Raymond Ian Page (25 September 1924 – 10 March 2012) was a British historian of

Anglo-Saxon The Anglo-Saxons were a Cultural identity, cultural group who inhabited England in the Early Middle Ages. They traced their origins to settlers who came to Britain from mainland Europe in the 5th century. However, the ethnogenesis of the Anglo- ...

England and the

Viking Age The Viking Age () was the period during the Middle Ages when Norsemen known as Vikings undertook large-scale raiding, colonizing, conquest, and trading throughout Europe and reached North America. It followed the Migration Period and the Ger ...

. As a renowned

runologist Runology is the study of the Runic alphabets, Runic inscriptions and their history. Runology forms a specialized branch of Germanic linguistics. History Runology was initiated by Johannes Bureus (1568–1652), who was very interested in the lingu ...

, he specialised in the study of

Anglo-Saxon runes Anglo-Saxon runes ( ang, rūna ᚱᚢᚾᚪ) are runes used by the early Anglo-Saxons as an alphabet in their writing system. The characters are known collectively as the futhorc (ᚠᚢᚦᚩᚱᚳ ''fuþorc'') from the Old English sound va ...

Biography

Page was born in

Sheffield Sheffield is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is Historic counties o ...

in 1924, and was educated at King Edward VII School."Professor Raymond Page"
''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was fo ...

'', 21 March 2012. His family circumstances required him to leave school at the age of 16. In 1942 he took a course in mechanical engineering at Rotherham Technical College, applying thereafter for a commission in the Royal Navy. After the war, on discharge from the Navy, he was able as an ex-serviceman to obtain a place as an undergraduate at the

University of Sheffield , mottoeng = To discover the causes of things , established = – University of SheffieldPredecessor institutions: – Sheffield Medical School – Firth College – Sheffield Technical School – University College of Sheffield , type = Pu ...

. After graduating in English, he spent a year in Copenhagen working on an MA. He then moved to the University of Nottingham, where he was appointed to an assistant lectureship in English in 1951 and completed his doctoral dissertation on ''The Inscriptions of the Anglo-Saxon Rune-Stones'' in 1959. In 1962, Page joined the faculty at the

University of Cambridge , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

, where he was a lecturer, and later reader, in

Old Norse Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and t ...

language and literature. In 1965 he was appointed Parker Librarian at the

Parker Library, Corpus Christi College The Parker Library is a library within Corpus Christi College, Cambridge which contains rare books and manuscripts. It is known throughout the world due to its invaluable collection of over 600 manuscripts, particularly medieval texts, the ...

, and in 1984 he was appointed

Elrington and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon The Elrington and Bosworth Professorship of Anglo-Saxon is the senior professorship in Anglo-Saxon at the University of Cambridge. The first chair was elected in 1878, when a gift endowed in 1867 by Joseph Bosworth, Rawlinsonian Professor of Angl ...

. He held these two prestigious posts until his retirement in 1991.Professor Raymond Page
News, Anglo-Saxon, Norse & Celtic, 13 March 2012. He continued to work at Corpus Christi after his retirement in an out-of-the-way office which he called 'Paradise' because it was so hard to reach.

Academic reputation

Rudolf Simek Rudolf Simek (born 21 February 1954) is an Austrian philologist and religious studies scholar who is Professor and Chair of Ancient German studies, German and Scandinavian studies, Nordic Studies at the University of Bonn. Simek specializes in G ...

said that Page "is widely acknowledged as ''the'' authority on Old English runes". Professor Elmer Antonsen of the

University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Universit ...

has noted that "serious study of English runes without Raymond Ian Page... is simply inconceivable"; others praise him as a "meticulous scholar". Page's ''An Introduction to English Runes'' was first published in 1973, and revised and republished in 1999. Page intended it as a prefatory publication to a complete corpus edition of Anglo-Saxon runes, and it was praised for, among other qualities, its "healthy skepticism". Even in 2003, it remained "the only book-length study providing a comprehensive and scholarly guide to the Anglo-Saxon use of runes", and the revised edition was deemed as authoritative as the first one was in the 1970s. Much of his work was aimed at a general readership, but many of his scholarly articles were collected in 1995 in ''Runes and Runic Inscriptions: Collected Essays on Anglo-Saxon and Viking Runes.'' Page called himself a 'sceptical' runologist, demonstrating that runes were most often used for mundane purposes and arguing against their 'romantic' association with the occult. In 1996 he was awarded an honorary doctorate at The Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU).

Personal life

In 1953 Page married Elin Hustad; they had two daughters and a son. True to his Yorkshire roots, he would not permit red roses in his garden. Known as a connoisseur of real ale and single-malt whisky, he was presented on his 70th birthday with an oak manuscript conservation box specially made to contain a bottle of whisky, with its spine embossed with the title ''The Runes of Jura''.

Works

* 1960. ''Gibbons saga''. Copenhagen: Editiones Arnamagnænæ, Series B, vol 2. * 1970. ''Life in Anglo-Saxon England''. London: Batsford. * 1973. ''An Introduction to English Runes''. London: Methuen. 2nd ed. Boydell Press, 1999 (2006). . * 1985. ''Anglo-Saxon Aptitudes''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. . * 1987. ''"A Most Vile People": Early English Historians on the Vikings''. London: Viking Society for Northern Research. * 1987. ''Runes''. (''Reading the past'' series). London: British Museum Press. . * 1990. ''Norse Myths''. London: British Museum Press. . * 1995.
Chronicles of the Vikings: Records, Memorials and Myths
'. London: British Museum Press. . * 1995. ''Runes and Runic Inscriptions: Collected Essays on Anglo-Saxon and Viking Runes''. Woodbridge: Boydell Press. . * 1999. ''The Icelandic Rune-Poem''. London: Viking Society for Northern Research. .

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Page, R. I. Elrington and Bosworth Professors of Anglo-Saxon English historians English librarians Fellows of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge Old Norse studies scholars People educated at King Edward VII School, Sheffield Royal Navy officers of World War II Runologists 1924 births 2012 deaths Alumni of the University of Sheffield Academics of the University of Nottingham Corresponding Fellows of the Medieval Academy of America Writers on Germanic paganism