Anglo-Saxon England (journal)

Contents

Anglo-Saxon England (journal) is a peer-reviewed annual publication devoted to scholarship on early medieval Britain and related areas. It presents research on figures such as Alfred the Great, Æthelflæd, Offa of Mercia and institutions like Lindisfarne and Canterbury Cathedral, while engaging with material culture from sites including Sutton Hoo, Winchester and Jarrow. The journal situates studies within wider networks linking Vikings, Carolingian Empire, Picts and Gaels and publishes scholarship relevant to archives such as the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and manuscripts like the Beowulf codex.

History

Founded in 1972, the journal emerged amid scholarly debates that involved institutions such as University of Cambridge, University of Oxford, Harvard University and the British Museum. Early editors collaborated with researchers connected to the Society for Medieval Archaeology, the British Academy and the Friends of the Ashmolean Museum. Over successive decades, contributors included specialists associated with projects at Lincoln Cathedral, York Minster, Exeter Cathedral and excavations at Yeavering, Cheddar Gorge and Glastonbury Abbey. The journal reflected methodological shifts influenced by scholars linked to the Bibliothèque nationale de France, Bodleian Library, Royal Society-affiliated historians, and comparative studies drawing on work from Harald Bluetooth-related Scandinavian archaeology, Ottonian studies and research prompted by discoveries at Hartlepool and Ripon.

Anglo-Saxon England covers interdisciplinary work on rulers such as King Ine of Wessex, Cnut, Edgar the Peaceful, Eadred and Eadwig, and on institutions like Westminster Abbey, Gloucester Cathedral and St Augustine's Abbey. It includes numismatic studies on coins of Aethelred II, palaeographical analysis of manuscripts like the Lindisfarne Gospels, and legal-historical work on codes such as King Ine's laws and the Laws of Æthelberht. Archaeological reports engage material from cemeteries at Spong Hill, hoards such as the Cuerdale Hoard and monumental sites including Stonehenge-adjacent landscapes and the royal site at Yeavering. Comparative papers link Anglo-Saxon topics to the Byzantine Empire, Islamic Caliphates, Frankish Kingdom, Kievan Rus' and material from Iona and Skellig Michael.

The journal is edited by an editorial board composed of academics from institutions such as King's College London, University College London, the University of Nottingham, University of Edinburgh and the University of Toronto. Published annually by Cambridge University Press in association with medieval study societies like the International Medieval Congress organizers and the Royal Historical Society, it issues volumes that combine monographs, essays and review articles. Submission guidelines require anonymous peer review by experts affiliated with libraries such as the British Library, archives like the National Archives (United Kingdom), and departments at the University of Manchester, Queen's University Belfast, Durham University and University of Birmingham. Back issues are held in repositories including the National Library of Scotland, the Wellcome Collection and the Newberry Library.

Contents are indexed in major bibliographic services and databases that serve medievalists and historians, used by researchers from institutions like Princeton University, Yale University, Cornell University and the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales. Citation tracking involves tools utilized by teams at Stanford University and Columbia University, and the journal is discoverable via catalogues maintained by the JSTOR platform, subject collections in the HathiTrust Digital Library and union catalogs shared with the Bibliothèque nationale de France and the Library of Congress.

Scholars from research centers including Institute of Historical Research, Trinity College Dublin, Leiden University and Heidelberg University regard the journal as central to debates over chronologies like those in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and interpretive frameworks for sites such as Sutton Hoo and Glastonbury Abbey. Its articles have influenced exhibitions at the Museum of London, the Viking Ship Museum, Oslo, the Ashmolean Museum and the National Museum of Scotland, and informed conservation projects at Winchester Cathedral and St Paul's Cathedral. The journal has shaped curricula at departments including University of Leeds, University of York and University of St Andrews and contributed to international collaborations with museums like the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Rijksmuseum.

Notable contributions address topics connected to personalities and artifacts such as Bede, Alcuin, the Shaftesbury Abbey charters, the Domesday Book-precursors, analyses of the Matilda of Flanders lineage, and archaeological syntheses involving Gokstad and Oseberg finds. Special issues have assembled work on themes linking Viking Age interactions, Carolingian correspondence with figures like Charlemagne, manuscript traditions involving Ælfric of Eynsham, and legal culture exploring the Laws of Alfred. Contributors have included researchers tied to the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, the Courtauld Institute of Art, the Institut de Recherche et d'Histoire des Textes and field teams from excavations at Hamwic, Lyminge and Torksey.

Category:Medieval studies journals Category:Academic journals established in 1972