Michael James Swanton is a British literary critic, translator, archaeologist and historian

Historian

A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...

 specializing in Old English literature and the Anglo-Saxon period

Anglo-Saxons

Anglo-Saxon is a term used by historians to designate the Germanic tribes who invaded and settled the south and east of Great Britain beginning in the early 5th century AD, and the period from their creation of the English nation to the Norman conquest. The Anglo-Saxon Era denotes the period of...

.

Born in London, Swanton was educated at Wilmington Grammar School, then the Universities of Durham and Bath

University of Bath

The University of Bath is a campus university located in Bath, United Kingdom. It received its Royal Charter in 1966....

, gaining research degrees in both arts and science and a higher doctorate, D. Litt., Dunelm. He taught English Literature

English literature

English literature is the literature written in the English language, including literature composed in English by writers not necessarily from England; for example, Robert Burns was Scottish, James Joyce was Irish, Joseph Conrad was Polish, Dylan Thomas was Welsh, Edgar Allan Poe was American, J....

 at the University of Manchester

University of Manchester

The University of Manchester is a public research university located in Manchester, United Kingdom. It is a "red brick" university and a member of the Russell Group of research-intensive British universities and the N8 Group...

, then at Giessen in Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

, Lausanne

Lausanne

Lausanne is a city in Romandy, the French-speaking part of Switzerland, and is the capital of the canton of Vaud. The seat of the district of Lausanne, the city is situated on the shores of Lake Geneva . It faces the French town of Évian-les-Bains, with the Jura mountains to its north-west...

 in Switzerland

Switzerland

Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

, and finally at Exeter

University of Exeter

The University of Exeter is a public university in South West England. It belongs to the 1994 Group, an association of 19 of the United Kingdom's smaller research-intensive universities....

, where he also acted as the Public Orator for several years. In retirement, he is Emeritus Professor of Medieval Studies at Exeter. He is also a Fellow

Fellow

A fellow in the broadest sense is someone who is an equal or a comrade. The term fellow is also used to describe a person, particularly by those in the upper social classes. It is most often used in an academic context: a fellow is often part of an elite group of learned people who are awarded...

 of the Royal Historical Society

Royal Historical Society

The Royal Historical Society was founded in 1868. The premier society in the United Kingdom which promotes and defends the scholarly study of the past, it is based at University College London...

 and of the Society of Antiquaries

Society of Antiquaries

Society of Antiquaries can refer to:*Society of Antiquaries of London*Society of Antiquaries of Scotland*Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne*Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland...

 and is considered an authority on Anglo-Saxon England.

Swanton's published work includes translations of Beowulf

Beowulf

Beowulf , but modern scholars agree in naming it after the hero whose life is its subject." of an Old English heroic epic poem consisting of 3182 alliterative long lines, set in Scandinavia, commonly cited as one of the most important works of Anglo-Saxon literature.It survives in a single...

, the Gesta Herewardi (a life of Hereward the Wake

Hereward the Wake

Hereward the Wake , known in his own times as Hereward the Outlaw or Hereward the Exile, was an 11th-century leader of local resistance to the Norman conquest of England....

), Vitae duorum Offarum

Vitae duorum Offarum

The Vitae duorum Offarum "The lives of the two Offas" is a literary history written in the mid-thirteenth century, apparently by the St Albans monk Matthew Paris.-Account:...

(The Lives of Two Offas), and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle

Anglo-Saxon Chronicle

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is a collection of annals in Old English chronicling the history of the Anglo-Saxons. The original manuscript of the Chronicle was created late in the 9th century, probably in Wessex, during the reign of Alfred the Great...

 as well as books on early English literature, art, architecture

Architecture

Architecture is both the process and product of planning, designing and construction. Architectural works, in the material form of buildings, are often perceived as cultural and political symbols and as works of art...

, and archaeology

Archaeology

Archaeology, or archeology , is the study of human society, primarily through the recovery and analysis of the material culture and environmental data that they have left behind, which includes artifacts, architecture, biofacts and cultural landscapes...

. He was Honorary Editor of the Royal Archaeological Institute

Royal Archaeological Institute

The Royal Archaeological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland is a learned society, established in 1844, primarily devoted to the publication of the Archaeological Journal, a production of archaeological news that has been in print since 1844....

's Journal and in 1971 established the series Exeter Medieval Texts and Studies.

Major publications

• 1971: An Anglo-Saxon chronicle (Exeter)
• 1973: Spearheads of the Anglo-Saxon Settlements (London)
• 1975: Studies in Medieval Domestic Architecture (London)
• 1975: Arthurian Sites in the West (Exeter: University of Exeter ISBN 0859890260) (with C. A. R. Radford)
• 1978: Beowulf (Manchester)
• 1978: Medieval Woodwork in Exeter Cathedral (Exeter) (with Marion Glasscoe)
• 1981: Medieval Art in Britain: a select bibliography (London)
• 1982: Crisis and Development in Germanic Society 700 - 800: Beowulf and the burden of kingship (Göppingen : Kümmerle Verlag ISBN 3874525406)
• 1984: Three Lives of the Last Englishmen (Garland Library of Medieval Literature, vol. 10, Ser. B) (New York: Garland ISBN 0824094220) The life of King Harold Godwinson
  Harold Godwinson
  Harold Godwinson was the last Anglo-Saxon King of England.It could be argued that Edgar the Atheling, who was proclaimed as king by the witan but never crowned, was really the last Anglo-Saxon king...
  
   - The life of Hereward the Wake
  Hereward the Wake
  Hereward the Wake , known in his own times as Hereward the Outlaw or Hereward the Exile, was an 11th-century leader of local resistance to the Norman conquest of England....
  
   - The life of Bishop Wulfstan.
• 2001: The Anglo-Saxon Chronicles (London)
• 2002: English Poetry before Chaucer (Exeter)
• 2010: The Lives of Two Offas: Vitae Offarum Duorum (Crediton: The Medieval Press)