Born in 1924, Professor Page was an assistant lecturer at the University of Nottingham, where he also undertook his doctoral studies, and he came to Cambridge in the 1960s. He became Fellow and Librarian of Corpus Christi College, and was for many years Lecturer and then Reader in Old Norse language and literature in the Department of ASNC.
From 1984 until his retirement in 1991 he was Elrington and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon. He will be fondly remembered by many for his teaching of Old Norse and of Scandinavian history in the Viking Age, and as the ‘silver-haired librarian’ of Corpus. His funeral will take place in the chapel of Corpus Christi College on Thursday 22 March at 2 p.m.
The depth of Professor Page's commitment to continue his work without respite -- and to contribute ceaselessly to the advancement of his field -- has become increasingly clear with every passing year. I just had occasion to read his recent, masterly contribution to a continental collection (R. I. Page, 'The Position of Old English Runes in the Runic Tradition', _Zentrale Probleme bei der Erforschung der älteren Runen_, ed. John Ole Askedal et al. [Frankfurt am Main, 2010], pp. 137-50), and I am sure that other work is forthcoming or has just appeared. I will always remember Professor Page's generosity in offering hands-on access to a variety of recondite materials (and to his thoughts concerning those early monuments) to undergraduates who were reading ASNAC over 1978-80 -- in his rooms, in the Parker Library, and even in the back rooms of the British Museum
ReplyDeleteMany thanks for your warm tribute to Ray. You might be interested to know that the Daily Telegraph published an obituary today: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/9158876/Professor-Raymond-Page.html
DeleteOne small correction - as the Telegraph obituary makes clear, Ray was not an undergraduate at the University of Nottingham, though he was an assistant lecturer there, and did his doctoral thesis (on Anglo-Saxon runes) there.
ReplyDeleteThank you for this: we've managed to confuse his undergraduate and postgraduate studies. I'll correct it now.
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