Between material reality and literary topos: ‘Towns’ in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle

Abstract

This paper discusses the role of ‘towns’ in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle from an interdisciplinary perspective, drawing on insights from the discipline of archaeology. How did the Chronicle depict these places? Can we discern changes over time? Through an analysis of the Chronicle texts as a living set of documents, the paper comments both on the role of ‘towns’ in early medieval England and on the function of the Chronicle in contemporary society. It concludes that ‘towns’ in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle existed between material reality and literary topos: their physicality carried as much symbolism as their literary depictions.