Episode #53: England Before the Norman Invasion

Synopsis As good students of history, you already know that all-important date in British history: 1066, aka the Norman Invasion. But what happened in England before then? From the Romans through to Alfred the Great, join Em and Jesse as they talk about a whole bunch of kings, kingdoms, Vikings, and Monty Python. Annotations 1/ 1066 and All That: A Memorable History of England, Comprising All the Parts You Can Remember, Including 103 Good Things, 5 Bad Kings, and 2 Genuine Dates is indeed a real book. It was written by WC Sellar and RJ Yeatman, illustrated by John Reynolds, and first appeared in Punch magazine. As someone who has come across a lot of old Punch comics in my time doing research, I will say they’re a bit…conservative (or at least they were from 1841–at least 1900 or so). But the book is funny. 2/ Arthur, King of the Britons from Monty Python scene at 0:48 https://youtu.be/ITJFfUptaGo (also includes the coconuts and swallows!) 3/ Constantine (c272–22 May 337) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constantine_the_Great 4/ Boudicca (Queen of the Iceni, led a revolt against the Romans in 60/61 CE) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boudica 5/ Romans leave early in the 400s CE and the Angles, the Saxons, and the Jutes arrive. 6/ The episode in which we discussed the Cornish World Play was…episode 1? 7/ The first Archbishop of Canterbury, Augustine, becomes Archbishop in 597 CE https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augustine_of_Canterbury 8/ The Venerable Bede (c.672/3–735) was mentioned in episode 4, note 20. “Venerable” is like an official title given to him by god, not just a description. Notice they didn’t decide to call him the Veritas Bede. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bede (Sorry, that was uncalled for.) 9/ Cuthbert (c.634–687) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuthbert 10/ The Lindisfarne Gospels! https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/lindisfarne-gospels View the actual scanned manuscript here. [Check it out!! The “carpet” pages are famously gorgeous!! The carpet pages are called carpet pages because of their resemblance to Eastern carpets (from the Eastern Mediterranean and North Africa and possibly textiles from even further east thanks to the Silk Road). –Jesse] 11/ Essex https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Essex Sussex https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sussex Mercia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercia 12/ Offa (king 757–his death in 796CE) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Offa_of_Mercia 13/ The Carolingians. Inventors of the script known as Carolingian Miniscule. (This may or may not be true.) [Well, the script was probably invented near Paris and perfected by Alcuin of York and widely used in the so-called Carolingian Renaissance in the 8th–9th centuries CE. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carolingian_minuscule –Jesse] For more on the Carolingian Empire see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carolingian_Empire 14/ Sutton Hoo: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sutton_Hoo buried in the 6th/7th centuries, discovered in 1938. 15/ Beowulf! 8th century, maybe later. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beowulf This podcast endorses the Maria Headley translation. Go read it. For real. Go now. https://www.amazon.com/Beowulf-Translation-Maria-Dahvana-Headley/dp/0374110034 16/ Raedwald of East Anglia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R%C3%A6dwald_of_East_Anglia East Anglia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Anglia 17/ The Sutton Hoo helmet is on the Stephen Mitchell translation, e.g. Here is the Sutton Hoo helmet info: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sutton_Hoo_helmet Original helmet: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sutton_Hoo_helmet#/media/File:Sutton_Hoo_helmet_2016.png Replica helmet: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rædwald_of_East_Anglia#/media/File:Sutton_Hoo_helmet_(replica).jpg 18/ Netflix’s The Dig: https://www.netflix.com/title/81167887 Basil Brown did begin the dig for Edith Pretty, but they didn’t have some kind of romance as implied in the trailer. [Yeah, but Ralph Fiennes plays him in the film, so… –Jesse] 19/ The Danelaw https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danelaw 20/ Wessex https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wessex 21/ Alfred the Great (848/849–899) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_the_Great Jesse: Quite enjoyably, the video game Assassin’s Creed Valhalla [SPOILER SPOILER] centers on Norse Vikings who conquer portions of England. While the history most commonly taught in England (and the US/Canada/Australia/etc.) views the Vikings as interlopers and Alfred the Great as a hero who united England, in AC Valhalla Alfred is the main villain. Good times. 22/ The Glorious Revolution was when the British got sick of Charles II, chucked him out, and invited William and Mary of Orange to “invade,” whereupon they became William III and Mary II. Also this triggered a lot of political unrest in Scotland (see also Outlander and The Baroque Cycle for different takes on this). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glorious_Revolution 23/ Technically, because the British Empire still contains 14 overseas territories, the sun still does not set on it. [I think this will change in the next few years. –Jesse] 24/ Canadians protesting the deaths of Indigenous children toppled statues of Queens Victoria and Elizabeth II https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jul/02/queen-victoria-statue-toppled-in-canada-amid-anger-at-deaths-of-indigenous-children The Queen Victoria statue cannot be restored but the Queen Elizabeth statue can be and will be (and put back on display). https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/queen-victoria-statue-not-repairable-manitoba-legislature-1.6498031 Em: Ideally they would replace them with statues of Freddie Mercury. Jesse: The Pope is about to apologize to Canada for the residential schools that forcibly erased Indigenous culture and identity through violent assimilation, abuse, and the burial in unmarked graves of thousands of children who died due to the horrific conditions. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/24/world/canada/pope-francis-apology-canada-indigenous.html A really long time ago I (Em) made my now-husband sit through a Canadian art house film about Winnipeg. It was like our third date. And that is why I laughed about the city.