Welcome to ASNC

UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE

DEPARTMENT OF ANGLO-SAXON, NORSE, AND CELTIC

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The ANGLO-SAXON, NORSE, and CELTIC Tripos
click on the icons above to get a sense of what each part is about

WELCOME TO APPLICANTS

FOR ADMISSION IN 2004 OR 2005
This page is still under construction (January 2003)
but we hope that you will find it useful as we continue to build it up

Contents of this page
[Ask yourself these questions] [Applications for admission]
[Studying at Cambridge] [The essence of the ASNC Tripos]
[Links to more detailed information about ASNC]
[Any questions?]

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If you are currently at school or college, considering your options for an undergraduate degree-course at the University of Cambridge, please read on. Our course offers a wide range of choice, but essentially it gives you the opportunity to study the history and culture of the various peoples who inhabited the British Isles and Scandinavia in the early Middle Ages. The peoples can be studied separately and in relation to each other. No previous knowledge of our subjects is required.

We hope that the information below will help you to form a good idea of the very distinctive nature of our course. If you can, please come to our Open Day. If you are particularly concerned about career prospects after such a course, please stay with us, and all will be revealed. The comments which we are collecting from former students may be found helpful in this respect.

Find out more about Transferable Skills.

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ASK YOURSELF THESE QUESTIONS

Do you think you might be interested in the history and culture of some or all of the various peoples of the British Isles (Welsh, Irish, Scots, and Anglo-Saxons) in the early Middle Ages?
Might you be interested in the vikings, and their exploits in Britain and Ireland as well as westwards to North America and eastwards into the Byzantine Empire?
Do you think you might be interested in learning more about the languages that these peoples spoke?
Would you like to know more about the literature that these peoples produced?
Do you think you would enjoy working extensively with original sources (works of literature, chronicles, documentary records, etc.), whether in translation or in the original language?
Do you like watching television programmes on ancient peoples and places, such as 'Time Team', or 'The Celts', or 'The Blood of the Vikings' (shown on BBC in late 2001)?
Are you looking for the kind of course that will allow you to pursue your own interests and to develop skills relevant for a wide variety of careers (to be chosen at a later date)?
Would you like to be a member of a small and friendly department, as well as part of a large faculty?

If you have answered some or all of these questions in the affirmative, you might well enjoy studying our course; so please read on.

If you choose this subject, you will find that you are able to pick and choose from a wide range of subjects (history papers, language and literature papers, and so on), in accordance with your particular strengths and interests, placing the emphasis of your studies where you please. (This is explained in more detail below.)

We aim to provide an intellectual training which you will enjoy, and to equip you with skills which you will then be able to put to good use in your chosen or eventual profession, whatever it might be. Go here for more on Transferable Skills, including the cube.

Our students move on into a very wide a range of interesting professions, and in this respect are no different from students who have read English, or History, or Classics, or any other subject in the Humanities. They turn up in publishing, in banking, in teaching, in information technology, in the film industry, in marketing, in public relations, in journalism, in law, in business, and in almost anything else; and there are even some who have chosen to pursue academic careers.

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APPLICATIONS FOR ADMISSION

[Official information about Admissions]
[The process of applying]

You may be intending to apply (in September or October 2003) for admission in 2004, or for deferred entry in 2005; in which case we hope that you will use the links below to find out more about us, and about the course, and if possible come to our Open Day on 25 June 2003, where you will be able to learn more about us, the course, and Cambridge. You will be called for interview, by the college to which you apply, in December 2003, and learn the immediate outcome of your application in the New Year.

The deadline for applications is mid October 2003

You may, on the other hand, be thinking of a subject in advance, with a view to making an application (in September or October 2004) for admission in 2005, or for deferred entry in 2006; in which case we hope that you will explore the links below, and if possible come to our Open Day in June 2004, where you will be able to learn more about us, the course, and Cambridge.

There is some general advice on certain aspects of the admissions process further below.

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STUDYING AT CAMBRIDGE

The Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse, and Celtic (ASNC) is an integral part of the Faculty of English, which is one of the biggest faculties in the University, widely renowned for its excellence in every respect. Visit its website, and try out the famous 'Virtual Classroom' [but not quite yet].

The Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse, and Celtic is one of the smallest and friendliest departments in the University. There are normally between 15 and 20 undergraduates in each of the three years (giving a total undergraduate population of about 50), about 30 postgraduates (doing one-year MPhils or three-year PhDs), a couple of post-doctoral research officers (working on major research projects within the Department), and 8 senior members (responsible for the teaching, and also active in research).

