This thesis looks at a period of Northumbrian history when the king was a part Irish, Iona trained scholar. Some have suggested that Aldfrith was assisted to the kingship by the northern victors of the battle of Nechtansmere. It examines processes in the late seventh century to try to identify changes that might have happened during the reign of this king. The study begins with a wide overview of previous research to establish a basis from which to look for processes and change and also examines the sources available to us, written and archaeological. It then looks at the kingdoms to the north and west and at Aldfrith and the period of his reign. The suggestion is made that Aldfrith acted, with the Church, to cult saints that were Northumbrian and Romanist, as opposed to other options that might have been available. It proposes that the Northumbrians rejected opportunities to develop links with the north and west that may have been open to them. The following chapters then examine processes underway in Northumbria in three general areas; in the use of power, in society, and in the economy. It concludes that although many processes continued as before, these sped up and in certain areas such as the production of coins, and the consequential development of trade, it was a period of innovation. There is no evidence of a focus to the north and west during Aldfrith's reign and this has implications for how Aldfrith got to the throne, suggesting that it was with the support of the Northumbrian elite and not through the military strength of the Dál Riata or the Picts. The evidence is that Northumbria increasingly looked south for its influences and is prepared to absorb and implement processes and approaches from southern England, Gaul and Rome.

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This thesis is an exploration of liberalism in Romania and in anthropology. Liberalism is frequently represented in contemporary anthropology as a hegemonic technocratic practice, rationalist ideology and hypocritically exclusionary politics. I challenge this representation through an ethnography of a British-Romanian rural revitalisation and conservation programme in the Saxon villages region of southern Transylvania, Romania, and the vernacular liberalism of the cosmopolitan youth who have taken this project up. Douglas Holmes has asserted that in the European Union (EU) in the twenty-first century, communities and people are experimenting with new identity projects that fuse the liberal and illiberal in innovative ways. I trace how the rural revitalisation programme brought together romantic, "integralist" visions of the Saxon villages with the EU's liberal technologies of governance to create a set of projects the value of which could be translated between diverse sets of actors, from British tourists through European bureaucrats and Transylvanian farmers. This provided local youth with the possibility of making a life in their home region in a context of significant economic decline and massive emigration. The seemingly disparate liberal and romantic elements, initially brought together in a transnational context, were "domesticated" by Transylvanian liberals as complementary resources that could be mobilised to combat entrenched problems of Romanian society and modernity, as liberals saw it, notably the failure of the state to provide key services and the stagnation of the public sphere. The state's failures had led liberals to abandon it is a source of hope, turning instead to voluntary action, which made the dilemmas of how to mobilise engaged publics all the more crucial. Village liberals' attempts to foster such publics frequently ended up reproducing their own marginality, however. Against conventional representations of liberalism, I argue that its technocratic pretensions can be an object of hope in a milieu where expertise is perceived to be absent as much as an institutional hegemony. I further conclude that the multiple ways in which the liberal and the romantic are combined challenges dominant images of liberal ideology and practice as purely abstract and formal.

This thesis assesses the sixth-/early seventh-century socio-economic roots of the eighth-century transmarine system connecting England and the Continent through major coastal trading sites (emporia). Part 1 discusses socio-economic developments in the coastal areas of Kent, Sussex, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, and the Pas-de-Calais, through a close investigation of fifth- to early seventh-century archaeological evidence. The inclusion of later written sources has been fundamental to recognise that the two shores of the Channel were connected in a more complex network than previously assumed, beyond the major emporia. These areas are then considered comparatively: after challenging substantivist approaches that assume an overwhelming importance of gift-exchange in sixth-century England, Part 2 stresses the role of transmarine traffic and exploitation of natural resources in the socio-economic development of coastal areas. The examination of sixth-century written sources has also proved rewarding to reconsider the sixth-century political relationships between Franks and Anglo-Saxons. The role of kings, churches and laymen in the later transmarine network (seventh/eighth centuries) is then discussed by including the Thames Valley, the estuaries of the rivers Seine and Loire, and the Rhine Delta, examined through the written sources. One crucial question is the role of political actors in the development of a cross-Channel system of exchange. In this regard, scholars have mainly focused on the period when this system was already in place, pointing to a pivotal role of kings and political institutions for its establishment, or to the later appropriation by elites of a coastal area already integrated in the maritime network, but detached from political power. This thesis argues that a close link existed between elites and coastal areas before the emporia; thus, although kings were not the driving stimulus for the establishment of trading sites, the transmarine traffic fostered the socio-economic development of the coastal communities.

