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King Harold II and the Bayeux Tapestry (Pubns Manchester Centre for Anglo-Saxon Studies)
Manufacturer: Boydell Press
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Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 1843831244 |
Book Description
Harold II is chiefly remembered today, perhaps unfairly, for the brevity of his reign and his death at the Battle of Hastings. The papers collected here seek to shed new light on the man and his milieu before and after that climax. They explore the long career and the dynastic network behind Harold Godwinesson's accession on the death of King Edward the Confessor in January 1066, looking in particular at the important questions as to whether Harold's kingship was opportunist or long-planned; a usurpation or a legitimate succession in terms of his Anglo-Scandinavian kinships? They also examine the posthumous legends that Harold survived Hastings and lived on as a religious recluse. The essays in the second part of the volume focus on the Bayeux Tapestry, bringing out the small details which would have resonated significantly for contemporary audiences, both Norman and English, to suggest how they judged Harold and the other players in the succession drama of 1066. Other aspects of the Tapestry are also covered: the possible patron and locations the Tapestry was produced for; where and how it was designed; and the various sources - artistic and real - employed by the artist.GALE OWEN-CROCKER is Professor of Anglo-Saxon Culture at the University of Manchester.
Book Description
Using scholarship and personal spiritual experiences, Swain Wodening explores modern Anglo-Saxon Heathenry, a religion closely related to Asatru. With practical information on Wyrd, Heathen virtues, dieties, Hammer of the Gods strives to revive the spirit of Anglo-Saxon Heathenry. Additonional topics covered include the Anglo-Saxon runes and seiðr, as well as rites for births, namings, marriages, funerals, land takings, and worshipping the Gods.
Because of the scarcity of information about the ancient religion of the ancestors of the English people, this book also draws heavily on the mythology and religious lore of the related Scandinavian tribes, which was better preserved. It is therefore suited for practioners of Asatru as well.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent beginner's book on Anglo-Saxon heathenry.......2007-08-26
"Hammer of the Gods" deals in detail, on a beginner's level, with Anglo-Saxon heathen beliefs and practices, and there has not been before or since a book that is as comprehensive on that particular aspect of heathenry. The book itself is very polished and professional, and the only disagreement I might make with its contents is that the author chooses to go with an interpretation that the Anglo-Saxons believed in 9 worlds rather than 7, despite plain literary evidence to the contrary, without really spelling out a cogent case for why he makes this assumption. (Although in fairness he does *acknowledge* the problem, so it's certainly not a deal-killer for me.) Definitely worth getting if you're interested in A-S heathenry.
Needs an Editor.......2006-12-18
The total lack of proofreading was really distracting as I read this book. Sometimes the author's meaning is obscured by typos. Hopefully his other works are written with more care. Still, the subject matter is important and not widely covered elsewhere.
Rather scholarly, but contains much wrorth reading.......2006-11-14
I liked this book. It was a rather scholarly tome, and didn't have the flavor of the typical new age 101 stuff. It was worth reading. It stays on my bookshelf, and I am using it as reference.
Timeless Classic.......2005-08-29
Others have already lauded Swain for his greta works and contributions so I won't bore the reader with that. This is an excellent read and does the job quite nicely. Hail Swain!
A "must read" for the practitioner of Anglo-Saxon Heathenry........2005-02-08
"Hammer of the Gods" is an outstanding book reflecting the true spirit of the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes. Though similar to their Norse cousins, here we are given an in-depth look at the tradition through the eyes of the ancient `Anglo-Saxons'.
Herein one finds a description of the Gods of the pantheon of the people: such as Woden, Thor, Frigga, and Heimdall.
We read of the Holy Tides - Yule, Eostre, Litha (Midsummer), Harvest, and Winterfylleth, etc.
We read of the Rites of Life, with ceremonies for birth, name giving, blot, symbel, oath, wedding, and funeral.
Learn of the Runes, runic meditation and divination, and how to make a runic talisman.
The author, Swain Wodening, has done excellence research, combined with 20+ years practical experience in Anglo-Saxon Heathenry, to produce a book that is a "must read" for anyone with an interest in these things.
Book Description
For all who appreciate Celtic spirituality, here is a fresh and alternative source of nourishment and inspiration. For those looking for an authentic Christian faith, Anglo-Saxon Christianity reaches back into the very birth of the English people.
Customer Reviews:
The history of Christianity through the history of the English language.......2006-08-20
Anglo-Saxon Christianity, a book written for the historical and theological layman, is particularly interesting because it covers a subject matter too little explored. Roman Catholicism, historically triumphant, defines formal Christian doctrine today. Celtic Christianity - like all things Celtic, is undergoing a revival today (primarily for cultural rather than doctrinal reasons). But Anglo-Saxon Christianity is vitally important because it would ultimately become the formulation for the Church of England, its language, the Book of Common Prayer, and the King James Bible - which have given a spiritual foundation for much of the modern world.
