Dorothy Whitelock

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Dorothy Whitelock (born November 11, 1901 in Leeds , † August 14, 1982 in Cambridge ) was a British historian of the Anglo-Saxon period.

Life

After studying at Newnham College of Cambridge University , where she studied with Hector Munro Chadwick and Bruce Dickins learned Dorothy Whitelock turned to research, taking years especially two at the University of Uppsala spent. In 1930 she published the corpus of Anglo-Saxon wills. In the same year she left Cambridge and went to Oxford University , where she taught at St Hilda's College .

In 1945 Dorothy Whitelock was competing to succeed JRR Tolkien as Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon , but lost to Charles Leslie Wrenn . In 1956 she was elected to the British Academy . In 1957 she returned to Cambridge as Elrington and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon , where she succeeded Bruce Dickins. Under her leadership, the Department of Anglo-Saxon Studies was transferred from the Faculty of Archeology and Anthropology to the Faculty of English Studies. In 1964 she became Commander in the Order of the British Empire , in 1969 she retired, but continued to work in her specialty until her death in 1982. Her main work is English Historical Documents, c.500-1042 (1955, second edition 1979), a compilation of the main sources on the Anglo-Saxon period ( Anglo-Saxon Chronicle , Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum ...), translated into modern English.

Major works

  • 1930: Anglo-Saxon Wills
  • 1939: Sermo Lupi ad Anglos (ed.)
  • 1951: The Audience of Beowulf
  • 1952: The Beginnings of English Society
  • 1954: The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (Ed.)
  • 1955: English Historical Documents, c.500–1042 (Ed.)
  • 1967: The Genuine Asser
  • 1979: English Historical Documents, c.500-1042 (Ed.), 2nd edition

literature

  • Simon Keynes, Whitelock, Dorothy (1901–1982) , in: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , Oxford University Press, 2004
  • Henry Loyn: Dorothy Whitelock, 1901-1982 . In: Proceedings of the British Academy . tape 70 , 1985, pp. 543-554 ( thebritishacademy.ac.uk [PDF]).
personal data
SURNAME Whitelock, Dorothy
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British medievalist
DATE OF BIRTH November 11, 1901
PLACE OF BIRTH Leeds
DATE OF DEATH August 14, 1982
Place of death Cambridge