Staffordshire Hoard update

ELB writes:

The ASNC department's very own Prof. Simon Keynes was among the experts invited to view and discuss the Staffordshire Hoard as part of the fundraising campaign, led by the The Art Fund, to raise the money necessary to keep the Hoard in the country. Tony Robinson has an article in today's Sunday Times which discusses it further. Meanwhile, Richard Brooks, in the same newspaper's 'Culture' supplement hints that the National Heritage Memorial Fund may shortly be able to provide around £1.5 million pounds towards the cost of purchasing the Hoard, which could be added to the £1.6 million already raised to date. We await further news.

Report of H. M. Chadwick Lecture 2010

Ronni Phillips writes:

On Thursday, 11^th March the ASNC Department held the 21^st annual H. M. Chadwick Memorial Lecture.  The lecture was delivered by Professor Joseph F. Nagy of the University of California Los Angeles.  Its topic was "Merchants of Myth in Ancient and Medieval Celtic Traditions".  Professor Nagy began his lecture with reference to H. M. Chadwick’s work The Heroic Age, which argued that the Celtic literary ‘heroic milieu’ – like other heroic literatures – was peopled only by royal or noble families and their households, but depicted no representatives of merchants, farmers or artisans.  These mercantile figures were thus defined as representing a more cosmopolitan ‘medieval’ era, set in opposition to an ancient ‘heroic’ age.

Professor Nagy argued for a more nuanced understanding of representations of merchants and mercantile behaviour in medieval Celtic literature. Drawing on texts ranging widely from the early Irish glossary Sanas Chormaic to the twelfth-century Middle Irish Acallam na Senórach, he noted various depictions of characters engaging in mercantile behaviour, such as negotiating, bargaining and exchanging.  He argued that these examples reflected networks of trade, cultural and intellectual exchange that existed prior to Viking – and indeed Roman – settlement.  This was not to say that such representations of mercantilism depicted it in an entirely positive light.  Rather, Professor Nagy explained that the ambivalence with which negotiating and bargaining for goods and wealth was portrayed in some texts, and the fact that liminal figures such as the Fenians in Acallam na Senórach were often portrayed as displaying mercentile behaviour may have reflected unease about such behaviour.  In projecting it onto the marginal Fenians, it kept mercantilism safely Other, while still engaging with it on an intellectual level. 

This argument draws on some of Professor Nagy’s earlier research from his book of 1985, The Wisdom of the Outlaw.  In that book he noted that fénnidi occupy an uneasy position in medieval Irish literature as ‘social outcasts forever denied adult status’, but whose position as outsiders allows them to gain wisdom not available to fully integrated members of society and bring the benefits of this wisdom back to society.  Mercantile behaviour, perhaps, was another such marginal activity – at least within literature – and depicting fénnidi as engaging in it allowed writers to reflect on the benefits of trade and exchange while keeping it safely confined to marginal figures. 

Professor Nagy’s Chadwick Lecture will be published by the ASNC Department.

H. M. Chadwick Memorial Lecture 2010

The 2010 H. M. Chadwick Memorial Lecture will be delivered by Prof. Joseph Falaky Nagy (UCLA) on Thursday 11th March, at 5pm, in Room GR.06/07, in the English Faculty Building, 9 West Road, Cambridge. Prof. Nagy will be speaking on 'Merchants of Myth in Ancient and Medieval Celtic Traditions'. This is a public lecture - all are welcome - and it will be followed by a wine reception.

(Nagy, Conversing with Angels and Ancients)

Hector Munro Chadwick (1870-1947) was the Elrington and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon in the University of Cambridge (1912-41). Through the immense range of his scholarly publications, and through the vigorous enthusiasm which he brought to all aspects of Anglo-Saxon studies -- philological and literary, historical and archaeological -- he helped to define the field and give it the interdisciplinary orientation which characterises it still. The Department of ASNC, which owes its existence and its own interdisciplinary outlook to H. M. Chadwick, has wished to commemorate his enduring contribution to Anglo-Saxon studies by establishing an annual series of lectures in his name. The H. M. Chadwick Memorial Lecture (established in 1990) is delivered by a scholar who is invited to Cambridge for the occasion, on a subjected calculated to be of interest to the whole Department.

