Category: Literature
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St Anskar, ‘Apostle of the North’
This week we look at the Vita Ansgarii, the Life of Anskar – a hagiographical account of the Frankish mission to convert the ‘Vikings’ in Scandinavia to Christianity during the 9th century and St Anskar, nicknamed ‘The Apostle of the North’.#ComissionsEarned this post includes Amazon Affiliate links – as an Amazon Associate I earn from…
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River Kings by Cat Jarman: A Review
Cat Jarman’s new book River Kings is a huge triumph, not only for the study of the Vikings in England more broadly, but for the accessibility of the archaeological method, and the outstanding uses it can be put to. #ComissionsEarned (This post includes Amazon Affiliate links) – As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying…
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Old English Poetry
The poetry of ‘Anglo-Saxon England’ holds an interesting middle-ground in public perception. On the one-hand Beowulf is perhaps the single most famous piece of ‘Anglo-Saxon’ cultural output, of any form. Tolkien famously translated it, as did Heaney, and there was that terrible movie in the 2000s that we try and forget… However, the sheer quantity…
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Old English Poetry in Fascimile
Finding Old English sources can be difficult, especially for some of the less frequently published poems. Old English Poetry in Fascimile begins to address this issue, and is an important step in the democratisation of history and increased access to sources. Now, if you’re looking for a straightforward set of translations into English, then the…
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Onund ‘Treefoot’ the Viking
Onund appears in the beginning of Grettir’s Saga, a 14thC Icelandic Saga, as a kind of genealogical backstory. A free version of the saga is available on the Saga Database here if you want to explore it more, based Morris and Magnusson’s translation, and for the purpose of accessibility this will be the translation used…
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Ibn Fadlan and the Rus
What can the writings of a traveller of the Caliphate tell us about the Rus, an elusive and largely invisible set of ‘Viking’ settlers in the east of Europe? Is his account to be taken seriously, or is it essentially a work of fiction? #ComissionsEarned (This post includes Amazon Affiliate links) – As an Amazon…
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The Electronic Beowulf
This week I wanted to highlight a great resource for the study of one of England’s most famous poems – the Electronic Beowulf, which you can find here. A plain text presentation of the text is matched with an HD image of each of the manuscript pages, allowing for proper paleographical analysis. There’s a handy…
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Boyo-wulf: Beowulf in Cork Slang
Dr Killilea’s witty and amusing translation of the classic Beowulf brings the age-old text to Cork.