Current Students

Abigail Steed

I am interested in many aspects of social, religious and intellectual history in Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-Norman England, and my thesis covers all these areas through a comprehensive study of the concept and practice of vengeance in the years c.900-1150. I draw together various theological, literary and historical narrative sources to build up a picture of social mentalities surrounding vengeance and how this influenced real action, including the extent to which ideas and practices changed following the Norman Conquest. Special focus is given to the ways that divine vengeance was observed and experienced in medieval society, from its foundation as a theological concept, to its use as a framework for interpreting historical events and miraculous occurrences, to the incorporation of the idea of humans acting as the agents of divine vengeance into other social value systems.

https://www.dur.ac.uk/research/directory/staff/?mode=staff&id=14547

Supervisory Team: Dr Helen Foxhall Forbes, History (Durham), Dr Giles Gasper, History (Durham).

Start Date: October 2015.