Calm down about the Pipe Lady

A photo of an Anglo-Saxon skeleton skewered by a pipe has gone viral. But it’s not the scandal you’re looking for. 
Can we all please calm down about the pipe lady?

Recently a photo of an intact early Anglo-Saxon skeleton absolutely skewered by a modern cable or pipe, has gone viral. It’s a powerful photo emblematic of the trampling of heritage by modernity, and brutal disrespect of human remains. Except it isn’t.....

Early Anglo Saxon burial (Oakington, Cambs) bisected by modern utility pipe

Review of the New Vic 'Hoard' Festival

Review:  "Unearthed" and "The Gift" at the New Vic Theatre's 'Hoard' Festival

Over the past few months we have been excited to follow the development of the Hoard festival at Staffordshire’s New Vic Theatre; a national-theatre and Arts Council funded project which began with a modest aim to tell the story of the famous Staffordshire Hoard and has since snowballed into the most ambitious project the theater has undertaken to date.

The festival has grown to include four stage plays ‘in the round’, a pair of studio-plays, a series of table-plays designed to entertain visitors in the theatre’s atrium and bar areas, and ‘400 pieces’; an unusual project involving volunteers and taking the drama out into the community.

During the later stages of development of the festival, the Thegns have been involved, in a small way, in advising the props, costume and set-design teams, helping the team develop a ‘look’ and ‘feel’ for those plays set at the time of the Hoard based on material-culture represented in archaeology from the time. We were highly honoured to be given front-row seats for the press-night during launch-week for the first set of plays; ‘Unearthed’ by Theresa Heskins, and ‘The Gift’ by Jemma Kennedy, and as the team had been keen not to spoil or leak any of the content of these plays to us save for the technical details, it is fair to say we sat down in the impressive theatre-in-the-round, feet quite literally on the stage, unsure of what to expect…

Tolkien's Beowulf translation - review

Cover (reproduced under fair-dealing; criticism and review)

“Beowulf: A Translation and Commentary by J.R.R. Tolkien” 

A Review by Dr A.J. Thompson

This book (available here) has been eagerly awaited by both Tolkien fans and Anglo-Saxonists alike. For the most part it was written in the 1920’s but was never intended for publication; In fact the scholarly and obsessively perfectionist professor later wrote to a friend lamenting the fact that the translation was ‘in much, hardly to my liking’. It has taken much work by Christopher Tolkien to get it into a state where it was fit to be published. 

Given the importance of the Beowulf text to our understanding of the language, beliefs, culture and worldview of the early English, and given Tolkien's almost legendary reputation as a scholar of Old English, the publishing of this book is an important milestone, and the text itself is very much worth examining and discussing. 

Having recently received a copy of the newly published book I thought I might jot down some thoughts on my impression of it, which hopefully may be useful to anyone unsure about whether to buy it. Please do note that the opinions expressed here are my own...

A Mercian Incursion - West Stow, August 2013

 

3rd - 4th of August  -  As the army of the feared warlord Penda returns home, a group of Thegns and entourage set up camp at the East-Anglian village of West Stow, bringing treasures of the Staffordshire Hoard. 

A two-day event at West Stow Anglo-Saxon Village, Suffolk, with displays of reconstructed Staffordshire Hoard treasures, and demonstrations of Anglo-Saxon music and verse, smithcraft, woodworking, cooking and more. Get hands-on with wool-spinning, tabletweaving, or try your hand at excavating a simulated early Anglo-Saxon grave!   www.weststow.org/events/cfm

More of the Staffordshire Hoard (2012)

More of the Hoard!   (2012)

90 more pieces of the Staffordshire hoard have been turned up by the plough (link). This comes as little surprise as the original finder, Mr Terry Herbert confided to me this year that the original excavation in Farmer Fred Johnson’s field at Hammerwich had been far from complete. This is despite Mr. Johnson’s statement of March 2011 :

“I don’t think there’s any possibility of more gold in that field. Anyone who claims otherwise is talking nonsense in my opinion.   ....And even if there was any more gold there, I wouldn’t bother going looking for it myself as I’ve had enough of the whole thing.”

Conservation of the new "cheekpiece" (cc. Vivienne Bailey)

It is our understanding that most of the recovered items are fairly small but that the bigger items include a gold and garnet cross, tiny eagle-mount and, most importantly, the missing so-called ‘cheek-piece’. We understand that these have been whisked away to the British Museum for cleaning and study, so it is likely to be some time before there is much more real information. Here, we discuss what we know so far;

Finally an English Spangenhelm (Shorwell)

Finally an English Spangenhelm

Recently a new Anglo-Saxon helmet has come to light. It is presently being reconstructed by the British Museum. It was acquired way back in 2006 but was originally thought to be an iron cooking pot (as was the late-Roman Burgh Castle helm!). To be fair, the helmet is in numerous small fragments but it appears to be a so-called ‘spangenhelm’ dating to the 6th century CE and comparable with numerous examples from continental Europe. Other than some fragments of gold foil found in Dumfriesshire which just may be part of the brow-band of a spangenhelm, evidence for the use of this common type of Migration-Age helmet in Britain has been lacking until now. It is thus well worth while reviewing this type of helmet.

BMAG 2

• 10th August - 

"The Thegns of Merica: After the Hoard" - A family event at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery. The Staffordshire Hoard represents a period of cultural, religious and societal transition. In what ways did England change during and after the time of the Hoard, with the increasing influence of Christianity, and the arrival of the Vikings?  Come try on Anglo-Saxon and Viking armour, have a go at writing Old English, learn about runes, hear late Saxon and Viking music, and see how culture, equipment and art evolved upto the 11th Century.   

11am -4pm. Modest entry fee for raising money for the Hoard's conservation. 

BMAG 1

• 23rd -24th July - 

"The Thegns of Mercia: The time of the Hoard" - A family event at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, in support of the world-famous Staffordshire Hoard exhibition. Come try on Anglo-Saxon armour, have a go at writing Old English or playing ancient instruments, examine an early Anglo-Saxon grave display, and see items of the Hoard  reassembled as they would've been before burial. What can the hoard tell us about this mysterious period, and what other finds can give clues about the early Anglo-Saxons and the lost kingdom of ancient Merica? 

11am-4pm. £1 entry fee raising money for the Hoard's conservation.