This book covers a critical time in the history of Christendom when the fundamental doctrines of the faith were still being worked out. England between the time of the Saxon invasion (approx. 550AD) the Norman invasion (1066AD) was politically, culturally, and spiritually unstable. Until Alfred The Great there was no single King nor recognized boundaries. There were military hostilities with the Celts in the North, Welsh to the West, and eventually Scandinavians from the East. In Northumbria Celtic Christianity contended with Roman Christianity and Saxon paganism for the hearts and minds of the people.
I enjoyed Cavill's descriptions of Anglo-Saxon monastic life as not just a place of spiritual separation and contemplation - but a busy center of political, military, and cultural activity - "Celtic Christianity depended, nevertheless, on a radical separation between secular and religious life. English Christianity by the time of Bede had expanded beyond the confines of the monastery, and involved kings and politics, territories, and estates, power and influence. The concern for Anglo-Saxon Christianity was not so much the separation of secular and religious but of integration."
Cavill is a lecturer in Old English. His love of the English language is apparent throughout this book. His reference to and analysis of many famous and not-so-famous works of Anglo-Saxon literature enhance this book and whisper into the ear of modern day Christians reminding us of a glorious past - "Anglo-Saxon Christianity, like that of some later eras, used language with delight and sensitivity, with a creativity that was mirrored in other arts like book production and illumination. Modern Christianity has tended to wed itself to a bland scientism which is suspicious of art and any feeling or emotion other than generalized happiness."
It is apparent both from his text and his publisher, Zondervan, that Mr. Cavill writes from a Christian point of view. But this in no way biases his analysis of the heathen/Christian and Celtic/Roman Christian struggles. I highly recommend this book - indeed I wish it would be more widely read because it is not simply the history of an obscure branch of the church, but the history of Christianity itself analyzed through the history of the language that dominates much of the civilized world.
Best Recent Book On This Subject As Far As I Know.......2000-08-25
This must be the best book on Anglo-Saxon Christianity at this time. Though I have no shortage of books about Anglo-Saxons, and Anglo-Saxon poets, this is especially placed in my collection. It is the logical extension of the growing interest in Celtic Christianity that Anglo-saxon Christianity should be popularly explored as well. Ironically, the books on Celtic Christianity, are not as well arranged as this, in its well-written commentary and selection of works explored. The chapters on Caedmon, and on the Synod of Whitby (certainly an important historical event in Christian history which is too often glossed over in classes, if discussed at all) were the strongest parts of the book. Though he relies heavily on Bede at times, he gives commentary on Bede as he does so, putting things into context for those new to this field. His chapter on Beowulf, would certainly be a good introduction to that fine classic of earliest "English" literature, for those who enjoyed Chrichton's appropriation of the story for his Eaters Of The Dead / 13th Warrior. Highlights of course, are the poems, Caedmon's Hymn and The Dream Of The Rood, included with insightful commentary. Also included are a few scenes from Beowulf, and less glorious, yet revealing, documents of the time. If there was one criticism I had of the book, it would be that there was next to nothing on the Anglo-Saxon version of the Apocryphal book, The Acts of Saint Andrew, aka Andreas. A personal favourite of mine, which I am sure Cavill could get a whole book out of. I suspect very much however, that Cavill is not done with this topic, and must leave something for the next book. And there should be a "next book" from Cavill: it is rare to see such scholarly stuff written so well, and so very approachable to the non-expert. A high five.
Customer Reviews:
Delicious.......2003-08-26
Reading the Coming of Christianity to Anglo-Saxon England is like going to a dim-sum restaurant. Mayr-Harting brings out cart after cart delectable goodies, almost all of them enjoyable. However, there is no menu to provide organization for the cuisine, and you're left wondering just what it was that you ate.
What I mean is this. The book lacks any overall narrative, and the lack leaves those with little familiarity with Anglo-Saxon England feeling a little lost. Even a timeline as an appendix would have been helpful, showing us when St. Augustine arrived, when the King of East Anglia was converted, etc.
In fact, the lack of chronological narrative means that the book is *not* the story of the coming of Christianity to England. Rather, it is simply about organized Christianity in early England and some of the major ecclesiastical figures involved. Nevertheless, we are given highly enlightening vignettes of Anglo-Saxon England and the early Church, with brief forays into Ireland, Gaul, Spain, and elsewhere. We learn of a time when Rome was not the all-powerful center of Catholicism, when the Irish were at the forefront, and British (Roman and Celtic) Christians were fading into the sunset. Every page, and nearly ever paragraph, provides an interesting tidbit about worship, monasticism, folklore, and almost any subject one would care to think of.
