The speaking cross, the persecuted princess and the murdered earl: the early history of Romsey Abbey
The Old-English note may have begun life as an endorsement, either to the grant of privileges or (what is perhaps more likely) to the agreement about the woodland belonging to Romsey, a notice of which has become attached to it; it was not uncommon when diplomas were collected into cartularies for such endorsements to be used as ‘headings’ for the text.
St Edmund of East Anglia and his miracles: variations in literature and art
Edmund was said to have been crowned at the age of just fourteen years by St Humbert on 25 December 855 in the then royal capital Burna, (probably Bures St Mary, Suffolk). Almost nothing is known of his life and reign, though he was recorded as a just and uncompromising ruler, the embodiment of the Greek ideal of the kalòs kai agathòs – that is, the right balance of the Good and the Beautiful, the combination of virtues that could create the perfect nobleman.
Against the Heathen: Saints and martyrs in late Anglo-Saxon literature
In this essay I will argue that the militarised martyrs and saints in Anglo-Saxon England are both a shining example to Saxon Christians and an enticing lure to encourage the Scandinavian settlers to adopt the Catholic faith like King Cnut did.