Anglo-Saxon Studies

The verb /forgytan/ is used reflexively six times in the extant Old English corpus, and all six instances are found in King Alfred’s translation of Gregory the Great’s /Regula pastoralis/. As the translation adopts from its Latin source the concept of what I call ‘completely reflexive forgetting’ (the forgetting of one’s self), it adjusts the concept for an Anglo-Saxon audience by reimagining and reconfiguring the logistics of the mind and its mechanisms of perception. Completely reflexive forgetting is thus imagined as the process by which a ruler ceases to perceive himself from within (as God always does) and begins perceiving himself from without (from the perspective of his subjects), thereby slipping into a perpetually totalizing state of self-concealment.

A decade of studying the topography/archaeology/history/geography of the Surrey parish I grew up in has left me with a clutch of discoveries of local and supra-local significance, as well as a host of questions to be answered in the future by myself and any more capable researchers who might be interested in taking up the challenge. The paper (like the extended and extensive research process behind it) takes what is very much a long view to the subjects in hand. So far as the medieval period is concerned, it sets out the evidence that suggests the landscape was recast during a "long twelfth century" which saw Puttenham emerge as a manor, village and parish, but within a more complex and heterogenous local context. Further research should show the degree to which the situation within the parish matched or was at odds with that from other parishes within Surrey and beyond.

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This article analyses the correspondence of Boniface and his associates, arguing that Boniface deliberately but subtly communicates a Pauline apostolic identity in his letters by expressing his personal and professional successes, struggles, and feelings through a pervasive language of biblical allusions drawn primarily from the Pauline Epistles. The effectiveness of this hermeneutic becomes apparent when we see the complicity of Boniface’s fellow-correspondents and their ability and willingness to respond to his Pauline allusions in kind. They express their support of Boniface’s missionary and reform projects through their participation in these discursive practices; their ability to recognize, interpret and engage with this biblical language supplies the meaning to his words and, in doing so, systematically constitutes Boniface as an apostolic figure.

This MA Medieval History dissertation examines 11th century original sources to support the thesis that Godwin of Wessex was a sea-lord in command of ships, that he aligned with the Danish sea warriors of Cnut the Great before the conquest of England in 1016, and that his power as earl of Wessex was largely derived from his control of military and mercantile fleets and strategic maritime and trade landholdings.

The Christian Church originated in the east and through the roads and seaways of the Roman Empire found its way westward. The furthest point in the western parts of the Empire reached beyond the borders and imagination of many at the time, and the island of Hibernia remained insulated in its laws and religion. A Christian missionary named Patricius brought the Faith from the monasteries of Gaul, and it took root and flourished as a monastic Church inspired by the original Eastern Orthodox scriptural exegesis, systems of monasticism, wisdom of the Monastic Fathers, art, liturgics and reaching Ireland in the Latin language. The cultural transformation of Christianity, the alphabet and language of Latin and the ascetic disciplines of the monastic life would transform Ireland into a center of study unmatched in the decaying Empire of Western Rome, and those Irish Orthodox would eventually bring the light back to the western lands in darkness.

An undergraduate dissertation examining hogback stones in relation to their wider context using place-names, topgraphy, vernacular poetry, Domesday Book and various narrative sources such as the Historia de Sancto Cuthberto. By these means hogback stones are tied more firmly to the Hiberno-Norse and the wider political and aristoractic context of contemporary northern England, suggesting a greater deal of continuity between pre- and post-Viking society than is often supposed. The importance of examining sculpture with reference to its wider context is also made clear. (Any feedback would be much appreciated.)