Perhaps most satisfying of all is to read about Church figures who truly were "Christian", genuinely concerned about spreading the Gospel as opposed to accumulating power or triumphing in doctrinal disputes. A refreshing perspective that those more used to following events in Rome, Constantinople, and Alexandria all too seldom see.
This is not a book for those who solely wish to have an overview of the conversion of Anglo-Saxon England. It is, however, full of delights for the discerning reader.
A bit dated, but still fun to read........2001-02-21
This work was originally published in 1972 and thus does not reflect the most recent archeological information available regarding the Christianizing of the Anglo-Saxon peoples.
It is still a very enjoyable read. The author has a lively style which flows well over the entire subject. Events and people both great and small are considered in this comprehensive story of the conversions of the Anglo-Saxon peoples to Christianity. Gregory the Great, Augustine, Theodore, Bede, and finally Boniface all loom large in the narrative. The author is more charitable to Wilfrid than most.
I am hard pressed to find fault with this work. However, while the Irish influence on Anglo-Saxon Christianity is thoroughly explored, the dealings of the Anglo-Saxon Church with the remaining British Christians in only lightly discussed. The author, perhaps due to the times in which he wrote, is less-than-critical of his sources and takes the workman-like "they're all we've got, so let's make the most of them" attitude. This makes for good narrative but for poor source analysis.
On the whole, I enjoyed the book and can recommend it.
More expansive than its title lets on.......2000-06-29
This is easily one of my favorite works of English Ecclesiastical History. Mayr-Harting's writing is clear, readable, and often witty, and the book becomes an enjoyable reading experience for it.
Despite the title, Mayr-Harting's main focus is not on the conversion of England as the development of Christianity and English Christian Society. He divides the work into two sections, the shorter covering the initial post-Roman conversion, and the importance of Bede and his Ecclesiastical History. The second part is longer, and covers development from the Synod of Whitby up through St. Boniface.
This is easily the best single overview of early English church history I've read. Mayr-Harting handles major subjects like liturgy and Celtic vs. Roman Christianity as easily as he does the characters of some of the period's major ecclesiastical players: Bede, Wilfrid, Boniface. The result is a brilliant piece of historical scholarship.
Excellent, erudite, witty!.......1999-10-09
Primarily written for scholars, but an excellent all-around book, written with style and erudition. If you have an interest and some background in early England or early Christian history, you'll find the book worthwhile, even fun to read.
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Treasury of Anglo-Saxon England, A
Paul Cavill
Manufacturer: HarperCollins Publishers Limited
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Binding: Paperback
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Anglo-Saxon Christianity
ASIN: 0007104049 |
Book Description
A new and original selection of readings from the rich spiritual heritage of the Anglo-Saxons.
Book Description
The beauty, the mystery and the power of Anglo-Saxon civilization have long fascinated lovers of history and literature. Now, with this volume in the much-lauded Classics of Western Spirituality™, readers are invited to discover the heart and soul of this culture--its spirituality. Extending from the mid-400's to 1066, the Norman Conquest of England, the Anglo-Saxon age demonstrated a fusion of the Christian and the pagan/heroic, rending their literature compelling and their spirituality unique.
This volume presents a wide-ranging selection of Anglo-Saxon writings both in poetry and prose. There are sermons extolling the heroism of saints, homilies explaining church festivals and customs, poetical paraphrases of excerpts from the Bible, visions of Judgment Day, allegories, hagiographies and didactic pieces, as well as the celebrated Dream of the Rood and Cædmon's Hymn, the earliest of English poems. All pieces, freshly and engagingly translated by Robert Boenig, are arranged according to the manuscripts in which they can be found.
With this extraordinary selection of texts from the Anglo-Saxon tradition, this volume is sure to attract an audience that includes medievalists, church historians and religious professionals, who will appreciate its historical and religious insights. In addition, those who teach or study medieval English literature will want to adopt it for course and research work.
Customer Reviews:
Time Travel Made Easy.......2001-04-04
This is a surprising and delightful collection which offers us a unique glimpse into the minds and hearts of recent converts to Christianity in the late dark ages and early medieval period. The anthology includes sermons, homilies and poems written by Anglo-Saxons and provides surprising variety, from practical contemplations on what it means to be Christian by following the examples of John the Baptist, to the highly mystical and symbolic Dream of the Rood. The selections are surprisingly readable, so much so that I refrained from giving this book the highest rating, so skeptical I am of the translations of the Old English. Nevertheless, the manuscript notes provide valuable information regarding usage and etymologies as well as scriptural references.
