Examining the impact of the English and European Reformations on social interaction and community harmony, this volume simultaneously highlights the tension and degree of accommodation amongst ordinary people when faced with religious and social upheaval. Building on previous literature which has characterised the progress of the Reformation as 'slow' and 'piecemeal', this volume furthers our understanding of the process of negotiation at the most fundamental social and political levels - in the family, the household, and the parish. The essays further research in the field of religious toleration and social interaction in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries in both Britain and the wider European context. The contributors are amongst the leading researchers in the fields of religious toleration and denominational history, and their essays combine new archival research with current debates in the field. Additionally, the collection seeks to celebrate the career of Professor Bill Sheils, Head of the Department of History at the University of York, for his on-going contributions to historians' understanding of non-conformity (both Catholic and Protestant) in Reformation and post-Reformation England.

English Poetry and Old Norse Myth: A History traces the influence of Old Norse myth — stories and poems about the familiar gods and goddesses of the pagan North, such as Odin, Thor, Baldr and Freyja — on poetry in English from Anglo-Saxon times to the present day. Especial care is taken to determine the precise form in which these poets encountered the mythic material, so that the book traces a parallel history of the gradual dissemination of Old Norse mythic texts. Very many major poets were inspired by Old Norse myth. Some, for instance the Anglo-Saxon poet of Beowulf, or much later, Sir Walter Scott, used Old Norse mythic references to lend dramatic colour and apparent authenticity to their presentation of a distant Northern past. Others, like Thomas Gray, or Matthew Arnold, adapted Old Norse mythological poems and stories in ways which both responded to and helped to form the literary tastes of their own times. Still others, such as William Blake, or David Jones, reworked and incorporated celebrated elements of Norse myth - valkyries weaving the fates of men, or the great World Tree Yggdrasill on which Odin sacrificed himself - as personal symbols in their own poetry. This book also considers less familiar literary figures, showing how a surprisingly large number of poets in English engaged in individual ways with Old Norse myth. English Poetry and Old Norse Myth: A History demonstrates how attitudes towards the pagan mythology of the north change over time, but reveals that poets have always recognized Old Norse myth as a vital part of the literary, political and historical legacy of the English-speaking world.

A record of literary properties sold at auction in the United States.