The Vikings in England: a review

1975 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 181-206 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gillian Fellows Jensen

In the preface to F. M. Stenton's collected papers Lady Stenton notes that the publication ofAnglo-Saxon Englandin 1943 marked the culmination of a life-time spent largely preparing for and writing a book in which ‘place-names, coins and charters, wills and pleas, archaeology and the laws of the Anglo-Saxons were all for the first time adequately used to produce a balanced narrative, supported by Domesday Book and the twelfth-century charters which made it easier to understand the earlier material’. Indeed, with the exception of archaeology, Sir Frank had been actively engaged in all these fields of research, as is revealed by the list of his published works, and it seemed unlikely at the time that it would ever be necessary to make major adjustments to the view of the Scandinavian settlements that he presented. Only twelve years had passed, however, when voices of dissent began to arise and the first of three papers that were to herald two decades of controversy about the Vikings in England was published. The present review examines the most significant contributions to the ensuing debate and considers whether it has, in fact, been necessary to depart substantially from the views held by Stenton.

2008 ◽  
Vol 37 ◽  
pp. 31-78 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter A. Stokes

AbstractS 786 is one of the so-called Orthodoxorum charters, a group of documents which provide important evidence about the Anglo-Saxon chancery, the development of charters in the tenth century, and the history of Pershore Abbey and the tenth-century Benedictine reforms. The document has therefore received a great deal of attention over the past century or so, but this attention has been focussed on the surviving tenth-century single sheet, and so a second, significantly different version of the text has lain unnoticed. This second version is preserved in a copy made by John Joscelyn, Latin Secretary to Archbishop Matthew Parker. Among the material uniquely preserved in this copy are Old English charter bounds for Wyegate (GL), Cumbtune (Compton, GL?) and part of the bounds probably for Lydney (GL), as well as a reference to a grant by Bishop Werferth of Worcester. In this article both versions of the document are discussed and are published together for the first time, and a translation of the single sheet is provided. The history of the two versions is discussed in some detail, and the text of a twelfth-century letter which refers to the charter is also edited and translated.


Author(s):  
John Baker

This chapter examines the likelihood that celebrated individuals were commemorated in the names of assembly sites as part of a display of political authority or cultural affiliation. Focusing primarily on the names of Domesday hundreds, it draws comparisons with the personal names in other well-established Anglo-Saxon corpora (including charter bounds, narrative sources, Domesday Book and place-names), in order to assess the social context of those individuals commemorated in hundred-names. The chapter then evaluates the probability that such names could carry specific political or cultural resonance at the time of naming, and there are clear indications that this may sometimes have been the case, perhaps especially in the first half of the 10th century. While the evidence implies that the hundred-names arose in a number of different circumstances, the analysis suggests that reference to heroic figures may have been one motivating factor in the naming of sites of assembly.


Antiquity ◽  
1961 ◽  
Vol 35 (140) ◽  
pp. 281-285
Author(s):  
Bruce Dickins

In this article, Professor Bruce Dickins, Emeritus Professor of Anglo-Saxon in the University of Cambridge and sometime Director of the Survey, takes the opportunity of the publication of two general surveys of English Place-Names and of three volumes of the West Riding Survey, to discuss the development of English Place-Name Studies in the last sixty years. The books he here discusses are:–THE ORIGIN OF ENGLISH PLACE-NAMES by P. H. Reaney. London, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1960 (second impression 1961). pp. x + 278. 32s. net.ENGLISH PLACE-NAMES. By Kenneth Cameron. London, Batsford. 1961. pp. 256 and 8 plates. 30$. net.THE PLACE-NAMES OF THE WEST RIDING OF YORKSHIRE. By A. H. Smith. Parts I-III (English Place-Name Society, Vols. XXX-XXXII). Cambridge, University Press, 1961. pp. xii + 346 + map, pp. xii + 322 + map, pp. xiv + 278 + map. 35s. net per volume.


Traditio ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 69 ◽  
pp. 45-86
Author(s):  
Benjamin Pohl

