Yuletide to Nativity: Christmas in Early England - with Dr Sam Newton FSA

Title-picture above: mid-winter sunset over Sutton Hoo (©Dr Sam Newton 19th December 2015).

Yuletide to Nativity: Christmas in Early England - an online study-day with Dr Sam Newton FSA

We begin the day with a look at the Old English calendar, which we can reconstruct from the information provided by the early eighth-century Northumbrian scholar Bede in his work, De Temporum Ratione Liber, “Book on the Reckoning of Time”(see my graphic representation below). This indicates that the pre-Christian year was structured around the farming economy. It also appears to have been foundation for the Christian calendar among the English-speaking peoples. For example, in the old calendar, Christmas Eve was known as Módra Niht, ‘Mothers’ Night’. Was this because the old name referred to the longest night of the winter, out of which the new year was born? We shall explore this question.

We shall then consider what the evidence of archaeology shows us about the Old English Yuletide feast. Work on early the sites of early Anglo-Saxon mead-halls, especially the recent excavations at Rendlesham, show some of the locations of Yuletide feasts. Excavations of rich barrow-burials like Taplow, Sutton Hoo, and Prittlewell, which have revealed so much fine feasting gear, such as drinking horns and lyres, enable us to see the style with which the festival was celebrated.

We shall bring the often bare bones of the archaeology to life with the references to feasting in Old English, Old Norse, and Middle English sources.

Provisional Timetable

10.15–11.15: The Old English Calendar.

11.15-11.45: coffee break

11-45-12.45: The Yuletide Feast.

12.45-13.45: lunch break

13.45-c.15.00: Glæd Ġéol Eallum - Glad Yule to All!

About Dr Sam Newton FSA

Sam Newton was awarded his Ph.D at the University of East Anglia in 1991. He published his first book, The Origins of Beowulf and the pre-Viking Kingdom of East Anglia, in 1993, and his second, The Reckoning of King Rædwald, in 2003. He has also published several papers, some of which are available on his website or on Academia.

He has lectured widely around the country and abroad for over thirty years and has contributed to many radio and television programmes, especially Time Team (now back in business as Time Team Digital). He is Director of Wuffing Education and a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries.

Some Suggestions for Optional Background Reading

• Branston, B., The Lost Gods of England (Thames & Hudson 1957, 1974).
• Bruce-Mitford, R., Aspects of Anglo-Saxon Archaeology (Gollancz 1974).
• Chaney, W.A., The Cult of Kingship in Anglo-Saxon England (Manchester 1970).
• Ellis Davidson, H., The Lost Beliefs of Northern Europe (Routledge 1993).
• Evans, A., The Sutton Hoo Ship-Burial (British Museum 1986).
• Heaney, S. (tr.) Beowulf: An Illustrated Edition, ed. J. Niles (Norton 2007).
• Hollander, L.M., Sturluson, Snorri, Heimskringla: History of the Kings of Norway, American-Scandinavian Foundation (Austin 1964).
• Hutton, R., The Stations of the Sun: A History of the Ritual Year in Britain (Oxford 1996).
• P arker, E., Winters in the World: A Journey Through the Anglo-Saxon Year (Reaktion Books 2022).
• Tolkien, J.R.R. (tr.), Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and Sir Orfeo, ed. C. Tolkien (Unwin 1975).
• Turville-Petre, E.O.G., Myth and Religion of the North – The Religion of Ancient Scandinavia (London 1964).

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Event Venue

Online