Your Interests

A degree in Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic offers a wide range of choice, but essentially it gives you the opportunity to study the history and culture of the various peoples who inhabited Britain and Ireland and Scandinavia in the early Middle Ages. The peoples can be studied separately and in relation to each other. No previous knowledge of our subjects is required.

We hope that the information below will help you to form a good idea of the very distinctive nature of our course. If you can, please come to our Open Day. If you are particularly concerned about career prospects after such a course, read what some of our former students are doing here.

Ask yourself these questions:

  • Do you think you might be interested in the history and culture of some or all of the various peoples of the Britain and Ireland ((Welsh, Irish, Scots, and Anglo-Saxons) in the early Middle Ages?
  • Might you be interested in the vikings, and their exploits in Britain and Ireland as well as westwards to North America and eastwards into the Byzantine Empire?
  • Do you think you might be interested in learning more about the languages that these peoples spoke?
  • Would you like to know more about the literature that these peoples produced?
  • Do you think you would enjoy working extensively with original sources (works of literature, chronicles, documentary records, etc.), whether in translation or in the original language?
  • Do you like watching television programmes on ancient peoples and places?
  • Are you looking for the kind of course that will allow you to pursue your own interests and to develop skills relevant for a wide variety of careers (to be chosen at a later date)?
  • Would you like to be a member of a small and friendly department, as well as part of a large faculty?

If you have answered some or all of these questions in the affirmative, you might well enjoy studying our course.

If you choose this subject, you will find that you are able to pick and choose from a wide range of subjects (history papers, language and literature papers, and so on), in accordance with your particular strengths and interests, placing the emphasis of your studies where you please.