This article is part of an ongoing series of short biographies of medieval scribes (except not really this time – we’re more focused on the source itself). Scribe: Multiple, unknown Lived: c.890 – […]
A Scribe’s Life (5): The Anglo-Saxon Chronicles
Blood Eagles and Fatal Walks Revisited: Orms þáttr stórólfssonar
It’s nearly two years since we posted our article on the viking tortures of literature and the likelihood that the acts as described ever occurred. This included two implausible instances of brutality: […]
Reading England in the Icelandic Sagas: Cultural Memory and Archaeology
‘In those days’, Gunnlaugs saga relates of the eleventh-century, ‘the language in England was the same as that spoken in Norway and Denmark’. It is an assertion which raises some compelling questions […]
Chaucer and English Maritime Culture
There is something of the sea inherent in English identity. After all, the ocean makes up over 90% of England’s borders, it has long dictated external political and military policy, and defined […]
A Scribe’s Life (3): Snorri Sturluson
This article is part of an ongoing series of short biographies of medieval scribes. Scribe: Snorri Sturluson Lived c. 1179 – 1241 Location: Reykholt, Iceland Notable works: Prose Edda – literary work, […]
Viking Women & Authority in the Icelandic Outlaw Sagas of Gisli and Grettir
There is nothing like a good outlaw story, they tend to contain some very enjoyable motifs – a trickster hero, feats of derring-do, vengeance, comeuppance and, usually, some interesting female characters. A […]
A Scribe’s Life (2): John of Worcester
This article is part of an ongoing series of short biographies of medieval scribes. Scribe: John of Worcester Lived: c.1075 – 1140 Location: Worcester Priory Notable works: Chronicon ex chronicis John of […]
A Scribe’s Life (1): William of Malmesbury
This is the first of an ongoing series of short biographies of medieval scribes. Scribe: William of Malmesbury Lived c. 1095 – 1143 Location: Malmesbury Abbey, England Notable works: Gesta regum Anglorum […]
Northern Ambitions – Æthelstan and the Annexation of York and Northumbria
On the death of Sihtric, the Danish King of York, in 927, King Æthelstan seized control of the Viking Kingdom of York. It was an event reasonably early in his reign, Æthelstan […]
Shame and Masculinity in Medieval Iceland – The Tale of Thorstein Staff-Struck
There was a man named Thórarin, who live in Sunnudalur; he was old and nearly blind. He had been a fierce viking in his youth, and in his old age he was […]
Harbard the Ferryman & the Embarrassment of Thor – On the Presence of Odin or Loki in Hárbarðsljóð
Hárbarðsljóð is a flyting poem from the Poetic Edda, in which Thor is challenged to battle wits with a ferryman named Harbard (Hárbarðr) for passage across an inlet. Interestingly, Harbard gets the […]
A Case of Clerical Fraud – King Æthelstan and Malmesbury Abbey
The Norman Conquest changed the character of the English church. Anglo-Saxon clergy were ousted, churches and cathedrals began to be built on a much larger scale, the king wielded direct influence over […]
Berserks, Revenants, and Ghost Seals – Surviving a Saga Christmas
Christmas in the Icelandic sagas is not always pleasant. Perhaps a shipload of berserks will arrive at your isolated farmstead intent on rape and slaughter. Or maybe the undead have become active, […]
The Postgrad Chronicles 