Anglo-Saxon, Norse, and Celtic

If you’re fascinated by medieval history, literature and languages, and you relish the prospect of doing your own research using original source materials, this course – unique in the UK to Cambridge – will appeal.

Container

Overview

A voyage of discovery

From the history and culture of Anglo-Saxon England, and Celtic languages to Viking exploits, Anglo-Saxon, Norse, and Celtic (ASNC) allows you to explore a range of cultures, and to look at history, language and literature side by side.

ASNC focuses on the history, material culture, languages and literature of the peoples of Britain, Ireland and the Scandinavian world in the earlier Middle Ages.

ASNC students discover medieval history while learning one or more languages and reading great works of literature in the original languages, such as the Old English poem Beowulf, the epic medieval Irish tale Táin Bó Cúailnge (The Cattle Raid of Cooley) and Icelandic sagas. Exactly which areas you study and to what depth is largely up to you, and to support your learning Cambridge has rare and exceptional resources to offer in the University Library, the College libraries, and in the Fitzwilliam and other museums.

What are we looking for?

No previous knowledge of the subject is expected or required; all languages are taught from scratch and we don’t assume that students have studied early medieval history or literature at school. However, we do require passion and commitment and look for evidence of your general ability in arts and humanities subjects.

Course costs

Tuition fees

Information on tuition fee rates for ASNC is available on the tuition fees page.

Additional course costs

There are no compulsory additional course costs for ASNC. Full course details are available on the Department of ASNC website. If you have any queries about resources/materials, please contact the Department.

Changing course

A few students choose to transfer to another course after Part I. ASNC combines well, for example, with Part II of the History or English degree courses.

To be able to change course, you need the agreement of your College that any change is in your educational interests, and you must have the necessary background in the subject to which you wish to change – in some cases you may be required to undertake some catch-up work or take up the new course from the start/an earlier year. If you think you may wish to change course, we encourage you to contact a College admissions office for advice. You should also consider if/how changing course may affect any financial support arrangements.

After ASNC

This unusual and challenging degree develops your powers of argument and sharpens your powers of analysis. It equips you for a wide range of careers where intellectual and analytical skills are important.

‘Asnac’ (as they like to be called) graduates can be found in a wide range of careers. Some take advantage of the specialist opportunities open to them and do research and teaching in schools and universities, or work in museums and libraries; while many others go into careers including journalism, publishing, banking, law, the Civil Service, industry and business, and even software development.

Course Outline

Teaching is provided through lectures, classes, seminars and supervisions and you can expect between 10 and 15 hours of lectures and classes per week during Part I.

Years 1 and 2 (Part I)

Year 1

In the first year, you study the various disciplines which form the core of ASNC studies. There are no compulsory papers – you choose six subjects from a range of 10; and take an examination in four of them and departmental tests in the other two.

Historical subjects:

Anglo-Saxon history
Scandinavian history
Gaelic history (Scotland, Ireland and the Isle of Man)
Brittonic history (Wales, Brittany, Cornwall, the Pictish kingdoms and the North Britons)

Language and literature subjects:

Old English
Old Norse
medieval Welsh
medieval Irish
medieval Latin
palaeography (the study of manuscripts and handwriting)

Year 2

In your second year, you may continue to study your chosen subjects and take an examination in all six of them. Alternatively, you have the option to replace up to three of your first-year subjects with a dissertation and/or one or two 'shared' papers (from related courses). Shared papers currently include subjects from Archaeology, English, and Modern and Medieval Languages.

Year 3 (Part II)

This is where you develop and use the skills you learned in Part I, exploring your chosen fields and applying your newly acquired knowledge in original and imaginative ways.

You study four subjects selected from a range of 17 papers including, for example:

The Conversion of Scandinavia
Beowulf
Advanced Medieval Irish Language and Literature
Germanic Philology

These are designed to give you the opportunity to pursue more detailed study in your chosen areas. You may replace one of your four Part II ASNC papers with a shared paper (from another course). The range of subjects currently includes medieval English literature, medieval French literature, historical linguistics, and a subject from the Faculty of History. You may also replace one of your Part II subjects with a Part I paper that you didn’t offer for the examinations at the end of your second year.

In addition, you write a dissertation of between 9,000 and 12,000 words on a specific subject of your own choice within the scope of the course.

For further information about studying Anglo-Saxon, Norse, and Celtic at the University of Cambridge see the Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse, and Celtic website.

Entry Requirements

Typical offers require

A Level: A*AA
IB: 40-42 points, with 776 at Higher Level

For other qualifications, see our main Entrance requirements pages.

