Major Public Lectures

The H.M. Chadwick Lectures, the Kathleen Hughes Memorial Lectures and the E.C. Quiggin Memorial Lectures all take place annually. Details on past and upcoming events can be found on the Public Named Lectures events page.

Booklets based on these lectures are available to purchase through the department. As of 2022, selected titles in each series are also available to download for free.

Titles available to download for free:

H.M. Chadwick Lectures

Hector Munro Chadwick (1870-1947) was the Elrington and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon in the University of Cambridge (1912-41). The Department of ASNC, which owes its existence and its own interdisciplinary outlook to H.M. Chadwick, wished to commemorate his enduring contribution to Anglo-Saxon studies by establishing an annual series of lectures in his name. The H.M. Chadwick Memorial Lecture (established in 1990) is delivered by a scholar who is invited to Cambridge for the occasion, on a subjected calculated to be of interest to the whole Department.

• 1990, D. A. Bullough: Friends, Neighbours and Fellow-drinkers: Aspects of Community and Conflict in the Early Medieval West. 27pp. ISBN 978-0- 9517339-0-5
• 1991, Bruce Mitchell: H. M. Chadwick, the Study of Anglo-Saxon: Fifty Years On. 25pp. ISBN 978-0-9517339-1-2
• 1992, Pádraig Ó Riain: Anglo-Saxon Ireland: the evidence of the Martyrology of Tallaght. 22pp. ISBN 978-0-9517339-2-9
• 1993, Gad Rausing: Emperors and popes, kings and bishops: Scandinavian history in the 'Dark Ages'. 31pp. ISBN 978-0-9517339-3-6
• 1994, Peter Sawyer: Scandinavians and the English in the Viking Age. 24pp. ISBN 978-0-9517339-4-3
• 1995, Daniel Huws: Five Ancient Books of Wales. 23pp. ISBN 978-0-9517339- 5-0
• 1996, Isabel Henderson: Pictish Monsters: Symbol, Text and Image. 52pp. ISBN 978-0-9517339-6-7
• 1998, Donald Scragg: Dating and Style in Old English Composite Homilies. 24pp. ISBN 978-0-9532697-1-6
• 1999, Marged Haycock: 'Where cider ends, There ale begins to reign': drink in medieval Welsh poetry. 29pp. ISBN 978-0-9532697-2-3
• 2000, Andrew Wawn: ‘Fast er drukkið og fátt lært’: Eiríkur Magnússon, Old Northern Philology, and Victorian Cambridge. 32pp. ISBN 978-0-9532172-3-6
• 2001, Richard Gameson: The Scribe Speaks? Colophons in Early English Manuscripts. 52pp + 10 pls. ISBN 978-0-9532172-7-4
• 2002, James Graham-Campbell: Pictish Silver: Status and Symbol. 40pp (incl.
  13 plates). ISBN 978-0-9532697-5-4
• 2003, Malcolm Godden: The translations of Alfred and his circle, and the misappropriation of the past. 28pp. ISBN 978-1-904708-02-5
• 2004, Peter Foote: The Early Christian Laws of Iceland: Some Observations. 24pp. ISBN 978-1-904708-12-4
• 2005, Patrick Sims-Williams: The Iron House in Ireland. 31pp. ISBN 978-0- 9532172-6-7
• 2006, Dennis Green: A room of their own? Women readers in the Middle Ages. 19pp. ISBN 978-0-9554568-1-7
• 2008, Sverre Bagge: Order, Disorder and Disordered Order: Interpretations of the World and Society from the Pagan to the Christian Period in Scandinavia. 30pp. ISBN 978-09554568-4-8
• 2009, Katherine O'Brien O'Keeffe: Stealing Obedience: Narratives of Agency in Later Anglo-Saxon England. 22pp. ISBN 978-09554568-9-3
• 2010, Joseph Falaky Nagy: Mercantile Myth in Medieval Celtic Traditions. 19pp ISBN 978-0-9562353-6-7
• 2011, Wendy Davies: Water Mill and Cattle Standards: Probing the Economic Comparison between Ireland and Spain in the Early Middle Ages. 28pp ISBN 978-09571862-7-9
• 2012, Michael Lapidge: H.M. Chadwick: A Centennial Commemoration. 20pp. ISBN 978-0-9571862-5-5
• 2013, John Blair: The British Culture of Anglo-Saxon Settlement. 39pp. ISBN 978-0-9571862-9-3
• 2014, Margaret Clunies Ross: The Cult of Othin and the Pre-Christian Religions of the North. 16pp. ISBN 978-1-909106-03-1
• 2015, Catherine McKenna: ‘Py Ganwyf?’ Some Terminology for Poetry in Twelfth- and Thirteenth-Century Wales. 28pp. ISBN 978-1-909106 09 3
• 2016, Susan Irvine: Uncertain Beginnings: The Prefatory Tradition in Old English. 25pp. ISBN 978-1-909106-14-7
• 2017, Anthony Harvey and Philip Durkin: Spoken Through: How Scholarly Dictionaries Mediate the Past. 34pp. ISBN 978-1-909106-18-5
• 2018, Gregory Toner: Manifestations of Sovereignty in Medieval Ireland. 48pp. ISBN 978-1-909106-21-5
• 2019, Judith Jesch: The Poetry of Orkneyinga Saga. 25pp. ISBN 978-1-909106253
• 2020, Sarah Foot: Why were there no Martyrs in the Early English Church. 62pp. ISBN 978-1-909106-27-7

