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The Idea of Anglo‐Saxon England 1066–1901 The Idea of Anglo‐Saxon England 1066–1901 Remembering, Forgetting, Deciphering, and Renewing the Past John D. Niles This edition first published 2015 © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Registered Office John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 8SQ, UK Editorial Offices 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148‐5020, USA 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford, OX4 2DQ, UK The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 8SQ, UK For details of our global editorial offices, for customer services, and for information about how to apply for permission to reuse the copyright material in this book please see our website at www.wiley.com/wiley‐blackwell. The right of John D. Niles to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, except as permitted by the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, without the prior permission of the publisher. Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats. Some content that appears in print may not be available in electronic books. Designations used by companies to distinguish their products are often claimed as trademarks. All brand names and product names used in this book are trade names, service marks, trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners. The publisher is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book. Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: While the publisher and author have used their best efforts in preparing this book, they make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this book and specifically disclaim any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. It is sold on the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering professional services and neither the publisher nor the author shall be liable for damages arising herefrom. If professional advice or other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent professional should be sought. Library of Congress Cataloging‐in‐Publication Data Niles, John D., author. The idea of Anglo-Saxon England 1066–1901 : remembering, forgetting, deciphering, and renewing the past / John D. Niles. pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-118-94332-8 (cloth) 1. Anglo-Saxons–Historiography. 2. English philology–Old English, ca. 450-1100–History. 3. Great Britain–History–Anglo-Saxon period, 449-1066–Historiography. I. Title. DA129.5.N55 2015 942.01072–dc23 2015008734 A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Cover image: Statue of King Alfred the Great, Winchester, 1901. Photograph by the author. Set in 10/12.5pt Galliard by SPi Global, Pondicherry, India 1 2015 Contents List of Vignettes vi Preface and Acknowledgements vii Abbreviations xiii List of Figures xv 1 The Impact of the Norman Conquest 1 2 The Discovery of Anglo‐Saxon England in Tudor Times 49 3 British Antiquaries and the Anglo‐Saxon Past 77 4 The Founding of a Discipline 1600–1700 109 5 A Period of Consolidation 1700–1800 147 6 The Romantics and the Discovery of Old English Verse 186 7 The Triumph of Philology 220 8 Old English Studies in North America 265 9 Anglo‐Saxon England and the Empire 302 Afterword 378 Some Landmark Publications 381 Works Cited 395 Index 415 List of Vignettes After Chapter 1 1 Was that ‘Old English’ you said, or ‘Anglo‐Saxon’? 29 2 Is the term ‘Anglo‐Saxon’ actually Anglo‐Saxon? 32 3 The Tremulous Hand of Worcester 35 4 Henry of Huntingdon’s bad day 39 After Chapter 2 5 Archbishop Parker’s ambivalence towards the Anglo‐Saxon church 71 After Chapter 3 6 Richard Verstegan’s lively imagination 96 7 Did Milton draw on Genesis B for his portrait of Satan? 100 After Chapter 4 8 L’Isle’s backward‐looking book 135 9 Somner’s brave dictionary 139 After Chapter 5 10 Unriddling the runes 176 After Chapter 6 11 N.F.S. Grundtvig and the northern sublime 211 After Chapter 7 12 A tale of two editions 253 After Chapter 8 13 Thomas Jefferson and the teaching of Old English 292 After Chapter 9 14 Why did King Alfred burn the cakes? 356 15 Winchester 1901: The Empire goes Saxon 363 Preface and Acknowledgements For a number of centuries, the idea of Anglo‐Saxon England has haunted the imagination of the English people and of various other peoples of the world. It is an idea that has entered into legal, religious, and constitutional debates, has influenced historians, creative writers, and artists, has been etched into the intellectual history of the northern European countries, and has contributed to the sense of self‐worth and the perceived cultural heritage of virtually all those people of the world who identify with England or speak English as their native tongue. In these and in other ways, the idea of Anglo‐Saxon England has entered into the thought of successive generations, going far to define, at least in certain times and places, what ‘Englishness’ itself has been thought to mean. The idea is not, however, one that has been handed down from high as if by a divine hand. It has been created by a succession of thinkers, and hence it can be seen to be just as ephemeral, dynamic, multifaceted, con- tingent, and contested as is any other leading idea ever cultivated by humankind. The present book offers a step‐by‐step review of the chequered course taken by the idea of Anglo‐Saxon England, and by Anglo‐Saxon studies as a scholarly discipline, from the early Middle Ages up to the year 1901. That year has been found a suitable stopping point since it was both the date of the King Alfred Millenary held in the city of Winchester – arguably the high point in modern celebrations of the Anglo‐Saxons – and the year of Queen Victoria’s death, hence the end of a major era. The book pre- sents an account of how the Anglo‐Saxon past has entered into both scholarly and popular consciousness from the time of the Anglo‐Saxons themselves to the start of the twentieth century. Tracing the changing contours of this story has meant going well back in time, for even though certain scholars of the Elizabethan era are rightly credited with having been the first moderns to decipher Old English texts, it was during the viii Preface and Acknowledgements Middle Ages that the notion of Anglo‐Saxon identity was first shaped through select acts of remembering, forgetting, and renewing the past. The book as a whole aims to contribute to the understanding of the phe- nomenon of ‘Anglo‐Saxonism’, considered as both a focused scholarly enterprise and a broad cultural phenomenon that has persisted for roughly a thousand years, taking on different forms with each passing generation. The term ‘Anglo‐Saxonism’ perhaps deserves brief comment from the start. One leading scholar in this area, Allen J. Frantzen, has defined Anglo‐Saxonism as ‘the study of how Anglo‐Saxon culture has been used to promote social, intellectual, and political objectives in post‐Anglo‐ Saxon periods, and of how the Anglo‐Saxons have been represented in popular genres, including film and new media’ (Frantzen 2012: 11). So that the project of the present book is not misunderstood, I should make clear that my own employment of the term is somewhat broader than Frantzen’s, for I use it to refer to the ways in which the idea of Anglo‐ Saxon England has not only been used to promote certain objectives (or what are sometimes called ‘agendas’), but has also entered into the basic fabric of thought of succeeding generations. Perhaps controversially, as well, my chronological use of the term extends back to the time of the Anglo‐Saxons themselves, rather than just to the period since the Conquest. Moreover, I make no sharp distinction between scholarly and popular representations of the pre‐Conquest period, preferring to con- sider these two aspects of Anglo‐Saxonism as exerting mutual influences on one another in a single spectrum of perception and belief. Finally, my use of the term is meant to be neither pejorative nor commendatory; rather, I employ it for its pragmatic value, much as the term ‘medievalism’ is commonly used today. Proceeding in a roughly chronological order, though with some move- ment back and forth in time so as to trace each topic to a satisfactory rest- ing point, the nine chapters of the book review the historical stages by which the field of Anglo‐Saxon studies has emerged into something like its present form. The chief reason for this focus on the work of the scholars of earlier generations should perhaps be made explicit. This is that the better one understands the historical basis of any process, the more readily one can intervene in that process in a useful way. Researchers who are familiar with the historical bases of present‐day academic discourses are more likely to be aware of their own critical assumptions as well as those of their peers, and hence will be better situated to arrive at independent judgements. Persons who lack such historical awareness, on the other hand, are more likely to be captives of the trends of the moment. Preface and Acknowledgements ix Moreover, the story of how the field of Anglo‐Saxon studies gradually emerged into the form it has today is of interest in its own right.