Talk:John of Wallingford (d. 1258)

Further material
I haven't yet been able to look at Vaughan's edition of the "Chronicle attributed to John of Wallingford", "Richard Vaughan (1958), The Chronicle Attributed to John of Wallingford, Camden Third Series 90, pp 1–74." nor (beyond the first page) at his paper on the material actually gathered by John himself, Richard Vaughan (1958), The Chronicle of John of Wallingford, English Historical Review, 73(286), pp 66–77. (JSTOR) Both of these may contain valuable further observations and assessments.

I've tried to chase down the precise reference for the Viking comb quotation, but haven't yet found it. From a quick look through Stevenson's translation, it doesn't seem to be there in the reign of Ethelred the Unready (nor indeed could I find the St Brice's Day Massacre at all), so this connection may have come from a conflation of two separate items, cf the page from the book by Sullivan (2012). It may be that Jones (1968) or Ambrosiani (1981) give a more detailed reference. Possibly it may have been something singled out in Vaughan's edition of the work (1958), that perhaps wasn't included in Gale's extracts. It would also be interesting to know if there is thought to be an earlier source behind the comment -- eg perhaps the Northumbrian chronicle of the period, now lost, that it is thought a copy of which might have been in the library of St Albans at the time. Jheald (talk) 13:18, 8 April 2014 (UTC)


 * The comb translation has done so much to damage the hygenic reputation of the Anglo-Saxons. It's so common to see online yet has absolutely no basis in historical fact at all. Alooulla (talk) 02:01, 14 January 2024 (UTC)