Dr Steven Hodgson author

∙Author ∙Doctor ∙Teacher

Steven Hodgson holds a doctorate in Medieval History from Lady Margaret Hall, University of Oxford

Latest: On the shelves in Blackwells! #Oxford

Cover of the book "Between the Rod and the Rood: Childhood and Monastic Formation in England, c.950-1200" by Dr. S. G. Hodgson. The cover is green with a medieval illustration depicting monks and children. Credit: Dr Steven Hodgson.

A captivating study offering fascinating insight into the lives of a group of children in Early Medieval England who were called ‘oblates’.

This term, meaning “sacrificed” describes the status of boys and girls who were given up by their parents, offered to monastic houses, and raised “Between the Rod and the Rood” – or “the cane and the cross” – to live the rest of their lives in prayer and study.

Scouring much of the surviving evidence, and demonstrating both the challenges and possibilities for historians, the author carefully leads readers through contemporary sources to reach compelling understandings of their life courses. He not only provides the first comparative study of its kind on contemporary gender categories of boys and girls, but explores in rich detail how their horizons were shaped: across time, geographical space, and by a tumultuous historical background – of European intellectual renaissance, of religious reform, and of conquest, in the newly emerged Kingdom of England.

★★★★★

Incredibly interesting dive into the lives of a group of medieval people who often get ignored or overlooked.

~ John
(Waterstones customer)

★★★★★

After buying this excellent book, I can heartily recommend it to anyone who has an interest in Anglo-Saxon/Medieval history, I found it both engrossing and fascinating, written with great knowledge and insight into the subject.

~ Philip
(Amazon customer)

★★★★★

I have to admit that I had never considered the lives of medieval children. Yet this book brings them to life, through an academic lens

~ Jack
(WHSmith customer)