Dorothy Whitelock
Encyclopedia
English Historical Documents
English Historical Documents is a standard series of publications of source material on English history by the academic publisher Eyre and Spottiswoode, now part of Oxford University Press; some later vols. are published by Routledge The general editor is David C. Douglas, professor of history...
, vol. I: c. 500-1042, which she edited. It is a compilation of translated sources, with introductions.
Her other works include The Beginnings of English Society (1952), After Bede (1960), The Audience of Beowulf (1951), and Genuine Asser (1967), in which she argued against V.H. Galbraith
Vivian Hunter Galbraith
Vivian Hunter H. Galbraith, FBA was an English historian, Fellow of the British Academy and Oxford Regius Professor of Modern History.- Early career:...
's assertion that Asser
Asser
Asser was a Welsh monk from St David's, Dyfed, who became Bishop of Sherborne in the 890s. About 885 he was asked by Alfred the Great to leave St David's and join the circle of learned men whom Alfred was recruiting for his court...
's Life of King Alfred was a forgery by Leofric
Leofric
Leofric may refer to:* Leofric , English religious leader* Leofric, Earl of Mercia , English noble and benefactor of churches...
.
Career
Born in Leeds at the beginning of the twentieth century, Whitelock was a promising student at school and it came as no surprise when she went up to Newnham College, CambridgeNewnham College, Cambridge
Newnham College is a women-only constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England.The college was founded in 1871 by Henry Sidgwick, and was the second Cambridge college to admit women after Girton College...
at the age of 20, where she studied under Hector Munro Chadwick
Hector Munro Chadwick
Hector Munro Chadwick was an English philologist and historian, professor of Anglo-Saxon at the University of Cambridge . He helped develop an integral approach to Old English studies. With his wife, Nora Kershaw Chadwick, he compiled a multi-volume survey of oral traditions and oral poetry,...
.
In 1930 she published a translation and commentary on thirty nine Anglo-Saxon wills.
Throughout her career, Whitelock found herself frustrated by a male-dominated academy which often favoured male scholars at the expense of talented female academics. In 1945, following her failure to secure a professorship at the University of Liverpool, Whitelock applied for the Rawlinson and Bosworth professorship of Anglo-Saxon
Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon
The Rawlinson and Bosworth Professorship of Anglo-Saxon, until 1916 known as the Rawlinsonian Professorship of Anglo-Saxon, was established by Richard Rawlinson of St. John's College, Oxford, in 1795. The Chair is associated with Pembroke College. 'Bosworth' was added to commemorate Joseph...
at the University of Oxford
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...
, a chair that had been vacated by J. R. R. Tolkien
J. R. R. Tolkien
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, CBE was an English writer, poet, philologist, and university professor, best known as the author of the classic high fantasy works The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion.Tolkien was Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Pembroke College,...
. Again, she was unsuccessful (Tolkien himself had voted against her). Whitelock was tempted, in the face of such opposition, to abandon the academy altogether. However, the famous Anglo-Saxon historian Sir Frank Stenton and his wife, with whom Whitelock was close friends, addressed a series of supportive letters to her, encouraging her to persevere.
During the 1950s, Whitelock returned to her work with renewed vigour, producing a series of important works culminating, in 1955, with her most famous book, English Historical Documents. Her achievements were finally recognised in 1956, when she was elected a fellow of the British Academy
British Academy
The British Academy is the United Kingdom's national body for the humanities and the social sciences. Its purpose is to inspire, recognise and support excellence in the humanities and social sciences, throughout the UK and internationally, and to champion their role and value.It receives an annual...
. In 1957, Whitelock returned to Cambridge, where she had begun her career, succeeding Bruce Dickens as Elrington and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon
Elrington and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon
The Elrington and Bosworth Professorship of Anglo-Saxon is the senior professorship in Anglo-Saxon at the University of Cambridge.The chair was founded in 1878 when an earlier gift from Joseph Bosworth, Rawlinsonian Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford, had increased in value sufficiently to support...
(in which capacity she supervised Simon Keynes
Simon Keynes
Simon Douglas Keynes MA, PhD, Litt.D, FBA is the current Elrington and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon in the Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse, and Celtic at Cambridge University.-Biography:...
, the post's present incumbent). Under her direction, the 'Department of Anglo-Saxon and Kindred Studies' relocated from the Faculty of Archaeology and Anthropology to the Faculty of English and became the department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic, as it remains to this day. A photograph of her hangs on the wall there.