Kathleen Hughes Memorial Lectures

In 2000, as a result of a benefaction, Hughes Hall, Cambridge, instituted an annual lecture (to be given in the Easter Term) in memory of Dr Kathleen Hughes, who at her death in 1977 was Reader in Celtic Studies in this Department. Up until 2003, the focus of the series was mediaeval Welsh history; since then it has been any aspect of the history taught in the Department.

• 2001, David N. Dumville: Saint David of Wales. iv+41pp. ISBN 978-0-9532172- 4-3
• 2002, David Stephenson: The Aberconwy Chronicle. iv+19pp. ISBN 978-0- 9532697-9-2
• 2003, R. R. Davies: The King of England and the Prince of Wales, 1277-84: Law, Politics and Power. iv+23pp. ISBN 978-0-9543186-9-7
• 2004, Scott Gwara: Education in Wales and Cornwall in the Ninth and Tenth Centuries: Understanding De raris fabulis. iv+37pp. ISBN 978-1-904708-04-9
• 2005, Ken Dark: Archaeology and the origins of Insular monasticism. 27pp. ISBN 978-1-904708-15-5
• 2008, Paul Russell: 'Read it in a Glossary': Glossaries and Learned Discourse in Medieval Ireland. 32pp. ISBN 978-0-9554568-6-2
• 2009, Oliver Padel: Slavery in Saxon Cornwall: the Bodmin Manumissions. 33pp. ISBN 978-0-9562353-0-5
• 2010, Colmán Etchingham: The Irish 'Monastic Town': Is This A Valid Concept? 32pp. ISBN 978-0-9562353-1-2
• 2012, Marie Therese Flanagan: Reform in the Twelfth-century Irish Church: A Revolution of Outlook? 48 pp. ISBN 978-09571862-8-6
• 2012, Thomas Charles-Edwards: St Patrick and the Landscape of Early Christian Ireland. 43pp. ISBN 978-0-9571862-1-7
• 2013, Alex Woolf: The Churches of Pictavia 17pp. ISBN 978-0-9571862-6-2
• 2013, Robert Bartlett: Gerald of Wales and the Ethnographic Imagination 20pp. ISBN 978-1-909106-00-0
• 2015, Nancy Edwards: The Early Medieval Sculpture of Wales: Text, Pattern and Image. 40pp. ISBN 978-1-909106-05-5
• 2016, James. E. Fraser: Iona and the Burial Places of the Kings of Alba. 31pp. ISBN 978-1-909106-10-9
• 2017, Julia M.H. Smith: Relics and the Insular World. 52pp. ISBN 978-1-909106-15-4
• 2018, Elva Johnston: When Worlds Collide? Pagans and Christians in Late Antique Ireland. 42pp. ISBN 978-1-909106-20-8
• 2019, David N. Parsons: Warning: May Contain Saints. Place-names as Evidence for the Church in Early Wales. 39pp. ISBN 978-1-909106-23-9
• 2020, Jacopo Bisagni: From Atoms to the Cosmos: The Irish Tradition of the Divisions of Time in the Early Middle Ages. 129pp. ISBN 978-1-909106-24-6
• 2022, Caroline Brett: ‘You read it here first’: Early Traditions of Welsh Saints in Brittany. 53pp. ISBN 9781-909106-30-7

E. C. Quiggin Memorial Lectures

Edmund Crosby Quiggin (1875-1920) was the first teacher of Celtic in the University of Cambridge. The Department has wished to commemorate Dr Quiggin’s contribution by establishing in his name, and with the support of his family, an annual lecture and a series of pamphlets. The E. C. Quiggin Memorial Lecture (established in 1993) is delivered by a scholar invited to Cambridge for the occasion. Up until 2004, the focus of the series was The Sources of Mediaeval Gaelic history; since 2006 it has been any aspect of the philology and the textual culture of the Celtic and Germanic languages and literatures taught in the Department.

