The Essay - Anglo-Saxons

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  • french frank
    Administrator/Moderator
    • Feb 2007
    • 29926

    The Essay - Anglo-Saxons

    Just announced - a new 30-part series about celebrated and uncelebrated figures from the Anglo-Saxon period. Divided into three blocks of 10 essays, introduced by all sorts of people. Begins Monday, 15 Oct:

    October 2012

    1. Vortige[r]n: Barry Cunliffe, Emeritus Professor of European Archaeology at the University of Oxford discusses the near-legendary British warlord who may have invited the Anglo-Saxon legendary invaders.

    2. The peasant-farmer: Helena Hamerow, Professor of Early Medieval Archaeology at the University of Oxford, on the voiceless millions of peasant-farmers who shaped the landscape of lowland rural England as we see it today.

    3. St Augustine: Rowan Williams, outgoing Archbishop of Canterbury discusses the first ever Archbishop of Canterbury and his challenge of leading and converting late 6th century England. This heart-felt piece is based around the touchingly human letters which the isolated and under-confident Augustine sent to Pope Gregory back in Rome, often expressing a surprising preoccupation with sex, religion and the English.

    4. Three Alpha-females: Martin Carver explains how excavations from three Anglo Saxon graves has provided insight into the lives of women would otherwise be silent.

    5. King Raewald: Martin Carver, archaeologist of Sutton Hoo and editor of Antiquity Magazine, discusses the occupant of the magnificent ship burial at Sutton Hoo, King Raedwald.

    6. King Edwin: Richard Gameson discusses the Northumbrian king whose conversion to Christianity was the occasion for one of the most poetic descriptions of human life of all time, as recorded by the great Anglo Saxon historian, Bede.

    7. Penda of Mercia: Michael Wood, historian and broadcaster, discusses the last Pagan king in Britain, who may also have been the last man to wear items from the magnificent Staffordshire Hoard.

    8. Hilde of Whitby: Barbara Yorke, Emeritus Professor of Early Medieval History at the University of Winchester discusses the now largely forgotten but hugely influential abbess Hilde of Whitby.

    9. St Cuthbert: Tony Morris, former editor of history for Oxford University Press discusses St Cuthbert, and his continuing appeal today both on and far beyond the beautiful island of Lindisfarne where he made his home.

    10. Eadfrith the Scribe: Richard Gameson, specialist in the history of the book at Durham University, discusses the creators of perhaps the greatest treasures from the entire Anglo-Saxon era - the illuminated book.
    It isn't given us to know those rare moments when people are wide open and the lightest touch can wither or heal. A moment too late and we can never reach them any more in this world.
  • ferneyhoughgeliebte
    Gone fishin'
    • Sep 2011
    • 30163

    #2
    Oh, yes; greatly looking forward to this - especially, perhaps, the programme on Eadfrith who seemingly single-handedly produced the Lindesfarne Gospels. The Hilde should be good, too, covering the Synod of "Whitby" (or Streonshal as it was then called) with its disasterous effect on the Celtic Church in England. Hope there'll be a programme on Bede some time, too - I'm very fond of Bede!
    [FONT=Comic Sans MS][I][B]Numquam Satis![/B][/I][/FONT]

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    • doversoul1
      Ex Member
      • Dec 2010
      • 7132

      #3
      My radio is turned off by 10.00pm but I shall definitely make an exception for these programmes.

      Comment

      • amateur51

        #4
        Fascinating stuff and I just hope the powers-that-be arrange for these talks to be available as podcasts, cos it's a very silly time to put out programmes that will clearly need some concentration.

        I must say, I'm delighted and ... mildly surprised

        Comment

        • doversoul1
          Ex Member
          • Dec 2010
          • 7132

          #5
          Originally posted by amateur51 View Post
          Fascinating stuff and I just hope the powers-that-be arrange for these talks to be available as podcasts, cos it's a very silly time to put out programmes that will clearly need some concentration.

          I must say, I'm delighted and ... mildly surprised
          I was only half listening to the trailer assuming that it was on BBC4 or some such, and had to check the schedule to believe it after I thought I’d heard Radio3 mentioned.

          Comment

          • Historian
            Full Member
            • Aug 2012
            • 634

            #6
            Originally posted by amateur51 View Post
            Fascinating stuff and I just hope the powers-that-be arrange for these talks to be available as podcasts, cos it's a very silly time to put out programmes that will clearly need some concentration.
            I agree, in that my powers of concentration are not always at the highest by the time 'The Essay' comes on. However, an excellent subject for this treatment, I think. The Anglo-Saxons get some coverage in the primary school curriculum, but tend to get 'lost' at secondary school. When I studied them for a time at university, confused ideas about 'the Dark Ages' were replaced by increasing respect for a much more advanced society than I had hitherto realised. It will be very interesting to hear how far scholarship has advanced since my undergraduate days.

