Anglo-Saxon, Norse, and Celtic (ASNC) is a degree course unique to Cambridge. It focuses upon the history, languages, and literatures of the different peoples of the British Isles and Scandinavia in the early medieval period. It is a distinctive course, which allows for the combination of subjects and techniques rarely taught together, but which mutually reinforce one another in the pursuit of a broad and detailed understanding of the world of which early Britain was a part.
As a degree course, ASNC has many aspects in common with the other Humanities courses, especially English, History, Classics, and Modern and Medieval Languages. It will therefore appeal to you if you enjoy these and similar subject areas, especially if you are interested in pursuing texts and their traditions back into the Middle Ages and beyond. But in its unique combination of disciplines, ASNC offers you both a greater spread of topics and a greater detail of engagement with the full range of sources than is possible with these more ‘traditional’ courses. At the same time as looking at the history of early medieval Britain, Ireland or Scandinavia, that is, you would be able to examine original texts relevant to this study in their original language, whether Old English, Old Norse, medieval Welsh or Irish, or Insular Latin. ASNC has, moreover, a very strong tradition of literary scholarship, giving you access to great works of literature like Beowulf, the Icelandic sagas, The Mabinogion, The Táin, and the poetry of Aldhelm, again all in their original languages, and making use of the latest editions, critical writings and electronic resources in exploring them. All this makes for an intellectually challenging and highly rewarding combination.
Full course details are provided on the Department’s Prospective Undergraduates webpage and the University’s Undergraduate Study webpage. Applicants typically take acceptable qualifications that demonstrate an aptitude for linguistic, literary, and/or historical studies, though no prior knowledge of any of the ASNC subjects is necessary in order to apply.
Teaching
The ASNC Tripos is examined in two Parts; Part I comes at the end of the second year, with the more advanced Part II at the end of the third. The course is taught in a variety of forms, ranging from lectures and seminars (including language and translation classes) to supervisions. The latter, a mainstay of the Cambridge system, are (ordinarily one-to-one) meetings organised by Churchill, for which you would write essays and then discuss them with a subject specialist; these will be arranged by your Director of Studies, with whom you will also have regular meetings to discuss and plan your work. The ASNC experience is, moreover, enhanced by the small size and friendly nature of the department: its tight-knit, thriving community of undergraduates, post-graduates and senior members means that it is easy to find a like-minded person with whom to discuss your work, whether formally or informally.
Resources
Reading ASNC will give you access to library and other information resources that are second to none. The ASNC Department has a very well-stocked library of its own, which functions as part of the English Faculty Library and from which books may be borrowed. You would also have access to the unparalleled resources of Cambridge University Library, a major deposit library with one of the most important collections of manuscripts and early printed books in the UK. Some College libraries also hold significant collections of manuscripts relevant to the period studied by those taking ASNC.
Admissions
To find out about admissions, go to undergraduate applications.
Entry Requirements
Course-specific information, including the University’s typical offers and the attainment level of the University’s typical entrants, is available by selecting your course from the University’s Course List then looking at the Entry Requirements tab. Academic offer conditions can vary by College so if you want to apply to Churchill then check out our entries in the by-College list of entry requirements that’s available on the same tab. The University’s Entrance Requirements and International Entry Requirements webpages may contain guidance relevant to you too.
You can learn more about the academic profiles of Churchill entrants and our approach to setting conditional offers on our undergraduate applications page.
Submitted Work
If you apply to Churchill, we’ll ask you to submit two examples of teacher-marked written work. These should be taken from your present or most recent studies, and should not be re-written or corrected for your Cambridge application. Ideally, each piece should be 1500 to 2000 words in length, and focus on literary, historical, or linguistic topics.
Admissions Assessment
Churchill does not use a written assessment in ASNC.
Interview
The role of academic interviews in Churchill’s admissions process is explained on our interviews page. Our interviewers will be looking for evidence of enthusiasm for and a potential for aptitude in the subjects covered by the ASNC Tripos, as well as an ability in historical, linguistic and/or literary thinking.
Careers
Like most subjects in the Arts and Humanities, ASNC is not a vocational course that prepares you for a specific career. However, the skills that can be acquired over the three years of the degree are many and varied, and should most importantly provide a thorough grounding in the careful interrogation of a variety of sources from different points of view (literature, history, linguistics), and in the reasoned construction of sound, detailed arguments, whether orally or in writing. Recent ASNC graduates have put these skills to good use in a wide range of jobs, including careers in law, finance, publishing, teaching, the civil service, the armed forces, the police, computing, television and journalism, besides those who have chosen to progress to postgraduate level research.
