#early england

[insidemyfavoritemanuscript]

Episode 17: Kathryn Maude on politics, the queen as evangelist, and the 11th century Encomium Emmae reginae

British Library Add MS 33241, fol. 1v

In Episode 17 of Inside My Favorite Manuscript, Dot and Lindsey chat with Kathryn Maude about the 11th century Queen Emma, who was married to and had children with both the English king Æthelred the Unready and his successor the Danish king Cnut the Great. The resulting political situation was complicated, and the Encomium Emmae reginae can help us understand the lines that Emma was attempting to walk as her sons grew into adulthood and prepared to take the throne. The text survives in two copies, the earliest one of which is British Library Add MS 33241, believed to be the copy that was presented to Queen Emma herself. Kathryn walks us through the manuscript and we talk about both the politics and the materiality of this fascinating text.

Listen here, or wherever you find your podcasts.

Below the cut are more photos and links relevant to the conversation.

British Library Add MS 33241, aka Encomium Emmae reginae (digitized online)

Folio 1v, the presentation of the book to Queen Emma, with her sons peeking out from the margin.

A close-up of folio 1v focusing on Emma and her sons.

A close-up of folio 1v focusing on the scribe presenting the book. Note that his hands are covered with a cloth. The son's hand has been added.

A close-up of folio 1v focusing on the curtains

Boulogne-sur-Mer, Bibliothèque municipale, MS 11, miniature of Saint John, folio 107r

Close-up of folio 107r focusing on the curtains. Note Saint John holding the book with a cloth around it.

Copenhagen, Royal Danish Library, Acc. 2011/5, aka Courtenay Compendium, which contains the late 14th century copy of the Encomium Emmae reginae (apparently not digitized)

Doors of Durin, drawn by JRR Tolkien.

The Doors of Durin (Gates of Moria) from the Fellowship of the Ring film by Peter Jackson

Middle Aged Women in the Middle Ages, edited by Sue Niebrzydowski. Gender in the Middle Ages, Volume 7. D. S. Brewer, 2011.

Folio 18r, Sven and Cnut's names are capitalized Half Uncials while the rest of the text is a regular Carolingian script.

Folio 48r, another example. Here Emma's name is capitalized at the top.

A king pointing to the text on folio 46r - "a manicule with a king attached" - with a note written beneath in the later middle ages, probably at Saint Augustine's Abbey in Canterbury.

An ugly manicule (hand pointing at the text), folio 46v.

Folio 5r, a gloss in the margin.

Folio 60r, an emoji in the margin of a couple of eyes to annotate the word oculi (Latin for eyes) in the text.

Close-up of the eyes.

Folio 58v, the parchment has been mended during the parchment preparation process, before the text was written.

Folio 54r, space was left for initials that were never added (the penciled M is probably contemporary but was never decorated)

Folio 2r, the first page of text, featuring a zoomorphic initial (i.e., an initial in the shape of an animal, in this case some sort of dragon and a fish eating each other) and colorful capitals.

Folio 8r, a zoomorphic initial R made of more critters eating each other. Good for a tattoo?

Folio 19v. "Explicit Lib[er] I" means the end of book 1, and "Incipit Secundus" means the beginning of [book] two (the second book).

Folio 50v, featuring Lindsey's ugly manicule

A close-up of the manicule

The Annunciation of Mary in Boulogne-sur-Mer, Bibliothèque municipale, MS 11

We talked to Brandon Hawk about the Vercelli Manuscript in Episode 7.

A hedgehog in the Luttrell Psalter (folio 19v)! (See it online)

"The Social Centrality of Women in Beowulf: A New Context" Dot's very first published article!

[blondebrainpowered]

Hair comb, about 1902. Designed and made by Henry Wilson, London.

[city-of-ladies]

"This woman, nicknamed ‘Piper’ by the University of Central Lancashire archaeologists who uncovered her in 2014, was buried in grave 116 in a sixth-century early medieval cemetery in Oakington, Cambridge. More interesting than the pipe, which was a pure accident of directional drilling, her grave was richly furnished. She had a brooch on each shoulder, wrist-clasps, and a large ornate cruciform brooch, indicating she had been buried in a peplos dress over a long-sleeved dress and wrapped in a pinned cloak. She also had a collection of glass and amber beads. These items in her grave indicate that she was a wealthy and important woman within her community at Oakington.

The more I researched this dig, which was overseen by archaeologists Dr Faye Simpson and Dr Duncan Sayer, the more the site was revealed to be a remarkable insight into early medieval gender and society. Piper was not the only high-status woman in the Oakington cemetery. In fact, there were a large number of furnished female burials, which acted as focal points throughout the cemetery, and very few male ones.