• 1994, John Carey: The Irish National Origin-Legend: Synthetic Pseudohistory. 28 pp. ISBN 978-0-9517339-8-1
• 1995, Dauvit Broun: The Charters of Gaelic Scotland and Ireland in the Early and Central Middle Ages. ISBN 978-0-9517339-9-8
• 1997, David N. Dumville: Councils and Synods of the Gaelic Early and Central Middle Ages. 62 pp. ISBN 978-0-9532172-0-5
• 1999, T. M. Charles-Edwards: The Early Mediaeval Gaelic Lawyer.73 pp. ISBN 978-0-9532172-1-2
• 2002, John Hines: Old-Norse Sources for Gaelic History.37 pp. ISBN 978-0-9543186-3-5
• 2003, Pádraig P. Ó Néill: Biblical Study and Mediaeval Gaelic History. 48 pp. ISBN 978-1-904708-00-1
• 2004, Tadhg O'Keefe: The Gaelic Peoples and their Archaeological Identities, A.D. 1000-1650.41 pp. ISBN 978-1-904708-10-0
• 2007, Dáibhí Ó Cróinín: The Kings Depart: The Prosopography of Anglo-Saxon Royal Exile in the Sixth and Seventh Centuries.25 pp. ISBN 978-0-9554568-2-4
• 2008, Eriche Poppe: Of Cycles and Other Critical Matters. Some Issues in Medieval Irish Literary History and Criticism.63 pp. ISBN 978-0-9554568-5-5
• 2008, Henrik Williams: Rune-stone Inscriptions and Queer Theory. 17 pp.ISBN 978-0-9554568-7-9
• 2010, Uáitéar Mac Gearailt: On the Date of the Middle Irish Recension II Táin Bó Cúailnge. 33 pp. ISBN 978-0-9562353-2-9
• 2010, Carole Hough: Toponymicon and Lexicon in North-West Europe: 'Ever-Changing Connection'. 24 pp. ISBN 978-0-9562353-3-6
• 2011, Liam Breatnach: On the Early Irish Law Text Senchas Már and the Question of its Date.48 pp. ISBN 978-0-9562353-9-8
• 2012, Odd Einar Haugen: 'So that the writing may be less and quicker, and the parchment last longer': The Orthographic Reform of the Old Icelandic First Grammatical Treatise. 23 pp. ISBN 978-0-9571862-4-8
• 2013, Ruairí Ó hUiginn: Marriage, Law and Tochmarc Emire. 54 pp. ISBN 978-1-909106-01-7
• 2014, Mark Stansbury: Iona Scribes and the Rhetoric of Legibility. 43 pp. ISBN 978-1-909106-02-4
• 2015, Matthew Townend: Antiquity of Diction in Old English and Old Norse Poetry. 22pp. ISBN 978-1909106-08-6
• 2016, Lars Boje Mortensen: Meritocratic Values in High Medieval Literature? 17pp. ISBN 978-1-909106-12-3
• 2017, Dafydd Johnston: Language Contact and Linguistic Innovation in the Poetry of Dafydd ap Gwilym. 21pp. ISBN 978-1-909106-16-1
• 2018, Pierre-Yves Lambert: Manuscripts with Old Breton Glosses. 43pp. ISBN 978-1-909106-19-2
• 2019, William Ian Miller: Of Cursing, prophesying, advising, and anxieties of causation: Laxdæla saga ch. 75 and beyond. 25pp. ISBN 978-1909106-26-0
• 2020, Kees Dekker, Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic in the Works of Francis Junius (1591-1677)
• 2021, Ralph O'Connor, The Music of what happens: Narrative terminology and the Gaelic and Norse-Icelandic saga
• 2022, Daniel Donoghue, Lawman's Last Words. 24pp. 978-1-909106-35-2