One of my current academic projects in process is a book bringing together most of the known material on the 937 CE Battle of Brunanburh — one of the most important (but often forgotten) battles in the history of England. I’m General Editor for the volume, which in this case means I’m mostly a ring-leader: I’ve happily cobbled together an absolutely brilliant team of scholars from both sides of the pond in an effort to produce a definitive collective view on the subject, from the old Welsh, Old English, Anglo-Norman, Latin, and Norse sources to the question of where Brunanburh actually was. It’s a staggering breadth of material.
Since I’m mostly a sideline manager for this book, I’m the only person (at this point) who has seen the whole picture of what this team is producing. I’ve been spending most of my past couple weeks going through my collaborators’ work: formatting, tweaking, querying, and generally being deeply humbled by how amazing some of the people in this world are. The book will be fantastic, and all credit for it should go to them.
You’re hearing it here first, folks: this book will be great. It’ll open a lot of eyes.