Anglo-Saxon Chronicle Map, v 2.0

I recently had the pleasure of presenting my mapping project at SHARP's Digital Projects Showcase. I'm in the middle of writing a reflection/call-to-arms on my experience there, but wanted to share my materials sooner. So here they are: images from my handouts and the newest version of the map.

WHAT IS THE ANGLO-SAXON CHRONICLE?

A group of annalistic texts begun in the 9^th century and, in one case, extending until the 12^th.

It includes a variety of events: birth of Christ; natural and supernatural phenomena; royal births, coronations, deaths, and burials; consecrations; invasions; laws; property endowments; international and inter-family drama; the building (and burning) of towns.

A: the earliest surviving manuscript of the Chronicle; end date 1001; significant interest in Winchester

B: irregular annal numbers; end date 977; updated regnal list from A

C: “chronicle of chronicles” because of its sources; ends in the middle of 1066

D: integrates/conflates sources incorporated by C as one chunk; ends 1079; northern interest

E: longest chronicle version; end date 1154; begins in Old English and ends in Middle English

F: Bilingual

G: Copy of A

WHY MAP THE ANGLO-SAXON CHRONICLE?

In content alone, the Chronicle is an important part of early English history and literature (listory? histerature?) And unlike its contemporary chronicles on the European continent, it is uniquely vernacular. Some versions contain important regnal lists; some include poetry; they all tell a different story of England, documenting in varied narratives of the arrival of Brutus, Angles, Saxons, Vikings, Normans, missionaries, and bishops. Version D has the longest treatment of a woman in it, describing (and perhaps defending?) Margaret of Scotland’s marriage. The same version (D) actually ends mid-word in the annal entry for 1079; version C ends halfway through the entry for 1066—on the Stamford Bridge—and before the Battle of Hastings.

Although annals seem to be primarily focused on time, these are actually just as preoccupied by space. Indeed, location is so important to these texts that until recently, most were referred to as the chronicle of a place name: Winchester Chronicle, Abingdon Chronicle, Worcester Chronicle, and Peterborough Chronicle.  But these names didn’t only show the onomastic interest of the chronicles’ contents; they more accurately reflect the scholarly effort to trace their transmission history—multi-layered narrative.

TEACHING WITH THE CHRONICLE MAP

PROBLEMS WITH MAPPING?

There are plenty of issues surrounding the cartography of complex texts. Here are some that I dealt with in Google Earth: 

1) The map of Anglo-Saxon "England" changes over the course of these texts:

 2) The transmission histories are complicated, at best:

3) There are practical issues of data selection and entry when not all annals have traceable place-names:

So, 

But Google Maps Engine has just come out, and that's allowed me to sort and change displays. 

BEHOLD, THE ANGLO-SAXON CHRONICLE MAP 2.0!

It sorts data by date and label by event (or vice versa):

It layers multiple versions (10th century A and E shown here, labels hidden):

It allows me to build a database within the mapping program itself:

Still, there are some kinks to work out before I move forward. Consider, for example, what happens when I try to map regions like Wessex and Mercia:

It's not a pretty sight! Nevertheless, I've gotten great help from the UNC librarians and fellow SHARPists. More on both very, very soon.

Til then, 

Map on!

The newest Viking invasion

North_Sea_map-en.png

In my search for a dissertation topic (starting point: Anglo-Saxon prose), I am increasingly interested in exchanges among Anglo-Saxons and their North Sea neighbors.

I've recently been reading about spaces, places, and history (see my new Reading List page), but I keep being pulled by seafaring and its cultural impact on the region. So I started a new reading list, got on Amazon, and behold, the Vikings came straight to my door:

I stand by my tweet: "when vikings show up at your doorstep, let them in!"

My new line of inquiry comes as one of many in a series of summer novelties. Two different batches of baby birds hatched in our stoop; Drew graduated from law school (summa, 1st in his class, tons of awards); I've engaged in some small projects around the house. 

I also spent two weeks in London with librarians. My favorite firsts include seeing Stonehenge, the Alfred Stone, Oxford University Press, Bath, cave-crepes, and a tenth-century manuscript that I HELD WITH MY OWN TWO HANDS. 