Book Description
Devout, virtuous and independent, the heroines of Old English saints' lives (one of the most popular literary genres of the middle ages) provided exemplars of personal and public inspiration for medieval Christians. The eight lives translated here are the earliest known vernacular accounts of the biographies of Æthelthryth, Agatha, Agnes, Cecilia, Eugenia, Euphrosyne, Lucy, and Mary of Egypt. They depict women escaping unwanted marriages, communicating with male relatives, acquiring an education, living autonomously as hermits, and achieving positions of leadership; such lives document not only the importance of spiritual faith to early Christian women, but also testify to how these women (and their audience) employed faith as a tool for empowerment. Each life is preceded by a brief description of the saint's cult from its early Christian origins to its presence in Anglo-Saxon culture. The translation is accompanied by an introduction establishing the general background for the genre, the conventions of women saints' lives, and women's religious culture in Anglo-Saxon England; and an interpretive essay exploring the relationships between explicit presentations of the female body and the strength of spiritual authority as exhibited in these texts completes the volume.LESLIE A. DONOVANis Assistant Professor at the University of New Mexico.
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The 'Laterculus Malalianus' and the School of Archbishop Theodore (Cambridge Studies in Anglo-Saxon England)
Jane Stevenson
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
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Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0521036070 |
Book Description
The "Laterculus Malalianus", a historical exegesis of the life of Christ, appears to be the only complete text to survive from the hand of Archbishop Theodore at Canterbury, the first school of Anglo-Saxon England. This edition presents a translation of and commentary on the text, and in the introduction Jane Stevenson examines the intellectual milieu of this work, argues the case for attribution to Theodore, and suggests the need for a complete rethinking of the basis of Anglo-Saxon culture.
Book Description
From the impact of the first monasteries in the seventh century, to the emergence of the local parochial system five hundred years later, the Church was a force for change in Anglo-Saxon society. It shaped culture and ideas, social and economic behaviour, and the organization of landscape and settlement. This book traces how the widespread foundation of monastic sites ('minsters') during c.670-730 gave the recently pagan English new ways of living, of exploiting their resources, and of absorbing European culture, as well as opening new spiritual and intellectual horizons. Through the era of Viking wars, and the tenth-century reconstruction of political and economic life, the minsters gradually lost their wealth, their independence, and their role as sites of high culture, but grew in stature as foci of local society and eventually towns. After 950, with the increasing prominence of manors, manor-houses, and village communities, a new and much larger category of small churches were founded, endowed, and rebuilt: the parish churches of the emergent eleventh- and twelfth-century local parochial system. In this innovative study, John Blair brings together written, topographical, and archaeological evidence to build a multi-dimensional picture of what local churches and local communities meant to each other in early England.
Customer Reviews:
Defenitive Book.......2007-06-01
This book is by far the most exhaustive text on the subject. It is wonderful in that respect. It is a difficult read and not for a casual entertainment in my opinion. Think more of a in depth study or someone seeking a deep understanding of the subject.
I intend to use this as one of my foremost references for AS Church research for quite some time to come.
Book Description
In tenth- and eleventh-century England, Anglo-Saxon Christians retained an old folk belief in elves as extremely dangerous creatures capable of harming unwary humans. To ward off the afflictions caused by these invisible beings, Christian priests modified traditional elf charms by adding liturgical chants to herbal remedies. In Popular Religion in Late Saxon England, Karen Jolly traces this cultural intermingling of Christian liturgy and indigenous Germanic customs and argues that elf charms and similar practices represent the successful Christianization of native folklore. Jolly describes a dual process of conversion in which Anglo-Saxon culture became Christianized but at the same time left its own distinct imprint on Christianity. Illuminating the creative aspects of this dynamic relationship, she identifies liturgical folk medicine as a middle ground between popular and elite, pagan and Christian, magic and miracle. Her analysis, drawing on the model of popular religion to redefine folklore and magic, reveals the richness and diversity of late Saxon Christianity.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent and needed scholarship.......1999-11-08
Karen Jolly has produced a wonderful source of information on Anglo-Saxon charms. She makes a powerful case for the charms as elements of Anglo-Saxon popular religion, and explodes many of the myths of a pagan/Christian dichotomy that flooded the field during the age of patristic readings, and that have returned under the guise of neo-paganism in our own popular culture. One cannot claim to be a scholar of the Anglo-Saxon charms without having read this book.
A very interesting book.... keeps you turning pages.......1997-01-01
the book is great, you see, cause it's informative and incredibly detailed. It's obvious much work went into the book, and that much research was done. The book, however, isn't for those just starting out in the field of charms and magic... you should have a little background before reading the book. It's more for the historical reader then just any plain person... details on spells are also found in the book. Just plain great
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