This is not just a book about a battle; it is a book about the biggest battle before Hastings 1066.
This is a battle most people have probably never heard of, but it is a battle where five Scottish and Viking kings and seven earls died, somewhere in the kingdom of Northumbria in late 937. As well as royalty, the bones of tens of thousands of ordinary men from Northern England, Scotland and the Viking territories lie buried in a place which, according to the chroniclers, is no longer known.
This book is about that battle and the search to find the long-lost site. Thousands of pages have been written about the Battle of Brunnenburh, but this book is unique. It is written by descendants of a legendary Viking Egill Skallagrimsson. Thousands of pages have been written about Brunnenburh but all of them are written from the perspective of the victor, King Athelstan of Wessex and Mercia. This book is the closest anyone is likely to get to a Northern Viking account.
Even if you have no real interest in the site of the Battle of Brunnenburh this is worth the effort you will put into it this book to understand it. Take a deep dive into the world and beliefs and times of the competing factions in 10 th century England and beyond, and the battle that first unified the United Kingdom.

This groundbreaking study reveals the distinctive impact of apocalyptic ideas about time, evil and power on church and society in the Latin West, c.400–c.1050. Drawing on evidence from late antiquity, the Frankish kingdoms, Anglo-Saxon England, Spain and Byzantium and sociological models, James Palmer shows that apocalyptic thought was a more powerful part of mainstream political ideologies and religious reform than many historians believe. Moving beyond the standard 'Terrors of the Year 1000', The Apocalypse in the Early Middle Ages opens up broader perspectives on heresy, the Antichrist and Last World Emperor legends, chronography, and the relationship between eschatology and apocalypticism. In the process, it offers reassessments of the worlds of Augustine, Gregory of Tours, Bede, Charlemagne and the Ottonians, providing a wide-ranging and up-to-date survey of medieval apocalyptic thought. This is the first full-length English-language treatment of a fundamental and controversial part of medieval religion and society.

This paper reports on the fifth year of the University of
Cambridge Higher Education Field Academy (HEFA)
project which combines education and outreach
(particularly within the secondary school sector) with the
archaeological investigation of currently occupied rural
settlements (CORS) by the excavation of 1-metre square
test pits in open spaces (mostly private gardens) within
areas currently occupied by settlement. A total of 246 test pits were excavated in 2009, nearly 100 of which
were dug by members of the public during community
test pit excavation weekends. This paper summarises the resutls of these excavtions which took place in eleven parishes across six counties in eastern England as well as in Derbyshire and Leicestershire (the latter in Kibworth carreid out as part of Michael Woods 2010 history series for BBC2 'Story of England').

The Old English History of the World is a translation and adaptation of the Latin history known as the Seven Books of History against the Pagans, written by the Spanish cleric Paulus Orosius at the prompting of Saint Augustine after the sack of Rome in 410. To counter the pagan and republican narratives of Livy and other classical historians, Orosius created an account of the ancient world from a Christian and imperial viewpoint. His work was immensely popular throughout Europe in succeeding centuries, down to the end of the Middle Ages. Around the year 900, an Old English version was produced by an anonymous writer, possibly encouraged or inspired by King Alfred. The translator actively transformed Orosius’s narrative: cutting extraneous detail, adding explanations and dramatic speeches, and supplying a long section on the geography of the Germanic world. This volume offers a new edition and modern translation of an Anglo-Saxon perspective on the ancient world.

Scandinavian women are regularly depicted as warriors, or shieldmaidens, fighting both in international raids and in defending their homes in the popular television series Vikings. But is this portrayal likely to be accurate? Following an examination of the depiction of warrior women in the series, this paper will try to answer this question by focussing on one of the regions that shieldmaidens in the series are shown fighting in, Anglo-Saxon England. England benefits from having primary written sources for the Viking Age, as well as numerous excavations, including the burials of three females with weapons, making them potential shieldmaidens.

In Communal Creativity in the Making of the ‘Beowulf’ Manuscript, Simon Thomson analyses details of scribal activity to tell a story about the project that preserved Beowulf as one of a collective, if error-strewn, endeavour and arguing for a date in Cnut’s reign. He presents evidence for the use of more than three exemplars and at least two artists as well as two scribes, making this an intentional and creative re-presentation uniting literature religious and heroic, in poetry and in prose.

He goes on to set it in the broader context of manuscript production in late Anglo-Saxon England as one example among many of communities using old literature in new ways, and of scribes working together, making mistakes, and learning.