            Comment

            • aeolium
              Full Member
              • Nov 2010
              • 3992

              #7
              This sounds like a fine project. I hope there will be plenty of readings in Anglo-Saxon - I love the sound of it

              Comment

              • amateur51

                #8
                Originally posted by aeolium View Post
                This sounds like a fine project. I hope there will be plenty of readings in Anglo-Saxon - I love the sound of it
                Oh I look forward to hearing that - you don't hear much of it at Willesden Bus Garage waiting for the 460 to Golders Green, I can tell you

                Comment

                • french frank
                  Administrator/Moderator
                  • Feb 2007
                  • 29926

                  #9
                  Bit embarrassing to spell the title of the first one wrongly - in 24 pt
                  It isn't given us to know those rare moments when people are wide open and the lightest touch can wither or heal. A moment too late and we can never reach them any more in this world.

                  Comment

                  • Historian
                    Full Member
                    • Aug 2012
                    • 634

                    #10
                    Originally posted by french frank View Post
                    Bit embarrassing to spell the title of the first one wrongly - in 24 pt
                    So, is this evidence that Mr. Gove is right? What we really need is a list of important people in History that we all have to learn, including how to spell them. Or maybe not.

                    Interestingly, this first 'portrait' is of a Briton, rather than an Anglo-Saxon.

                    Comment

                    • french frank
                      Administrator/Moderator
                      • Feb 2007
                      • 29926

                      #11
                      Originally posted by Historian View Post
                      Interestingly, this first 'portrait' is of a Briton, rather than an Anglo-Saxon.
                      True, but wasn't it Bede (and Geoffrey of Monmouth?) who claimed Vortigern invited the Angles and Saxons to, um, just a moment .... yes , invited them to Britain to protect the Britons from the barbarians (Picts and Scots?). They did help them, but then sent back home to say that 'the country was fertile and the Britons cowardly' so come on over. And they did. And thus began the Anglo-Saxon era.
                      It isn't given us to know those rare moments when people are wide open and the lightest touch can wither or heal. A moment too late and we can never reach them any more in this world.

                      Comment

                      • Historian
                        Full Member
                        • Aug 2012
                        • 634

                        #12
                        Originally posted by french frank View Post
                        True, but wasn't it Bede (and Geoffrey of Monmouth?) who claimed Vortigern invited the Angles and Saxons to, um, just a moment .... yes , invited them to Britain to protect the Britons from the barbarians (Picts and Scots?). They did help them, but then sent back home to say that 'the country was fertile and the Britons cowardly' so come on over. And they did. And thus began the Anglo-Saxon era.
                        Yes, that's more or less what I teach Year 7. As usual, the poor old Jutes get forgotten.

                        Comment

                        • aeolium
                          Full Member
                          • Nov 2010
                          • 3992

                          #13
                          Originally posted by amateur51 View Post
                          Oh I look forward to hearing that - you don't hear much of it at Willesden Bus Garage waiting for the 460 to Golders Green, I can tell you
                          Maybe, ams, but I can recall my grandfather, who was brought up in the Black Country, using Anglo-Saxon words (no, not those!) e.g. "gledes" for the hot cinders in the grate (from the A-S word gled for a hot glowing coal) and "wench" in the sense of girl-child or daughter (from the A-S wencel meaning child). Apparently in some parts of the country, especially the Midlands, Anglo-Saxon usage seemed to persist within dialect as it were below the flow of the changing usage within 'proper' English: Black Country dialect has a lot of A-S derived words.

                          Sometimes I hadn't the faintest idea what my grandfather was on about

                          Comment

                          • ferneyhoughgeliebte
                            Gone fishin'
                            • Sep 2011
                            • 30163

                            #14
                            Point of pendantic order: most of "those" "Anglo-Saxon" words are Viking in origin.
                            [FONT=Comic Sans MS][I][B]Numquam Satis![/B][/I][/FONT]

                            Comment

                            • french frank
                              Administrator/Moderator
                              • Feb 2007
                              • 29926

                              #15
                              Originally posted by french frank View Post
                              Bit embarrassing to spell the title of the first one wrongly - in 24 pt
                              Hmmmm...

                              It isn't given us to know those rare moments when people are wide open and the lightest touch can wither or heal. A moment too late and we can never reach them any more in this world.

                              Comment

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