This article investigates a specific twelfth-century hand that occurs in a group of manuscripts connected to the Norman abbey of Mont-Saint-Michel and identifies it as the hand of Robert of Torigni, the famous Anglo-Norman historian who became abbot of that monastery in 1154. The manuscripts used as evidence all contain corrections and interlinear glosses in what I contend constitutes Robert's own hand, and have neither been studied comparatively nor had their relationships scrutinized. Indeed, scholarship to date has actually argued for different examples of handwriting altogether as belonging to Robert and has not inquired as to whether the glosses and annotations contained within the codices discussed here could be indicative of Robert's scribal activity in the scriptorium of Mont-Saint-Michel during the period of his abbacy (1154–86). This article, therefore, seeks to challenge the prevailing notions concerning Robert's characteristic handwriting, both in terms of its supposed shape and character, and with regard to the manuscripts in which it is thought to survive. This fundamental reassessment of previous scholarship will be achieved by combining, for the first time, a comprehensive paleographical analysis of the manuscripts with a discussion of their broader historical and institutional contexts. Furthermore, and perhaps more significantly, in identifying Robert's hand and the contexts in which it survives, this article aims to enhance our knowledge concerning the person behind the script. It will present new and important insights into Robert's activities as head of his monastic community, as well as into his methods as a monastic historian who, as will be shown, was intimately involved in the processes of manuscript production at Mont-Saint-Michel during the second half of the twelfth century. Ultimately, this article argues that Robert, despite being the author and intellectual architect of complex and influential historical works, had in fact very little training as a book scribe, which is evidenced by his handwriting.


2019 ◽  
pp. 107-120
Author(s):  
Robert Chazan

Beginning in the twelfth century, edicts of expulsion set in motion for the first time since early antiquity forced Jewish population movement. There have arguably been two further sources of pre-modern involuntary Jewish migration—repressive governmental edicts that made Jewish life spiritually or materially impossible and popular violence so threatening as to necessitate flight. Neither of these pressures is clear-cut in its impact, as were the edicts of expulsion from European states. This chapter considers the impact of both these pressures on Jewish population movement. It describes instances of abrogation of basic Jewish religious rights, expressed as governmental demands that Jews convert to the ruling faith.


2020 ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Jill A Franklin

Within the Romanesque abbey church at St Albans (Hertfordshire), the vestiges of an earlier structure have been identified for the first time. A hitherto unrecorded feature in the transept, noted by the author in 2017, indicates that, at some stage, the nave lacked its existing arcade piers and instead had solid walls. The implications of this are considerable, calling for a thorough reassessment of the building’s history. For now, it is important to record the primary evidence, so as to make it available for further research. This article aims to provide a concise account of the evidence and a summary of what it might mean. According to the thirteenth-century chronicler, Matthew Paris, the existing church was begun in 1077 and completed in 1088. New evidence indicates, however, that the Romanesque building, with its aisled nave and presbytery, was preceded by a cruciform structure without aisles. The inference is that the existing building contains the fabric of this unaisled predecessor. The obvious conclusion – that it therefore represents the lost Anglo-Saxon abbey church – does not follow without question; as yet, excavation has yielded no conclusive evidence of an earlier church on the site. The critical diagnostic feature presented here for the first time adds substance to the view that the remodelling of unaisled buildings was not uncommon in the post-Conquest period, including large as well as minor churches, as identified long ago at York Minster and, more recently, at Worksop Priory.


Author(s):  
Maruf Mohammad Akbor ◽  
Nobuyuki Kurosawa ◽  
Masashi Tanaka ◽  
Masaharu Isobe

Abstract Amyloid beta (Aβ) 42 peptide accumulated in Alzheimer disease (AD) patients’ brain, often colocalized with serine protease inhibitor family A member 3 (SERPINA3). Being a chaperon, SERPINA3 accelerated Aβ42 fibrillization. While analyzing chaperon activity of human SERPINA3 polymorphisms, we found SERPINA3-R124C played a role in protecting cells from Aβ42 cytotoxicity. SH-SY5Y cells exposed to Aβ42 preincubated with wild type SERPINA3 (SERPINA3-WT) resulted in extended toxicity leading cell death whereas Aβ42 with SERPINA3-R124C resulted in less cytotoxicity. Transmission electron microscope and thioflavin T assay revealed that SERPINA3-R124C shortened life time of small soluble oligomer and maintained β-sheet rich protofibril-like aggregates for longer time compared to that of with SERPINA3-WT. Western blot assay confirmed that SERPINA3-R124C converted Aβ42 mostly into high molecular aggregates. Here, we demonstrate first time that polymorphic SERPINA3 acts as a benign chaperon by modulating the transition states of Aβ42, which may contribute to the reduction of AD risk.


2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 86-133
Author(s):  
Trevor Van Damme ◽  
Susan Lupack

After a long gap in the ceramic record following the twelfth century bc, ceramic materials dating from the eighth through the fourth century bc are documented in our excavations. This contribution presents for the first time the key deposits of Archaic and Classical material identified on the acropolis of Eleon from 2011 to 2014, including the evidence for the dating of the polygonal wall, the only monumental construction of this period identified so far at the site. Attention is also drawn to the large quantities of votive materials recovered from the ramped entryway and other areas of the site, which appear to attest to one or more cults operating on the acropolis during the sixth through the fourth century bc, if not earlier.


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