Course requirements

Required by all Colleges: no specific subjects
Useful preparation: English (Language or Literature), History, a language (ancient or modern)

See ASNC: Subject Requirements and Typical Offer by College for College-specific requirements/preferences. All undergraduate admissions decisions are the responsibility of the Cambridge Colleges. Please contact the relevant College admissions office if you have any queries about College-specific requirements.

See also Entrance requirements and The Subject Matters for additional advice about general requirements for entry, qualifications and offers.

Admission assessment

The following Colleges require applicants for this course to take an at-interview written assessment (if interviewed):

Hughes Hall
Wolfson

Assessment format

The assessment for this course (where required) may vary by College. Please see individual College websites for details of which Colleges require applicants to take an at-interview assessment and the expected format of that assessment.

There are no charges associated with taking any at-interview written assessments, and students don’t need to be registered for them. Details will be included in the communications inviting applicants to interview.

See Admission assessments for further details.

Submitted work

Applicants to some Colleges are required to submit one or two school/college essays as examples of written work prior to interview. See ASNC: Subject Requirements and Typical Offer by College for a list of Colleges that require submitted work and visit individual College websites for further details.

For further information about studying Anglo-Saxon, Norse, and Celtic at the University of Cambridge see the the Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse, and Celtic website.

Resources

Find out more about Anglo-Saxon, Norse, and Celtic at Cambridge

Course website - Explore Anglo-Saxon, Norse, and Celtic in more detail on the course website.

Preparatory reading - Guidance on preparatory reading for students interested in Anglo-Saxon, Norse, and Celtic.

Experience Anglo-Saxon, Norse, and Celtic languages - Hear recordings of people speaking some of the ancient languages studied in the Anglo-Saxon, Norse, and Celtic course.

Applying for Anglo-Saxon, Norse, and Celtic: A Step by Step Guide - A detailed guide to applying to study Applying for Anglo-Saxon, Norse, and Celtic at Cambridge.

Transferable Skills - A guide to the transferable skills you can develop during the course of an Anglo-Saxon, Norse, and Celtic degree.

Life after ASNC: Former Student Profiles - Some recent graduates reflect on their experience studying Anglo-Saxon, Norse, and Celtic at Cambridge and on their subsequent careers.

Undergraduate Student Profiles - Some current students describe their experience of studying Anglo-Saxon, Norse, and Celtic.

Discover Uni

Discover Uni data

Contextual information

Discover Uni allows you to compare information about individual courses at different higher education institutions. This can be a useful method of considering your options and what course may suit you best.

However, please note that superficially similar courses often have very different structures and objectives, and that the teaching, support and learning environment that best suits you can only be determined by identifying your own interests, needs, expectations and goals, and comparing them with detailed institution- and course-specific information.

We recommend that you look thoroughly at the course and University information contained on these webpages and consider coming to visit us on an Open Day, rather than relying solely on statistical comparison.

You may find the following notes helpful when considering information presented by Discover Uni.

Discover Uni relies on superficially similar courses being coded in the same way. Whilst this works on one level, it may lead to some anomalies. For example, Music courses and Music Technology courses can have exactly the same code despite being very different programmes with quite distinct educational and career outcomes.
Any course which combines several disciplines (as many courses at Cambridge do) tends to be compared nationally with courses in just one of those disciplines, and in such cases the Discover Uni comparison may not be an accurate or fair reflection of the reality of either. For example, you may find that when considering a degree which embraces a range of disciplines such as biology, physics, chemistry and geology (for instance, Natural Sciences at Cambridge), the comparison provided is with courses at other institutions that primarily focus on just one (or a smaller combination) of those subjects.You may therefore find that not all elements of the Cambridge degree are represented in the Discover Uni data.

Some contextual data linked from other surveys, such as the National Student Survey (NSS) or the Destination of Leavers in Higher Education (DLHE), may not be available or may be aggregated across several courses or several years due to small sample sizes. When using the data to inform your course choice, it is important to ensure you understand how it has been processed prior to its presentation. Discover Uni offers some explanatory information about how the contextual data is collated, and how it may be used, which you can view here: https://discoveruni.gov.uk/about-our-data/.

Discover Uni draws on national data to provide average salaries and employment/continuation data. Whilst starting salaries can be a useful measure, they do not give any sense of career trajectory or take account of the voluntary/low paid work that many graduates undertake initially in order to gain valuable experience necessary/advantageous for later career progression. Discover Uni is currently piloting use of the Longitudinal Education Outcomes (LEO) data to demonstrate possible career progression; it is important to note that this is experimental and its use may be modified as it embeds.

The above list is not exhaustive and there may be other important factors that are relevant to the choices that you are making, but we hope that this will be a useful starting point to help you delve deeper than the face value of the Discover Uni data.

Undergraduate Study