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.
Author(s): Rory Naismith, David A. Woodman (eds.)
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Year: 2018
Language: English
Pages: XXX+336
List of Figures vii
List of Contributors ix
List of Abbreviations xi
List of Publications by Simon Keynes xv
1. Introduction / Rory Naismith and David A. Woodman 1
2. Simon Keynes: The Man and the Scholar / Oliver Padel 18
Part I. The Formation of Power: the Early Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms
3. Bede's Kings / Sarah Foot 25
4. Hagiography and Charters in Early Northumbria / David A. Woodman 52
5. Origins of the Kingdom of the English / David N. Dumville 71
6. Losing the Plot? 'Filthy Assertions' and 'Unheard-of Deceit' in Codex Carolinus 92 / Jinty Nelson 122
Part II. Authority and its Articulation in Late Anglo-Saxon England
7. Fathers and Daughters: The Case of Æthelred II / Pauline Stafford 139
8. The Historian and Anglo-Saxon Coinage: The Case of Late Anglo-Saxon England / Rory Naismith 162
9. Charters and Exemption from Geld in Anglo-Saxon England / David Pratt 181
10. On Living in the Time of Tribulation: Archbishop Wulfstan's 'Sermo Lupi ad Anglos' and Its Eschatological Context / Catherine Cubitt 202
11. A Tale of Two Charters: Diploma Production and Political Performance in Æthelredian England / Levi Roach 234
Part III. Books, Texts and Power
12. Making Manifest God's Judgement: Interpreting Ordeals in Late Anglo-Saxon England / Helen Foxhall Forbes 259
13. An Eleventh-Century Prayer-Book for Women? The Origins and History of the Galba Prayer-Book / Julia Crick 281
14. Writing Latin and Old English in Tenth-Century England: Patterns, Formulae and Language Choice in the Leases of Oswald of Worcester / Francesca Tinti 303
Index 328
