Several years ago I worked at the Tower of London. Spending long periods of time within a building of such age, I would often start to wonder about how the area would have looked before the castle was built. Every morning I would pass the remains of Roman walls at Tower Bridge station, walls thatContinue reading “The Vikings are coming …”
Category Archives: Vikings
The Battle of Ashdown in Medieval Warfare
A few weeks ago, I had an article titled The Battle of Ashdown: Victory, battlefield, and the language of war published in Medieval Warfare magazine. The theme of the issue is Alfred the Great and the Great Heathen Army and thus coincides neatly with my own area of academic interest. The publication is not scholarly,Continue reading “The Battle of Ashdown in Medieval Warfare”
Book Reviews: Alfred’s Wars and Viking Warfare
Two reviews (by me) of titles published in the last couple of years on the subject of early medieval warfare can now be read online. The first is a review of Ryan Lavelle’s Verbruggen-prize-winning Alfred’s Wars: Sources and Interpretations of Anglo-Saxon Warfare in the Viking Age (Boydell 2010) which, apart from its slightly misleading titleContinue reading “Book Reviews: Alfred’s Wars and Viking Warfare”
Ringmere
Yesterday I visited the site that has long been associated with the Battle of Ringmere (as named by John of Worcester and called Hringmaraheiðr in various Norse saga accounts which include some fascinating contemporary skaldic verse relating to the battle). The connection of the battle to a remarkable geological feature – Ringmere – on WrethamContinue reading “Ringmere”
Ethandune, that savage and sacred spot
In the last few weeks I have been considering the location of the iconic battle of Ethandune for a chapter submitted for inclusion in an edited volume of essays on the ‘Danes in Wessex’ (Lavelle and Roffey (eds.) forthcoming). Whilst poking about in the literature, I came across the following lines written by G.K.Chesterton andContinue reading “Ethandune, that savage and sacred spot”
THOMAS J. T. WILLIAMS 