The teaching of Anglo-Saxon, Norse, and Celtic subjects at Cambridge has a distinguished history, stretching back to the mid-seventeenth century. To cut a long story short, the ASNC Tripos in its present form was introduced in 1970, as a (single-part) two-year course, which was usually combined with a part of another Tripos (to make up the two parts necessary for the standard BA degree). In 1992 this two-year course became Part I of the new ASNC Tripos, which was itself extended and thereby improved by the addition of a one-year Part II.

Four of the eight senior members of the Department have been appointed to their posts in the last couple of years; so we like to think that we are a young and vigorous team (some more so than others). We are currently in the process of reforming the Tripos, in full consultation with past and current students.

We like to think that we offer a high quality of teaching to our students. We scored 23 out of 24 in a review by the Quality Assurance Agency, in February 2001. The QAA report is now available on their website, under 'Celtic Studies': go here.

The Department also prides itself on the quality of research and publication across a wide field. We scored the maximum rating of 5* in the Research Assessment Exercise, carried out in 1996; and we scored the same maximum rating of 5* in the most recent exercise, carried out in 2001.

We welcome applications from anyone, irrespective of educational background. The basic requirements are that you should have general intellectual ability, that you should be driven by natural curiosity, and that you should enjoy a challenge. Most students come to us with A-levels [or equivalent] in standard humanities subjects, like English, History, or a foreign language, though we have seen many other combinations (often including a subject in the sciences). The important thing is that you should be familiar with the kind of thing that we do, and eager to learn something new. We are not English, or History, or Classics, or Modern & Medieval Languages, or Archaeology & Anthropology, or Theology, or History of Art. Much of what we do would be at home in one or other of these Triposes, but in effect we combine elements of all these major subjects, and add a few more which you won't find elsewhere.

Needless to say, students at Cambridge have access to some extraordinary resources, including the outstanding collections of the University Library (and its renowned tea-room), and all the modern facilities which you would expect to find in a university which is rated the best in the UK (at least to judge from this morning's Sunday newspapers). We hope at the same time that you will take full advantage of the huge variety of activities available to all students in Cambridge, whether in the college of your choice or in the University as a whole. [Explore these links later!]

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THE ESSENCE OF THE ASNC TRIPOS

The main points to notice about the ASNC Tripos are these:

no prior knowledge or experience of any of the subjects that we cover is expected: all courses are taught from scratch, and all students start on equal terms, with a willingness to learn and a readiness to enjoy.
our distinctive approach (hard to match at this level in any other medieval studies programme) is cross-cultural [Celtic, Germanic], inter-disciplinary [history, language and literature, palaeography, etc.], and source-based [with emphasis on the reading and close analysis of written texts, for whatever purpose].
the range of choice is extended by the availability of several very attractive papers 'borrowed' into both Parts of our Tripos from other Triposes. [There are links below to the full details which appear on the ASNC website.]
you have the opportunity to study a variety of subjects, many of which you may not have encountered before, and can enjoy the pleasure of breaking new ground for yourself:
- medieval history, covering the various inhabitants of the British Isles (Celts and Anglo-Saxons), and the Vikings (in their own homelands and overseas);
- medieval languages and literatures, ranging from some of the grandest epic, heroic and mythological poetry to the great prose literature of Ireland, England, Wales, and Iceland;
- palaeography and codicology, being the study of ancient handwriting and ancient manuscripts (a subject not available in any other university at undergraduate level);
- archaeology (whether in the papers which we teach ourselves, or in papers which we 'borrow' from the Arch. & Anth. Tripos and which are taught within that Faculty);
- and much else besides (including onomastics, numismatics, liturgy, art-history, and other things).
while you have an opportunity to combine different fields and disciplines, you remain free to place the emphasis where you choose (so that you can, if you wish, focus on 'Germanic' subjects, or on 'Celtic' subjects, or on language and literature, or on history). [Sample selections of papers are provided further below.]
you become a member of a small but very select, enthusiastic and friendly Department, renowned throughout the world for the quality of the training which it provides;
you acquire an intellectual training which will equip you for a wide variety of jobs after graduation (see above).

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FURTHER INFORMATION ABOUT ASNC

For further information about the Department, and about the ASNC Tripos, you may wish to explore these links on our own departmental website, or elsewhere on the internet.

