Portal:Anglo-Saxon England/Did you know/archive


 * ...that the ammonite genus Hildoceras takes its name from Hilda of Whitby? (archived 12/3/2012)
 * ...that reclamation of the flooded parts of York were initiated in the 7th century by Edwin of Northumbria, when it became his chief city? (archived 12/1/2012)
 * ...that the combined reigns of Ealdwulf of East Anglia and his son Ælfwald, with barely any record of external military action or internal dynastic strife, represented 85 years of peaceful stability for the Kingdom of East Anglia? (archived 11/28/2012)
 * ...that the foundations of a nave and chancel partly underneath the present-day Rochester Cathedral may date from beginning of the 7th century, when Æthelberht of Kent built Justus a cathedral church in Rochester? (archived 11/25/2012)
 * ...that the population of Britain may have decreased after the Roman period by between 1.5 and 3 million people? (archived 11/23/2012)
 * ...that after the Battle of Hastings in 1066, Harold's mother Gytha offered the victorious Duke William the weight of her son's body in gold for its custody, but her offer was refused? (archived 11/22/2012)
 * ...that Eadwig Ætheling, the last surviving son by the first marriage of Æthelred the Unready, was exiled in 1017, but returned and was murdered by Canute? (archived 11/22/2012)
 * ...that Ælfweard of Wessex succeeded his father Edward the Elder on 17 July 924, but then died 16 days later? (archived 11/21/2012)
 * ...that the Anglo-Saxons commonly wore hats and hoods, as well as gloves and mittens? (archived 11/20/2012)
 * ...that the Anglo-Saxon javelin, or angon, was specifically designed to be difficult to remove from either flesh or wood? (archived 11/19/2012)
 * ...that the image of Vikings wearing horned helmets stems from the scenography of an 1876 production of the Der Ring des Nibelungen opera cycle by Richard Wagner? (archived 11/18/2012)
 * ...that the Staffordshire Hoard's official website received over 10 million views in the first week after the finds were first announced? (archived 11/17/2012)
 * ...that the god Woden is thought to be the precursor of the English Father Christmas? (archived 11/16/2012)
 * ...that the location of Dommoc, the original seat of the Anglo-Saxon bishops of the kingdom of East Anglia, is unknown? (archived 11/15/2012)
 * ...that in 787, Pope Hadrian I sent a pallium to Hygberht of Lichfield, so elevating Lichfield to an archbishopric? (archived 11/13/2012)
 * ...that the Benedictional of St. Æthelwold is a 10th century illuminated benedictional, the most important surviving work of the Anglo-Saxon Winchester School of illumination? (archived 11/12/2012)
 * ...that within the Laws of Ine of Wessex, the fine for neglecting fyrd, the obligation to do military service for the king, was set at 120 shillings for a nobleman? (archived 11/11/2012)
 * ...that the hero of the poem Beowulf was fostered and raised in the home of Hreðel when he was seven years old, after his father Ecgþeow died? (archived 11/10/2012)
 * ...that the name daisy is derived from its Old English meaning, dægesege, from dæges eage, meaning 'day's eye', and this was because the petals (of Bellis perennis) open at dawn and close at dusk? (archived 11/9/2012)


 * ...that the Annales Cambriae mentions a battle in 722 between the Britons of Cornwall and the West Saxons that took place at 'Hehil', and that the Britons won? (archived 11/8/2012)


 * ...that Saint Balthild, the queen of the Frankish king Clovis II, was originally from an elite Anglo-Saxon family, but was sold into slavery as a young girl? (archived 11/7/2012)


 * ...that the survival of gavelkind, an example of Anglo-Saxon customary law in England, occurred because of a concession by William the Conqueror to the people of Kent? (archived 11/6/2012)

...that among the words from Old English that have not survived is æppelfealu ('orange'), which literally means "apple-pale"? (archived 11/5/2012)

...that Wat's Dyke was originally a considerable construction and was considered to be more sophisticated than its near neighbour Offa's Dyke? (archived 11/4/2012)

''...that St Mary's Priory Church, Deerhurst, near Gloucester, is unusual in that it contains many elaborate Anglo-Saxon details, including carvings and sculpture? (archived 11/3/2012)''

...that the Old English poem Battle of Brunanburh seems to include a unique animal, the guþhafoc, or 'war-hawk', in line 64? (archived 11/2/2012)

''...that Stamford is the only one of the Five Boroughs that did not eventually become a county town? (archived 11/1/2012)''

...that the devastation in East Anglia that was caused by the Vikings is thought to have destroyed any books or charters that may have been kept there? (archived 10/30/2012)

''...that the Pencersæte were an Anglo-Saxon tribe who lived in the valley of the River Penk? (archived 10/29/2012)''

