Research Projects
The Department of ASNC is currently associated with a number of major research projects:
Converting the Isles
'Converting the Isles' is a Leverhulme International Research Network for investigating Conversion to Christianity comparatively in Britain, Ireland, Scandinavia and Iceland in the early and central middle ages. This interdisciplinary network brings together historians, archaeologists and literary scholars committed to researching social, economic, and cultural aspects of conversion. The core of the network's activities will consist of a series of colloquia held at different universities in Britain and Ireland. An interactive website is in the making, which will contain extensive materials relating to the topic and will serve as a platform for disseminating the network's contributions. Meanwhile, please visit our website.
The Early Irish Glossaries Project
A three year project to edit the early Irish glossaries funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) began in Cambridge on 1 July 2006 under the direction of Dr Paul Russell assisted by Dr Sharon Arbuthnot and Padraic Moran. An important but under-used resource for our understanding of the literary and cultural environment of medieval Ireland, the series of three inter-related Irish glossaries, conventionlly known as Sanas Cormaic ‘Cormac’s Glossary’, O’Mulconry’s Glossary and Dúil Dromma Cetta ‘the Collection of Druim Cett’ consist of alphabetically listed (first letter only) headwords followed by an entry which can range from a single word explanation, often an explanation of the headword, to a whole narrative running to several pages. Scholars still work with nineteenth-century editions of the first two; the last has yet to be fully edited. The aim of EIGP is to produce modern editions of these glossaries with translations and full commentary.
The Early Irish Glossaries Database (EIGD) is a pre-existing database. Currently it is possible to search it for headwords and create concordances of the glossaries. As part of EIGP, the database will be enhanced to include the text of the entries behind the headword; to see the text of an entry in any particular version, it will only be necessary to click on the headword. Ultimately, EIGP will produce a set of printed editions of the glossaries, while the diplomatic texts will be available on-line in EIGD.
PASE: Prosopography of Anglo-Saxon England
Dr Juliana Dresvina is working on the 'Prosopography of Anglo-Saxon England', or PASE. This project is creating a comprehensive, systematic, analytical and searchable register of all persons recorded in Anglo-Saxon England, in contemporary and later (mainly twelfth-century) sources; and it takes the form of an online database, linked to several other e-projects. It is carried out in association with the Department of History, King's College London, and the Centre of Computing in the Humanities, KCL, and has been funded since 2000 by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC). The research officer in ASNC for 'PASE 1' (covering the period c. 600 to 1042, but restricted to pre-Conquest sources) was Dr Francesca Tinti, who was with us from 2000 to 2005. 'PASE 2', covers the period 1042-c.1100, and extends the scope of PASE as a whole to include sources written in the late eleventh and twelfth centuries. The research officers in ASNC for PASE 2 have been Dr Andrew Bell (2005–6), Dr Natasha Hodgson (2006-7) and is now Dr Juliana Dresvina (2007-8).
To view the PASE website, please follow the link here.
The Revised Sawyer (catalogue of Anglo-Saxon charters)
An AHRC-funded project to revise Sawyer's definitive catalogue of Anglo-Saxon charters began in July 2003, with Dr Rebecca Rushforth as Research Associate. The catalogue is being revised and updated, for publication in book-form and also as part of the 'Electronic Sawyer', a database which is now accessible for browsing.
The Department is also associated with several other research projects, including Fontes Anglo-Saxonici and Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages.