{{Short description|British historian and runologist, 1924–2012}} {{EngvarB|date=August 2014}} {{Use dmy dates|date=August 2014}} [[File:Raymond Page and Elin Hustad.jpg|thumb|Raymond Page and Elin Hustad at the ASNaC Garden Party, June 2004]] '''Raymond Ian Page''' (25 September 1924 – 10 March 2012) was a British historian of [[Anglo-Saxon]] England and the [[Viking Age]]. As a renowned [[Runology|runologist]], he specialised in the study of [[Anglo-Saxon runes]].

==Biography== Page was born in [[Sheffield]] in 1924, and was educated at [[King Edward VII School (Sheffield)|King Edward VII School]].<ref>{{ Cite web | title=The Old Edwardian | url= http://oldedwardians.org.uk/newsletters/97.OENewsletter.html | publisher=The Old Edwardians Association | date=18 July 1997 }}</ref><ref name=Telegraph>[https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/9158876/Professor-Raymond-Page.html "Professor Raymond Page"], ''[[The Daily Telegraph]]'', 21 March 2012.</ref> His family circumstances required him to leave school at the age of 16. In 1942 he took a course in mechanical engineering at Rotherham Technical College, applying thereafter for a commission in the Royal Navy. After the war, on discharge from the Navy, he was able as an ex-serviceman to obtain a place as an undergraduate at the [[University of Sheffield]].<ref name="asnc-2012-03-12">{{Cite web | title=Professor Raymond Page | url=http://www.asnc.cam.ac.uk/news/2012/03/13/1071/ | publisher=[[University of Cambridge]] | date=13 March 2012 | accessdate=13 March 2012 }}</ref> After graduating in English, he spent a year in Copenhagen working on an MA. He then moved to the University of Nottingham, where he was appointed to an [[Assistant lecturer|assistant lectureship]] in English in 1951 and completed his doctoral dissertation on ''The Inscriptions of the Anglo-Saxon Rune-Stones'' in 1959.<ref name=Telegraph/><ref>{{Cite book | last1=Page | first1=Raymond Ian | last2=Parsons | first2=David | title=Runes and Runic Inscriptions: Collected Essays on Anglo-Saxon and Viking Runes | publisher=Boydell & Brewer | year=1995 | isbn=9780851155999 | pages=xi, 332 }}</ref>

In 1962, Page joined the faculty at the [[University of Cambridge]],<ref>[http://www.corpus.cam.ac.uk/about-corpus/newstest/982-professor-raymond-page-1924-2012 Professor Raymond Page 1924 – 2012] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120427123357/http://www.corpus.cam.ac.uk/about-corpus/newstest/982-professor-raymond-page-1924-2012 |date=27 April 2012 }}, News, [[Corpus Christi College, Cambridge]] (giving his date of death incorrectly as 11 March).</ref> where he was a lecturer, and later reader, in [[Old Norse]] language and literature.<ref name=Telegraph/> In 1965 he was appointed Parker Librarian at the [[Parker Library, Corpus Christi College]], and in 1984 he was appointed [[Elrington and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon]]. He held these two prestigious posts until his retirement in 1991.<ref name=Telegraph/><ref name=ASNC>[http://www.asnc.cam.ac.uk/news/2012/03/13/1071/ Professor Raymond Page], News, Anglo-Saxon, Norse & Celtic, 13 March 2012.</ref><ref name=magic>{{cite news|url=http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?storyCode=162165&sectioncode=22|title=Runes minus magic|last=Barnes|first=Michael P.|date=6 September 1996|work=[[Times Higher Education]]|accessdate=28 July 2011}}</ref>

In 1989-1990 he held the [[Sandars Lectures|Sandars Readership in Bibliography]] lecturing on "Matthew Parker, Archbishop of Canterbury, and his books."

