Fun little video from The New York Times: the Lewis Chess Set at the Cloisters.

See also a cool slideshow here.

The British Library is making an effort to buy the earliest extant European book: see British Library launches bid to save St Cuthbert Gospel at the BBC website. Otherwise, it will be auctioned to the highest bidder.

I wish the little video showed the manuscript text more, but it's not even a minute and a half; do take a look.

Here's an awesome little video showing a little bit of the digitization work the University of Kentucky has been doing on the St. Chad Gospels, with the cooperation of Lichfield Cathedral. It's just over two minutes. Gorgeous! ( Embedded video under the cut )

"Ancient boat discovered on Norfolk Broads", Archaeology Daily. I will be quite interested to hear what more they discover about it!

Watch this audio slideshow on the Parker Library from the BBC; it's a little over four minutes and gives a better look at the manuscript I used in my icon here (Parker 286-the Augustine Gospels), as well as several other manuscripts.

The Roskilde Museum has a little video of a tiny figurine they think represents Odin. I've had this up on my ( Read more... )

I thought I had posted about the original find last summer, but either I failed to tag it or I simply forgot to post and thought I had (very likely).

As you'll see in the story, a mass grave was found last summer, and the murdered or executed men were thought to be Vikings. "Weymouth ridgeway skeletons 'Scandinavian Vikings'" confirms the ( Read more... )

You can read a lovely (though poorly titled, as a colleague observed) article on the wonderful Dictionary of Old English here, online at Humanities magazine. The DOE is a thing of beauty and a joy that grows with each letter we receive. Would that it were free so that I could share it with you all! Alas, it is by subscription only.

However, The ( Read more... )

library-keeper has an entry on the round table on Beowulf. I wish I could have attended! I have seen Benjamin Bagby perform, and I highly recommend it. I've also seen Seamus Heaney read, including from his translation of Beowulf, and while it's not the translation I recommend for getting the best sense of the poem one can get in Modern English, Heaney is well ( Read more... )

They may have found the grave of Queen Eadgyth, daughter of Edward the Elder and granddaughter of Alfred the Great! I'll be very curious to see whether they can indeed identify the bones as belonging to someone from Wessex.

From abyssinia4077, Five Questions Meme

Leave me a comment saying "Resistance is Futile."
I'll respond by asking you five questions so I can satisfy my curiosity.
Update your journal with the answers to the questions.
Include this explanation in the post and offer to ask other people questions. ( Below the cut because I'm not brief )