Category Archives: Alfred the Great

“No Man Am I, You Look Upon a Woman”: Women in the Northern World

            I was 14 when I saw The Two Towers in the cinema, and I never forgot it. The narrative leads inexorably to the Rohirrim, who even then I recognised as something from England’s ancient past. They wore mail, fought with spears and round shields, lived in wooden halls and had fantastically Old English soundingContinue reading ““No Man Am I, You Look Upon a Woman”: Women in the Northern World”

Alfred the Great, King of Wessex

            In my final undergraduate year, I studied the work of JRR Tolkien, and it acted like a violent intellectual catalyst, for it was here that I first discovered Old English, Icelandic and Scandinavian literature, mythology, poetry and history. It was a gateway into a previously hidden world, and I was instantly hooked. I ransackedContinue reading “Alfred the Great, King of Wessex”