He continued to work at Corpus Christi after his retirement in an out-of-the-way office which he called 'Paradise' because it was so hard to reach.<ref name=Telegraph/>

==Academic reputation== [[Rudolf Simek]] said that Page "is widely acknowledged as ''the'' authority on Old English runes".<ref>{{cite journal|last=Simek|first=Simek|year=2001|title=Rev. of Page, ''An Introduction to English Runes''|journal=[[Albion: A Quarterly Journal Concerned with British Studies]]|volume=33|issue=3|pages=429–30|jstor=4053201|doi=10.2307/4053201}}</ref> Professor [[Elmer Antonsen]] of the [[University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign]] has noted that "serious study of English runes without Raymond Ian Page... is simply inconceivable";<ref>{{cite journal | last=Antonsen | first=Elmer H. | title=Review of ''Runes and Runic Inscriptions: Collected Essays on Anglo-Saxon and Viking Runes'' | journal=Journal of English and Germanic Philology | volume=97 | issue=3 | year=1998 | page=402 }}</ref> others praise him as a "meticulous scholar".<ref name=magic/> Page's ''An Introduction to English Runes'' was first published in 1973, and revised and republished in 1999. Page intended it as a prefatory publication to a complete corpus edition of Anglo-Saxon runes, and it was praised for, among other qualities, its "healthy skepticism".<ref>{{cite journal|last=Antonsen|first=Elmer H.|year=1977|title=Rev. of Page, ''An Introduction to English Runes''|journal=[[Journal of English and Germanic Philology]]|volume=76|issue=1|pages=56–57|jstor=27708114}}</ref> Even in 2003, it remained "the only book-length study providing a comprehensive and scholarly guide to the Anglo-Saxon use of runes", and the revised edition was deemed as authoritative as the first one was in the 1970s.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Hines|first=John|year=2003|title=Rev. of Page, ''An Introduction to English Runes''|journal=[[Journal of English and Germanic Philology]]|volume=102|issue=1|pages=128–30|jstor=27712313}}</ref> Much of his work was aimed at a general readership, but many of his scholarly articles were collected in 1995 in ''Runes and Runic Inscriptions: Collected Essays on Anglo-Saxon and Viking Runes.''<ref name=Telegraph/>

Page called himself a 'sceptical' runologist, demonstrating that runes were most often used for mundane purposes and arguing against their 'romantic' association with the occult.<ref name=Telegraph/>

In 1996 he was awarded an [[List of Honorary Doctors of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology|honorary doctorate at The Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.ntnu.edu/phd/honorary-doctors|title=Honorary Doctors|last=|first=|date=|website=www.ntnu.edu|language=en|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=2018-08-30}}</ref>

==Personal life== In 1953 Page married Elin Hustad; they had two daughters and a son. True to his Yorkshire roots, he would not permit red roses in his garden.<ref name=Telegraph/> Known as a connoisseur of real ale and single-malt whisky, he was presented on his 70th birthday with an oak manuscript conservation box specially made to contain a bottle of whisky, with its spine embossed with the title ''The Runes of Jura''.<ref name=Telegraph/>

==Works== * 1960. ''Gibbons saga''. Copenhagen: Editiones Arnamagnænæ, Series B, vol 2. * 1970. ''Life in Anglo-Saxon England''. London: Batsford. * 1973. ''An Introduction to English Runes''. London: Methuen. 2nd ed. Boydell Press, 1999 (2006). {{ISBN|978-0851159461}}. * 1985. ''Anglo-Saxon Aptitudes''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. {{ISBN|0521313880}}. * 1987. ''"A Most Vile People": Early English Historians on the Vikings''. London: Viking Society for Northern Research. * 1987. ''Runes''. (''Reading the past'' series). London: British Museum Press. {{ISBN|9780714180656}}. * 1990. ''Norse Myths''. London: British Museum Press. {{ISBN|0714120626}}. * 1995. ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=1N57Gf9ljqcC Chronicles of the Vikings: Records, Memorials and Myths]''. London: British Museum Press. {{ISBN|0-8020-0803-8}}. * 1995. ''Runes and Runic Inscriptions: Collected Essays on Anglo-Saxon and Viking Runes''. Woodbridge: Boydell Press. {{ISBN|0851153879}}. * 1999. ''The Icelandic Rune-Poem''. London: Viking Society for Northern Research. {{ISBN|0903521431}}.

==References== {{reflist}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Page, R. I.}} [[Category:Elrington and Bosworth Professors of Anglo-Saxon]] [[Category:English historians]] [[Category:English librarians]] [[Category:Fellows of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge]] [[Category:Old Norse studies scholars]] [[Category:People educated at King Edward VII School, Sheffield]] [[Category:Royal Navy officers of World War II]] [[Category:Runologists]] [[Category:1924 births]] [[Category:2012 deaths]] [[Category:Alumni of the University of Sheffield]] [[Category:Academics of the University of Nottingham]] [[Category:Corresponding Fellows of the Medieval Academy of America]] [[Category:Writers on Germanic paganism]]