Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- List of illustrations
- CHAPTER 1 ‘Introduction: On Faith, Objects and Locality’
- CHAPTER 2 ‘But where is Norfolk?’
- CHAPTER 3 ‘Sacred Image and Regional Identity in Late-Prehistoric Norfolk’
- CHAPTER 4 ‘Piety from the Ploughsoil: Religion in Roman Norfolk through Recent Metal-Detector Finds’
- CHAPTER 5 ‘Paganism in Early-Anglo-Saxon East Anglia’
- CHAPTER 6 ‘Devotion, Pestilence and Conflict: The Medieval Wall Paintings of St Mary the Virgin, Lakenheath’
- CHAPTER 7 ‘Here Be Dragons: The Cult of St Margaret of Antioch and Strategies for Survival’
- CHAPTER 8 ‘The Medieval Jews of Norwich and their Legacy’
- CHAPTER 9 ‘Late-Medieval Glass-Painting in Norfolk: Developments in Iconography and Craft c.1250–1540’
- CHAPTER 10 ‘Graffiti and Devotion in Three Maritime Churches’
- CHAPTER 11 ‘Norfolk Wayside Crosses: Biographies of Landscape and Place’
- CHAPTER 12 ‘Landscapes of Faith and Politics in Early-Modern Norwich’
- CHAPTER 13 ‘Practice and Belief: Manifestations of Witchcraft, Magic and Paganism in East Anglia from the Seventeenth Century to the Present Day’
- CHAPTER 14 ‘Provinciality and the Victorians: Church Design in Nineteenth-Century East Anglia’
- CHAPTER 15 ‘Maharajah Duleep Singh, Elveden and Sikh Pilgrimage’
- CHAPTER 16 ‘Supernatural Folklore and the Popular Imagination: Re-reading Object and Locality in Mid-Nineteenth-Century Norfolk’
- CHAPTER 17 ‘Pro Patria Mori: Christian Rallies and War Memorials of Early-Twentieth-Century Norfolk’
- CHAPTER 18 ‘Pagans in Place, from Stonehenge to Seahenge: “Sacred” Archaeological Monuments and Artefacts in Britain’
- CHAPTER 19 ‘Art, Spirit and Ancient Places in Norfolk’
- CHAPTER 20 ‘Sacred Sites and Blessed Objects: Art and Religion in Contemporary Norfolk’
- Bibliography
- Index
CHAPTER 5 - ‘Paganism in Early-Anglo-Saxon East Anglia’
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 April 2013
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- List of illustrations
- CHAPTER 1 ‘Introduction: On Faith, Objects and Locality’
- CHAPTER 2 ‘But where is Norfolk?’
- CHAPTER 3 ‘Sacred Image and Regional Identity in Late-Prehistoric Norfolk’
- CHAPTER 4 ‘Piety from the Ploughsoil: Religion in Roman Norfolk through Recent Metal-Detector Finds’
- CHAPTER 5 ‘Paganism in Early-Anglo-Saxon East Anglia’
- CHAPTER 6 ‘Devotion, Pestilence and Conflict: The Medieval Wall Paintings of St Mary the Virgin, Lakenheath’
- CHAPTER 7 ‘Here Be Dragons: The Cult of St Margaret of Antioch and Strategies for Survival’
- CHAPTER 8 ‘The Medieval Jews of Norwich and their Legacy’
- CHAPTER 9 ‘Late-Medieval Glass-Painting in Norfolk: Developments in Iconography and Craft c.1250–1540’
- CHAPTER 10 ‘Graffiti and Devotion in Three Maritime Churches’
- CHAPTER 11 ‘Norfolk Wayside Crosses: Biographies of Landscape and Place’
- CHAPTER 12 ‘Landscapes of Faith and Politics in Early-Modern Norwich’
- CHAPTER 13 ‘Practice and Belief: Manifestations of Witchcraft, Magic and Paganism in East Anglia from the Seventeenth Century to the Present Day’
- CHAPTER 14 ‘Provinciality and the Victorians: Church Design in Nineteenth-Century East Anglia’
- CHAPTER 15 ‘Maharajah Duleep Singh, Elveden and Sikh Pilgrimage’
- CHAPTER 16 ‘Supernatural Folklore and the Popular Imagination: Re-reading Object and Locality in Mid-Nineteenth-Century Norfolk’
- CHAPTER 17 ‘Pro Patria Mori: Christian Rallies and War Memorials of Early-Twentieth-Century Norfolk’
- CHAPTER 18 ‘Pagans in Place, from Stonehenge to Seahenge: “Sacred” Archaeological Monuments and Artefacts in Britain’
- CHAPTER 19 ‘Art, Spirit and Ancient Places in Norfolk’
- CHAPTER 20 ‘Sacred Sites and Blessed Objects: Art and Religion in Contemporary Norfolk’
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
INTRODUCTION
East Anglia has long been recognised as pivotal to our understanding of the Early Anglo-Saxon period. Situated on the frontier of migrationary movements around the North Sea, it witnessed a complex mixing of peoples, cultural traditions and religious beliefs between the late fourth and sixth centuries. Understanding the nature of what constituted faith to those early people we conveniently term the East Angles is therefore challenging and draws upon a variety of evidence. In particular, it relies on us appreciating that a native Romano-British population need not have been passive, mute bystanders to the new ways brought by immigrant Germanic peoples, but may have made their own particular contributions to create new traditions. Certainly, the inhabitants of what was to become East Anglia were geographically well-placed to absorb or react to the beliefs and material culture of those passing through or choosing to settle within the local landscape. This chapter will therefore attempt to summarise how current scholarly thought interprets pre- Christian Anglo-Saxon belief, or ‘paganism’, and how East Anglia in particular can contribute to such a debate.
Anglo-Saxon paganism has fascinated scholars for decades, yet remains poorly understood. Despite a voluminous literature, the limited primary evidence available is stubbornly problematic for interpreting what the pre-Christian Anglo-Saxon settlers to these shores believed, and the extent to which such popular convictions may have articulated themselves in faith systems.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Art, Faith and Place in East AngliaFrom Prehistory to the Present, pp. 66 - 87Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2012