Eleanor Parker

Fighting in the Fens: Hereward cutting his way through the Norman host, by James Cooper, 19th century

The Lost Literature of Medieval England

Gaps in our knowledge of the past can be frustrating, but occasional speculation about what we know to be absent is not always a bad thing, suggests Eleanor Parker.

Soul survivors: Christ with the Virgin and St John in Langford

After the Norman Conquest

Eleanor Parker is inspired by a visit to a village church in Oxfordshire that bears witness to one of the most turbulent and transformative periods in English history.

Common concerns: tending the boar. Calendar page, c.1030

Speak Well and Act Accordingly

The Durham Proverbs, a selection of Anglo-Saxon bons mots, show that medieval daily concerns and popular wisdom still have resonance today, says Eleanor Parker.