Anglo-Saxon Charters

Barking is the only English nunnery with a history stretching from the seventh century to the time of Henry VIII. A new cache of Anglo-Saxon charters from Barking is edited here for the first time, wi

Contributions to the forty-sixth volume of Anglo-Saxon England focus on aspects of Anglo-Saxon culture and history across a period from the seventh to the eleventh century. The study of a fragment of a tenth-century sacramentary offers new evidence for the role of music in Anglo-Saxon England, while consideration of charter-evidence in both Latin and Old English from Worcester c.870 to 992 sheds fresh light on institutional interaction between the two main languages of Anglo-Saxon England. Two contributions consider Beowulf and its immediate manuscript-context, the first focusing on the spellings of the second scribe, and the next on the later history of the manuscript into the sixteenth century, facilitating its survival to this day. Finally, a detailed study of English landed society before and after the Norman Conquest has resulted in new perspectives on landed wealth in England in 1066 and 1086. Each article is preceded by a short abstract.

How did Anglo-Saxons reflect on the experience of growing old? Was it really a golden age for the elderly, as has been suggested? This first full survey of the Anglo-Saxon cultural conceptualisation o

For people in the early Middle Ages, the earth, air, water and ether teemed with other beings. Some of these were sentient creatures that swam, flew, slithered or stalked through the same environments

The body of short Middle English poems conventionally known as lyrics is characterized by wonderful variety. Taking many different forms, and covering an enormous number of subjects, these poems have

Preaching Apocrypha in Anglo-Saxon England is the first in-depth study of Christian apocrypha focusing specifically on the use of extra-biblical narratives in Old English sermons. The work contributes

Since its inception in the nineteenth century, the genre of Anglo-Saxon charms has drawn the attention of many scholars and appealed to enthusiasts of magic, paganism, and popular religion. Their Chri

Trees were of fundamental importance in Anglo-Saxon material culture - but they were also a powerful presence in Anglo-Saxon religion before and after the introduction of Christianity. This book shows

The forty-fourth volume of Anglo-Saxon England contains three contributions on religious culture in eighth-century Northumbria, one discussing the conception of church buildings, one linking Bede and John of Beverley, and a comparison of Miracula Nynie episcopi and Arator. A discussion of the historical context of the battle of the Winwœd is complemented by a reconsideration of a literary work which influenced modern perceptions of King Edward the Confessor. Old English prose is represented by an analysis of the preface of Bede's Ecclesiastical History, and an examination of Ælfric's treatment of the apostles. Old English poetry is covered by a contribution making the case for a new approach to the texts, and one addressing the riddles in the Exeter Book. This volume also covers military organization throughout the period, the practice of penance in the late eleventh century, and the discovery of an Anglo-Saxon hoard near Buckingham in 2014.

The forty-fifth volume of Anglo-Saxon England focusses on various aspects of Anglo-Saxon culture and history from the seventh to the seventeenth century. In the field of Old English literature, contributions examine a ninth-century homily fragment, The Dream of the Rood, The Seafarer, and the Old English translation of Boethius' De Consolatione Philosophiae. A contribution which explores references to the senses in a wide range of vernacular texts is complemented by another which reconsiders the iconography of the Fuller Brooch. The network of fortifications recorded in the Burghal Hidage is re-interpreted here as a product of political developments in the later 870s; and a new edition of the 'Ely memoranda' reminds us that the religious houses of the tenth and eleventh centuries functioned also as major agricultural estates. Finally, the contribution of seventeenth-century antiquaries to the development of Anglo-Saxon studies is remembered in a study of an early Anglo-Saxon Grammar.

As challenging as it is to imagine how an educated cleric or wealthy lay person in the early Middle Ages would have understood a letter (especially one from God), it is even harder to understand why l

While prayer is generally understood as "communion with God" modern forms of spirituality prefer "communion" that is non-petitionary and wordless. This preference has unduly influenced modern scholars

Childhood and Adolescence in Anglo-Saxon Literary Culture counters the generally received wisdom that early medieval childhood and adolescence were an unremittingly bleak experience. The contributors

The Tower of Babel narrative is one of the most memorable accounts of the Bible, and its interpretative potential has produced a vast array of literary adaptations.Undoing Babel is the first extensive

Biblical poetry, written between the fourth and eleventh centuries, is an eclectic body of literature that disseminated popular knowledge of the Bible across Europe. Composed mainly in Latin and subse

Food in the Middle Ages usually evokes images of feasting, speeches, and special occasions, even though most evidence of food culture consists of fragments of ordinary things such as knives, cooking p

In England in Europe, Elizabeth Tyler focuses on two histories: the Encomium Emmae Reginae, written for Emma the wife of the Æthelred II and Cnut, and The Life of King Edward, written for Edith the wi

We tend to think of early medieval people as unsophisticated about geography because their understandings of space and place often differed from ours, yet theirs were no less complex. Anglo-Saxons con

Robert D. Fulk is arguably the greatest Old English philologist to emerge during the twentieth century; his corpus of scholarship has fundamentally shaped contemporary understanding of many aspects of

"This book will be a milestone, and deserves to be widely read. The early Beowulf that overwhelmingly emerges here asks hard questions, and the same strictly defined measures of metre, spelling, onoma

Direct speech between characters, or to the "reader", is a a major part of such Old English poems as Beowulf, but its impact and use have been neglected. This book uses linguistic theories t

The Old English Martyrology is one of the longest and most important prose texts written in Anglo-Saxon England; it also represents one of the most impressive examples of encyclopaedic writing from th

References to weaving and binding are ubiquitous in Anglo-Saxon literature. Several hundred instances of such imagery occur in the poetic corpus, invoked in connection with objects, people, elemental

The Anglo-Saxon period was crucial in the development of England's character: its language, and much of its landscape and culture, were forged in the period between the fifth and the eleventh centurie

For people in the early Middle Ages, the earth, air, water and ether teemed with other beings. Some of these were sentient creatures that swam, flew, slithered or stalked through the same environments

In the twelfth century, a version of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle was rewritten at Peterborough Abbey, welding local history into an established framework of national events. This text has usually been r

Cruciform brooches were large and decorative items of jewellery, frequently used to pin together women's garments in pre-Christian northwest Europe. Characterised by the strange bestial visages that p