Table of Contents

Trees and groves in pre-Christian belief
Christianity and the sacred tree
Trees in literature
Trees, mythology and national consciousness: into the future
The nature and distribution of Anglo-Saxon woodland
The use of Anglo-Saxon woodland: place-names and charter evidence
Trees in the landscape
Trees of wood-pasture and 'Ancient Countryside'
Trees of wet places in early medieval records: alder and willow
Trees of open/planned countryside
Other trees noted in charters and early place-names
Trees not readily apparent in the early medieval written record

About the Author

Della Hooke is an Honorary Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Research in Arts and Social Sciences, University of Birmingham (FSA: Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London).

Reviews

Della Hooke's book is the first large-scale treatment of its subject, and could hardly be surpassed in its patient and thorough accumulation of data. Lovers of trees and students of early England have equal reason to be grateful to her.
*TIME AND MIND*

Offers much useful information for medievalists in general and especially for those in the relatively new field of medieval environmental history. . An excellent synthesis.
*SPECULUM*

[This] remarkable study of trees in literature, lore and landscape is most welcome.
*WORCESTERSHIRE RECORDER*

An enjoyable read and [...] a useful addition to our understanding of pre-Medieval landscapes.
*SCOTTISH FORESTY*

Well documented and clearly written, with illustrative figures, wide ranging examples, and illuminating quotations.
*WESTERN FOLKLORE*

The book restates the significance of the woodland resource by considering aspects which are not usually discussed and so deepens our understanding of the Anglo-Saxon landscape.
*ENGLISH HISTORICAL REVIEW*

[W]ill have long-tern value as a guide and quarry for those who seek to investigate their own local woodland history, or to integrate the subjects dealt with here into a wider study of how woodland was used a thousand to fifteen hundred years ago.
*MEDIEVAL SETTLEMENT RESEARCH*

To look at any tree after reading [the] book is to have a clearer grasp of what someone might have made of it (literally and metaphorically) a thousand years ago.
*SALON*

An enormously detailed and authoritative study [which] has much to offer Anglo-Saxon scholarship. [...] An excellent volume.
*LANDSCAPE HISTORY*

[ A] well-written and thoughtfully constructed book.
*MEDIEVAL ARCHAEOLOGY*

[A] deeply researched and engagingly written book.
*THE MEDIEVAL REVIEW*