After eleven straight weekends of travel, I was finally able to start my research in earnest. Once I realized that my interests were beginning to shift, I started with Haywood's Dark Age Naval Power and Unger's The Ship in the Medieval Economy, 600-1600.  Chapter 3, "Anglo-Saxon Piracy and the Migrations to Britain" was the most useful of Haywood's chapters to my research. It introduced me to the Litus Saxonicum, a series of Roman coastal defenses along both sides of the channel. 

Litus Saxonicum, Wikimedia Commons

If only I'd picked this book up a few months earlier! I've missed the submission deadline for BABEL's 2014 "On the Coast"meeting in Santa Barbara, but I'm encouraged that shoreline studies are now on the cutting-edge (HA. get it? edge?).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Anglo.Saxon.migration.5th.cen.jpg

Aaaaanyway, after the Romans withdrew from Britain in 410, Saxon raids increased. A note on vocabulary here-- at this point in the story, no one's a Viking yet.

Britons were native to the island; Angles, Saxons, Jutes, and Frisians were invaders. 

According to Haywood, archeological evidence suggests that the Anglo-Saxon settlements came in two waves: "the first began in the early fifth century and was confined mainly to eastern Britain and was confined mainly to eastern Britain between the Humber and the Thames"and the second, spanning the middle of the fifth century and the start of the sixth,  included "Kent and the south coast" as well as "the Midlands from East Anglia" (80).

 Haywood reads in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle that, "the Anglo-Saxons who came to Britain after the mid-fifth century, such as Cerdic in Wessex or Aelle in Sussex, did not arive as either pirates or federates but as seaborne conquerors" (83). If those names seem at all familiar (and you're not a medievalist), that's totally legit. Here's where you've heard them before: Cerdic is portrayed the previously blogged-about King Arthur (left). King Aelle(a) is a character on the TOTALLY AWESOME History Channel series, Vikings (right).

Ok, so, back to the scholarship. After briefly discussing the literary accounts of the 5th century invasions (Gildas, Bede, Gallic Chronicles, Anglo-Saxon Chronicles), Haywood reminds us that the Saxon raiders did not limit themselves to Briton--they raided in Gaul as late as the seventh century (though by now they're starting from Britain as opposed to Saxony). Next he goes through the development of shipbuilding by the Angles and Saxons, showing that "by the second half of the seventh century we can be quite certain that the sail was in everyday use by the Anglo-Saxons" (107).  Note his use of Anglo-Saxon here. By now, this can refer to Angles and Saxons living in Britain. 

You're rightly wondering, "where the ___ are the Vikings in this damn post?" Never fear, readers--they arrive just when you don't expect them [kidding; see below].

The beginning of the Viking Age is marked by most at 789, when Scandinavians came to Portland and were mistakenly identified as merchants by an ill-fated reeve. The reason I included all this background is because in a grossly-over-simplified version of reality, the Vikings did to the Anglo-Saxons what the Angles and Saxons had done to the Britons. Just as Angles and Saxons came to Britain in raiding parties and eventually settled, so the Vikings (mostly Norse and Danish) arrived-- at first as pillagers and then, as we can see from place-names, genealogies, genetics, archaeology, history, laws, and literature, as settlers in increasingly important ports. In case you've fallen into the "meh, I don't really care about that" trap, check out McGlashan's 2003 article about the Vikings' generous beach laws, which I found in a perfectly-timed tweet by Medievalists.net.

Despite Haywood's detailed coverage of pre-Viking shipbuilding, Unger's analysis of shipbuilding technology and its economic impact in his chapter on "Vikings and Byzantines: 750-1000" is surprisingly engaging (and I think better researched). Unger traces the development of vessels within the context of technological, military, and economic changes. He shows us that "[t]he development of the Viking ship was the most important change in European ship design from 750 to 1000"because it  "marked a significant improvement in the ability to move people" (Unger, 80-81). And these people, in turn, went south to Iberia and through the Mediterranean to Alexandria; east to the Black and Caspian Seas; and west to Iceland, Greenland, and Canada. The new Viking ships were stable, deep-seaworthy, and light enough to carry on small stretches of land (82). And how do we know this? Because we still have some. 

You can see a few at Oslo's Viking Ship Museum, whose gift shop boasts such gems as Terry Jones's children's book and slides of the exhibits. SLIDES. 

