University Website: http://www.asnc.cam.ac.uk

Director of Studies: Dr Rosalind Love

The Anglo-Saxon, Norse, and Celtic Tripos (known as ASNC) offers a unique opportunity to study the history, languages and literatures of the peoples of the British Isles, and Scandinavia, mainly in the early medieval period. It is unique in that there are few other courses at other Universities which allow you, for example, not only to study Anglo-Saxon history, but at the same time to be able to read - in the original - the writings of the Anglo-Saxons, and of their neighbours the Irish and Welsh, as well as studying the handwriting of the manuscripts which these peoples have left us. The course should appeal as much to anyone with an interest in early languages as to those whose enthusiasm is for history. The course is constructed in such a way as to allow significant flexibility, so that you can focus more on things Celtic, or on things Germanic, as well as varying the balance between literature and history, or you may simply prefer an interesting mixture. Although ASNC might seem so specialised that it will leave you with a degree that does not suggest any particular career, it does in fact provide a diverse, broad education, which will sharpen your analytical powers, teach you how to construct an effective argument, and refine your appreciation of literature. Former ASNC students have gone on to a wide variety of jobs in teaching, the civil service, law, journalism, business, publishing, museum and library work, the police, TV acting, as well as to an academic career.

In their first two years (Part I), students choose six out of the ten papers which the Tripos offers, as well as from papers which can be borrowed from other Triposes, such as Middle English, Medieval French or the archaeology of Anglo-Saxon England. There is also the possibility of writing an optional dissertation on a topic of your own choosing within the subject areas covered by ASNC, and that replaces one of your six examinations. The third year (Part II) is the chance to be more specialised, since students take just four papers out of a wide selection, and also do a compulsory dissertation, an excellent opportunity to write a longer piece of work exploring in depth a topic which has caught your interest during Part I.

All of the languages in ASNC - Old English, Old Norse, Medieval Welsh, Medieval Irish and Insular Latin - are taught from scratch, so that no previous knowledge is required. If you do intend to choose any of the language papers, it is, however, preferable to have taken a foreign language at GCE A level or equivalent, so that you will have had a chance to test your linguistic ability.

Teaching in ASNC consists of a mixture of weekly language and text-reading classes, lectures (on the various literatures covered by the Tripos, and for the history papers), and, in Part II, seminars which offer students the chance to improve their skills in making oral presentations on their independent research. A further very important element of the teaching for Part I is the weekly supervision. These are usually one-to-one sessions (just occasionally students are supervised in pairs) with a supervisor who is either one of the lecturers in the Department, or a graduate student. ASNC students have one set of supervisions for each paper they intend to take in the examinations. Usually the focus in a supervision is upon a weekly essay, written on the basis of reading list provided by the supervisor, and the hour’s meeting will be dedicated to improving both your understanding of the subject, whether literature or history, and also your ability to analyse a primary source, read secondary literature in a critical way and then to construct an argument in writing.

As well has having been ranked the highest of all comparable institutions in the UK in the recent Research Assessment Exercise, the Department is very lively and has a strong sense of corporate identity. Housed within the relatively new English Faculty building, ASNC has its own student common-room and tea-point, as well as a very well-stocked section in the Faculty Library which is for the use of all students in the Department, whichever college they are at. Since the students of ASNC (Asnacs, as they call themselves) are fairly small in number compared with other subjects in the University, they tend to form a close-knit group, organising weekly lunches, pub-meets, and other social activities. They also run an ASNC Society which arranges speaker meetings and excursions, an annual black-tie dinner, as well as producing its own usually very entertaining newsletter (the Society has its own website at www.srcf.ucam.org/asnac/data/index.php). All this means that even if you find yourself the only Asnac in your year at Christ’s, you can be assured that you will never feel alone. There is a great deal more about ASNC on our website (www. asnc.cam.ac.uk) which also has information about the Department’s annual Open Day. This is an occasion when you can meet the teaching staff and some of the current students, and hear at first hand what the Tripos is all about in an informal atmosphere. It usually includes a visit to one of the College libraries which holds manuscripts from Anglo-Saxon England or Medieval Wales and Ireland, to see some of our primary sources at first hand.

Admissions Procedure at Christ’s College

Christ’s has regularly admitted students to read Anglo-Saxon, Norse, and Celtic. It does not have a fixed quota for the subject, but given the small size of the average intake of freshers (ca. 25-30), like many other Colleges it has tended to have one Asnac in any given year.

Since most of the subjects in the Tripos are not normally taught at school, prospective applicants often ask what combination of GCE A levels is appropriate. We are looking for evidence of general ability in, and enthusiasm for, the kind of things we do in the Tripos: learning new languages, studying literature, analysing historical documents. Many applicants will be studying English, or History, or French, German, and other languages, or Latin, at school, all of which are perfectly suitable. Asnacs come from all types of school and college, and include a good number of overseas students. We ask candidates for two examples of recent essays written as part of school work, which are submitted in advance of interviews. These form the basis for discussion at the start of the interview involving the Director of Studies.

We attach great importance to the interview as part of the selection procedure, and whilst we do not expect prospective applicants already to have detailed knowledge of the subject matter of the Tripos, we will hope to see evidence of some understanding of what the course involves, a lively general interest in medieval matters, intellectual curiosity and flexibility of mind, and in the case of those who are especially interested in the language papers of the Tripos, some sign of linguistic ability.

Director of Studies

Since ASNC is one of the smaller departments in the University, only a few colleges to have a Director of Studies in Anglo-Saxon, Norse, and Celtic who is also a Fellow of the College. Christ’s has an external Director of Studies for ASNC, Dr Rosalind Love, who is a Fellow of Robinson College. You will find that this makes little difference to the course of your studies since the great proportion of the University teaching happens centrally, and Dr Love’s office is just next-door to the much-used ASNC student common-room and only one floor up from the Department’s library within the English Faculty Library, and she is frequently to be found at the ASNC tea-point. With responsibility for teaching Insular Latin in the Department, her particular research interests are in the field of hagiography (texts about the Anglo-Saxon saints), the writings of the venerable Bede, and most recently, medieval commentaries and glossing (that is, the things which people in the Middle Ages, just as now, wrote around the margins and between the lines of the books that they were reading).

More information on studying Anglo Saxon, Norse and Celtic at Cambridge can be found in the University of Cambridge Undergraduate Prospectus at http://www.cam.ac.uk/admissions/undergraduate/courses/asnc/index.html