London a thousand years ago: a lively port, the centre of trade, cross-roads for armies going north and south, seat of political government and dispute, all against the backdrop of a war between Kings Æthelred II and Cnut with its culmination in the Siege of 1016.

Come and join us for a conference on this! Æthelred II and Cnut the Great: Millennial Conference to Commemorate the Siege of London in 1016 will be held Wednesday 6 through Saturday 9 July this summer, in UCL for the first three days and in the University of Winchester for the Saturday: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/cnut-conference.

Here and also attached is our provisional programme, which aims to encompass Anglo-Saxon history and literature, the archaeology of England, London and Denmark during this period, as well as the history and literature of eastern Scandinavia and the Baltic.  There will be other Cnutonica for this year (‘The Viking World 2016: Diversity and Change’ in Nottingham, 27 June – 2 July; ‘Conquest 1016, 1066’, in Oxford, 20-23 July) but none other in the city where the war came to an end. Our conference on Kings Æthelred and Cnut will begin with a welcome on the morning of Wednesday 6 July 2016. There will be four plenaries, by

1.      Prof Simon Keynes of the University of Cambridge on the final days of Æthelred;

2.      Prof Andrew Reynolds of the Institute of Archaeology, UCL, on the archaeology of London relating to the Vikings and the siege of 1016;

3.      Prof Andy Orchard of the University of Oxford, on the contemporary Beowulf manuscript, BL MS Cotton Vitellius A.XV; and

 4.      Prof Roberta Frank of Yale, on Skaldic art at Cnut’s court;

The day excursion to Winchester, whose university is co-host with UCL with its own lectures and tours, is included in the price of the ticket (£80 standard; £60 for students). Attendance at the conference banquet, on Friday evening, is included within a separate package (£120 standard; £90 for students).

To register, please click on http://onlinestore.ucl.ac.uk/browse/extra_info.asp?compid=1&modid=2&deptid=123&catid=153&prodid=1331. Good hotels local to UCL and at a range of affordable prices are bookable through https://www.imperialhotels.co.uk/en/.

All the best

Richard North