Hwæt! The British Library’s new exhibition, Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms: Art, Word, War, has now opened. I have had the great privilege of working alongside the curators, being one of the first to see the completed exhibition, and of celebrating the official opening. A number of the manuscripts which I have written about in my blogposts are…
Category: Leechbooks
Egyptian Days and Ayurvedic Man: medical cultural connections
One of the advantages of working in central London is the sheer number of interesting exhibitions and other events going on all around me. The other day I wandered into the Wellcome Collection to see if they had anything interesting to see, and was rewarded with a free exhibition called Ayurvedic Man: Encounters with Indian…
Silk and spices, pepper and peacocks
A while ago, in my post on fruit, I mentioned that the word ‘peach’ entered England in the Anglo-Saxon period, even if the fruit itself probably didn’t. The word is ultimately derived from persicum malum, Persian apple, indicating that the fruit entered Europe via Iran. This is the trouble with writing about Anglo-Saxon medical works…
Onwards I go: may I meet with friends
It’s always interesting to see which words other languages have which are missing from one’s own. Old English, being somewhat similar to modern German, has a tendency to create compound words to a greater extent than modern English does, leading to words such as tidfara – a traveller whose time to journey has come. So…
Adam, agate and amulets: a medieval general knowledge quiz
What is the connection between Adam’s navel and the Archbishop of Canterbury’s left ear? This was the first question that was asked in the first episode of the long-running British comedy quiz QI, which has been producing one series for each letter of the alphabet since the A-series in 2003. Of course, the whole point…
Have mercy on me, O God: Psalm 50 in the Anglo-Saxon church
I have a new article out! ‘Which Psalms Were Important to the Anglo-Saxons? The Psalms in Tenth- and Eleventh-Century Prayer and Medical Remedies’ is part of a special edition of English Studies on the psalms in Anglo-Saxon and Anglo -Norman England, edited by Helen Appleton and Francis Leneghan, and I am grateful to both of…
New article published: ‘Which Psalms Were Important to the Anglo-Saxons? The Psalms in Tenth- and Eleventh-Century Prayer and Medical Remedies’
My latest article is now available online in a special issue of English Studies! ‘Which Psalms Were Important to the Anglo-Saxons? The Psalms in Tenth- and Eleventh-Century Prayer and Medical Remedies’ English Studies, 98:1 (2017): 35-48 This article examines the use of the Psalms in sixteen short prayer programmes, found in tenth- and eleventh-century English…
Solidify us unto Thy charity: the medicinal and liturgical uses of cheese
On this blog, I write about some of the most important aspects of Christian spirituality in early medieval England. The feast of Easter. The healing of the sick. Confession. Expressing one’s deepest yearnings to God in prayer. And now: cheese. I’ve written before about Ælfric of Eynsham, abbot and homilist, and also the author of…
Lots of Wynn
It is one year to the day since my first ever post on For the Wynn! Thanks to all of you who have read my posts, commented on them, and passed them on. Today I’m celebrating my bloggiversary by writing about the letter Ƿ (wynn). Ƿ is the Anglo-Saxon letter w, meaning ‘joy’; and, as…
Comparing æppla and oranges: Anglo-Saxon fruit
It’s summer, the season of strawberries and cream. But what about strawberries and pepper? We eat fruit for pleasure, or for the sake of eating a healthy diet; in the Middle Ages, certain fruits were also believed to be useful for keeping the body in health, or for use in medicine. And, in a time…
For the Wynn 