Review of the archaeological, textual, and toponymic evidence for the presence of native Britons in Anglo-Saxon England, 5th - 8th centuries AD.


Der Nachweis und die quantitative Abschätzung der einheimischen "Restbevölkerungen" stellt eines der schwierigsten Probleme für die archäologische Erforschung frühmittelalterlicher Wanderungen und Landnahmen dar. Diese Schwierigkeit ergibt sich in der Regel aus einer einseitigen historischen Quellenlage, häufig geprägt durch einen Eroberungsmythos oder eine vordringlich der Herrschaftslegitimation dienende Wanderungs- und Eroberungsgeschichte, sowie eine teilweise oder gar weitgehende Unsichtbarkeit der einheimischen Bevölkerung im archäologischen Material als Folge des Abreißens der römischen materiellen Kultur. Daraus ergeben sich wiederum Schwierigkeiten bei der Abschätzung des Umfangs der Wanderungsbewegung sowie bei der Beurteilung der nachfolgenden ethnogenetischen Prozesse. Für das nachrömische England stellt sich dieses Problem in besonderer Schärfe.

Beowulf is a classic and ancient Anglo-Saxon hero’s tale. The various monstrosities he faces define his story and character. His defeat of Grendel, his atrocious mother, and the dragon all reflect his prowess and courage as a heroic champion. But these victories also encourage the growth of ill-fated attitudes. As J. Leyerle describes, he is a hero that “follows a code that exalts indomitable will and valor in the individual.”[1] In fact, the more Beowulf grows as a heroic warrior the more independent and prideful he becomes. And yet, in the midst of this he is pushed towards taking on the role of a king, which is a role he is woefully unfit to take. To lead a people-group requires a willingness to cooperate and a humility that a Beowulfian hero is simply disinclined to have. This disconnect between both ideals is the crux of Beowulf’s journey. While Beowulf assumes both positions, there is a clear distinction between the characteristics of a successful hero and a successful king. Thus, the tale acts as a critique of a heroic culture that values pride and independence by showing the dangerous tendencies that this encourages, and what can happen when a hero is given power and responsibility.

The twenty-five poems and eleven metrical charms in this Old English volume offer tantalizing insights into the mental landscape of the Anglo-Saxons. The Wanderer and The Seafarer famously combine philosophical consolation with introspection to achieve a spiritual understanding of life as a journey. The Wife’s Lament, The Husband’s Message, and Wulf and Eadwacer direct a subjective lyrical intensity on the perennial themes of love, separation, and the passion for vengeance. From suffering comes wisdom, and these poems find meaning in the loss of fortune and reputation, exile, and alienation. “Woe is wondrously clinging; clouds glide,” reads a stoic, matter-of-fact observation in Maxims II on nature’s indifference to human suffering. Another form of wisdom emerges in the form of folk remedies, such as charms to treat stabbing pain, cysts, childbirth, and nightmares of witch-riding caused by a dwarf. The enigmatic dialogues of Solomon and Saturn combine scholarly erudition and proverbial wisdom. Learning of all kinds is celebrated, including the meaning of individual runes in The Rune Poem and the catalog of legendary heroes in Widsith.

This book is a welcome complement to the previously published DOML volume Old English Shorter Poems, Volume I: Religious and Didactic.

Resumo: Como um dos períodos mais ricos em termos de produção de documentos, o reinado de Alfredo, o Grande (871 – 899) se destaca em diversos âmbitos. Estando em um contexto de reformas, o reinado de Alfredo ressignifica as produções intelectuais em Inglês Antigo. Tal ressignificação acontece na criação de documentos oficiais como a Crônica Anglo-Saxônic e diversas obras clássicas em Latim são traduzidas ao vernacular. Uma destas traduções é a da Ecclesiastica Historia Gentis Anglorum, de autoria do monge Beda, o Venerável (673 – 735) publicada na língua latina em 731. A origem desta tradução está dentro do projeto alfrediano que visa contemplar a construção de unidades dos povos Ingleses na esfera do político, com Alfredo proclamando-se rei dos Anglos e dos Saxões e do cultural, com a criação e tradução de documentos no vernacular. Assim, o objetivo deste trabalho é investigar a trajetória dos seis manuscritos que compõe a versão de Beda em Inglês Antigo e, principalmente, dissertar sobre sua origem e transmissão. Ao investigar isto, lemos como um único documento, envolvido em projeto de unidade, fragmenta-se em manuscritos que possuem trajetórias distintas no decorrer da história.

