Writing, Kingship and Power in Anglo-Saxon England
Writing, Kingship and Power in Anglo-Saxon England
The workings of royal and ecclesiastical authority in Anglo-Saxon England can only be understood on the basis of direct engagement with original texts and material artefacts. This book, written by leading experts, brings together new research that represents the best of the current scholarship on the nexus between authority and written sources from Anglo-Saxon England. Ranging from the seventh to the eleventh century, the chapters in this volume offer fresh approaches to a wide range of linguistic, historical, legal, diplomatic and palaeographical evidence. Central themes include the formation of power in early Anglo-Saxon kingdoms during the age of Bede (d. 735) and Offa of Mercia (757–96), authority and its articulation in the century from Edgar (959–75) to 1066, and the significance of books and texts in expressing power across the period. Writing, Kingship and Power in Anglo-Saxon England represents a critical resource for students and scholars alike with an interest in early medieval history from political, institutional and cultural perspectives.
- A new view of the workings of the royal and ecclesiastical authority in Anglo-Saxon England offers readers new interpretations of various textual sources from the Anglo-Saxon period
- Chapters engage with different genres of source and different scholarly disciplines, allowing readers to see how different genres of text constructed view of kingship and ecclesiastical authority
- Offers new interpretations of important models of Anglo-Saxon kingship, providing readers with new perspectives of fundamental issues of kingship
Reviews & endorsements
'This collection, with its wide range of incisive offerings, stands as a fitting tribute to a scholar who has, across the last four decades, contributed in profound and myriad ways to the field of Anglo-Saxon studies and our understanding of early England.' Chelsea Shields-Más, Speculum
Product details
December 2017Hardback
9781107160972
364 pages
235 × 160 × 21 mm
0.72kg
17 b/w illus.
Available
Table of Contents
- 1. Introduction Rory Naismith and David A. Woodman
- 2. Simon Keynes: the man and the scholar Oliver Padel
- Part I. The Formation of Power: The Early Anglo-Saxon Kingdom:
- 3. Bede's Kings Sarah Foot
- 4. Hagiography and charters in early Northumbria David A. Woodman
- 5. Origins of the kingdom of the English David N. Dumville
- 6. Losing the plot? 'Filthy assertions' and 'unheard-of deceit' in Codex Carolinus 92 Jinty Nelson
- Part II. Authority and its Articulation in Late Anglo-Saxon England:
- 7. Fathers and daughters: the case of Æthelred II Pauline Stafford
- 8. The historian and Anglo-Saxon coinage: the case of late Anglo-Saxon England Rory Naismith
- 9. Charters and exemption from geld in Anglo-Saxon England David Pratt
- 10. On living in the time of tribulation: Archbishop Wulfstan's Sermo Lupi ad Anglos and its eschatological context Catherine Cubitt
- 11. A tale of two charters: diploma production and political performance in Æthelredian England Levi Roach
- Part III. Books, Texts and Power:
- 12. Making manifest God's judgement: interpreting ordeals in late Anglo-Saxon England Helen Foxhall Forbes
- 13. An eleventh-century prayerbook for women? The origins and history of the Galba Prayerbook Julia Crick
- 14. Writing Latin and Old English in tenth-century England: patterns, formula and language choice in the leases of Oswald of Worcester Francesca Tinti.
