Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic

Want to know more about the peoples of Britain?

Information and resources are available on our web site for teachers and students of the Viking Age (including the OCR A-Level course “The Viking Age”). It covers the history, society and culture of the Scandinavian peoples and their engagement with Britain and Ireland during the period 793-1066.

2020-21 teaching update for current students and offer holders

Owing to the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, and in the light of government guidance, some changes will be made to the mode of delivery of some teaching in the Department of ASNC in the academic year 2020-21... Read more

ASNC Online Open Day 2021

This year's Open Day on 30th June will take the form of a 90-minute Zoom event, which will introduce you to the tripos and the full range of papers on offer. A Q&A session will cover admissions, careers, and student life. Full event times and booking details will be available shortly.

Graduate Admissions

The ASNC Department offers a 9-month research-preparation MPhil course and a three-year PhD. It has a lively graduate community with students pursuing research topics in all areas covered by the teaching and research interests of the Department, covering early medieval languages and literatures (Old English, Old Norse, Medieval Welsh, Medieval Irish, Insular Latin), the history of a comparable range of geographical areas (Anglo-Saxon England, Scandinavia, Ireland, Wales, Brittany, and Scotland), as well palaeography.

In the 2014 Research Excellence Framework (REF), the Department, assessed jointly with the Department of Modern and Medieval Languages and Linguistics (MML), was rated in the highest terms. Within the Modern Languages and Linguistics Unit of Assessment, ASNC and MML were ranked top among Departments teaching both languages and literatures nationally. Further information about research in Modern and Medieval Languages and Linguistics is available here.

Undergraduate Admissions

The BA in Anglo-Saxon Norse and Celtic at Cambridge is unique (both in Britain and Ireland and indeed in the world!) in offering a degree in which students can combine a passion for early medieval history with a love of languages and literature, while also ranging across the cultures of early Britain, Ireland and Scandinavia, in any combination they choose.