Is ASNaC on the rise in popular culture?

Robin McConnell writes:

The early medieval period has always been an area of exploration for the arts. In painting, sculpure, literature and cinema - in essentially all the creative media - there has been a longstanding tradition of appropriation of the medieval period as context for storytelling and entertainment. But it would be fair to say that the use of the early middle ages (or the "ASNaC period", as I like to think of it) in the arts has always been a sub-genre at best in any media; often it is so low-profile that you might call it an underground movement. Let's face it, how many people would recognise an early medieval novel that is neither Lord of the Rings or The Once and Future King if it came up in conversation? And neither of those can even be classed as 'early medieval' in the traditional sense, since they are not concerned with accurately representing the period, either historically or culturally. Likewise with films, the early medieval period has largely been overlooked. There are one or two lesser-known classics, such as 1958's The Vikings and 1952's Ivanhoe, but the fame of most films set in the early middle ages has been restricted to cult status. Even when 'blockbusters' as recent as the noughties have been made set in that period, they have usually been met with commercial and critical disappointment: take 1999's The 13th Warrior, 2004's King Arthur or 2007's Beowulf as prime examples of big-budget Hollywood treatment of the ASNaC period floundering in lukewarm critical reception and mediocre box-office takings. Such failures in the past have condemned the genre to low-budget and therefore mostly low-quality fare like Siege of the Saxons (1963) and Beowulf and Grendel (2005). Incidentally, 2007's Beowulf is fast developing a cult and has enjoyed considerable success in DVD sales.

The Secret of Kells

Parker Library on the Web

ELB writes:

From 2005-9, Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, was involved in a project (in collaboration with Stanford University) to digitise their superb collection of medieval manuscripts. The resulting online resource is the 'Parker Library on the Web' site. More than five hundred manuscripts were digitised, ranging from the 'Augustine Gospels' (a sixth-century, Italian Gospel-book, thought to have been brought to England by Augustine of Canterbury), to letters and documents concerning the sixteenth-century Reformation archbishop, Matthew Parker, who bequeathed the collection to Corpus, and after whom the Parker Library is named. A number of members of the ASNC Department, past and present, were involved in this project, particularly Dr Rebecca Rushforth, Dr Denis Casey, and myself, who were employed as Research Associates on the project, and who were particularly involved in the production of the site's metadata, such as the extensive bibliographies of scholarship which were compiled for each manuscript. For us, the project represented an unrivalled opportunity to have firsthand access to the manuscripts, as well as the chance to immerse ourselves in the copious modern scholarship which has been produced on various aspects of provenance, script, contents and decoration of each of the manuscripts.

This was an expensive and ambitious project, and one which is ongoing, in the sense that bibliography, and new information about the manuscripts, will be added to the site as it arises. The cost of maintaining the site is such that most of the site is only available to institutions that subscribe to it. However, the basic manuscript images are available to everyone, and it is hoped that the site will attract interested members of the public, as well as scholars. For those interested in ASNC-related topics, the Parker Library on the Web site offers a multitude of treasures, from the A-text of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (in MS 173) to the Historia Brittonum (in MS 139), from the poetry of John Scotus Eriugena (in MS 223) to the homilies of Wulfstan (in MSS 190, 201, 419, and others). It is to be hoped that this will prove to be an invaluable resource for students and scholars alike.

What's so interesting about Anglo-Saxon medicine?

Conan Doyle writes:

Given that this is the topic to which I have dedicated the last five years of my life, I may be giving something of a biased view, but to be honest I cannot think of a more fascinating facet of Anglo-Saxon society. The most sophisticated medical text ever produced in the Old English language is known as the Leechbook of Bald. The text is fascinating because it sheds light on how the Anglo-Saxons viewed the human body and the causes of illness. But perhaps more interesting is that the text seems to have been translated from a range of medical texts in Latin, which ultimately derive from authorities such as Alexander of Tralles, Oribasius, Celsus, Marcellus, Caelius Aurelius and pseduo-Galen. Basically, this is a roll-call of the best medical authors available from antiquity. (See Cameron's Anglo-Saxon Medicine for more details).

Ultimately I hope to show that the Old English medical authors read and comprehended the best of the medical classics available in their day, and brought them up to date in a coherent and consistent fashion. To them, disease was caused by an imbalance of the four humours (þa feower wætan in Old English): blood, phlegm, red (or yellow) bile, and black bile, an idea ultimately derived from Hippocrates. Imbalances of the four humours were treated by the application of remedies of the opposite property, so excessive cold dampness, such as an excess of plegm, would be prescribed pepper which is hot and dry.

 

Bald's Leechbook, in BL MS Harley 55 (image from www.historyofscience.com)

To demonstrate this more fully I am sifting through the Latin medical literature of the early middle ages, and trying to demonstrate exactly how much of the Leechbook of Bald was translated from this enormous canon, in an effort to demonstrate how the compiler was working. After that, I am examining exactly how the translators went about the difficult business of translating rather technical Latin terms into Old English; let's face it, doctors have been using incomprehensible jargon since the dawn of time.

Upcoming events

Forthcoming events in the ASNC department:

• The Cambridge Colloquium in Anglo-Saxon, Norse & Celtic will take place on Saturday 27th February. This event is aimed at postgraduate students, and other interested scholars. Registration costs £5: see the website for further details.
• On 11th March, Prof. Joseph Falaky Nagy (UCLA) will deliver the 2010 H. M. Chadwick Memorial Lecture on 'Merchants of Myth in Ancient and Medieval Celtic Traditions', in Room GR.06 of the English Faculty Building, 9 West Road, Cambridge, at 5pm. This is a public lecture; all welcome. The lecture will be followed by a wine reception.
• Applications close on 12th March for the ASNC Summer School, run in assocation with the Sutton Trust, which is aimed at year 12 pupils, and which will take place 17th-20th August 2010. For further information on eligibility and how to apply, see the University webpage.
• On 20th March, the ASNC schools event, The Early Medieval World, will take place at St Peter's School, York. This is aimed at pupils in years 11 and 12, and their teachers. For further information about registering for this event see the programme.

From Ireland to India

ELB writes:

Last September, ASNC hosted a conference to commemorate the centenary of the death of Whitley Stokes (1803-1909), the Celtic scholar and colonial jurist. Today, one of the contributors to that conference, Prof. Dáibhí Ó Cróinín, has a column on Stokes, which mentions our conference, in The Irish Times. Also, in December, another contributor to our conference, John Drew, had an article on Stokes published in Indian newspaper The Hindu. So what is about Whitley Stokes that would attract press attention from Ireland to India?

Stokes was born into one of Ireland's most prominent academic families. His father, William (1804-78), was professor of medicine at Trinity College Dublin, and an important figure in Irish cultural life. Similarly, Stokes's grandfather, also named Whitley Stokes (1763-1845), was a professor of medicine at TCD and a founding member of the Royal Irish Academy. Throughout his life, Stokes's social circle comprised many leading intellectuals, historians, artists and poets. From his earliest years these included Samuel Ferguson, George Petrie, Eugene O'Curry and Rudolf Siegfried; later, in his twenties, he became friends with William Allingham, Arthur Munby, Dante Gabriel Rossetti and others associated with the Pre-Raphaelite movement. Stokes studied at St Columba's College, then Trinity College Dublin. He went to London to study law and was called to the bar in 1855. In 1862 Stokes travelled to India, where he worked for the legislative council; in 1879 he became president of the India Law Comission. Stokes returned to London in 1881, where he lived, at Grenville Place, Kensington, until his death in 1909.

