Exactly what constituted a queen in ninth- and tenth-century England is a key topic of Matthew Firth‘s new book, Early English Queens, 850-1000: Potestas Reginae. Queenship is not always easy to define. […]
The Viking Burials at Hjarnø: An Interview with Erin Sebo
The first survey of the Kalvestene viking ship burial site on Hjarnø, Denmark in nearly 100 years was published last month. Researchers used everything from medieval chronicles to 17th-century illustrations to lidar […]
Interview with Matthew Firth
Originally posted on Royal Studies Journal:
RSJ Blog: Hello Matthew, thank you so much for taking the time to do this interview for us! You’ve done a fascinating study on the ‘Character…
Isolation, Loneliness and Risk Taking in Medieval Icelandic Outlaw Sagas
Originally posted on Histories of Emotion:
By Matthew Firth and James Kane, Flinders University In recent months, ‘isolation’ has become part of our core vocabulary. For many of us, COVID-19 has imposed…
The St. Brice’s Day Massacre: History, Archaeology, and Myth
The St Brice’s day massacre looms large over the legacy of Æthelred II (978-1013/1014-1016) as a well-known tale often held to exemplify the English king’s reign: a poorly considered act of fear, […]
A Scribe’s Life (5): The Anglo-Saxon Chronicles
This article is part of an ongoing series of short biographies of medieval scribes (except not really this time – we’re more focused on the source itself). Scribe: Multiple, unknown Lived: c.890 – […]
Blood Eagles and Fatal Walks Revisited: Orms þáttr stórólfssonar
It’s nearly two years since we posted our article on the viking tortures of literature and the likelihood that the acts as described ever occurred. This included two implausible instances of brutality: […]
Reading England in the Icelandic Sagas: Cultural Memory and Archaeology
‘In those days’, Gunnlaugs saga relates of the eleventh-century, ‘the language in England was the same as that spoken in Norway and Denmark’. It is an assertion which raises some compelling questions […]
A Scribe’s Life (4): Saxo Grammaticus
This article is part of an ongoing series of short biographies of medieval scribes. Scribe: Saxo Grammaticus Lived c. 1150 – 1220 Location: Lund, Denmark (modern Sweden/Scania) Notable works: Gesta Danorum – a […]
Chaucer and English Maritime Culture
There is something of the sea inherent in English identity. After all, the ocean makes up over 90% of England’s borders, it has long dictated external political and military policy, and defined […]
Owain and the Giant Herdsman – Identifying Celtic Mythology in the Mabinogion
The tale Yvain ou le Chevalier au Lion (Yvain, Knight of the Lion) is simultaneously one of the most famous of the Arthurian romances, and one of the more bizarre. In essence […]
The Battle of Bannockburn: English Arrogance and the Failure of Edward II
Edward I is considered by many to be the mightiest warrior and most formidable leader of the Plantagenet kings; which, considering the competition, is an impressive feat. So, the question has to […]
Viking Women & Authority in the Icelandic Outlaw Sagas of Gisli and Grettir
There is nothing like a good outlaw story, they tend to contain some very enjoyable motifs – a trickster hero, feats of derring-do, vengeance, comeuppance and, usually, some interesting female characters. A […]
A Case of Clerical Diplomacy – King Æthelstan and the Church in York
A man of no mean ambition, by 927 King Æthelstan found himself walking on untrodden ground, the ruler of much of what we would consider modern England. His grandfather, Alfred, had beaten […]
Northern Ambitions – Æthelstan and the Annexation of York and Northumbria
On the death of Sihtric, the Danish King of York, in 927, King Æthelstan seized control of the Viking Kingdom of York. It was an event reasonably early in his reign, Æthelstan […]