It’s amazing how we can learn so much about a place from its past, and Winchester is no different! Dating from the Anglo-Saxon period, Winchester’s folklore not only tells us more about the city, but it also highlights some details about an unusual creature: the English version of the Old Norse Valkyrja.
Join Dr Eric Lacey as he shares with us the story of the valkyries in the Water Meadows, how the English version of the valkyries was understood and how different it was from its somewhat romanticised Old Norse counterparts.
Dr Eric Lacey
Dr Eric Lacey is Senior Lecturer in Language and Linguistics at the University of Winchester, where he is Programme Leader for the English Language and English Linguistics degrees. His research applies close study of language towards various cultural and historical ends, and he has published on place-names, recovering the nuances of sensory perception in the past, and most especially, birds.
Further Information and Additional Links
If you are interested in today’s topic be sure to check out Dr Lacey’s chapter, ‘Wælcyrian in the Water Meadows: Lantfred’s Furies’, in the edited book Early Medieval Winchester: Communities, Authority and Power in an Urban Space, c.800-c.1200, which will be published September 2021.
For some further information about Eric, his work and how to contact him, see here.