 

Whitley Stokes (1830-1909)

Cambridge Colloquium in Anglo-Saxon Norse & Celtic

 The Cambridge Colloquium in Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic, which has been taking place annually since 2000, is surely one of the longest running and most successful graduate conferences in medieval studies. Each year the conference is organised by a committee of graduate students, who then also take responsibility for publishing the proceedings volume, Quaestio Insularis. Each conference, and accordingly each issue of Quaestio, comprises one keynote lecture from a senior academic (usually rotating between Anglo-Saxonists, Scandinavianists and Celticists), followed by a series of papers by Ph.D. and M.Phil. students (and even the occasional undergraduate!), drawn from within the Department and also from further afield. The keynote lecturers have included such eminent scholars as Katherine O'Brien O'Keeffe, Thomas Charles-Edwards, Thomas Clancy, and Janet Nelson, but perhaps just as impressive is the large proportion of graduate contributors who have gone on to become respected academics in their own right. Past contributors have included Chris Abram (now at UCL), Emily Thornbury (now at Berkeley), Ralph O'Connor (now at Aberdeen), Geraldine Parsons (now at Glasgow), Alaric Hall (now at Leeds) and Augustine Casiday (now at Lampeter).

  

This year's CCASNC, which will take place on the 27th of this month, promises to be just as successful as those of previous years. The theme of the colloquium is 'Kith and Kin', and the keynote speaker is Carolyne Larrington, Supernumerary Fellow in English, St John's College, Oxford, who will be speaking on 'Family Drama in the Heroic Poetry of the Edda'. Further information on how to register can be found on the CCASNC website.

Thoughts on Mel Gibson's Vikings

Matthias Ammon writes:

News emerged recently that Mel Gibson will turn to 'the Vikings' for his next directing venture, following Braveheart, The Passion of the Christ and Apocalypto. Details of the project are scarce as yet, though it has been confirmed that Leonardo DiCaprio is going to star. According to some media sources, DiCaprio 'has long been fascinated by Viking culture', and he will feature in a storyline as 'unsparing' as Gibson's earlier films. Given the director's interest in 'violence in any society' (as stated in a recent interview with Total Film magazine), one is inclined to assume that he will not focus on the cultural impact of the Vikings in the British Isles.

William Monahan, the screenwriter who also penned Ridley Scott's crusade-drama Kingdom of Heaven, is writing the script for the as-yet-untitled film. KoH, like Braveheart, was not exactly acclaimed for its historical accuracy by academic critics, though Gibson has pledged that he will follow his use of Aramaic (in Passion) and Mayan (in Apocalypto) with Old English and Old Norse: 'I think it's going to be English - the English that would have been spoken back then - and Old Norse. Whatever the ninth century had to offer. I'm going to give you real.' Gibson, who has claimed to have been studying Old Norse at the age of 16, when he first had the idea of making a Viking movie, said he wants to 'see somebody who I have never seen before speaking low guttural German who scares the living shit out of me coming up to my house' in order to recreate the terror of the Viking attacks on England.

 

Mel Gibson, Braveheart

If this comment is anything to go by, it remains to be seen whether Gibson's striving for authenticity will extend to the philological rigour of reconstructing ninth-century Old English and Old Norse. The standard versions of both languages as taught to undergraduates around the world are both later and confined to a relatively distinct geographical area: late West Saxon of the tenth and eleventh century for Old English; Norwegian and Icelandic from c. 1150-1350 for Old Norse. There are of course very few written sources dating from earlier than these time periods, and reconstruction is notoriously difficult. Furthermore, this is the period in Old English where at least the written language becomes standardised, though the spoken language probably would have retained the often very significant dialectial varieties exhibited in earlier stages of the language. One wonders just how 'real' Gibson is going to give us: will a ninth-century Mercian be attempting to converse by speaking eleventh-century West Saxon to a Norwegian speaking thirteenth-century Old Norse? On the other hand, while the extent of mutual intelligibility between speakers of Old English and Old Norse is still a matter for discussion, one imagines that their language - which an Anglo-Saxon would probably have recognised and may partly have understood - would have been one of the less terrifying aspects of a raiding party or an invading army, even if it had been 'low and guttural'.