King Offa’s tomb

How does one leave a legacy? All leaders care about their legacy. Modern politicians seem preoccupied by both leaving a legacy and what it will be. Medieval kings did not count on historians to keep their legacy or even memory alive. Most early medieval kings are known only as a name in a list, a...

Glasses on Guthlac’s Monks?

I was looking at the Guthlac roll in the British Library online and I noticed something rather odd. Have you noticed it? The two outer figures are wearing glasses! According to the British Library page for the roll, its dates to c. 1175-1225 and is believed to be prototypes for stained glass windows. This seems...

The Bone Thief: Stealing St Oswald

[I didn't intend to be gone this long. I hope someone is still out there!] Its been years since I've taken much time to read novels. I'm embarrassed to say how few I've read in the last couple years, but the Bone Thief finally was a temptation too great. How could I resist a novel...

All Cadwaladr’s Mothers

[From the archives with a new title: a little bit of folklore for the first Friday in June.] Cadwaladr the blessed is one of my favorite Old British folklore figures so I can't leave 2007 behind without one long post on him. A paraphrase translation follows of some matrilinear notes on Cadwaladr in the Bonedd...

7th century English ‘Princess’ Grave Revealed

Multiple news sites (Independent, NewsObserver, ) are reporting that the remains of a seventh century 'princess' has been found in a field near Cambridge. The approximately 16 year old woman was found laying on a bed with iron fittings; the fittings are all that remain of the bed. She was buried fully dressed with an...

A Hoard of Gold Scrap

The Staffordshire Hoard is easily the biggest Anglo-Saxon news of the last two years, if not decade. Not only spectacular bling, but also intriguing mystery. National Geographic recently aired two documentaries on the hoard of which "Secrets of the Lost Gold" (Nat. Geo., Nov. 2011) was the most interesting because they reveal some of the...