Many questions are still left unanswered regarding the period c. 450-700 AD, when hordes of Anglo-Saxon migrants landed on the British Isles and by doing so made the starting point in the foundation of England. Who were these Germanic tribes? The theories of how the migration proceeded are today many. The two major theories today concerns whether it was a question of a mass migration or a gradual migration proceeded by smaller groups of military elite. Another interesting point, well worth discussing, is the concept of cultural identity, and especially of these Anglo-Saxon migrants. How do you strengthen your identity as a newcomer in foreign country? Is this reflected in the material culture, in the way you build your houses or how you choose to bury your dead? The purpose of this essay is to shed more light on the migrants that were to become the English.

The discovery of two mass graves in England in 2010 containing the remains of Scandinavian men in their prime from the Viking age against the historical backdrop of Anglo-Saxon England has elicited questions as to whether or not they were victims of ethnic cleansing. Literature studies combined with the results from the post-excavation analyses render the conclusion that the victims in the grave, most likely, were not subjected to ethnic cleansing. It is more plausible that they were Scandinavian mercenaries who were executed during an intense period where a failing England was desperately paying for its own conquest with the Danegeld. The historical documents give the impression that a nation-wide genocide against Danes took place, however the archaeological material and analyses do not fully support this scenario. / Mot bakgrunden av den anglosaxiska perioden i England har upptäckten 2010 i England av två massgravar innehållande kvarlevor av vikingatida skandinaviska män väckt frågor om huruvida offren var utsatta för etnisk rensning. Resultat från analyser av materialet från utgrävningarna i kombination med litteraturstudier leder till slutsatsen att individerna i graven sannolikt inte var offer för etnisk rensning. Det förefaller mer troligt att männen var legosoldater vilka avrättades under den intensiva period då det skuldtyngda England betalade stora summor danagäld till vikingarna. I de historiska källorna beskrivs hur massmord av daner ägde rum över hela landet, dock finns det inget i det arkeologiska materialet eller i analysresultaten som stöder en sådan händelseutveckling.

Schipperfrakturen finden sich nur selten im archäologischen Knochenmaterial. Dies verwundert, da in prähistorischer und historischer Zeit in Europa umfangreiche Erdbaumaßnahmen erfolgten. In dem Beitrag wird ein Fall aus dem sächsischen Gräberfeld um St. Kilian in Höxter (8. Jh.; Teegen/Schultz 2003) vorgestellt. Differentialdiagnosen werden diskutiert. / Clay-shoveller’s fractures are rarely known in the osteoarchaeological record. Due to large earth movements during prehistory, this type of fracture seems to be underrepresented. In this paper, a case from the Saxon cemetery around St. Kilian at Höxter (8. cent. AD; Teegen/Schultz 2003) will be presented. Differential diagnoses will be discussed.

