situation in tenth-century Northumbria.
Linear frontiers in the 9th century: Bulgaria and Wessex
May 24, 2014 By
I intend to answer some of those questions through a comparison between two famous, yet relatively neglected examples of imposition of ‘linear frontiers’ onto the landscape of early medieval Europe, both dated to the 9th century.
Making a difference in tenth-century politics: King Athelstan’s sisters and Frankish queenship
May 10, 2014 By
In the early years of the tenth century several Anglo-Saxon royal women, all daughters of King Edward the Elder of Wessex (899-924) and sisters (or half-sisters) of his son King Athelstan (924-39), were despatched across the Channel as brides for Frankish and Saxon rulers and aristocrats. This article addresses the fate of some of these women through an analysis of their political identities.
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