Palavras-Chave: Beda; Alfredo; Unidade; Transmissão manuscrita; Inglês Antigo.

Abstract: As one of the richest periods in terms of production of documents, the kingship of Alfred, the Great (871 – 899) stands out in various scopes. Being in a context of reforms, the kingship of Alfred resignifies the intelectual productions in Old English. Such resignification happen in the creation of official documents like the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, and a number of classical works in Latin are translated to the vernacular. One of these is the Ecclesiastica Historia Gentis Anglorum, authored by the monk Bede, the Venerable (673 – 735) and published in Latin language in 731. The origin of this translation is on the alfredian project which aims to contemplate the construction of unities of the English people in the sphere of the political, with Alfred claiming itself king of the Angles and the Saxons, and of the cultural, with the creation and translation of documents into vernacular. Thus, the purpose of this work is to investigate the trajectory of the six manuscripts which compounds the version of Old English Bede and, mainly, to dissert of its origin and transmission. By investigating this, we read how a single document, involved in a project of unity, fragments itself in manuscripts which have distinctive trajectories throughout history.

Keywords: Bede; Alfred; Unity; Manuscript transmission; Old English.

In this article it is argued that Odin's discovery of the runes when hanging on the tree, as related in the Icelandic Hávamál, is not an indigenous attribute of that god. Nor should the attribution of the invention of letters to Mercury in the Old English  Prose Solomon and Saturn be linked to the Hávamál, as is generally done. Instead I demonstrate that Odin's invention is an adaptation of Roman Classical mythology in which the invention of letters is ascribed to Mercury. The Romans in their turn borrowed this myth from the Greeks, with Hermes Trismagistos playing that role, while the Greeks and borrowed it from the Egyptians, equating their god Thoth with Hermes.

Презентация доклада на 24-й международной научной конференцим студентов, аспирантов и молодых учёных «Ломоносов-2017».
В докладе рассматриваются историографический поиск и выделение высшего слоя нетитулованной англо-саксонской светской элиты накануне Нормандского Завоевания (1066 г.) по материалам XII века. Последовательно разбираются и критикуются попытки в рамках конституционной истории (Р. Рид и Д. Рофф) и аграрной истории (У. Стаббс и П. Кларк). Докладчик приходит к выводу, что данные гипотезы не подтверждаются известными источниками (Книга Страшного Суда и нормандские переводы англо-саксонского права XII в.) при непредвзятом анализе и требуют насильного прочтения известных текстов. В заключении делается предположение, что подобные построения – это отражение современных представлений об устройстве общества (в том числе и английского), где относительно чётко выделяются имущественные классы.

A PowerPoint presentation at the 24th international academic student and young researcher's conference "Lomonosov-2017".
The presentation analyses the historiographical search for an upper layer of the titleless Anglo-Saxon lay elite on the eve of the Norman Conquest (1066). The presentation's consecutive study reveals the flaws in the constitutional (by R. Reid and D. Roffe) and agrarian (W. Stubbs and P. Clarke) approaches to the problem. The author finds that such hypotheses do not find support from the extant sources (the Domesday Book and Norman translation of the Anglo-Saxon law) when reading without any preconceived notions. The conclusion supposes that this kind of search might be a reflection of the modern-day view of the society (including the English one) as composed of more or less clearly defined classes.