Entre la deuxième moitié du Xe siècle et le début du XIe siècle, le poème en vieil-anglais Judith est rédigée dans un des grands centres monastiques du monde anglo-saxon. Ce poème, basé sur le texte biblique du Livre de Judith, est le résultat de la rencontre du matériel biblique traditionnel et de la tradition poétique héroïque anglo-saxonne. De cette rencontre, surgit une œuvre célébrant l’histoire biblique et les enseignements moraux qu’elle porte, ainsi que les valeurs de la culture aristocratique anglo-saxonne et de l’héroïsme. Le poème Judith est donc un exemple fort d’adaptation culturelle du matériel biblique. Ce mémoire s’intéresse à cette question d’adaptation culturelle, mais plus encore celle de la coexistence de différentes traditions et références culturelles au sein du Judith. À travers ce mémoire, il sera question de déterminer la nature de cette coexistence, à savoir comment celle-ci s’articule-t-elle ? Est-ce que le poème présente un cas de hiérarchisation entre ces différentes références culturelles ? Ou bien serait-il plus juste de parler de pluralisme et de parallélisme culturels ? Finalement, qu’elle est l’importance du contexte historique du Xe et XIe siècle dans l’élaboration du Judith ? À la suite de notre analyse du poème et du contexte historique nous démontrerons que le Judith est une œuvre de parallélisme culturel où chaque référence culturelle est présentée sans besoin de hiérarchie. De plus, nous démontrerons que le Judith est le résultat des mutations de la société anglo-saxonne entre le IXe et le XIe siècle et de l’instabilité politique et militaire causée par les conflits entre Anglo-Saxons et Scandinaves. / Between the second half of the10th century and the beginning of the 11th century, the Old English poem Judith was written in one of the great monastic centers of the Anglo-Saxon world. This poem, based on the biblical text of the Book of Judith, is the result of the meeting of traditional biblical material and the heroic Anglo-Saxon poetic tradition. From this encounter emerges a work celebrating biblical history and the moral teachings it carries, as well as the values of Anglo-Saxon aristocratic culture and heroism. The poem Judith is therefore a strong example of cultural adaptation of biblical material. This thesis is concerned with this question of cultural adaptation, but even more with that of the coexistence of different traditions and cultural references within the Old English poem Judith. Throughout this thesis, it will be a question of determining the nature of this coexistence, namely how is it articulated? Does the poem present a case of hierarchization between these different cultural references? Or would it be fairer to speak of cultural pluralism and parallelism? Finally, how important is the historical context of the 10th and 11th centuries in the development of this poem? Following our analysis of the poem and its historical context we will demonstrate that Judith is a work of cultural parallelism where each cultural reference is presented without the need for hierarchy. In addition, we will demonstrate that the Judith is the result of changes in Anglo-Saxon society between the 9th and 11th centuries and the political and military instability caused by conflicts between Anglo-Saxons and Scandinavians.

Les communautés s’imaginent (Anderson, Hobsbawm, Gellner), mais comment l’invention est-elle diffusée et transformée en identité collective ? Cette théorie communicationnelle de la nation clarifie le concept flou d’invention de tradition en distinguant invention, transmission par un média (F. d’Almeida, J. Assmann), et transformation de l’invention en tradition, du présent en passé. L’hypothèse est que le plus important n’est pas dit : le message est implicite, et le média est invisible en tant que tel. L’implicite permet une naturalisation qui s’adresse en partie à l’inconscient, garant de l’intangibilité de la nation (C. Kerbrat-Orecchioni, M. Douglas). Les Saxons de Transylvanie, minorité allemande de Roumanie, ont choisi en 1990 l’émigration collective en Allemagne ; avec un début au XIIe siècle, une fin au XXIe, et des mutations identitaires dans un monde multiculturel, puis tendant vers la monoculturalité, et aujourd’hui la transculturalité, ils sont un terrain d’observation particulièrement pertinent. L’étude de leur historiographie, musée, Eglise, et club de montagne montre qu’ils ont entre les lignes réinventé le temps, l’espace public et le territoire, pendant que l’implicite figeait le temps, sacralisait la société et géologisait le territoire. Selon Karl W. Deutsch, un peuple est une communauté de communication, qui échange plus intensivement vers l’intérieur que vers l’extérieur. Un pont est ainsi créé entre théories des nations et nationalismes et Sciences de l’information et de la communication. Les différents implicites président à la fois à la construction nationale, au maintien des Etats-nations et à celui des dictatures, avec des similitudes troublantes entre les nations et les époques. / Communities imagine themselves (Anderson, Hobsbawm, Gellner), but how is the invention spread and transformed into collective identity? This communication theory of nation clarifies the blurred concept of invention of tradition by distinguishing invention, transmission by a media (F. d’Almedia, J. Assmann), and transformation of invention into tradition, of present into past. The hypothesis is that the most important is not being said: the message is implicit and the media is invisible as such. Implicit meaning allows a naturalization that appeals in part to the unconscious – the guarantor of the nation’s intangibility (C. Kerbrat-Orecchioni, M. Douglas). Transylvanian Saxons, a German minority in Romania, chose collective emigration to Germany in 1990. With a beginning in the 12th century, an end in the 21st century, and identity transformations in a world first multicultural, then tending to monoculturality, and today to transculturality, they are a particularly relevant field observation. Studies of their historiography, museum, church and mountain club show that they have between the lines reinvented time, public space and territory, while the implicit froze time, sanctified society and ‘‘geologyzed’’ the territory. According to Karl W. Deutsch, a population is a community of communication who exchanges intensively more to the inside than the outside. Thus, a bridge is being built between the theories of nations and nationalism and communication studies. The different forms of implicit steer invisibly the national construction, the maintain of Nation-states and also of dictatorships with disturbing similarities between nations and eras.

