A Presentment of Englishry

'Are you English?' is never a neutral question. In the 11th century a 'Presentment of Englishry' was the offering of proof that a dead man was English and therefore unimportant. In the 12th century Laȝamon, a priest living in the small settlement of Areley Regis by the River Severn, set out to 'tell the noble deeds of the English, who they were, and where they came from.' No one knows why he choose to write his 16,000-plus lines in English.

Taking his life and poem as their starting point, t...