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A Case of Mistaken Identity: Ealhswith and Æthelswith
There is a manuscript in the British Library with two famous illuminations of early English queens. The images below do not really do them justice. What looks like a brownish colour is […]
Defining Queenship in the West Saxon Dynasty
Exactly what constituted a queen in ninth- and tenth-century England is a key topic of Matthew Firth‘s new book, Early English Queens, 850-1000: Potestas Reginae. Queenship is not always easy to define. […]
The Viking Burials at Hjarnø: An Interview with Erin Sebo
The first survey of the Kalvestene viking ship burial site on Hjarnø, Denmark in nearly 100 years was published last month. Researchers used everything from medieval chronicles to 17th-century illustrations to lidar […]
A Scribe’s Life (5): The Anglo-Saxon Chronicles
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 – […]
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 […]
Queenship and Power: The Political Life of Emma of Normandy
There are few women in late Anglo-Saxon England for whom we have as much information as Emma of Normandy. The wife of two kings, we find her name in charter witness lists, […]
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 […]
The Image of the King – 10 Portraits from Medieval England
Early medieval England did not have the rich tradition of royal portraiture that existed among in the contemporary Byzantine, Ottonian, and Carolingian courts. Our earliest images outside of numismatics (coinage) date from […]
A Case of Clerical Diplomacy – King Æthelstan and the Church in York
A man of no mean ambition, by 927 King Æthelstan found himself walking on untrodden ground, the ruler of much of what we would consider modern England. His grandfather, Alfred, had beaten […]
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