The five authoritive papers presented here are the product of long careers of research into Anglo-Saxon culture. In detail the subject areas and approaches are very different, yet all are cross-disciplinary and the same texts and artefacts weave through several of them. Literary text is used to interpret both history and art; ecclesiastical-historical circumstances explain the adaptation of usage of a literary text; wealth and religious learning, combined with old and foreign artistic motifs are blended into the making of new books with multiple functions; religio-socio-economic circumstances are the background to changes in burial ritual. The common element is transformation, the Anglo-Saxon ability to rework older material for new times and the necessary adaptation to new circumstances. The papers originated as five recent Toller Memorial Lectures hosted by the Manchester Centre for Anglo-Saxon Studies (MANCASS).

• Front Cover
• Halftitle Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• List of Illustrations
• Contributors
• Introduction
• 1. A New Chronology and New Agenda: The Problematic Sixth Century
• 2. Anglo-Saxon Art: Tradition and Transformation
• 3. King Alfred and Weland: Tradition and Transformation at the Court of King Alfred
• 4. Strategies of Visual Literacy in Insular and Anglo-Saxon Book Culture
• 5. The Vercelli Book as a Context for The Dream of the Rood