Dying and Death in Later Anglo-Saxon England

Study of late Anglo-Saxon texts and grave monuments illuminates contemporary attitudes towards dying and the dead.

Pre-Conquest attitudes towards the dying and the dead have major implications for every aspect of culture, society and religion of the Anglo-Saxon period; but death-bed and funerary practices have been comparatively and unjustly neglected by historical scholarship. In her wide-ranging analysis, Dr Thompson examines such practices in the context of confessional and penitential li...