Trees in Anglo-Saxon England: Literature, Lore and Landscape

326 Pages·2010·31.802 MB·English

by  Della Hooke

Anglo-Saxon Studies 13
TREES IN ANGLO-SAXON ENGLAND
LITERATURE, LORE AND LANDSCAPE
Trees played a particularly important part in the rural economy of Anglo-
Saxon England, both for wood and timber and as a wood-pasture resource,
with hunting gaining a growing cultural role. But they are also powerful
icons in many pre-Christian religions, with a degree of tree symbolism
found in Christian scripture too. This wide-ranging book explores both
the `real’, historical and archaeological evidence of trees and woodland,
and as they are depicted in Anglo-Saxon literature and legend. Place-
name and charter references cast light upon the distribution of particular
tree species (mapped here in detail for the first time) and also reflect upon
regional character in a period that was fundamental for the evolution of
the present landscape.
Della Hooke is Honorary Fellow of the Institute for Advanced Research
in Arts and Social Sciences at the University of Birmingham.
Anglo-Saxon Studies
ISSN 1475–2468
GENERAL EDITORS
John Hines and Catherine Cubitt
‘Anglo-Saxon Studies’ aims to provide a forum for the best scholarship on the
Anglo-Saxon peoples in the period from the end of Roman Britain to the Norman
Conquest, including comparative studies involving adjacent populations and periods;
both new research and major re-assessments of central topics are welcomed.
Books in the series may be based in any one of the principal disciplines of archae-
ology, art history, history, language and literature, and inter- or multi-disciplinary
studies are encouraged.
Proposals or enquiries may be sent directly to the editors or the publisher at the
addresses given below; all submissions will receive prompt and informed consid-
eration.
Professor John Hines, School of History and Archaeology, Cardiff University,
Colum Drive, Cardiff, Wales, UK CF10 3EU
Dr Catherine Cubitt, Centre for Medieval Studies, University of York, The King’s
Manor, York, England, UK YO1 7EP
Boydell & Brewer, PO Box 9, Woodbridge, Suffolk, England, UK IP12 3DF
Previously published volumes in the series are listed at the back of this book
Trees in Anglo-Saxon England
LITERATURE, LORE AND LANDSCAPE
Della Hooke
THE BOYDELL PRESS
© Della Hooke 2010
All Rights Reserved. Except as permitted under current legislation
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without the prior permission of the copyright owner
The right of Della Hooke to be identified
as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with
sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
First published 2010
The Boydell Press, Woodbridge
Reprinted 2011
Reprinted in paperback 2013
ISBN 978 1 84383 565 3 hardback
ISBN 978 1 84383 829 6 paperback
The Boydell Press is an imprint of Boydell & Brewer Ltd
PO Box 9, Woodbridge, Suffolk IP12 3DF, UK
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CONTENTS
List of Illustrations and Tables vi
Preface and Acknowledgements ix
List of Abbreviations x
PART I: Tree Symbolism
Chapter 1 Trees and Groves in Pre-Christian Belief 3
Chapter 2 Christianity and the Sacred Tree 21
Chapter 3 Trees in Literature 58
Chapter 4 Trees, Mythology and National Consciousness: into the Future 96
PART II: Trees and Woodland in the Anglo-Saxon Landscape
Chapter 5 The Nature and Distribution of Anglo-Saxon Woodland 113
Chapter 6 The Use of Anglo-Saxon Woodland: Place-Name and Charter 138
Evidence
Chapter 7 Trees in the Landscape 165
PART III: Individual Tree Species in Anglo-Saxon England
Chapter 8 Trees of Wood-Pasture and ‘Ancient Countryside’ 191
Chapter 9 Trees of Wet Places in Early Medieval Records: Alder and Willow 222
Chapter 10 Trees of Open or Planned Countryside 232
Chapter 11 Other Trees Noted in Charters and Early Place-Names 245
Chapter 12 Trees not Readily Apparent in the Early Medieval Written Record 275
Epilogue 283
Bibliography 285
Index 303
ILLUSTRATIONS AND TABLES
Fig. 1. Yggdrasill, an image based upon a seventeenth-century Icelandic 15
manuscript
Fig. 2. The left panel of the Franks Casket as displayed in the British Museum 40
Fig. 3. Devon nymet names 48
Fig. 4. Pagan place-names in south-eastern England 49
Fig. 5. The distribution of Anglo-Saxon woodland 117
Fig. 6. The kingdom of the Hwicce: frontier woodlands 119
Fig. 7. The distribution of the lēah term 124
Fig. 8. Estate links in the Kentish Weald 139
Fig. 9. Scenes from the Cotton Tiberius calendar 140
Fig. 10. Probable droveway routes between the Warwickshire Arden and Feldon 149
Fig. 11. Haga boundaries recorded in the pre-Conquest charters of northern 154
Hampshire
Fig. 12. Trees recorded in the charters and early place-names of Yorkshire 166
and Kent
Fig. 13. Boundary clauses of Hinton Ampner, Hampshire, and Aston Tirrold 180
and Aston Upthorpe, Berkshire
Fig. 14. Trees of wood-pasture and ‘Ancient Countryside’: the distribution of 192
oak and ash in early medieval charters and place-names
Fig. 15. The distribution of holly, lime and yew in early medieval charters 206
and place-names
Fig. 16. Trees of damp places: the distribution of alder, willow and sallow in 224
early medieval charters and place-names
Fig. 17. Trees of cultivated areas: the distribution of elder and thorn in early 233
medieval charters and place-names
Fig. 18. The trees of Worcestershire with the boundary thorns in the Vale of 240
Evesham
Fig. 19. The distribution of fruit trees recorded in early medieval charters and 248
place-names
ILLUSTRATIONS AND TABLES vii
Fig. 20. The distribution of other trees less frequently recorded in early 256
medieval charters and place-names
Fig. 21. Trees of limited distribution recorded in early medieval charters and 278
place-names
Plate I. The Romsey Saxon rood 42
Plate II. The Church Preen yew-tree 43
Plate III. A wood-pasture environment: a scene in the New Forest 132
Plate IV. An ancient pollard in Whitcliff Park, Gloucestershire 141
Plate V. An old Windsor pollard oak 198
Plate VI. Aged hollies on Lord’s Hill, Shropshire 212
Table 1. Early medieval tree list: the incidence of recorded tree species in 168
charters and early place-names
Table 2. The incidence of recorded tree species in early hundred and 170
wapentake names
Table 3. The frequency of individual tree species in charters and early 202
place-names