Wuffings

Friday 16th May 2025: A New Look at Old English Runes and Runelore – an online study-day with polymath and author Stephen Pollington looking anew at the way in which runic inscriptions enable insights into the world of the early English-speaking peoples.

Above: the gold ring inscribed with Old English runes from Kingmoor, Cumberland, now in the British Museum (drawing ©Lindsay Kerr ).

Friday 23rd May 2025: J.M.W. Turner’s East Anglian Watercolours – an online study-day with Dr Richard Hoggett FSA. To mark the 250th birthday of J.M.W. Turner, we shall examine a series of watercolours he made of sites along the East Anglian coast in the 1820s, including views of Orford (below), Aldeburgh, Dunwich, Lowestoft, Great Yarmouth and Happisburgh. These images capture East Anglia in Turner’s characteristic style and show us much about the beautiful landscape and wealth of historic buildings to be found along this outstanding stretch of coast.

Above: Turner’s painting of Orford Castle, c. 1824 (public domain image of the orginal, now part of the Tate Britain collection).

Friday 6th June 2025: Chivalry and Battles, 1513-1525 – a live study-morning with Dr Toby Capwell FSA in Suffolk’s Valley of the Kings looking at the arms and armour of England, Scotland, France, and the German Empire from the Battle of Flodden (1513) to the Battle of Pavia (1525) (below).

Above: The Siege and Battle of Pavia (24th February 1525) by a follower of Joachim Patnir (1530) (Wikipedia / Public Domain).

Friday 13th June 2025: The Forgotten History of St Botolph (Bótwulf) – an online study-day with Dr Sam Newton FSA on one of the most famous saints of medieval England. St Botolph (Old English Bótwulf) has left an impressive legacy with over 80 dedications in England and Scandinavia, yet his story is largely forgotten. So just before his festival in medieval church-calendars, we shall chart what we can of the history of Abbot Botolph and his cult.

Above: The former island-site of St Botolph’s minster at Iken Hoo, founded in 654 according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, at high tise on a still winter’s morning with the spritsail barge Cygnet sailing by (©Dr Sam Newton 12th January 2014).

Friday 27th June 2025: Tolkien, Beowulf, and Middle-Earth – an online study-day with Dr Sam Newton FSA. Tolkien’s lifelong love and study of the great Old English poem Beowulf became a major source of inspiration for episodes in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. We shall explore how Beowulf helps to amplify the significance of middle-earth itself and the depth of its history, the awesome reality of a dragon, the true majesty of an Old English king in his golden mead-hall, the power of ring-giving, the authenticity of the names of people and places, and the moving use of elegiac poetry.

Title-picture above: Sutton Hoo Barrow 6 (©Dr Sam Newton 15th May 2019). The rich red flowering sorrel grass covering the barrow recalls the little white flowers, simbelmynë, ‘ever-mind’, or ‘forget-me-not’, that grow on the barrows in The Lord of the Rings. Like the barrows that they adorn, they stand for “the preservation of the memory of ancient deeds and heroes in the expanse of years” (Tom Shippey, The Road to Middle-Earth [Harper-Collins 2005] p. 142).

– more events to be follow in the autumn –

 – click here for the full programme on Eventbrite –

– please note that these events are not recorded –

2. Weekly Morning Seminars in Sutton Hoo Studies 2025, live and online

3. If you wish to book me to deliver a lecture or study-day, click here for a selection of titles.

4. About Me and My Works

5. My Books: 

1. The Reckoning of King Rædwald (2003)

2. The Origins of Beowulf and the pre-Viking Kingdom of East Anglia (1993)

My more recent published papers, such as “The Forgotten History of St Bótwulf (Botolph)” (2016), can be downloaded from my page on Academia .