'Ely Cathedral and the Afterlife of Ealdorman Byrhtnoth' Seminar

Event details

In the early 1150s, the famed Ealdorman Byrhtnoth was re-entombed in the new Ely Cathedral as a part of a monument celebrating seven Anglo-Saxon worthies. Already a noted place of pilgrimage for the shrine of St Aethelthryth and her sister-abbesses, this translation was marked by both this monument and a celebration of these famous men. But looking more closely at these men, in this place, at this time, reveals much about Ely and the wider worlds of the fens and even Western Europe in the mid-twelfth century. This paper will examine the multiple meanings of this monument through the textual, material and spatial record, indicating this monument’s platform within the greater political and social framework of a powerful monastery in the mid-twelfth century.