"Wait, what are these?" And yes, it is THAT cold inside Norwegian museums in December

And the Viking warships weren't their only vessels to reflect and affect social, political, and economic change. Here's my last bit from Unger (for now):

The result of Viking voyages was to extend the realm of northern trade, to promote the full integration of Scandinavia into a northern trading network and to intensify trade within that network. The emergence of Europe about the year 1000 from the difficulties, political and economic, of the preceding 150 years was certainly a result of the end of raids by Vikings in their warships. But t was also a result of the ability of Scandinavians to turn their new type of vessel to commercial advantage. (94)

So you see, Vikings were able to conquer and settle; they drew new boundaries on land and carved new "whale-roads" at sea. Awesome, am I right?

My next book to read (and already the prologue was hard to put down) is Studies in the Medieval Atlantic, whose image I posted yesterday to facebook and Instagram. I hope to include it in a shorter post soon, but I'll leave that for another day when I can give it the attention and space it deserves. 

Until next time, wishing everyone the blessings of newness (and no threats of invasion).

Works cited: 
Haywood, John. Dark Age Naval Power: A Reassessment of Frankish and Anglo-Saxon Seafaring Activity. Routledge, 1999.
Unger, Richard W. The Ship in Medieval Economy 600-1600. London, 1980.

New page! My reading list

Hello again, readers!
To supplement the Taxonomic Chart of Medieval Research Tools and more general Academic Sources, I've added my personal reading list and goals for the summer on a new page, under the oh-so-spicy title of Reading List. I will revisit this page as my list grows, and if feeling particularly ambitious or moved, will update it with short synopses or judgments. Let me know what you think, or if you have recommendations or requests.
Til soon,
Wishing everyone some bibliographic bliss.

Holy Women, pt 2

Welcome back! This will conclude the "choose your own adventure" on Holy Women. Hopefully most of my posts in the future will be about my dissertation research on Anglo-Saxon prose (yes, that's as narrow as I've gotten it so far).

Moving away from holy women written by men to holy women written about themselves, I present #s 3 and 4: Julian of Norwich and Margery Kempe.

Holy Woman #3: Julian of Norwich: "the visionary"
Julian (1342-1416) was an anchorite in Norwich. As an anchorite she engaged in contemplative prayer in an institution of the church that was sanctioned, if still somewhat marginalized, by the church.
Synopsis: Hers is actually two texts: the first recounting visions over the course of a few days, the second reflecting on those visions in the context of her later life and complex doctrinal issues. She focuses on the Trinity and especially Christ but says very little about sacraments.

Julian, Norwich Cathedral
wikipedia.org

Themes: For those interested in the intersections of orality and literacy, I should note that she does claim to be illiterate. This could be part of a medieval modesty topos, but it nevertheless opens up conversation for what it meant to have been a "well-read"woman in medieval England (and is worth bringing up in comparison to figures like the Wife of Bath).
Her visions are beautiful, sometimes frightening, and often moving. One of her most famous showings appears in her First Revelation, when God shows her "a little thing, the quantity of a hazelnut, lying in the palm of [her] hand, as it seemed, and it was round as a ball." When she asks what it is, she hears, "It is all that is made" (I've modernized the spelling of Baker, p 9). The whole passage is tender but powerful, deftly confronting the microcosm/macrocosm in an extraordinarily intimate relationship with God.

You can find more about Julian of Norwich at Luminarium, but I highly recommend the Norton Critical edition of The Showings of Julian of Norwich by Denise Baker. You can even borrow my copy.

Holy Woman #4: Margery Kempe: "the housewife"
Margery is not a saint. Her writings are not particularly retrospective, nor even strictly autobiographical.    Synopsis: Margery's Book documents her life at home and abroad; on pilgrimage and on trial. It deals with the hardships and persecutions she suffers as a woman traveling on her own and blessed with weeping spells. Unlike Julian, Margery constructs her narrative around episodic patterns rather than chronology.
Themes: Barry Windeatt writes, "[c]hronology has given way to patterns of episodes recounting loss, shame, and powerlessness, succeeded by vindication and precarious triumph, and followed in turn by renewed disempowerment and beleaguerment" (The Book of Margery Kempe, 26). But don't get the impression that she's just a victim of (admittedly, rather peculiar) circumstance; an especially memorable scene recounts her buying back her chastity from her husband. Nevertheless, Windeatt sees her story as a updated hagiography: "Here the assaults and tortures of a martyrdom have been updated into a middle-class housewife's endurance, for her convictions, of her society's contemptuous humiliation and character assassination" (19, 20).  I got defensive when I first read that; it felt like an indictment of her authority, authenticity, and even her life. But those three aspects are important for us to discuss with each other and with our students. Teaching this to undergrads would be fascinating. Who would be sick of her? Who would distrust her? Who would find the whole thing fascinating, and even inspiring? Who would wonder, since it's not an instructional book, why she really had it written down? I'm not particularly fond of Margery's book, but I can identify with her person/character, and I'd love to know what you, thoughtful reader, think of her, too.

