Michael Swanton

Who is Michael Swanton?

Michael James Swanton is a British polymath: historian, linguist, literary critic, translator, archaeological metallurgist and architectural historian specializing in Old English literature and the Anglo-Saxon period.

Born a Bow-bells Cockney, Swanton survived blitz-stricken London dockland an epileptic depressive. Disadvantaged as a child, he failed 11+ examinations, but was educated successively at South London secondary modern school, technical and grammar schools; then student of the University of Durham and later of Bath, gaining research degrees in both arts and science and a higher doctorate, D. Litt., Dunelm. He taught English Literature at the University of Manchester, then at Giessen in Germany, Lausanne in Switzerland, and finally Medieval Studies at Exeter, where he also acted as the university's Public Orator for several years. During 1960s-70s he was Honorary Editor of The Royal Archaeological Institute, and in 1971 founded the well-considered series of Exeter Medieval Texts & Studies. In retirement, he is Emeritus Professor of Medieval Studies at Exeter University.