Duncan Sayer has called the Oakington dig suggestive of a ‘female-dominated matriarchal group’ in early medieval England. What’s more, around thirty percent of the 124 graves were those of infants. The high number of infant burials is disproportionate, indicating that women were in this area specifically to give birth within this matriarchal community.

During the past week there has been much excitement on social media and in the press about the findings of a recent DNA study, which provide evidence for matrilocal societies in Iron Age Dorset. Matrilocal societies are groups in which women stay within family groups, marrying outsiders, while male family members join different groups. Such societies would naturally revolve around generations of women. The Oakington site might provide a comparable example, though centuries later, of a similar kind of female-dominated group."

[ltwilliammowett]

The barquentine "Maid of England" with broken mast and covered in ice coming into Halifax Harbour in 1923.

Photo: W.R. MacAskill

[thewales-family]

The Princess of Wales visits an 'Action For Children' mother and baby unit at HMP Styal, a prison and young offender institution in Wilmslow, England -February 11th 2025.

[theofficialpresidentofmars]

started watching Death Note yesterday and have come to the conclusion that if Hamlet had access to a death note, literally nothing in the play would change or happen differently in the slightest

[ancient-qveen]

EMPEROR in England (1993)

so i've seen these two beautiful photos of faust a million times already but how am i just now noticing a boy next to him?? why did i think that was a chair this whole time its same thing to faust anyway. i'm pretty sure it's ihsahn

samoth taking fausts pic in the second one. and tchort, samoth, and darkmark in the third pic (with possibly faust photobombing on the bottom right). fourth is with faust flipping us off. fifth is samoth and ihsahn at a pub with some COF members and someone's mom lol

^ bonus iconic pics that were also taken in england '93

[highmagician]

been hyperfixated on Cthulhu media and accidentally created an entire au/story about it

Dr. Arthur James Kirkland is a professor of archaeology who is assigned to help excavate a recently discovered cave with strange artifacts strewn about, but most notably an old yet entirely intact book. It's written in an unknown language, resulting in a globe spanning investigation to discover an origin and translation. after a few months of studying the book, though, he slowly becomes consumed by it. it speaks to him, showing him strange visions and eventually granting him the secrets locked in it, translating the text before his eyes. slowly, he loses track of reality and slips into the madness that radiates from the dark grimoire, almost fully consuming him.

I based it mostly off of the ttrpg mechanic-wise while using the mythos as a backdrop for everything else. currently, the other investigators are surface-level ocs who have their own place in the story alongside him.

idk I just think it's neat and I need somewhere to put my shit so here-

[gwydpolls]

Time Travel Question : Murder and Disappearance Edition I

Given that Judge Crater, Roanoke, and the Dyatlov Pass Incident are credibly solved, though not 100% provable, I'm leaving them out in favor of things ,ore mysterious. I almost left out Amelia Earhart, but the evidence there is sketchier.

Some people were a little confused. Edward V and Richard of Shrewsbury are the Princes in the Tower.

[the-last-tsar]

Yet another family wedding took place later that year, in June — of George, Duke of York, to Princess Mary (May) of Teck. Alix did not attend, pleading the need of the Hesse family to be careful with money, but the Russian imperial family had no such concerns and Nicky was sent to represent them, staying at Marlborough House in London. The Prince of Wales, "Uncle Bertie" (whose wife, Princess Alexandra, was Nicky's mother's sister), seems to have taken a rather dim view of his nephew's customary attire, arranging for him to be visited by "a whole bevy of tailors, shoemakers and hatters." "He is very funny in that respect," commented Nicky, "but he has always been extremely attentive and kind to me." Nicky in his turn seems to have been unimpressed by the physical qualities of British women, lamenting the lack of attractive specimens at a state ball at Buckingham Palace. On the next day the party set off for Windsor to visit the Queen — "a round ball on unsteady legs" — as Nicky described her in his diary. Mercifully unaware of such remarks, she presented him with the Order of the Garter. Throughout this stay attention was constantly being drawn to the physical similarity between Nicky and his cousin "Georgie" — "l am getting quite tired of hearing the same thing all the time," Nicky protested. He greatly enjoyed this visit, however, and was sad to leave.

Alix and Nicky | Virginia Rounding

[lemonerix]

@usukweek

Day 3: Early morning // Historical AU

Who wouldn't be waking up with a smile on your face when you're waking up to someone you want to be with forever every morning?

[nedlittle]

every single word of this is like being shot in the head

[a-ravens-hoard]

Devoтional Ring ✦ Source

[filmbropilled]

girl not me handcrafting this meme right before class

[ltwilliammowett]

The wooden walls of England, by Patrick O’Brien (1960-)

[thewales-family]

The Princess of Wales visits an 'Action For Children' mother and baby unit at HMP Styal, a prison and young offender institution in Wilmslow, England -February 11th 2025.