Memory, History, and the Anglo-Saxon Past in the Second Viking Age

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This project proposes to examine how writers made use of the past to create narratives about the present and the futurein the face of renewed Viking conquest from the late tenth century to the return of the native dynasty in 1042. It willinquire into how crisis and existential threat shaped the omission, repetition, or alteration of information over time, insources including the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, law-codes, and Encomium Emmae Reginae.The project will first surveyhistorical allusions and then explore specific references and beliefs central to the development of the period, includingdepictions of the settlement period, of the conversion, and of Viking attacks during Alfred's reign. Informed by culturalmemory studies, the aim would be to search for instances of resonance, emphasis, copying, and emulation, as well asevents which were avoided or elided. This research on the historical imaginary of people in late Anglo-Saxon writers hasthe potential to enhance scholarly understanding of why eleventh-century writers looked to the past during crisis, and towhat moments and meaning they drew from their history.