Works cited: 
Baker, Denise N., ed. The Showings of Julian of Norwich. New York: W. W. Norton, 2005. 
Windeatt, Barry, ed. The Book of Margery Kempe. Harlow, UK: Pearson Education, 2000.

Holy Women, pt 1

Since my last post, I've passed all my PhD exams, taken a few several weeks to recover, and gone to England for a couple of weeks. After my extended break, health issues, and a family visit, I am happy to be back and researching for my dissertation prospectus.
But first, I owe you all an adventure. Three months ago you voted on which should be my next blog post, and the tallies are in: Holy Women it is! Sorry for the delay.
In order to make up for lost time, I'll do this in two installments.
Holy Woman #1: Constance in Chaucer's Man of Law's Tale: "the mediator"

From http://chaucereditions.wordpress.com/1910s/1919-highroads-to-literature/

Chaucer's story is a bit more elaborate and stylized than its Anglo-Norman source, a chronicle by Trivet. This blend of saint's life and romance could also be called "Murderous Mothers-in-Law."
Synopsis: A syrian sultan converts to Christianity in order to marry Constance, a merchant's daughter. She's not particularly keen on the idea, but unlike the Wife of Bath admits that women "are born to thralldom and penance, and to be under man's governance." The sultan's mother resents that he converted for the pretty little thing; accordingly she fakes conversion, kills all the converts of her own land, and exiles Constance to Italy. Constance is shipwrecked in Northumbria, where she's saved by the pagan but sympathetic King Alla. After he and his people are converted by her "mediation," Alla and marries Constance and goes off to war, leaving her at the mercy HIS vengeful mother. In an intricate fake-letter plot, Constance's new mother-in-law exiles her and her son. Eventually Alla catches on, returns home, kills his mother, and takes pilgrimage to Rome.
It's been five years since Constance and her son have been lost at sea; she's never given up hope, and although she pales three times in the story, her faith and prayers sustain them. At long last they wash ashore in Rome, where the family is reunited.  Alla and Constance return to England, living happily for one year before he dies. Constance leaves for Rome to live out her days with her son, now Emperor Maurice.
Themes: Constance is plotted against by older, pagan women; she accepts her fate without self-pity or despair; she leads by example, giving no grand speeches but converting others (especially powerful men) by "mediation." She is always humble, quietly accepting her fate and seeking God's protection.
Holy Woman #2: St Cecilia in Chaucer's formerly-known-as-second-nun's-tale: "the big reveal"

From http://www.todayscatholicworld.com

Influenced by Richard Love, Augustine, and the Franciscan Meditations on the Life of Christ, Chaucer's S Cecilia is sometimes thought of as "the only good woman in the Canterbury Tales." I take issue with that, but will let you make your own conclusions.
If Constance is patient and quietly brave, Cecilia is "busy" and urgently bold. We hear much more from Cecilia than we do from Custance, and I think part of that is due to genre: Man-of-Law's Tale is hagio-romance, but Cecilia's story is more strictly hagiographical. What fascinate me about Cecilia's Tale (as I mentioned in my post on Values of the Hidden in 2011) are the visible elements of the story. There are secret angels, popes popping out of catacombs, magical golden books, covert meetings, clandestine conversions, but also spectacular confrontations and tortures.
Themes: Cecilia is nothing if not active; she engages in debates on logic and faith, and has strong ties to the secretive Christian community. She preaches for three days after being boiled and half-decapitated, emphasizing her role as one who reveals the truth of God as well as the "naked"ness of her fellow humans.

That's all for now, but if you're interested in reading more (and differently) about Chaucer, check out the mind-blowing Dark Chaucer: An Assortment.

http://punctumbooks.com

Look out for my next post on holy women later this week:
Holy Woman #3: Julian of Norwich: "the visionary"
Holy Woman # 4: Margery Kempe: "the housewife"

Until then, here are some other sources of medieval holy women:

The Early South English Legendary
Chaucer's Legend of Good Women
Bokenham's Legends of Holy Women