Рецензируемая работа профессора Джона Найлза является не первым, но, как представляется, до сих пор наиболее последовательным концептуальным историографическим обобщением исследований в области англо-саксонистики до начала XX в. Выводя ее начала еще от средневековых хронистов, автор на протяжении почти 350 страниц знакомит читателя с ее основными вехами и доводит свое изложение до 1901 г. Написанная легким, доступным языком книга следует хронологическому принципу подачи материала, в связи с чем его объем возрастает к конечным главам. Отдельным достоинством монографии, несомненно, являются экскурсы в отдельные частные сюжеты и коллизии из истории дисциплины, скрашивающие общее повествование. Несмотря на его некоторую монотонность, однако, его нельзя охарактеризовать как простое сухое энциклопедическое перечисление имен авторов и названий их работ; напротив, Дж. Найлз выделяет общие темы и проблематизирует изучаемый им материал, отчего книга приобретает некоторые жанровые признаки нарратива, впрочем, без излишнего уклона в телеологию. Из менее сильных сторон труда Найлза рецензент отмечает имплицитную приверженность автора к распространенному в зарубежном академическом сообществе пониманию англо-саксонистики как в первую очередь отрасли филологии, вследствие чего в монографии несколько затушевана историческая составляющая данной дисциплины. Несмотря на данную критику, исследование Дж. Найлза, несомненно, является важным вкладом в историографию раннесредневековой Англии, особенно в свете в целом недоразработанности данной проблематики.
John Niles’ monograph under review is not the first but, as it stands, by far the most coherent historiographical overview of the Anglo-Saxon studies up until the beginning of the 20th century. Starting off from the medieval chroniclers’ narratives, over the next 350 pages the author introduces his readers to the major stages in the development of the said studies and concludes in the year 1901. Easily read and well-written, the book follows the chronological principle, hence the scope of the surveys naturally broadens by the final chapters. A major achievement of Niles’ work are the colourful vignettes at the end of each chapter that highlight individual matters and curiosities in the history of the discipline. Despite a certain monotony of the main text, the latter does not read as a lifeless encyclopaedic enumeration of the authors’ names and works. On the contrary, professor Niles singles out general topics and problematises his material, which lends the book some narrative features, though not strictly teleological. A less strong side of his research, we believe, is Niles’ implicit adherence to the common among the English-speaking academics treatment of the Anglo-Saxon studies as primarily a branch of philology, and for this reason the text to a certain extent downplays the historical component in its exposition. In spite of this criticism, John Niles’ book is undoubtedly a profound contribution to the historiography of early medieval England, especially in light of the generally timid interest for this subject

Meend is a common place-name or toponym in and around the Forest of Dean. It is a name that is familiar to most people in the locality, and the majority of these could probably describe the principal characteristics of a meend. These could usually include an open character, uncultivated and accessible for informal recreational use. The word is often used in association with “forest waste”. These areas lay outside the forest plantation inclosures and were historically exploited by local communities for grazing and as a source of bracken, gorse and brushwood. These practices have declined over the last half century. Most meends that still exist have one or more of these attributes. However, many more have been lost over the years, and exist only as distant memories, have had their names corrupted or absorbed, or appear only as forgotten names on modern maps. This paper seeks to shed some light on the origins of what is possibly the most important group of place and field names in and
around the Forest of Dean and points to areas of research that would yield dividends in uncovering the social and environmental origins of the forest.

Bremmer offers a much-needed reassessment of the career and biography of the famous outlaw. Asking “what national or ethnic sen- timents did the author [of the Gesta] entertain in his description of Hereward?” Bremmer concludes that he “consciously attempted to depict [Hereward] as a latter-day Anglo-Saxon but also that he eventually realized that in view of the new disposition such a characterization could not be maintained until the end of his narrative”. Bremmer situates the Gesta in relation to other later Anglo-Saxon texts concerned with cultural identity, including Ælfric’s Letter to Brother Edward and Wulfstan’s Sermo Lupi, yet he notes that that the author also engages in rhetorical flourishes more typical of Classical epic than early English historiography. Ultimately, Bremmer argues, the political realities of post-Conquest England overtake any nostalgia for the Anglo-Saxon past, so that the narrative’s somewhat deflating conclusion—Hereward’s reconciliation with William—s...