Trees in Anglo-Saxon England
Subtitle: literature, lore and landscape
By: Della Hooke
Series: Anglo-Saxon studies -- 13; Anglo-Saxon studies -- 13.
Publisher: Boydell
Published: 2010
Place of publication: Woodbridge
Language: eng
Number of pages: 310
ISBN-13: 9781843835653
Subjects: Trees in literature; Trees; Folklore; History
Description: "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."--Publisher's description.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [285]-302) and index.
Table of contents: title: Trees and groves in pre-Christian belief; title: Christianity and the sacred tree; title: Trees in literature; title: Trees, mythology and national consciousness: into the future; title: The nature and distribution of Anglo-Saxon woodland; title: The use of Anglo-Saxon woodland: place-names and charter evidence; title: Trees in the landscape; title: Trees of wood-pasture and 'Ancient Countryside'; title: Trees of wet places in early medieval records: alder and willow; title: Trees of open/planned countryside; title: Other trees noted in charters and early place-names; title: Trees not readily apparent in the early medieval written record.