From Yuletide to Nativity Christmas in Early England

with Dr Sam Newton

at Tranmer House, Sutton Hoo (map)
on Saturday 8th December, 2007

We begin the day with a look at the Old English calendar, which reveals how the pre-Christian year was structured. We shall then consider how this calendar was transformed into the Christian year – how, for example, did Módra Niht, “Mothers’ Night” become Christmas Eve? We shall also consider some of the ways in which the feast of Yuletide and the legend of the Nativity came to be celebrated in England, using examples from Anglo-Saxon art and from Old and Middle English literature.

Dr Sam Newton is an independent historian who has lectured widely around the country as well as contributing to many television and radio programmes. In 1993 he published his first book, The Origins of Beowulf and the pre-Viking Kingdom of East Anglia, now in its fourth print run. His second book, The Reckoning of King Rædwald, was published in 2003. He is also a Director of Wuffing Education at Sutton Hoo and regular Time Team historian.

Alexander, M., The Earliest English Poems (Penguin Classics 1966)
Anderson, E.R., “The Seasons of the Year in Old English”Anglo-Saxon England 26 (1997), pp.321-263.
Barron, W.R.J. (ed. & tr.), Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: text and facing translation (Manchester 1974).
Bengtsson, Frans G., The Long Ships, trans. M.Meyer (London 1954, 1956).
Ellis Davidson, H., The Lost Beliefs of Northern Europe (Routledge 1993)
Harrison, K., The Framework of Anglo-Saxon History to AD900 (Cambridge 1976), pp.1-14.
Hutton, R., The Stations of the Sun: A History of the Ritual Year in Britain (Oxford 1996).
Mitchell, B., An Invitation to Old English and Anglo-Saxon England (Blackwell 1994).
Tolkien, J.R.R. (tr), Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and Sir Orfeo, ed. C.Tolkien (Unwin 1975).
Wilson, R., The Lost Literature of Medieval England (Methuen 1952, 1970)

Bookings

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