...that only two of the fully decorated pages survive of the Durham Gospels: a Crucifixion (the oldest in English art) and the initial to John the Apostle? (archived 10/28/2012)

...that J. R. R. Tolkien, one of many scholars who have studied and promoted the Mercian dialect of Old English, used a number of Mercian words into his trilogy The Lord of the Rings''? (archived 10/25/2012)''

...that according to a later continuation of Bede's Historia Ecclesiastica, when Æthelbald of Mercia was assassinated in 757, he was "treacherously murdered at night by his own bodyguards"? (archived 10/24/2012)

''...that in 978, at Calne in Wiltshire, some of Edward the Martyr's Witan were killed and others injured by the collapse of the floor of their meeting room? (archived 10/23/2012)''

...that during his tenure as archbishop, Mellitus supposedly performed a miracle in 623, when he was carried into the flames of a fire at Canterbury, upon which the wind changed direction, thus saving his church? (archived 10/22/2012)

...that one of the richest sagas to deal with Eric Bloodaxe and his affairs in England is the Egils saga''? (archived 10/16/2012)''

...that in Anglo-Saxon England, a 'leech' was not a bloodsucking worm, but referred to healers of any kind, all of whom practised magic and none of whom (according to the written records) were women? (archived 10/16/2012)

...that Henry of Huntingdon, in his Historia Anglorum'', described how when Siward, Earl of Northumbria was attacked by dysentery, he was afraid to be seen dying "like a cow" and so dressed in armour and held his weapons shortly before his death? (archived 10/14/2012)''

...that the Old English wyrd (formed from weorþan, meaning "to come to pass") developed to mean "having the power to control fate", as in the Weird Sisters or Fates, and then became the modern English weird? (archived 10/13/2012)

''...that at Spong Hill, the Anglo-Saxon cemetery site located at North Elmham in Norfolk, there is the largest Early Anglo-Saxon burial site ever excavated, containing within it 2259 cremations and 57 inhumations? (archived 10/11/2012)''

...that a 2004 diglossia model proposed that Old English emerged as the written language of the Anglo-Saxon period after they had settled in Britain, but a large portion of the population spoke a Celticised English which emerged in Middle English, following the Norman conquest and the overthrowing of the Anglo-Saxon elite? (archived 10/9/2012)

...that the early Anglo-Saxon settlement in the London area was not on the site of the abandoned Roman city, although the Roman city walls remained intact, but was a village and trading centre named Lundenwic'', established approximately 1 mile (1.6 km) to the west of Londinium? (archived 10/8/2012)''

...that between 1977 and 1985, during the most extensive archaeological investigation ever undertaken of a British parish church, 3,000 skeletons were removed from the site at St Peter's Church, Barton-upon-Humber, providing what has been described as "an osteological record unparalleled for any small town in England"? (archived 10/7/2012)

''...that on the death of Godwin, Earl of Wessex in 1053, his earldom passed to his son, who later became King Harold II and died at the Battle of Hastings in 1066? (archived 10/6/2012)''

...that, according to Abbo of Fleury (writing in the 10th century), when St Edmund was martyred, part of his ordeal was to be shot by the Vikings "with missiles, as if to amuse themselves, until he was all covered with their missiles as with bristles of a hedgehog, just as Sebastian was"? (archived 10/4/2012)

''...that numerous locations on the Wirral near Bromborough have been put forward as the site of the Battle of Brunanburh, including the Brackenwood Golf Course in Bebington? (archived 10/2/2012)''

...that Cædmon's Hymn, a nine-line alliterative vernacular praise poem in honour of God, is one of the earliest attested examples of Old English and is, with the runic Ruthwell Cross and Franks Casket inscriptions, one of three candidates for the earliest attested example of Old English poetry? (archived 10/1/2012)

''...that Cynethryth is the only Anglo-Saxon Queen consort in whose name coinage was definitely issued, a coinage that was unique in Anglo-Saxon England and indeed in Western Europe in this period? (archived 9/30/2012)''

...that, according to Bede, before the Battle of the Winwaed in 655, Oswiu of Northumbria prayed to God and promised to make his baby daughter a nun and grant twelve estates for the construction of monasteries if he was victorious? (archived 9/29/2012)

''...that in Anglo-Saxon tradition, peace-weavers were women who were married to a member of an enemy tribe for the purpose of establishing peace between feuding groups? (archived 9/28/2012)''

...that in Northumberland the Eider Duck is known as the Cuddy Duck, after St Cuthbert who protected them on the Farne Islands? (archived 9/24/2012)

''...that after the discovery of the Cuerdale Hoard in 1840, the treasure was quickly recovered by the landowner's bailiffs, ensuring it remained together, though the workmen who discovered it in a river embankment managed to keep a coin each? (archived 9/23/2012)''