This thesis contends that Anglo-Saxon studies made a powerful contribution to Thomas Jefferson's development of public concepts of American identity and nationalism in ways that have been elided by scholars preoccupied with Jefferson's classicism. Jefferson's comprehensive survey of Anglo-Saxon grammar, language, law and emigration provided him with a precedent for revolution and helped him develop a model of American nationhood. Jefferson's detailed study of the Anglo-Saxon era set him apart from writers on both sides of the Atlantic in the period 1750-1860, and this thesis will argue that to generalize his interest as 'whig history' or a subscription to a theory of Teutonic superiority is unjustified. Chapter One considers Jefferson's educational background, his exposure to Anglo-Saxon history and the degree to which he might have been encouraged to pursue it. Previous studies of Jefferson's Anglo-Saxonism have presumed that there was a 'Gothic font' from which American Founding Fathers could drink; the detailed study of Anglo-Saxon historiography in this chapter will show otherwise. Chapter Two is concerned with a detailed examination of the collections of books relating to Anglo-Saxon history and language that Jefferson collected throughout his lifetime. If Jefferson was concerned with whig dialogues, or interested in the Saxons as a product of a passion for Tacitus we should find evidence of it here. In fact, the study of Jefferson's library in Chapter Two demonstrates that Jefferson was genuinely an expert Anglo-Saxon scholar and regarded that knowledge base as a political tool. Chapters Three and Four constitute detailed examinations of the nationalist use to which Jefferson put his understanding of early English history. Chapter Three considers the problem of shared heritage with Britain confronting the American statesman in the 1760s and 1770s and his employment of pre-Norman history in resolving this conflict. Chapter Four enlarges upon the study of American national identity, with specific reference to the linguistic debates following on the Revolution. This chapter revolves around a reconsideration of Jefferson's Anglo-Saxon Essay and his attempts to introduce this language into the education of future American statesmen. Jefferson's examination of Anglo-Saxon history, when considered in this light, seems oddly discordant with the simplistic notion of Jefferson as a founder of Teutonic superiority. Chapter Five is interested in Jefferson's impact on historical rhetoric in the nineteenth century. Thomas Jefferson used English history as an aid to separating an American nation from the British Empire and he believed that Americans could look to their Anglo-Saxon ancestors for a precedent that would justify their independence from Britain. He saw in Anglo-Saxon studies a means for appropriating those parts of English history that could underpin a national identity defined by freedom, initiative, and perhaps a racial predilection for democracy, while simultaneously rejecting Britain's authority in his present.