Sublime
An inspiration engine for ideas
In 792 a charter of King Offa of Mercia refers to Kent, and the need for military service against “seaborne pagans” (who can only be Scandinavians) in migratory fleets that had presumably been active for some time.
Neil Price • The Children of Ash and Elm
Who would dare to suggest without a trustworthy record that England’s seventh Archbishop of Canterbury, Theodore—a contemporary of Oswald—would be a Greek from Asia Minor, plucked from his studies in Rome at the age of sixty-seven and sent to England without knowing anything of the language or culture of the English; that he would set the essential
... See moreMax Adams • The King in the North
However, behind these warlords and their petty kingdoms, and the social ladder on which they tried to rise, were the continuities of political life that had been part of Scandinavian culture for centuries. This was the so-called thing (Old Norse þing), a regular gathering of elected representatives in whom was vested the practical exercise of power
... See moreNeil Price • The Children of Ash and Elm
Anglo-Saxon warlords did not name heirs; kings were chosen by the political elite from a pool of athelings, those whose blood and personal attributes entitled them to be considered;
Max Adams • The King in the North
See Higham 1995, 74ff for the argument that King Edwin of Northumbria had the list drawn up in about 627 by Bishop Paulinus in the aftermath of his war against Wessex. The perceived crime was an assassination attempt on Edwin by a Wessex ambassador in 626, vividly described by Bede in HE II.9.
Max Adams • The First Kingdom
As barbarians by definition, their traders may have been forced to queue at the entrance to the empire. Intriguing concentrations of finds from the Northumberland village of Great Whittington, just a mile or so north of the Wall, suggest that here was a sort of caravanserai where drovers, traders, petitioners, embassies and wannabe citizens had to
... See more