The beginnings of our society, as told by one of its co-founders in December 2023.
The Founding of the International Society of Anglo-Saxonists
Forty years ago, on 23 August 1983, attendees at the first ISAS conference in Ghent unanimously approved its constitution. The stated goal of ISAS was “to provide all scholars interested in the languages, literatures, arts, history, and material culture of the period with support in their research and to facilitate an exchange of ideas and materials within and among all disciplines.” A graduate student at the time, now a professor emerita, recently recalled that initial meeting:
“I have such good memories of those opening days celebrating the arrival of ISAS. The wine flowed; the gaiety was infectious. … It truly was three days of open conversation and communal hope.”
Somewhere in that happy throng were the founders of the society, René Derolez, Stanley B. Greenfield, Daniel G. Calder, and myself (see their biographies here).
The Way We Were
ISAS was born in the pre-electronic age. There was no email or zooming, no texting or tagging, just typewriters and white-out fluid. In the boom days of the 60s, Centers for Medieval Studies spread hopefully across the land; in the tighter 70s, multinational associations took off, the New Chaucer Society arriving in 1979. The first volume of Anglo-Saxon England had appeared in 1972, inspiring thoughts of an international society to support scholars working within its broad circumference. Stanley Greenfield, based at the University of Oregon, served on the editorial board of Anglo-Saxon England and was a Fellow (1979) of Emmanuel College Cambridge; he was in close touch with Peter Clemoes, skillful renovator of ASNC (the Cambridge department renamed in 1971). Daniel Calder, since 1972 at UCLA’s Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies (now the Center for Early Global Studies), sponsored Greenfield’s appointment as a visiting professor there in 1976-1977; Fredi Chiappelli, scholar of early Italian literature and long-time director of that Center (1972-1988), became an early and enthusiastic supporter of ISAS. The Dictionary of Old English at Toronto under the leadership of Angus Cameron and his team, along with the Centre for Medieval Studies and its directors, attracted visiting scholars from across Europe as well as from Australia, New Zealand, and Japan, some of whom – such as René Derolez – generously offered to play a role in the proposed international organization. The three founders – all from public universities – gathered together in sunny California in 1981 to confirm plans for the new organization and for the Brussels/Ghent conference. As far as I can recall, the name of the society never came up.
The Name ISAS
“Old English” (the language and literature field of the three founders) seemed a non-starter; a society for Old English scholars called up images of a retirement lodge. “Medieval” had problems too. (See Fred C. Robinson, “Medieval, the Middle Ages,” Speculum 59/4 (1984), 745-756). It was alarming to learn that the world adjudged “medievalists” offensively retrograde (p. 754), yet the phrase “to get medieval,” that is, to torture and brutalize an opponent using old-time sadistic methods, remained acceptable. “Early England” seemed both too vague and too restrictive; adding “and its neighbo(u)rs” created a spelling spat. At the same time, the use of the epithet “Anglo-Saxon” to describe the English-speaking inhabitants of Britain from c.500 to c. 1100 appeared to be on the upswing. English-language handbooks and introductory readers at least from the 1960s on regularly taught students and their instructors to refer to the vernacular language and literature of the period as Old English, the culture, history, manuscripts, art and archaeology, etc., as Anglo-Saxon; many authors elegantly varied the two terms. Still, outside the academy, especially in North America, the adjective “Anglo-Saxon” lacked feel-good vibes, embedded as it was in acronyms such as WASP. The title of a recent article in The Atlantic (April 20, 2021) wickedly observes: “Anglo-Saxon is what you say when ‘Whites Only’ is too inclusive.” (See the essential essay by Elise Louviot, “Divided by a Common Language: Controversy over the Use of the Word ‘Anglo-Saxon’,” Études Médiévales Anglaises 95 [2020], 107-147.) The version of Microsoft Word on my computer refuses to recognize the existence of “Anglo-Saxonist.” Embracing a title suggestive of inclusivity, such as ISSEME, seems preferable to holding on to a term sauntering toward the exit.
The Logo
A long-necked, long-legged creature with appealing doe eyes, four dainty hooves, and ears that stick out was chosen in 2003 as the ISAS logo. The tail of this figure spirals vertically and vertiginously, forming an interlace pattern that fills the panel above its body. ISAS lacked a logo during its first twenty years of existence. In 2003, during David Johnson’s term as Executive Director of the Society, the advisory board held a logo competition and invited members to submit drawings. My funny quadruped won (perhaps it was the sole submission). Now, twenty years later, it proudly adorns the ISSEME website.
The image comes from an early ninth-century decorated cross-shaft at Wroxeter (St Andrews), Shropshire, a site near the Severn River and the border with Wales. In 1993, Professor Richard N. Bailey delivered a series of lectures in Toronto, later published as England’s Earliest Sculptors (1996); the ISAS logo-figure appears on page 111, figure 57, based on a drawing supplied by S. J. Plunkett (1984). For photographic close-ups, see also Richard Bryant with Michael Hare, The Corpus of Anglo-Saxon Stone Sculpture, vol. 10, The Western Midlands, published for the British Academy by Oxford University Press (2012), pp. 314-317 (illustrations #562 and #563); also p. 70, item M. The fragmentary cross-shaft with its stylized animal is still visible, high up in the south wall of the church nave that has been its stable since 1763.
Roberta Frank (December 2023)