Transformation in Anglo-Saxon Culture: Toller Lectures on Art, Archaeology and Text

The five authoritative papers presented here are the product of long careers of research into Anglo-Saxon culture. In detail the subject areas and approaches are very different, yet all are cross-disciplinary and the same texts and artifacts weave through several of them. Literary text is used to interpret both history and art; ecclesiastical-historical circumstances explain the adaptation of usage of a literary text; wealth and religious learning, combined with old and foreign artistic motifs are blended into the making of new books with multiple functions; religio-socio-economic circumstances are the background to changes in burial ritual. The common element is transformation, the Anglo-Saxon ability to rework older material for new times and the necessary adaptation to new circumstances. The papers originated as five recent Toller Memorial Lectures hosted by the Manchester Centre for Anglo-Saxon Studies (MANCASS).

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations

Contributors

Introduction
GALE R. OWEN-CROCKER
1. A New Chronology and New Agenda: the problematic sixth century
JOHN HINES
2. Anglo-Saxon Art: tradition and transformation
LESLIE WEBSTER
3. King Alfred and Weland: traditional heroes at King Alfred’s court
BARBARA YORKE
4. Strategies of Visual Literacy in Insular and Anglo-Saxon Book Culture
MICHELLE P. BROWN
5. The Vercelli Book as a Context for The Dream of the Rood
ÉAMONN Ó CARRAGÁIN
Index