Ælfgif-who?

Ælfgif-who?  provides short biographies of early medieval English women every two weeks.  Click on the podcast player if you’d like to hear this newsletter read aloud in my appealing Yorkshire accent. Eadburga: A Scribe and Poet who wrote in Gold Ink with a Silver Pen In newsletter number 16 we looked at Abbess Leoba , who became a leading female figure in Saint Boniface’s mission to convert non-C...

Ælfgif-who?  provides short biographies of early medieval English women every two weeks.  Click on the podcast player if you’d like to hear this newsletter read aloud in my appealing Yorkshire accent. Edith: Wife of Sihtric, Viking King of York When Lady Æthelflaed’s daughter Ælfwyn was deposed as ruler of Mercia, King Edward of Wessex brought the kingdom under his authority. After Edward died in...

Ælfgif-who?  provides short biographies of early medieval English women every two weeks.  Click on the podcast player if you’d like to hear this newsletter read aloud in my appealing Yorkshire accent. Content note: Reference to infanticide. Saint Leoba: Leading figure in the Christianisation of Germany Leoba was born in Wessex in the early eighth century. She became the leading female figure in Sa...

Ælfgif-who?  provides short biographies of early medieval English women every two weeks.  Click on the podcast player if you’d like to hear this newsletter read aloud in my appealing Yorkshire accent. Saint Margaret, Queen of Scotland: A Life Shaped by Conquest The eleventh century in England was a tumultuous period, seeing two disruptive conquests by foreign kings that displaced the English royal...

Ælfgif-who?  provides short biographies of early medieval English women every two weeks.  Click on the podcast player if you’d like to hear this newsletter read aloud in my appealing Yorkshire accent. Saint Eanswith: First Abbess of Folkestone, Found After 1400 Years Eanswith (or Eanswythe) was a Kentish princess, thought to be the founder of Folkestone Abbey, who has been a local saint since her...

Ælfgif-who?  provides short biographies of early medieval English women every two weeks.  Click on the podcast player if you’d like to hear this newsletter read aloud in my appealing Yorkshire accent. Emma, Part 2: A Queen Mother of England Twice Over ( 1035-52 ) Queen Emma cuts such an important figure in eleventh-century politics that I took the decision to publish her biography in two parts. Th...

Ælfgif-who?  provides short biographies of early medieval English women every two weeks.  Click on the podcast player if you’d like to hear this newsletter read aloud in my appealing Yorkshire accent. Emma, Part 1: A Queen of England Twice Over (c.980-1035) Queen Emma cuts such an important figure in eleventh-century politics that I took the decision to publish her biography in two parts. This fir...

Ælfgif-who? provides short biographies of early medieval English women every two weeks.  Click on the podcast player if you’d like to hear this newsletter read aloud in my appealing Yorkshire accent. Saint Bega: Begu, Heiu, Beyu or beag? A legendary Irish saint who may have been many women... or a bracelet The ‘Life of St Bega’ is a literary work that apparently describes the life and miracles of...

Ælfgif-who? provides short biographies of early medieval English women every two weeks.  Click on the podcast player if you’d like to hear this newsletter read aloud in my appealing Yorkshire accent. Gundrada de Warenne: Landowner before and after the Norman Conquest Gundrada was born in the mid-eleventh century, and her family history has been a topic of much historical debate. In the nineteenth...

Ælfgif-who? provides short biographies of early medieval English women every two weeks.  Click on the podcast player if you’d like to hear this newsletter read aloud in my appealing Yorkshire accent. Bertha: A Christian Queen Instrumental in Converting her Kingdom Bertha, a queen of Kent in the late sixth century, is known to us via two main contemporary sources. The first of these is Bede’s Eccle...

Ælfgif-who? provides short biographies of early medieval English women every two weeks.  Click on the podcast player if you’d like to hear this newsletter read aloud in my appealing Yorkshire accent. Hild of Whitby: Politician, Religious Leader, Teacher, Saint Hild (also known as Hilda, a modern feminisation of her name) was the abbess of Whitby during a period known as the ‘Northumbrian Golden Ag...

Ælfgif-who? provides short biographies of early medieval English women every two weeks.  Click on the podcast player if you’d like to hear this newsletter read aloud in my appealing Yorkshire accent. Hugeburc: The Earliest English Woman Writer, Who Hid her Identity in a Secret Code In 1931, a scholar named Bernhard Bischoff decoded a cypher placed between two saints’ lives in an early ninth-centur...

Ælfgif-who? provides short biographies of early medieval English women every two weeks.  Click on the podcast player if you’d like to hear this newsletter read aloud in my appealing Yorkshire accent. Æthelflaed and Ælfwyn: The Women who Ruled Mercia in the Viking Age Æthelflaed was born in the 870s, at the height of Viking invasions in England. She was the eldest child of King Alfred of Wessex and...

Ælfgif-who? provides short biographies of early medieval English women every two weeks.  Click on the podcast player if you’d like to hear this newsletter read aloud in my appealing Yorkshire accent. Judith: The First Crowned and Anointed Queen of Wessex… At Twelve Years Old Judith, the daughter of the Frankish king Charles the Bald, is around twelve years old when she first appears in the histori...

Ælfgif-who? provides short biographies of early medieval English women every two weeks.  Click on the podcast player if you’d like to hear this newsletter read aloud in my appealing Yorkshire accent. The North Elmham and Fairford Women: Two Black Women in Tenth-Century England: Two female skeletons dated to around the tenth century, one found in North Elmham, Norfolk, and one in Fairford, Gloucest...

Godgifu: The Bare Truth Behind the Lady Godiva Legend Many of you will be familiar with the legend of Lady Godiva, a medieval noblewoman who rode through the streets of Coventry naked, covered only by her long hair. The story goes that Godiva’s greedy husband was exacting punitive taxes on the townspeople, and she plead with him to lower them. He agreed, though on the absurd condition that she rid...

Ælfgif-who? is a newsletter and podcast about the lives of early medieval English women.  Click on the podcast player if you’d like to hear this newsletter read aloud in my appealing Yorkshire accent. Breguswith: Portents and Pendants Breguswith, who lived in the seventh century, was the mother of two powerful and saintly Northumbrian women: Hild, the Abbess of Whitby and Hereswith, Queen of East...

Ælfgif-who?  is a newsletter and podcast about the lives of early medieval English women. Cynethryth: Mercia’s Forgotten Queen? Cynethryth, the queen of King Offa of Mercia, flourished in the period 770-98, though her exact birth and death dates are uncertain. She was one of England’s most extraordinary queens, but now, very few know her name. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss thi...