News & Events - Headlines
25/10/2008
2008 SOCIETY CONFERENCE REPORT
Arts and Crafts in the Mead Hall The Roots of English Culture - 170 delegates attended the sixth Society Conference at the Seckford Theatre, Woodbridge School on 25th October. read article...
News & Events - Articles
25/10/2008
2008 SOCIETY CONFERENCE REPORT
Arts and Crafts in the Mead Hall
The Roots of English Culture - 170 delegates attended the sixth Society Conference at the Seckford Theatre, Woodbridge School on 25th October.
SPEAKERS’ RESUMES WILL BE ON THE WEBSITE EARLY 2009
170 delegates attended the sixth Society Conference at the Seckford Theatre, Woodbridge School on 25th October. They were treated to exciting and stimulating lectures from five speakers, all experts in their field, who delivered a broad spectrum on the subject of the Anglo-Saxon Hall. Chairmen Martin Carver (pictured left - Photo: Nigel Macbeth) and Angela Evans steered the day with customary engaging style.
The Society’s first conference in 1998 was held in the old school hall, but it became clear that the seating capacity was not going to be adequate for future events. This all changed when the school’s Seckford Theatre opened in 2006, a modern purpose-built theatre incorporating all the technical facilities required for staged performances and conferences.
It was ideal; comfortable and airy, with foyer, dining room and bar. An adjoining room offered space for book stalls, craft stands etc. where delegates browsed and chatted during coffee and lunch break.
Back row (left to right): Stephen Pollington, Neil Price, Earl of Cranbrook (Society President), Angela Evans, Sam Newton.
Front row: King Raedwald (alias Paul Mortimer), Helen Geake, Jenny Walker. (Photo: Nigel Macbeth)
SPEAKERS
Jenny Walker is a PhD student in her final year at the University of York. Recent research and published work has focused on the function and ideology of the Early Medieval Hall. She is presently completing further research that was presented at the Early Medieval Northumbria Conference held in Newcastle.
Jenny discussed the organisation of space and activities within the Hall with an interpretation of its functional and ideological use. Through the presentation of case studies, she considered the meaning and ideology behind this spatial organization and the architecture and construction of the Anglo-Saxon Hall itself.
Neil Price is currently Chair of Archaeology at the University of Aberdeen, having previously held the post of Reader in Archaeology at the University of Uppsala (Sweden). He has written extensively on the Viking Age and has conducted research projects in France, Iceland, Russia and Lapland.
Neil examined how in the Iron Age Scandinavian world, from which the early English took inspiration, the Hall was not only the seat of power and status, but also a highly ritualised space. He moved on to review the archaeological and textual evidence for this, including discussions of sacrifice and ritual dining, offering ceremonies to gods and supernatural beings, and the cultic overtones of hospitality. The concept of funerary halls was also considered, extending their metaphors into the afterlife.
Sam Newton is a freelance lecturer and tutor in Wuffing and Early Medieval Studies, running courses in and around East Anglia. In 2002 he co-founded Wuffing Education which runs study days at Sutton Hoo. He regularly contributes to radio and television, including Channel 4’s Time Team. Sam explored what Old English verse reveals about the significance of the Mead-Hall in Anglo-Saxon culture. He explained current experimental work in Old English music and ended his talk in dramatic fashion with an extract from Beowulf, accompanied on his own replica Sutton Hoo lyre.
Helen Geake is currently Finds Adviser (post-Roman artefacts) for the Portable Antiquities Scheme. She has become a familiar face on Channel 4’s Time Team where she appears regularly. Helen discussed how early Anglo-Saxons used costume to signal gender, age, status and ‘ethnic’ origin. She focused on the public arena of feasting in the Mead Hall, when women in particular may have been highly visible. She went on to explain that costume reconstructions have hitherto come from archaeological evidence of dead people in graves – how different, then, was the everyday dress of the living?
Stephen Pollington has long been involved in the promotion of Old English studies and is the author of several books on the subject. As well as a successful lecturer, he has appeared on radio and television and acted as a consultant for both.Stephen demonstrated how the Mead Hall was one of the central institutions of Anglo-Saxon society, acting as a platform for religious, judicial and social activities. He argued that the most important function of the hall was the part it played in the imagination.
Below: Pictures from the conference.