MEET the people who will be primarily responsible for teaching you in Cambridge:
- List of senior members
ADMIRE the new building which is about to be constructed for the Faculty of English, which should be ready for occupation by October 2004 - and which will transform our lives!
- New building for the Faculty of English (including ASNC)
ATTEND our next Departmental Open Day, listen to the senior members talking (briefly and enthusiastically) about their respective courses, meet some current undergraduates, and even examine first-hand some of the Anglo-Saxon manuscripts in the Wren Library of Trinity College, Cambridge:
- Details of ASNC Open Day on 25 June 2003
- Details of ASNC Open Day in June 2004 (not yet available)
HEAR (or rather read) what some of our former and current students (known generically as ASNaCS) have to say about the Tripos:
- From former students
- From current students
  [in process of collection]
LISTEN to the sound of the languages that you can learn in the Department, using a special feature of our website known as The Spoken Word:
- Insular Latin (under construction)
- Old English
- Old Norse
- Medieval Welsh (under construction)
- Medieval Irish
LOOK at some of the other source material that we deal with, in our 'historical' courses, and in the paper on palaeography.
Please note that all these pages are in a continual process of development.
- Anglo-Saxon history
  - [website] [texts] [manuscripts] [charters] [coins] [sites] [objects] [maps]
- Scandinavian history (the Vikings in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Iceland, and elsewhere)
- Gaelic history (Ireland and Scotland)
- Brittonic history (Cornwall, Wales, and Brittany)
- Palaeography (study of script and manuscripts)
READ some of the basic books in the field, to give you an idea of the various subjects:
- Introductory reading lists
INVESTIGATE the wide range of papers (where 'paper', in our parlance, means a course of study leading sooner or later to an examination paper) from which you make your choice. This may seem complicated, but is really very simple; please let us know if you need advice.
- For the purposes of Part I (your first two years), you have to make an initial selection of six papers, from a range of fifteen; it is possible in your second year to submit a dissertation (an extended essay of about 30 pages, written in your own time on a subject of your own choice) in place of one paper. You will be examined on three of the six papers at the end of your first year (the Preliminary Examination), and on all six (or five, if you are submitting a dissertation in place of one) at the end of your second year (the Part I examination). The papers are listed and described on the departmental website:
  - Preliminary Examination for Part I. In effect, you choose three papers from a range of ten.
  - Part I. You are examined again on the three papers from your first year, and also on the three other papers chosen from the full range of fifteen.
  - Descriptions of the courses available
  - Reading lists for papers in ASNC Tripos Part I
- For the purposes of Part II (your third year), you have to choose four papers from a range of <fifteen>, and submit a dissertation (an extended essay of about 30 pages, written in your own time on a subject of your own choice). You will be examined on the four papers, and on your dissertation, at the end of your third year. The papers are listed on the departmental website:
  - Part II. (Bear in mind that you won't need to make your selection of papers until the end of your second year!)
TRY MAKING your own (very provisional) selection of papers to suit your own interests and strengths:
- Sample selections of papers, for Part I and Part II, catering for several different kinds of student, with different backgrounds, interests, and strengths; but of course these are only illustrations, and you are free to make your own selection!
VISIT Cambridge and get a flavour of undergraduate life in the college of your choice:
- List of college websites (many with pictures)
GET A SENSE of the sort of thing that our students do while they are here, at least so far as their education is concerned:
- Guide for Students
- The current lecture-list
- Reading-lists for weekly essays and private study
- Special lectures and other events
INSPECT the relevant resources in museums and libraries throughout the British Isles and Scandinavia:
- The British Museum
- <other museums>

IF YOU THINK YOU MAY BE INTERESTED IN THE ASNC TRIPOS, AND IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO BE PUT ON OUR LIST OF POTENTIAL APPLICANTS (WHO WILL RECEIVE INFORMATION ABOUT THE NEXT OPEN DAY, AND OTHER SPECIAL EVENTS), PLEASE LET US KNOW BY SENDING US AN E-MAIL.

No obligation!

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ANY QUESTIONS?

If you have any questions about the Department, about the nature of the course, about any aspect of the application process (e.g. your A-level subjects and grades, your choice of colleges, and the admissions interview), or anything else, please feel free to contact the Departmental Secretary, who will happily put you in touch with the person best able to help. You will find some general advice about the admissions process, including the interview, if you follow this link.

We hope that you have enjoyed following some of the links on this page, and that you will apply to read Anglo-Saxon, Norse, and Celtic at Cambridge!

Simon Keynes
Head of Department

10 January 2003

on behalf of the Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse, and Celtic

If you are a sixth-former, or a current student in the Department, or a past student of the Department, or anyone else, and you would like to comment on this page, or suggest improvements, please let me know.

these pages were first put on the ASNC website in August 2001
last revised 10 January 2003